Evening star., 1935-10-30
'quash Eggplant Pumpkins and Similar Vegetables Hold Spogh
Children Are
Entitled tO|
Good School
Education Should Be
Enriched if Nation
Is to Be Strong.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

| TA<oLLO i "a
l"CHILDREN have a right to good
schools. When you take them
away you rob them of their just due"
1t was the doctor talking, the new
member just appointed to the local
| school board. His was lone voice
shouting in the wilderness.
You can't send out generation in
telligent enough to live in the coming
age by continuing to give them the
kind Of school their grandfathers had.
Why use the OK plows instead of our
own power-driven machines? We are
in another day, another age. Unless
we rear the children to face the future
and bend it to their service this Ma
ton is done. II we don't provide the
right kind OF school, the coming gen.
GRAFTON will have to pay the price of
our stupidity"
"It's all very we'll to talk" broke in
one Of the older members, but be
reasonable. We have by the hardest
kind Of economy for the past five years
managed to cut down expenses. Now
you want to go back to the new
tangled notions we threw out when the
depression was on. You'd put us back
in the poor house"
This is question Of social justice"
the doctor continued. "All over the
country schools have been forced to
cut down expenses. Glasses have been
made smaller SO that teachers might
be dismissed. Activities, shops, play
grounds. art rooms have been cut out.
The result has been hardship for the
children. They have been again re-
duced to passive listening, taking
notes. reciting. listening again. All in
direct opposition to the Well-known
| needs Of children. To them action is
| essential to life. Now they find them
selves suffering inactivity. Childhood
Is smothering, failing under the pres
sure Of lfeleSs schools"
I am cheering for the doctor and
all his kind. Teachers have protested
in vain. Parents have been helpleSsly
lnartlculate in world where he who
shouts the loudest gets the most What
I A'OH' AAVh 4ClI6 VIC hCCp lIllS
cry Of poverty? Have done with it.
1t will not help. II We continue it we
shall soon come upon a poverty more
bitter. more deadly than any that
mas ever overtaken the children of
men. 1t is the better part Of valor to
dig down and spend now. Equip the
schools adequately. and regain the
lost ground.
We have no right to cheat children
out Of the best that life has to offer
purpose and will to carry that pur-
pose through. School is where life
develops. 1t is not merely place for
reciting lessons, taking examinations.
receiving marks and getting a diploma.
School is a place where children live
and grow and have their being 1t is
place where the hungers, the aspira-
tons, the enthusiasms of childhood
are satisfied. 1t is the promise of
everlasting life to those who pass
through its doors.
No people is stronger than its
schools. Enrich the schools and you
strengthen the nation. Weaken the
schools. starve them and you imperil
the nation. No people is stronger than
its thinking community.
I am not convinced that the schools
are getting fair share of what money
there is. and fair share means that
each child shall have what his nature
demands so that he may have his
opportunity to succeed.
(Copyright, 1889