The Visiting Teacher at Work
- Type:
Book Reviews CS2 Abstracts
- Author:
Jane F. Culbert.
Commonwealth Fund Division of Publications. New York.
The Visiting Teacher at Work ” presents to us an instructive and interesting account of the professional standards, procedure and ad- ministrative relationships of the Visiting Teacher in America. The book makes a very material contribution to the increased under- standing of the problems that lie in the prov- mce of this comparatively newcomer in the Professional field.
In the first part of the book we are intro- duced to the visiting teacher’s problems? those children, who, through undesirable per- sonal traits, or because of unfavourable con- ditions in their environment, are failing to reap hill benefit from their school life. We meet John with his poor school record and repeated Misbehaviour; Dorothy, who is a ” show off ” ^d loud talker; and Frank, who is a disturb- element in his class and never sits still.
f e watch the visiting teacher approach the ? Wo groups of adults who have most influence m the child’s life, viz., parents and teachers, jjj ^at?h her study of the child himself. How ^mminating the child’s own point of view can “? ^e see the gradual marshalling of facts inch go to form that interesting record, The ((ase History, with its ” Diagnosis,” and tentative Plan for Treatment.” We see the ^siting teacher helping the child to adjust ^mself, helping the school to adjust the child, & with disturbing elements in the home, o aiding in the development of group and ^unity activities.
v-, second part of the book deals with super- cu?ry and administrative problems, and dis- ingSeS SUch interesting points as the follow- ab^an .t^le visiting teacher work more profit- in th high school children or with those j he elementary school?
pr wise to assign to her the more difficult sho 111115 which arise in a widespread area, or ali0v , her service he so limited as to tj,,,. ‘ her to do a more intensive and preven- V^type of work?
^haTf the service be initially organised ? are facilities and general working conditions C(iuisite for conducting the work ? There are ten appendices which detail such things as Case Records, Annual Reports, Time Schedules, Book Lists, Open Letters and An- nouncements and Posters and Bulletins, which have been issued.
Parents will find the book very illuminating, setting out as it does, so many of the problems that call for a readjustment of home circum- stances. Teachers who have not the privilege of Visiting Teacher Service in their schools, will find here much that will assist them to solve their own particular problems. For those taking up the work of visiting teacher, there are prac- tical and helpful suggestions as to the pro- fessional preparation required, and of the per- sonal qualifications which go so far towards making the work a success. The book should be read by all those whose work brings them into close contact with young children.
B. Craig. Essays and Addresses. Sociological, Biolog- ical and Psychological. By A Surgeon. H. K. Lewis & Co. 1930. 10/6 net. This book consists of thirteen chapters, the contents of most of which have appeared or been delivered elsewhere. Chap. VII, the Galton Memorial Lecture for 1928, on ” Some Causes of Racial Decay,” and Chap. XII, on ” The Prevention of Mental Deficiency,” are the most arresting. If these and other essays dealing with urgent problems leave the reader a little disappointed, it is because the author is not afraid to tackle what is at present insol- uble. Chap. XI, on ” The Human Factor in Industrial Life,” may be summarized thus: many men work badly; they work badly be- cause their work is dull and they do not enjoy it; if it were interesting they would enjoy it and work better. The remedy proposed is vocational guidance and selection; excellent as far as it goes, but seeing how unworthy and repellent to an intelligent man much of the labour in our industrialized civilization must be, it does not go very far. Unless we leave unskilled labour to the unintelligent. There are enough and to spare.
Chap. VII is rather dismal reading. It re- views the causes and signs of decay of cultures. We seem to exhibit them all, though perhaps we have not fallen quite so far as to justify the author’s implication when he says that with our modern knowledge we might in a few gen- erations reach the Victorian level of intelli- gence. But the situation is bad enough and the chief symptom, whether cause or accom- paniment, of our declines, is the familar one that we are breeding more from our worst stocks than from our best. Our increasing- care of the unfit by helping them to multiply, hastens the tendency. The worst danger comes from the rising tide of mental deficiency and no remedy at present can be more than a palliative. The author suggests that relief of taxation or endowment for the first four or five children would encourage the good stocks to breed and the limiting of the bounty to four or five would discourage the undesirables, but since these will breed to their full capacity in any case, the bounty would encourage them, and its limitation would not check them. Mak- ing the marriage of defectives illegal, though of little direct use?defectives often dispense with the rite?would be propaganda. Segrega- tion would do more but would not prevent normal “carriers” from passing on the defect.
The remedy which might do very much is drastic sterilization, not only of defectives but of carriers. The author implies that about 10% of the population would have to be sterilized. But this is not to be thought of. What then ? First, a national survey to know where we stand; next, education and propaganda. At present the national consciousness is hardly aware of the existence of the feeble-minded : idiots it knows and lunatics?probably sane and shut up by wicked doctors. When the feeble-minded person has become familiar as an idea and when to marry into a family hav- ing the taint of deficiency shall carry the kind of stigma that bastardy now bears, or coloured blood in the United States, a step forward will have been made. For the present ” our im- mediate object must be to bring home to the minds of statesmen, Government departments, local authorities, and the public, the fact that our present sociological methods are not based on sound biological principles.” And the remedy may come in ways which at present we can hardly imagine. The foreshadowings in Chap. XIII are dim, but they allow hope.
A.M. A Study of Masturbation. By J. F. W. Meagher. Bailliere, Tindall & Cox. 1930. To anyone who has to deal with problems arising in the lives of children and adolescents, this book can be recommended with complete sincerity. Masturbation is one of the problems of the growing individual which is least com- monly understood and most commonly treated wrongly. In practice, one finds that a definite- ly large proportion of adult neuroses are based on wrong information secured during the time that the patient was struggling in his mastur- batory phase. It is one of the conditions which appears to rouse more prejudice amongst those who have to deal with the moral life of children than perhaps any other subject on which these individuals write. A subject of this intimate nature which is dealt with from a prejudiced point of view can only do harm to those to whom it is directed. Dr Meagher’s book deserves, and I hope I shall be able to give it, a more detailed review when I have time to prepare one.
From the general point of view, he writes in a balanced way from practical experience of the problem that he is dealing with. His views are broad-minded and delivered in a not too scientific way; and he does give, what is so often missing in books, practical means of not only approaching the problem but also of deal- ing with it.
There are certain points which commend the book to myself and which I should have liked to have seen elaborated to a greater extent- One is the paragraph on ” Attitude.” I11 psychological teaching, as it is now, the ques- tion of the individual’s attitude to the facts of life is too often ignored. Attitude is the funda- mental means in the correction of immoral and delinquent conduct and must be almost invari- ably the primary point of attack in treatment. The author, I feel, would have given greater weight to his book had he stressed more this question of attitude.
The other good point is the amount of stress he lays on the results of the exaggeration o the harmfulness of the habit of masturbation- In a condition which is a phase of develop’ ment which has been passed through by the majority of adults, to over exaggerate conse- quences is to create crippling effects, yet over- exaggeration is one of the common methods a present in use for the treatment of the con- dition. This particular chapter could quite beneficially be issued as a leaflet for the guid- ance for those who have to train the young and adolescent.
Dr Meagher’s views on the treatment of the condition are sound. He does not adhere to any one particular school of psychological thought, but gives due weight to physical factors which might be underlying. To my mind, he does not sufficiently emphasise the need for giving psychological equivalent to the pleasure derived from the active participation the habit during the time that the individual ls trying to break it; but without the possibility ?f creating such a pleasure, equivalent treat- ment is not likely to be efficacious. This book should have wide circulation amongst those ^7ho have to deal with the moral side of the growing child. E.H.P.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.