 words at war Marie Marie better put the paper down I can't Charlie the faces of these Detroit raceriders they're like the boys who sit in my English classes not these hoodlums I don't know this boy pulling the Negro from the car why he could be Hayes or or Angelino or or Flarrity could he yes Charlie something's wrong with the way we teach with the way I teach with the paper down Marie you'll be late yes you're right I mustn't be late for school not today why today especially because today we've got to get Hayes before he pulls a Negro from a car in a race riot we've got to get Flarrity before he becomes a tool of the Christian front Charlie they say that the public school system is the best guarantee of democracy but I don't know it isn't fulfilling its mission Charlie it is and I'm frightened words at war the national broadcasting company and its affiliated independent stations in cooperation with the council on books in wartime present a radio adaptation of one of the most thought-provoking books of 1944 your school your children by Marie Serkin were extremely proud to announce that the part of Marie Serkin will be played by the distinguished American actress Miss Florence elder sentence has two parts a subject and a preterite predicate that's what I said Mrs. Serkin preterite predicate Hayes P-R-E-D-I-C-A-T-E okay are there subjects and predicates in Silas minor of course in Shakespeare too I certainly that's what I thought he don't even write English I've taught them for 18 years boys called Tony and Philip and George girls called Martha and Elizabeth and Sarah for 18 years in a New York City high school classroom and together we discussed and reviewed such things as Paradise Lost and Silas minor we've meditated the agreement of subject and verb pondered the use of the subjunctive and argued a little about Shakespeare today however we talked about the recent race riot in Detroit I don't know teacher you can't trust any of them sure first thing you know they pull a knife on you right isn't safe to walk along certain streets in New York get all this they're human just like us they didn't start this thing in Detroit why I read in the papers people say New York isn't America I tell them I teach in a New York high school and I know that New York is America the boys and girls I teach are like the overwhelming majority of the population the 90% that doesn't go to college the skilled mechanics the stenographers the dressmakers I see the changing young faces I read their composition I hear them talk I see the silly scroll on the blackboard before Pearl Harbor I ran my fingers over a jagged swastika cut into a desk and I've got a front seat on a democratic process the high school classroom the only place where the great mass of Americans can hear the voice of democracy speak out with passion and authority and I've seen something happen what was it well listen once I recall we were discussing the story of Joan of Arc that isn't true is it well Hayes Joan did believe she heard miraculous voices that's not what I mean that other stuff you mean about a leading an army yeah well that's a matter of history she was cried and burned at the stake oh yeah that's a fact Hayes don't you believe it no not me you don't have to take my word for it Hayes you can read about her in your European history book no sir but Hayes it's a matter of history it's propaganda that's nonsense Hayes it's in the encyclopedia Britannica I'm gonna write to my opinion haven't I I say it's a lot of applesauce no fraudulent hero worship for the young a symptom the first symptom of the disease believe nothing debunk everything when the 3a kids grin over the story of Washington in the cherry tree bless their little horse sense show the great man in his pot belly expose his blemishes that's the method and if you create a generation of pseudo sophisticates who is bleatingly uncritical and they are unbelief as a previous generation had been in its belief why what's wrong I'll tell you what's wrong we've been throwing out the baby with the mud bath we've been tearing down the halo but also the saint so what I'll tell you what this happened a few years ago in my English class the precise time was November 1938 after the anti-Jewish pogroms in Berlin Hilda was German so I asked her she was 16 and blonde and blue-eyed I asked Hilda did you read the papers Hilda I did would you like to give the class your opinion sure it isn't true things like that have not happened in Germany you did read the papers didn't you sure and you heard it on the radio it's propaganda that's all it is but suppose it isn't propaganda for the sake of discussion suppose these outrages did take place in Berlin then he must have had a reason I see he Hilda if you were in Germany today would you beat and rob a girl you knew simply because she was Jewish would I if I was stronger why not Hilda had been born in the United States her parents were German but she was the product of an American school she wasn't like the Christian fronters and their kind in the school she was bright her IQ was relatively high consciously she was a Nazi and yet she didn't worry me as much as the Irish boys who hated England the Italian boys who felt personally the failure of Italian arms the other decent boys who read the tabloids in the American first columnist the United States is a republic not a democracy what's that Smith what did you say the United States is a republic and not a democracy I was surprised of course I was surprised Joe Smith was not given to find fun verbal distinction he was hardly the type to go in for profound discussion of the nature of the state the source of the new truth as I discovered later was an editorial in social justice he hadn't read it himself but it got around