Food and People-Continued from page 2 special needs. In England a closely coordinated campaign immediately got under way in the spring of 1949 with the publication of UNESCO pamphlets by the Bureau of Current Affairs. Hailed in the daily and educational press, this series, which appeared monthly, was used as a basis for discussion groups, in schools, scientific associations, film discussion groups, workers' education association, and Army current affairs classes, throughout Scotland, England, and Wales. Voluntary groups produced additional materials on their own initiative. The United Nations Association prepared speakers' notes, organized meetings in Birmingham, Manchester, and London to brief discussion leaders. One UNA enthusiast produced a homemade exhibition which was so successful that she was obliged to give up several weeks to making sample copies for other local branches. The London UNA produced a photograph exhibition in cooperation with Picture Post (a magazine similar to America's Life). Long after the mass meetings and the spotlight of press and radio are over, the "food and people" topic will continue in the curricula of social studies classes, university extension courses, and workers' colleges. Far from being exhausted, the momentum of the formal campaign will carry the subject on into the daily lives of the people so long as the world problem remains. To people in different lands, food means different things. In India, where famine is frequent and hunger ever present, "food and people" meetings attract tremendous audiences. In Guadeloupe, French West Indies, the nutrition aspect of "food and people" has received the most attention. There, the Union of Family Welfare Association, attacking the prevalence of malnutrition on the island, has taken advantage of the UNESCO campaign to underline this particular problem. A number of important international organizations are making "food and people" a leading feature of their 1950 activities. The World Federation of United Nations Associations adopted the topic as its theme-of-the-year and ran a special summer school in Geneva to train discussion group leaders from such countries as Iran, Finland, and Cuba. The International Y. M. C. A. Committee urged its national branches to put "food and people" on their calendars. So did several women's and adult education groups. The campaigns in some countries are just getting under way. The highlight of the campaign in New Zealand will be the opening of an exhibition in the Wellington Town Hall in June. In the United States a Nation-wide discussion and study program is about to be launched. Men of science need an informed public opinion to direct their discoveries into the realities of ma terial human progress. UNESCO's topic-of-theyear provides common ground where scientists and citizens may meet. Men and women (and children) in 27 countries on 6 continents know much more about food and population today than they did a year ago. Although the immediate results are difficult to measure on a global scale, the campaign has produced concrete examples of what happens when people start talking. In Oklahoma a group of wheat growers followed up their "food and people" meeting with a plan to ship surplus wheat to needy areas. Resolutions of scientists and of laymen have been presented to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations through nongovernmental organizations. Perhaps even more important, though less tangible, is that for the first time people all over the world are discussing a set of common problems and ways of attacking them together through their local communities, through national governments and through the United Nations and FAO. This kind of chain reaction has a force still undetermined, but potentially unlimited. UNESCO HANDBOOK DESCRIBES 36 NATIONAL COMMISSIONS A Handbook of National Commissions has been compiled by UNESCO. The book lists the members of the 36 National Commissions established to date by member nations of UNESCO and describes the functions of the various groups. Out of 199 pages, 17 are devoted to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, its panels, committees, and State UNESCO Councils. The Handbook can be obtained from the Columbia University Press, New York, N. Y., $1. In a foreword, UNESCO's Director General says: ". . . It is on the vitality of the National commissions that the future of our organization for a large part depends. It is through them . . . alone that the work of UNESCO will find realization." FIVE UNESCO SEMINARS SCHEDULED THIS YEAR Since 1947, UNESCO has held several international seminars for the purpose of bringing educators from many countries together to discuss mutual problems, prepare materials for national and international use, and to live for a period in an international community, which is in itself an experiment in international understanding. Five UNESCO seminars scheduled to be held this year are listed below: Macdonald College of McGill University near Montreal, Canada, will be the setting for UNESCO'S seminar on the teaching of geography, to be held from July 12 to August 23. The seminar will focus on a study of ways in which geography teaching, particularly, in primary and secondary