The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-18
THE FARMER: OCTOBER IS, 1909
TEACHING PHILANTHROPY
 AT NIGHT
The First Night School for Social Workers Opens In New York City The Universities for New Profes- sion and What They Are Accom- plishing.
ORLANDO F. LEWIS

| Have you ever been to night. school? Have you ever been to Night School of Philanthropy?" The second ques- tion will be answered in the affirma- tive this winter by, some fifty New York men and women who are attend ing the first night school of that kind ever established. >sf-
 The word philanthropy used to mean
 gifts on a. large scale for large pur-
 poses. Another meaning, of the word is ''the doing of good for the benefit of those who are in -need.''- Eleven years ago there was established in the city
 Philanthropy under the auspices of the
 Charity Organization Society. In the
 good old days, ten years ago, people laughed at the idea that charity could te taught. Today it is seen that there are economical and efficient ways of
 helping the needy, just as there are economical and efficient ways of spending the. city's money. or the non- ey of life insurance policy holders, or the money of stockholders in large cor
 porations Indeed the New York School of Philanthropy, and score of other important social movements, have taught the American public with in ten years that philanthropy is profession, which. can be ractised in
 a skilled way or in an unskilled way and that there is waste and overlap ping and ignorance in, the Sunskilled
 doer of good deeds, just as there is in
 every occupation. That is the essense
 of the work of the four training
 schools in. philanthropy which today
 are being successfully carried on in
 New York, Boston, Chicago and St.
 Louis. .{ls
 The New York school has nearly one
 hundred pupils during the winter and
 about. seventy lecturers, each giving
 from one to several lectures. And un-
 like most schools the lecturers are
 drawn right from active life to tell of
 their experiences. For instance, the manager of an institution will come
 from his daily work the superintend-
 ent of a prison from his administration
 building, the settlement worker from the settlement in some crowded part of thie city where his work is.
 In short, this training school in New York is similar to a medical school or a law schol, in that it gives specialized
 training for asdefinite profession. Stu dents come from all over the country. And what is true of New York is prac-
 tically true of all the schools of phil anthropy. Their success is due partly to the fact that they are dealing con stantly with vital present-day condi- tions and partly to, the<fact that they
 are supplying efficient workers in a field where the demand far exceeds the supply q
 indeed the subject of social justice" is now coming to be recognized as a real and important calling. The 20th centuryFwilI undoubtedly be regarded as the century of social justice, just as the 18th century was the center of comm ercia1 expansion and invention. The great social movements of today like the campaign against tuberculosis, | chile labor, the Consumers league, the housing movement. the movement for parks and playgTounds, are but the forcrunners of even greater move ments for social justice that will de- velop during the next hundred years. { To manage those movements re- quires specialists who are not lawyers and may yet be any one of these. It requires trained students of social con- ditions who are wise executives, or ganiZerS, promoters and to some ex- tent prophets. Such products the schools of philanthropy are aiming to produce. The schools furthermore aim to train for all branches of social work They recognize that trained ser vice is necessary in charitable socie- ties, in hospitals in institutions, and | other organizations. q
 It is this fact that practically led to | the establishment, as an experiment, | of the first night school of phi1anth- | ropy in New York city, which opened | on October 5, under the auspices of the Charity OrganiZa tion Society. This | night school is exclusively for those who are engaged in social work dur ing the day, but who wish to keep | abreast of present-day conditions and | movements Just as a night school is | valuable for those who engage in so- cial work in the day time.in a natural need. The enrollment of the school is over fifty. 5s
 Of itself, the school is of course very small in comparison with the great r educational system of, this country l. but it is large in significance for the future, for it means that the time will | come when practically all social work CTS will feel it necessary to supplement | their daily service by occasional even- ing courses in which the latest word in | cussed.
 c. R. KIuger the Jewe1er. 10cO Vir- ginia Ave. Indianapolis. Ind. writes | T was so weak from kidney trouble | L [ l. L.