Bear in mind that the necessities of the case required something which
would not cost any money, which would leave the system really intact,
and yet which would impress beholders with the fact of Progress.
The device which answered to this description was copied from Prussia
and informed with the essence of the Prussian spirit--a quasi-military
Uniformity. There is nothing, indeed, so impressive to the observer
as the sight of everybody doing exactly the same thing at the same
time. And when that thing is totally unnecessary and very difficult,
the effect is to stun the mind into a bewildered admiration. Hence
the preposterously military aspect of the schools of yesterday--the
marching in line out to recess and back again. Hence the drillmaster
airs of the teaching force--as, for instance, the New York teacher
who boasted, “I said to my pupils, ‘All who live on Blank street
raise their hands,’ and then I turned to talk to the superintendent,
forgetting to say ‘Hands down’--and five minutes later, when I looked
around, those Blank street children still had their hands up. That’s
what I call discipline!” And hence the reprimand to the other New York
teacher because, when she came back from a visit to Italy, she told the
geography class about her journey and passed around picture postcards,
instead of hearing the children recite the appointed Lesson from the
appointed Book at the appointed Hour. Think how it sounds for a city
superintendent to be able to pull out his watch and say to a visitor:
“At this moment every sixth grade pupil, in every school in the whole
city, is opening his geography!” That is System, and it must not be
deranged in order to _interest_ a mere roomful of children in the
realities of geography for half an hour!
I experienced some of the benefits of the Goose-Step System myself,
back in Illinois--and I know just how a child feels about it. He feels
just as you would feel if at the conclusion of a theatrical performance
you were commanded to “Rise! Turn! Pass!” He feels humiliated and
ridiculous. He feels that he is being made a fool of. The Goose-Step
System is not intended to make its little victims feel happy; it is
only intended to impress beholders with the fact of Progress.
_And this kind of Systematization, this fake reform, has been the
only serious contribution to American educational practice in the
public schools during the life of the generation to which you and I
belong--until within the last few years._
Fortunately, another crisis arose. In every large city the attendance
at the public schools outgrew the school capacities, and it became
necessary to put many children on a “half-time” basis. And this scandal
demanded relief. It still demands relief. And at present we are faced
with a choice between two methods of relief.
One method is familiar--to turn the grammar schools into adjuncts of
capitalist shops and factories. It is the system now approved by the
educational authorities of most of the large cities, including New
York. The other is a sane and democratic proposal for education on
scientific principles, for the benefit of the child and of the race.