Bold Adventure

The visit last weekend of 18 graduates of Harlem's Junior High School 43 program should have demonstrated to Harvard students and Faculty members what other figures in the academic world have long been saying: that New York's pioneer program for underprivileged students is one of the happiest and most useful educational developments to come along in years.

Through education journals and in conferences, interested educators had learned of the program to take promising students from depressed areas and to give them the cultural and academic benefits more fortunate children enjoyed. This year, in fact, students who have come up through Junior High School 43 and George Washington High are being sought by nearly every reputable college in the country.

But if it is true that these things must be seen to be believed, there should be quite a few believers among the students and Faculty members who met these remarkable boys and girls during their stay here. Those who were with them heard Hector Motroni, an American for four years, tell them, "At first I knew just about New York and Cuba, but now I want to know everything." They heard Robert Kay say, "When I see fellows just running around the streets, I say to myself, they're going to be sorry in twenty years. I'm going to make a good life--I'm not going to be like they are."

They heard Eleanor Smith say, "The project has widened my friends' horizons as well as mine. We all get more out of life, more than before." They heard Andreas Panagis, from Greece, tell how his love of music was cultivated and how it spread to his friends. And they saw the devotion of workers like David Shulman, Miss Effie Angelides, and Mrs. Marion Scully.

No one who attended the sessions with the students and College officials came away unmoved. Several people were visibly affected when Dean Monro, who has supported Project 43 from its inception, voiced the purpose of this magnificent venture, telling the New York students, "When you grow up, and you're using your mind in a profession, you'll thank God this happened to you." It was hard to escape the feeling that this program, and many more like it, should be aided in every possible way.