Class Tensions

A nationwide attitude-measurement questionnaire given last fall to fourth-and fifth-graders by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare asked students a blunt question about their parents: "How do you think your parents feel about black and white students going to the same school together?" And about their schoolmates: "Do you think black students in this school cause more trouble than other kinds of students?" About their teachers: "Do you think white teachers in this school are unfair to students who are not white?" The questionnaire was designed to measure racial attitudes, primarily in urban schools, and to see whether these attitudes were being improved by HEW-supported programs that were intended to do just that.

In most cities the questionnaire met with no serious objections, but in New York City it did. Protesting teachers and parents wondered whether the questionnaire was more likely to instill or reinforce troublesome racial attitudes than to measure them. Board of Education President Seymour Lachman graded the questionnaire "polarizing . . . inflammatory and racist." When HEW drew up a slightly modified version to administer this spring, the chorus of complaints quickly resumed.

Last week the department reluctantly withdrew it not only in New York City but across the nation. "The questions were sensitive," acknowledged a disappointed HEW spokesman. It was just as clear that HEW had been insensitive--and that once again the Government had been unwisely prying into the private lives and personal attitudes of the nation's citizens, notably children.

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