The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1943-10-14
THE EDUCATORS RESPONSIBILITY

We once had an old and wise teacher who said, Sometime:
the newspapers lead; sometimes they must follow" We can say
the same to the hundreds of northeastern Montana teachers
who will be our guests for the next two days.
The convention program shows that educators are thinking
on these lines. They are interested in inter-American affairs
foreign affairs; they will discuss pre-inducton courses, the best
means to fit our youth for service in the armed forces; they
are concerned with vocational guidance, their part in helping
prepare for useful and productive lives the millions who will
some day return from Aeutian foxholes and the plains of
Europe.
Presently our schools and colleges are absorbed in the i'm
mense task of teaching for war. They have done a good job
and they have served to lay stress on something few OF us
seldom realize, how immeasureably important to a democracy
is a free system of public schools. The present task is heavy;
it will not grow lighter in peace. Our Nazi enemies have sue
ceeded in brutaizing a whole generation of youth and they
have done it mainly through the schools. Education can be a
mighty weapon for good or evil
1t is well, we think, that our schools emphasize the increas-
ing part we are going to play in the world. We Americans, and
we do not exclude the newspapers, have had an astounding
ignorance of world conditions; we are paying for that ignorancei
in blood, sweat and tears. We are happy to see that, even in
the elementary grades, our youngsters are discussing such sub
jects - alliances, foreign policy, the Atlantic charter, Russia and
kindred topics. We frankly believe most of them are better
informed than our own generation was at the same age.
But, before we talk of world citizenship, we must talk of
the duties and responsibilities of citizenship at home. We must
have more education for good citizenship; we must have more
knowledge of the functions of our government. Every boy and
girl should have a clear and fundamental conception of it's
basis, of its checks and balances, of its logical direction to free
dom. we must show them how these hbertleS were hard won
so they may combat the subversiveness of those who would
thoughtessly set them aside for the imaginary blessings of
bureaucracy and powerful, centralized government. The country
can be strong only as its citizens are strong. War has taught
the desirabiity of those old copybook virtues of honesty, hard
work, thrift and justice. 3
In education, the same temptations are being offered as in
many other walks of life. A scheme for giving huge grants of
money to our schools is being advocated. "An" that the schools
and the people would be asked to give up in exchange for this
easy coin is their local control and administration. The price is
too great and we, for one, will resist such a scheme unequivo-
cally. So, we think, will most school men. \
What we have been trying to say was better said in a few
words BY Winston Churchill: I'VE must beware of trying to-
build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a v
politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no re-
ward and thrift no privilege" 1