New-York tribune. [volume], February 06, 1916, Page 3, Image 39

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.ISS AIC G AIRY PLAN SCHOOL LESSOM TO NEW YORK
H?ikt machine *hop the class co
'tttcd with tht boys in the traft/
?'?/?ftp ?" "'?''""" ?io,,m oi thc
_,? had seen In "??.' iex-fWe
'
Utility and Worth of Wirt System
Demonstrated There Beyond
Specious Disputation by Greatly
Enriched Curriculum for
More Than 1600 Children.
"The hoys were startlnq tn
work tut hand hioms In order
that they ntUjht hecome fa?
miliar with the Lttn^tructlnn of
machinery as well as the put
tino together and threading of
the iahrit."
?a Randolph !.. Ihm me.
Nare still tryin*.
the Gary plan is imprac
- :k and that it i?
. kintested experiment have
..se in the Gary
?. \? h, the super
- 'v passed far be
- -ation and is an
- e miles from New
there is a large Gat y
I living refutation
e beei -, frequent?
? - new plan.
tendent of Schools, Dr.
ras one of a group of
visited Gary
? one of those who be
? ? . ht work in Gary, it
-.i;,." Neither did it
to think of "a man
to show us how tc run
- is w.ts to give Pas
ol he could find, and
? got his ideas of that
- significance of Super
work, study and play
. hi, local conditions and
? e needs of Pas
11 an industrial city
ate I within the metropoH
.- area :*' New Y :k. and theoretically as
- ?etropolis as ? The Bronx
as grown with great
said to have now the highest
?-born of all cities in the
and the industrial char
ivc created for Pas
re school problems which
forced to meet. For all
,cial conditions in Passaic
e in many districts in
.hools have been swamped
dation. Hundreds of
? ? part-time ached?
re ver, a great demand
ng for the elementary
? ould be absorbed by the
i hinery mills of Passaic
" '" * ity l a ! not build schools
fast enough to provide every child with a seat
under the traditional school plan of an exclu?
sive study school. Neither could it afford the
expensive trade achoola which would be neces?
sary to mert the demand for trade training.
School No. 10 in Passaic is situated in the
heart of the great mill district. Of the 10,500
children in the city schools 1.644 are in School
10. most of them foreign-born or of foreign
parentage. Before the Gary reorganization
it was able to give a seat and full time school
,ng to le.ss than 1.100 children. Twenty classes
were en part time. The school plant consists
of two buildings. One is an ?excellent modem
building, with wide I ? and a fine auditot lu-.*..
The other is a small and old primary building,
about to be condemned. There were small
playgrounds about both buildings, but no gym
nasium, no shops, no nature Study laboratory,
no school gar It
H w this school was turned, at small cost,
into a great enriched work, study and plav
school on the Wirt plan, accommodating not
only the 1.100 children, but all the part time
children an well, with a Khool ?lay for every
one of six hours and twenty minute?, is a rec?
ord of decision and intelligence which throws
into unfavorable contrast the delay and red
tape connected with the equipping of the two
Gary school? in New Yoik. The work was
authorised In June. 1915. When school gath?
ered again in the fall No. 10 was a transformed
Khool plant. At the back of the playground
had been erected a two-story gymnasium of
concrete and glass, sixty by eighty leet Two
industrial arts rooms had been fitted up. and
the sewing and cooking rooms improved. A
nature study room had been titteil with labor,
toty fixtures. The old building had hern turned
into a shop annex. Walls between classrooms
had been knocked out, making four lar?e and
light industrial shop?, with two studios for
drawing classes. Equipment for textile shop,
machine shop, cabinet shop and printery had
been installed The playgrounds of the annex
had been ploughed up fur gardens in the -?prini*.
The transformed school plant was then organ?
ized on the duplicate-school plan, with alter
nating X and Y schools, with classes alternat?
ing between the classrooms and the gymna?
siums, shops, auditoriums and studios. A pro?
gramme of ten periods a day was arranged,
forty minutes for each period and an hour for
luncheon.
