Equality of Schools Is Basis for Democracy, Are We Ready to Pay for It? Feb. 19, 1919

From The University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, Feb. 19, 1919

Democracy in Schooling

If we are to accept the idea that the bulwark of democracy is to be found in universal education and that the essential tool of universal education is to the public school, we must naturally look to the public school to be itself a democracy. Have we stopped to consider what such a theory implies?

It means, first, that an equal choice to go to school must be given to all children. It means, second, that the terms of school in city and country must be equal. It means, third, that all schools must be equally well equipped with adequate teaching apparatus—not forgetting that the teacher is a very essential part of such equipment. It means, fourth, that an equal chance must be given all children to have their health cared for and their bodies built up. It means, fifth, that no pupil shall be deprived of his chance to grasp these opportunities because some indifferent or ignorant parent commandeers such pupils’ time or energy either to work directly for the parent, or to work for a manufacturing plant and turn the results of such labor over to the parent.

Are We Ready?

Are we ready to guarantee such a democracy in education to the children in our nation? Are we willing to provide these equalities in educational opportunity? Are we prepared to open our pocketbooks and pay the taxes which such a program will and does demand? Has the war for democracy so got into our very life that we can see such a policy in the light of an investment for our children and four our state and nation?

The folks in our cities long ago began to see the light but the country districts are still content to sit in darkness. Yet the city folks have only caught a partial glimpse of the great blazing light of learning. The crowded school room with 40 or more pupils to a teacher is not confined to the one-teacher county school. The narrow and fixed course of study and rigid systems of promotion are found in city as well as in rural systems of education. The same can be said as to insufficient and inefficient supervision, inadequate and dilapidated teaching equipment, neglect of the necessity for regular attendance, failure to care for pupil health, etc., etc.

Are we ready to provide and pay for schools adequate to a democracy?