The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 59

THE SUN Liz Smith Movies Crosswords Comics 2E 3E 10E HE SECTION THURSDAY OCTOBER 14, 1993 STYLE 0 aii' Si Flutter and flow in Paris reveal movement infashion From Wire Reports Paris SUSAN REIMER 1. if if he freshest fashions for spring are all 3- about movement. Layers flow like liquid fluttering blouses, long swlngy vests, easy jackets and fluid pants. Claude Montana did an about-face from the hard-edged clothes he's shown Innovative program teaches children to think independently for years, this time showing asymmetrical hems, flowing trapeze Jackets and vests, and cropped wide pants with silts up the side. Gone is the bold, bright palette that was a signature.

Mr. Montana's layers if 1 of sweeping beige coats, long Ivory vests and black pants looked especially good. Pale dove-gray suits with wide or slim pants and asymmetrically cut jackets with swlshy peplums looked great. His black baby-doll dresses over lace-trimmed bloomers reinforce the nightie 1 REUTERS i.t 2 A "Thousand and One Nights" style outfit from Karl Lagerfeld. See PARIS, 7E.

Col. 1 In the fashion crush of the Milan and Paris designer spring collections, some Influences stand out. SHORT: From huggy micro-minis that barely cover the derriere to flippy little-girl dresses, the spring ahead calls for short. SHEER: Transparent second-skin shifts and floating chiffons and gauzes waft through the collections. BARE: Midriff, back and bosom are revealed, sometimes in the same dress.

A-LINE: Narrow on top, full on the bottom Is the prevailing silhouette. GLOBAL: Indian saris, Nehru jackets, African head-wraps and Middle Eastern belly Jewelry all figure for spring. PUNK: Sophisticated punks sport nose Jewelry and designer rags held together with giant safety pins. BEAT: Fabrics may be wrinkled, worn, torn, shredded or finished with pinking shears. QIRLY: Short pinafores and hlgh-waisted flouncy dresses are cut for sophisticated baby dolls.

AGENCE FRANCE fflESSE A Christian Lacroix model presents a strapless silk Basque-style dress In a "trade blanket" pattern. Revenge. That was his homework assignment. Revenge? "Yeah, you know, Mom. That savage Justice." My fourth-grade son was supposed to talk to his parents about whether they had ever taken revenge.

What motivated them? How had they felt afterward? Not exactly like using your spelling words in a sentence. "Revenge, the savage Justice?" Where was this coming from? It was coming from philosopher Francis Bacon's essay "About Revenge." An excerpt was Included In Joe's Touchpebbles" syllabus. And the lesson was not about how revenge might rend the fabric of society. The lesson was about talking. "About Revenge" Is one of 30 essays, fables, speeches and art works in "Touch-pebbles." Everything from the Bible and an ancient Chinese tale to Martin Luther King Jr.

and a painting by Mondrian. "We don't want 9-year-olds to quote Hamlet," says Howard Zelderman, who helped put "Touchpebbles" together. "We want the thinking, speaking, listening skills developed by the discussion." Zelderman and his partners, Geoffrey Comber and Nicholas Malstrellls, are senior faculty members at St. John's College In Annapolis, where the study of the Great Books Is conducted In a discussion model. The teacher Is no authority; he Is Just a facilitator.

The students learn from listening to each other. The men took that principle of learning and applied it first to middle school, then to high school and now to fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms. The text for each age group has been chosen not for the moral principles or great thinking it contains, but for the way it might build in a student the ability to think clearly, to defend his position, and to be sensitive to the feelings of others. "We're not supposed to raise our hands," Joe says. "It's weird." The children sit in a circle not shielded safely by a desk.

And they must talk without raising their hands. It Is a struggle for them to learn how not to trample each other's Ideas, to sense when another student has something to say. "Touchpebbles" Is Just a year old, but It Is In place In almost every elementary school in Annapolis, thanks to the efforts of Marianne Gray, a resource teacher with the county Board of Education. "We can't force-feed our school children," she says. "There is too much information.

They have to learn to think, to make decisions, to solve problems, to learn from each other." For the "Touchpebbles" hour each week, the teacher gives up her role as the authority. She is just another student. And there are no right answers. In the egalitarian world of "Touchpebbles," there are no smart kids, no dumb kids. In a town such as Annapolis, where ability ranges are as great as income ranges, where kids from housing projects learn beside kids from waterfront communities, "Touchpebbles" Is a perfect fit.

Even for the brightest kids, the ideas In "Touchpebbles" are Just unfamiliar enough to throw them off their stride. How can there be no correct answer? Why isn't the teacher telling me I am right? Forced to listen to the Ideas of street-smart kids they might have disdained before, the more able kids learn that not everyone thinks like they do. Not everyone has learned the same lessons from life. The poorer students, who might not have held the teacher In high regard to begin with, are In their element. Poor writers, poor readers who have made their way In this world by listening come to the front, too.

