Evening star., 1938-09-18
By Herbert H0Llander.

y
- vERYwHERE throughout the
- land at this season the doors
Of thousands Of schoolhouses
- are swinging wide to receive
the more than 10000, 900 junior citi-
gems who will resume the vital task
Of learning to become useful citizens,
good Americans.
In buildings that are, for the most
part. rs different from those Of an
earlier day as the modern skyscraper
Is from the dark and forbidding
structures which lined the Main
streets Of America half a century ago,
the youth of today will pursue studies
which contrast Just as sharply with
those which engaged the energies of
the bright-eyed youngsters of bygone
years.
AS the Nations student millions
now troop back to school many
parent and grandparent will pause
to recall the vast changes which have
occurred In public education in the
last Is, SO. rs years.
None will be more striking and
which will be given-this year more
than ever before-to the teaching
Of the principles of democracy.
. In a world in which relationships
are destroying liberty the American
educational system will devote itself
to the task Of nurturing in the youth
Of this country a new appreciation
and understanding of the priceless
boon of freedom.
Not by the authoritarian method
Of indoctrination will Americas schools
this year endeavor to bulwark the
democratic principle, but by empha-
sizing the vital right Of the individual
to learn, to discuss, to know. This
will be carried on, one learns, not
only in classrooms throughout the
land, but in forums in which Amer
ica's youth will participate.
TIME was when perfunctory recital
L of the familiar II pledge allegiance
to the nag Of the United States Of
America" concluded the average
schools daily gesture in this direction.
Today, with violently anti-democratic
idealogies rampant throughout the
world, that pledge will be taken less
perfunctorily and the school will as
sumo the even greater responsibility
Of preserving Americas basic ideals.
DR.. j. w. Studebaker, commissioner
Of the United States On1ce Of Educa
ton, tells one that there is virtually
no school, public or private, that will
not take part in this effort this year
on the greatest and most intensive
scale ever attempted.
But this new and tremendously
important emphasis upon the inculcat
.tion Of true Americanism is only one
OF many changes which will hold the
interest Of those who will compare
the schools of today with those Of yes
terday.
The physical changes, for example,
are certain to draw their reminiscent
gaze. For the little red schoolhouse," !"
fond memory OF many, is almsot
gone, and to most children who are
returning to classrooms now it seems
as antiquated as the ox-cart.
From a small, ill-ventilated. poorly
equipped one-room structure, the
American school house has developed
into scientifically constructed edifice,
freproof, with airy rooms and wide
corridors, and replete with countless
educational aids. The physical picture
Is one of vast change and tremendous
progress.
MO LESS so Is that revealed in the
curriculum. New methods OF
teaching have given new meaning
even to primary education, enriched
courses Of study are providing broader
horizons and varied outlets for talents
and energies. The school boy and girl
find such subjects in his or her cur
riculum as physics and chemistry,
Household arts, manual training, phy-
sical education, agriculture, aviation,
mechanics. and others, and the parents
and grandparents of the elementary
school child, on looking over todays
text books. find before them q whole
new world of thought.
=, Likewise, this generation of pupils
would discover the tremendous change
which has taken place since dad and
granddad went to school, could they
but be introduced to the musty volumes
over which their progenitors pored
when the world was younger and ia,
less complex.
Back In 1818-and the book was In
use long after that's. A. Temple,
A. M, published "A Concise Introduc-
ton to Practical Arithmetic, In Which
All the Rules That Occur in Common
Business Are Applied to the Federal
Currency, Designed for the Use OF
Schools in the United States Today
Mr.. Temple filled his book with such
little puzzles as this one:
"A man bought = barrel of run
containing 2S gallons for shillings
per gallon; but, by leak in the cask
he lost Z gallons. How must he sci
what was saved per gallon 50 as mo-
to lose?"
Many readers will recall hours o.
vain wrestling with such q problem a.
this:
"The head Of a fish is 8 inches long
The tail is as long as the head ane
half Of the body. The body Is as loni
a. the head and the TAIL Require tn,
length Of the tail"
THE author Of the above was /,
- Prof McCurdy. who wrote &
formidable text book entitled 9TH
Columbia Tutors Assistant. On . Full
Collection Of Rules and Examples TO