Life — April 1, 1920 — page 19: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon depicts a large blindfolded figure labeled "Federal Educational Board" towering over smaller bureaucrats and staff members in an office setting. The blindfold is the key visual metaphor: it suggests the Federal Educational Board operates without proper oversight or awareness of actual conditions. The surrounding smaller figures—labeled "STAFF"—appear bewildered or struggling beneath this blind authority. The cartoon satirizes federal education administration as incompetent and disconnected from reality, making decisions without seeing their actual impact on schools or educators. This likely responds to specific early 20th-century education policy debates, criticizing centralized federal control as removing decision-makers from ground-level realities. The "blindman's-buff" game reference reinforces the idea of blind, fumbling governance.