PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS SOCIAL CENTERS
Hunt, Caroline L.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS SOCIAL CENTERS How Rochester Has Revived the Spirit of "The Little Red School House" By CAROLINE L. HUNT IAM more interested in what you are doing, and what it stands for, than...
...It is the desire to satisfy this instinct rather than any vicious tendency that causes the places of evil to flourish in our cities...
...That the democratic spirit in which the work began has persisted is shown by the fact that the story of the movement, which has now appeared in book form is told, not by the Board of Education, or by any group of philanthropic citizens but by the League of Civic Clubs, a product of the work itself...
...In young people this instinct for sympathy, for friendship, for intercourse with others, is so imperious that if checked or thwarted it will break all bounds and drive men and women to almost any expedient or any sacrifice to secure the companionship which they crave...
...Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings the centers are open to men and boys, the older people using the gymnasiums while the younger people are holding club meetings and vice versa...
...That the work has been democratic from the beginning is shown by the fact that it had its origin in a committee whose membership included representatives of the Central Trade and Labor Council, the Children's Playground League, the College Women's Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Humane Society, the Labor Lyceum, the Council of Women, the Mother's Club, the Political Equality Club, the Social Settlement Association, and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union...
...You are buttressing the foundations of Democracy...
...The beginning of the work was marked by a mass meeting which was held on November 1, 1907...
...They have succeeded in having certain new suburban districts laid out in such a way as to be convenient for all the people in the city, they have secured the establishment of public comfort stations and have supported public playgrounds...
...He referred to the revival of the spirit of "The Little Red School House" where "folks used to get together for spelldowns, singing schools and festivals" and where "men folks got together and decided things by free honest discussion...
...PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS SOCIAL CENTERS How Rochester Has Revived the Spirit of "The Little Red School House" By CAROLINE L. HUNT IAM more interested in what you are doing, and what it stands for, than in anything else in the world...
...At this meeting, Professor George M. Forbes, President of the Board of Education, after speaking of the "various departments of the municipal service—police and fire departments, the parks and playgrounds and public schools—as means by which people co-operate to secure common benefits," said: "There is a field largely untouched, an interest almost wholly unsatisfied by these provisions, and this rests upon one of the most ingrained instincts in human nature, an instinct upon the satisfaction of which our well-being and happiness depends...
...The revival in Rochester has taken the form of the opening of the public school buildings as social centers...
...And so on to the end, the whole address being a simple, logical, straight forward plea for public recognition of the human need of sociability and for public provision of the means for sociability...
...Rochester Social Centers and Civic Clubs, which is most attractive in appearance and fully illustrated, is a valuable hand-book for all who are interested in school extension work...
...Friday evenings are devoted to lectures or entertainments of general interest...
...The district is "neither over-rich nor poor, but a place where people live who are self-respecting and capable, comfortably well-to-do, the kind of people who make the real strength and brains of our national life...
...This instinct imperiously demands the presence, the sympathy and the co-operation of others, as necessary to our success...
...These clubs have had an important influence on public life...
...This committee which was known as the School Extension Committee persuaded the Board of Education to make an experiment by opening one school building every night in the week during the winter in order that the people of the district "might get their money's worth out of their own property...
...Things we have, and the things we do, are of little value unless shared by others...
...It is because there is no legitimate or wholesome means for satisfying the craving for companionship...
...Solitary confinement is the most cruel and terrible form of punishment...
...Women and girls have the use of the buildings on Monday and Wednesday evenings...
...it is in the "midground of city life," in a neighborhood where the older residents of Rochester mingle with many new citizens who are coming from foreign countries...
...ONE important outcome of the movement has been the establishment of civic clubs, seventeen in number, for men, women and children, the clubs for young people being known by such names as "The Coming Civic Club," "The Future Civic Club...
...This school is not in what we are pleased to call "the slums...
...Public School Becomes Social Center THE building selected for the experiment was Public School Number 14...
...I mean the social instinct...
...The program adopted at the first center has been followed at the two other centers which have since been established...
...This is what Governor Hughes said on April 8th at the banquet of The League of Civic Clubs in Rochester, New York...
...By its timely publication the League has greatly increased and extended the usefulness of Rochester's interesting experiment...
Vol. 1 • June 1909 • No. 23
