Mental Health Through Education
- Author:
Carson Ryan. The Commonwealth
Fund, New “York U.S.A. Pp. 315. Humphrey Milford. Oxford University Press, 6/6.
Here is a book which anybody interested in education and in social problems of the day will thoroughly enjoy reading. It is a serious book, but it is so humanly written that it never becomes tedious. It reviews the present situation with regard to school and college education in the United States of America; from the point of view of mental health both of individual and community. The author makes kindly and just criticisms of attitudes and methods of teaching which have outworn their usefulness, or which from the beginning have been detrimental to healthy personal development. He describes briefly the work of many progressive movements that are endeavouring to remedy the glaring discrepancies between educational theory and actual practice in schools. All through the book, and in summary at the end, Dr Ryan gives practical constructive suggestions regarding what may be done in the field of education to ” enable children and young people to get a good start in effective and wholesome living.”
The purpose of the book, the author tells us is to answer the question ” How does educational practice to-day, at every level and for every type of education, square with what is known of mental hygiene, and what further advances can be made?” It is the outcome of a year of study and extensive travel, mainly in the United States but also abroad. It is a balanced report of information gained from visits to schools, clinics and hospitals, from interviews with people engaged in health, education and social work, and from contributions in recent ? literature. The author quotes actual instances and gives evidence to support any positive statement he makes whether it be critical or appreciative. Indeed the short paragraphs in small type make suggestive and stimulating reading in themselves. There is an index at the end, but the various references quoted are only mentioned in footnotes. Those readers who wish to keep in touch with recent literature on educational problems would possibly have welcomed the the addition of a bibliography of references at the end of the book.
Dr Ryan was amply prepared by experience to undertake this work on education and mental hygiene. He has been himself a school teacher, a professor of education, and an administrator. He is at present staff associate with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and President of the Progressive Education Association. He treats his subject from the broad point of view of one ” interested in the rounded development of children rather than that of the mental hygiene specialist.” He lays stress on the importance of preventive measures for normal children, rather than concentration of effort on remedial work with “misfits”. After all, as seems indicated in many cases, it may be the educational practices that are inadequately adapted to their function and which account for the so-called ” abnormality” of children’s behaviour. The reviewer suggests in this connection that perhaps the abnormal or ” problem ” child lias performed a valuable service to society if only in calling attention to educational and administrative discrepancies.
” Mental Health through Education ” is a book to be cordially recommended to all members of the teaching profession, training college authorities, local education administrators, and also to county and town councillors. Although it tells mainly of educational problems and progressive workgoing on in the United States, the difficulties of public education are much the same in this and other European countries. The author suggests practicable means whereby education may be made more valuable and effective, through changes within the schools, in the training of teachers, and in collaboration with community forces working for mental health. K. M. B. B.
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