The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-07
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE classic example OF cowardice and in
| i justice long has been considered that of
taking candy from baby"
Our educational system since the depression
| has resorted to an even more contemplate ruse
| in keeping decent and useable textbooks from
| 0he school children of the nation.
The amazing and reprehenSibls facts are set
forth in an excellent article by Stuart Chase in
the New York Herald-Tribune Magazine.
1t will be conceded by almost any person at
all acquainted with education that textbooks
| rank next to teachers in their indispensable
contribution to the learning process.
IN some subjects. indeed, it probably is true
that poor teacher with the very best textbooks
in the field can produce better results than the
best of teachers handicapped by the use of one
of the poorest textbooks available for the sub
ject.
While textbook writing has enormously i'm
proved in the lest generation, the best and
latest textbooks are none too good.
1t is commonly believed that in normal times
textbook costs make up very large part of
educational expenses. Any such impression is
wide of the facts. Even in normal times the
amount which is spent on textbooks is only 2
per cent of total educational costs in the Amer
lean school system
Since the depression hit us there has been
a notorious economy drive in the schools which
has affected adversely every form of educational
service. One might suppose that textbooks,
would have escaped the knife.
NEW YORK CITY cut its textbook budget
1 y Is per cent in the year 1928; Detroit no
less than GA per cent, and Syracuse, under Mayor
Marvin, some 81 per cent Taking the country
as a whole, the appropriation for textbooks was
cut by about 40 per cent for 1928.
There were some honorable exceptions among
thirty-three American cities which actually in
creased their textbook purchases in 1928 Of
these, Nashville, Tenn, had the best record.
Quite apparently, Tennessee education can not
be judged by the Scopes trial alone
Last autumn prominent newspaper man ex-
pressed some concern to me lest the students
would not get textbooks on history this year that
would tell them about the doings of Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
Actually, there are tens of thousands of
American school children whose textbooks on
American history do not even have information
about Theodore Roosevelt-not even his dongs
as a rough rider, to say nothing of his presi-
dencv
Even in the "Keystone State" of Pennsylvania
a teacher wrote Mr.. Chase that the American
history text used in her school was printed in
1896. No historian needs to be told that the
events which have happened since 1896 are more
important in explaining our daily life in 1884
than all the events which took place before that
time.
HISTORY books are not the only ones to suf-
l. fer Thirty-year-old texts in physiology
and zoology are not uncommon. These barely
get in the doctrine of evolution and nothing
about genetics or the all-important glands of
internal secretion. Baltimore has revived text
books which were discarded fifteen or twenty
years ago as obsolete.
Mr.. Chase concludes not unreasonably that
the insides of many school textbooks-at best
none too close to realty-are hardly within hail
ing distance of the world we live in today"
Bad as these outgrown books are from the
educational standpoint, their physical and by
gienic condition is even more deplorable.
Subjected to long usage and rough handling,
many of the books are falling apart and pages
are misplaced or missing altogether. They often
are so dirty as to be repulsive to open and look
at and not infrequently carry enough germs to
start epidemics.
French pathologist found that there are
as many as 1850 bacteria per hundred square
centimeters on the pages of a public library
novel. The condition of our much worn school
texts must be much worse than this At least
one smallpox epidemic has been traced definitely
to the use of infected school books.
Mr.. Wells has written much about the race
between education and catastrophe There will
not be much doubt of the outcome if education
Itself is to be made into a near-catastronhe
through the use of tattered and absurdlv out
of-date text books. Our whole current practice
IN this matter is a glaring example of being
penny wise and pound foolish.