Marjorie C. Johnston

Let's Think about It and Act Soon

This charla is going to be a sort of within-the-family discussion of some problems which all the members of the Association need to think about.* I wish it could be a masterful and delightful presentation of wit and scholarship, as traditionally the presidential address has been. I wish, too, since it is to be a sober consideration of problems, that I were able to offer a concrete program of action and do it so persuasively that all present would move unanimously to set manos a la obra. I shall limit myself, however, to an attainable aim: to pass on to the Association as a whole some of the questions and ideas which many of you have sent me during the past year, questions which I could not answer satisfactorily and ideas which appear at times nebulous but which may grow and develop and become clearly defined as all our members think about them and work on them. It may be appropriate to reflect on just what is meant by all our members. The composition of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese might be compared to the group of some 350 teachers from 43 different countries who assembled last