COMMUNITY INTERESTS 



1517 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 



In many communities one will find what 

 may be called the "submerged element" those 

 who are kept from getting what they should 

 out of life from a sense of their deficiencies. 

 The handicap of poverty, of social inferiority, 

 of physical weakness, or of whatever else it 

 may be, has too often acted as a check to nat- 

 ural ability and promise. Whenever there is 

 in any neighborhood a place where all may 

 meet on a common level, as brothers and sisters 

 of one community family, where the young 

 people from the humblest homes join in the 

 social and educational affairs of the center on 

 the same footing as their more fortunate neigh- 

 bors, then that neighborhood is working out 

 in a wholesome way the problem of the sub- 

 merged element. But even in a neighborhood 

 where there is not this special problem, the 



"get together" spirit is one of the most en- 

 couraging phases of modern life. As this com- 

 munity-interest movement has come to stay, it 

 will be well to examine the particular agencies 

 by which it is perpetuated. One of these 

 agencies is the Neighborhood Hall, a place 

 where the individual may meet his friends, 

 bring his family, and enjoy himself as freely 

 as in his home. Recreation parks, containing 

 gymnasiums, concert halls, playgrounds and 

 the like, are getting to be common features of 

 towns and cities and are serving to bring the 

 people of the neighborhood into closer rela- 

 tionship. Probably the most influential phase 

 of the movement, however, is the develop- 

 ment of the public school as a community 

 center. The good effects of this are no longer 

 to be questioned ; they have been proved. 



The School as a Community Center 



The utilization of school buildings as centers 

 of community interests originated in the move- 

 ment for a "wider use of the school plant." 

 It was argued, and with reason, that it was a 

 wasteful procedure to invest great sums of 

 public money in buildings and equipment 

 which were in actual service but a fraction of 

 the time. Why should these costly buildings 

 be closed every night in the week after four 

 or five o'clock, during the school sessions, and 

 be entirely idle in the vacation seasons? Why 

 not throw them open when they were not 

 occupied by the pupils, and let the people of 

 the community utilize them for social, educa- 

 tional and other purposes? These were the 

 chief arguments advanced, and in course of 

 time they produced results. It was not long 

 before the idea of a wider use of the school 

 plant was generally accepted without argument, 

 and the first step was thus taken toward mak- 

 ing the school a center of community interests. 

 For the success of this movement special credit 

 is due Prof. Edward J. Ward, specialist in 

 Community Organization, of the United States 

 Bureau of Education. 



One essential, however, was lacking. In a 

 sense the schoolhouse became a community 

 center, but not one in which were held the 

 meetings of a united body of people, working 

 with harmony of aim and unity of interests. 

 For example, the building would be set aside at 

 stated times for purposes of registration and 

 voting. At such times the school principal 

 would be without authority over the proceed- 

 ings, and the premises would be occupied by 



half a dozen men quite out of harmony with 

 the spirit of the school. Again, on one evening 

 there would be a political meeting of the fol- 

 lowers of a certain candidate, and on the next, 

 a partisan rally for his rival. It Was customary, 

 also, to extend the use of the gymnasium and 

 other parts of the building to athletic organiza- 

 tions of neighborhood churches and other 

 bodies, each of which was quite independent 

 of the rest. A school principal, writing of 

 these conditions, summarized them in these 

 words : 



There is no more unity of organization among 

 the people who use the various free times and 

 spaces of this school plant than there is among 

 the people who happen to occupy the separated 

 rooms of a hotel. 



The story of the development of the school 

 as a real neighborhood center is therefore the 

 story of its expansion from a meeting place for 

 unrelated groups to a real community home. 

 To those pioneers who studied the problem in 

 all its phases, it seemed logical that the use 

 of the school plant for other than the regular 

 sessions should be determined and controlled 

 by the school authorities, and, with that idea 

 as a basis, something of the nature of the fol- 

 lowing has been worked out as an ideal pro- 

 gram for the construction of the community 

 home. 



The Community Forum. In any upbuilding 

 of a harmonious community home there must 

 of necessity be a preliminary organization of 

 the adult citizens of the neighborhood, and to 

 this end it has been found practicable to estab- 



