Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-27


ucator as 1t would to the child. out in Indi-
ana a man named william Writ has put to-
gether sort of public school that the chill
dren like and where their energies go into
learning things instead of breaking rules
Is 1t at all remarkable that the vice president
of Girard College. Joseph NJ. Jameson, should
have recommended last week the adoption of
the Writ system here? Or that New York
should have invited Mr.. Writ to remodel a
few of It's school buildings for 1t?
More Schools, Less Taxes
But the most remarkable thing about the
Writ system is that It means better schools
at a smaller cost. Working with a relatively
poor town, which grew from 300 to $4,000 in
eight years, with no advantages in tax APP
praisals educational laws or teaching force,
Mr. Writ has produced what Randolph S.
Bourne writing in the New Republic, calls
probably the most varied and stimulating
course of public instruction in the United
States, as well as an equipment of buildings
which in beauty and convenience are not, 1
think surpassed. All this has been done wth
the lowest tax rate in the county, and Der
capita cost of instruction less than that paid
by the city Of Chicago, with its overcrowded
and poorly equipped school buildings"
Tho economy has been accomplished prnci-
In the Gary system there are two complete
schools, each with it's set of teachers. func-
tloning together In the same building all day
long" While one-half the school is at work
in the classrooms, the other half Is In the
shops and laboratories. All the school Is used
all the time. One old school, for instance,
originally built for $50 children, actually ac-
commodities over 500
Another side of Gary's economy merges
into Its remarkable new system of vocational
teaching Vocational training in the schools
Of Gary means that whatever work is neces-
sary in the way of repairing, conserving,
beautifying or enhancing the facilities, is
done by the school itself. Their shops are
the industrial and manual shops for the
school. The children work IN them with
skilled union workmen who are employed
not primarily as manual training teachers,
but assistants to the building superin-
tendent. Where the ordinary trade
school must have large classes to make the
enterprise pay the Gary vocational work
may be done with the smallest groups. for
the shops are paying for themselves anyway.
Vocational Training at Profit
I'm Gary the domestic science room is
real kitchen in which the daily luncheon is
prepared and served at cost to the teachers
and pupils who desire it." The printing class
supplies all the record blanks for the school.
The botany class cares for the garden and
shrubbery. shoe shop was started in the
Froebel School to relieve the shoeless condi-
tion of many of the children, b..
All this means more than economy, Of
course. 1t means the arousing of new in
terest in the work. The children are making
something concrete, of appreciable value and
Importance.
The same practical method OF teaching is
pushed into other studies. The chemistry
class Is under the direction of the city chem
ist and tests the supplies sent the schools,
the water and milk of the city, and the food
products and candies of the stores With his
pupils cooperation the city chemist has an
enviabe list of successful prosecutions for
pure food law violations.
The history class works in a laboratory full
of maps and charts prepared by the pupils 1t
frames reports on THE city as a healthful
place to live in" while the city fights for a
waterfront park. One class, Mr.. Bourne
found had been working on a comparison of
Greek education with Gary education
The vocational training of Gary is not a
matter of picking out child and deciding
Just what machine he shall tend through the
rest of his life. There is none of that harden
ing OF class lines which often seems SO evil
a thing In vocational work The school turns
out its pupils skilled amateurs with ma
chlnery in general. and proficient in a num-
ber OF fields, equipped to cope with dyna-
mic, rapidly changing Industrial society"
Moreover. the child pretty much chooses
for himself what he will work at The shops
and studies and conservatorles are scattered
among the classrooms. Moving freely about
as the child does. he gets peeks at various
interesting masses of machinery through the
glass DOORS watches older children at work,
and almost before he knows It, finds himself
helper In some class or other. If he finds
the work unattractive he can still change
to something else.
The New Physics
There is also a considerable reform in the
general methods OF teaching. Read for ex-
ample, Mr.. Bournes description OF a physics
class; 81 found dozen l2-year-old girls and
their 9-year-old helpers studying the motor
cycle. With that fine disregard for boundaries
which characterizes Gary education, the hour
began with a spelling lesson OF the names of
the parts and processes of the machine. After
the words were learned, the mechanism was
explained to them as they pored over IT, and
their memory Of vaporization. evaporation,
etc, called into play. The motorcycle was set
going. the girls described its action and tho
lesson was over, as perfect piece of teaching
as l have ever heard. To these physics classes
the ventilating, heating and electric systems
in the schools are all textbooks"
There are a hundred more details TO the
organization that makes Gary's schools a
microcosmos OF the city's life But the hu-
manness of the whole thing-and its success
are summed up in the attitude OF the school
and the children toward each other There
is none of that slightly depressing atmos-