Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1924-03-01
COMMUNICATED
Mr.. Editor:


Some months ago, by your kind
permission, took occasion to call
the attention Of your readers to what
! ceemed to be a marked tendency
to centralize the sovereign functions
of government in this State and to
substitute Bureaucracy for Local
Self Government, and I mentioned
the Public School system of Mary
land as a fair example Of this baleful
change. |
Up to ten or twelve years ago, edu-
cation was looked upon as matter
for local initiative and local control.
| Tn to that time each section or SUBJ
division of the State had been free
to choose and employ such teachers
and superintendent and to adopt
such curricula as would impress each
local school or high school with such
characteristics as would make it an
effective instrument in meeting the
educational needs of the community
in which it was located and in foster
ing and promoting the highest ideals
an: aspirations Of the people to
whom it administered.
Many Of us thought that it was an
ideal system; for it was not fashioned
by the cunning Of any man, but had
slowly evolved and grown into con-
formity with and fitness for it's sur
rcundings, and just as the concrete
block fills the mould, it was destined,
if undisturbed, to grow until it be-
came the exact supplement of it's en-
vironment.
It is true that it was system diff
ficult to exploit, and the era of ex-
plciters is at hand. Nor did it suit
this age of extravaganza, for the
plan of administration and manage
ment was so local and provincial that
any waste of money might be noticed
and quickly corrected. Nor was it
popular with the politicians and some
of the teachers, for it was not safe
to play politics in matters affecting
school under local control, it was
too easy to trace the offence to the Of
fender. But it is safe to say that
rome Of the advocates Of a change
urged either of the above defects,
but they raised hue and cry that
the schools were not all alike, that
there was no uniform Statewide
system Ia fact which everybody
knew and in which most persons took
special delight), and that the schools
were all woefully in need Of STAN
dardization, for it seems that in A.
merica in this pseudo-progressaNe
Twentieth Century everything must
be standardized, irrespective of
whether or not the particular thing
needs standardizing, if one does not
wish to lag behind the vogue.
So the Legislature took the schools
away from the people and lodged the
power and authority over them in a
Bureau in Baltimore, safe and secure
from popular clamor, and the Bureau
became filled with Chiefs and Sub
ordinates and Subalterns, graded in
in their authority but self-interested,
inter-dependent, inter-locking, and
forming a continuous chain of in
fuence, pressure and authority ex-
tending without break from the desk
Of the Head of the Bureau in Balti-
more to the humblest teacher in a
country school, an invisible machine
extending into every village, hamlet
and crossroads in this State, disburs-
ing $1.0O out Of every $500 levied
upon the taxable property of Mary
land, and armed with all machinery
to anticipate, forestall, color and
prejudice public opinion at the very
sources of thought and initiative.
Admitting that those who run our
public schools are far above the av-
erage of men in probity and trust
wcrthiness, as I believe they are, but
viewing human nature in the light
o. experience and calculating that
the men of the future will average a.
bout like those Of the past, it is i'm
possible to refrain from using the
classic language of Governor William
Allen, Of Ohio, uttered under similar
circumstances, who said: "You might
just as well try to run a Gunpowder
mill in He'll" as to attempt to con-
duct wise, prudent and economical
government under such conditions.
Who does not know that in a period
in which the population has made but
meagre increase the cost Of these
schools has gone up by leaps and
bounds, that the levies burst the
budgets, that the taxpayers groan
under the weight of their ever in
creasing tax bills, until some are