The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 21, 1924, Page 8

N the ossified hierarchy of educa- tionalism, I am the most tragi-comic figure (figurehead, if, you will). My holy functions are clerical, tho not in the religious sense. I don’t know ex- actly what honorable purpose I am sup- posed to serve, I take orders and give them. I mark and remark. I originate nothing. I inspire nobody. I am not conscious of large liberating social aims (tho on appropriate occasions I pretend to be.) I am not even inter- ested in stirring social problems. I pretend to scholarship, but I have none. I am so pre-occupied with the routine of administration and sheer | externals that I find little time for favorite recreations and no time or, disposition for keeping abreast of mod- ern scholarship, I talk virtue day in and day out, but} sadly I confess that I have read very few books on Sociology or Anthro- pology or Economics or Philosophy. Nor have I ever deeply analyzed the j social forces that corrupt our Amer- | ican life. I am a great success with my teach- | ers, for they know even less than I do (tho at first blush such a state- ment will sound like a wild exaggera- tion.) I coax or flatter or wheedle or bully them into respecting me. I snap the whip of marks above their heads, and they learn to dance to my synco- pated music, I exact obedience by punishing and humiliating eccentric originality. Nat- urally. My superiors act no more gen- erously than I do. My teachers fear me. I fear my superiors. And so on up the mount of glory! cad Oh, if a principal could only see his mind’s reflections in the mirror of truth, he would flee to a monastery to expiate his sins of omission. But principals are notoriously afflicted with opthalmia, They can’t see their own manifest shortcomings. Why should they? Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly—to be ignorant! I happen to be a principal with con- science. I know how very little I ac- complish. Whatever originality does flourish in the school system flourishes in spite of the official killjoys. What do we principals know about child na- ture? What do we know about defec- tive children? What do we know about child geniuses? (We usually class them with defectives, too). What do we know of the personal life of our children, of their struggles at home, their poverty, their dreams, their dis- couragements, their thwarted ambi- tions, their daily drudge environ- ments? What do we KNOW? We hold monthly confer€nces so in- tolerably wearisome and pointless that the sermons of superannuated priests seem by contrast inspiring. Why are our conferences so deadening, so stuffy, so sterile? For the simplest of reasons. WE HAVEN’T THE COUR- AGE TO DISCUSS THE VITAL PROBLEMS OF OUR DAY AND GEN- ERATION. A We haven’t the courage to defy our meddling and antiquated superiors whose hostility to the fundamentals of sincere democracy has brought the school system to its present unbeliey- ably low level. If we were men of vision and courage, we would us¢é these conferences as laboratory per- iods for, the frank discussion of every issue that troubles the consciences and minds of the common run of men. Especially would we seek light and wisdonr on the eternally vital subjects of economic quality, the sex life of boys and girls, the deep problems of evil, the history of exploitation, the analysis of class struggles in society, the profound meanings of evolution, the function of revolution in acceler- ating—in short, no theme revelant to the philosophy of amelioration of the common lot would escape our sincere analysis, .The school as the labora- tory of an informal philosophy of everyday life: that strikes me, in sympathy with modern aspiration, as a worthy ideal in democratic educa- tion. A principal might become a pro- moter of social enlightment if he ac- quired insight into our nation’s malad- justments, and bravely took a think- er’s part in the momentous discus- sions of a world in revolutionary fer- ment. As a disillusioned principal, I have to admit that our educational | pals: system does not seriously concern it: self with the problems of the tech- nique of fruitful thinking. Principals are woeful ignoramuses. Their clerkships do not challenge their finer energies to intellectual exertion. Routine, more routine, bluff and show, pretense and hauteur, pol- ished exterior and dismal interior, frigid smiles and rigid good manners, puerile aversion to social responsi- bility, a barren “impartiality” on all living questions (as though life were a series of yeas and nays)—-what can we await from little busybodies parad- ing incognito as principals? Pity the principal; he can’t honestly tell you why he has been promoted to glory and ineptitude. We principals all suffer from mental ankylosis. Suppose I, as a radical educator, disciple of Montessori, exhorted my fellow-principals to adopt as their guiding ideals her two doctrines of complete individuality and of com- plete freedom, what response would they evince? How strange these words would sound to puppet-princi- “Each person manifests in a unique way the mysterious life force and attains the direction given by his individual impulses. That the indi- vidual in maturing his powers and be- coming adapted to social life thru edu- cation develops best in the absence of conventional restrictions on his indi- THE ASS AND THE ELEPHANT A Typical Principal Unbosoms - - viduality.” Principals are so accustomed (thru sheer mental laziness) to taking the school system as it is for granted that they would eschew as impertinent (or, at best, as theoretical and visionary) the central principle of progressive education as enunciated, for example, by William Boyd, the English lecturer on education: “Montessori’s problem is the standing problem of democratic BY A TEACHER dedicated to the inspiring mission of turning out (excellent phrase!) certi- fied parrots, monkeys, dogs, oxen, asses—but never, oh, never, vivacious, original, critical and courageous human beings. Let