Conference Urges Education on Nukes

The anti-nuclear movement came to the Education School yesterday as scholars and defense specialists gathered for a conference to increase educators' awareness of the nuclear threat.

The afternoon-long conference, sponsored by the Harvard Educators for Social Responsibility, was staged to coincide with more than 300 workshops on nuclear arms in high-schools across the country.

About 120 observers, mostly Ed School students, attended nine workshops on topics ranging from ways to include the arms race in high-school curricula to strategies for influencing Harvard to divest itself of stock in companies that manufacture nuclear weapons.

The conference concluded with an open meeting to assess the afternoon's effectiveness and discuss ways of improving such events in the future.

Speak Out

At the workshop on divestiture, Noel F. McGinn, a member of Harvard's Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility called on Corporation members to take a public stand on nuclear arms.

"We should oblige members to speak their views on the issue," said McGinn, a lecturer on Education.

Continuing Worry

Bob Holley, a student at the Ed School, drew the day's largest crowd at his workshop on high-school curricula. Drawing on his experience as a teacher in a small alternative school in Maline, Holley urged his audience of about 40 to explore new ways of teaching information about nuclear arms.

Holley said he spent four hours a day for a week teaching his class nuclear-related subjects. As a result, he said, when his students attended the June 12 rally for disarmament in New York, they could articulate their views clearly to other ralliers and journalists.

High School

The high school conferences were sponsored by Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR), a group with similar goals but no formal affiliation to the Harvard organization.

"I haven't seen anything like it in my ten years in education," said ESR National Coordinator Sheldon Berman of the day's activities. "If students are educated on this issue, they can talk to their family and friends and have an important influence," he said.

Berman promised that ESR will hold similar events in the future. "This is just the beginning," he said.