to him the way those things do I told my husband about it well don't you put these kids straight it's not quite so simple Charlie what you mean it's not simple that's no answer I'm a teacher Charlie I'm not supposed to indoctrinate I'm supposed to encourage objective classroom discussion that's bunk but don't you see anything I tell them is propaganda show it to him in the books the books are propaganda too for heaven's sakes what is truth for these kids that's it Charlie anything that comes through legitimate channels isn't true it's bunk truth is in the scurrilous handbills the yellow journals the street corner meeting too many of them Roosevelt or any government spokesman is a liar good Lord what's wrong yes what was wrong what still is wrong we in the schools have ourselves encouraged a disposition to question authority and to be dubious about unchecked statements we did this in order to develop an inquiring mind in the interest of intellectual freedom with intelligence students the results have been to make for a more just evaluation of men and events but with boys like Hayes it means and all this stuff you get from the office of war information it's just a lot of bush why this wouldn't be quite so bad if at the same time Hayes didn't proceed to pin his faith in William Dudley Pele yet it's natural for my pupils to label as bunk a report of Nazi massacres in Poland normal young people can't credit the reality of such events however when the same young people find it easier to credit the enemy version of an incident rather than the explanation given by our own government something has gone wrong isn't it true that Japan had to attack us and self-defense you really believe that Hayes a lot of fellas believe that a lot of fellas in Germany perhaps no no we're not going to be sucked in by a lot of propaganda are we guys how do we even know there wasn't attack on Pearl Harbor yes that's right how do we know well don't you believe the president of the United States don't make me laugh don't you believe Congress no man well you you listen to the radio don't you believe H.B. Carlton born a Lowell Thomas that's nothing but propaganda just to get us into the war that's right they should all listen to those pills they don't know the rear from a hole in a ground fortunately this combination of cynicism and stupidity is not common but it does exist it exists in our public schools it isn't a teacher's function to determine how a school should stand in regard to particular controversies but some issues shouldn't be controversial they shouldn't be even issues things like democracy and the right to live after all a school doesn't flourish in a vacuum it reflects social forces politics life around us how can the school become one of those active forces I think that's our chief question well let's look at it this was a special day the board of Education had given instructions to observe George Washington Carver day and for once everything went fine and and he discovered how to make ice cream out of peanuts and paints and candy out of peanuts and and things like that yeah what did you find out about Carver well he could have made a lot of money working for private companies but he said it was more important that he should teach his people how to grow things why was that do you think because in the south the Negroes are poor George Washington Carver didn't want to help himself he wanted to show the colored people how they could plant stuff like soybeans and live off of it off it Helen not off of it oh yes ma'am you know I think it's wrong about this here Jim Crow stuff look at Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson he was an all-american sure and he's got a son who's better than he was what a half back you're not season and not a half back and well it doesn't matter boys what matters is that discrimination is wrong isn't it stinks Billy it ain't right ma'am ain't isn't right thank you Billy it was all very pleasant and I felt that the Gettysburg address had left its mark but the feeling wasn't to last very long there are a number of colored pupils in the schools ordinarily they live at peace with the other boys but occasionally there's a fracas this time there was a fight in the lunchroom and an ugly brawl developed two class periods after the fight when the school was seething with rumors I asked my senior English class to write a piece suitable for the school paper perhaps something designed to improve white Negro relations in the school and I assured them that their sentiments would not be held against them that can the startled me I think the only way to put a stop to this is to separate the white boys and the colored boys I don't mean throw one race out of school but I think they should put one race in the annex the only way to stop this is for whites and Negroes to have their own schools libraries and come here I suggest we send them back to be slaves or isolate them someplace in a far off island they don't appreciate their first of all this could be a fight because of discrimination of a race everyone should be given a fair break in the school regardless of race creed or color this is one principle United States is fighting for we in the school should fight together to try to yes that can the startles me the majority of the students favored segregation the fine talk about George Washington Carver apparently had not registered it was not a particular Negro boy against a particular white boy or vice versa it was the fight against the black regardless of the right or wrong of the issue some of the teachers gathered to talk it over I say that we ought to hold a school assembly right thrash the business out while the subject hard no that's wrong it's wrong the debate would be too emotional