Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-09-02
BENEFIT TO BOYS ARISING
FROM SELF GOVERNMENT
The Outlook

In some of the pubic schools of Boston there IS to be
established this fall the institution known as the school
city. 1t is a form Of selfgovernment which has been
used in some Of the schools Of New York City, Philadel
phia and other places.
It was originally founded by Wilson. L. Grill in 1897.
The trial was made in a ~disorderly school of 1000 pupils
or more in the suburbs of New York. The students were
so unruly as to require the constant presence of police
men on the Fairgrounds. Within a week after the stu
ddnts were organized as a city with the right and re-
sponsibilty of governing themselves the school became
orderly and lawabiding. The boys were willing to obey
laws in the making of which they had a share.
In other places good results have been attained. In
one school near Philadelphia the standard of dress was
so low that if any boy wore a linen collar to school it
was sure to be torn off. Twenty of the boys had register
ed under assumed names, so that in case of arrest they
would not appear in police court under their true names.
When the school city was organized the boys came to the
principal and confessed the ruse, and asked to be regis
tered in their right names. Unru.y conduct was sup.
pressed; heater dress. better manners and improved
scholarship followed. The students maintained their
higher standards to the end of the school year last
spring.
The almost immediate transformation brought about
in individual boys and girls by the endowment of re.
sponsibuity involved in the plan has many illustrations.
One boy from the slums, who was careless, mischievous
and fond Of playing truant, was elected a member of
council" The teacher felt that the choice of this little
rascal rendered the republic hopeless; hut the children
in this, as in many another case, reformed a bad boy by
putting him in a position of trust. As this lad said when
praised by his teacher for becoming a little gentleman,
You know they expect so much from a member of the
city council"
Some of the decisions of the school courts are re-
markedly appropriate. One pupil, guilty of swearing in
the schoolyard, and on the streets, was sentenced to os.
tracism for two days; he was not to speak TO anyone at
recess during that time, and public opinion forced the or
der of the court. Trial by their peers on full evidence
appeals to the children as just and fair, and they mani
fest a surprising aptitude for judicial procedure.
As legislators, too, the children display some quail
ties that their elders would do well to cultivate. No pri
vate bill, or special legislation, has any chance in a
school city. There is no graft in the school city, no boo
az In tho cp1n No YpJorctopdipv bot,vo,, +h. r,1;a,
and wrongdoers.
The child citizens have passed and enforced ordin-
ances prohibiting the shooting of peas, the Disagreement
Of buildings, the making of an noise in the neighborhood
Of Libraries or other places where people may be disturb.
ed by 1t. "Tattling" has been eliminated; but pupils who
would deem it a disgrace to peach on fellow students
come to regard it as a civic duty to give evidence to their
fellow students concerning offenders against the laws Of
the republic.