EDUCATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD p. p. CLAXTON Unltad Stat** CemntUsioner of Education ^ ADDRESS BEFORE THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION AT MILWAUKEE, WIS^ JULY Z, 1919 m y*iS&^ WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919 EDUCATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD p. p. CLAXTON United States Commissioner of Education ADDRESS BEFORE THE NATIONALiEDUCATION ASSOCIATION AT MILWAUKEE, WIS., JULY 2, 1919 WW WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919 s •' **• OCT 3 1919 EDUCATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD. To the distinguished gentlemen who represent here this evening France and Great Britain I bring the greet- ings of a country dedicated to democracy from the be- ginning of its national life, and of a people who for three hundred years have been coming to understand ever more clearly that democracy is impossible without universal education, and that the fostering of right education and the promotion of the means therefor con- stitute the highest function of statesmanship and the first duty of the representatives of a free people, I hope it may be my good fortune to have the opportunity of welcoming these gentlemen to the City of Washington and showing them something of the work of the Bureau of Education and of other agencies through which the Federal Government expresses its interest in education, agencies ail-too numerous, too little related, and too meagerly supported. It is fitting and well that representatives of the coun- tries which before and through the great war have done most for the establishment of democracy in the world and for the preservation of freedom should meet here for the discussion of that education which alone can make democracy safe for the world and for itself, and without which there can be no freedom worthy of the name. Our victory over the forces of autocracy and militarism brings with it great moral responsibility, because on us "lies the task of saving and reconstructing all that is worth saving in civilization." The task of building the 3 4 EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. new world on a surer foundation and in finer and more just proportions is ours. And this is a task for all the civilized and free nations of the world, working intelligently and patiently to- gether. No one of these, working and walking alone, can accomplish much or go far. Our interests are com- mon. We are all henceforth bound up in the sheaf of life together. The private weal of nations is dependent henceforth on the public welfare of the world. For all the higher things of life and for political safety the league of nations does actually now exist and must continue, in spirit at least, whether or not the proposed league may be formally ratified by the Senate of the United States and other bodies possessed of the treaty- making power. When division of labor has been ex- tended to such an extent that international commerce is necessary to the very physical existence of all peoples, and blockades mean starvation ; when airships cross the Atlantic in i6 hours; when the leaves and branches of the trees in Chevy Chase Park in Washington whisper to the ears of the listener messages sent out from Nauen, Germany; and a man in his cellar at Hyattsville, Md., talks through the earth with another in Berlin; when that which is whispered in the closets of anarchy in Russia is proclaimed by an exploding bomb at the front door of the Attorney General of the United States, no country can hope longer to live unto itself. All isola- tions, splendid or otherwise, are gone forevermore. The life currents of every people run through all the world. In an age in which the use of complex labor- saving machinery and the scientific control of unlimited forces in production and transportation and in all the arts of peace and war reduce to a minimum the value of unskilled labor and make ignorance more helpless than ever before, no country may hope to hold its own in the fierce competitions of industry and commerce, or to perform worthily its part in the great cooperative tasks of rehabilitation and reconstruction until all its people have been instructed and trained. EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 5 The world war has served to awaken not only us of the United States but thoughtful people in all countries of the world to the importance of education, and to emphasize the need of making this education democratic and adapting it to the varying conditions and individual requirements of all. Those who have been closer to the war than we have and who have borne a larger share of its burdens have, it appears, been more strongly affected in this respect than we. This is shown by the heroic efforts of the French people to keep open their schools even when the life of the nation was in the doubtful balance, by their success in keeping children in school even within the lines of battle, and by their quick response in redoubled efforts to supply their educational needs as soon as the signing of the armistice gave time for thought of the future. It is shown even more strikingly by the passage of the Education Act of 191 8, the so-called Fisher Bill, through the English Parliament, an act which has attracted much attention and has had widespread influence in this country. The spirit which guided the act through Parliament and made it possible is indicated in a speech by Mr. Fisher, its author, at a conference on new ideals in education in August, 191 7. After recalling the fact that the University of Leyden, which has contributed so much to Holland and to the world, was founded as a memorial to the long and gallant resistance of the starving city to the beleaguering forces of Spain, Mr. Fisher urges "that our memorial of this war should be a great University of England, which should be the means of raising the whole popu- lation of this country to a higher level