Evening Star Newspaper, November 8, 1925, Page 77

ILLUSTRATED FEATURES The Sunday Staf MAGAZINE SECTION FICTION AND HUMOR Part 5—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 8, 1925. School System a Strong Factor in Development of Capital BY MARGARITA SPAULDING GERRY. wrote a distin French traveler of eapital of Turkey Mustapha Ke may possibly is cortainly not @ shed fint ined I Pasha a capital. hut it The words might have heen said by (riots when the squalid | vernment he had first W aghin odiment of the G s establish. And vepancy between tter poverty of strange vicis of that A1, hex ziven his life-bl itowas in like ai preat dreams nd resource the s possession hat the ¢ precio of To us, to whom the right to public edy has seemed an inte- gral part nship, it comes with distinct learn that that| nt had iimed 2s an in- vation e of leader < hod much do in ove Wash re-city apposite had alvesds Washing Education at any rate v by his fifiy pounds vency of that the: Vernon's s vision s instruetion ¢ Mt andria: by £ 0 few wital of the county itional system natioral cen in Washington. by that vision faith that of the Ale o1 poor” in hhoring the hequest te ke the Virginia him and in 179 the first v. framed by Legiskiture ision for free schools rudiments of education principle, even put it into inadequate. In view of this failure, and of a like ahortive attempt to establish free Maryland the same year, it i« noteworthy that a zroup of citizens in the newly made Capital. led by Mavor Brent. did force throuzh the Conneil a measure providing for a schonl svstem supported In part vhich made pro the ocated a great the machinery proved the ape £h -gchonls i hy taxes. It was only n hoth For had mocracy sident’s tural that they should indifference and op. in 1504, the exponent of Jefferson. in the the permanent < the few original sertlers, was composed largely of the families of who had heen brought here to work or slic build ngs gether with hoarding house keepers who had sprung up in re sponse to the need for quarters for congressional ial transients and of the pe smen supplving eir needs none of these clements wonld be apt to furnish lead reform movement rge was the expenditure of yhetoris in support of the great proj- have me! while the gr "homas House, rers ’ I First Larcwsieria dornerstone 1811 WASHINGTON CITY - LOTTERY. BY AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS, SECOND OLASS- BIGHEST PRIZE $10,000. Tobe drawn on Wednesduy. the Gib of June. ect, @ bit humorous when one re members the dingy shabbiness in hich the oratorical stage was set, its ymewhat florid encomiums of Con not untouched by 1t dattery vhich hopes to make ref impossi e. But, jndging from certain d monitions that have come down to the n of the day, sugges! that. though with the y us from vssheet were is A on ngnage may change ressmen do “It should be the disposition of the able citizen,” says this early slator, discourage frivolous and Ifiing applications. You are the chil PRIZES. 2 A 38320 TICKITS. espec 9 DRAWN BALY AL 8, of Congress. not their slaves: but must not expect to be treated as wiled children or exy that vou en *this privileze which would only njurs JFORTUNATELY. Mayor Brent and his councilmen had no intention making “frivolous and trifling ap plications.” Their recommendations Authorized by Congress, were for ele. mentary schools where should be NESY BE BAD AT Successful Office. 8, SOUTH THIRD STREET. Udern From the Cotcy, coxesing e Cagieor 2ot w8 et it povasgs T reatom wiremed to W. O. ISR, Faltimoos o7 Phitatelflin. 1aught those pupils whose parents were unable to pay for their tuition, as well as those whose parents could ¥. The expenses of the former | class were to he met by the proceeds | of a tax on luxuries: the luxurfes being “pleasurable carriages. ordinaries and taverns, retailers of wines, -theatrical entertainments, shoes, billiards, dogs aves, pedlars The cost of constructing sehools Bill advertisi o shingion Public sthoots FE Ferweon Vs o wad Chmvet lottery to a1l was to be met by subscriptions to a school fund. The management of the schools was vested in 13 trustees, | en to be elected by the city cou and six (o be elected by those who seribed the building fund, each | entitled (o as many votes as the cribed $10 | most the names of these| The mental picture suggested of the of public school education|poor little schools, the scarcity of New England are of local|books and of all the appurte erest only, the fact that President | present-day education considers ) -fferson supported his social educa- | essential, rivals the setting of Dick Al theories by a contribution of | ens’ brutal Yorkshire schools. Yet in 002 Roland for the Oliver of |that crude beginning of education in sorge Washington in Alexandria— the new country there have come nd aceepted position as trustee of the |down to later generations, not the cchools is important, even if for no | memory of cruelty, but names pre ciher reason, because of the frony of served with confidence and affection contrast between such high example |some of them youths who—quite in and high hopes and the almost im.