Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-09
THE EDUCATIONAL CRISIS
The Drafting Of the Colleges for War Work
Increases Responsibility Of Public Schools

Inc Drafting oil the Colleges Tor war WORK
Increases Responsibility Of Public Schools
FTHE responsibility of attending to the
= nonmlitary education of the youth
will rest almost entirely upon the public
schools until peace is made.
This is made certain by the order Of
the War Department taking over 400 of
the colleges as military training schools.
Only the smaller institutions are omitted
from the order. The private prepara-
tory schools will continue to supplement
the work of the public schools in giving
instruction in nonmilitary subjects. As
all the youths eighteen years old and
over capable, Of serving in the army or
navy are to be drafted there will be few
Of college age left to attend the colleges
not included in the War Department
plans.
No more serious crisis ever threatened
the educational authorities of the coun-
try. Higher education on the oldfash-
ioned lines is to be virtually abandoned
if we read Alright the indications of the
times. Highly specialized technical edu-
cation is to take its place. The Univer-
sty of Pennsylvania and Temple College,
right here at home, are to become schools
for training officers and subject to the
rules of a military camp. There is to be
no more Greek and Latin. Literature and
art are to be given up. History, save as
it is necessary for the instruction of an
off &c 70 ho Tbo
with the exception of physics and chemis-
try, are to be treated as if they were of
no Importance; and sociology, which has
only recently found place in the courses
of study, is to be forgotten for the time
being. And so on through the long list
of subjects.
All this means that for a year or
more-that is, so long as the war con-
tinues-the work of preparing young
men for civil leadership by training their
minds is to be abandoned by the colleges
in order that conditions may be estab-
lished under which the work can be re-
sumed without danger of interruption
through the ambitions of any nation to
dominate the world.
But the work of education must con-
tinue in order that young men and young
women may be prepared to enter the
colleges when they resume their broader
functions, and also In order that the boys
and girls who will never go beyond the
grammar school or the high school may
be taught what they need to know.
The public schools will find it difficult,
city, which open today, find themselves
short of teachers. Many instructors have
resigned to do war work at better pay.
The men of military age are liable to be
drafted into the army and there is little
disposition to grant them exemption on
the ground that they are engaged in an
essential industry. 1t is assumed that
their places can be filled by men not
fitted for military service or by women.
The Board of Public Education will do
its best to solve the problems forced upon
it by the extraordinary conditions. The
parents who understand the conditions
will be chary of criticism if they find
that their children are crowded into
larger classes than usual and if they
learn that teachers without the equip
ment of those who have gone into other
work are called upon to give instruction.
Such parents will do their utmost to
assist the school authorities and it is
likely that some of them who have had
teaching experience will offer themselves
to the board, that they may thus do their
part in winning the war and in keeping
the educational machinery running
1t must not be allowed to slow up.
The city owes it to the children and to
itself that it continue the training of
those who are to be the leaders in its
public and business life and that no child
who seeks a place in the schools should
be excluded through lack of room, for
part of day at least, or through lack of
teachers.