of learning and culture than has hitherto been possible." Commenting on this act, Dr. I. L. Kandel, for the United States Bureau of Education, says: There is not associated with it primarily the purpose of improv- ing the educational system for furnishing better tools for economic competition at home and abroad. It is animated wholly by the 6 EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. aim of providing the best opportunities for equipping the individual with the physical, moral, and intellectual training that makes for good citizenship, that prepares for the freedom and responsibilities of adult life. This act thus escapes the fundamental weakness of the German system of popular education, now dis- credited, let us hope, forever in this respect, however much there may still be in it of value for us and for other free peoples in this new era of democrac5^ Speaking further of the new interest in popular education in Great Britain, Dr. Kandel says: For the student of education the feature that is of profound significance is the recognition that a sound educational system is the best foundation for the social and political reconstruction that must follow the war, and since the keynote of this recon- struction is the improvement of the position and opportunities of every man and woman as an individual and as a citizen, the educational reform must be considered as a contribution toward the further development of the aspirations of democracy and humanity. It may be noted also, as an indication of the new- conception of education and of its extending borders^ that the Education Act of 191 8 provides for the con- centration of supervision over the activities and welfare of children and adults in the hands of educational authorities — e. g., child labor and employment, labor bureaus, recreation, and health. EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY MUST BE ALL- COMPREHENSIVE. In the United States and elsewhere plans for education for democracy must be all-comprehensive and must be adapted to the conditions and needs of all individuals. We still hold that all men are created equal, with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and equality of opportunity — at least such equality of opportunity as may come through education. To all must be given full and free opportunity for that kind and degree of education, that will develop most perfectly their physical, mental. EDUCATION FOR ESTABUSHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 7 and moral manhood; fit them for the duties and respon- sibilities of democratic citizenship; prepare them for making a good and honest living for themselves and those dependent upon them, and for adding their just part to the common wealth by some form of useful, skillful work, done intelligently and joyously. It must also guarantee to them a maximum of that sweetness and light and of that deepening and widening, refining, and ripening of the human soul which we call culture — a thing quite different from the much-vaunted Kultur which narrowed and hardened, darkened and poisoned and embittered the soul of another people and led them on toward destruction. In our democracy there must be no forgotten man or woman, no lost waif of a child. If we would attain to our best and highest possibilities, no important talent or ability of any child, however rare, the development of which would contribute to its own welfare and happiness or to the happiness and welfare of society, of State, or of the race, must be neglected or left uncultivated. The richness of society, of the State, and of the race, consists not less in variety than in quantity. This is true at least so long as this variety is bound together in unity by the development and cultivation of those common elements of mind and soul which unite on the common plane of humanity and citizenship. Not only must society offer to all full and free oppor- tunity for the kind and degree of education here indi- cated. Society must also see to it that no child at least is deprived of the opportunity offered because of the poverty, the ignorance, the indifference, or the greed of its parents or guardian, or by the narrowness of view or sectarian zeal of any party or church. This last does not mean the suppression of private or parochial schools or undue restriction of their activities. I believe in the public school. I believe in the private or parochial school also. In the Bureau of Education we call them all public. Whatever the source of their support or the form of their control, they are all public in their aim and function of 8 EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. preparing for the duties and responsibilities of life and citizenship in our democracy. The school not under the immediate control of the State may prove the salvation of the school called public against a deadening routine and a narrow and hard formalism. It does mean, how- ever, that society as a whole must assure itself that the schools to which children are permitted to go in lieu of attendance upon the public schools are not lacking or deficient in the things necessary to prepare for citizen- ship and successful living in our American democracy. Society must also provide whatever means may be neces- sary to enable children and their parents who may, through misfortune, be dependent upon them, to live while the children attend school. EDUCATION FOR HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS. Of the elements of education, first in importance is health ; the establishment of good health and right health habits through proper supervision and direction of the diet, the sleep, the recreation, and other activities of children, and such instruction in things pertaining to health as will insure a maximum of health and vitality in the population of the State and the Nation. Like unto this and bound up with it is such physical educa- tion and training as will give to all strength of body and ready