of course it'll be emotional what do you want to serve it up as cold potatoes sir this is the time to call the assembly yes I agree no no look all it'll do is stir up trouble my motto is let sleeping dogs large well I don't know this was the ultimate policy to let sleeping dogs lie the immediate difficulty was glossed over and nothing was done to prevent the repetition of a dangerous incident this was bad enough in my school but the situation is worse on the outside in Negro sections where overcrowding unequal opportunity lack of recreational facilities give the Negro a sense of utility and outrage whoever makes the Negro feel that he belongs will win him the communists have long been preaching their revolutionary dogman Harlem their appeal is explicit and understandable but it's not only the Negro problem there's also another sore it exists among the students and among members of the teaching profession haven't you noticed something the Jewish teachers get all the fat plums that's certainly all the soft jobs why I could tell you plenty about how the principle works now one day last month and it's just a plain case of anti-semitism every Jewish teacher gets sent to the annex the Catholics get all the cozy jobs oh you don't say I could tell you plenty if I had a mind I've known this principle for a long time he's a kind of a man there's no exaggeration in this this awareness of racial and religious origins has become indecently acute it leads to a kind of bookkeeping which has nothing to do with pedagogy or the welfare of the school an unofficial quota system according to which jobs and favors are doled out Jewish students have become increasingly sensitive this incident not long ago is typical and then he cracked that anti-semitic joke I tell you that teachers anti-semitic oh you're wrong I'm not wrong it was just a wise crack there's nothing malicious in it I know better I tell you he's a Christian oh you mustn't believe that perhaps the remark was a little tactless but I know that teacher you're just too suspicious while you're developing your persecution there was a case in one school where a Gentile girl complained that a teacher was making anti-semitic remarks many Jewish students had previously made similar charges nothing was done but now a Gentile girl was making them and this time the principal investigated you say that's what he said yes sir not once but many times what have you to say sir she's making it up out of whole cloth oh that's not so you did say please now I don't want this to go any further let's have no public repercussions I want peace and harmony in this school but I tell you one moment young lady the charges have been categorically denied and I accept that denial is that understood yes sir very well you may go what we need in this school is a brotherhood yes that's right what I want in my school kindness and brotherhood well that's what we all want by the Lord we're going to have it now listen here there are three prizes to give out yes give one to a Protestant one to a Catholic and one to a Jew everybody gets his share oh I understand and I'd like to see the colored boys get prizes let's let's make them happy I can't get brotherhood idealistically by heaven I'm going to get it mathematically the principal had hit on an inspired formula practical pedagogy with no frills the incident was closed though it was not clear whether justice or expediency had prevailed but there were other incidents all over the city simultaneously this is what happened yes the verses were amusing and skillful so skillful it was obvious no high school student could have written there is danger in publicizing a slander no matter how brilliantly the falsity of a charge is exposed the aroma of accusation continues to cling but there is also a danger in not publicizing a slander a danger in silence in some schools the principles met with the teachers for discussion you know I don't blame some of our teachers for being upset well neither do I I tell you all of our Jewish teachers in fact all the Jewish people have an awful problem facing them yes a matter of fact in America today there's no problem half as acute as a Jewish problem don't you think so mr. principal I don't think this is a Jewish problem at all this is an American problem well sir may I um well may I ask sir why haven't we attempted to solve it if it's an American problem why haven't we in America schools done something to solve it in the schools what can the schools do this is a problem for the public official for the home but sir the duty of the one moment your attention everyone let's get something straight I run my school the way I know best I've done everything I can it's a good school and I'm not going to have it talked about before the board of education perhaps this isn't even a proper matter for discussion here we're in the business of teaching not indoctrination I think that's all meeting is dismissed but isn't it something the meeting is dismissed I refuse to be dismissed I beg your pardon I refuse to be dismissed sir this isn't something you can dismiss we're teachers we're not teachers for the money in it we're making less than a fourth-class welder in a shipyard I'm not griping I've been at it for 10 years yes 10 years I used to think there was something holy about it teacher something pretty noble standing up before a group of youngsters telling them about good things true things fine things how to grow up decent and straight after 10 years I should know better shouldn't I I shouldn't be no so naive should I this is a school not a church it's both it's everything when they're little we see that they're inoculated against Deferia and vaccinated against smallpox is that always supposed to do keep them from physical high repeat