The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-08
ANOTHER USEFOR
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS Prof. Commons Would Make Them Employment Offices EXPLAINS THE PLAN Use of School Houses for Social Gen. ters Has Met With Great Favor
 in Very Many Cities of
 the Country
Ky c. E. STEWART

Washington January 7.-(Special)- )-- Schoolhouses as employment offices is the most recent proposal in the movement for the wider use of the school plant, ac- cording to information received at the United States bureau of education. The use of the schools as social centers' has become familiar through the organ ized movement of the last year or two. and has always been more or less in vogue in the rural districts, and more recently the use of the school buildings as polling places and forums for political discussions has become known through the example of New York and Chicago. Now comes Prof. John R. Commons. member of the Wisconsin industrial com mission, with the proposal to use the schoolhouse as a labor exchange
 The plan to link the social center work with the economic problem of the unem- poyed is urged by Professor Commons in the following terms: There Is need for an organized market for labor If each schoolhouse has a director of it's social center service he could be supplied with blanks from a main employment of flee. workman, by going to the school nearest his home to register, could be immediately connected with the whole or ganized labor market of the state"
 Not the End of Function
 Nor should this mark the end of the schools function in the labor problem according to professor Commons. He be- lieves that the school acting as a branch of the children's department of the em- ployment office, should be helped to re- duce the maladjustment of occupations that Is now crying evil. Records of children's aptitudes should be kept in school. Teachers can best tell what the child is good for; and they should direct the children into the most promising oc equations" It should be said this princi- pie is already partially recognized by public authorities. The vocation bureau of the city of Boston aids in directing the future occupation of children in the schools. In Ohio the truant officer Is re- quired by a recent statute to keep filed a list of the children between the ages of IA and 16 who have received school certifi- cates and desire employment prospective employers are to have access to this list.
 Development of the Idea
  mons proposal emphasizes the rapid de- velopment of the idea wider use of the school plant" since Edward J. Ward in- augurated the social center work at Roch- ester. Kansas City affords a current in stance of the readiness to accept the so- cial center idea. The board of education of that city recently voted to open IT school buildings for neighborhood uses at night. School clubs will be organized for the discussion of civic and economic questions; there will be literary and dra- matic clubs, sewing and campfire clubs; there will be lectures, moving pictures, folk dances, gymnastics and all other neighborhood activities that are necessary to wholesome community life. These things help the town. 1t brings the people closer together, encourages closer social ties and exchanges of ideas and tends to- ward general uplift. No community of people can progress if the people live for themselves alone.
 The use of school buildings as forums for political discussion is now a fact in both Chicago and New York, and has long been a fact in the rural districts Of the south; in New York plan to use the buildings as polling places received strong support from civic organizations, and while educators have no way of ind ing out Just how far the suggestion or schoolhouses as labor exchanges will be adopted, the fact that a proposal like this receives attention proves how wide spread is the sentiment In favor of any and all projects involving wider use Of the school plant for the benefit of the community