Frontiersmen or rearguard, which is which

The journalistic conflict goes merrily on between those who charge that the public schools are not doing all they should for our boys and girls and those who spring to the defence at the first sign of attack, real or imaginary. I for one cannot lament this too keenly. I realize that a lot of paper and ink is being wasted and that much of the contest consists of what someone has happily described as charging furiously at one another down parallel lines. Nevertheless, I think that it may, with time, bring into the light of day both strengths and weaknesses in the schools of which the public has too long been unaware. Many people have a stake in public education: the children who attend the schools, their parents, the teachers, the taxpayers who support the schools, the businessmen and industrialists who provide jobs for young people when they finish school, and others. If that much misused word democracy has any meaning left, it should mean that all these groups who have a stake in the schools have a right to be heard when education is under discussion. Furthermore, all should have a right to their own opinions on educational matters nor should anyone be expected to refrain from speaking out when his opinions are based on personal observation rather than on the results of the latest scientific study. The rapid increase in the volume of criticism of education in the past decade has been impressive. Papers and magazines of national circulation as well as local publications give space repeatedly to the critics and, generally, to those who try to answer them. Of the two camps, attackers and defenders, the former seem to arouse far more interest-that is, if letters to editors, requests for reprints and to reprint, and offers of speaking engagements are dependable criteria. There are probably several reasons for this. In the first place, it is usually easy to create a sensation when one is attacking; the attacker

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