Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 17

rV All r0rfr David Broder 'The good news as this school year begins is that teachers, parents, voters and politicians seem to have their priorities Wisconsin State Journal Sunday, September 1, 1985, Section 1, Page 17 For foreigners in Moscow, 4 i 1 life is secretive, yet secure kS5 "'SJip-jfiSrL m' I It -rf -i vt'Tkril i Wright's legacy: Hillside School trains future architects. Taliesin will remain, expand in Wisconsin By Serge Schmemann N.Y. Times News Service MOSCOW They call him Igor, Ivan, or Boris. They refer to him with a. finger pointed at his presumed microphone in the ceiling; they raise silent toasts to him and fantasize of getting together for a drink.

He is a personification of the KGB surveillance that foreigners in Moscow assume is always there in a host of real, presumed, or imagined guises. He is the man in a leather jacket or in the car that seems to reappear all too frequently. He is the person who may or may not be watching from the window across the street He is the one who may or may not be sitting with earphones on, eavesdropping on foreigners' apartments. At one foreigners' compound, they talk of a basement room packed with tape recorders, but nobody has ever actually seen it They turn up televisions during private conversations or unplug the phone, but nobody knows whether this is useful or necessary. Legends abound.

In one embassy, it is told, a chandelier crashed to the floor, leaving a lonely microphone dangling from a wire. There are innumerable stories of mysterious cigarette butts, of lifting the telephone receiver to hear curious conversations, of seeing men rifle through garbage bins at night And now, adding verisimilitude to the legends of Boris, the State Department has revealed that for years the KGB has been using chemical tracking agents to keep tabs on things and people Americans have been in contact with. In dramatic briefings for the American community in Moscow, the U.S. Embassy said one such chemical, identified by the Americans as nitrophenylpentadienal and promptly tagged "spy dust" could be hazardous to health. The Kremlin heatedly denied and ridiculed the allegation, accusing Washington of concocting it to besmirch the Soviet Union and undo whatever progress has been made First off, they are bunched in exclusive compounds guarded around the clock by uniformed police, who keep unaccompanied Russians out.

No foreigner can travel outside Moscow without registering the trip and arranging all details at least 48 hours in advance. Huge portions of the country are permanently off limits. Only specified trains, flights, and roads out of Moscow are available to foreigners, and on many roads it is forbidden even to stop on the shoulder. Foreigners' cars carry distinctive plates that identify their function and country. American diplomats have red plates beginning with the letter followed by 004 for American (Britain is 001).

Correspondents have yellow plates starting with the letter International direct-dial telephoning, introduced during the Olympic Games of 1980, was withdrawn in 1982 for most phones used by foreigners. Soon after, most foreigners lost direct-dialing within the Soviet Union and now must make reservations to call outside Moscow. Photography is strictly curtailed. Pictures of dams, railroad bridges, men in uniform, broad panoramas, and many other subjects are banned. Accurate maps of cities or regions are unavailable.

Tourist maps are deliberately drawn out of scale. However, the restrictions have a flip side. In their compounds, foreigners live far better than the Russians outside. In their efforts to segregate the subversive outsiders from the natives, Soviet authorities provide a range of services, from special food shops to special country resorts, that few Russians can use. The American Embassy and many other missions maintain comfortable country compounds, and Soviet authorities make available a charming resort on the Volga River two hours outside the capital It is a life that can become enticingly comfortable and secure, a golden cocoon with a rich, social life among like-minded people, with comfortably limited choices, rare crime, and reasonable comfort i 1 i -A Robert H.

fj Spiegel Editor Public wises up on education in American-Soviet relations. In the end, the full story of spy dust how it is used, how hazardous, the purpose it served, and why Washington suddenly raised an alarm is likely to remain as murky as the secretive game of cat-and-mouse that dominates the lives of foreigners in Moscow. Yet many of the controls on foreigners are hardly secret or even subtle. Wisconsin State Journal James E. Burgess, publisher Robert H.

Spiegel, editor Thomas W. Still, Opinion Page editor David S. Broder Columnist had with toughened curriculums, longer school days, stricter testing and increased homework for their kids. But it is also based in part on the attention that officials in almost every state and most local communities have given to the quality of their schools and the people who teach in them. Let us give the conservatives in the Reagan administration credit for their role in rightly emphasizing that education is primarily a state and local responsibility.

But let us praise, even more, the governors, the mayors, the school boards and the local citizens who have stepped up to meet that responsibility. One measure of that response perhaps not the most important one, but a significant measure nonetheless is the pay public-school teachers receive. In the special back-to-school issue of Today's Education, the National Education Association magazine, the survey on teacher pay shows the national average reached almost $24,000 a year last year, up more than 7 percent (twice the inflation rate) since 1983-84. Encouragingly, some of the biggest percentage increases came in states that have long lagged toward the bottom of the national scale: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia. Those states and others have recognized that public education is the key to their future.

My own sense from traveling the country this year and from listening to what governors and state legislators have been saying to each other at their annual meetings is that the commitment to education is growing. Obviously, it depends on the degree of confidence the voters have in their school systems and the qualitative improvements the principals and teachers can achieve now that salaries and public support are increasing. Jury still out The jury is still out on both questions but again, I think the evidence is encouraging. This battle to revive and improve our public schools still has a long way to go. But the good news as this school year begins is that teachers, parents, voters and politicians seem to have their priorities right WASHINGTON As another school year begins, the unfashionable is becoming more and more commonplace.

