Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1952-09-04
Education is Key
To American Way
OF Life, NEA Says

the Profession to the Public" re-
leased here today by the National
Education Association, warns that
American enterprise and ingenuity
are not inherited by the children
and youth of the nation but can be
kept alive only by the American
program of public education.
The Report, entitled "The Public
School," is released by its author,
Willard E. Givens, executive secre-
tary of the NEA, as thousands of
public schools throughout the ma
ton prepare to open their doors
for another academic year.
American enterprise and in
genuity are known around the
world" says Secretary Owens.
"They are envied by some, mis-
Interpreted by others, respected by
all. At work in free nation they
have produced the wealthiest and
most powerful nation in the history
of mankind.
These traits must be consciously
cultivated. One of the purposes of
the modern public school is to keep
them vigorously alive. The public
school does not regard the Three
RS as the whole of education. 1t
places great emphasis also upon
those robust qualities of initiative,
self-dependence, and imagination
which have meant so much to the
material success of the American
people,"
Describing the school as a "vital
center of community life," Secre-
tary Owens says, "The public
school upholds for its students those
freedoms which brought their an
cestors to this continent. The school
that subjects it's students to the
yoke, produces citizens who are
willing to wear it."
Calling attention to the attempts
being made today to weaken Ameri-
can idealogy and to destroy Ameri-
can freedoms, Secretary Owens
emphasizes that freedom is more
important today than at any other
time in the nations history.
"Our ability to withstand the
menace of communism may well
depend upon the vigor with which
we demonstrate the vitality of our
belief in our freedoms, and the per-
sistence with which we resist the
encroachments of dictatorship upon
our free public Schools" he adds.
The Report discusses the neces-
sity Of close cooperation between
the home and the public school,
slime has greatly changed the
home and the public school as edu-
cational institutions" it continues.
"The large family home and its
domestic economy in which youth
were prepared for an identical
domestic economy are far behind
us in the stream of history.
Modern life takes the members
of the home to the office and shop
and factory as well as to the field
to earn a living in skills that are
highly specialized. Even large
percentage of the mothers are en-
ployed. The public school has taken
over in some measure many of the
educational activities of the home.
However, parents have not
abdicated their responsibility" the
Report emphasizes. "No school
operates effectively very long with
out a high level of community
understanding, interest and parti-
cipation, which involves not only
parents but other citizens Its
program supplements and rein
forces the educational opportunities
which the home and the community
afford. The public school is not
detached institution The close
relationship of the public school to
home and community is a protection
against its use to promote the in
terests of a powerful party or the
propaganda of a Dictator"
Discussing the unifying effect of
the public school, Secretary Givens
emphasizes that no other institu-
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