Like an elephant trying to curtsey, the . world's biggest school system last week coyly re-enacted its birth. New York City's Board of Education was 100 years old. To celebrate, it dressed its little girls in pinafores and pantalettes, its little boys in jackets and Buster Brown collars. They read McGuffey readers, wrote on slates, drank water from dippers. Bearded teachers brandished canes at boys in dunce caps. A gentleman impersonating an old-time school trustee drove up to P.S. 15, The Bronx, in a gig. The city's schoolchildren were so bored they didn't even giggle.
When the New York Legislature in 1842...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
