At War44-12-1276Your School Your Children

Words at war. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! You better put the paper down. I can't, Charlie. The faces of these Detroit race rioters. They're like the boys who sit in my English classes. Not these hoodlums. I don't know. This boy pulling the Negro from the car.

Like he could be Hayes or Angel Lionel or Flaherty. Oh. Could he? Yes. Charlie, something's wrong with the way we teach. With the way I teach. I put the paper down, Marie. You'll be late.

Yes, you're right. I mustn't be late for school. Not today. Why today, especially? Because today we've got to get Hayes before he pulls a Negro from a car and a race riot. We've got to get Flaherty before he comes to the Christian front.

Charlie, they say that the public school system is the best guarantee of democracy. But I don't know. It isn't fulfilling its mission, Charlie. It isn't. And I'm frightened. At war, the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations in cooperation with the Council on Books and War Time present a radio adaptation of one of the most thought-provoking

books of 1944, Your School, Your Children, by Marie Serkin. We're extremely proud to announce that the part of Marie Serkin will be played by the distinguished American actress, Miss Florence Elmer. A sentence says two parts, a subject and a preterate.

Predicate. That's what I said, Mrs. Serkin. Predicate. Predicate, hey. P-R-E-D-I-C-A-T-E. Okay. Are there subjects and predicates and stylists, Marna? Of course. In Shakespeare too? Why certainly? That's what I thought. He don't even write English.

I've taught them for 18 years. Boys called Tony and Phyllis and George. Girls called Martha and Elizabeth and Sarah. For 18 years in a New York City high school classroom and together we've discussed and reviewed such things as Paradise Lost and Phyllis Mauna.