Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-10


president of the United States to
impress upon the American people the fact
that education in this country is in most
backward condition, and to interest citizens
in community efforts to improve it.
1t is easy to prove by statistics that in
this country an education is relatively hard
to get. Perhaps more important is the ques-
ton Of what the kind of education offered
child in the United States is worth after
he gets it. That, however, is debatable
question: while the inadequacy Of our school
facilities is demonstrate in a way that no
one can refute.
The congressional committee which re-
Gently made a study of education in the
United States decided that this country
ranks tenth among the nations in the value
If the education it offers it's citizens. The
percentage of it's citizens who never learn
to write is also much higher than in the
principal European countries. Estimates of
illiteracy are never vcry accurate, but the
United States is generally credited with
about 100000 inhabitants over 10 years
of age who are ilhterate Twenty-eight per
cent of these illiterates are native white
citizens, 20 per cent are foreign-born whites,
and 40 per cent are colored, while per cent
are Orientals.
Germany, England, France, Holland and
Switzerland all have smaller percentages of
illiterates than the United States-or at
least cid have before the war. These coun-
lea, and we are prone to think of them as
less advanced in democracy than we are.
Yet in education, which is the very foun-
dation of every democratic institution, they
all are ahead Of us.
uliterate Immigrants
In eastern and southern Europe the per-
centages of litter ates in the populations of
the various countries are much higher, rang
ing from % per cent in Austria to 80 per
cent in Roumania. It is from these wholly
uneducated countries, and from their most
uneducated classes, hat the United States
is now drawing most of its Immigrant pop
ulation
The percentage OF i1literacy merely re-
fleets the wel1-known fact that there are not
enough schools in the United States. In al
mos. every large city the schools are re-
ported over-crowded every year. We hear of
double shifts and of enormous classes, which
means little or no individual attention for
each pupil. In ost o. our rural districts
schools still keep open only few Ionths In
t., year, and many country children can
reach school only by long, hard walks.
Far more important is the question OF
what kind of an education the child gets
when and If he succeeds in getting to school.
The most striking fact in this connection
is that our school teachers are among the
most poorly paid CT all workers. Plumbers
and bricklayers are plutocrats by COMPARE
son. Even in the great cities, teachers are
much as bright man or woman can make
in business, nor much as gifted person
can make in journalism or tn arts.
When you come to the country districts
and the small towns, school teachers are
paid barely living wage. Hence the educa-
tion of the great mass Of American children
is entrusted for the most part to young girls
VIII want way of e~rning pin money until
a husband can be found.
To realize the seriousness OF the cond1-
ton of education in America, you must get
an adequate conception of what education
might be, and of how much depends upon it,
For literally everything depends upon it. The
hope Of the future is in its schools. Con-
slider any Of the major problems which con-
front the country with care and it will lead
you to, the schools.
Take the problem of the nation al health,
for instance. The draft revealed the fact
that about {. third of the men Of military
age in this country were physically unit. In
| many cases this physical unftness was re-
ported to be due to a lack of knowledge OF
the simple facts of hygiene. In a word many
of these men are physically impaired for life
because they had not been taught in school
rooms those facts about the human body and
it's care which are necessary to the health and
well-being of every civilized individual.
Underfed Children
| Most Of the rest of the unftness was due
| to undernourishment. Many of these young
men had not attained to proper physical de-
! velopment because as children they had
never had enough to eat. This is at the bot