The recent exchange of visits between Pennsylvanians and Wisconsinites
has resulted in the organization of an association for the carrying
out of the Wisconsin Idea in Pennsylvania; but the New York _Evening
Post,_ in commenting upon the Pennsylvania version of the Wisconsin
Idea, calls attention to the fact that in Wisconsin the idea is
carried into effect by public agencies, whereas the Pennsylvania
version is to be executed privately! The _Evening Post_ did not,
indeed, say execute; I, myself, have introduced the word, because it
so exactly conveys the meaning of the _Post's_ criticism.{9}
Why is it that so many good people take up things like the Boy Scout
movement, privately, never giving a moment's thought to our rusting
school machinery? Why are we so privately minded as to enthuse over
Mrs. so-and-so's out-of-the-city movement for children, never thinking
of the _potentialities_ of establishments like Girard College? The
trouble is that we Americans have never learned to do things together;
we still have the loyal but lazy habit of looking expectantly for a
King, and, of course, we get a Philadelphia Ring, the lowest Circle in
the Inferno of the Worst; and all the while our might be doers of good
affect a kind of private Kingship, and sink into a mire of idiotic[L]
impotence.
The seven wonders of the world all fade into insignificance in
comparison with one great fact in modern government, a fact so
fundamental that we seldom think of it, namely, the great fact of
taxation. Funds sufficient to meet every public need of the community
flow automatically into the public treasury. This is indeed a very
remarkable thing, but it seems almost ludicrous when we consider that
wasteful expenditure of public funds is the universal rule, and that
good people everywhere are struggling to do public things privately!
Was there ever before two such horns to a dilemma? Fog horns, grown
inwardly on every Pennsylvanian's head! When a city of 10,000 people
has an annual school budget of $60,000, it is evident that everything
can be done that needs to be done for the schooling of children.
I believe that the school day should be increased to 8 hours, the
school week to 6 days, and the school year to 12 months; with elastic
provision for home work and out-of-town visiting. I believe that
school activities should include a wide variety of simple hand work,
and a great deal of outdoor play, with ample provision for the things
that are done by Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls; and when children are
old enough and strong enough to begin their vocational training, their
school activities should be combined with work in office and factory.
Let no one imagine that such a program is impracticable; for in the
city, school is the sum of all influences outside the home, and the
school day is now more than eight hours, the school week is more
than six days, and school lasts the whole year through; these are the
facts, say what you will; and everything is in a dreadful state of
confusion--excepting only book work. _It is time for us to think
of the public school as including everything which makes for the
efficient organization and orderly control of the juvenile world._
The Junior Municipality, which has been recently proposed, added to
existing school work with provision for simple manual training and
outdoor play would constitute a fairly complete realization of this
wide conception of the public school, and any narrower conception is
hopeless in a modern city.
As to educational values there is a widespread misunderstanding.
Imagine a teacher taking his youngsters on a hike two or three times a
week all winter long! Every parent, _hoping for his children to escape
the necessity of work,_ would howl in stupid criticism "Is that what
I send my children to school for?" Or the School Superintendent might
have the point of view of the excessively teachy teacher, who, in a
recent discussion of the Boy Scout idea, admitted that cross-country
hikes would be a good thing, provided, something were associated with
them to justify them, and this something was understood to be bookish!
As to vocational training, on the other hand, we must reckon with the
manufacturer who will not train workmen for his competitors but who
expects his competitors to train workmen for him. And we must also
reckon with the ministerial member of the school-board who meets a
proposal for vocational training with the question "How then will you
educate for life?"
"Ich ging im Walde
So fuer mich hin,
Und nichts zu suchen
Das war mein Sinn."
The youngster who goes on a hike for nothing will get everything, and
to be fit for service is to be fit for life.
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