Milford chronicle., 1919-08-08
ACLEAR STATEMENT
4 AS TO SCHOOL CODE
ITS MEANING AND PURPOSES ARE MADE
CLEAR TO ALL OUR PEOPLE BY
DR.. FRANK K. BACHMAN.
FIVE GREAT IDEAS COVERED
WHICH ARE THE KEYS TO ITS APPAR-
EMILY COMPLEX PROVISIONS, AC-
CORDING TO THE SPEAKER.


A simple and clear-cut statement of
the ideas behind the new Delaware
School Code, and of the advantages
which it is designed to confer upon
the State. was made by DR.. Bachman,
of the General Education Board, be-
fore the public school teachers at the
Delaware College Summer School on
Monday and Tuesday, July 1929. The
sneaker was heard with great inter-
est. as thoroughly acquainted with
educational conditions in Delaware,
DR.. Bachman having been the expert
who conducted the Educational Sur
vev under the direction of the State
Educational Commission, and upon
whose recommendations the present
Code was drawn. The Code as pass
ed underwent some amendments at
the hands of the Assembly, but Dr.
Bachman's remark regarding the law
in its present shape was that mo
State legislature ever passed at one
time so comprehensive a law as the
Delaware legislature did"
The five great ideas behind the
Code. which are the keys to its APP
parently complex provisions, accord
ing to DR.. Bachman, are;
/. That education is a state, not
local or a family function;
2. That opportunities of education
must be equal throughout the State;
3. That the school units permitted
BY the law must be large enough and
rich enough to support a good school;
4. That school boards shall be lay
boards. not professional. in order that
the schools, in their general control,
shall be in the hands Of the people,
not in the hands of the teaching pro-
fession.
;. That teaching is a profession,
with clear-cut professional standards
and deserving a professional reward,
and that consequently special prep
aration is necessary for every kind of
position in the school system.
Discussing these principles as work.
ed out in the Code, DR.. Bachman
pointed out that the first is no longer
questioned, and that education has
come to be recognized as one Of the
first duties of the State along with
public defense and the care of health.
Equal opportunities for all in edu-
cation had been the guiding princi-
pie" said Dr. Bachman, lin two i'm
portant changes which the Code will
bring to pass. The first is the equal
ization of the length of the school
terms. The difference of the length
of the school year in the towns and
in the country made it impossible for
the country boy or girl to have teach
ers as well trained as those in the
towns. The time will come when a
bonus will be paid the rural teacher
in order that the country children may
get their equal rights in education,
Another change in the school law
which was demanded by the principle
of equal rights was that by which,
under the new law, High School op-
portunities are thrown open to all.
Heretofore, with the High Schools
located for the most part in the towns.
only a small proportion of country
children could attend without tuition.
The Code puts the High School within
the reach of every child in the State
and provides for the transportation
which is as important as tuition fees
in affecting his chances for a school
ing.
In laying out new system of school
units the Commission was guided, DR..
Bachman said, by the commonsense,
business principle that "the unit
should be large enough and rich
enough to support a good school"
1T used to be thought" said the
speaker, "that there should be a little
red school house in sight of every
mans door," and the result was that
when the school districts were so
small that not enough taxes could be
raised ito keep the schoolhouse warm,
not to speak of employing a teacher"
The twelve special districts" laid out
in the Code are such as, in the judg-
ment of the Commission, are able to
maintain excellent schools.
The new Code, Dr. Bachman, ex-
planned, provides for school boards
made up exclusively of laymen, in
order to put the general control of
the public schools sQuarely in the
hands of the people, and it also clothes
the sUnuUi authorities with powers
to their responsibility.
Formerly, he said, "the local district
without holding school election
County boards now have adequate
powers. This State has been full of
dummy boards. The thing to do is to !
give them powers and then submit
them at reasonable intervals to the
review of the people"
"Of course it is not proposed" said /
DR.. Bachman, that laymen shall run
the schools. The layman has a fool
idea of running schools" The power .
and responsibility for running the /
system is centralized in highly train (
high priced executive, the State Com
missioner of Education. No one, DR..
Bachman continued, need be alarmed
at this concentration of authority; it .
is the type of thing that has made the
United States industrially, and it will
make the schools efficient.
To show the effect of the Code in
the school system,
DR. as the speaker expressed the idea
in simpler words, Gin putting it be-
yond the reach of those who are not
trained for the work" DR.. Bachman
explained the new scheme of certif-
cation for teachers by which profess
sional standards are to be protected.
The principle of setting up bars before
every educational position, to make
sure of the professional standing of
he occupant, he explained, has been
carried all the way from the humblest
eacher to those who govern the sys-
.em. There is no excuse" said DR..
"for exempting the higher
)ficers of education from the require
nents which the State has sternly
the timid girl in the one
'oom country school to meet" For
to be a County Superinten-
lent one must have graduated from