Denver labor bulletin., 1917-02-17
Denver. Colo. Feb. Il. 1917

Denver, Colo, Feb. II, 1917.
Editor The Denver Labor Bulletin:
Is opportunity a thing that just
happens, or is IT thing that can be
taught7
This question has been raised by
sign recently placed above the door of
the school home on the corner of Thir-
teenth and Welton. The sign reads:
Opportunity Public School," and quite
few Of the unemployed who pass it.
looking for work are wondering what
1t means; until that sign appeared we
thought that opportunity" meant
favorable contingency of any kind
chiefly chance TO work-that ought
to be taken advantage of whenever it
presents itself, but now we see that
IT has some other meaning that we do
not understand. II the word appeared
above the door of an employment
Office on Market street we would have
no trouble in understanding what il
means, for we know that such places
have jobs for sale, but seeing it over
school house door gave us an idea
that it stands for something they
teach inside. We argued about it
long time and finally when we could
reach no agreement on what the sign
means, ! was elected to go into the
teach and how they teach it
Miss Griffith. the principal. and Miss
Miller, her assistant, treated me very
civilly, | was taken thru long cor
ridors, where, thru glass doors,
could see all kinds of young people
and old people Mt work in the different
class rooms. Some of them were run
ming typewriters, some were draught-
ing blue prints, some were learning
how to sell goods in little store they
ing how to be manicurists by trim
have there, and still others were learn
ming each others finger nails. How
ever, in most of the rooms, the stu
dents seemed to be occupied much as
they are in other schools, the only
difference being that in the opportu-
nifty school they have tools as we'll as
books TO work with and the people
who go there are of all sizes, ages,
shapes and colors.
When we got thru looking at them,
Miss Griffith asked me if | was inter
ested in any particular subject. That
gave me n chance to explain to her
that in the opinion of the unemployed
opportunities to work are locked away
from them by the high prices we have
to pay, either directly or indirectly.
for the use of land, especially city
lanu-and L asked her II there was
any class in that school where the
students are taught how natural op-
portunitics can again be opened to all
on equal terms? She didn't seem to
understand exactly what meant, but
she thought l might get some light on
the subject in the class on civics, so
she took me in there
l found that class to be the place
where they teach people what their
civic relations are, that is. how our
lawmakers are elected, how much pay
they get, what they have done. or may
do to us, etc. The day l was there
they were teaching a class of for
eigners how we elect president and
trying to make them understand our
ELECTORAL college so they could answer
any questions that might be asked
when they were taking the examina-
ton for citizenship. l suppose they
think all good citizens should be able
to answer questions of that kind, but
for my part l don't see how they can
expect them to vote intelligently un-
til they get some instruction in econ
omics, and strange to say, that is one
subject that is not taught in the op-
portunity school Mt all. l guess Miss