Organized Citizen Effort in Behalf of Public Education

Abstract

THE history of public education in America furnishes many interesting examples of how citizen organizations can cooperate with the authorities in furthering public welfare. A study of the public school system shows that at practically every step progress has been made either partly through the assistance of public-spirited citizens or almost entirely through the pressure of public opinion from without. This fact is evident if one considers either the establishment of the first public school or the numerous subsequent developments in the field of public education, such as compulsory attendance, high schools, normal schools, kindergartens, evening schools, trade schools, vacation schools, playgrounds, school gardens, music, drawing, manual training, household arts, physical training, medical inspection, school luncheons, school nurses, visiting teachers, or the great variety of classes for physically and mentally handicapped children and for children of exceptional ability or unusual traits. The array of these latter facilities in New York City, for example, includes such special classes as deaf, crippled, tubercular, speech improvement, sight conservation, cardiopathic, open air, probationary, mentally defective, dull normal mentality, bright normal mentality, superior mentality and neurotic. Practically all of these have been made possible, particularly in the initial stages, by outside assistance, financially and otherwise, from citizen organizations of one type or another.