Education: The Optimist

School Superintendent Alexander Jerry Stoddard of Los Angeles is a genial, ruddy-faced man with the patience of Penelope and the optimism of Dr. Pangloss. Last week, as he stepped down as the head of one of the nation’s largest school systems, he could claim a record of sorts. Few U.S. superintendents have sailed through quite so many tempests—or managed to weather them quite so well.

A graduate of Nebraska State Teachers College in Peru. Stoddard started teaching to support himself through law school. But after a few months on the job, “I came home and told my wife that teaching was my field, and I’ve been in it ever since.” By 1948, armed with a master’s from Columbia Teachers College and a doctorate from the Rhode Island College of Education, he had held a succession of superintendencies—Bronxville, Schenectady, Providence. Denver, Philadelphia. But even that was not enough to prepare him fully for his experiences in L.A.

Plenty of Trouble. One of the first troubles Stoddard had to face was a scandal involving the selection of the school system’s telephone operators. In 1950 a grand jury began investigating charges that the operators’ examinations were “rigged” to discriminate against Jews and Negroes. Though this investigation was eventually dropped, the board was soon faced with even graver charges involving its awarding of school contracts. The result: four of its members were either defeated in elections or removed from office.

With that storm passed. Stoddard found himself headed into another. This time the cause of the ruckus was a teacher’s manual about UNESCO that Stoddard had hoped to use in the schools. Some citizens, how ever, led by Hearst’s Herald & Express, had other ideas. UNESCO, the critics charged, tended to subvert nationalism in favor of one world, and this in turn was closely akin to Communist international ism. The local American Legion joined the attack, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars passed a resolution condemning “this planned corruption of the American children’s minds.” Eventually, the anti-UNESCO chorus grew to such volume that Stoddard was forced to withdraw the manual.

When he decided to accept a $335,000 Ford Foundation grant for a special teacher-training program to alleviate L.A.’s perennial shortage, the Herald & Express erupted once again. The whole idea, the paper grumbled, seemed to be some sort of plot. Had not the foundation’s former President Paul Hoffman favored UNESCO? Was Stoddard thus merely using the grant “to swing UNESCO . . . back” into the schools again? “Pink Socialism.” cried the paper—and Stoddard was forced to drop the grant.

Plenty of Hum. In spite of such setbacks. Stoddard maintained his equilibrium. “You know.” says he, “anybody who serves the total public is in the midst of life. The school superintendent does not live in a house by the side of the road; he’s right smack in the middle of the road, and sometimes he gets bumped.” Though bumped aplenty. Superintendent Stoddard kept his schools humming. He upped the annual budget from $90 million to $150 million, put through a school bond issue for $130 million. He has put up scores of new school buildings.

He built four new junior colleges, reorganized the city’s trade schools, upped teacher salaries from an average $4,200 to $5,400. Most important, he has kept his optimism. “You see.” says he. “our school system is the biggest thing the country has to offer. Most of the troubles I can take in stride because it’s part of the job.

School boards? I’ve seen them come and go, be good and bad. but the school system rolls right along.” Last week, as 65-year-old Superintendent Stoddard ended his long career and made ready to move to the side of the road. L.A. was still rolling, largely because of the mellow optimist who could take things in his stride.