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The Gary Schools

Chapter 4: INTRODUCTION
By Randolph Silliman Bourne
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About This Book

An examination of the experimental public-school system in Gary, Indiana, detailing a reorganization that blends progressive educational philosophy and administrative methods to address urban congestion and vocational demands. It outlines the model plant spanning kindergarten through high school, the integration of social centers and adult education, the development of practical and continuation courses, and the correlation of regular instruction with extracurricular activities to form a children’s community. The text analyzes economic management, supervision, and outcomes, cites investigations and reports, and considers how the plan has been adapted by other districts.

INTRODUCTION

During the past fifteen years I have tried approximately fifty different programs for “work-study-and-play schools.” The several factors in such a school program can be combined in countless ways. I have not tried to design a system or type of school program as a set form that would constitute a universal ideal school for all children. Rather, I have tried to develop a system of school administration that would make possible the providing of a great variety of school types, so that all cities and all of the children in the several parts of a city may have the kind of school they need.

I have had only two fixed principles since I began establishing work-study-and-play schools at Bluffton, Indiana, in the year 1900.

First: All children should be busy all day long at work, study, and play under right conditions.

Second: Cities can finance an adequate work-study-and-play program only when all the facilities of the entire community for the work, study, and play of children are properly coördinated with the school, the coördinating agent, so that all facilities supplement one another and “peak-loads” are avoided by keeping all facilities of the school plant in use all of the time.

At what children work, study, and play; how they work, study, and play; when and where they work, study, and play; what facilities are provided for work, study, and play; and the total and relative amount of time given to work, study, and play;—these may vary with every city and with every school in a city. No set system can possibly meet the needs of all children, nor could a set system be uniformly provided with the existing child-welfare facilities.

It is not desirable or possible uniformly to establish one particular scheme of departmentalizing work between teachers or of rotating classes between different types of facilities. The only important thing is so to departmentalize teaching and so to rotate classes that the teachers may render the greatest service with the least expenditure of energy, and that the maximum use may be secured from the school plant and other child-welfare facilities.

William Wirt.
THE GARY SCHOOLS