education badly needed

by W. Dorr Legg

Director

ONE INSTITUTE

総

The earliest copies of ONE Magazine stirred great interest. Readers respected its frankness and courage. Such straightforward and honest nontechnical handling of homosexuality was a novelty in American journalism. Circulation mounted encouragingly, despite such formidable obstacles as lack of capital and the hazards inherent in handling so touchy a topic. Success beyond the founders' hopes seemed just around the corner when, unaccountably, subscriptions began a gentle, slow subsidence, At the same time, newsstand sales dipped, zoomed up and dipped again, the graph pointing grimly downward for the most part.

There were many explanations advanced and answers ventured. Most recurrent was the charge that the Magazine was becoming a little dull. True, articles were being more carefully edited. The proof-reading was becoming better. Yet what was being said in 1956 had already been said four years before, with the earlier shock and sparkle missing in altogether too many cases. True, some of the stories and poetry were far better than in those early years, but even they seemed to have reached a dead level, without rising higher.

What was the explanation of this? Could non-payment for manuscripts be entirely blamed? It did not seem likely, unless there were deep veins of literary inspiration waiting to be tapped such as editors of big publications who ventured to publish on the subject had failed to discover. For most of the articles published elsewhere too, whether general or technical, tended to be embarrassingly inept. Occasionally a fine and sensitive short story or novel would give indication that good work using such a theme was not impossible.

Those responsible for ONE's policies finally realized that what was needed was systematic, directed study, if worthwhile developments were to be achieved. The dead-level encountered would be exactly what one might expect to find if all courses in English literature in universities across the land should no longer be taught, with students left to shift for themselves. Or suppose that all symphony concerts should be discontinued, classes in conducting, in musical form and composition, orchestration and analysis be suspended. For how long might we expect musical standards, knowledge of orchestral music, or any advancements to continue?

The analogy need not be pressed further, save to ask what we might expect had no systematic study ever been done in a specific field of human endeavor, no classes offered in all recorded history, no vigorous analysis and

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