New-York tribune., 1921-10-12
Pupils Forced
To Be Pawns i'm
HyIanCanapaign
Parents Week Called PO-
lilical Propaganda Where
Youngsters Are Sufferers
b> Losses in Education
Display Plan Unmasked
Pascants and Dances, Which
Rob Study Periods. Re-
garded as Bid for Votes

Parents Week IS the newest form
Of political propaganda. With the
mothers and grandmothcrs Of school
onildren rs voters for the first time in q
city election, the school authorities
devised the plan OF "Parents' Week" at
tho beginning of the fall campaign,
When schools should be cleaned up
pupils drilled in pageants and dances
calculated TO flattcr tho parents, and in
general make grand display before
election.
Any one who knows anything about
schools st all knows that the first few
weeks of tho fall term are the most
important ones, when there is the least
time for dancing and pageants,' said a
teacher last night. Fall is the time
when we have our hands full with or
eanlzation, classification, helping the
children with their difficult new tasks
re time for extras is in the spring
but this wear the extras have come
trst. Children all over the city have
been practicing tor pageants all the
fall; school time has been taken for
special marching aud singing, drilling
swing tho election for those higher
up.
Preparing for Pageant
To the visitor who appeared at the
door of her classroom yesterday, the
ether teacher said:
ou cannot sec much of our class
work. You see we are getting ready
Tor the pageant. It takes more time TO
prepare anything of this sort early in
ne term. for the children are not used
% working together as they will be
later when they have been in classes
together for two or three months"
In another school teacher said:
You see our complicated double ses-
SION was so difficult TO arrange, owing
to the different classes which we have
10 handle, that IT was really a month
before we were adjusted. Then came
the getting ready for the pageant and
the different entertainments and we
have really done little else this term
but these two things-get settled ana
get ready for the show.
Il do not regard this as in any sense
an illustration of what the children
can dot simply shows wla. YOU can
DO with them when you give up every
thlAg else to do it, A pageant such as
We ere planning non given at the end
OF term would have some real mean
'ng. and it could be given with half
he work.
Nevertheless the pageants are to be
given. As one teacher remarked: "r
did rot plan 1.-THE order came from
higher up and the Invitations we're
sent out
Another Breakdown Barred
One of the teachers called attention
. another breakdown in the school
Systemthat OF truant officers. In this
dlStrlct the number Of officers assigned
to take care OF the problem have not
been increased with the continually
increasing number of children in the
neighbo rhoods, so that many of the
children are unchecked as to attend
nee. The double session which pre-
Valls practically all over the district
makes it impossible for the few Of
GERS on duty to know when the chill
dren should be in school and when It
S the correct thing for them to be
or the street. In this way Juvenile
delinquency i increased, much to the
distress Of the teachers and the moth
ers rs well TIE failure to ass g.
enough truant officers to take care Of
This situation IS but another instance
OF the neglect OF the schools by the
city administration.
knowledge that their children are
on the streets brings many mothers 10
the school buildings in vain effort
70 dave teacher" pay more attention
70 Johnnie or Rosa. They stand be
wlidered often inarticulate, but in
cressingly bewildered. as they watch
the masses of children swarming
through the Fairgrounds.
There are so many to play" cried
mother yesterday. uho watched 4
ring OF little folks which reached
clear around the yard and was so
large that the magic circle of the old
folk game was broken and the chill
dren scampered back and forth at will.
so many chudrenl No wonder they
q 0 rot Learnt"