News and Comments
The Current Philadelphia School Report.
From the viewpoint of the kind of statistical material presented, as well as the form of presentation, the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Schools of the City of Philadelphia for the year ending December 31, 1908, which has just come from the press, constitutes a distinct addition to the literature of educational economics. A number of the tables presented are new and significant. For instance, in the text table facing page 8, Dr Brumbaugh takes up the matter of the time devoted to the several studies in the grades. This is a matter which has received scant attention at the hands of superintendents, but the facts disclosed in the case of Philadelphia show how important a fact it may be in the administration of a city’s system. The greatest variability is disclosed among schools. In some the first grades receive 390 minutes of time per week in number work, while in others only 125 minutes are given to the same theme. Similar conditions are found in the cases of the other subjects. The total time at the command of the teacher in a week is 1500 minutes. As Dr Brumbaugh points out, a hypothetical boy going from one school to another where the maximum time is given to the several subjects would be required to do 2945 units of work in 1500 units of time. Another of his kind in the schools where the minimum is given would have to do 640 units of work in 1500 units of time.
Recent investigations have called attention to the fact that pupils who transfer from school to school fall behind in the process, and have to repeat grades. If conditions comparable with those disclosed in Philadelphia are common in American cities the explanation is not far to seek.
The statistical tables published in the appendix of the report are a distinct advance upon those published in Philadelphia in previous years and in some respects are an improvement over those published in the report of any other city. Table 26, for example, giving the facts concerning examinations and promotions for the term ending January 31, 1908, gives the membership by grades and by districts, facts concerning promotions, average ages, number of pupils who have spent two years or more in their present grades and the average time spent by the pupils in each grade. This last fact is of particular interest. According to the report, the average time in the grades for that term was 6.9. This apparently refers to months. As the term is presumably five months in length, if we are right in assuming that the unit of measure used is months, it means that the average child in Philadelphia during the year in question spent 6.9 months in doing the work which should have been accomplished in five months. If this interpretation is correct it means that the pupils of Philadelphia are spending on the average 38 per cent more time than they should in completing the work of the grades. Here as elsewhere it is evident that pupils in the first grade make the slowest progress and those in the eighth the most rapid. The average time in the first grade is given as 7.6 (months?), while the average time in the eighth is only 5.9 (months?). Another significant table is Table 37 which summarizes for the city data concerning grades, retardation, examinations, and promotions for the term ending June 30, 1908. Here particularly noteworthy features are that 6.6 per cent of the pupils have been more than two years in their present grades, that the percentage of those who have spent excessive amounts of time in their grades is largest in the lower grades and smallest in the higher ones, and that the percentage of average children is very different in different districts. This last fact is in accord with conditions disclosed in a recent investigation conducted in New York City by the Russell Sage Foundation in which it was shown that the percentage of overage children is very much greater in some schools than in others. In other words, retardation is not to be considered as an evil equally permeating all districts or all schools within a system. In the case of Philadelphia in the city as a whole 36.8 per cent of the children are above normal age; in the tenth district the percentage is only 28.4; while in the third district it is 43.1. All the other districts fall between these two extremes.
It is through careful and intelligent work such as that shown in the report in question that light will be thrown on the great problems of retardation, elimination and repetition which educators are beginning to recognize as trustworthy barometers of school efficiency. L. P. A.
Health and Development Supervision.
The last legislature of the state of California passed a law providing for the health and development supervision of the public schools of the state. This law was approved by the governor April 15, 1909. The law appears to be a piece of permissive legislation making possible the establishment in the schools of California of adequate supervision of the general health and development of the school children of that state. Already the city of Los Angeles has organized a Department of Health and Development, comprising a medical, anthropometric, and child study laboratory. Mr. George L. Leslie is the director of this department, and is in charge of the psychological clinic and developmental work. The staff includes Dr Laura B. Bennett, in charge of young women, Dr Herbert F. True, oculist and aurist, and Dr Albert W. Moore, specialist in children’s diseases and general physician. The law will make possible in California the thorough-going investigation of the causes and treatment of retardation. A department of health and development more nearly expresses what is needed in connection with our school systems than does either the caption “medical inspection of schools,” or “school hygiene.” The provisions of the California law are so well worthy of consideration and study by every superintendent and medical officer, that The Psychological Clinic feels it desirable to print the text of this law entire.
“The people of the State of California, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:
“Section 1. Boards of school trustees and city boards of education are hereby authorized to establish health and development supervision in the public schools of this state, and to employ an examining staff and other employees necessary to carry on said work and to fix the compensation for the same. Whenever practicable the examining staff for health and development supervision in the public schools of the state shall consist of both educators and physicians.
“Section 2. The purposes of health and development supervision in the public schools of the state are hereby defined as follows: “1. To secure the correction of developmental and acquired defects of both pupils and teachers which interfere with health, growth and efficiency, by complete physical examination. Such examinations shall occur annually or as often as may be determined by the board of school trustees or city board of education.
“2. To adjust school activities to health and growth needs and to development processes and to attend to all matters pertaining to school hygiene.