control of nerves and muscles, and make them fit for all the duties of peace and war. The chief medical officer of the English Board of Education in a recent report made the following re- marks, which I quote here especially for that part of them which refers directly to this subject : The future and strength of the Nation unquestionably depend upon the vitality of the child, upon his health and development, and upon his education and equipment for citizenship. Great and far-reaching issues have their origin and some of their inspiration in him. Yet in a certain though narrow sense everything depends upon his physique. If that be sound, we have the rock upon which a nation and a race may be built; if that be impaired, we lack that foundation and build on the sand. It would be difficult to overestimate the volume of national inefficiencv, of unfitness Education for establishment of democracy. 9 and suffering, of unnecessary expenditure, and of industrial unrest and unemployment to which this country consents because of its relative failure to rear and to educate a healthy, virile, and well- equipped race of children and young people. There is no invest- ment comparable to this, no national economy so fundamental; there is also no waste so irretrievable as that of a nation which is careless of its rising generation. And the goal is not an industrial machine, a technical workman, a "hand," available merely for the increase of material output, and the acquisition of a wage at the earliest moment, but a human personality, well grown and ready in body and mind, able to work, able to play, a good citizen, the healthy parent of a future generation. If these things be true! as I believe they are, no reconstruction of the State can wisely ignore the claim of the child. The examination of men called for the Army of the United States by the processes of the selective draft showed that something more than one-third were unfit for full military service, and a smaller, but still too large per cent, were unfit for any form of military servdce, at a time when the standards were lowered to meet the emergencies of a great war into which we were preparing to send millions as we had sent into other wars hundreds of thousands. Had Germany, according to her plans and expectations, succeeded against the armies of France and England before we were ready to go in, and if as a result the full strength of her victorious armies had been thrown against us, this depletion of our strength through lack of physical fitness would have been felt severely and might have proved fatal. A recent health survey of one of our great States, which contains almost exactly one-fiftieth of the population of the United States, revealed the fact that, on an average, 500,000 persons, nearly one-fourth of its entire population, are sick all the time. If only half of these, a low estimate, are per- sons of producing age, and if the loss in productive power is only $500 a year, again a low estimate, then the loss to this State in productive power is not less than $125,000,000 a year. Add to this the time of those who must care for the sick, and the loss from weakened energy of those who are accounted well, and the $125,- 129941—19 2 lO EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 000,000 may well be doubled. This is a loss altogether too large for this or any other State when most of it may easily be avoided by proper care, instruction, and train- ing. Multiply the $250,000,000 lost in productive power by this State annually by 50 for the whole Unit&d States, and you have the staggering total of $12,500,000,000, or one-half of the direct cost of the war to the United States. This takes no account of the unnecessary suffering and sorrow of the sick and of their relatives and friends. These are beyond calculation and the power of figures to express. Everything in regard to the public health that is edu- cational and formative belongs to the schools and is a responsibility upon teachers and education officers. Physicians and boards of health may give much assist- ance, and teachers and education officers should seek and have their hearty cooperation, but still the responsi- bility is primarily not theirs but ours. I have dwelt on this matter of health and physical training longer than I otherwise should or would have done, both because of its importance and because until now it has been almost wholly neglected in practice. ILLITERACY AND AMERICANIZATION. May I here merely mention two phases of educational work pressing upon us at this time because of the cos- mopolitan make-up of our population and because of the inefficiency of our school systems in the past and of our long neglect of duty to ourselves and to those who live among us without any adequate preparation for American life and citizenship. I refer, of course, to our four or five millions who have no practical knowledge of our language, and the five or six millions of adult illiterates, foreign and native born. The dangers and weaknesses arising from our neglect of their education have recently been revealed to us as by lightning flash. These dangers and weaknesses and the shame and disgrace of it all remain with us and shall remain until Nation. States, EDUCATION FOR ESTABUSHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 1 1 and local communities give ample opportunity to all to acquire at least the power to speak, read, and write the English language with some degree of ease and fluency, and use at least the compulsion of persuasion and attrac- tiveness of program and methods to induce them to take advantage of the opportunities offered. For the foreign bom there must also be offered in the same way instruction in all those other things some knowledge of which is necessary to intelligent and successful living in America. For the millions of illit- erates and for the other millions of near illiterates in- struction at least in the elements of many important subjects