Lessons for Democrats

Last week the U. S., counting its weapons for democracy's defense, could reckon more or less exactly what it had and might produce in guns, planes, tanks, soldiers. But it had no means of determining something even more important: the number and quality of its democrats. Closest it could get was a report by a group of educators last week on what U. S. schools were doing to instill democratic ideals: Learning the Ways of Democracy (National Education Association, Washington; $1).

Directed by the N. E. A.'s Educational Policies Commission to make a firsthand survey, six educators spent last fall and winter traveling the U. S., studying closely 90 high schools in 27 States. First thing they had to decide on was a definition of democratic education. They found democracy being taught in many curious ways: at one extreme a principal dictated to his teachers and pupils exactly how a good democrat must act; at the other, a principal let his pupils run riot. The investigators concluded that a democratic school must be democratically managed, must teach pupils their duties as well as their rights. They found no school doing a completely satisfactory job, but many a school doing an earnest and resourceful one. Sample findings:

>In Tulsa, Okla. pupils study a course-unit called "The American Dream"; in New York City's Fieldston School: "What Is the American Tradition?"; in Eugene, Ore.: "Democracy in Action"; in Des Moines, Iowa: "Democracy and Its Competitors."

>In Burbank, Calif, students studied U. S. relations to the war, ended by petitioning Congress to strengthen U. S. defenses, take control of the armaments industry, limit war profits.

>In George School, Pa. pupils drew plans and specifications for a model town, complete with houses, schools, parks, water, sewage, hospital, police, stores, industry.

>To measure its success in teaching democracy, many a school adopted a new kind of report card, rates its pupils in such qualities as intellectual curiosity, initiative, ability to weigh evidence, executive ability, ability to influence others, a sense of humor.

>Outstanding was New York City's Benjamin Franklin High School, a crowded, dilapidated school without playgrounds. Three-quarters of its students are foreign, most of them Italians and Puerto Ricans. Its neighborhood, Manhattan's East Harlem and Nazi-infested Yorkville, is a hotbed of racial strife. Principal Leonard Covello organized courses in intercultural understanding, got his pupils discussing whether there were any pure races, whether the "Aryan race" was superior to others. Soon students formed a Friends & Neighbors Club, cleaned two vacant stores next to the school as headquarters, held meetings and dances, started classes for their parents, read stories to neighborhood tots, staged an international fiesta. They also campaigned for a government low-cost housing project for their neighborhood and a new school building, recently achieved both.

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