“3. To bring about a special study of mental retardation and deviation of pupils in the public schools. “Section 3. The requirements for certification of members of the examining staff for health and development supervision in the public schools of the state shall be as follows:
“For educators: A life diploma of California of the high school or grammar school grade and a health and development certificate which shall authorize the holder of such certificate to conduct the work authorized by this act, in those grades specified by the life diploma held. “For physicians: A California certificate to practice medicine and surgery and a health and development certificate.
“Section 4. County or city and county boards of education are hereby authorized to grant health and development certificates to holders of life diplomas of California of the high school or grammar school grade or to holders of California certificates to practice medicine and surgery who shall present with such life diplomas or with such certificates to practice medicine and surgery a recommendation from the state board of education certifying special fitness for the work specified in this act.”
Are Medical Inspection Statistics Comparable?
In the current discussion of medical inspection of schools two questions have been repeatedly put forward: Have the children of country or suburban districts fewer physical defects than children of densely populated city districts; and are the findings of school doctors in respect to the results of physical examinations in one locality comparable with those announced by other school physicians in another locality? The current report of the City Superintendent of Schools of New York publishes a report of the medical inspection during the past school year in the five boroughs of New York City which would seem to throw some light on both of these questions.
In New York City the great boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn are relatively densely populated and have many poverty-stricken districts. Conditions there may properly be called typical city conditions. The borough of the Bronx is less densely populated and its people are mostly quite well-to-do. It is typical of the well-to-do residential disNEWS AND COMMENT 119 trict of a large city. The boroughs of Queens and Richmond are sparsely populated and the people are nearly all well-to-do. They represent suburban conditions. The results of the physical examinations for 1907-8 show that on the average the children in Manhattan and Bronx have 3.5 defects apiece, and those in Queens 2.3. In Brooklyn and Richmond, only 1.4 and 1.6 defects are found. There would seem to be no adequate explanation for this great variation. One densely populated and one sparsely populated borough make the best showing while thickly settled Manhattan and well-to-do Bronx and suburban Queens make the worst showings.
Comparisons between the ratings of the several boroughs in respect to the separate sorts of defects show that 80 per cent of the children examined in Manhattan were defective, 85 per cent in the Bronx, 71 per cent in Brooklyn, 32 per cent in Queens and 42 per cent in Richmond. Here the immediately striking fact is that, roughly speaking, twice as large a proportion of the children are found to be defective in the three thickly populated boroughs as in the two sparsely settled ones. A detailed study of the data, however, fails to substantiate the general conclusion that pupils in more sparsely settled districts have fewer physical defects. Take for instance the matter of teeth. In Queens, 0.0G per cent of the pupils were found to be suffering from defective teeth as contrasted with 9.8 per cent in Richmond. There would seem to be no reason why defective teeth should be 160 times as frequent in Richmond as in Queens. Among over 4500 children examined in Queens 3 were reported as having defective teeth. Among nearly the same number examined in Richmond 427 had defective teeth.
The figures seem to indicate that we have here another convincing bit of testimony as to the great importance of the personal equation in conducting physical examinations, and not as would at first appear, evidence that children in densely populated districts suffer more frequently from physical defects than do those in less populous distiicts. The returns are unconvincing save as a new demonstration of the incomparability of medical inspection statistics gathered from different districts, or in the same district by different people.
L. P. A. National Conference on Criminal Law amd Criminology. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Northwestern University School of Law, a national conference on criminal law and criminology was held in Chicago June 6-9. The calling of this conference is the first concerted effort in this country to attack the problem of the criminal and his treatment. The conference brought together lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and men of affairs. James Hagerman, Esq., of St. Louis, sometime president of the American Bar Association, acted as permanent chair120 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC man of the committee on organization. Three sections were organized, one on the treatment, penal and remedial, of offenders; one on organization, appointment, and training of officials, and one on criminal law and procedure. Over one hundred and thirty topics had been proposed for discussion and were assigned to the several sections. A committee on resolutions was appointed to -consider and propose such measures as seemed advisable to further the interests of the conference. The chief outcome of the conference is the organization of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology.
A Conference on Child Welfare.
During the two weeks beginning July 5th, at the call of Clark University, a group of conferences will be held in Worcester, Mass., which will bring together the leading representatives of the following institutions :? The day nursery, Boys’ clubs, The kindergarten, Sunday-school work, The child study movement, Industrial training in the early Medical education of defectives stages, and of subnormal children, Child labor, Open-air schools, The Story-Tellers’ League, Tuberculosis work for children, The children’s theatre, The various eugenic movements, The playground movement, The psychological clinic, Children’s libraries and reading, School nurses and physicians, Dancing and music, Settlement work for children. The juvenile court. The object of these conferences is to bring together into fruitful, practical relations the movements and organizations that deal with the child in the interest of its unity, which lie in general outside the regular work of the school. It is felt that these activities have hitherto been somewhat too isolated. It is also hoped that these conferences may result in,? A. The development of the plans of a permanent children’s bureau or institute, the various departments of which shall correlate both scientific studies of children and those that seek to advance practically their physical, mental, and moral welfare. B. A permanent national organization of organizations that have these ends in view.
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