The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-07-15
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS SOCIAL CEN.
TIERS
Edward J. Wards Work in Roches-

Edward J. Wards Work in Roches-
ter, N. Y, By Livy S. Richard.
A big idea-one of the biggest in
our time-is what Edward J. Ward
is bringing from its nursery bed in
Rochester, N. Y, to the fertile soil
Of democratic Wisconsin. Having seen
Ward and his idea in the cradle stage
/ want to tell you about them.
The idea to use the public school
buildings as social centers-as COM
mon ground on which men and wom-
en- can meet for study Of common in
terests and for acquaintance and hui
man fellowship, absolutely on par
ity one with another; absolutely with
out heed to the prejudices and class
distinctions which, in all other activ-
tiles Of life, tend to keep them apart
was not original with Ward; 1t
arose among our grandfathers in the
little red school house of generations
ago. But Ward recalled it and re-
established it in modern city.
Those of you who live in cities,
and especially in big cities, don't
need to be told how many are the
things that divide folks. The rich
live usually by themselves and the
poor by themselves, with as much
room as possible between. One line
of business gets into one part of
town, another in another, and often
separate families sleeping beneath a
common roof don't know each other
or pretend that they don't. Fol
young people who come into town
strangers, 1t is not easy to form So
cial ties except at saloons or cheap
dance halls; and even those born to
city ways generally know only per-
sons in their own set-fellow citi-
zens, fellow humans in other sets,
on other levels, may be physically
near, yet socially they are as if miles
and miles away.
Democracy isn't possible without
common knowledge, common SYM
pathies, common ground. Where, in
the cities, is such commingling to
be? Not in church, for there you
assemble those of only one creed or
faith. Not in lodge, for its mem
bership is picked. The baseball
ground is democratic, when the ad-
mission fee isn't too high; but it
isn't open long enough to serve as
communizing influence. Only the
school offers hopeful service.
Democracy in the Schools
Hence Ward, and those whom he
convinced, took his missionary work
for democracy into the schools. He
opened them to Jew and Gentle,
Greek and barbarian, bond and free.
He opened them at night, he opened
them on Sunday afternoons. He had
free lectures, free discussions, free
gymnasium training, free baths; he
had free art clubs, free exhibitions of
paintings and sculptures, free moving
picture shows; he had free reading
rooms and circulating libraries; he
had free dental clinics and wanted
to have free legal aid and medical
aid and nursing and host of other
things. But an invariable rule in all
these activities was that they were
to be open on terms of complete
equality to all who wished to partici-
pate.
The first time I attended a social
center in Rochester was on a Sun
day afternoon. In one room were
one hundred and ten natives of Italy,
chiefly day laborers. They were of
the age and kind often associated by
ignorant Americans with Sunday de-
bauchery and stabbing affrays. But
here, in Wards place." they were
studying American history and learn
ing to speak the English language.
They were too busy earning wages
to study during the week; but for
the social center open on Sunday
afternoons they, too, might have to
seek fellowship in some villainous
back room, at the price of liquor and
disorder.
In another room was an assembly
of young shop girls, mostly Jewesses.
They had just been through a drill
in the gymnasium, and, in their neat
gym" clothing, we're listening to a
lecture by the gifted wife of uni
versity professor AS they gracefully
from the floor of the assem-
bly, room, used as a gymnasium, into
the lecture room, sixty matrons,
mostly mothers of families, took their
place and underwent drilling in phys
ical culture. In another part of the
school building was well-filled read
ing room, from which books could