Report Card

P: In Washington, a commission of the American Association of School Administrators issued a 390-page report arguing that U.S. youth must learn about Communism before they can fight it. Said the commission: "No school can prevent youth from hearing about such issues in their daily lives . . . Hence, it seems more appropriate to include them in the curriculum as natural, normal aspects of life about which youth must learn . . . We cannot fight totalitarian ideologies without first understanding them."

P: For the one recruit in ten without a fourth-grade education, the U.S. Army announced a program of "transitional training" at seven training centers to give G.I.s book learning with their bayonet drill. The program will teach reading, writing, arithmetic and citizenship, will take two to four weeks depending on how fast recruits pick up what they missed in school.

P: Illinois State Library in Springfield launched a campaign "to make it impossible for our children to obtain smut." Among the first volumes marked with the words "This book is for adult readers": John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, some of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. Needed for a youngster who wants to get any of them: a librarian's decision.

P: Latest idea to make child psychologists turn grey: a nation-wide newspaper contest inspired by the cartoon strip Dennis the Menace. Mothers were asked to send in (for cash prizes of $25-$75) the very worst pranks their youngsters have pulled. An early winner: a 2 1/2-year-old who pried open the automatic washer (flooding the house), stuffed dry spaghetti into the electric mixer (burning it out), cut a shirt to shreds with scissors, painted the neighbor's garage a bright rainbow of colors.

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