about which they have been unable to acquire knowledge because of lack of ability to read the printed page must be given. Here, again, some estimate at least may be made of the loss in productive power of the Nation through a condi- tion that might be changed in a few years and at a com- paratively small cost. The loss is probably not less but much more than two and a half billion dollars a year — more than two and a half times the interest on all our expenditures in the war. For economic reasons and for many others we should not neglect these problems longer. They should soon be solved to such an extent that they will cease to be special problems to be con- sidered apart from the more general problems of public education. Because this can be done the means for their solution should be considered temporary but of such immediate and present importance as will not permit them to be postponed. MORAIv EDUCATION. Another phase of education to which many think, probably with some degree of justification, that we have given too little attention in our public schools is moral education. I know that we all agree that the one supreme end and aim of all education is morality — conduct. But have we always kept this in mind as we should? I also know the difficulty of teaching morals 12 EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. directly, and I agree with most of you that religious dogmas and sectarian creeds should not and need not be taught in the public schools of a country of religious freedom and of numerous and wealthy churches. But we must not forget that as freedom extends and scien- tific knowledge and inventive skill add to the power of men and women to do evil as well as to do good, the necessity of training children to good moral habits and of forming in the minds and hearts of youth sound prin- ciples of self -guidance to religious conduct becomes much more important than in the days of greater outside restraint and of less power to do either good or evil. Our moral life must be strengthened, broadened, and enlarged to keep pace with the broadening and extending of our material and social life. Through literature, his- tory, song and story, and by every other available means, the future members of our society must be practically convinced of the brotherhood of man and be taught to love their neighbors as themselves, knowing that love is the fulfillment of all law. They must be taught the full meaning of the injunction of Jesus, ' 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye also unto them." For this is, indeed, the summary of all that the laws would enforce and of all that the prophets have aspired to. Withal they must be taught that moral obligations hold across the boundary lines of States and nations, and that nations no more than individuals may do whatso- ever they will and can. They must be made to under- stand that might does not make right, that only right shall finally have the power of might. Whatever lessons or literature or exercises may be necessary for this and for the inculcation of sound and sane patriotism are legitimate for school use and should on proper occasion and in the proper way be used. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. Despite the shudder of abhorrence which comes to us from the thought of mere brutal efficiency uninspired by good will and guided only by individual, class, and EDUCATION FOR ESTABUSHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 1 3 national selfishness, we must make our education more effectively vocational than it has been or is. Mere weak- ness is not goodness, and want of strength is not virtue. Strength, knowledge, good will, skill, and strong purpose to pioduce and use aright should characterize the demo- cratic men and women of the future. In America as nowhere else in the world, I believe, life and work are one. We put our life into our work and rejoice in it. We make our work our life, and it gives us joy and strength. It is this that has made it possible for us to conquer a continent in a little more than loo years, and in that time to accumulate more of material value than the whole world had accumulated in all the milleniums up to the beginning of this hundred years. It is this that has given to us, though only one-seventeenth of the population of the world, more than one-third of the wealth of the world. It is this also that has taught us the joy not of hoarding our wealth but of spending it liberally, even lavishly, for the relief of suffering, for the welfare of mankind through the accomplishment of any purpose that appeals to us as noble and worthy. This principle of the oneness of life and work must grow and spread with democracy. For in a democracy no man except the unfortunate may eat his bread in the sweat of another man's face, and none except the vicious and undemocratic will willingly lay on the back of another the lash of unrequited toil. In a democracy as no- where else, education is for service, and unless it take hold on the life the people live and make them intelli- gent about that life, and upon the work they do and make them skillful in that work, unless in the broad sense at least it be vocational, then it is not educational in the highest and best sense. Just now, perhaps, vocational education is more important than ever before. The total cost of the war has been equal to approximately one-third of the wealth of the world as estimated for 191 4 — not at its valuation for taxes, but at its real value. The world was already poor, and a very large per cent of its people — men, 14 EDUCATION FOR ESTABUSHMEjNT OF DEMOCRACY. women, and children — even in the most progressive countries Hved in poverty and misery, or on a very low plane of material comfort. The loss must be made good and the former conditions made better. There must be at least food, clothing, and decent housing for all. May I not say, good homing? Whatever vocational knowledge and skill is needed in