BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

ights and freedom and the welfare of the society. Americans, under
pressure in emergency or critical times, always give attention to educational
questions with particular intensity. It is, therefore, understandable at
such times to remember the "beginning".
School and Community in the Pioneer Period
7. In the small towns of the early American West, which exhibited only
a rudimentary administrative structure, the conflict between individual
and society was solved with obvious satisfaction. The one room community
school house, a result of societal and individual efforts, was at the same
time the social, cultural, administrative and recreation center of the
community. The citizens of the community were responsible for the
organisation, personnel, operation and maintenance of the school. In
addition to the curriculum, which was limited to begin with, it reflected
the needs of the community. Instruction was not limited to distinct age
groups and the school year was governed by the seasons and the daily
procedures of the community.
8. In emergency or dangerous times, the school house in rural areas,
villages and small towns was used as an emergency shelter, provisional
hospital, distribution center for articles of food and clothing, health
agency or as "factory rooms" for the production and canning of food.
All of this belonged in large part to "instruction" and was in no way
considered to be foreign to the purposes of the school. In that way
education oriented itself on the extensive needs of the community. The
multiple use of the school was discontinued when the proper instruction
for the "growing number of youth" won a clear priority and the other
activities of the school were set aside - a first step in the alienation
of the school from the supporting community.
The Development of the Regular School with Specialised Instruction:
Separation of School and Community
9. In the course of the 19th century, with increasing urbanisation,
constantly improving technology and growing demand for special knowledge
and skills, the school broadened and differentiated itself more and more.
At the same time the content of instruction became more abstract and grew
further apart from particular local needs. Towards the end of the century,
the uses of school for multiple purposes other than instruction were
reduced by law. The practical regulations, however, were left up to the
local school agencies. The educational reforms after 1900 changed the
rules and reversed the trend again saying that it was the duty of the
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