The Independent School; J. Gummere

the Independent School JOHN F. GUMMERE THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL pro vides an excellent example of free enterprise. In a field in which the product (or a legalized fac simile thereof) is available to everyone at no charge, thanks to taxes, independent schools must offer something which the general public thinks worth buying. Tax-supported government pro grams go on and on, even when inefficiently and wastefully man aged. This is not to say that pub lic education is thus managed, but it is to say that the lifespan of a private enterprise depends very much upon how it is managed. It operates efficiently, or it goes out of business. The rules of tenure for teachers were established to protect pro ... fessionals against politics, ignorMr. Gummere is Headmaster of the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. 50 ance, and other sins of boards of public education whose mem bers were sometimes incapable of intelligent management of schools.

Teachers were also protected against spite, malice, prejudice, and similar evils. But everybody who knows anything about tenure also knows that it serves to pro tect the mediocre. Tenure is not granted in inde pendent schools (there are very few exceptions). It is hopefully (and for the most part rightly) assumed that the managing boards of such schools will not be a prey to the ills referred to above. Moreover, the feeling is that no employer should be compelled to continue the employment of peo ple who do not measure up. Thus, the free market again asserts it self. The teacher's protection is not that of legislation but of the 1966 THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL 51 knowledge that he is doing a proper job. Independent schools serve the interesting and vital function of providing services, ideas, innova tions with which state-supported schools are not free to experiment. In the free market, consumers determine which goods and serv ices will be bought. Producers of goods and services are thus com pelled to make them at least as good as, if not better than, com peting suppliers do, or go out of existence.

Independent schools offer such services; and upon their manage ment lies the heavy responsibility for making good. The teachers do not have tenure; therefore, upon them lies the necessity of doing their jobs well. Those associated with independ ent schools, be they trustees, ad ministra tors, teachers, staff, know all this perfectly well. All are free to work where they are for the kind of education in which they believe, or to go somewhere else. Thus, management, teachers, and staff must produce and co operate conscientiously and satis factorily. Meantime, the public evaluates what is offered, and is free to buy or not. The fact that the public is buying, more and more, and con tributing generously in campaigns for funds proves the capacity of independent schools to survive and grow in a market much of which has been pre-empted by govern ment. ~ Individuals Know Best THE TRUTH is that many different things are most important, each of us having his own idea of their relative importance, depending upon the time and circumstances. Each of us tends to do what seems most important to him at the moment, and this accounts for all human creativity and production. With our creative and productive specialties we come to be important to one another, often in ways which could not be foreseen and which many of us may never clearly understand. This variability in the subjective judgments of the importance of things is the basis of all trade and voluntary cooperation, enabling each pro ductive individual to gain peaceful possession and use of vastly more than he could ever hope to attain strictly on his own.

VICTOR ~ AcoasoN, "Most Important," from E __ on Libert., Volume IV WILLIAM H. PETERSON The Businessman - Hero or Villain? • Dr. William H. Peterson was Professor of Economics at New York University's Graduate SchoDl of Business before joining the staff of United States Steel Corpora tion in 1964. This article is reprinted by permission from tlhe February 12, 1966 special 75th anniversary edition of Farmand, oldest business journal in Scandinavia, pub lished in Oslo. Dr. Trygve J. B. Hoff, 70 last November and editor of Farmand since 1935, has won friends around the world with his staunch and undeviating stand for a society characterized by law and order, freedom, and respect for the individual and the dignity of man. Dr. Peterson is one of the several members of the Mont Pelerin Society c'ontributing articles on various aspects of business and economics to thi,scommemorative issue of Farmand.