New-York tribune., 1921-10-26
Mothers Urge
Mass Meeting
On School Evils
Parents at p. S. 43, Where
Pupils Study Their Les
sons Standing Up, Say City
Must Be Forced to Act
Rooms and Halls Filthy
Why Fuss Over Transit,
Parks or Harbor if Chill
dren Grow Up Ignorant?

dren OrOW Up Ignorant!
There is growing demand among
the mothers of school children for a
public mass meeting at which they may
demonstrate their indignation at con-
ditions in the public schools.
Mrs. A. Goodwin, Of 545 West 129th
Street, voiced it yesterday.
"Why don't you call a big mass
meeting of the mothers and explain
things to them? They just think they
can't do anything about it, and must
go on and worry and fret all winter.
If they would all get together maybe
something would be done.
II have two boys on part time, ard
life for me is just getting one meal
after another. | don't have time for
anything else. And as for the children,
tremble to think what it means to
them to change their school every few
months, to go to school haphazard, with
no place to sit and no teacher of their
own. Think of a man going to busi-
ness in the haphazard way these chill
dren go to school.
Don't they care anything about the
children at all? Do they think only of
what it costs to put up schools =?
Haven't they given thought to what it
costs not to put them up?"
Says Mothers Should Rebel
Mrs. ]. 7. Bradshaw, 1856 Broadway.
said:
"Thc mothers Of this city ought to
rise up and do something. They ought
to just refuse to let this state of af-
fairs go on any longer"
Mrs. Martha Bayer. Of $40 West
the schools" by the mothers.
II only wish the mothers would do
something" she said. "Take over the
schools, if necessary-at least in the
sense of being interested in them. The
condition couldn't exist if the mothers
OF this town had been wide awake. 1t
is time that they found out that the
schools are part Of their own lob, an
annex of the home.
We need new schools more than
anything else in this town. What good
will it do to build parks, open fac
tories and improve the harbor and the
transit situation if the children are to
be allowed to growup in ignorance
Whining Denounced
"Of course, we all know that a great
many new children have come into the
city, into every district, but what of it
Were the city authorities asleep ?
Didn't they know that the children were
coming in, and that they would have to
be educated and taken care of? What
IT family made no preparation for
children, and just let them come into
the world without any way to take care
OF them, and then whined because the
problem was too big for them? They
would be called into court and told that
1T was their business to take care of
them, and that they had better stop
talking about it and 60 to work. Of
course, more children have come into
the clty-havent we been talking about
what great, wonderful city this is,
and what splendid place it is to come
10 And then when people come, poor,
people who need to be edu-
Gated and given a hand upward, the
city puts up a whine that it can't edu-
cate thenl-there are too many of them!
Any mother of four children could tell
them what folly that is"
All the mothers interviewed yester-
day send their children to Public School
AZ, on West 129th Stret, which is
famous as the schol where the children
study their lessons standing up.
Mrs. Dando, 1851 Broadway, said she
visited the school during Parents
Week, and was shocked at the dirt and
dinginess Of the building.
Couldn't Find a Clean Room
"Thc Red Cross wanted to nut a sne-
clal experiment station into that build
ing and there was not room in il that
they thought fit to use, so thew fixed
one up for mselves-painted it and
cleaned 1T at their own expense.
The children cannot do those thinps.
so the most Of them stay in the dark
rooms. The teachers
liked up the kindergarten room for
themselves, so that the littlest chill
dren might sit in a clean room.
There are so many children in that
school that they have to stand in long
lines waiting for chance to have q
seat: You can go in there at any hour
or the day and see these lines stand
ing there, or the new ones forming as
the others come out. The whole place
is just like beehive all the time.
children coming in or going out. or
moving back and forth to the Yards.
One wonders what time they have to
study, and it isn't much, | know. from
my won boys story
Why Compulsory School Laws?
Mrs. Charlotte Hamill, 5O7 West
10th Street, said:
I'VE need another school right here.
What right has the city to pass com
pulsory education laws and make the
children go to school, and then make
them stand in cold, dark, dirty halls
and asements-anything to keep them
five hours under the roof of the build
ing? Five hours under school roof
is apparently equivalent to five hours
schooling, according to the Hylan idea,
but the mothers don't see it that way."