FORCED FEEDING

The American Public School is the favorite playground of the propagandist. With the advent of Education Week the dismal truth of this platitude becomes painfully apparent. No tendencies new to the United States underlie the pronouncement of the American Legion that it will attempt to instill Americanism into the public schools nor the program of the American Federation of Labor to secure the representation of Labor to secure the representation of Labor's point of view in classrooms and textbooks. Such pronouncements and programs have frequently been advocated in the past. They should not be condemned entirely.

It is logical that students be brought into contact with the doctrines of the Legion and the Federation and with all doctrines. As long as organizations restrain themselves to the presentation of their programs simply as evidence in an undecided case, there can be no quarrel with their function. Unfortunately, organized bodies are possessed of no such altruism. Their chief interest seems to lie not in teaching students to think clearly but in teaching them to think as the organizations themselves think. Progress can never come if the force of young minds is consistently turned into certain preconceived channels. The Public School is a place for training the mind to make its own decision on any problems that may arise and not for imposing upon the mind the decisions of others. This ideal of intellectual freedom is unattainable in a world where everyone is convinced of the absolute truth of all his own beliefs, but the ideal should be kept in sight, not cast lightly away.