Читать книгу The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools онлайн

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One of the guiding thoughts of the liberal campaign had been that teachers know something about teaching. They now prepared a timid proposal for a “Teachers’ Advisory Council,” to consult with the superintendent and the assistants as to the welfare of the children and the schools. Such councils exist in many cities in America, and the teachers of Los Angeles thought their plan would be welcomed by their new “liberal” board of education. So little did they understand the methods of the Black Hand! One morning the “Times” came out with a frightful story, all the way across several columns; there was an underground conspiracy among the teachers of Los Angeles to establish a “teachers’ soviet”! A group of blood-thirsty “Reds” were scheming to take control of the schools from the duly elected board of education, and have the taxpayers’ money spent and administered by labor unions!

One of the teachers who was active in this movement, and who in a long editorial was branded as a dangerous “radical,” was Miss Wilhelmina Van de Goorberg. This, as you will note, is a terrifying foreign-sounding name; but it wasn’t foreign enough for the “Times,” which made it Von instead of Van. This lady’s parents came from Holland when she was a child, and the “Times” staff know her very well; but they changed her from innocent Dutch into devilish Prussian!