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About The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip. (Portland, Or.) 1923-1927 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1922)
THE WESTERN AMERICAN lOctober, 1922 PHYSICIANS Dr. Tharaldsen A 334-29 Res. Phones Dr. Hurley East 9996 = | Thorfinn Tharaldsen, M. D. | Geo. I. Hurley, M. D. Physicians and Surgeons Office Phone Main 0576 Eighth Floor Journal Bldg. Bd’wy at Yamhill, Portland, Ore. | II IfllltllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllltllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllR' ■«IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIU I Phone Main 6226 CHAS. LOEDING, M. D. Physician and Surgeon 809-11 Journal Bldg. Portland, Oregon nHiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife = Office Phone Main 3079 Res. 255 E. 55th St. So. Tel Tabor 7177, D1731 = | Dr. Hjalmar East PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON = = 842 Pittock Block Office hours 11 to 12 a. m., 2 to 5.00 p. m. Sundays and Evenings by Appointment = = uiBiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiminiiiiiNiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimii»? DENTISTS ¿miHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiu | Phone Main 7909 | DR. WALTER J. LARSON Dentist I 803-804 Broadway Bldg. Cor. Bd’wy & Morrison Portland, Oregon 1 Phone Main 1165 Dr. Harold G. Trommald | | DENTIST Regular office hours every day Evenings by appointment 805-807 Journal Building Cor. Yamhill and Broadway, Portland, Ore. f = ■llllIllilllIllllilllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllimtlllllllllllllllltlllllllllK: gihiiiiiiiimiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiii'f = Phone Main 4389 I DR. LEIF UNDERDAHL i 1 I DENTIST Plate and Combination Bridge f Work a Specialty Office: 1221 Selling Building Sixth and Alder, Portland, Oregon | | [ Reg. Office Hours Eve. by Appointment | fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.- s*iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiinii2 | [ Phone Marshall 0096 I I DR. ELOF T. HEDLUND DENTIST | 456-59 Morgan Bldg., Portland, Or. | ^iiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiimiiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimmiiimiimimmi? fess to a profound wish that all the child ren of the Republic should be bred .in the schools which are controlled and' main tained by the state; 'but I must be con tent" often to let my own wishes and pre ferences remain unfulfilled rather than resort to violence to attain them. The only country that has a law simi lar to the proposed initiative measure, so far as I know, is France. Under the stress of the Royalist threat against the struggling republic, the republican gov ernment became convinced that the church schools were actively anti-repub lican and royalist. I suspect that any one knowing the history of republican ism in France will agree to the reason ableness of this conviction. Catholic re publicans shared it fully, and voted in immense numbers in support of the gov ernment. Moreover, the clerical schools constituted a large fraction of the whole educational system, and enrolled a pre dominant majority of the aristocracy and elite of the nation. A petition of French Catholics to the Pope refers to these disloyal elements in the strongest terms, speaking of them as “the irrecon cilable and systematic opponents of the government of the Republic” and as the “recognized supporters of royalism, im perialism and anti-Semitism.” The government, as is well known, finally took drastic means to abolish the church schools entirely. I cite this as an illustration of the inevitable course of events when the welfare of the mod ern state seems to be threatened, and when private aims and preferences, even of the most intimate and personal char acter have to be sacrificed: also to point out the total contrast between the sit uation of the French republic striking at a system of schools whose every tra dition was hostile and which had breathed the air of autocracy and monarchy for centuries, as compared with our own sit uation in Oregon and the United States today. Finally, have we exhausted the meas ures which can be put into effect with out violence and without giving any place for just resentment on the part of those affected? If Oregon has done this, she is the only state in the Union that has. So far as I know there is no effective supervision, and indeed practically no supervision, of private schools; the laws almost entirely ignore them; the educa tional officials of county and state have neither mandate nor time to visit them effictively, the official reports of the State Department of Public Instruction hardly recognize their existence. The teachers in these schools are not required to hold certificates, as are teachers in the public schools. All this is subject to prompt and effective reform by the legislature, or by initiative measure; no one can effectively deny in advance its efficacy, and any educator would natur ally expect definite and admirable re sults from it. The cost of such meas ures would be a small fraction of the cost of taking these .pupils into the pub lic schools, for in the latter case the state would have to supervise just the 19 same, and teach in addition. Note that with thorough supervision by the State we shall at least know what is going on in the private schools; and if un-Amer icanism is being inculcated the state can act with vigor and have the support of all right-minded citizens, which is cer tainly a consummation devoutly to be wished for. Taking everything into account, this bill would rush us into a major surgical operation, even before the case has been diagnosed, and before any milder reme dial measures have been tried. Why not lay our hands vigorously upon these peaceful measures, which we should have done long ago, and give them a reason able trial before proceeding to the. more violent policy? What are the great, persistent prob lems in democratic education? They are the problems of educational wisdom and efficiency on the one hand, and adequate public support on the other. We edu cators must do a better job, and keep on bettering it all the time. But to that end the educator must have freedom and resources. The professional educator must get out of the awful ruts of blind tradition: even now China, of places, is actually building a wiser and more truly democratic curriculum than we have; yet fifteen years ago she had not emerged from Cimmerian darkness. They sent clear to America for the wisest educa tional thinker in the world, John Dewey: and today the wisdom of Dewey is af fecting Chinese schools more than it is American: “a prophet is not without honor?” Let us stop harping on our good schools, and scratch gravel to get better schools! I have already referred to the bill for schools, and its pitiful smallness com pared with other things that we really want, but certainly do not need as much as we do better schools. One of the most tragic and menacing symptoms is the vanishing of men from the teaching staff of the United States: in the 70’s and 80’s we had over forty per cent of men; the proportion has swiftly dropped until we have now 16 per cent (according to the latest figures available). This is a hopeless and guilty situation: a profes sion that is not good enough for good men to enter and stay in, is an inferior calling: until the public correct this sit uation, and resolutely jack up the profes sion until we have again a modest admix ture of men, say the 40 per cent of the eighties,—let us stop bragging about our devotion to education and to the pub lic schools. Only a stupid woman doesn’t know when to act stupid. Precedents are often stumbling blocks as guidé posts. Lots of men who claim to be gentle men don’t work at it. Cash registers can’t wear out too fast for a business man. A true friend is one who never throws things up to you. 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