Psychiatric Aid in the Grammar Schools
- Author:
Paul Halmos, B.A., Dr.Juris.
In the great majority of our Grammar Schools ” teaching ” means subject-teaching to classes. It is by no means always a ” talking-down ” process on the part of the teacher: there are a few people in the teaching profession whose dynamic personality infuses life into the drab routine of even a Mathematics or French syllabus. Most of the ” experienced” masters are ” good disciplinarians ” who regard their inevitable percentage of failures with philosophic equanimity. Their successes are the good examination results and these are shown up to the novices of the profession as criteria of educational achievement. There are only a few day-school heads who have the courage of disregarding percentage figures related to the general school passes and failures and who devise their timetables without too much worry about school certificate turnover. They cannot be disrespectful of their parent-clients’ demands and forgetful of university standards because their value as headmasters is more often than not assessed on the basis of examination achievements.
And while the school certificate factories go on with their hum-drum shifts?with occasional short intervals of ” workers’ playtime ” in the form of a weekly football match or of the meeting of the Current Affairs Society?some yearly products of school-leaving fifth and sixth formers enter life hopelessly unequipped, hesitating and bewildered. The picture will, no doubt, raise an indignant protest from the complacent senior member of the Common Room and a doubting look on the face of the eager novice who is only too willing to change and improve things but cannot pluck up courage to experiment on account of his own emotional attachment to the traditional ways in which he himself was brought up. They will both agree in saying: ” Surely, this is an exaggeration ! It is not as bad as all that ! “
In a sense it is not. The Grammar School is not responsible for infantile traumata and preschool maladjustments. It is not responsible for family disorganization or present-day social disorganization. In short, it is not responsible for the neurosis of parents. But the vicious circle must be broken somewhere and it ought to be toppriority task of our educational system to attempt to do exactly that. Here the writer is preoccupied with the Grammar School sector of our education but his conclusions are claimed to be applicable? mutatis mutandis?to other sectors of primary and secondary education. The special responsibility of the Grammar Schools lies in the stubborn refusal by their academically trained staffs, to avail themselves of modern techniques which have recently been developed to counteract family maladjustments and to facilitate social adaptation within the school community. One should have expected more open- | mindedness, more insight and more enterprising leadership froni those whose own educational j opportunities have been so much more favourable- ? The Mathematics master of Pinks Major knows only that Pinks hasn’t done his homework but does not know that Pinks is an enuretic child who gets thrashed by father every morning when he ” has done it again The French master is delighted by little Hopper’s proficiency in les verbes irreguliers but he has no idea how much little Hopper is disliked by his class-mates and ho^ many kicks and sneers his top-boy has to endureLater, probably Pinks will fail in Maths., Hopped will get a distinction in his subject, and neither them will know the first thing about co-operative work and satisfying social contact.
The case of Francis, aged 12, in form lie of 3 Grammar School for boys, may bring out the seriousness of unobserved and consequently ufl- j treated social maladjustments in our day schools- | The writer carried out a sociometric test by a questionnaire containing two questions, “1. Natf>e three boys in your form with whom you would to share desks in the coming term. 2. Name those boys?if there are such?with whom y?u would definitely not like to share desks in the coming term: (you may leave this question ufl’ answered unless you have a serious objection t0 any boy or boys in your form).”
Out of 28 boys only two were left entirely un’ | chosen. One of these, Francis, received seve’1 objections. There were only three other sing’ objections to other boys who also received choice5’ and so it was manifest to the writer that he W# confronted with a serious case of isolation an rejection. In his capacity as assistant master of a academic subject he had had no opportunity 1 i establish Francis’s isolation before this test W# | taken and he would not have had any opportune without such an enquiry.
In the course of casual interviews with the seve^. objectors it was found that they all complained Francis being dirty and smelly. The writer, 11 being in a position to approach Francis’s pareIon his own account, reported the case to the hea.^ master. The headmaster interviewed the boy mother and tried to impress on her the seriousne^ of the school’s findings, but the mother, who W four other children and had to manage on a working class wage, did not show much ufl1& standing or co-operate satisfactorily. Furti^ observation of Francis revealed that the boy was sullen, suspicious and unsociable member of }f form and that the objectors’ reference to Franc1 ^ I lack of cleanliness was to a substantial degree rationalization. No appeal to social work agenc j^as possible because their intervention would have een resented and protested against by the mother and would not have been legitimate anyway owing 0 the absence of any palpable form of maltreatment. How, when and where can the subject-master apply methods of readjustment under the existing Astern of education ?