[the traditional American manner mediate eclipse of the principle they | taught school to support themselves =0 buovantly proclaimed. while they were getting their fes Of the 181 subscriber sional training, and are now numbered make good their among our great men han half the total The Eastern hecame, after the man §3.782 was ever pald ner in which Capitol Hill has alwayvs treasury’s contribution had a separate social entity, a distinet only $2,250. The sala system. with the minutes of i chief teacher was set at $500, out of | faag meetings gIving us today quaint which he had to pay rent for school|pictures of what seems almost a fo premises, as well as the salary of any |yotten civilization. The Western offer sasistants that might be found neces-ied a stepping stone to two of the best sary and any other incidental ex-|jnown men in our national life, Chief peneeal It is not to he wondered atijystice Chase and Rufus Choate, both of whom taught school there while that, while Richard White was ap. pointed as the first teacher within a | they were studying law in Washing- ton. vear the trustees complained that “no | The one featur {encher possessing the required talent | and character could be induced to| ‘The « e i maipal charge. Almost im. | establish a democratic school system e Prerefore” he teacher wans| that seemed most quixotic was the o Ty Bimnelf ‘ont o 'the | Onl¥ one that did not fail. The plan el of the pay pupils, and $35 a|to_mingle pay puplls Wwith free in O o allowod by the city for each | the same school and without creating SeholAT not Lo exceed 80 in mam. | class distinction: abose all without . tom from | the knowledge among the pupils the; (Mthongh l‘";i“,"j",;’:"{';,‘,fi"&'ffl | selves of which child had his tuition Y e itures. as tompared with | Paid by his parents and which by the ihe 25 or 28 of modern times, this| City, seems to have been actually suc hofusion of expenditures” was com. | cesful. ~Still, the schools. instead of piained of by some stalwart citizens; | increasing with the size of the city, D Third vear, the contribution | decreased, until the amount paid for Yom the city treasury was cut to|them became only 3 per cent $1.500, and the next to $800. | the annual expenditure of the city. In this third vear, to be sure, the ex AR penme of rental was cut out. For the W school houses, the Eastern and ha Western, were built: the first on jiast Capitol street near the Capitol: hre location of the second a matter of deubt, but probably In the present e husiness section of the city | manent population. Congress and the VRoth of thess structures ware small, [ rest of officialdem livinz here one-room buildings, their cost tetaling | protest. in hotels and boarding houses approximately $1,600. The subjects taught were: “Reading, writing, gram mar, arithmet and ‘such other branches of mathematics as may qual ify them for professions, and such other instruction as the board may direct.” 0 times he s While anth of inces s ‘ many failed pledges. Less | subscription of while the city the first vear salary of the trus of this attempt to Poo ber ity PERHAPS there is nothing peculi arl discrediting to the Canital of those days in this. By 1818 Wash ington had but thirteen thousand per under » > of | and for mo longer a period than was absolutely necessary. The generous plan of it foundation was, at this time, a distinct disad vantage: the mile and a half of fright ful road that separated the two centers of Government, the Capitol and the Executive Mansion, rebuilt after its burning by the British as the present White House, as well as other scatter ed areas of “the city of magnificent distances,” making any concreted iction of the permanent popula tion difficult. There was the scarcity of ‘solid citizens’ to be expected in a settlement t trial. Mor Revolutio ver, the gziants of the period were past or passing; those in the governmental saddle who had known the idealism the fierce effort of the Revolutionary period were suffering the inevitable relapse, preoccupied with political ex | pediences: of the permanent residents the better class had still the prejudices of the colonial—or aped them —sending their chilliren to ‘fashionable’ schools: the lower class had neither sufficient idealism nor enough money to make | them self-assertive and there was an almost sullen conviction among the ‘plain people’ that. with greatness | thrust upon them. their task was too much for their resources. Moreover, the fact that Congress could nullify every cherished project often made the most cherished project fruitless But another reason for eclipse of the public school system was to be found in a picturesque new educa tional idea that was brought over from England by the brothers Henry and Robert Ould, a system that seemed to solve the immediate problem s | Well that the inherent pedagogic ervor was not at first apparent. It promised o make not only two scholastic blades of grass grow where one grew before, but a limitless number of blade: | The Lancaster plan, adapted from | what was known as the Madras Sys | tem of Doctor Andrew Bell of Madras, | England. with changes so slight that | a lawsuft resulted. was based on the | conviction that teaching what one has just been taught reinforce? learning. { by emploving pupil-teachers, severa hundred pupils could thus be taught with but one adult superintendent— and one salary. 