Читать книгу The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools - Upton Sinclair - Страница 19

Table of Contents

Needless to say, the first duty of this Tammany school board is to enforce loyalty to the plutocracy; and, needless to say, this constitutes “patriotism” and “religion.” Mr. Aaron Dotey, Chief Spy of the DeWitt Clinton High School, brought in a report last year, charging a school teacher with having said that “patriotism is a murderer’s occupation and a traitor’s cloak.” It did not occur to Mr. Dotey that this might not be the teacher’s fault. The Chief Spy should have mentioned that a hundred and fifty years or so ago a leading Englishman of letters, a prize old Tory, made the statement that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

The hounding of the teachers by the scoundrels began at the very outbreak of the war. First, there was the “mayor’s pledge,” which they all were required to swear; this not being enough, there was another pledge contrived by the board of education. All the teachers were loyal, but not all of them were willing to swear away their right to think. There were eighty-seven conscientious objectors to the “loyalty pledges.” A number of these subsequently served in the army and made distinguished records; but intention to enlist did not save them from persecution at the outbreak of the war, nor did their war-records save them from persecution after they came back.

In the fall of 1917 there occurred an outbreak at the DeWitt Clinton High School. Dr. Tildsley arbitrarily lengthened the school day, when already the teachers and pupils were overworked. A deputation of pupils waited upon the board of education, to protest against the proposed measure, and were received by John Whalen, board member and prominent Tammany chieftain, who settled the matter as follows: “I want it clearly understood that neither the pupils nor the teachers will be allowed to run the schools. And I want you to understand that if you pupils don’t go back and behave yourselves I’ll close down all the schools. Do you understand?” The pupils went back and reported, and there was the beginning of a strike; also there was a meeting of the teachers of DeWitt Clinton, attended by more than a hundred, who adopted the following so-called “Whalen Resolution”:

First:—That it is the sense of this meeting that John Whalen’s assertion is contrary to the modern spirit of true democracy.

Second:—That remarks of this type and threats to close the high schools are detrimental to good discipline and good teaching.

Third:—It is the sense of this meeting that the autocratic assertion of John Whalen is subversive of the proper spirit underlying our educational institutions.

Fourth:—Be it finally resolved:

That the best interests of school administration demand the cordial recognition of the classroom teacher as a most vital influence in the educational system.

This, of course, was a direct challenge to the power of the gang; a revolt which must be put down at all hazards. Superintendent Tildsley came up to ascertain the names of the ring-leaders, and especially of the one who had drafted those incendiary words. The spy department was ready with the information; the criminal was Samuel Schmalhausen, a Jewish Socialist, twenty-nine years of age. It was resolved to drive Schmalhausen out of the system, and with him two other Socialist teachers, Mufson and Schneer. The spy department undertook to get something on these teachers without delay; and we are now going to hear a little story, which shows in detail exactly how a school spy department works.

In a day or two word was brought to Dr. Paul, principal of the school, that Mr. Schmalhausen had assigned to his pupils a theme for a composition, as follows: “Write an open letter to Woodrow Wilson, commenting frankly, within the limits of your knowledge, upon his conduct of the war against the German government.” Almost certainly some East Side Jewish boy would make that an occasion for disrespectful expressions; so Dr. Paul sent the head of his English department, Miss Garrigues, to Mr. Schmalhausen’s room. This lady rushed up in breathless haste and caught the pupils in the act of turning in their themes; she took possession of them, without giving Mr. Schmalhausen a chance to see them, and delivered them to Dr. Paul, who went over them. Among seventy-six themes he discovered one that justified his hopes—a bitter, sneering letter, written by a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy.

Dr. Paul, being skilled in intrigue, saw how this thesis would “go” in the capitalist press; his venom bubbled over and he exclaimed: “Now I’ve got him!” At least, Miss Garrigues on the witness stand testified that he said that. Dr. Paul denied it with asperity, and when asked to explain how Miss Garrigues could have thought she heard it, he described her as “an emotionally energized lady on occasions.” Poor Miss Garrigues—she was new to public life, and did not realize that the first essential to success is to be a fluent and tactful liar.

Dr. Tildsley came, and he also recognized the opportunity. He summoned Schmalhausen, and first pinned him down to the fact that he had written the “Whalen resolution”; then he set for this sensitive minded and idealistic young teacher an extremely cunning trap. You understand, Mr. Schmalhausen had not yet seen the criminal theme; and Dr. Tildsley did not let him see it now. He read him the first page of it—the first page being mild, and all the outrageous statements being found in the latter pages! So Dr. Tildsley trapped Mr. Schmalhausen into saying that he would merely make some minor corrections of expression in the theme; at least, Dr. Tildsley testified that that is what the young teacher said—Mr. Schmalhausen denied it. Later on Dr. Tildsley, consulting the rest of the gang, realized that his case did not look quite right, so he went back to the school, and read the entire composition to Mr. Schmalhausen, asking what would have been his action as a teacher in such a situation. Mr. Schmalhausen undertook to mark the theme as he would have marked it in the due course of his class work. His comments, written along the margin of the theme, were as follows:

Exaggerated, excessive emotionalism.... Is there any sanity in this assertion?... Do you take these remarks seriously?... For a thoughtful student this statement sounds irrational.... Recall President Wilson’s differentiation between the German Government and the German people.... Not accurately presented.... Foolish attitude historically.... Do you believe in its sincerity? (peace offer made by Germany).... Sorry to find this unintelligent comment in your work.... Why did you write this?