community, State, and Nation for the prosperity, health, and happiness of the people and for the service and strength of the Nation, our schools must give, unless they can be given more effectively and more economi- cally elsewhere. EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP. In a democracy like ours the duties of citizenship are of first concern to all. The State's first interest in the education of its citizens, present and future, is that they may be prepared to perform these duties intelligently and well. On this the free existence of the democratic state depends. As freedom and democracy extend, these duties become more numerous, complex, and difficult. It is not always easy to learn to what extent individual rights are limited by the rights of others and how firmly we must be guided by law and the underlying principles of constitutional freedom to prevent liberty from degen- erating into license to the destruction of itself and its votaries. The peoples but now released from the tyran- nies of autocracy, no doubt, must suffer much while they are learning these lessons. We, to whom freedom came less suddenly and who are more familiar with the ways of democracy, must be patient with them while they learn, and we must show the way as best we can and may, by example as well as by precept. Lessons in health and physical training, instruction in science and in its applications in the vocations, lessons in geography, history, and all school subjects, even the discipline of the school itself, are preparation for citi- zenship. But to these should be added more definite and formal instruction in this subject. Both in our EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 1 5 elementary schools and in our high schools we must teach more eflfectively the things pertaining directly to the intelligent performance of the duties of citizen- ship. We must teach more effectively the history of our country and of its institutions, that our future citizens may learn to love their "land with a love far brought from out its storied past." We must teach civic duties pertaining to international relations. Above all must we teach that "fear, craft, and avarice can never build a state," and least of all a democratic state, which is in very large measure a thing of the spirit. EDUCATION FOR CULTURE. Health, material wealth, good government, even the freedom and democracy for which we have paid such a great price, are not ends within themselves, but only means to the higher ends of social purity and individual culture, happiness, and welfare. They are good only as they contribute to these higher ends. It were a tragedy indeed if in our planning of education for the new era of democracy and freedom we should overlook those things of highest and most lasting value. Should we fail in this we shall have failed in all. Not even free- men in a democracy can live by bread alone, or by the processes of government. Health, wealth, freedom, must be made to contribute to the things of the spirit, to all that is highest and best in the development of humanity. Literature, art, music, philosophy, knowledge for the satisfaction of the intellect and beauty for the inspira- tion of the heart and the culture of the soul — all that is best in the old education — should be retained in the new and supplemented by whatever may contribute further to the education of freemen who have finally, by their knowledge and control of the forces of nature, lifted themselves above the plane of constant slavery to the needs of their bodies. All the best that has been thought and said and done should become the common heritage of all. The education of the future must be liberal in l6 EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. the old sense as well as in the new sense. In the new V world of democracy it should come about that, when the ' lawyer comes home from his office, the judge from his bench, the minister from his pulpit and study, the banker from his counting house, the business man from his office, the legislator from his debates, the society woman from her round of social duties, the teacher from the school, the farmer from the field, the woodsman from the forest, the laborer from the mill and the miner from his dusty labors underground, and the housewife lays aside her never ending tasks, each having earned by his daily labor his daily bread and contributed his part to the common wealth, and all having performed intelli- gently and honestly the duties of citizenship, they shall all be men and women together, free human beings, with all the sweetness and light of which each is capable, each having the windows of his soul open for the influx of all good influences and each walking unafraid and unabashed among his fellows, looking them level-eyed in the face, feeling and knowing that he is a man among men, cring- ing to none, disdaining to look with contempt upon any. It is for results like these that the battles have been fought and millions of young men bravely have died. For results like these we must plan as the supreme aim of education. They are the final aim of democracy in the world. HIGH-SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR ALL. The school system that would meet the direct need of all the people of our democracy must provide at least high-school education for all; some kind and degree of systematic instruction and training through the early and middle ages of adolescence, "the golden period of youth" when, as at no other time, ideals are formed and the principles of natural science and of institutional life can first be understood. We must now very soon solve the problem of universal high-school education of a democratic basis, not only for vocational efficiency and for citizenship, but for individual culture as well. In EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 1/ the meantime we must, through some form of extension education, provide instruction, especially in the