Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-05-13
BY STUART CHASE,

! BY STUART CHASE,
Author of "The Economy OF Alum
dance" "A Nep Deal" "Merico-d
Study OF TlUo Americas" Etc.
| -HE American history used In
- our schools" writes Penn
sylvania teacher, was copy
i righted in 1896. Our read
erS were copyrighted in
1905
Between these two dates came the
major changes with which America
left behind an economy of scarcity,
distinguished by self-supporting agri-
cultural communities, and entered an
economy of abundance, distinguished
by a specialized, high-powered ma
chine technology. This change is in
comparably the most important thing
that has happened to America since
its colonization, yet the children in
the Pennsylvania schools alluded to
will never catch an inkling of it from
their histories and readers. They will
continue trying to ride in a car with
the motor missing.
Inside the School House.
Not long ago noted that American
public school houses seemed to me as
whole the most ambitious and the
finest body of buildings in the Re-
public. About what goes on within
the buildings I expressed a cautious
reservation. This school teachers let
ter makes me even more cautious.
How many children are in an equal
fix? What kind of text books are
they getting generally? We know the
terrible inroads the depression has
made into the income Of teachers;
what has it done to the second most
important element in education
books?
To you and me, books. in school
and out of it, seem relatively Slgnl-
ficant. Perhaps my writer's vanity
makes me exaggerate their signifi-
canoe. Yet obviously books are as
necessary in school houses as stoves
in kitchens Nor am l woBhipper
of mere book learning. I admire the
glorified kindergartens that have been
made of few progressive schools,
with their craft work, laboratories and
rhythmic dancing in cheesecloth. Even
such schools do not dispense with
text books. Far from it. have had
to pay for plenty of them in the
case of my own offspring. School chill
dren, however much they daub in
clay and prance in cheesecloth. still
60 to school to learn, through teach
ers, out of books The harder worked
or worse prepared the teacher, fur
thermore, the more important the
book
The Important Text Book.
am reliably informed that there is
more legislation about text books than
about any other item of public ex-
penditure. Says an organization OF
experts in education: Next to the
teacher employed, the text book is the
most important item of cost in the
conduct of the school system-not in
amount, but in educational impor-
lance" If our childrenS books are
restricted either in quality or in con-
tent, the intelligence and the welfare
of the Nation are obviously going to
suffer.
In normal times the Nation spends
500 a year per child in an attempt
to educate him. Less than 50 goes
for textbooks In my own town of
Redding, Conn, the total school
budget in 1881 was S39,192. of which
S1O.647 went for buses and transpor-
tation and 1921 for school books l
suppose the gasoline bill alone is 10
times as much as the book bill. 1n
fairness it should be pointed out that
much of the transportation is neces-
sary because Redding has no high
school and must move its pupils to
Danbury or Norwalk)
Foot ball coaches are complaining
these days that their raw material has
no legs-that is, good. old-fashioned
legs. The principal use of the lower
eXtremitieS in the motor age is to
keep them curled over an upholstered
seat, or to push an accelerator button.
One wonders if it would not be better
for the children of my town to walk
little more, in return for a few
more books. Even if the books did
them no good, the boys might make
the college foot ball team. ..
A Contemplate Fraction"
By and large, if the public economy
mania should eliminate books alto
gether. leaving the teacher nothing
but blackboard and chalk. the ma
tional educational budget itself only
about one-SiXth of all public spend
ing) would be reduced less than 2 per
cent. Some cities are apparently try
ing to save all of that contemplate
fraction. 1t is reported that as text
books are withdrawn failures increase,
more children are left behind to have
another 500, or 500, spent on them
in the same grade next year. What
ever way one looks at it, it is mis-
taken and perverted economy.
In the last three years book budgets
have been drastically cut in 1913 cities
reporting to the National Education
Association. Meanwhile the school
population Of these same cities has
gone up by 100000. New York
schools cut their book allowance from
81 $50, $50 in 193O-31 to S1.137O12 in
1932-33-a saving of about % per
cent Detroit schools cut theirs nearly
81 per cent in the same year, and
Denver nearly SO per cent, with an
estimate of an additional 6 per cent
for the present year. which would
make the 1933-34 book budget just
one-fourth of what it was three years
ago.
Syracuse, N. Y, Topped more than
81 per cent from her 1930-31 budget
and promised to take a further slash
this year. The latter is the largest
surgical operation reported to the
N. E. A. by a city of more than
100000; but, as Chicago failed to re-
port, Syracuse may not be secure in