Mr. Schmalhausen was suspended from his duties without pay, and in due course was haled before a committee of the board of education. It is interesting to note that the chairman of this committee was none other than John Whalen, Tammany chieftain, who had started all the trouble by threatening to close all the schools! I have before me the testimony at the hearing, as published in pamphlet form by the Teachers’ Union. John Dewey describes it as the most comic document of the age, so it will pay us to read a few passages: first, the testimony of Miss Garrigues, as to why she considered Mr. Schmalhausen’s theme “an unwise assignment.” Do not fail to note from this passage the high standards of English expression which prevail in the English department of New York’s biggest high school:

Q. May I ask why you considered it an unwise assignment? A. I think the reason was that it was a little bit, in the nature of the wording, inclined to lead boys who were either pacific, I think is the real trouble, or were unpatriotic—this boy unquestionably was unpatriotic, I think—to express themselves very freely, which I do not know whether it is very wise for boys of that age to do.

Also you will wish to hear Superintendent Tildsley upon this same grave question. Dr. Tildsley was very sure that Schmalhausen had made a mistake in assigning such a theme. He explained in detail why the boys of the DeWitt Clinton High School were unfit persons to address imaginary letters to Woodrow Wilson. He said:

They are very much interested in the social life and the political life of this city; they are exceedingly fond of discussion and they have developed a rather high degree of critical ability and critical tendency, and the only thing that they like more than anything else I should say, is a discussion on social, political and economical topics; they are more interested in that than they are in being good or even than they are in athletics.

That students should be more interested in “a discussion on social, political and economical topics” than they are in athletics, would be recognized by any superintendent of schools in America as a state of affairs full of menace to our institutions, and under no circumstances to be tolerated. Cross-questioned further, Dr. Tildsley stated that he would not think it right to let boys in the DeWitt Clinton High School write on the negative of this topic: “We seek no selfish ends in this world.” He would not consider it proper to let them write on the negative of the topic: “Conscription is justifiable under a democracy.” He would not think it was proper to permit them to write an essay on the subject: “Revenue by bond issue or taxation.” After Dr. Tildsley had made these emphatic statements, the cross-questioner sprang on him the painful tidings that all three of these themes had been in the examination papers of the DeWitt Clinton High School of the previous week—officially adopted with the approval of his friend and admirer, the “emotionally energized” Miss Garrigues of the English department!

Mr. Schmalhausen was on the stand for a couple of hours; and as you read the testimony you recognize a man of culture and fine sensibility, a teacher profoundly conscientious, with deep respect for the personalities of his students. He told how he would have dealt with that theme if it had come up in his class; he would have questioned the pupil and showed him his ignorance, and tried to make him realize that his ideas were wrong. Asked if he disagreed with the opinions expressed in the theme, Mr. Schmalhausen replied:

Oh, absolutely, from head to foot. The subject matter is offensive from every point of view. Part of it is irrational. Part of it is crude and violent, the whole thing is a wrong frame of mind, and in my discussion with Dr. Tildsley, with which I took up a lot of time, I tried to explain clearly what influences in that boy’s social and economical and home environment were responsible for some of his sentiments. So far as I was concerned there was no implication at all at any time that I ever accepted the thought of that letter.

Nevertheless, Mr. Schmalhausen was driven from the school system of New York, and with him Mr. Mufson and Mr. Schneer. The offense of Mr. Schneer was that he had given to some of his pupils a list of books, with comments on their contents in the somewhat flowery style of a young man who takes great literature with sudden and intense seriousness. There were two hundred books listed, and a committee of the Schoolmasters’ Association undertook to mark ten of them which were especially offensive. One was Eltzbacher’s “Anarchism”—which turned out upon investigation to be a work opposing Anarchism, written by a non-Anarchist; poor Mr. Schneer had been trying to save his East Side Jewish boys from the snares of the extremists! Another was Romain Rolland’s “Jean Christophe,” one of the greatest novels and noblest works of culture of our time. A third was listed as “Sinclair’s ‘The Divine Fire.’” No one could guess why the committee should have objected to this eminently respectable novel; it occurs to me that Mr. Schneer’s failure to give the first names of his authors may have betrayed the schoolmasters into thinking that he had endorsed a book by my wicked self! I occasionally get letters intended for May Sinclair; so let me state that the author of “The Divine Fire” lives in England, and is not related to me, nor in any way to blame for my evil actions and writings—except that she occasionally writes me letters approving them!