Life, 1919-09-11 · page 14 of 48
Life — September 11, 1919 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three political cartoons satirizing 1920s educational trends: 1. **"Is the old eclipse due again?"** A smiling moon/face labeled "1920" watches a goat—likely representing traditional learning or stability—disappear over a horizon, suggesting educational institutions are abandoning established values. 2. **"Poor John!"** A figure sits slumped outside a building, apparently representing a schoolmaster exhausted by modern educational demands and reform pressures. 3. **"Open Them!"** Two figures at filing cabinets labeled with educational terms suggest bureaucratic growth and administrative bloat in schools. The cartoons collectively mock progressive educational reforms and the expanding complexity of school administration during the 1920s, a period of significant pedagogical debate in America. The satire targets both the abandonment of classical methods and institutional inefficiency.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE * What Goeth On at Present 1S THE OLD ECLIPSE DUE AGALN ? Our School Department ISS OSO SWELL’S MANSION SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. Reading, writing and arithmetic in small doses. Food, ditto. Golf, eight miles away. Tennis across the street at Mr. Jones’ home occasionally, when the Joneses are on a vacation. Horseback riding when the town expressman isn’t using the horse. Punk Minttary Acavemy ror Boys. All military train- ing conducted with broomsticks, so the dear boys will not get hurt. W ends spent camping out under careful chaperonage. Card-playing and cigarette-smoking strictly prohibited, Splendid environment for manly youths. Ad- dress Misses Prudish, Spinsterville. St. Statery’s Finisuinc Scnoot ror Younc Laptes. Offers courses in Hauteur, Dignified Carriage and Wither- ing Glances to young ladies suffering from Jollity and Joy in Living. uaranteed to finish ninety per cent. of all happy-hearted girls. One of the most extinctive schools in America. Miss Ghastly Coldde, Dean. Tue Nutr Scoot, Real home life reproduced for girls—Dish-Washing, Potato - Peeling and Bed - Making courses every day. Domestic science taught by work in homes, girls being ed a percentage of salaries paid by housewives for their work. Something doing every minute. Don't let your daughter do housework at home; send her to the Nutt School, where environment, associations and personality dignify the manual labor of life. Tue Ereictency Acavemy, A teach- er for every two and three-tenths boys. Food mathematically and chemically correct to the last calorie. Recreation methods and appliances prepared ac- cording to psychology and latest scien- tific discoveries. Up-to-date courses Address poor youn! OPEN THEM! in Conservation of Energy, Mechanics of Mentality, ete. Tie Massive Scutoot, New two-million-dollar audi- torium, new four-million-dollar riding school, new eight- million-dollar dining-hall, new. sixteen-million-dollar_dor- mitory with sixteen- to twenty-four-room apartments and six to ten baths. ew auto race course, new golf course, new polo grounds. Courses of study, immaterial. Only obligatory study is course on How to Spend Money Like a Gentler (The management feels it is best for the school that all students take this course.) Rate: seventy- five thousand dollars a year. Address A. Wis Principal. Technical Knowledge What does Estop know about the Bible, Rate: Salome. He's seen three moving-picture versions of THAT SUMMER TAN “GEE, POP, THERE’S A LADY FORGOT TO WASH HER NECK!”