The Public School as the Neighborhood Center

Publication Date: June 1915

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Jennie Franklin Purvin

Research Area: Education; Social conditions

Keywords: Recreation; Informal Education; American Jews

Type: Other

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The author suggests that public schools be put to use, after hours, as social centers for the community. They provide convenient, centralized locations with many facilities already in place where all people, children, youth, adults, and the elderly, could find positive and enriching amusement. Now that the home is no longer the center of life, with so many homes lacking either comforts or human warmth, and so many youth independent too early or chasing after paid and unregulated pleasures like dance halls, there is a need for a wholesome and accessible alternative.

Bulletin of the National Conference of Jewish Charities, 5:11