Evening star., 1937-09-12
School System Must Teach
How to Liue "UsefuI Life''
Education Board Head
Describes Policy in
District Schools.
BY MRS. HENRY GRATTANDOYLE,

BY MRS. HENRY GRATTAN DOYLE,
President, D. C. Board OF Education.
AS the school year opens it is
fitting that we who are the citizens
and taxpayers of the city of Wash
ington contemplate what it is that
we expect the schools to do, both for
our children and for the community
of the present and of the future. At
this time of the year We should eval-
uate the services that the schools are
rendering to our children. We should
also think of the schools in the larger
aspect of services to the community
at large.
A public school system should have
as its objective the preparation of
the young people entrusted to its care
for useful, moral and happy life.
To prepare them for useful life it is
necessary to give them not only the
fundamentals of education but, in so
far as resources permit, preparation
for earning a living. In considering
what We mean by the words useful
life" we are brought face to face with
the problem that the compulsory edu-
cation law presents to the public
school system. The compulsory edu-
cation law makes it obligatory to pro-
vide education for children until they
have completed the eighth grade, or
if they are not employed-until they
are l6 years old. Obviously, all chill
dren can OF benefit from the same
type Of education Under the COM
pulsory education law, therefore, it is
necessary to provide educational IA
cilities for the handicapped child, the
slow child, the normal child and the
exceptionally bright child. Under the
perfect set-up We should be able to
find out both the limitations and the
possibilities of every child and provide
a presentation of academic or vo-
cational education, or a combination
of both, for all of Them but such a
set-up would cost great deal of
money and is not possible here in the
District of Columbia at the present
time.
Glasses for Handicapped.
Let us first consider what we are
doing for the handicapped child. In
addition to classes for children with
defective vision or speech we operate
for the crippled children two schools
which have been housed in buildings
which the District fire marshal has
now declared unfit for occupancy for
that purpose. These buildings were
not considered the type of school
building that was best when the
schools were established in 1929, and
now, faced with the fire marshal's
! decision, the school officers will have
TO ind other quarters for them. In
the five-year building program of the
Board of Education, two new fire.
proof buildings near hospitals, where
care, If necessary, are asked for all
types of handicapped children in
| cluding the crippled, the sight and
cardiac cases and the undernourished.
The skillful education of such children
is necessary not only to make possible
Tor them useful future, but to re-
lieve the community of the probability
OF having some of them as public
charges later on. If they can be
taught to earn a living in a small
way, or if they can be SO trained that
they can, in spite of their handicaps,
take their places with normal children
and later on with normal adults, the
goal Of education for the handicapped
Will have been reached. In any event.
both because Of the compulsory edu-
cation law and because Of the fact