The Goslings: A Study of the American SchoolsSinclair, Upton
History
The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools
Sinclair, Upton
Education -- United States
In a day or two word was brought to Dr. Paul, principal of the school,
that Mr. Schmalhausen had assigned to his pupils a theme for a
composition, as follows: “Write an open letter to Woodrow Wilson,
commenting frankly, within the limits of your knowledge, upon his
conduct of the war against the German government.” Almost certainly some
East Side Jewish boy would make that an occasion for disrespectful
expressions; so Dr. Paul sent the head of his English department, Miss
Garrigues, to Mr. Schmalhausen’s room. This lady rushed up in breathless
haste and caught the pupils in the act of turning in their themes; she
took possession of them, without giving Mr. Schmalhausen a chance to see
them, and delivered them to Dr. Paul, who went over them. Among
seventy-six themes he discovered one that justified his hopes—a bitter,
sneering letter, written by a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy.
Dr. Paul, being skilled in intrigue, saw how this thesis would “go” in
the capitalist press; his venom bubbled over and he exclaimed: “Now I’ve
got him!” At least, Miss Garrigues on the witness stand testified that
he said that. Dr. Paul denied it with asperity, and when asked to
explain how Miss Garrigues could have thought she heard it, he described
her as “an emotionally energized lady on occasions.” Poor Miss
Garrigues—she was new to public life, and did not realize that the first
essential to success is to be a fluent and tactful liar.
Dr. Tildsley came, and he also recognized the opportunity. He summoned
Schmalhausen, and first pinned him down to the fact that he had written
the “Whalen resolution”; then he set for this sensitive minded and
idealistic young teacher an extremely cunning trap. You understand, Mr.
Schmalhausen had not yet seen the criminal theme; and Dr. Tildsley did
not let him see it now. He read him the first page of it—the first page
being mild, and all the outrageous statements being found in the latter
pages! So Dr. Tildsley trapped Mr. Schmalhausen into saying that he
would merely make some minor corrections of expression in the theme; at
least, Dr. Tildsley testified that that is what the young teacher
said—Mr. Schmalhausen denied it. Later on Dr. Tildsley, consulting the
rest of the gang, realized that his case did not look quite right, so he
went back to the school, and read the entire composition to Mr.
Schmalhausen, asking what would have been his action as a teacher in
such a situation. Mr. Schmalhausen undertook to mark the theme as he
would have marked it in the due course of his class work. His comments,
written along the margin of the theme, were as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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