The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1917-02-10
AS THE TWIC IS BENT
BY SCOTT NEARING.


BY SCOTT NEARING,
The American schools hold the key
to the future Of the democracy. For
at least eight years the children Of
| the United States are now required to
attend schools which are being more
and more highly organized under the
direction of the boards OF education
| and the school administrative officials.
| From all sides comes the demand for
efficiency and for Standardization"
! The schools are to be made alike
| they are to turn out a definite product.
What are the schools being made
like:
What kind of product are they to
! turn out?
The answer to these questions rests
with the boards of education, the
members of which, through their Of
| fetal position, finally decide questions
of school policy.
The field Of thought must be trans
ferred from the schools to those who
! direct them and we must ask our
selves: "Who are the boards Of edu-
cation?" The facts permit of only
| one answer.
A study of the occupation of men,
bers of boards Of education in 1O4 of
the largest American cities shows
| that Of the 967 school board men,
| bers 766, or more than three-fourths
are business and professional men.
The business men form the largest
single group with 433 of the total
number Of board members Of these
business men. IA were merchants. IS
! were manufacturers, 104 were bank
ers, brokers, real estate and insurance
| men.
| Among the 333 professional men
l18 or more than one-third were doc
tors and dentists; IA or about two
fifths were lawyers. The total num-
Der of teachers among the profess
sional men was 10. These were for
the most part, college professors.
! The board members with miscellan-
eous occupations include about one
fifth of the total board members. OF
these q were retired business men, 48
were clerks and statesmen. SO were
mechanics and wage-earners, and 25
were foremen.
| In the. ordinary American industrial
city, wage-earners and clerks make
up about five-sixths of the total num-
Der of gainfullv occupied persons
Among all Of the members of the
boards of education in these 104 prin-
cipal cities of the United States, four
in each hundred are mechanics and
| five in each hundred are clerks and
| statesmen. Thus more than nine
tentfs of the board members in the
| cities under consideration fall out
side Of the class which makes up five
sixths of :he population. Or. to put
| the matter somewhat differently,
nine-tenths of the school board men,
bers of the large American cities are
selected from one-sixth of the gain
fully occupied population which is
| above the rank of wage-earner or
clerk
Five occupational groups include
| the bulk of board members-1ner-
chants; manufacturers; bankers:
brokers and real estate men; doctors
and 1awyers-558 out Of a total Of
967 board members. Thus more than
three-ff of the total number of
members are engaged in five groups
of business or professional occupa-
tons.
American school board members
| are primarily business and profess
sional men. A very few women oc-
cupy positions on the school boards
| and a comparatively small NUM- Der Of
! men from the subordinate industrial
| positions-wage-ear clerks, fore
men-are found among the board
! members. This type Of board men,
| Der is in the decided minority. The
| vast majority represent directly the
business and professional interests of
| the community.
Reformers have been agitatlng
earnestly for many years. They have
! talked in halls and on street corners.
| Wherever they could find an audience
| they have presented their case-occa-
sionally. Meanwhile in season and
| out of season more than one-half mil
| lion school teachers have been regu-
| larly presenting to some twenty mile
| lion children a course of studies and a
point of view which was decided upon
| by a group of professional and bust
ness men who represent the Well-to-
do part of American society. They
are the owners of property. They
have every reason to be satisfied with
things as they are. They are not revo-
| lutionists, in most cases they are not
| even reformers. Many Of them are
stand -patters Of the most absolute
| type. !.
| The American children go to the
schools The schools are admins
tered by the boards of education. The
boards of education are composed al
most exclusively of business and pro-
fessional people-the beneticiaries of
the present system. Under these cir
cumstances would you expect the
schools to teach liberty, justice and
the love Of truth, or the conservation
of the pronerty values of the COM
munity? Even in America men can
not gather grapes of thorns or figs of