me ask another thorny ques- tion: Are principals of any assistance to their harassed teachers, or are they usually an intrusion and a hindrance? The query is its own answer. Teach- education, With political institutions|ers who have been in the “system” as like ours, requiring for their success-|long as ten, fifteen, twenty years have ful working an intelligent populace,|confessed that their official superiors, it is intolerable that the children who are to be the citizens of the future should continue to be educated under conditions that tend to discourage ini- tiative and to minimize jindividual ity.” It may sound blasphemous to the orthodox, but it is the plainest truth that a majority of principals have no philosophy of education at all. Why, the very endurance test which is im- posed upon the candidates for the principality has no conceivable rela- tion to the human aspect or implica- tions of education. None whatever. The most astounding dullard (so far as an educational insight into the vexing problems of our social life is concerned) may come out with flying colors as a principal-elect. Another willing routineer has been added to the long procession of machine men eee | By G. D. BAIL. (With apologies to the honest ones if they will come out from among them) Two groups of crooks down in D, C., Both groups as crooked as crooks can be; One group was trained by Baalam’s Ass, The other was in the Elephant’s class, The leader of the latter says unto its mate, Let us rob Uncle Sam of his estate; If we work together in secrecy and stealth, We will both fall heir to a mint of wealth. Yonder in the west under sun and moon, ~ Majestically stands a teapot dome: Its bowels laden with minerals and oil, We'll gold brick Uncle Sam, then divide the spoil. The secretary of the navy being very wise, Was an easy subject to hypnotize. So the trick was turned, a lease was drawn, Between midnight and early dawn. Now says the elephant, we have gotten a lease, ’T will be quite easy the public to fleece; I'll appoint a man to steer the game, The Ass will see that counsel’s retained. Then the Ass began to soliloquize, “I’ve got my enemy by the hip and thigh, I'll wait ’till nineteen and twenty-four, Perhaps I'll learn a little more.” Then I’ll expose the G. O. P.’s. Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw, hee’s. My enemies then will be tramping home, Bidding adieu to the teapot dome. But lo and behold, these crooks fell out, With its trunk the Elephant began to spout; This roiled the Ass, so he spilled the beans, And now the press is chronicling the scenes. Ye*gods, dear people, where are we at? Shall we longer support these old stand pats? It’s six of one, half dozen of ’tother, They stick together like big twin brothers. One group once said, “The public be damned.” They both have managed to grab all the land; They control all the waters, the air they would scoop, It is doubtful if satan would harbor these groups. There are forty-eight states now under the flag, Not one of which either group could bag, lf we all stand together in one common cause, ‘We can save Uncle Sam from the capitalists’ claws. Wake up, good people, open your eyes, You who never have, now use your franchise, Retire these crooks, send all of them home, Then we'll recover what’s stolen, including the dome. The Farmers and Workers have issued a Call, For all the progressives to meet in Saint Paul, And abandon all differences that’s kept us apart, Then all stand together and make a new start. To do this, the Denbys, Dohenys, and Falls, Daughertys, Sinclairs, and Tammany Hall, Wall Street who now all the presidents name, Must all, with their followers, get out of the game, Se ere AMM CRIN DN EA ARN ty one woe either thru lack of ability or lack of time, have been utterly meaningless to them in their pedagogic pursuits, Principals not only do not know what is actually going on in the var- ious classrooms; they are often in- capable of helping a distressed or backward teacher to improve upon his work. In fact, principals function as detectives, rather than as educators. As a rule, principals have very ordin- ary teaching ability. They are fre- quently enough hail fellows, well met, ready with a newspaper joke or a Longfellow poem, fairly good business men, good-naturedly contemptuous of their “inferior” brethren, humorously self-sufficient in their ignorance, hos- tile to radical ideas, content with me- chanical success, self-complacent to the point of boredom. Think how much better it would be for the welfare of education in gen- eral, and for the cultural emancipa- tion of teachers and pupils in partic- ular, if in each school teachers and pupils had a vote in the choice of their Guild Governing Committee, to con- sist of several teachers and several representative students (elected, of course, by the students) duly en- dowed with power to “run” the school. Democratic tendencies in ed- ucation point in that direction. Such a _ radical _ reconstruction would aim.a finely effective blow at the pernicious superior-inferior rela- tionship so full of mischief for the future of democracy in education. Not until strategically situated superiors have been reabsorbed into the com- mon activities of the rank and file can sincere and far-reaching democracy achieve any distinction or potency in our public school system. On with the educational revolution! All power to the Teachers’ Guilds! | A ROYAL BEGGAR | King of Roumania playing to the bankers. TECHNICAL AID-FREIHEIT PICNIC POSTPONED 10 JUNE 28—TAKE NOTE The picnic planned for June 8 by the Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia and by the Freiheit was postponed on account of the bad weather to June 28, at Stickney Park, Lyons, Ill. Those who had tickets for June 8 can use them on June 28. Those who have not yet procured tickets may get them at the Soviet School, 1902 W. Division St.; Rus- sian Coop Restaurant, 1734 W. Division St.; Freiheit office, 1145 Blue Island Ave.; Cheski’s Restau- rant, 3124 W. Roosevelt Road.