John Warriner, author of one of the most widely used English textbooks in American education, died last month at the age of 80.
Mr. Warriner’s textbook series--Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition--has been in use in grades 6-12 since 1946, when the first edition, Warriner’s Handbook of English, was published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Some 30 million copies have been sold, according to a spokesman for the publishing company.
The author, a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard University, taught at the high-school and college levels before retiring in 1962. He also wrote teachers’ manuals and workbooks and compiled an anthology of short stories for students.
The second-largest school district in the country--after Los Angeles--to adopt year-round schooling districtwide is about to complete its phase-out of the experiment that officials called “Concept 6.” By next year, all schools in Jefferson County, Colo.,6will be back on an August-to-June schedule, after 14 years’ experience with a system under which a majority of the district’s 75,000 pupils attended for four of six terms annually.
The move to year-round operation was forced, says Deputy Superintendent James B. Mortensen, by rapid population growth in large areas of the county and the reluctance of voters at the time to pass bond issues for school construction.
“We didn’t really have a choice,” he says. “It was either go year-round or go to double sessions. But the school system eventually began to settle down, and in 1985 the voters supported a bond issue that enabled us to build some new schools.”
The voters also expressed a preference for a more traditional school year, he noted, so district officials began reversing field. As of next fall, five of eight new elementary schools, a new high school, and the last 11 schools now operating year round all will open with a more traditional academic calendar. “Concept 6 worked well for us, but I think most people are happier with the change back,” says Mr. Mortensen.
