WIRT, WILLIAM (ALBERT)

born Jan. 21, 1874, Markle, Ind., U.S. died March 11, 1938, Gary, Ind. innovative American educator, best known for his platoon system of alternating two groups of students between classroom and recreational or vocational activities. Wirt graduated from DePauw University (Greencastle, Ind.) in 1898, attended graduate school there and at the University of Chicago, and then went to Europe to study educational methods. He began his professional career while in college in Indiana; he was superintendent of schools in Redkey (189597), taught mathematics at Greencastle (189799), then served as superintendent at Bluffton (18991907). He introduced his system at Bluffton, but it was as superintendent of the Gary public schools (190738) that Wirt attracted national attention with what became known as the Gary Plan: Wirt's idea of splitting the student body into platoons. In that time Gary won national renown as a centre for progressive education. Wirt intended his plan to make more efficient use of school facilities. It led to greater emphasis on recreational and vocational activities in school, lengthened school hours from six to eight, and encouraged teachers in subject-area specialization. In 1914 New York City hired Wirt to implement his system there, but controversy among New York educators over the Gary Plan led to its repudiation in 1918. The number of schools following Wirt's program dwindled from more than 1,000 (in more than 200 cities) in 1930 to a handful within two decades. Wirt was a conservative Republican who viewed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal with hostility and charged that public schools were spreading communist propaganda in the 1930s. This led to a congressional investigation, which found no evidence to support his allegations.