The growing trend toward lay participation in education

Abstract

IN TERMS of the span of recorded history, public education has yet to come of age. Education, however, is as old as the race and organized schools date back many centuries. In the earliest days governments took little or no notice of schools. They were created by the initiative and energy of individuals or groups of individuals and controlled by their creators. Transition of the power to control schools from private hands to the state, or agents of the state, has been slow and sometimes painful. The struggle is still under way. Patterns of community participation in education developed when schools were a matter of local and individual responsibility were largely preserved in the early days of public support of education. The local community was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the building, in fact, it was responsible for the building itself. The power to select teachers was exercised locally. The school was visited from time to time by people in the community who frequently examined the children in order to determine what progress the teacher was making. If the teacher needed supplies and equipment, she appealed to her patrons. Local responsibility was firmly entrenched even after public support became substantial and general. Community interest in the school, its problems and needs, was easily maintained under these conditions. Successes of the school were a matter of local pride and shortcomings or failures were a source of local concern. Thus, a good setting existed for making use of the existing potential for good education in the community. In the course of time, as the state assumed more and more active