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taught them the "right" way. Before schooling begins, children possess several kinds of intuition concerning numbers. Ginsburg found that from age three they know the concepts of "more" and "less." In one ofhis experiments, he placed four or five pennies in random fashion on a dish. A different number of pennies was placed on an identical dish and the child was asked to point to the dish with "more" penmes. According to Ginsburg, a surprising n umber and variety ofchildren performed this task well, including middle-class American children, lower-class American children, and children from two illiterate cultures he studied on the Ivory Coast of Africa. Preschool American children showed that they also know something about addition and subtraction and that they can solve simple addition problems by making sensible use of counting. Similar addition strategies were used by the unschooled and illiterate African children in Ginsburg's cross-cultural research in Africa. Once in school, young students continue to use their own invented strategies, often ending up with a hybrid ofinformal methods like finger counting and schooled procedures. Often these intuitions and invented strategies are so fundamentally sound that they can be used as the basis for formal instruction. The teacher can build on what the child already knows. The implication ofthe cross-cultural studies, Ginsburg points out, is that "certain basic cognitive abilities are present in all people, regardless of culture. " That being the case, how come some people have problems learning math when they get older? That's what Gi.nsburg is trying to find out. New trustee Edward E. David, Jr., president of Exxon Research and Engineering Company and former science adviser to the President, has been elected a trustee of the University. Previously, he had been a member ofthe electrical engineering advisory committee of the College ofEngineering and Applied Science. An executive of Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1950 to 1970, he 22 joined Exxon Corporation in 1977. From 1970 to 1972 he was director of the U. S. Office of Science and Technology in Washington and science adviser to the President. In 1973 he became executive vice president for research, development, and planning of Gould, Inc., and president of Gould Laboratories. David has been elected to membership in the country's most prestigious societies for scientists and engineers: the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of, among other organizations, Edward E. David,]r. the American Academy ofArts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which he served as a director, president, and chairman. David also is chairman ofthe Board ofTrustees ofAerospace Corporation and the U.S. representative to the NATO Science Committee. He holds six honorary degrees. On dressing philosophically You think university departmental newsletters are academic, highly technical, and dull and stuffy to boot? You haven't seen the one published by the Department ofPhilosophy, a copy ofwhich has fallen into the Review's collective hands. Along with news notes on publications, lectures, and similar matters, the newsletter included a memo from the department secretary citing the University's dress code for employees, which, although "intentionally broad," does give departments leave, where deemed necessary, "to establish rules and regulations regarding dress specific to the function they perform. " "In keeping with this mandate," the secretary observed, and "not wanting to overburden our already overburdened acting chairman, I have taken it upon myself. .. to make the following observations and recommendations.... This list is not meant to criticize but only to guide and instruct, as should be the purpose of all U niversity departments. Initials have been used to protect the innocent: "L.W.B.: Neat, but will improve when marigolds once again replace the current dandelions in his lapel. "R.E.: Impeccable. No doubt spends far too much ofhis meager salary on clothes. "R. F. : A little preppy but acceptable. Can't say much else since one never knows what he knows. "R.L.H.: Ditto for preppiness. Needs only a white dove in his sports jacket pocket to complete the image. "H.E.K.: A little squarish but is no doubt the well-dressed man on his farm. "R.M.: Much improved since he's donned real shoes over sneakers. "R.T.: No comment. "C.M.T.: Tidy. Despite philosophical interests, displays no mind/body conflict. "P.W.: 'Aesthetically' pleasing. "Graduate students (in general): Tee hee. "Office staff: Strives for proper blend of University policy and philosophical thought. Often succeeds. "One should be reminded that in keeping with'dress specific to the function they perform,' it is recommended that, in the best oftradition, proper philosophical garb is the flowing toga. Please see to it that the department keeps up with the times." Seward papers In the spring of 1840, the"great Sachems and Warriors of the Senecas or Six Nations ofIndians" applied to N ew York State Governor William Henry Seward (later to be Lincoln's Secretary of State) for advice in setting aside the treaty in which they had two years before ceded to the United States government the last oftheir lands in the state. In the flowing copperplate handwriting ofhis private secretary, Seward wrote back sympathetically, noting that "I have sometimes seen with regret the sale oflands by Indian tribes who having adopted the customs ofcivilized life were beginning to experience its advantages and enjoy its
