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How Can We Obtain a Continuing Public

Interest in Education?

The members of this Committee believe that the truth of the following three facts is self-evident:

1. In the final analysis, it is only the public which can create schools and nurture them. Without the interest of the public, schools can continue no longer than children can continue without the interest of their parents. Schools depend upon the public not only for their material support but for a sense of direction. In the long run, they must do what the public wants, and if no strong public will is made manifest, they falter. Even the best professional school administrators and teachers cannot take the place of public interest; they can only be the instruments of it. Without the vigorous thought and support of the public, good schools simply cannot exist.

2. Public interest is aroused only by knowledge of problems and intentions, and it can exist only if the public can play an active part in school affairs. At an earlier time in history, when the United States was a nation of farms and small towns, people learned about the problems of their local school quickly by personal contact and by word of mouth. When a new schoolhouse was needed, neighbors simply got together to build one. In such communities, it was not difficult to maintain a high interest in education. Nowadays, with the population of the Nation vastly grown and educational problems more complex, a deliberate effort must be made to establish the close connection between the public and the schools which used to take place naturally. Without a continuous program for spreading information and for enlisting the help of the public in efforts to improve the schools, school leaders soon find themselves leading no one. The public cannot be interested long in things it knows nothing about, and cannot affect. Most men and women, on the other hand, respond enthusiastically to school problems they understand and can help

solve.

3. Most activities designed to increase public interest in the schools can best be pursued simultaneously at the community, State, and national levels. It is often easiest to disseminate information, new ideas, and plans for action through the national headquarters of a wide variety of organizations. National efforts are necessary to

coordinate State programs, to provide an interchange of information, and to sum up the results of all school activities in the United States. State efforts are necessary and have about the same relationship to the communities that the national programs have to the States. Most important of all, however, is community action. That is the basis of all efforts to improve schools because, among other reasons, community action quickly inspires interest at the State and national levels. Interest in the schools at the State and national levels, on the other hand, is difficult to transmit down to the communities. In this respect, interest is the opposite of water: it travels naturally upward, but is difficult to pump down. If most people were apathetic toward the schools in their own community, the State and National Governments would be almost powerless to improve education. For this reason, most efforts to increase public interest in the schools must be focused on communities. Any idea for increasing public interest in the schools at the local level, however, may carry with it implied recommendations for action at the State and national levels. The whole history of education in the United States demonstrates the necessity of work at all three levels of government.

To translate these three fundamental facts into action, this Committee makes the following 11 recommendations:

1. Every school district, whether it be in a rural area, small town, suburb, or large city, should have regularly scheduled conferences devoted to the reexamination of school problems and progress. Both laymen and professional educators should take part in these conferences, with laymen in the majority. Such community conferences should culminate in statewide conferences. Both community and State conferences might be held annually, or biennially. Periodically the need for a national conference on school affairs should be considered. The reason for these continuing conferences is that school problems change as the conditions facing the schools change. There are no permanent solutions. It has been amply demonstrated during the past few years that the American people will utilize opportunities for studying their schools.

2. School districts should utilize the services of citizen committees which are broadly representative of the community to study school facts and to act as advisory bodies to the board of education. Such committees have proved effective in stimulating public interest in the problems of the local schools. The primary responsibility for seeing that such citizen committees are formed has been assumed by many boards of education, but the history of successful groups shows that the initiative can be taken by any responsible group or individual. Statewide citizen commitees have been especially effective in coordinating the efforts of community groups and in providing an interchange of information. National organizations whose purpose is to

provide clearinghouses of information and other aids should expand their programs in order to give more help to community and State citizen committees working for the schools.

3. All community organizations interested in the general welfare should join vigorously in efforts to arrange community school conferences and to initiate or assist citizen committees helping to improve the schools. These may include businessmen's associations, labor unions, veterans' organizations, women's clubs, civic, fraternal and service groups. The State and national leaders of all such organizations should encourage and help their local chapters in this work.

4. Whenever appropriate, students should be consulted on school problems. Students who are asked to give their opinions at community, State, or national conferences gain a sense of responsibility toward their schools. Intelligent and responsible students are effective representatives of any school system in dealing with the public. 5. The old-fashioned rural schoolhouse was often the chief meeting place of the community, and there is good reason for modern schools to continue this tradition. School buildings should be used as community centers for adult education, social events, and any other worthy purpose. School buildings are expensive, and maximum use should be made of them. The more people see and use their schools, the more they will understand and support them.

6. With few exceptions, it is to the public interest that meetings of both local and State boards of education should be open. A closed meeting is an invitation to distrust. The date of meetings and the agenda should be publicized in advance, and the results should be made public.

