The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-25
More Scraps Of Paper.

This is the time of real trouble over scraps OF
paper, right here at home. There is nothing inter
| national about it. This trouble is purely and en-
phatically domestic, because it goes into every
home where there boys and girls and specua-
ton as to whether they will get scraps of paper
called "dipomas,' after the school examinations.
There are about 100000 Of these allies in the
public schools; the most virile and vital part of
the population and they have only 100000 teachers
in alliance against them. But the teacher allies
have the advantage in these closing days of the
school year with examinations and the prcpara-
ton OF scraps OF paper. They Can mark high or
low grant withhold the diplomas which certify
satisfactory work and give promotion. They have
the whip hand. 1t is not time OF peace and
serenity. 1t is the regular season of insurgency,
encouragement and rebellion. The boys and girls
have had their way to a certain extent for nine
months. because they were under the direct con-
troll OF the teachers for only six out Of the twenty
four hours in the day, but now they up against
it and realize how completely the minority rules
in this land OF the free and home of the brave.
The only neutras in this terrible struggle are
the parents and they don't count They may SYM
pathize with their children but they have no con-
troll over influence with the teachers They
may say that they pay $4ooooo,ooo year to sup
port these schools, but they have little part in the
selection of teachers or voice in the methods of
education. Few teachers OF this day like that
in the story who. when asked by the trustees
whether he would teach that the world was round
fat promptly answered, "Ill leave that to the
patrons of the school, And yet the neutrals in
this contest might at times like these find some
in md for that o1d f,s h.
toned teacher who bound to please.
But these scraps OF paper now in preparation
whatever JOY or sorrow they bring when distribut-
ed, are just the source of greatest anxiety in
all America. They absorb publis and private at
tcnton to the exclusion OF the war in Europe and
the propagandas OF both Andrew Carnegie and
Gussie Gardner. The whole people think of them
by day and dream OF them at night. There arc
20 600, children in the land nervous as we'll as
anxious as to the outcome, and these school exam
nations will make possibly many rebels against
our educational system as defenders.
Education is not all in the schools, but in daily
future moulders of public opinion it might be just
as we'll to say a word in behalf of the children and
a word OF encouragement to them These scraps
OF paper which now giving them so much
anxiety will not make or mar their lives They
will not secure jobs for the boys or husbands or
incomes for the girls They will remain scraps
of paper to be possibly framed as keep-sakes or
laid away in bureau drawers to be forgotten.
Education is not all in the schools, but in daily
effort and discipline, as the preacher would say.
The rest of us, even neutrals, just now SYM
pathze with and partially agree with, the boys and
girls that school examinations are little more than
the final roundup to give the teachers the upper
hand, restore their selfrespect after nine months
of struggle with superior forces, and demonstrate
that boosted democracy is only cruel oil
garchy in the one season when nature calls loudest
and pictures of the swimming hole, the trout
stream. the boats the balls and bats most persist
emily get between the eyes and the printed page
to make the memory weak the will weaker and
the ambition to secure scrap of paper from the
teacher an empty deusion and snare. So why
should not the majority rule and the neutrals agree
with the majority that scrap of paper is not an
education. These boys and girls who are now a
great army of insurgents will rule some day and
they will remember the tyrants of today, perhaps
not fondly as the efforts and sacrifices of the
teachers deserve, or. as kindly as were the old
fashioned teachers remembered by some of the old
boys and girls who had not the advantage of pro-
fessonal teachers but managed to get along with
out caring whether the earth was round or Fat.
So let's all join in the chorus, "Don't Worry."!