ABSTRACT
In early October 1911, truant officer W. P. Ray happily reported to Superintendent Wirt that he had found perfect attendance among the twenty-three "very nice children" in the one-room school on Gary's far west side. As the children flocked about him, the girls politely requested that he "ask Mr. Wirt to put us up a swing and the boys supplemented this petition with [a] request for 2 balls." Looking around, he "noticed two girls trying to see saw on a rough 2X4 over a saw horse." Ray could have been describing conditions at any one of the hundreds of poor, rural schools still scattered around Indiana and throughout the Midwest. Instead, he had just visited one of the schools in what was fast becoming the country's most celebrated educational system noted for its efficient management, elaborate facilities, and lucky children. Gary's schools were becoming justly famous, yet all of the city's children were not necessarily benefiting from Wirt's accomplishments. The system was more complex than most were willing to acknowledge. It continued to mature during the decade, however, adding curricular and extracurricular programs and generating considerable national controversy, and most in the city seemed content. They were proud of their celebrated superintendent and showpiece schools. 1
