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

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In telling the story, I have to devote two paragraphs to some Los Angeles school principals. I apologize for taking up your time with people you never heard of before, and will never want to hear of again. But you will find, as we go on, that the school system of America is one system; when you read about school principals in Los Angeles, you will be learning about school principals in every other big American city. Also, I would suggest that if men are important enough to be put in charge of your children, they ought to be important enough for you to know about.

In the course of Dr. Lickley’s duties it became necessary for him to consider charges against a principal by the name of Doyle. Seven witnesses made affidavit that this principal had kept liquor in the school building, contrary to law; that he had offered them this liquor, and that his habits were generally known to the students, and were a cause of demoralization in the school. It was testified that this liquor had been brought to Doyle by Italian boys, whose parents were making it, and that these boys had thus obtained immunity from school duties and from punishment. It was also testified that he had knocked down David Rutberg, a fourteen-year-old Jewish boy, by striking him in the eye. It was further charged that Doyle, while principal of an evening school, took other teachers away from their classes and spent the time with them gambling in the basement. For this and other reasons Dr. Lickley recommended Doyle for dismissal. We may complete this part of the story by stating that Mrs. Dorsey and her school board have blocked every effort for a hearing of these charges. Doyle is still in the system, and the board has jumped him over two entire divisions, and elected him principal of one of the biggest schools in the city. When this caused a scandal, the men who had made the charges against Doyle were summoned to the superintendent’s office, and efforts were made to browbeat them into withdrawing their sworn statements.