The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-12-07

AE son Tn h1S message to the Common Council. meets the school question frankly, along the lines sug- gested in The Times of yesterday. He admits that the schools do not provide as much education as they ought to for the young people of Bridgeport. He does not assume the responsibility for this condition. but places it with the Board of Educa- ton, which, he charges, has never made any adequate report of its fi- nancial condition to the Common Council. "The Chamber of Com merce," he says, lis on the right track"
 The remedies which the mayor proposes, are considerably beyond the program of the Chamber.
 'The school board is a depart
 ment by itself, and should be made amendable to someone"
 "I advocated a change in this board from it's present size to five members to be appointed by the mayor and answerable to him, and I repeat this recommenda- tion."
 house construction, and the ap- pointment of a supervisor of con- struction. %**This would have saved $1OO,0O0 in the item of architects fees alone.
 ''The curriculum should be ar ranged so that all of the educa- tional facilities offered within the walls of each building may be so alternated that the pupils will get full benefit therefrom. This would relieve great deal of con- gestion.
 ''The playground system should he more closely allied with school system 50 that the recrea- tional hours of the children may be properly supervised.
 "A greater degree of vocational training should be placed in our schools"
 With these views of -Iayor Wilson The Times has no disposition to dis agree. The Bridgeport system is not modern and it does not afford to the children either the diversity nor the quantity of education which they ought to have.
 The playgrounds ought to be brought into the school system and made part of it. The school houses ought to be in use twenty-five hun dred hours a year instead of only about nine hundred hours, as at pres- ent.
 Merely to show that Bridgeport's extensive school plant functions but five hours a day, 180 days a year is to prove that the institution is waste fully conducted. This fact alone proves that the lives of the children of Bridgeport are being squandered in so far as a school can accomplish that result.
 Mayor Wilson makes the accusa- ton that the agitation to improve the school system is not sincere. Ii is certainly sincere so far as The Times is concerned, which has beer demanding for long time a more intensive use of the school plant. The Chamber of Commerce is sincere.
 If the mayor can put into effec those changes which he suggests, ht will have fully carried out the sug gestions of the Chamber, Will have gone beyond them in improving tht schools, and will have conferred { benefit upon Bridgeport which future generations will estimate at value.
 It must not be supposed tha Bridgeport is alone in maintaining wasteful school system; Bridgeport i like the majority of cities in tn United States. The system of edu cation inherited from the past Ina gradually dwindled away until ther is very little of it left.
 Education has become separates from life. With the short hours, tn long vacations, and the dilly dallyin system to which the children are sub mitted, it is not strange that so man young people are determined to ge out of school, and that some of ther run away to avoid an education, tn futility of which is apparent t healthy child minds.
 Now is the time to make Bridge port schools the best in the world.
 ARTICLE x IN COURT