1t is not wonderful that this sye m should have appealed to an earn et and ientious public in this .C,at 3126 O Street at could never be indus- | and at the same price as one! | P \Vaskxngttow Publi¢ wrn How the Nation's Official City HasBeen Aided in Its Growth by Earnest Eflox"ts to Provide Educational Facilities in Keeping With Tts Importance—Responsc by Congress to Local Needs, and Establishment of System of Division of Expense Which Hinged Upon the Pressing Local Demands—Final Results Beneficial to Whole City of Washington. +ur PUBLIC SCHOOLS Y or wasamaTon S ol Chilclren Greetingd ng Civilc\l/:lfg,v Sol&i%yg ffgm. Wé stepe of Capitol MGHT NCHOOL. He YOUNG MEN THIRD AND FOURTH WARDS NIGHT SCHOOL Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1863.at 7 p. m,, At the Puablic School House. corner of New York Avenue and 6th siveot, This opportunity is altorded by the Corporation of Washington to all who wish to obtain an eduecation Free of Expense. Bovs or men, of any age. now is ¢ yon to abtain what is better than MONEY or PLEASURE. Spend your evenings in gaining knowledze, and you will have canse for happiness all yonr lives, A The School will commence on Wednesday evening. and be continaed during the winter, he chawee for BBl & KETERROW, oo B and Bill advertising first school iw tie Diabrict. country, just as it had run like wild fire over Non-conformist land Even had the Ould brothers not pos sessed the fine enthusiasm that actu ated them. the scheme would probably have made its way It was so well meaning and so ingenious an ides so plausible in its economy of money | and lavishing of service—with a grain | of truth, moreover, since imparting knowledge does imbed it in the mind— that it seemed to perform a miracle. For what but a miracle could enable a community to be both bheneficent and stingy at the same time! In Washington and adjacent George- town—at that time still a separate community—the schools were turned | over to the Ould brothers with the | purpose of reducing the amount to be | paid for tuition. As the p pupi’ were actuall iscriminated ~ again I by having the amount paid by their parents for them increased, while the | amount paid by the trustees for poor children was reduced. the tendency W to substitute, hy degrees, pauper education for the tax-supported, popu- lar schools planned by Mavor Brent and his Council. Both the Eastern and the Western hecame wholly charity |'schools, other methods of paving the small cost having heen substituted for public taxes. The Western, moreover | —the old name given to another build ing—discouraged the attendance of &irls be e “‘of the immoral tendency of mingling a great number of the two sexes together hoth in and out of school. Western Acaldlemy, 17 el o e HE process of pauperization con tinued: School boards offered | prizes, new dresses for girls, new suits | {for bo o such as excel in liter |ature or by good moral conduct merit | the approbation of their teache: It was the duty of the president of the Eastern board to attend school on Sunday morning and lecture pupils on their moral and religious duties, « it was the duty of the teacher | cause the pupils to attend” this en- {livening function. Instead of proper | text book, leaves of ragged volumes were distributed to the pupils for read \!ns: exercises. | One’s imagination is oppressed by | the gray dreariness of it all. | Absurdly symbolic of low estate was the Jefferson Stable School, as it was led when it was not the Western. The first Western having been .lost sight of and a Lancastrian school in somewhat the same section being needed, the city fathers endeavored | to secure the use of a stable that had | once housed the blooded horses on which Democrat had been | often seen through woeful streets. Situated at the | southeast corner of Fourteenth and G streets, and having four walls and a | roof and not being of any especial use, it was evidently predestined for the fortunate school children of the Cap- ital. President Madison, when ap- proached on the subject, refused per-| mission: but his successor, Monroe, consented and what changes were Jefferson so made. There was no chimney: this defect was remedied by the ad- dition of & stove and a sheetiron pipe | whirh ascended from the middle of the former stable through the roof. It was | ter out against the Lancastrian fallacy. considered absolutely necessary were |of things in that a period of retrogres- | but sion should e et ~memee th yud T Streets NW. from 1816 10132C of fact, in this edifice that Henry Ould taught | the early lead the Western Lancastrian having first had a window or so cut | provement. through the walls. | bought a ticket The Lancastrian schools marked | of the Federal City.” ‘Washington public school education. recognized that, principle, the idea was not sound. Every educator now knows that it takes far more pedagogic skfll to teach dawning intelligence to consclously function than it does to guide older pupils. The lost vears of youth cry It is now | by President trict of Columbia. was $40,000. 