The Washington herald., 1921-02-20

VI OuI democracy ana tne cquality OF op-
portunity which is offered, it is embarrass-
ing to know that in our rural districts
where 90 per cent of the children of the
nation are, educated, the teachers as
whole are the most immature and badly
educated of all our teachers. Nor is it
agreeable to know that, because of the
shortage of teachers, some 100000 children
were either denied education OF were
forced to attempt to get it under the most
unfavorable conditions.
In some States, we are told, it is the
policy to spend more money on food and
clothing for prisoners in the jails than on
salaries for rural teachers. Tha. may per-
haps be explained by the fact that in those
particular States the jailS play more con-
spicuous part in the life of the community
than the schools, condition which may be
either cause or an effect:
A year or so ago there was almost a
panic over the fact that men and women
were leaving the teaching profession to en-.
ter business where the rewards were much
greater. In fact, a condition existed in the
educational market almost as acute as that
in the domestic servant market.
Now that we are experiencing a period of
industrial depression, it is possible that
some of those who abandoned the instruc-
ton OF the young for employment in fac
tories, may be forced to return to their
former occupation. Whether unemploy-
ment in industry will solve the problem Of
the present shortage of teachers remains to
be seen. In any event it does not offer a
permanent solution Unless the pay OF
teachers is considerably increased educa-
ton cannot compete with industry in the
labor market.
The great difficulty with agitation on the
subject of education lies in the fact that
those who would benefit most by improve
ment of our educational system are with
out influence and are politically inarticu-
late People who have received education
themselves, will certainly agree that edu-
cation is a good thing that ought to be
enjoyed by every citizen of this enlightened
land, but in order to get anything done
about it, it seems to be necessary to
demononstrate to the educated citizen that
education for everyone is not only advan-
tageous to the illitcrate, but to the literate
as we'll
This is not an easy thing to demonstrate
effectively, although it is the sort of gen
eralization that is accepted without argu-
ment. Even the bogy Of BoIshevism which
has been frequently raised for various po-
litical purposes, is not very effective as
means OF showing the necessity of an i'm
provement in our educational system.
We are told that perhaps of the Is 5ooo,-
Il Il.
States, over 100000 cannot read or write
the English language. We may even assert
that every one of this 100000 is a poten-
tial Bolshevik and that the children OF
such parents are almost sure to be brought
up on the doctrines of violence and dis
order.
Agitation along that line is effective in
securing public funds for Investigations,
Americanization projects and the like which
are all right as far as they go, but which
do not go very far. Most Of US refuse to
get excited over any proposal to combat an
evil as sensational as Bolshevism by the
improvement of an institution as familiar
as the school,
One of the objects OF the Smith -Towner
bill IS that it will be an infringement of
State rights ia placing control of educa-
tional matters n the hands of centralized
educational administration in. Washington.
AS reported by the House committee if
would seem that there arc provisions of
the bill which meet this objection.
However that may be, it must be ad-
mitted that the present system is not
functioning as efficiently as it should in
many States and if these STATS on their
own initiative do not or cannot solve the
problem, it may be advisable to supplement
their efforts by Federal aid.