The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-02-07
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES,

VKTHAT has happened to the epoch-making
w and eagerly awaited report on the teaching
of the social science in the schools which was
prepared by distinguished commission of social
scientists and educators and was due Dec. 81,
1893? Has this report been suppressed because
of its alleged radical nature, rurnor has it?
The teachers and citizens of the nation are en-
titled to know. We can hardly pass over in
silence the disappearance of the most revou-
tionary and significant document in American
education since the days of Horace Mann.
This commission though organized under the
auspices of the American Historical Association,
included persons representing history, geography,
| economics, political science sociology and edu-
cation.
It's members were Charles A. Beard Isaiah
Bowman, Frank w. Ballou, Ada Comstock,
| George S. Counts, Avery O. Craven, Edmund E.
Day. Guy Stanton Ford, Carlton j. H. Hayes
Ernest Horn, Henry Johnson, A. G. Krey, Leon
c. Marshall Charles E. Merriam, Jesse H. New
lon and Jesse F. Steiner
The commission received large appropriations
! from the Carnegie Corporation over a five-year
period 1t is known to have conducted numerous
Investigations some Of which have been pub
lished, and to have appointed a special commit
tee last spring to bring all of its findings to-
gether and to formulate conclusions and recon-
mendatiOnS.
According to we'll authenticated report from
| the campus OF a great middle western university
| this report was prepared and submitted to the
entire membership of the commission at a meet
ing in Chicago last Ocotber At this meeting
the report was discussed at length and in detail,
was approved in general outline and was handed
back to the drafting committee for revision and
final submission to the commission in December
in time for publication on the first of the wear
But in the meantime it seems that powerful
opposition to the report appeared in certain
quarters. Before the December meeting of the
commission, which was eventually held in
Princeton statements were widely circulated that
the document would never be printed At the
Princeton meeting itself, if unofficial accounts
are to be trusted. the commission was split wide
open, several members reversed themselves and
the publication of the report was indefinitely
postponed.
MANY runors are current on at least one
IVA university campus, where the report was
freely passed from hand to hand regarding the
cause of the opposition. Some say that it was
TOO critical OF American life and institutions
others that 1t attacked the apostles of rugged
lndlvlduallSm others that it tended to indorse
the Roosevelt administration; others that it
dealt harshly with education and teacher train
ing practices; others that it damned objective
tests and scales and yet others that il was m
sympathetic toward certain prevailing and highly
respectable tendencies in the field of the social
science.
II these accusations are all true it would not
light OF day. Teachers, even distinguished uni
yerslty professors, are timid by tradition and
fearful of attracting the mdest criticism or I'M
favorable notice. AS a rule, they can be counted
upon for safety and sanity but not for that dar-
ing and invention which may be the only safety
in the long run.
1t is to be hoped, however that this report
Will not be suppressed, that it will be published
at the earliest possible moment, as a minority
II not as majority report The times are cali
ing for the radical reconstruction of social
science teaching in the schools In view of the
type OF opposition aroused, it may well be that
TINS report would supply precisely the kind of
stimulus and guidance needed. At any rate the
american people should be permitted to act as
Judge in the case.
They would doubtless like to have a feu
questions answered Precisely whence did the |
opposition come? Did it come from within the |
commission or from the outside? Could it have
come from powerful financial interests feared nv |
foundations and universities? Or could if have |
come from political enemies of the present ma
tlonal administration?
what chance is there for a government bv
experts II the professors themselves have not
even caught up to the government in vision. de- |
votlon and courage? Mr.. Roosevelt has had the
fortltude to oppose knowledge to tradition If |
is about time the professors caught up with the
procession.