Disconnected kids suddenly have a forum for their Ideas, and this new willingness to participate In the system shows up In other classes. Programs like "Touchpebbles" can make parents nervous. Shouldn't they be diagramming those sentences, spelling those words? Is Plutarch on the approved reading list? "When you were looking for a Job," asks Marianne Gray, "did anyone ever ask you when the Civil War started? The skills these children are learning will get them through life." And so. the classroom discussion of "revenge, that savage justice" continued. Was "Home Alone 2" about revenge or was It about protecting yourself? Not exactly the "McLaughlin Group" here, but It Is a start.

Then one student one who had not often had "right answers" before spoke. "If there was no revenge, then people wouldn't kill each other over stupid stuff. And there would be no gangs and no wars anymore." With "Touchpebbles," It appears, right answers and morals are a bonus. BSO pops series designed to avoid mistakes of '92 Scripps decries Smith brothers' tie to WNUV sale I) 1 By Stephen Wigler Music Critic The news from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Is both good and bad. Yesterday ihe BSO announced that the campaign for its annual fund for the 1992-93 season exceeded Its $3.3 million goal by $50,000.

It was the second year In a drive to take the fund which helps pay the orchestra's annual operating expenses to $4 million by 1994. The bad news Is that the $50,000 is less than the orchestra lost probably well In excess of $100,000 when It lost 1 ,200 subscribers to its pops series this season (dropping from 5,999 renewals last year). The series, which begins tomorrow night In Meyerhoff Hall with Christopher Seaman conducting a program of Viennese music, is a glittering one that features appearances by Rosemary Clooney, Chita Rivera, Bernadette Peters, Johnny Mathls and an evening of Kurt Weill conducted by BSO music director David Zlnman. That such a series did not inspire more subscriptions Is a result of mistakes the orchestra made In the artists It booked last season and in the design of an expensive seasonal brochure (mailed out last spring) that many subscribers are said to have found too complicated to understand. Last season the orchestra presented television star Dixie Carter and Manhattan Transfer In an attempt "to diversify our offerings, See POPS, By David Zurawik Television Critic The owner of WMAR-TV (Channel 2) Is asking the federal government to step In and stop the sale of WNUV-TV (Channel 54) to a Pittsburgh broadcasting executive.

Scripps Howard Broadcasting alleges that the four Smith brothers, who own WBFF (Channel 45), are using Eddie Edwards an African-American who owns WPTT In Pittsburgh, and their mother, Mrs. Carolyn Smith, In a plan to take control of WNUV. The arrangement, according to Scripps Howard, would give the Smith family control of Baltimore's only two Independent TV stations in violation of the Federal Communication Commission's "duopoly" rule, which prohibits anyone from owning more than one TV station In a market. "What they're really doing Is suppressing an African-American from competing as an owner In the Baltimore market right now." the 42-year-old Mr. Edwards said yesterday In response to the Scripps Howard allegations.

"It's not fair, and the African-American community of Baltimore will not tolerate it," Mr. Edwards said, adding that he would hold a press conference in Baltimore today to dispute the charges. Scripps Howard's attorney, Kenneth C. Howard who drafted and filed the documents, declined comment. The Smith brothers, owners of SeeSAXE.

9E.Col. 1 William Chubb, left, as Grevllle and Nigel Hawthorne as the king In "The Madness of George III" This royal 'Madness' is inspired As George III, Nigel Hawthorne makes his entrance In the stately mode befitting his position, but he Immediately demonstrates the king's kindness and sense of humor by brushing off the incident and insisting on hu THEATER mane treatment for his assailant. Not long ago In France, he tells his followers, a would-be assassin "was subjected to the most fiendish tor REVIEW ft fit i iftfiM VMftM By J. Wynn Rousuck Theater Critic One way to convey the thrill of seeing the Royal National Theatre's splendid production of Alan Bennett's "The Madness of George III" would be to describe an outstanding scene. But that would also be unfair.

This large-cast production currently at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre as part of an American tour simply has too many outstanding scenes to choose from. I could, for instance, focus on the opening scene In which Bennett neatly and cleverly prepares the audience for almost all of what Is to come. In this scene, based on an actual event, a mad woman attempts to assassinate the king with a dessert knife. ments his limbs burned with fire, the flesh lacerated with red-hot pincers.

We have at least outgrown such barbarities." But these are among of the very tortures George III soon experiences himself. Afflicted by what was then diagnosed as madness but is now See GEORGE, 1.