Education: Experts on Call

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For years, teachers have beseeched parents to lend a hand in schools. Lexington, Mass. has found a way to put them to work. Last week, when Art Teacher Paul Ciano wanted technical advice, all he had to do was flip open a fat new directory of citizen volunteers. He picked out a professional painter, a package designer and an M.I.T. professor of sculpture—all enrolled in a unique campaign to prod outside talent into the town's classrooms.

Like almost every U.S. community, Lexington (pop. 23,500) is full of skilled specialists and passionate hobbyists. Last year Richard Woodward, 36, director of audio-visual education in Lexington's public schools, decided to find out just how wide and deep the treasure-trove lay. With clerical aid from the League of Women Voters, he mailed out help-wanted appeals to Lexington's 6,800 home addresses. For $186 in postage stamps, he got back a rich haul. Examples:

¶A rabbi-metallurgist prepared to lecture any time on ancient history. His specialty: the Dead Sea Scrolls.

¶A banker ready to discuss either his 9-to-5 profession or his sideline, firearms.

¶A book editor who volunteered: "I love to talk about my job."

¶A greenhouse laborer who is a connoisseur of model railroads, both German and American.

¶Veteran travelers who have been everywhere, from the Arctic to Antarctica.

¶So many engineers of different varieties that Woodward needed four pages to list them. Among them: top electronic experts from Raytheon, Sylvania and Trans-Sonics, all located near Lexington on booming Route 128 (TIME, July 13).

¶Scattered through Woodward's swelling roster are such noted local residents as Architect Hugh Stubbins, Bacteriologist Robert Gohd. Chemist Charles Coryell and Geologist Louis DeGoes.

Consulting the 500-name list from A (for actuary) to W (for wrestling), Lexington's teachers mapped guest lectures by part-time pedagogues all during the coming year. "We were spending money on film strips," says Dick Woodward, "when within our own community we had firsthand sources more effective than anything we could buy." Equally impressive, adds Woodward, is a significant fringe benefit. "This is a way to get people interested in the schools, and that's the best way to get better schools."