Education: Gary Strike

Admirer of the famed Gary system of secondary education wondered what connection there might be, if any, between that system and last week’s strike of 1,357 pupils at the Emerson High School in Gary, Ind. The immediate details of the strike had greater racial than educational significance (see RACES, p. 12).

The Gary system was installed by Superintendent William Albert Wirt, who last week was obliged to deal with the strikers. The system consists in a year-round school schedule for the purpose of fully utilizing school equipment; and in elective courses, elective vacations, informal grading and self-discipline—to promote mental initiative. In last week’s strike, pupils who had presumably been thoroughly Garyized for the past several years, took the law into their own hands. Students of the Gary system recalled that one criticism of it was that it would decrease teachers’ influence over pupils.