Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-23

The Public Education and Child Labor
Association of Philadelphia, an exhibitor at
the Philadelphia Today and Tomorrow EN-
position at the Commercial Museum, oath
and Spruce streets, wants the Who and not
the What TO count in the school of tomor-
row, the Individual and not a system. IL
the system interferes with the proper de-
voloprnent of the individual, Of all indi-
yiduals, then the system must go. and good
riddance. too says the association.
In pamphlet being dlstributed-and in
great demand---the association declares that
the ideal school, which is not yet, would
take account of the differences between chill
dren and at the instruction to each indi-
vidually. Instead of trying to make each
child at into rigid system. 1t would
teach. not by rote, but by suggestion. by
demonstration; not by feeding children
scraps Of Information, but by inspiring
them to do their own thinking. 1t would
look ahead to the time when the child must
SO to work or take up household duties,
and II would teach things that would be of
practical use in later life. II would try to
guide the child in the wise choice of vo-
cation. 1t would give heed to conditions
IN the child's home, to its clothing. its
health. its morals. 1t would. in short
strive to help the child in its first struggles
with that greatest of all human tasks
nclf-development."
SCHOOL DAYS OF THE PAST.
>
ef the future did not dumfound you nor
ever frighten you, when the only things
TO worry about were quarter baseballs, get
ting home In time for meals and the most
effective way of playing hockey? If you
do, you also will remember that individual
with long face and sorrowful voice who
eoleunly announced that this program of
yours would ultimately lead you to the
devil or to some other equally undesirable
citizen. He warned you that life was a
In NNFhfO
while the weak pershed miserably. He
painted horrible pictures of you in the days
10 come, laundering on the reefs of failure
elrnply because you did not take advantage
OF school days-because you would go
gang-hunting. cop-baiting, ball-playing, or
maybe. fishing. (The guy wot writes dis
never saw boy who wanted to go fishing,
however. The fishing habit comes later
when the love of blood. thunder and adven-
ture generally has become but a memory +; |
when the protuberant, seemingly never to |
be realised ambition is to dodge a fight |
ones, anyway Fishing is an |
for pacihsts; it does not belong |
70 the category Of a hookey-player's sins, |
especially in crowded city section, where |
fsh are never seen until long after they |
have ceased to possess an interest for |
true sportsman.)
Yet 1t is possible that solemn vIsaged gen. |
tleman did tell you how wicked it was to |
20 fishing when you ought to be in school. |
that skipping school to be a ''rowdy" wasn't |
conducive to a later successful career in |
business. You said nothing; you always |
were polite TO solemn-faced gentlemen, for |
they sort Of interested you as a battling |
human phenomenon: but in your heart you |
didn't care, you didn't give a whoop, con- |
tinantal or what-not- School was a dull |
place where politeness was compulsory, not |
q free will Offering where the teacher, in |
the interests of discipline. never acted |
human; where with voice that was shrill |
and nasal you had to sing My Country,
'Tis Of Thee" before the rest of the room. |
including the girl-bless her memory who |
sat right across from you. That was ''naw- |
ful place" to be in; to be away from II was |
your ambition Then was born the thought |
Of truancy II lived. waxed strong and |
tempting and became your almost daily |
inspiration
But now the days of boyhood's blissful |
ignorance are only a scented memory of |
Bweet illusions and in the fierce competition |
for place on the band wagon you wish you |
Uere better equipped. although you never |
regret having ignored the solemn-faced gen. |
slanan. You know now he was right but |
he didn't know you. He wanted TO warn |
inc boy OF future which the boy "ish-ka-
1ibbleds about The boy didn't even real |
lie he was going TO have q future. But the /
Public Education and Child Labor Associa-
lion Of Pennsylvania knows such a future /
Is ahead OF every boy, rich or poor-the /
poor haven't a monopoly on the need OF ef-
nriency.
The association would make the school /
> place that the boy would rather be I'm /
than out OF II would guard his future /
without his knowing II. 1t would not only
)gfaphy. II would have In Its curricula also /
alusic. motion pictures. debates. play |
grounds. gymnasiums, swimming pools, |
'chool gardens. workshops and excursions |