The economies of the device are as amazing
a? the advantages. To accommodate the over?
flow in tins one Passaic school the authorities
would have had to erect a ten-room addition of
r-.ew building, costing) with equipment, at least
$55,000. The cost of the facilities which en?
abled the school to introduce the duplicate
school plan and so accommodate the overflow
was only $20/,00 The snnual overhead charges
for this new equipment will be only $1,500. The
annual overhead charges for the ten-room ad?
dition would have been $4.850. Here is a saving
of no less than $34.400 in capital investment
and of $J.3.*"0 in annual overhead charges, In
other words, it cost I'assaic $34.400 le3S to
have a work, study and play school, accommo?
dating all the children six hours and twenty
minutes a day, than it would have cost to have
an ordinary classroom school, accommodating
ail the children live hums a day, without gym
nasium, shops or studios.
liven if you had never heard the phrsse
"Gary plan" you would know as soon as you
entered it that this l'as.au school was a new
kind of school. When I visited the B4 hool I
was taken first to the textile shop in the annex,
where I found?strange sight for an elemen
taiy school?a dozen boys working interest
edly on spinning machines and looms. Fas
sai? has some of the largest woollen and
worsted mills in tue country, and any indus?
trial training in the schools, it wa? felt, must
take account of this demand. But there was
nothing factory-like about the shop. These
boys were not, being trained to b<* mere ma?
chine tenders. The teacher was a skilled for?
eign craftsman, who was interested in giving
his pupils a broad, scientific background in
the craft of weaving. Frocesses, materials
and machinery were being analyzed and un?
derstood. The boys were starting work not
on power looms but on hand looms, in order
that they might become familiar with the con?
struction of the machinery as well as the put?
ting together and threading of the fabric. On
the shelves weie bundles of towelling made
? by the boys in the ?hop for the use of the
school. This was the real Gary touch.
This particular class was part of a group
of eighty special vocational student.. These
wete boys from the sixth, seventh and eighth
grades who were over fourteen years ami who
had become school sick at their studies. Noth?
ing could have prevented them from drifting
out of the ordinary school into alley ocupa
tions. Most of them would have lost all
chance of acquiring any training whatever.
This vocational course has kept them all in
the school. Each boy spends half a day in
one of the shops and half a day in the class?
room. He 1 as a chance to try each of the
four main shops for ten weeks of the year
before specializing. Not only have these boys
found a new meaning in their classroom work,
but of the twenty who are to graduate from
the course this year e.ghteen, I was told, in?
tend to continue a cooperative course in the
high school. At the end of four years they
will have not only their high school certificate,
but a finished apprenticeship as well.
In the machine shop I found another group
of vocational students working on the lathes
and drills. Frederick O. Smith, the supervisor
of manual and vocational training, told me
that this class had cooperated with the boys
in the cabinet shop in making s*ome of the
looms we had seen in the textile shop. It had
been difficult to get the looms they needed.
so in true Gary fashion he had callad upon
the skill and facilities of the school community
to provide them. In the cabinet and printing
shops I found not the vocational student
the regular scholars, who, as part of the Gary
plan, come into the shops every day for an
hour's work. On the shelve-; were common
groceries, which were used as texts for a wide
range of discussion, bringing in geography and
history and the arts and industries. One class
was building an Indian village in the sand
pile, putting it together gradually as they came
to understand how the Indians made their
tents and smoked their fish.
The two gymnasiums were full of bou:.
dancing children. When they ha :
dancing they played stimulating t.*!. imc I
teturned to their classrooms. :
hilarated, for work. You could not teil whether
it wa-* "gymnast sup-en they
were Indulging in. All you knew was that they
were living intently and that ;, i - I every
elementary school in New York were giving its
children so active an education.
I was anxious to see the au .itcrium work.
a leature of the Gary plan which has been
much criticised in New York. Here in School
10 there was nothing remotely ri
?i." All tiiis effort wss devote.1
iking the auditorium hour, as I had seen
it in Gary, an opportunity tor drsmsti
cialized expression. The school had no*
been equij ; ( tereopl on or motion
picture-, but there was a vi? ti '.a, and the I
rj choral singing con?
! me anew of the ? Csi v
: 10 all the childre i go 1
n for forty minute - r ? ?
Continued on page ?
VFW?kmml.-.,... "?*MkW; ??"'^mUEaWMT ^mwgmmm ;Aymmme^?~?tsm??mm i ?. ^.^ - -
?7 sa? ri? h delightful dramatizations oi 'Little litt} h lue' and ' The l'ied l}iper' H Ofkc? out b\ little children and done h) them on the Stage before cm audience oi oilier c lasses."
1
mg
ate
o Place for a IL-ady? PoufS
B) Sarah Adding ton.
,, t V ",'G match is no place for
Y - -:i a reporter." reproved a
severely as I set out for
- Garden and the Stecher
est. "There will be blood
-?. and vulgar people. If
:?? bull fights, go ahead. I'm eure I
your work "
- horrible," I defended,
- - ? point. But it was
. r: that I entered that
moked lobby of the Gar
""?;<-: ,; piogramme venders and
- men were to do dreadful
other?
I ad tear
? where
? ??as to Cow free
'"- .'y- -
-is play
air. A
glit
' er ?lair,
' " * I an
"'<
houlden
**'f *a ing non
'?'? -
? - their
offering f
? -
.ok
?
