Chapter V: Part 5

“Yes, we have politics here. The question of an outdoor theatre is being agitated very warmly just now. The pupils have complete control of the school budget of expenditure. There is only so much money to spend each year, you see, at present, though there is a movement on foot to make the institution self-supporting; but I’m afraid that will depend on the political situation. Ultimately, of course, we expect to put the whole of industry under the Department of Education.... But I’m afraid that’s going too deeply into a situation you could hardly be expected to understand.

“At any rate to return to our school, the opposition to the outdoor theatre is from the scientific groups, who want an enlargement of their laboratories.... The architectural and building groups are neutral--they are working on plans for both projects, and all they want is that the question should be settled one way or the other at once, so they can go to work. There will be a meeting tonight, at which a preliminary vote will be taken. Yes, our politics are quite old-fashioned--Greek, in fact.

“The shops? They are managed by shop committees of the workers. Distribution of products to the various groups which use them is effected through a distributing bureau, which has charge of the book-keeping and so forth. There has been a change in distribution recently, however. At first the shops merely made what was ordered by the various groups, and requisitions were the medium of exchange. But the shops became experimental and enterprising, and produced what they liked on the chance of its being wanted. This made a show-place necessary, and as for various reasons ordinary money became the medium of exchange, the show-place became a kind of department store. Then some of the groups decided to use part of their subsidy in advertising in the school newspaper and magazines. They are working out some very interesting principles in their advertising, too, as you will find. They have to tell the truth....

“There is the printing establishment. No, the paper and the magazines are not self-supporting--though the school advertising helps. They’re subsidized. We quite believe in that.

“And there--you can get a glimpse of the greenhouses and gardens. Botany and so forth.... The library is the centre of the research groups. History, sociology, economics--finding out what and why. Very informal and very earnest, as you’ll find.... The groups? Oh, the time one stays in each group varies with the individual. But every one likes to be able to boast quietly of an M. P.--that means a ‘masterpiece’ in the old mediaeval sense; a piece of work that shows you’ve passed the apprentice stage--in a reasonable number of departments. Some Admirable Crichtons go in for an M. P. in everything!...

“The restaurant--that’s quite important. The cooking groups give a grand dinner every little while, and everybody goes and dines quite in state, with dancing afterward. We learn the best of bourgeois manners--makes it _quite_ impossible to distinguish an immigrant’s child from the scions of our old families. The result is that the best families are discarding their manners in order to retain their distinction! Very amusing....

“The church? You mean that building over there, I suppose? That isn’t a church--not in the sense you mean. It’s our meeting place. You see, since your time churches have come to be used so much for meetings that when our architecture group came to plan an assembly hall it was quite natural for them to choose the ecclesiastical style. Anyway, I understand it’s a return to their original purpose....”

“But,” I said, “this school is just like the world outside!”

“Except,” he said, “in one particular. In the world outside we still have certain vestiges of class privilege and exploitation--considerably toned down from their former asperities, but still recognizable as relics of capitalism. In the school we have play, production and exchange as they would exist in the outside world if these things were to be done and managed wholly with the intention of making better and wiser and happier citizens. The difference, of course, is simply that one is run with an educational and the other with a productive intention.”

“The difference seems to me,” I remarked, “that your school is really democratic and your adult world isn’t quite.”

“That is one way of putting it,” he conceded.

“And I should think,” I said warmly, “that after going to these schools, your people would want the rest of the world run on exactly the same plan.”

“It does rather have that effect,” he admitted cautiously. “In fact, the Educational party, as it is called, is very rapidly rising into power. Since you are unfamiliar with our politics, I should explain that the Educational party was formed, after the unfortunate events of 1925, by the amalgamation of the United Engineers, the O. G. U., and the Farmers’ League. Its chief figure is the sainted Madame Goldman, the organizer of the Women’s Battalion in the First Colonial War....”

“What surprises me,” I interrupted, “is that your conservatives--”

“Tut! we have no conservatives--they call themselves Moderates.”

“I am surprised, then, that your Moderates allow such schools to exist! Of course they will revolutionize any society in which they are!”

“Well,” said my companion, “but what could they do? Once you begin making schools _for_ the children, you start out on the principle that education is learning how to live--and you end here.”

I pondered this. “Not necessarily,” I said at last. “You might have ended with schools in which the children of the poor were taught how to be efficient wage-slaves.”

“Ah, yes,” said my friend, “but they smashed that attempt away back in 1924.”

