The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-18

The cockpit at Verdun. the great Russian drive against the Austrians. the difficulties of the American troops in Mexico, the political conventions Ut Chicago and St. Louis, sensational murder and divorce cases, and the high standing of the home ball team in the American League, all have their places in the consciousness of the average citizen of Cleveland; but deep down below any of these i'm pressions is a new and surpassinS interest in the public schools.
 Chamber of Commerce members at luncheon gravely discuss the merits and demerits of the school system. Swarthy groups in the smoke-filled back room of John Blatnick's saloon toss back and forth, in their broken jargon, arguments showing less lln- derstanding perhaps but not less in- terest.
 Cleveland Knows its Schools. As little Geraldine and Arthur romp in the nursery, their mother, worried, quavers to her guest over the after noon tea, "I wonder if the school is doing all it should for my little ones"
 Cleveland knows it's schools today as perhaps no other city has ever known them. The schools have been brought close to, all the people, not merely as structures of brick or sto ne or wood, with desk and teachers, re- quiring the purchase of certain text l books each fall, not merely as places where their children are kept out of mischief five hours a day, but as hu- man institutions having a vital rela- tionship to the affairs of daily life with possibilities of serving each and every [ citizen Cleveland not only talks about it's schools; it knows about them, thinks about them, and intends to act about them if action be necessary. Such is one result of the school sur vey of the Cleveland Foundation, ujst completed after more than a year of work and the expenditure of $50;000, | under Allen T. Burns, director of the survey committee of the Clevela nd Foundation, and of Leonard P. Ayres, director of the school survey.
 The first factor in this popular un- derstanding and interest has been the publication of reports not in bulky tonnes, but in twenty-five small vol l umes of pocket size and relatively few pages. These reports are written in | popular style and well illustrated. Reports Presented to Public. A second element in the success of | the survey has been the fact that all reports have been presented at public meetings, where one of the of- fcia1s of the survey made verbal sum- | maries and explanations. These meet | .1x1xx ,,.x | of last winter, following luncheon, in ! the assembly hall of one of the large downtown Cleveland hotels. Invita- l tions were sent specially to social workers, business men and women
 school officials, public officials and others who it was thought would pe interested, while wholesale invita- ton was issued to the general pun- lie. An average attendance of 300 ! in a city foefully beset with luncheon meetings. speaks for the success of this device.
 | The. third and most important ele- ment in the general acceptance of the survey findings, but dependent on the other two, was the remarka- ble publicity given the reports by the newspapers. This publicity was ob- viously/ facilitated by the digestible | form Of the reports and stimulated oy the fact that they were given at pub | lie meetings, but it was motivated chiefly by the evident relationship o1 the survey findings to community needs and by the feeling of editors 1 that the reports were filling a gaI in the community consciousness Ions l vacant.
 In consequence, wFfle it is ar1l, fair to say, as one enthusiast ,tId l that "on several occasions the repor
 on school conditions has backed every, thing else off the front page except | the date and the weather" it is un l deniable that the school survey ha: taken precedence generally over every local happening and has been given 2
 mass of news space and editorial com l ment.
 l. In it's method the survey aimed a
 the needs of the people. It first at 1 tempted to find what the city's chil
 dren required in the way of education
 second, how the schools were meetins
 these needs, and, third. how tn,
 schools might improve their service | Of primary importance is the fact tha the survey kept continually in mint
 the conviction that education shoult train for actual life. In this. it ha. been social rather than scholastic. Recommendations Made. I Out of this principle and methot have sprung the findings that com mercial schools were being useful t. girls rather than to boys; that trad schools should be established in jul
 nior high schools to take the place o
 the old apprentice system in certail
 industries; that the compulsory schoo age for boys should be raised to six
 teen years, the present limit for girls that reading should be largely silen
 rather than aloud, for most knowledg
 is acquired through silent reading that reading should, moreover, star instruction in community affairs am