Verona High School - Shadows Yearbook (Verona, NJ)

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SHADOWS, June, I934 THE ROGUES GALLERY

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SHADOWS, June, 1934 25 The Education of a Democracy William Allen White The chief business of education must be the preparation of men and women capable of sustaining sane, wholesome vision, for with- out vision the people must perish. We must have a practical educa- tion that will educate a man to his serious reflection which makes good citizenship. Despite the fact that the percentage of illiteracy in Germany, Switzerland, France, and England is less than it is in America, we must have a revision of the school system in such a way that vocational work will hold boys and girls in their teens in the schools. Machines are making everything nowadays. Machines do the work that their fathers did as apprentices. Industrial life de- mands specialists - men and women who can do one thing ex- pertly. Our schools are not sup- plying the demand. They are turn- ing youths from the grades into the streets or factories, and from the high schools into the stores and offices to make what their class- conscious fellows call the poor plutes . Whatever you do or what- ever you become, young men and V women, do not be one of thosei poor plutes -afraid of losing caste by manual workg spending all their scant earnings for a false respectability, place-seeking, un- scrupulous social climbers, their humanity squeezed and soured, scrimping, fretting, covetous, jeal- ous, We are putting more money into our schools to educate you for today's ceremonies than we put into any other public institution. We are unseliish enough, heaven knows, and we mean well. But do not live, so that men may say our college graduates are throwing more than they should to the pale God of a false respectability. We need an education that teaches youth to know shams, that democ- racy may choose between the false and the true. Your problem, young men and women, is to promote social jus- tice. To do that, it is first neces- sary that you shall develop into men and women who know what social justice is, so that you can tell it to the people in any crisisg and, second, we must develop in the masses, an enthusiasm for social justice, so unselfish that they may recognize it in spite of their self-interest, and follow wise leaders at whatever temporary sac- rifice, when the general welfare demands it. We must educate great men worthy of a country, and a country worthy of great leaders. That is no trick problem for examination day, it is the big part of your life's work. No one knows the answer nowg but there is an answer. Democracy is one side of that questiong the answer is on the otherg and, to quote Cap- tain Cuttle, When found make a note of it. Ignorance causes more poverty and disease, and poverty and dis- ease reacting, create ignorance. Poor folks have poor ways-exact- lyg but you may not starve people into thrift. It has been tried for ages, and has failed. A book and a bath and a steady job will make a worthier citizen than all the laws of supply and demand freezing his fingers, breaking his wife, and starving his children. The condi- tions that make many men rich, as we all know, are partly artificial. The same artiiicial conditions make other men poor. One man gets what he does not earn from society, which takes from a thou- sand others the right to get what they earn. Practical education is the foun- dation of democracy. Democracy is an experiment, and the right of the majority to rule is no more in- herent than the right of the mi- nority to rule, and unless the ma- jority represents sane, righteous, unselfish, public sentiment, it has no inherent right. Education is the only safeguard of Democracy. As you enter, you see Monty's column on the left. Those queer thingamajigs over there are El1is's dance steps. What Would Happen If-- Louis Kocon ran the slides rlht? Charles Ellis didn't think he was important? Mr. Johnson ate peanuts? Mr. Dwyer went to the assemblies? Jean Davis took the part of an old woman? Howard Beams was not allowed in the same classroom as Dot Tobin? The White Hornet wasn't a cir- cular? Helen Feeley didn't have them all on a string? Miss Hoornbeek shut the door from the outside herself? Mrs. Prince didn't charge full admis- sion price until an affair is over? Miss Cook kept the Seniors after school as she promised? Ruth Seelick couldn't type plays? Helen Perry was not the star scholar? Everybody got on the honor roll at once? The people in Miss Esher's class really read the books they report- ed on? Eugene Feracane embezzled the school's funds? Irene Elphick didn't carry her pencil case. More- house left the team flat? The Student Council did every- thing they tried to do? Dot Tobin knew the answer? Truex didn't like to be a big boss? Jeannette Anderson knew what she was talking about when she used big words? We put something about the rest of the school here?

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