Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1919 — EDUCATIONAL NEED AFTER the WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDUCATIONAL NEED AFTER the WAR

•" IF<? realize that education is now not solely a state matter but a national concern/' —SECRETARY FRANKLIN K. LANE

By ELIZABETH HARRISON.

T the beginning of s *~"* t the war Herbert gp A Wl Hoover performed a ■C jB miracle before our f Ea very eyes when he ca . use( i a single Slice of bread, biid aside every day by each of us, to be transmuted Into shiploads of food for tens of thousands of women and children in the desolated districts of Belgium. We know the story of how the miracle grew. And it all came about because he knew that although legislation lies in the hands of government, administration rests' in the hands of ultimate civic unity. He appealed to the humblest citizen in the farthest corner of our land and showed him that he, too, was a part of the mighty democratic force that was fighting for the freedom of the world. There was something greater still in this marvelous change that was wrought, almost over night, transforming us from a na-

tion that ate, drank and was merry, - with no thought of the morrow, into one that reckoned the cost of. every mouthful, not in terms of money alone, but one which saw the bit of crisp bacon that we banished from our breakfast table change into brawn and muscle in the fighting men at the front, and the extra lump of sugar saved from our morning cup of coffee bring color to dhe pale cheeks “of babies’ 8,000. miles away. A still greater thing that was

wrought, through Mr. Hoover’s power to awaken our Imagination with his "mathematical calculation,” was that he aroused our conscience to the real significance of democracy and its responsibility. We were stirred to our depths by the realization that, as a nation, we could so restrain appetites and curtail material gratifications, and prove to the world the mighty forces which lay within our midst. It has awakened us in many directions. None perhaps is more significant than the realization of the supreme Importance of education for all American citizens if the standard we have set up is to be maintained. The present movement inaugurated by the National Education association for 100,000 new members to be added to its membership is to enlist all citizens who are interested in the future of our national life in jti petition to congress that a distinct department of education shall be established in the president’s cabinet of equal significance with that of labor, agriculture or commerce. "

Mlll:on& of Women Combine. Anothez of the significant movements of the day along this line has been the coming together of a number of women’s national societies in order that they may work more effectively for the improvement and advancerrent of education. They realize as never before that it, and it alone, is the only sure safeguard of the natiort. As a result the school patrons department of the National Education association now represents the combined effort of five large and efficient national associations, namely: The General Federation of Women’i clubs, the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher associations, the Natione! Association of Collegiate Alumnae, the National Council of Jewish Women and the National Association of Southern College Women. This combination now represents a body of more than 5.000,000 earnest, intelligent, efficient women who have for their aim to assist in the present recons! ruction effort to- tnend the gaps which the war revealed as existing in our educational system. It is that these serious changes and vitally needed improvements may be financed sufficiently that this movement is being made toward establishing the edu-

cational department in the president’s cabinet. The next most important object of the school patrons department of the N. E. A. Is to assist ip every way possible in the Americanization of lhe foreign-born population. It is not urged that men who have been warped with prejudice by the tyranny from which they have suffered for generations under foreign governments can be transformed into Americans by a course of study, but these women know, many of them from personal experiences with servants and through social settlement and church mission work, that knowledge of our language is an absolute necessity if these ignorant and bewildered foreigners are to gain even a glimpse into the meaning of the American spirit for. which true democracy calls. Much of this work can be and must be done outside of the school room and this great body of efficient lay-workers stands ready and willing to assist in establishing friendly relations that will help transform the disappointed and oftentimes Indignant foreign laborer into a friendly co-operator. Especially is this needed by the non-English speaking wives of these men, shut away from all outside in-\ fluences as they are, in their own homes. Again, the war draft revealed the fact that over 700,000 white Americans in our country are illiterate — and the illiteracy is far greater among the negroes. Both of these classes are menaces to our nation’s life, and in both spheres the women of comparative leisure have large opportunities for assisting and creating a desire for an education and in helping to point the way of obtaining It The fact that one-half the men drafted from the United States Into the war proved to be physically unfit was another revelation of our need of a better knowledge of the laws of health, and of the Crime which we have been constantly committing by confining children five or six hours a day in. unsanitary buildings. A large national appropriation Is needed for the bettering of these shamefully disastrous conditions. No one knows better than the mothers of our ignd and the women who work in the commercial world that health is a tremendous asset and that lack of health

is a tremendous obstacle on the road to- success. It Is they who must nurtfl the sick and sorrow with the ing far more than the teacher can do. It Is they who should take charge of and Insist upon the maintenance of inspecting physicians and visiting nurses in our schools. Bigger Salaries for Teachers. This cannot be accomplished by the laity alone. The school teachers should be better educated on this vital subject. The school patrons depart* ment must demand that the teachers of the country shall be better trained concerning the laws of hygiene hnd sanitation. But when It is officially stated that the average teacher in the majority of our states receives between SSOO and S6OO annual salary how can we expect or demand that the efficient, well-educated women shall turn from salaries twice ths size of this to teach our .children, 11 we remain indifferent to their welfare? So the agitation for better salaries is part of the work of this new organization. ; Every man and woman should have some definite means of earning a livelihood, for Independence is a necee sary part of true democracy. ■ Therefore these five nation-wide organizations lire interesting themselves in vocational training. But in order that It may not be at the sacrifice of the broader humanities that general culture brings and the beauty and attractiveness which it lends to life they are urging an advance of at least two years in ths compulsory school life of our children] In other words, that the children shall remain in school until sixteen years of age instead of being permitted in their immaturity and ignorance te leave school to accept poor wages and handicapped lives at the age of forth

teen. In some states they are attempting to advance the school age to eighteen; in others the lengthening of the school term Is urged. Why should three months of a child's time be spent in idleness simply because in the early days our rural population needed the help of all hands on the farm during the summer months 1 The temptation In families where financial stresses felt is of course.to ignore the future rights of the child and to put him to work as soon as the law allows. Therefore these community mothers are also urging that compulsory laws shall be more thoroughly carried out, and at the same time are trying to have established a mother’s pension law, by means of which the state that Is hereafter to have the Intelligent or the Ignorant services, of the child shall help to keep him in school by contributing a small sum of money toward the maintenance of the home, and thereby insure greater safety -to oufTihtlonal life and ideas. Another revelation which the recent war has emphasized should, appeal to the heart and judgment of every woman —the segregation of the feebleminded.