( *torr.ore like u cil
' ' * at.-,
*-uly.
y< ' a flight.
and yet the
7***1 ?fill persisted:
*? *??? bnap .,
blofd will flow men will return to the pri?
mordial.
Oscar S?nger, the vocal teacher, sat in the
box next to us, alert and interested and keep
ing vigorous time with his head to the noble
strains of "America, I Love You." Hugo
Munsterberg came in with a party. I assumed
then he wa-, there for the psychology of wrest?
ling; now I'm more inclined to think he was
out for a good tight. A fussily dressed woman
with innumerable white plumes on her hat
waved her programme enthusiastically around
in the air, even before anything happened.
"The appetite for excitement," I moralized.
Mr. Humphreys, announcer, took the centre
of the stage, the ring, the mat or whatever it
is, and a great cheering and roaring and whist?
ling broke out. Horrors, the mob! I gripped
the rail of the box, closed my eyes, and then,
opening one confusedly?and curiously
caught the gleam of a satiny back and huge,
hunching shoulders. Bull Montana was climb?
ing over and under the ropes.
"Down in front, lady!" called a standee at
my back. I was actu illy standing up and
stretching my neck at full length, all the bet?
ter to 6ee a brute of a wrestler! Blushes and
stammers followed, but the awful fact was
unaltered. Appetite for cm itement, sure
enough!
The next minute Bull Montana was slug?
ging his opponent so fiercely that the crowd
immediately ordered him off the stage, or
whatever it is. Bull Montana then took it
upon himself to give an exhibition of a man
in a bestial fury. He pulled Young Hacken
schmidt around by the ear, he cuffed him and
pummelled him like a big, angry bear. The
mob yelled, the referee hopped around excited
ly, but that powerful, lunging, heavy laced
man called Bull Montana fought on until the
referee dragged him away
"Scared?" aske 1 a newspaper man in our
1'ox. "Why. don't you know that was just a
beautitul frame up?"
"What?"
"Sure," he went on lightly: "this is the worst
game in the whole world for box office stunts.
You didn't think he was really sote, did you?"
"Well, yo'u'll have to admit he acted a bit
annoyed," 1 answered crossly.
Before the big bout of the evening there
were three other curtain raisers. The wrest
lers did all kinds of interesting feats for the
delight of the audience. A fat sergeant of
the United States Army rolled around hke a
ball and did no credit to the Stars and Stripe?
by landing neatlv on his anting ener
gctically. A w*-">t.er from ?vs! liry Far'? gave
a personification of Spring by a series of lit
tie leaps and elves hither and yon. Ms was
ostensibly reaching for his enemy's legs, but
he might just as tare I -en playing with
the butterflies in all his gra?e and agility.
' ?Veil?" asked the reporters.
1 iteresting,M I replied. "I don't see any
blood, though."
At last the f're.i? moment had come; the
Masked M ' Joe Stecher came down
the aisle, St? her, a nice looking youth,
pie ise ? an : ; ful like a boy out for a high
school football rame; the Marvel reminisa-ent
of Ku Klux days in his woollen head cover?
ing, all black save for a '.'ig white nose and
rolling eyeballs.
Mr. Humphreys delivered himself of a
speech In Ins liest oratorical style. The gro?
tesque figure in the gray bathrobe kept bow
ing to the crowd's applause. Bowing ?it an
end, wrestling began "Catch as cat-j? ?.an,
best two out of three," informel Mr Hum?
phreys.
Very gently they began, pawing around
cautiously. Then a little stronger; and then,
by a quick nove, the Marvel was down and
Stecher was. working rver his body for the
desired flattening out process Marvel twisted
and turned; Stecher ?.lugged away. I felt a
hand on my shoulder.
"Will you sit down, madam-'' came an im?
perative request. It was so ?ntere.-tir %, how
could one remember to be polite?
"Sit on your feet," suggested one of the re?
porters.
After the s'rain wis
over and Stecher had
won his two straight
falls the crov;d yelle '.,
the bar. i s'aited up,
everybody shook hand?,
and Mr Humphreys
made an announcement
to the eitect that Mr.
Ma' ke I Marvel wanted
to say that Joe Stecher
was the best wrestler
I e ever met and he
C : ill luck.
. e crov d ellrd again,
i we were off.
Back in my memory
somewhere came
?trati'e. ha/y phrases:
"Appetite for excite?
ment," 'horrible mus
- | ,vd,"
but I couldn't remem
her who had said them
or to what they applied.
I was thinking in terms
of other thin
"You've tipped your
I re?
minded me.
"I kn M ' i nailed.
"I ?m? clapping tor
Stecher"