It seems obvious to the writer that at least three storms are essential if a beginning in mental i Wyfcxis 1S to be ma^e within the framework j t the educational system. (1) Psychiatric training future teachers or/and the employment of Psychiatric social workers by a group of schools. c J Regular psychiatric education of parents preeded by intensive press and wireless propaganda 0 ensure their attendance. Such education would e more effective if the lecturers were those under J and the parents would be invited to the schools red6- t*le*r ch’’dren actually attend. (3) The Action of the academic-vocational syllabus and ?. Production of free group-activities in the h^ary school-time. The extension of the school Qj,Vlng age will permit us to slow down the rate t, academic-vocational instruction and to postpone e date of the general school examination. In | be?St Continental countries no one can matriculate I hu?W a^e Why rnust we be in such a rry ? Jhg extension of the school leaving age 9Vldes us with an excellent opportunity; are we prln? to employ so many more Maths, masters, CLerich masters and other subject masters to take Wear8e. the increased school population or are adi to use this opportunity to heal, to reJfjst ? Are we going to spend this extra year on Ho or on social skills ? We may ask:
I SocW mai?y our schools have carried out the the10,?16^^ tests devised by Dr Moreno to establish som ? ?ree ?f social isolation in which a child ,et’rnes finds itself within the school-community ? reso ow many graduate assistants have the skill, a ‘^^ftdness and the opportunity to embark on apD me of group-readjustments whenever this i have^if desirable ? Such methods and schemes acc0 n usec* in the United States and their tra;^11*8 ou8ht to be available to our teachers’ But”8 Colleges ?duc t^le. social psychology and sociology of train *s not yet a particular interest of the adve1^ colleges. One only has to look at the Thev ements ?f the Emergency Training Colleges. / in Lr^Vant lecturers in Geography and Woodwork, seem !story and Physical Training; they don’t how t Want anybody to instruct the future teachers the p? eal with the Pinks Majors, the Hoppers and j Francises.
moremust be admitted, however, that some of the the academic training institutions have realized teacup a sociological training of future i ^annf?’- appointment of the late Professor I Ed ein^ t0 Chair of Education (Institute cation), was a move in this direction.
The inculcation of a sociological awareness into the student teacher is merely the beginning of our immediate task. The teacher of a class of thirty or over may feel that the individual attention which is so desirable is well nigh impossible. There are, however, two considerations which he should bear in mind: (1) It is only under the present conditions, when sizeable curricula must be covered in a certain number of years, that there are not an adequate number of group activities set aside for the development of group-habits and of creative co-operation. It is usually after seven or eight periods of teaching that the assistant master is expected to run hobbyclubs, chess-clubs, to produce plays, etc. If these activities are incorporated into the regular timetable (at the expense of ” subject-classes “), free group work will not be an additional strain on the assistant. (2) Those who have conducted such group activities with an eye on their therapeutic possibilities have found that repeated individual attention is required by the school ” problem group ” only?a minority, but an infectious, disorganizing minority if not attended to. Handwork and hobby afternoons (and not 45 minutes periods), production of plays, excursions, etc., should occupy generous slices of the school-day instead of miserable, few minutes periods of it, or instead of the notorious practice of delegating these activities outside the school-hours into the evening. If such activities are democratically organized and the teacher’s role becomes advisory instead of authoritarian, he will be able to exploit the advantages of an observer and attend to individual cases. To what degree his intervention ought to be therapeutic is a matter for further enquiry. Needless to say that he will have to be fully informed of the family background of his pupils. It is only in rare cases that subject masters or even form masters are acquainted with the social background and history of their pupils. If there are any such recorded data to be, found on the school premises they are most likely to be in the Headmaster’s bureau. These data are not usually revealed by discreet Heads. No ” sociological awareness ” is of much use to the young teacher if Heads and seniors do not partake in at least some of this awareness. The present state of affairs when some school staffs are not only distrustful but often derisive of Child Guidance Clinics reflects the tone predominant in secondary education.
No doubt, class instruction under disciplinary conditions is as yet inevitable with the present teacher-pupil ratios, but the time has come to venture outside the traditional barriers and away from the following things: (1) The lectureraudience relationship in the class-room necessitating rigid disciplinary measures. (2) The overwhelming amount of time spent on vocationalacademic instruction and practically nothing on the development of social skills. (3) Very limited Concluded on page 11 Continued from page 7. lifePOrtunity for spontaneous participation in group in psychiatric community work. Education with. out mental prophylaxis is a failure. In its present and to lnih ^aS a’so come *? exPl?re what manner form it is a tamed, convictionless version of its what extent school staffs could participate mediaeval predecessor.
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