things pertaining to citizenship, for the millions of our boys and girls who have left school before completing the high-school age. HIGHER EDUCATION. For a great and free people, intelligent and prosperous, there must be always an adequate supply of trained leaders. These our institutions of higher learning must supply, and for this task these institutions must be much more liberally supported than they are now. That these may not fail or go astray in their task they must be constantly readjusted to a democracy whose principles are unchanging and eternal, fixed in the nature of man and the constitution of the universe, but whose spirit and form are constantly changing, developing, and expanding. To discuss these institutions of higher learning, their organization and function, in any detail, can be no part of the present task. Suffice it to say that they should conscientiously regard themselves as integral parts of the system of education supported for the service of State and Nation and of all the people in all their interests, and should be organized on this basis. Each should find its chief glory in effective and efficient service, on the most economical basis, and never in any form of self- aggrandizement at the cost of the common good or in disregard of other parts of the system of public edu- cation. Much readjustment will be necessary for the most effective ser\dce, both of the students within their walls and of the much larger number of people who can be reached only indirectly through some form of exten- sion teaching. THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS. To one phase of higher education I would call special attention — that of preparing teachers for elementary and secondarv schools. Teachers for the first are usuallv l3 EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. prepared, when they have any professional preparation at all, in the normal schools. Teachers for the high schools are prepared in colleges and universities, a very large per cent of which now maintain, in some form, a school or department of education, or at least offer courses in education. The supply of teachers with any adequate professional training, or for that matter with any reasonable degree of academic education, has never been anything like equal to the demand, and is now less equal than for many years past. After all else is done the character and efficiency of the schools depend upon the teachers. Possibly the most important function of a democracy is to select and prepare and put into the schools teachers competent to do the work which should be required of them, and to keep them there until and after they have gained the professional knowledge, power, and skill that come only from intelligent and successful experience. Our normal schools and the departments and schools of education in our colleges and universities have done their task nobly and well in so far as public sentiment and the means at their command have permitted, but there is great need of a juster and more comprehensive understanding of the purposes and aims of their work, and of at least three times as much money as is now given for their support. Any people who would support public schools at public expense should learn at least to insure themselves against loss of the moneys appro- priated therefor by providing liberally for the prepara- tion of the teachers who make the schools and who give to the money used in their support whatever value it has. COOPERATION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. All this that I have thus briefly set forth and much more that can not even be mentioned now will cost much careful thinking, wise organization, and much more money than most of us have ever dreamed of devoting to it. But in a democracy in which every- EDUCATION FOR KSTABUSHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 1 9 thing — social purity, civic righteousness, political power, national safety, individual culture, and material wealth — waits upon education, we must find the means for its adequate support. In such a State surely the support of schools and other means of education should constitute the first and largest charge upon the public revenues. Would it be setting too high a value upon public educa- tion to suppose that the money available for its sup- port should, in ordinary times of peace, equal or exceed that devoted to all other public purposes? Such a sup- position is made more reasonable when it is remembered that only through comprehensive popular education other expenditures, both for peace and for war, can be made effective. Certainly in a democracy every dollar of wealth is under first mortgage for the education of all the children. Long ago President BHot made the claim that in a democracy the education of the child should cost at least as much as its food or clothing. In this time of the high cost of living and of low salaries for teachers we are very far from this very reasonable ideal. Indeed, while our American public school system has been and is our chief glory, the way we pay our teachers and otherwise support our schools is little less than a national shame and disgrace. What is the remedy? Probably the remedy for lack of money and for much else must be found in the cooperation of the Nation with the States in the support and promotion of educa- tion. I hardly need remind you how our schools were first the care and interest of local communities only or chiefly and that only within the last half century have they become fully established as an interest of and a charge upon the revenues of the State and have come in a con- siderable degree under State control. The fact that we still speak of State aid and are now beginning to speak of National aid points to the time when the schools were considered only of local interest and received only local support, and indicates that local interest and local sup- port still predominate. Nor need I remind you how 20 e;ducation