d come
from the people themselves, not that a ready-made program or plan should
be given them, but that they should develop their own." One by one
centers are being formed. The Board of Education furnishes the building,
the local social center organization pays the immediate expenses which
its activities incur. The movement has been started right. "I am a great
believer in democracy," Mr. Condon says. "The people can be trusted to
settle social questions as they should be settled, provided all sides
can be fully presented and time taken for deliberation. The school house
affords the one opportunity where all can meet on common ground as
American citizens and as good neighbors, where the question of wealth
and position may be forgotten, and where what a man is in himself, and
what he is willing to do for the common good, counts most."

Such is the spirit in which Mr. Dyer, the men and women who worked with
him, and the men and women who succeeded him, have striven for the
advancement of education; such the spirit of co-operation and
progressiveism which dominates this great city school system.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 21: Much of this material appeared originally in
Educational Foundations.]

CHAPTER VIII

THE OYLER SCHOOL OF CINCINNATI

I An Experiment in Social Education

On the west side of Cincinnati, separated from the main part of the town
by railroad yards, waste land and stagnant water, surrounded by
factories and a myriad of little homes, stands the Oyler School. "Can
any good thing come out of Nazareth?" queried a doubter. Answers, in
bell tones, the philosopher, "If a man can build a better house or make
a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he fix his home in the
woods, the world will find a path to his door." Because Oyler has built
a better school in a better community the world sits at Oyler's feet to
learn of its experiment in social education.

The first time that I went to the Oyler School I encountered a Committee
of Manufacturers. A Committee of Manufacturers in a public school during
business hours! These men had met to talk with the school principal over
the location of a library, which the entire community had worked to
secure. When the time came to go before the Park Board over in the
center of the city, to secure a playground near the Oyler School, the
local bank furnished automobiles, and dozens of business men, leaving
their offices, took the opportunity to endor