"I've got it! I've got it!" What these children have come up with are possible solutions to some ofthe problems they-and everybody else-are likely to encounter in everyday dealings with their fellow human beings. The problem-solving session is part of a program conducted by the University's Primary Mental Health Project that is designed to teach children how to resolve conflicts with their peers without either fighting it out physically or running to an adult for intervention. Chris Composto '83 (above) is one offour Rochester undergraduates enrolled in a course in community psychology who are participating in the program. The problem-solving technique they are teaching their young clients is based on a series of steps that successful adult problem-solvers usually go through automatically: defining the problem; deciding on the goal; stopping to think before acting; coming up with as many solutions as possible; thinking ahead to what might happen next after applying a solution; and, after hitting on a really good solution-trying it out. comforts. I have, moreover, always lamented and condemned the frauds practised upon such tribes by agents of the Government and parties interested in procuring the relinquishment of their lands. " Seward concluded, however, that the treaty "has become the law ofthe land. It does not rest with the State authorities to question the fairness of the treaty much less to resist its execution.... !fyou contemplate an appeal to the justice or magnanimity ofthe Federal Government ... I certainly shall not interpose any obstacles to such a measure, and I earnestly hope that ifyour People have suffered any wrong in the negotiation that wrong may be speedily and effectually redressed. " Two years later the treaty was renegotiated, and the Senecas were able to retain two tracts ofland, the Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations. This glimpse into N ew York State history-on an issue that is still being debated a century and more latercomes from one of the documents preserved in the University's collection of the papers of William H. Seward. Some 150,000 items in all, constituting the major Seward archive in existence, the Seward collection is being published this spring in a microfilm edition to make it more accessible to scholars throughout the world. Included in addition to some 50,000 letters are Seward's papers as Governor of New York, abolitionist Senator, and Secretary of State. (It was while he held the latter position that he purchased from Russia, for the sum of$7.2 million, what was then known derisively as Seward's Icebox and is now considerably more respectfully called the State ofAlaska.) The Seward papers were presented to the University some thirty years ago by gift and bequest of William Henry Seward III, grandson ofthe first William Henry. The collection is in the Department ofRare Books, Manuscripts and Archives at Rush Rhees Library. Support for the humanities The humanities are very much alive at Rochester, says]. Paul Hunter, new dean of the College of Arts and Science. Speaking to an alumni luncheon meeting in Rochester recently, Hunter said that he sees hope for a renewal of interest in the humanities after a decade in which students nationwide have been turning to studies that are more demonstrably career oriented. Among the straws in the wind that Hunter cited as auguring a healthier future for the humanities were two new grants specified for the support of humanistic studies at the University: a $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and a $150,000 gift establishing an endowed scholarship fund. The fourth major award to the University made by the Mellon Foundation since 1975, the most recent grant is intended primarily to support the appointment ofoutstanding young faculty members in the humanities. Part ofthe funds may be used to provide mid-career training for present faculty members in their own or related fields. The grant is one ofsixteen made by the Mellon Foundation in a new program to aid major independent research universities. The new scholarship program honors the memory of Fred]ohn Galloway, whose"abiding personal interest in the study ofEnglish literature" inspired his daughter, Elizabeth Galloway Smith'37, to establish a fund to assist undergraduates majoring in English. Initiated with a gift of$150,000, the Fred]ohn Galloway Scholarship Fund is the University's first endowed scholarship program for undergraduate study in that field. Mrs. Smith is the wife of George Graham Smith, a 1911 graduate and honorary trustee ofthe University. Writers Workshop The eleventh annual Writers Workshop, sponsored by University College, is scheduled]uly 5-11. The intensive week-long program includes daily classes, individual counseling, lectures, discussions, and evening readings. This year's faculty includes: 23
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