It's unfashionable to say that the public-school picture is looking better, but more people are saying just that Example: In a Gallup Poll released last week, 71 percent of the parents of public-school pupils gave an A or rating to the school their oldest child attends. Only 7 percent gave that school a rating or a failing grade. Parents' ratings top The parents (who presumably know most about what's going on in the schools) give them better grades than others in the public. But the overall public-opinion trend is also favorable, Gallup reported in the annual survey for Phi Delta Kappa magazine. When judging schools in their own community, the public awards three times as many superior grades (A or B) as inferior (D or failing).

At the beginning of the decade, the ratio was just 2 to 1 positive. When judging the nation's schools as a whole, the public four years ago was just as likely to rate them a flop as a success. Today, there are only half as many poor or failing grades as superior grades. All of this suggests a growing confidence in public schools. If I were going to guess, I would say it is based in part on the direct experience many parents have He offers firm evidence.

For a number of years, the Taliesin group spent nine months in Scottsdale and only three to four months in Spring Green. "We're extending the season (in Wisconsin)," he says. "This year, we came in early May, opening the school for visitors on Memorial Day weekend, and the last of us won't leave until Oct. 20; that's 5 months. "There is considerable sentiment to operate both places year-around." $8 million in repairs This would require considerable repair, expansion and insulation to the Taliesin buildings, plus equipment.

The cost is estimated to be up to $8 million. A fund drive is under way to establish a $30-million endowment through tax-exempt contributions. Montooth says there is a starter fund of about $1.5 million. Montooth senses a growing respect for Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin, "particularly among the younger people," and sees growing ties with the Spring Green area and the state. Some are visible.

For example, Montooth is working with the Wyoming Township Planning Commission on ways "to preserve the agricultural nature of the valley and, within that framework, plan for very low density housing development in wooded areas and the hillsides." He also is working on a master plan for Richland Center that should be finished by late autumn. "The longer we stay here each year, the broader our involvement will become," adds Montooth. That involvement will retain the basic architectural principles of Frank Lloyd Wright modified to meet today's demands. Peters has said: "Mr. Wright always was the first to denounce those who merely copied his form.

He sought to inculcate principles so broad as to embrace all changes and developments, bringing new forms in architecture." 2 William Wesley Peters accreditation I JV If I 3t SPRING GREEN Outwardly, things are unchanged in the green Wyoming Valley. The tawny flanks of Taliesin fit snugly into the hillside overlooking the valley and the broad Wisconsin River, partially hidden by the reaching boughs of the oaks, birches, maples, cedars. Frank Lloyd Wright spoke of his home as "the strong, quiet rectangular rock-masses bespeaking strength and comfort within." This architect for the ages gave it a Welsh name, Taliesin, or "shining brow." Move south through the valley, around the sweeping curve of Highway 23 and turn into the graveled road leading to the Hillside School It's the summertime home of the Taliesin Fellowship, the communal framework of architectural disciples of Wright and their students. The place hums with quiet organized activity. It too, presents a changeless face.

Nevertheless, this is a summer unlike any of the other 51 in the school's history. For the first time, achitects and students have come to Taliesin without Frank Lloyd Wright or his wife, Olgivanna, or both. Wright died in 1959 at age 89. Olgivanna succeeded him as leader of the Taliesin Fellowship, filling that role until her death last March 1 at age 87. How has the void been filled? Rule by 'consensus' The new leader is architect William Wesley Peters, Wright's son-in-law, who serves as chairman of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation board.

It was a natural succession for Peters, formerly chief architect of Taliesin Associated Architects. Architect Charles Montooth, a friendly and informed man, talked about the transition the other day. "Mrs. Wright was a very strong person," he said. "She made the decisions." One of the decisions made by the black-haired, slender Olgivanna Wright was "to gradually turn over the decision-making to the architects and their families." "We're feeling our way," said Montooth, dressed warmly against the unusual chill of an August day.

"It's difficult for people who are equals to set up a hierarchy." Something of a hierarchy was needed, of course, so there is the foundation board and steering committees to head different phases of operations at Spring Green and at Taliesin Wast, Scottscale, Ariz. "We seek consensus," said Montooth. "We work and live together, and that makes it possible." Commitment to Wisconsin Some in the Spring Green area have worried that Taliesin might be phased out in favor of Taliesin West at Scottsdale. After all, Olgivanna Wright and Peters have said publicly that Wisconsin has not sufficiently recognized Wright a native son, noting there are no major buildings in Wisconsin that Wright designed; none on a university campus, none in a major city. However, Wright designed many Wisconsin homes and buildings for private patrons, like the Johnson family in Racine.

That aside, Olgivanna Wright and Peters have told repeatedly of their love for Taliesin and the valley in which it is located. Peters has talked of the shuttle of architects and students between Arizona and Wisconsin as providing "spiritual" sustenance. If anything, Montooth says, the commitment to the Spring Green area will increase. School seeking One change is being forced on the architectural school by an increasing number of states requiring a university degree, in addition to approval by licensing boards, to practice architecture. Montooth smiled: "It's a good thing this wasn't required in Mr.

Wright's time he wouldn't have practiced." (Wright studied only briefly at the University of Wisconsin.) On second thought Montooth decided that Wright would have found a way to practice architecture "one way or another." EMUTlON id AMERlCAH At any rate, the Taliesin school has applied for accreditation by the North Central Association, which would allow it to confer an M.A. degree. Montooth says a high percentage of their students become architects some 270 over the years. The students come from a town of 600 people in Nebraska, to Northern Ireland, to Brazil "They come to us wanting to know something about architecture, many directly from high school," he said. 1.