schools, can be used to foster international understanding. Participants also will be familiarized with the work of the United Nations, UNESCO, and other specialized agencies. The adaptation of textbooks to UNESCO's aim of education for international understanding will be stressed at the seminar on the improvement of textbooks in Brussels, Belgium, July 12 to August 23. Methods of selecting textbooks for classroom use will be studied, and reports will be given on action taken or contemplated for the analysis, evaluation, and general improvements of textbooks. Methods and techniques of adult education will be the theme of the seminar to be held in Salzburg, Austria, June 18 to July 29. Participants will define through a free exchange of views the character and purpose of adult education, keeping in mind methods likely to promote international understanding. Documents will be prepared for the assistance of adult education leaders. The seminar on the role of libraries in adult education will be held in Malmö, Sweden, July 25 to August 9. First on the list of proposed subjects for discussion will be the broad aspects of adult education, such as the relation of library programs to the community needs, methods of cooperation with adult education agencies, radio and press, clubs, trade-unions, and other groups. The use of films, recordings, and radio in adult education, and methods of conducting discussion groups will also be explored. Special emphasis will be given to library services for newly literate adults. A basic document will be the Summary Report of the International Conference on Adult Education convened by UNESCO in Denmark June 1949. Plans for the seminar on primary education in Latin America to be held in Uruguay have not been completed. Briefing Sessions for U. S. Participants U.S. participants selected to attend the Montreal and Brussels seminars will be briefed, May 5-7, at Allerton Park, country conference center of the University of Illinois near Monticello. The briefing sessions, authorized by the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, will be presented jointly by the Commission and the University of Illinois. George D. Stoddard, president of the University and Chairman of the National Commission, has appointed William Van Til of the University's College of Education as conference coordinator. About 40 leading American educators in the field of social studies will assist in bringing the seminar participants up to date in work being done in the United States. Also attending the Illinois conference will be those who have worked with UNESCO on geography and history texts, as well as other authorities on the teaching of history, social studies, and geography, especially in elementary and secondary schools. Also present will be representatives of institutions at which U.S. regional conferences will be held next fall, where the results of the seminars will be reported. Kentucky Group Schedules Meeting "Ways to international understanding" will be the theme of the Third Annual Foreign Languages Conference of the University of Kentucky at Lexington, May 11-13. In addition to the principal addresses, papers by more than a hundred students and teachers will be read at section meetings. The Second Conference, in 1949, was attended by approximately 400 educators and students from 26 states and the Province of Ontario. INTERNATIONAL FARM YOUTH EXCHANGE PROGRAM ADDS TO UNDERSTANDING OF WORLD FOOD PROBLEMS A realistic approach to the "food and people" problem has been developed by the Extension Division of the Department of Agriculture. Known as the International Farm Youth Exchange Program, this plan enables American 4-H Club members to live and work with farm families in Europe during the summer and early fall months, and European youth to follow a similar program in this country. While this program was developed two years before UNESCO launched its "food and people" discussion program and is not related to it in any way, it has a direct bearing on the problems the UNESCO discussion program is designed to help solve. These young people have an opportunity to observe at first hand the food habits and problems-shortages and surpluses, erosion, wastagein various parts of the world; some day they may be able to apply their knowledge and, in any event, they gain a better understanding of conditions in other lands. Since the Farm Youth Exchange program was launched in 1948, 48 young people from 25 states have spent 6 months on farms in European countries, and 39 youthful farmers have visited this country from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It is estimated that the first 17 Americans to participate in the exchange have given 924 talks before 124,000 people, appeared on 176 radio broadcasts, and have written or been interviewed for 690 newspaper or magazine articles. According to present plans, about 40 young people from 27 states will leave in June for the following countries: Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Northern Ireland, Norway, and Scotland. They will return in early November. The number of foreign farm youth who will come to the U.S. this year has not been decided. This 4-H Club program is, of course, only one of many