1838, the means by schools were carried on. But for Again, there seems a sort of fitness backer a lottery! But so it was for the schools of Washington for more than 12 years. The lottery, as a mat- Washington public were ultimately Many excellent schools, S was indorsed by most of | s of our country as an School, | agent for raising funds for public im- | himself | for the improvement | In 1812 the lot- riding magnificently | the destruction of the first dream of | lery was recognized by Congress as | Madison; between 1812 as an educational|and 1836 Congress passed 14 resolu- tions authorizing lotteries for the sup- port of the public schools of the Dis- The fund amassed by these means Put out at interest,at 6 per cent, it furnished, from 1826 to which charity s were being set in motion, | have had for financial | even during these dark ages of the | which to change conditions. | private schools were raising the standard of educs theories of Pest: mold primary and s ientifi established; lectures hezan to 1cat ditions and to turn eyes, first then horrified, upon state of the children the republic 0721, 2 gar educatic societies evailed discuss ed 50, t citiz eritica the n the ( apital Jogeneous Wask ntry town unes, the avera and the sa wert als the [N 1840 a socia was beginnin ingte great f s being moderate Government position for the current The nount of moderate, except sessions of Congress att fingered gentry ment departmen ind the Mari west ter part of the pop Pennsylvanis f greetings droppi of community ife. the the airiy wries imple living when negle Inquiry vere worse thar O 4 populatic Washing school bout 5,500 vere entered in the Only 1y schools school shocked the ¢ Church or ms were the first to act. Since the s on was wors¢ with girls than with boys, v female ch hools™ were opener in churches, aided by left fror the - aft t of the Lancastrian sc t the fear iwrising that tk i national coniplicat tions were stopped movement Reforr this ny The nor however 21d n point of Wasi even whom and James } Counc thr 1 become intere sixth | ams, round service by Congress < did Ed membered sual city mayor and populatior ve cons definiteness « 3 sede the city ernment 1t matter t public upset g in an, ived to to! commissions irrangements. most ity were cons It was ho; neglect counter-ch: the city Congress the or cuttin the Even apart ationul Gov pay taxes on not as re i neither L city throu rdvants have heen situations Under the section of every township iside for maintenance o within that township ine the thirty-second, endowed schos Western carefully nke was set public schools Later laws have ¥ an addition: magnifice tates have been the result of invested funds his source. * The District had henefited b no land grant was the right every other portion of the country. It s hard why it did right to application for this int or equivalent, or why under obligation reasec grants b and thy syste make : for an ngress was not make The claim has been m: again and again. The first appeal w in 1837. In 1852 a processic school children, headed by t | marched to the Capitol and pr a memorial asking this aid. the matter was revived when, during he District’s brief experience as itory, N. P. Chipman, the delegate« to Conaress, made un appeal for jappropriation of the District’s ‘“six teenth.” Whatever technical flaws there may be in the District's “‘case it does raise an academic question as to the validity the action of Cor gress. Also, as to the probable pre ent-day value of one-sixtee area of the present District e mayo FTER this unsuccessful appeal to Congress the agitation increased The reorganization of the schools of n v Baltimore was an additiona goad. Citizens could not relapse int their former somnolence. Out of indignation, the shame, the distress of parents. out ¢ the determinatior of the leaders, grew a coherent move ment Still several years a debate and effort had passed before a cit ordinance was enacted which estal lished a progressive school system on paper at least. It substituted on school board for two: brought orde into the chaos of administration, ar adopted a program of building schoc houses. But when the leaders’ pre posal to pay expenses by laying pecial school tax came before (i council, the little men balked, althoug the per capita was only between fiv and ten dollars. There were years of delay, tal { about means of raising money—wha should be taxed—doubt whether th corporation had power to impose pecial tax. Nine years passed befor a poll-tax was finally levied. Althoug!: | but two new schoolhouses were buil i instead of the seven or eight neede | and funds were niggardly to the 1 | degree, the principle of tax.suppor ed public schools—which could not I« considered charity schools since i citizens paid for them—was finall established by a special schoolt of ten cents on the dollar. And by this measure an incalculat important step was taken in advanc The fiat capital, ordered to make tse a city where there was as yet n normal industrial zrowth to make it (Continued on Fourth Page)