Show BOODLK SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 1 In a considerable number of cities where elections were held last week contests for scbool board directors elicited immense interest from the voters One of the most depressing signs of the times is that pout cal trickery and corruption have invaded the precincts of education and brought to I the front as promoters of mental culture a character of men ignorant unpolished I and unscrupulous Time was when membership mem-bership of a school board was an honor ought by persons willing to gratuitously servo a cause deemed only little less righteous than that of religion it elf More often its functions were performed by gentlemen of the highest high-est standing on the solicitation of neighbors and friends and without indi vidual seeking Of late years however and especially in places of large population this traditionary rule has gradually grown into disuse until here is hardly a vestige of it left It is not an left I uncommon thing in many cities for school directors to be I grossly ignorant of the very rudiments of learning or to them see uncouth in appearance ap-pearance and vulgar in behavior Their meetings are often disorderly and their proceedings partake of tho nature of the bummer ward meetings of which they themselves are generally the disgraceful progeny What is the cause of this The answer is found in a slang term one word only being be-ing required to express it I is boodle One may be an architect another a contractor con-tractor another a carpenter or plumber or stovedealer or bookseller The money to be made out of building and repairing schoolhouses or selling desks and benches or furnishing supplies of any kind is the object the boodle school director is after He is always the advocate of the greatest liberality in expenditures the biggest schoolhouses and the finest outfit Curriculum Curric-ulum discipline method of instruction are natters of entire indifference entre indifferencethere is no money in them And what Is the remedy Separation of school board from ordinary political elections elec-tions independent boxes for the reception re-ception of ballots for school directors and above all the taking of the nomination of candidates for such positions i out of the and of the hoodlums by the I participation of tho respectable element ol society Too many persons whose patri o tic duty It is to takepart In tho preiimi caries of the elections feel themselves above the contamination of ward contaminaton primarIes pri-marIes They have only themselves to blame if they permit the classes least competent com-petent to manage the schools to take charge of this uncongenial and unsuitable work to tho detriment of every public and worthy interest |