The School Survey Hoax

A widely publicized survey comparing public school problems in 1940 with modern school problems has been circulating for nearly twenty years, but the survey is a hoax invented for political purposes. The false survey of "top problems of public schools in 1940" listed items such as talking, chewing gum, and running in the halls. This list contrasted dramatically with accompanying list of modern school problems that included drug abuse, pregnancy, suicide, assault, and other serious problems. In the 1980's and 90's the two lists were widely cited by educational authorities and political pundits such as William Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Carl Rowan, and George Will. The lists appeared in national news magazines such as Time and Newsweek, and newspapers such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal; they were cited in numerous speeches and were aired on CBS News (O'Neill, 1994).

A skeptical professor at Yale University, Barry O'Neill, investigated the origins of the lists and in the process collected over 250 different versions of the claimed surveys. Eventually, Professor O'Neill traced the surveys to T. Cullen Davis of Fort Worth Texas (O'Neill, 1994). Mr. Davis was a wealthy oil businessman and fundamentalist Christian who in 1982 constructed the lists as part of an effort to attack public education. He shared the lists with some like-minded colleagues, who assisted in their dissemination. Asked how he arrived at the lists, Mr. Cullen told Professor O'Neill, "They weren't done from a scientific survey. How did I know what the offenses in the schools were in 1940? I was there. How do I know what they are now? I read the newspapers" (p. 48, O'Neill, 1994).

Although the lists were exposed as a hoax in 1994, they continue to be cited as factual. For example, at a 2001 school safety conference at a midwestern state, an official from the U.S. Department of Education began her keynote address by presenting the same lists, unaware that they were fabricated. The point of this observation is that all of us are susceptible to misinformation about school crime and violence. Educators must be cautious about studies with bold or dramatic claims, and should demand credible evidence from firsthand sources.

O'Neill, B. (1994). The history of a hoax. The New York Times Magazine , March 6, 1994, pp 46-49.