The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-04-26
The School as a Social Center.


property is chiefly schoolhouses
which are in use only part of the
time five days in the week, and about
nine months out of the year. Com
pared with the use made of private
property, this represents good deal
Of idleness of investment.
Can the city make large use of
turns than are now obtained? Should
these expensive buildings lie idle more
than half the time, and return nothing
upon the investment during that time?
That they are profitable during the
time they are used for school pur-
poses is not questioned, but that this
heavy investment should serve the
public to such limited extent is
matter which has engaged the atten-
ton of thoughtful people and has been
in the minds Of members of our own
school board as a serious and practi-
cal proposition.
The schoolhouse as a social center
has never yet been made to serve the
purpose which it should accomplish,
SACSpl LII SOIlG lSoldlCo SCSCS. All
instance of a larger use and greater
benefits, derived from the investment
is furnished in the city of Chicago,
where under the state law, the school
board is authorized to grant the use
of assembly halls and classrooms,
when not otherwise needed, for public
| lectures, concerts and other education-
lol til fe f,>oo 90 Fl,
the building but under such provisions
and restrictions as they may see fit
| to impose. , In some school districts
of that city, encouraged and aided by
private enterprise, literary, dramatic
and art societies, men and Women's
clubs, boys clubs and sewing and
cooking classes for girls, and other
organizations have been formed, MAX
| ing use of public school buildings and
constituting them social centers pro-
ductive Of benefits of immense value
to the communities thus organized.
In other cases, district clubs, COM
posed of parents Of the children at
tending these schools, have been
formed for the purpose of promoting
the school work of the district. In
this way parents have been brought
into closer contact and into larger
sympathy with the teachers, with re-
suits exceedingly beneficial to the edu-
cational interests of the district.
i One feature Of peculiar interest is
related particularly to the social life
of the young people 2 and the school
I children, especially in those sections
of the city where the parents are least
: able to provide for the social life OF
their children and where the effect OF
} the education of the children Of for.
, eign-born and foreign-speaking par.
ents has been to create a social chasn
between the parents and children, ex
listing not because Of false ideals i'm
planted by the schools in the minds O.
the children, but very largely thru the
|. fact that educated in English the
= children naturally seek the society O.
English-speaking people, while thei
parents, adhering to their foreign
} tongues and seeking their own socia
2 and church connections among thos'
speaking their native language, grow
apart from and in a measure lose tina
, control over their children which the.
, should exercise. When the child i
thus left to seek outside the home tn
qualification of the social instinct, i
r often happens that there is no place t
which he can go except the street, am
l it is a short distance from the stree
I. into public places whose influence i
q ~
: in the schoolhouse that which lead
Y to social separation from his parents
!. but gets from the schoolhouse moth
ing which takes it's place.
D This fact has led to a movemen
Y in some of the larger cities to the or
0 ganization of social life with TIL
4 school house as it's center and as tn
place affording facilities for the graft
d fication of the social instinct unde
conditions calculated to promote tn
n moral welfare of the young. AS
: phase of the child problem and tn
n protection Of youth from the tenpte
: tons which assail them on every sid
y when turned adrift to find their sc
II cial qualification on the streets or
worse pldCeS, Ills SCiSI1lc VI putin
: the public schoolhouses to larger use
! than those for which they are no
IS employed. would seem to common
: itself to the consideration of not on
our school board. but all who are il
d tested in the rising generation in Mil
Il neapolis, as we'll as in other cities.
Such a movement, Of course, coul
/ not be successfully carried on witho'
II mourning some expense. In Chicae
considerable expense for this purpo.
Il has been borne by what is known {
s the Merchants club. Whether Mil
y neapolis has any organization whic
II would feel called upon or capable I
g undertaking work of this kind canno
: of course, he predicted in this conne'
II ton, but the field for effort along tn
u line and the promise of valuable r.
= suits would seem to be such as shou
engage the attention of thought
men and women.
II Where will the movement be init
~ ated, and where shall we discover tt
Y first evidences of happy results?
ID The first question Tolstoi put to r
,g ent visitor was: Have you news OF t
h. war;" He apologized for his eagernes
10 land said he could not overcome entire
lie the feeling of patriotism no matter he
as hard he might struggle against it. and
70 found himself anxious. since the war w
80 D,,.. 80,