The Wilmington morning star., 1945-09-15
CTS And School
By RICHARD L. sTROUT

BY RICHARD L. STROUT
always come back to Washington i'm
pressed by the superb physical plant of Amer.
lean schools-and of the poor ALLEGATION made
to American teachers.
Everywhere you go you see fine schools.
Often the big high schools dominate the towns.
Thev mark American idealism. They repre-.
sent all that is bet in the American dream:
that aspiration for equality learning, democ.
racv. As to the education inside, well, that
is another matter
To make education successful you must
have good teachers. There's no substitute
would define education as sitting on the other
end of log from the late Dean Briggs OF
Harvard. The importance OF the log is secon.
Diary. Now the fact is you can &c. sooo
teachers, with notable exceptions unless you
accord them the social respect involved in de.
cent pay.
I was depressed in reading an article the
other day in The Saturday Evening Post,
showing that with few exceptions, the G. is
are rejecting the generous educational oppor'
tunities offered by the Government. think
I know one of the reasons. Good teachers IN
good schools can make education thrilling and
inspiring But as many of the G rs renen.
bered public school it was dull, drab, rou'
tine affair. OF course, most returning soldiers
want to get an economic place in society as
fast as they can, but in addition to this they
had never learned that first element of real
education, how exciting education can be-
think there should be more men teachers.
The beautiful little New York valley where
I spent most of my holiday has superb new
consolidated school with buses bringing in
children from miles around. All the little old
red school houses have been boarded up.
There is a great assembly room, basketball
court, home economics, and machinetool
rooms. There's. not another nation on earth
that could boast such equipment. And not
man teacher in the place-except one on
part-time basis
This was also true before the war. My son
went from kindergarten to college without
coming in contact with more than two or
three men in IL years. Yet when was
boy, had Mr.. Piper and Mr.. Mackay, J.
remember, in Public School 1879, and later al
most as many men as women teachers IN
Erasmus Hall High School. The disappearance
of the male from American public schools is
deeply disturbing phenomenon.
Before I am attacked as anti-feminlst, let
me hastily say that l think women teachers
are often better than men. But the pupil needs
both. A critic is no enemy OF mothers be-
cause he insists that fathers also have their
place. And this shortage Of men teachers has
been accumulated by the war; just when many
fathers were away with the colors, TOO.
Suppose a widow is bringing up lively
boy He may 60 through American public
schools as far as college without knowing what
masculine discipline means. Indeed, this is
Just the war experience millions of American
lads have been getting. The determination OF
the American educational institution is large
ly an economic matter. In general. think,
all teachers are disturbingly underpaid just
at present, but in any case an effort should
be made to attract few men to schools
Just so the pupils can learn what they look
like.
These reflections are partly due to the con-
ditions prevailing inside that very CONSOLE
dated school to which I have previously re-
ferred One would have thought conditions
there ideal: equipment is superb, classes are
small. But minor crisis developed last year
over a question of discipline. and in his
tory class of eight, where the pupils declined
to study, the teacher Gan able woman) was
forced to funk seven.
In such matter my sympathy is almost
instinctively with the teacher--I suppose be-
cause l grew up in teachers family. 1t
is also true that one must not read too much
into an isolated case have had women
teachers who would make the LATEST and most
oafist of farm boys sit up, Jingle, and eat
out of their hand with one blaze of the eyes.
am sure in this case the teacher had done
her utmost and the pupils were at fault. But
something is wrong with system where this
is the result.
Maybe my particular solution is the wrong
one offer it quite hurbly in complex
educational issue But of the tragic wastage
of human material, not here alone but over
the Nation, 1 think there is little question.
Christian Science Monitor.