Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-08-02
Democracy In Education
BY ARTHUR f. HOLDER
Labor Member of Federal for Vocational Education

I at public expense is the only effectual
remedy for this and for almost every
other species of injustice.
Resolved, That all other modes of
reform are. compared to this partic-
ular. inefficient and trifing."
From this small beginning our free
public schools have developed. Labor
created the institution, fostered and
protected it in many struggles. Labor
has created public sentin ent in be-
half of compulsory education laws,
free text books. and vocational edu-
cation, but. Notwithstanding these
activities, Labor has neglected the
personal touch and the neighborly
acquaintance which should be main
tanned with the teachers, so the
teachers themselves can continue
their education and develop their
fund of new knowledge necessary for
the preparation and maintenance of
the life of their pupils. Labor should
not forget it's child, neither should
the teachers ignore or forget the po-
tential power of Labor.
Sometimes we blindly boast of our
schools, public and private; richly
endowed colleges and state univer-
stiles: but, we have not yet become
properly enthused with the functions
of either, neither have we yet reached
what the French call 1.-The grand pas
sion for education" and we never will
until we collectively come to the
| a
girl in our land, under the age of IS,
will be compulsorily kept i'll contact
with the school and properly trained
for such a preparation for life as will
be most suitable to his capacity and
disposition.
The old world. as we formerly
knew it passed away in the fatal days
of July, 1914. Up to that time we
were governed more by the dead than
by the living. Dead men inspired
us; dead opinions held us in leash;
dead visions and dead practices stunt
ed our growth We are now living in
new world. The dead past can
never return. We will never again
accept, without critical examination,
old ideals, old practices or old prin-
ciples simply because they were old
and had served the generations which
have passed.
On March 20. of this year, our
chief magistrate, in letter to his
New Jersey friends, wrote:
"a time of grave crisis has come
in our lives. Every sign
of these terrible days of war and rev.
dictionary change, when economic
and social forces are being released
upon the world whose effect no polit-
ical seer dare venture to conjecture,
bids us search our hearts through
and through and make them ready
for the birth of new day-a day,
we hope and believe, of greater OPP
portunity and greater prosperity for
the average mass of struggling men
and women--and of greater SAFETY
and opportunity for our children.
1.-THE men in the trenches who have
been freed from the economic sert-
dom to which some of them had been
accustomed, will, it Is likely return
to their homes with new view and
new Impotence of all mere political
phrases, and will demand real think
ing and sincere action
I venture to say that search as we
might through the pages of history
we should never find any leader of
men uttering such a clarion call to
heed the signs of a new time, new
freedom, new world.
To whom may we suppose he was
speaking-to the few selected repre-
sentatives at Newark? No! He was
speaking to all of our one hundred
million American neighbors and fell
low citizens, and especially to respon-
sible teachers and leaders.
If we heed his words, our homes,
schools, ships. stores, factories, will
become educational centers Of greater
value than ever before. Education
for the mass instead Of Ihe class will
be our motto. The bed rock founda-
lions of society will be made secure
before the superstructure is erected.
Manual toll will be given equal cred
its with brain labor. The hard labo-
rious task is entitled to equal con-
sideration with the pleasant berths
of physical ease. Every active ele-
ment of society will participate with
educators in the administration of all
our schools, especially in the elemen-
tary. secondary and high school
grades In every community and
state, labor men, business and med
ical men will be called into counsel
to encourage and assist in solving the
difficult tasks confronting our loyal
painstaking educators.
Too long, far too long have the
school teachers heen left to their own
resources, public confidence in them
has been carried to foolish extreme.
and as a consequence each element
has suffered. first. because they did
not know each other. and second, be-
cause there has been no common I'M
derstanding among them.
We want to know what Is wrong.
as well as what is right The only
way to find out is to cut out the Cor
dian knots of silence, false respect,
and humble docility.