“Did they? I’m very glad to hear it!” I cried.... “By the bye, how much do these schools cost--all over the country?”

“Less per year than we spent per day on the Second Colonial War.... But this is enough of description. You shall see for yourself. Come!” he said.

We started toward the theatre.

“Play,” he was saying, “is according to our ideas more fundamental and more important in life than work. Consequently the theatre--”

But what he said about the theatre would take us far from anything which we are now accustomed to consider education. It involves no less a heresy than the calm assumption that the artist type is the highest human type, and that the chief service which education can perform for the future is the deliberate cultivation of the faculty of “creative dreaming.”...

I venture to quote only one sentence:

“_Mankind needs more poets._”

APPENDIX

A DEFINITION OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

(From a bulletin issued by the Progressive Education Association,
Washington, D. C.)

“The aim of Progressive Education is the freest and fullest development of the individual, based upon the scientific study of his physical, mental, spiritual, and social characteristics and needs.

“Progressive Education as thus defined implies the following conditions:

“1. FREEDOM TO DEVELOP NATURALLY

“The conduct of the pupil should be self-governed according to the social needs of his community, rather than by arbitrary laws.... Full opportunity for initiative and self-expression should be provided, together with an environment rich in interesting material that is available for the free use of every pupil.

“2. INTEREST THE MOTIVE OF ALL WORK

“Interest should be satisfied and developed through: (1) Direct and indirect contact with the world and its activities, and use of the experience thus gained. (2) Application of knowledge gained, and correlation between different subjects. (3) The consciousness of achievement.

“3. THE TEACHER A GUIDE, NOT A TASK-MASTER

“... Progressive teachers will encourage the use of all the senses, training the pupils in both observation and judgment; and instead of hearing recitations only, will spend most of the time teaching how to use various sources of information, including life activities as well as books; how to reason about the information thus acquired; and how to express forcefully and logically the conclusions reached. Teachers will inspire a desire for knowledge, and will serve as guides in the investigations undertaken, rather than as task-masters. To be a proper inspiration to their pupils, teachers must have ample opportunity and encouragement for self-improvement and for the development of broad interests.

“4. SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF PUPIL DEVELOPMENT

“School records should ... include both objective and subjective reports on those physical, mental, moral, and social characteristics which affect both school and adult life, and which can be influenced by the school and the home. Such records should be used as a guide for the treatment of each pupil, and should also serve to focus the attention of the teacher on the all-important work of development, rather than on simply teaching subject matter.

“5. GREATER ATTENTION TO ALL THAT AFFECTS THE CHILD’S PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

“One of the first considerations of Progressive Education is the health of the pupils. Much more room in which to move about, better light and air, clean and well ventilated buildings, easier access to the out of doors and greater use of it, are all necessary. There should be frequent use of adequate playgrounds....

“6. CO-OPERATION BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME TO MEET THE NEEDS OF CHILD-LIFE

“The school should provide, with the home, as much as possible of all that the natural interests and activities of the child demand, especially during the elementary school years. It should give opportunity for manual experience for both boys and girls, for home-making, and for healthful recreation of various kinds.... These conditions can come about only through intelligent co-operation between parents and teachers. It is the duty of the parents to know what the school is doing and why....

“7. THE PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL A LEADER IN EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENTS

“The Progressive School should be ... a laboratory where new ideas if worthy meet encouragement; where tradition alone does not rule, but the best of the past is leavened with the discoveries of today, and the result is freely added to the sum of educational knowledge.

“(_The Association is not committed, and never can be, to any particular method or system of education. In regard to such matters it is simply a medium through which improvements and developments worked out by various agencies can be presented to the public._)”

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It will, I hope, be clear that these remarks apply specifically to the grammar school teacher who does have to teach everything. The case is less desperate in the higher reaches of our school system.

[2] Except in _Dutch_ New York, and in Massachusetts.

[3] “The one dominant feature of this labour movement [1824-1836] was the almost fanatical insistence upon the paramount importance of education. In political platforms, in resolutions of public meetings, and in the labour press, the statement is repeated over and over, that the fundamental demand of labour is for an adequate system of education....

“To this movement, more than to any other single cause, if not more than to all other causes combined, is due the common school system of the United States.... When the movement died out in 1835 to 1837 ... Horace Mann was leading the ‘educational revival,’ and the common school was an established institution in nearly every state.”--A. M. Simons: “Social Forces in American History.”

[4] In which some of these chapters originally appeared, and to which my thanks are due for the privilege of republication.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.