7. Schools should teach students more about schools-their history, their role in our society, and their dependence upon public interest for support. In the long run, such instruction would develop more public understanding of the responsibility each citizen has for the schools.

8. School leaders and those responsible for all media of communication-newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcasting stations and networks, and public service advertising-should work closely together to present to the public steady flow of accurate facts about the schools. Nowadays we rely principally upon these media to convey information about the schools which in simpler times traveled automatically by word of mouth. It is especially important to work at all three levels-community, State, and national-on the problem of how best to inform the public about the schools.

9. There should be an active statewide school board organization in each State to provide leadership and an interchange of information for local boards of education. Such activities should also increase at the national level.

10. Everything possible should be done to enable organizations working for a closer relationship between parents and teachers to expand their activities. A close liaison between parents and teachers is the basis for wider community participation in school affairs. It is of fundamental importance both to the individual children and to the school system as a whole.

11. The services of the United States Office of Education should be expanded to provide help for those working to increase public interest in the schools.

This Committee believes firmly that the surest way to bring about major improvements in education is through wider participation of the public in school affairs. In a democracy, people will not give automatic support to things they do not understand, and they do not understand unless they are in possession of information. The crux of obtaining major school improvements, then, is the provision of information, through a method or methods designed for that purpose.

Because of its belief in this principle of democratic procedure, the Committee lists on the next pages the methods suggested at the White House Conference and at the State and Territorial conferences on education to obtain a continuing public interest in schools. The methods listed by participants in the White House Conference were contained in the reports of the 16 group chairmen whose reports were compilations of 166 discussion tables at the national meeting. The frequency with which many of these suggestions occurred in the reports is impressive and, in the Committee's judgment, worth including as some of the answer to the question of how to obtain a continuing public interest in education. The suggestions from the State and Territorial conferences are those most often mentioned in the formal reports of these meetings.

TABLE 1

Activities listed at the White House Conference on Education as being helpful in obtaining a continuing public interest in education at the community level, arranged in order of frequency.

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Open, or public, school board meetings, including budget hearings, with adequate publicity through all available channels___ Formation of broadly representative citizens councils and committees to work with school boards in constant effort to involve more citizens

Special "school days," including Business, Industry, Agriculture,
Citizenship, and Career Days‒‒‒‒‒

Formation of citizen groups to encourage selection of better qualified, nonpartisan school board members_

Well-organized and planned adult education programs and study groups

Continuous programs of public information on various phases of the school program, services, and needs, using all available media of communication___.

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Rank

Activity

Community conferences and forums as followup to the White House
Conference on Education____

Joint citizen-school personnel factfinding committees to study, sur-
vey, and recommend solutions to school problems..
More frequent and understandable releases of school news, problems
and proposed solutions by administration and board of education_
Special open-house days, school visitation, and teacher-recognition
programs

Providing for more representation of youth at conferences and
forums on school problems and issues__

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More emphasis in PTA on programs and activities which explain
school policies and disseminate information__
Use of well-informed students and teachers to speak to community
groups on special phases of school programs, as well as problems
and issues__

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TABLE 2

Activities listed at the White House Conference on Education as being helpful in obtaining a continuing public interest in education at the State level, arranged in order of frequency.

Joint statewide interim committee of legislators and citizens on needed school legislation, including hearings and meetings---Provision for continuous State followup conferences to keep alive the public's interest in education stimulated by the White House Conference on Education_____

State citizens' committees or councils on education, representing all the citizenry, which are factfinding bodies dedicated to securing better schools_-_

21

1

12

2

12

12

Statewide survey, research, and evaluation committees..
More statewide utilization of the press and other mass media__
State commissions on school problems, composed of legislators, lay-
men, and educators, to study needed school legislation_
Statewide citizens' conferences__.

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Statewide programs of chambers of commerce, civic, service, business, labor, and agriculture groups.

8 8

Active State school board associations to coordinate statewide activities and act as clearinghouses for school boards.

7 9

TABLE 3

Activities listed at the White House Conference on Education as being helpful in obtaining a continuing public interest in education at the national level, arranged in order of frequency.

White House Conference on Education every 2 to 5 years to evaluate progress on problems and issues__

Continuation and expansion of the National Citizens Commission
for the Public Schools, including the Advertising Council program
and "Better Schools"---

More public television programs based on actual classroom situa-
tions and the dynamic nature of education, including its impact
on economy, standard of living, and defense__.
Higher status and expansion of status and services of U. S. Office
of Education. Closer cooperation with Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare-

20 1

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