Evening star., 1932-02-25

community, we close them and throw
$4,000 people into the streets. The
plain fact Is that the schools are under
attack because it Is easier to get money
from them than 1t is to correct the
fundamental inequities and antiquities
of local government. Only a people
that had no conception of the place
of education in its national life could
contemplate the ruin Of the next
generation as the best remedy for gov
ernmental insolvency"
Says Freedom Necessary.
DR.. Hutchins argued that public
schools must have the freedom to de-
termine their own ideals and their own
methods of achieving them. The forces
of experiment and progress latent In
them, he said, never can be released II
the public schools are compelled TO
think chiefly of meeting the require
ments imposed upon them by institu-
tions Of higher learning.
"If one thing is clear" the Chicago
University president said, "it Is that
the primary purpose of the high school
is not to prepare students Tor the COL
leges and universities. BY behaving as
though it were, the colleges and univer-
stiles repress the high schools, ana 70
that extent, weaken themselves Dy
weakening the educational system to
which they themselves belong.
THE great task of educational ad-
ministration in America is to take the
organization above off the neck of the
organization below"
La Toilette Speaks.
When Senator La Toilette placed the
burden of training American youth for
changing economic conditions upon the
schools in his speech last night, he told
the superintendents that one longtime
outcome CT the current economic con-
ditionS should be social planning ito
mitigate these swings in the business
cycle SO as to achieve an ever-rising
standard for all the people"
In times like these, Senator La
Toilette declared, I'VE are prone to re-
valuate, and for me, what is not serving
the interests Of society, should 60"
Giving figures on conditions for which
he recently demanded Federal relief
factor in the situation Is bankruptcy
of leadership In finance, industry and
government"
Education must accept partial re-
sponsibility at least" he charged
There never was such necessity fol
leadership The responsibility for de-
veloping the leadership of the future
rests in the hands of the educators"
DR.. David Snedden, professor of edu-
cation at Teachers College, Columbis
University, said last night that Ameri'
can public and private agencies have
reached a kind of splendid adulthood'
and are no longer infant industries"
I'VE spend more dollars on public
schools, we have more Of our youth II
high schools and colleges" he said
than all the rest of the world together
We have higher limits of compulsory
school attendance, we have more COM
modious school buildings for our youth
than have any other people. Quantita'
lively, we have gone far. But there art
many reasons why we should have 6
divine discomfort with the qualities o.
the educationS we offer"
In personal cultures, In civic ideals
In vocational completeness, moralitie.
and conservations, DR.. Snedden de.
clared, the achievements of the school:
seem to fall sadly short OF popular ant
popularized expectations.
BIames Changes.
These seeming deficiencies" he ex
planned, "are certainly in part due t.
the changes rapidly taking place in ou
day. Perhaps our school education
have helped reduce old fashioned Grim
| inality-but in the meantime, automo
f, biles and machine guns and prohibition
! have made new kinds of crime i'm
mensely prcfltable and moderately safe.
The future, however, DR.. Sneddel
concluded, is promising" because fo
the first time in history I'VE have sp.en