the meeting is nobody you've got to let me finish look after Pearl Harbor we taught them first aid didn't we we taught them how to detect poison gas we didn't ask their opinion we told them now we've got to tell them about the poison of race and religious hatred what's the earthly good of winning battles overseas and losing them here at home what good is it the meeting is dismissed the meeting was dismissed many meetings were dismissed and what emerged once again the school showing themselves unable incapable of meeting a challenge to democracy oh there was surveys there were investigations notices were tacked up on the bulletin boards there was even a little activity an occasional school assembly devoted to tolerance an occasional parent-teacher meeting to promote brotherhood but always voices saying no indoctrination let the children decide for themselves democracy has been around since 1776 the teachers business is to teach not preach all over again it's not cricket for the teacher to impose her views no indoctrination indoctrination is a dirty word but our enemies are not at all sensitive about dirty words they don't exhibit any scruples about trying to capture the minds of the young you can't laugh it away you can't laugh away the fact that they have no doubt about the teachability of intolerance many teachers stopped laughing they called more meeting well what do you want us to do you can't grab them and stuff tolerance down her throat no maybe we're supposed to feed the kids love your neighbor kill her three times a day and all wise cracks don't help suppose we try teaching democracy there it goes again the old bromide remember we're teachers we can't afford to be dogmatic we mustn't indoctrinate oh for heaven's sake why mustn't we is it wrong to take a stand about democratic ideals what makes you think that the results of appeasement will be any better at center high than the word Munich what makes you think you just have to fold your hands while your students praise William deadly pelle and the Christian front maybe you want to shut them up I want to answer them they've got a right to their opinion have they well have they suppose Jimmy gives you his mature opinion that two and two makes five that's his opinion isn't it but you're not going to let him get away with it are you know you're going to tell him where he's wrong listen young people need direction they don't go in for subtlety you don't teach them with mirrors well maybe you're right but what do we do about it that's the trouble I don't know there ought to be a plan there ought to be well there is a plan in Springfield Massachusetts in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania there is a plan it's called the Springfield plan a plan against bias a plan against prejudice a plan for dramatic democratic education and it works to provide opportunities for democratic self-government to study the weakness and the strength of our democracy to establish a positive working philosophy based on democratic principles to evaluate one's own prejudices and bias to study public opinion in a democracy and to understand how it is influenced to teach students how to weigh evidence how to reach conclusions objectively and how to distinguish between fact and opinion and we don't depend on the zeal of a few crusading spirits it's in the school's daily program plan right beside arithmetic following languages in general science every hour every day every week every semester it's not hot air the Springfield plan works yes it works in Springfield and Pittsburgh and wherever the plan is in operation democracy is not a fourth of July phrase but an integral part of the curriculum it's not a notice on the bulletin board it's not a speech before the parent teaches association in Springfield they are no longer afraid to attack a pernicious influence whether it comes from the home or the street or the playground the Springfield plan works it works in Springfield it works in Pittsburgh it can work in any enlightened community where men and women are willing to roll up their sleeves and say let's cut out the pussyfooting let's start being realistic in teaching our youngsters the meaning and worth of the only political ideal that really works for the people honest fearless small D democracy in a few weeks our schools will hold their graduation ceremony the boys will put away their sweaters and their lumberjacket and wear neatly pressed suits and the girls will look pretty in their party dresses and their bright facades the color guard will march in with a flag and the graduates will stand and make the pledge to justice and liberty for all and after the speeches and the diplomas Thompson will go into the Coast Guard Riley will join the Marines the Marco and Feigenbaum will be accepted as aviation cadets and they'll come back on their first furloughs proud in their uniforms and in this time of life and death for the individual this time of life and death for a great nation and a great vision these boys will be more precious to us and we'll remember once again that democracy is the respect for the worth of every individual and we'll remember once again that the American school must become the school of an American faith yes that's the task that's the challenge how are we going to meet it thank you miss eldridge for a most eloquent performance tonight on words at war the national broadcasting company in cooperation with the council on books and wartime has presented a dramatization based on Marie Sirkin's book your school your children starring the distinguished American actress miss Florence Eldridge the script was by Morton Wishin grad music by William meter production garnet garrison jack Costello speaking this is the national broadcasting company