Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-08-18
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| OMAHA. Aug ito the Editor OF The
| Bee. 1 do not believe people who are ask
ing that school houses be open to public
/ meetings are carefully considering where
! IL viii lead to and what serious conse-
quences will rIut IL their petition Is
granted.
| I think II one of the most serious mis-
! takes that our school board could make IL
/ IL should grant the request The great
mass OF people. believe, are opposed to
II, and Just like many propositions of the
kind those who favor them make them
selves heard, while the great majority Of
people say nothing. believing that such a
mistake will surely not occur. even without
their protest.
! From the beginning Of our government
| until the present in cities and villages It
has not been the school building which has
/ been used for discussion of public ques-
tions. but the town hall. the city hail.
/ court house or other public places, or
places secured for such purposes. The
school building has been constructed. fitted
equipped and seated for children and for
no other purpose and has been set apart
for the use of our children, and II must
! seem strange to those advocating the open
school house that II IL is proper and feas-
! ible, as they claim, that Il has not been so
used in cities and villages in the past, and
that we in Omaha are the first to discover
| this new use.
Among the many serious objections to
using the school house in cities and viii
| lagos for public meetings are:
! First-It is not seated for adults and
there are no rooms suitable for such meet
! ings speak of the grade schools or sub
urban schools, as they are the ones that
would likely be used.
! Second-TO equip them for public meet
ings would involve much needless expense
| in furniture, light, heat and janitor hire.
Third-1f the school house is once open
for public meetings then no distinction can
or will be made as to the nature of the
gathering.
! Fourth-Interminable troubles will ensue
as to conflict Of dates, favoritism in let
ting the house, objections or preferences
to certain gatherings, and the like, and
having once opened the school house to the
| public il is too late to close 1t.
Fifth--As no useless rooms are placed in
| our school houses, meetings must be held
| in class rooms, seated, equipped and beau
| titled for the children, and it gives oppor-
| tunity for careless persons to deface or
mar the room or property or make way
with the books or other property of the
schools.
Sixth-You cannot regulate the use Of
school room if let open TO any and all pub
| lie meetings so that the use will not be at
| times of serious detriment to the building
! or it's contents. Who will be present to
! regulate 1t and to protect a marring OF the
| seats or the walls. or injury to the books
! papers, pens and pencils and other prop
| erty OF the scholars? 1t is idle to talk OF
| regulation.
Seventh-Those who have studied best re-
| suits in education find that along with good
| teachers and good methods go beautiful
| school rooms, neatsand well kept desks and
| furniture books and other equipment, to-
| gether with orderly and systematic sur
| roundings.
can we'll imagine the looks of some Of
| our school rooms the morning after some
| public meetings have been held, and the
| influence it would have on the boys and
girls of our city. The surroundings Of the
| scholars in the school room have much to
| do with their future. 1t is true that We
! own the school houses, but Is it not a suf-
! ficient consideration for our ownership that
our children in the brief years of their
school days be given the very best oppor-
| tunities possible?
have known Of instances where a school
room was used for public meetings and the
next morning the scholars and teachers
found the room in a deplorable condition,
with their books scattered, some of them
gone, the books marked and defaced, the
writing paper and tablets to a great ex-
tent used, and very few lead pencils left.
That may not occur in Omaha, but 1t may
occur, not at the hands of those who would
be members of organizations who would
meet in such rooms, but at the hands Of
those who take advantage of such oppor-
tunities to do wrong, and perhaps to steal.
CITIZEN.