Friday, April 14. I964

SCARLET AND BLACK

: Eclgren Describes Airican Town
. As Seen By American

By John Edgren
Grinnell Travel Scholar
The school is lodged on file
side of a mountain. it overlooks
a plain, level, triangular, rather

like a tongue, splayed forth-

from a root to the left of and a
little behind the school's moun-
lain, Malosa. Pooled in a de-
pression toward the tip of that
tongue is a lake, Ohilwa, a
clear brilliant line of reflected
sunlight beyond which rise the
mountains of Portuguese East
Africa, On the tongues opposite
side, running down to the lake,
is a series of mountains; the
throat to which these hills nar-
row is choked by the nearest
post office and a small village,
Kasupe, four miles distant, The
school is lodged in the molars
of the countryside; it is part of
the enamel that covers that

, soft, most basic dentine of
earth and rock upon which die
nation rests.

This is, as I said, a school,
but a school twice qualified, It
is a boarding school and a mis-
sion school. It is due mostly to
.these latter considerations that
the establishment climbs the
mountain as it does, the school,
and the dormitories for boys,
being separated by a mile of
dirt road winding around the
mountain side, several hundred
feet of altitude, and a hospital,

, from the mission station proper
where are housed the staff, and
around which huddle the dormi»
tories for girls. It is from
this station, called Mkuli, that
one can most easily see the re«
lation of the school to the sur<
rounding land, can most clear-
ly see the teeth rising opposite
and the lake, can most clearly
feel the isolation of me school.

It is these latter considera-
tions as well that make the
most striking modifications of
What might be called the school-
ness of the place. Here are
classes held and subjects
taught; the course is ancient,
time—honored, v enerable:
mathematics, English history,
science; the fingers of the aca-
demic world penetrate to this
slow place and make their just
demands, but here also Is held

Anglican chapel twice a day,
and classes are scheduled so
that boys and girls will have a
minimum of time together;
dress is strictly prescribed and
corrected wiflh a vengeance;
respect, even fear, of the
authority of staff is intensely.
if ineliectually, enforced. The
buildings, the people, sprinkled
around the skirts of this moun-
tain serve not so much the ab-
stract and principled demands
of education and learning, as
they do the ideal of remaking a
race, a nation, a people, an in-
dividual, in the image of their
mentors.

This small bit of isolation,
this hard surface on the nation’s
softness, slowly molds the
people sent here, slowly masti-
cates them to a pliable consis-
tency, shaping them to a new
form. Any good school does
this; it is unalterable, even de-
sirable. The challenge dropped
by the nature of that process
to those who participate in it
is, oi course, what form is to
be sought; it is, if you will, the
shape of the enamel. That chal-
lenge has here been picked up,
and the reshaping of the enamel
provides the dynamic element
in educational goals as this na»
tion moves toward independ-
ence. The enamel, ultimately, it
is clear, must fit the dentine;
the schools of this nation must
serve the most basic underly-
ing character of the nation or
crack and splinter as they wear
away at its succeeding genera-
tions.

The progress of dynamic
change as these small bits of
social enamel begin to revert
to the basic truths of the land
and its people, as colonialism
passes and the independence of
July strides nearer, has begun
to be evident. The amount
spent on education has in-
creased by several times in the
last five years: church affili-
ated students are no longer
sent to c h u r c h affiliated
schools; less than one quarter
of the students here now are
Anglican; there is an influx of
Peace Corps volunteers, god-
less Americans among the Brit-

 

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fine DuIARRY COSMETICS

Of

Tharp Pharmacy

4th Ave.

 

TASTY
PASTRY
SHOP

The Isl
place to

come!
923 anon:

Teacher

ish clerics; in all of these and
more can be seen the decay of
the old order. The tensions of
this process too, are evident in
the faces and lives of those who
struggle to maintain their
lines against the inexorable
change. Boys labor daily, cut-
ting the school’s plentiful grass
as punishment for skipping
chapel services they can see no
reason for attending. They are
supervised by missionaries, in
dustrious, a little grim, who
privately despair the attitudes
of these new young, the increas-
ing age of secondary school pu-
pils, the growing trend toward
secular education. Where will
it end? It can never end, but
only continue in new directions;
we have a second African
teacher here this year.

Cannes Prize—Taker
To Be Seen in ARH

By BRUCE KAUFMAN

Viridianna, winner of the
Cannes Film Festival Grand
Prize in 1961, will be Shown in
ARH on Saturday at 10 p m.,
and Sunday at 7:30 p m.

The plot concerns a beautiful
novitiate who visits her uncle
before she forsakes the world.
Her uncle, Don Jaime, is a

Hi‘éM‘i‘+’r3‘i-i~
Vi ridi a n n a
Saturday, 10 pm.

:‘i‘rl‘i-d‘i'ii‘ivsh

Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
ARH Theatre

s++++~i~+++ivi<+++

worn out Spanish idealist liv-
ing on a decrepit estate. When
she arrives Don Jaime‘s longr
ing to see becomes a longing
to possess. Consequently, Viri-
dianna’s secular education is
more sordid than sacred. The
result is incest, death and
debauchery.

/For depicting /the evils of
sentimental piety and morbid
tyranny in Franco’s Spain, the
movie has been banned in that
country. Director Luis Bunnel
makes a mockery of sex, reli-
gion, and authority in Viri-
dianna.

 

Page Five

Seen room fly around the campus early this week In their
newly adopted "uniforms" were Susan Gilmour, Bunny Hunt.
and Linda Klepinger. The girls were among eleven new mem-
bers elected to Mortar Board last Sunday. (Story. page 'I)

As
gowns for three days.

part- of initiation, members must wear the caps and

 

} Ahmednagur

Continued from Page 5

“in time, other modes of co—
operation might becomo pos-
sible."

Grinnell’s interest in Ahmed-
nagar began in 1953 when Mrs.
John Scholtc Nollen, world—
traveling widow of a former
Grinnell president, came away

impressed following a visit to
the campus. Through her ef~
forts, an annual chapel fund
was established to assist Ah.
mednagar.

During their recent round-
the-Worid tour, President and
Mrs. Bowen spent several days
visiting the college, a Christian
institution of about 2400 stu<
dents located about 150 miles
east of Bombay.

 

I. O O K
SOMETHING NEW

Ahrvcmo's will deliver
Sandwiches with on Order of
$2.00 or more g with at pizzol

AHRVANO'S

PHONE

6-6222

 

SALES - REPAIR - RENTAL
Underwood — OIiveH'i

See Us for Party Goods

Grinnell
fice Supply

Across from the Post Office

In Our New Store Building

 

The House of Glenshire aim... mania...

Larry Hawk
Eli. 5A7

Campus Repreienlalim

CLASS RINGS

Chuck Pyle
Ext-467

WEDDING AND ENGAGEMENT RINGS

HELBROSE WATCHES
CULTURED PEARLS

also

COSTUME JEWELRY AND PERSONALIZED STATIONERY