which result in trips abroad by young men and women from farm and rural areas; hun Margaret Alice Haviland of Romeo, Michigan, signs her customs declaration slip upon returning to this country after having spent the summer with a farm family in France under the Farm Youth Exchange Program. dreds of students plan their travels independently or through college and university channels. Archivists Honor Waldo G. Leland Waldo G. Leland, director emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies, has been elected an honorary member of the Society of American Archivists, to fill the vacancy left by the late President Roosevelt, the first person to be elected to honorary membership in the Society. On March 17, Mr. Leland gave an address at the exercises attendant upon the opening of the Roosevelt papers for research at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park. A former vice-chairman of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, Mr. Leland is also a past president of the Society of American Archivists. Department of State publication 3807 The printing of this publication has been approved by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget (May 29, 1947) For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. Price $1.00 per year, domestic; $1.35 per year, foreign; single copy, 10 cents. Left: George D. Stoddard, president of the University of Illinois and chairman of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, presides over the Eighth Meeting of the Commission in Washington, April 13-15. Right: C. J. McLanahan leads the discussion which launched an educational campaign on the problems of "Food and people." At his left are Commission members Barclay Acheson and Ellis Arnall. Facing the speaker is Mr. Louise Leonard Wright, chairman of the Committee on Activities in the United States. MAY 1950 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN VOL. III, NO. 11 International Program Launches Cancer Research Film An international program and audience marked the première of the film, Challenge: Science Against Cancer, at Hunter College, New York City, on March 13. Speakers were Dr. Brock Chisholm, Director General of the World Health Organization (Wno); Dr. George D. Stoddard, chairman of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO: Paul Martin, Canadian Minister of National Health and Welfare; Dr. C. P. Rhoads, Director, Memorial Cancer Center; Oscar Ewing, Administrator, Federal Security Agency; and Dr. Leonard A. Scheele, Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service. Numerous United Nations representatives were in the audience of 2,600 persons. Sponsors of the 30-minute documentary film were the National Cancer Institute of the U.S. Public Health Service and the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare. The film is endorsed by the United Nations and WHO. The film explains how the combined skills of all the basic sciences are being mobilized in the fight against cancer, visualizing cancer problems as a jigsaw puzzle with many parts missing. The living cell is expanded to giant size, so that the spectator can observe the cell breathing, digest Three of the speakers at the première of the film, "Challenge: ing food, reproducing, and undergoing the other (Continued on page 11) U. S. NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) ... Chairman: George D. Stoddard. Vice Chairmen: Detlev Bronk, Erwin D. Canham, Mrs. Henry Potter Russell. Executive Committee: William Benton, Mrs. Harvey N. Davis, Frederick S. Dunn, Milton S. Eisenhower, Robert M. Gates, Charles S. Johnson, Waldo G. Leland, Raymond F. McCoy, Eari J. McGrath, C. J. McLanahan, Stanley H. Ruttenberg, Mrs. Raymond F. Sayre, A. J. Stoddard, Robert West, George F. Zook. Other Members: Barclay Acheson, Ellis Arnall, Paul D. Bagwell, Keith Beery, Jaime Benitez, Karl W. Bigelow, Livingston L. Blair, Miss Selma Borchardt, Chester Bowles, Ben M. Cherrington, Wayne Coy, Everette L. DeGolyer, Henry Grattan Doyle, Clarence A. Dykstra, George Harold Edgell, Luther H. Evans, David E. Finley, Miss Rosamond Gilder, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, Willard E. Goslin, Ross G. Harrison, Mrs. John E. Hayes, Ralph E. Himstead, Mrs. Douglas Horton, Ernest M. Howell, B. W. Huebsch, Rees H. Hughes, Herbert C. Hunsaker, Eric Johnston, Milton E. Lord, Archibald MacLeish, Mike Mansfield, James Marshall, Roscoe C. Martin, Richard P. McKeon, Justin Miller, Charles E. Odegaard, Hubert H. Race, Frederick D. G. Ribble, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum, J. T. Sanders, C. A. Scott, Miss K. Frances Scott, Lawrence M. C. Smith, Mrs. Margaret Chase Smith, P. G. Stromberg, Davidson Taylor, Stanley D. Tylman, Harold C. Urey, Mrs. Pearl A. Wanamaker, Howard E. Wilson, M. L. Wilson. Executive Secretary: Charles A. Thomson, Department of State, Washington 25, D. C. Department of State publication 3829 The printing of this publication has been approved by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget (May 29, 1947) U. S GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1950 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. Price $1.00 per year, domestic; $1.35 per year, foreign; single copy, 10 cents. |