The Gary Schools — Inside the Classic

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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS GARY, INDIANA

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge

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COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY RANDOLPH S. BOURNE

The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS U • S • A

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THE public-school system of Gary, Indiana, has attracted during the last few years the general attention of progressive educators all over the country as perhaps the most ingenious attempt yet made to meet the formidable problems of congested urban life and modern vocational demands which are presented to the administrators of the city school. A broad educational philosophy has combined with administrative skill to produce a type of school which represents a fundamental reorganization of the public school to meet changing social and industrial conditions. A new balance of school activities, an increased wealth of facilities, the opening-up of opportunities to the younger children, the institution of a new kind of vocational training, the fusing of activities into an organic whole so that the school becomes a children’s community, the correlation of school activities with community activities, and lastly, the application of principles of economics to public-school management which permit greatly increased educational and recreational facilities not only for children in the schools, but also for adults,—these are the features of the Gary school system that have aroused the enthusiasm of many educators, and made it one of the most visited and discussed school systems in the country. Dr. David Snedden, Commissioner of Education in Massachusetts, has said that the system of education at Gary “more adequately meets the needs of city children than any other system of which the writer has knowledge.” Professor John Dewey declared recently, at a public meeting in New York City, called to discuss the adoption of the Gary plan in the New York schools, that “no more important question affecting the future of the people of New York has come before them for many years.” The United States Bureau of Education in 1914 published a report on the Gary schools, made after “a careful and prolonged study at first hand” extending over a period of two years. In this report Commissioner P. P. Claxton records his belief that “the superintendent and board of education of the Gary schools have succeeded in working out plans for a more economic use of school funds, a fuller and more effective use of the time of the children, a better adjustment of the work of the schools to the condition and needs of individual children, greater economy in supervision, a better correlation of the so-called ‘regular work’ and ‘special activities’ of the school, a more practical form of industrial education, and at a cost less nearly prohibitive than is usually found in public schools in the cities of this country.”

Schools in many towns and cities in all parts of the country have been reorganized on the Gary plan or have been experimenting with it. The Gary plan has been introduced in the schools of small cities such as Sewickley, Newcastle, and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Winetka, Illinois. Kansas City has been experimenting with it. The Chicago authorities have recently pronounced their two years’ experiment an unqualified success. Passaic, New Jersey, has a highly successful Gary school in operation. In Troy, New York, the authorities are reorganizing the entire school system on the Gary plan. In New York City two schools were operated for most of the school year, 1914-15, Superintendent Wirt of Gary having been called in to supervise the reorganization and advise the Board of Education in their attempt to meet the “part-time” problems in congested school districts. As a result of this experiment the Board of Education has recently decided to extend the Gary plan to two school districts in the Borough of the Bronx, involving fourteen schools and 46,000 pupils. Superintendent Wirt has presented figures to show that, by the adoption of the Gary plan and the expenditure of only $5,000,000 (the cost of a dozen school buildings which would provide at the maximum for 20,000 children), the New York authorities could practically relieve their part-time situation which now involves 132,000 children. Not only has the success of the Gary plan been striking in the larger cities, but it has proved its adaptability to the small school as well. Three of the schools of Gary are practically rural schools in outlying districts, but the principles of the Gary plan are found applicable there as well as in the recently erected model school plants. The flexibility of the plan, the ingenuity and soundness of its economical and educational principles, its feasibility of imitation, and adaptation to communities the most diverse, makes its discussion one of national significance.