"Teach-In"

To the Editors of the Summer News:

After reading the account in the Harvard Summer News of the most recent "teach-in." I wish to commend its sponsors. Truly profound thought was required to select mediocre burlesque comic Norman Mailer as a participant. Probably no other speaker could better garbage mouth the president of the United States, and in so doing, totally demean the stature of a Harvard forum. Was Mr. Mailer's diatribe necessary to insure "full academic freedom," "scholarly inquiry," or "full discussion of the issues?"

Mr. Mailer's comments, and those of his fellow speakers, added nothing to the search for a resolution of the Vietnam conflict. Rather, in Mr. Mailer's case, we were left with nothing more than the verbal residue of a polluted mind.

This recent "teach-in" so corrupts any reasonable definition of teaching that only the most servile mind old accept such an outrageous misnomer. If it is the best we can offer, then the students involved might better spend their time swallowing goldfish and stuffing phone booths. Denaid W. Riegle, Jr.   Harvard Business School