The Goslings: A Study of the American SchoolsSinclair, Upton
History
The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools
Sinclair, Upton
Education -- United States
The next teacher to fall a victim was Mr. Benjamin Glassberg, of the
Commercial High School of Brooklyn, who was notified that he was
suspended without pay. Mr. Glassberg’s hard luck was that a boy in his
class had asked him “whether or not Lenin and Trotsky were, in his
opinion, German agents or German spies.” I quote the exact words of Mr.
Glassberg’s answer, as sworn to by thirty-five boys in the class; eight
of these boys testified, and then the board got tired of hearing them,
and the testimony of the other twenty-seven was entered by
stipulation—that is, both sides agreed upon a statement of what the
twenty-seven would testify in substance. Mr. Glassberg’s reply was that:
“he did not think so, as Lenin and Trotsky had been busy circulating
propaganda literature against the war among the Germans, thereby
undermining their morale, and weakening their power in the war.”
Here was another Socialist teacher whom it was desired to “get,” and
this was the chance to “get” him. There were forty-three boys in the
class, and more than thirty were Jewish. The principal summoned before
him, one at a time, two Jewish boys and ten Gentile boys, and questioned
them as to what had happened in the class, trying to get them to say the
worst possible things against Mr. Glassberg. A stenographer was present
and took down what the boys said; then, according to the testimony of
one of the boys, a most eager opponent of Mr. Glassberg, the principal
“made an arrangement of little bits” of what the boys had said, and made
it into a statement. The boys were summoned several times—for a period
of eight weeks this coaching and rehashing of the charges went on, and
meantime Mr. Glassberg was suspended without pay, and could not get the
copy of the charges to which he was legally entitled! It finally became
necessary for his lawyers to apply to the Supreme Court for a writ of
mandamus, compelling the service of the charges upon Mr. Glassberg!
The statement, when finally prepared, was an obvious perversion of
everything which even the most hostile of the boys alleged. This was,
let remind you, a time when the principal news out of Soviet Russia was
“the nationalization of women”; and here was a teacher, questioned by
his students, and telling them the plain and obvious truth. Let me quote
a little more of the testimony—and please note that I am quoting from
the _stipulated_ testimony of thirty-five members of the class:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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