for establishment of democracy. jealously local communities and States have protested against any form of Federal control or interference. Willingly they have accepted gifts of money and land from the Federal Government, but only v/ithin the last five or six years have they accepted any form of control or direction of the use of Federal funds, and now only under protest or with bare tolerance. But the war has turned a searchlight on the Nation's interest in the education of its citizens. We have, as it were overnight, come to see that just as the prosperity, wealth, welfare, and safety of the States depend on the intelligence and virtue — that is, upon the education — of their citizens, so, and to an equal if not larger extent, do the wealth, power, and safety of the Nation depend on the intelligence and virtue — that is, upon the education — of its citizens. The strength of the Nation does not con- sist of the combined strength of the 48 States, but in the strength of the Nation's hundred and ten millions and more of people who are citizens of the Nation at the same time and to the same extent that they are citizens of their respective States. The Federal Government, there- fore, has an interest at stake, and this interest carries responsibilities. These responsibilities include support, kindly and wise guidance, and the requirement of certain minimum stand- ards in education. Beginning at once with, say, $125,- 000,000 a year, and increasing at regular stages to not less than $300,000,000 within the decade, the Federal Government should appropriate money to cooperate with the States in the education of children and youth who are citizens alike of State and Nation. After this appropriation has reached its maximum as here indi- cated, it should increase annually by at least 4 per cent of $300,000,000. This will be necessary to meet the annual increase of 2 per cent in school attendance, and another very desirable increase of 2 per cent in the effi- ciency of the schools. The Federal aid should, in just and right proportion, be given for elementary and sec- ondary schools, for the preparation of teachers in normal EDUCATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 21 schools and elsewhere, for higher education, and for extension education, including the support of public libraries for all the people. It should be all given for the pay of teachers and for the direct and necessary means of teaching. Nothing should be given for grounds and buildings or for permanent equipment. Every ap- propriation should be apportioned to the States on the basis of the number of persons to be educated and of the use made of it, which last can probably be measured best by the total number of days of attendance. States re- ceiving Federal aid should be required to give from State, county, and local treasuries at least twice as much as they receive from the Federal Treasury and for the same purposes. They should be required to give also, free of charge, as nearly as possible, equal opportunity of edu- cation to all children, including health education, voca- tional education, and education for citizenship. Certain minimum standards of attendance, say, i6o days of schooling per year for all children between 6 and 14 years of age, and not less than 480 hours for all between 14 and 18 years should be required. The Federal Government should also equip itself for the study of all the important problems of education and for giving to the people of the States the results of such studies by way of information and kindly advice. It should do everything possible for protection against all violent changes in the work of education which would interfere with its wise and orderly development, and should then refrain severely and consistently from all meddlesome interference with State and local adminis- tration of schools. It is of the very essence of our de- mocracy to be alive and intelligent in all its parts, and our wisdom is to adjust national efficiency to State and local self-government. I feel sure the way can be found. A plan such as I have tried here briefly to suggest would soon result in an effective national system of democratic education, with all the strength of national support and 2 2 EDUCATION FOR ESTABUSHMENT OP DEMOCRACY. guidance and all the vigor and freshness and perennial youth of local support, control, and initiative. INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. May I tax your patience a minute longer only to men- tion one thing more which I believe to be necessary to the full development of our systems of education for democracy in this and other countries. I refer to an international bureau of education, such as was planned for discussion, and it was hoped for adoption also, at the International Conference on Education called by the Dutch Government at the instance of our Government to meet at the Hague in September, 1914, and to which most of the important governments appointed official representatives.^ The constitution of the League of Nations will make the formation of such a bureau much easier than it would have been before. The services which such an international agency could render to education are many and of very great importance. For all these things let us work as should those on whom the task of building the new order of things for world democracy rests as on no others. May I close with this quotation from the eloquent and wise words of your President: "We are enlisted in a great cause. We seek to perpetuate the democratic institutions for which our men have given their lives. We are ready to assume the place of leadership which our profession must take, and we have faith in the re- sponse which the people of the country will give in support of our program," and, let me add, of all our great work. 1 This conference was not held because of the ontbreak of the war in August. o ■ ,i LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS I 010 090 969 8 • ''S^^ly