Educating All the Children of All the People. Bulletin, 1931, No. 11
Author: Kirkham, Francis W.
Date: 1931-00-00
Type: Historical Materials
Subjects: Access to Education,Equal Education,Student Placement,Educational History,High Schools,Role of Education,Standards,College Preparation,Eligibility,Enrollment Trends,School Law,Outcomes of Education,Job Skills,Delinquency,Clubs,Youth Programs,Child Development,Student Needs,School Role,School Districts,State Government,Educational Finance,Costs

The education of all the children of all the people is an ideal that has received nation-wide acceptance in the United States. Historically, the secondary school is an institution preparatory to specific education for leadership. In old-established societies, admission has been conditioned chiefly by the social rank of the pupil. In America, its chief function has been to serve as a sieve through which applicants for training in divinity, law, medicine, engineering, ad the other learned professions need pass. Under both conditions the secondary school was selective in character. Until very recently the administrators of American high schools with few exceptions did not hesitate to exclude those who would not or could not meet standards of selection set up chiefly by universities or standardizing agencies. Within one generation, however, mighty changes have come to pass. In the first decade of the present century the percentage of those of eligible age actually enrolled in high school began to mount, and since the close of the Great War this percentage has gone upward so rapidly that many communities have found it impossible to house adequately all who clamored for entrance. In 1930 over 50 per cent of the boys and girls of high-school age in the United States were actually enrolled in high school, and in the more densely populated areas and areas of high per capita wealth, this percentage was very much higher. It appears that American public opinion now desires the secondary school to minister to all the children of all the people. The program for the education of all the children of all the people, as worked out in Granite district, Utah, is reported in detail in this bulletin. The fundamental educational problems that this district attacked are problems that confront practically every school district, every educator, and every parent: (1) Are laws requiring children up to the age of 18 to be at work or at school practicable?; (2) Can the schools help boys and girls find jobs adapted to their capacities and help them keep the jobs and progress in them?; (3) Can the schools help to reduce juvenile delinquency?; (4) Can the schools coordinate the work of out-of-school agencies; the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Red Cross, the 4-H clubs, and others, each of which asks its quota of a child's time, into one organized force for the intelligent development of each child?; (5) Can the school make itself responsible for knowing, for the purpose of guidance, what every single child in the community between 6 and 18 is doing with his life in school, before school, and after school, and even during summer vacation?; and (6) Can the State and the district do all this without material increase in expenditures and personnel? The program described in this bulletin was carried on in Granite district without material increase in cost because of the simplicity of the plan and the ability of the staff to organize to meet certain phases of the new set-up for the program without overloading. The following are appended: (1) The Boy Scout Survey of October 1928; and (2) Form Cards, etc. (Contains 5 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]