Successful Schools for Truants in Los Angeles
NEWS AND COMMENT. Mr. E. J. Licklcy, Supervisor of Compulsory Education and Evening Schools of Los Angeles, Cal., has issued a highly interesting report, of which the following is an abstract: The present compulsory education law became effective July 1, 1903. In 1905 the School Department took upon itself the task of solving the truancy problem by establishing a special school to which persistent truants were sent. This school very quickly demonstrated its educational, social and economic value and today the city has nine schools of a similar nature.
The Special Schools are open to truants and other troublesome boys. They are in no degree to be considered places of commitment for school offenders; rather they are to be considered as simply other classes for other types of children. The Special School is dedicated to the principle that no pupil shall fail and no pupil shall be suspended or expelled from the public school. If he cannot adjust himself to the environment of the regular graded school then he should be given a school where he can, if necessary, make his own environment. If the boy will not go with you, then go with the boy for a while and soon you will have acquired such an influence over him that later on he will go with you. It is a sad commentary on the public school when the only thing it has to say to the troublesome boy is “get out”.
The aim in management is to make these schools more like life, the life of the big world outside which the boy is after when he runs away from school. The theory on which this aim is based is that if a school is like life, a boy will like to be there for the same reason that he likes to live; and the theory works. The fact that it has worked so well as to improve the personnel of the boys who are assigned to these schools, indicates that the influence of the schools is working upstream, and checking the drift of boys of the regular classes into meanness, viciousness and school hoboism. Los Angeles no longer has the typical school hobo.
Every ten days or two weeks the boys take a hike or go fishing or swimming, as the case may be. The department gives as much credit for a good day’s hike, or a good game of baseball, as for a problem in arithmetic solved. No coercion nor force is ever employed in transferring pupils from the regular schools to the Special Schools. No truant officer nor even a teacher accompanies them. They are assigned by the superintendent and then transferred in the usual way. They are told the purpose of these schools and the reason they arc sent there, and then allowed to go of their own accord. No pupil sent in this way has failed to reach the Special School promptly. The reason is plain. The boy is dealt with in an open, honest, common sense manner. IIo is not regarded cither an a baby or as a criminal, but just as a growing, restless boy. The boy appreciates this and is quick to respond. The Special Schools aim to eliminate all that is unnecessary and to. hold to fundamentals. To accomplish this result the teachers of these classes are authorized to vary the course of study according to the requirement of instruction. In other words the school is adapted to meet the needs of each individual pupil. In this way the school is made to fit the boy and not the boy the school. In doing this a regular recess period of fifteen minutes is frequently lengthened to give the pupil the additional play and outdoor life which he so often sadly needs. The playground also affords the teacher an opportunity to do the more important work of character development so essential to these boys who have been cast aside by the regular schools.
The sensible blending of work and play forms an important phase of this part of school work, because most of these boys are disconnected and out of harmony with the accepted order of things. Considerable latitude is allowed in these schools, for it is frequently necessary to change receding lines to get a true perspective. The teachers in these schools are all men, and to this fact the remarkable success of these schools is largety due. These men are chosen with great care. They must possess the ability to understand boy life and fit themselves into it. Just to the extent they win the boy’s loyalty are they successful. These teachers are usually athletes because the Special Schools emphasize the value of play in developing the character of the troublesome boy. The teacher of a school of this type must be peculiarly fitted, temperamentally, for dealing with the boy who is out of harmony with the accepted order of things. Teachers who cannot understand the spirit which prompts a boy to tie a can to a dog’s tail, stick a pin in a fly, steal fruit and play hookey from school to go fishing or swimming, never succeed in a Special School for the so-called bad boy. In fact, teachers whose comprehension of boy life is limited seldom succeed with any boy. No teacher is ever assigned more than fifteen pupils. The teacher must possess unusual ability to interest these boys to make up lost time and also seek to find and strengthen their best impulses. These efforts must be solely on a scientific basis as the transformation in the pupil is a social one in which the boy has found a friend and helper who devotes himself constantly and, in a sense, exclusively to his great need.
These teachers do not refer to the boy’s bad record nor do they ever resort to nagging tactics. They “prefix” the boy’s character by teaching him constructive goodness when he is out of temptation. The boy starts anew when he enters the Special School, with no reputation to live up to and no bad record to live down. The teacher simply accepts him as he is. The boy is in no sense made to feel that he is a culprit, and consequently, he is never robbed of his rightful heritage of self-respect.
Many different types of pupils find their way into the Special Schools. Any boy excluded for any reason from the regular grades, is admitted unless a more suitable place is available. By this method of caring for troublesome boys, expulsions and suspensions have practically disappeared from our public schools. Of course the most of these boys are truant or disciplinary cases. The Special School is the road to salvation for the boy headed for the Juvenile Court and a subsequent career of idleness and crime. No boy has ever been refused admission to the Special Schools and no boy has ever been suspended, expelled or turned away. We care for all and hold to the theory that any school system is derelict in its duty that “fails” one pupil or shuts its door to him. Truancy is the result of a boy’s natural protest against being a misfit. The remedy is a simple one. Put him where he does fit, or make a place to fit him. Our effort is directed, not toward the fittest, but toward the unfittest. Every boy cannot be made to attain a fixed, artificial standard, but the best in every boy can be developed to its utmost.
All but one of these Special Schools are located away from the downtown district. By making the Special Schools small, widely separated, ungraded and located in the outskirts Los Angeles avoids the unfortunate institutionalized conditions that must exist in a large central school for truants or incorrigibles. The cities that have tried to solve this problem by establishing a large central school have made little progress, and in fact in most cases have met with failure. Each Special School has ample room for play, either on its own grounds, a nearby public playground or surrounding vacant land. The value of sufficient ground for an outlet to the boundless energy of these boys cannot be over-estimated. Sensible blending of work and play will work wonders in the development of the boy’s character. Not only is an elaborate equipment not necessary in a Special School, but it is practically useless during this period of growth of the troublesome boy. Not an elaborate plant, not an elaborate equipment, but an elaborate teacher is essential to the boy who is out of step. The humanizing touch of a strong personality is of vastly greater worth to the boy at this time than any mechanical standardized course of study. It is from this very thing that he has broken away and the pathway back, which he must go, must be shown to him by a guide who is wise in the lore of the boy world and who can catch glimpses of the visions that lure the boy away.
The ideal Special School building consists of two rooms. One room has the ordinary equipment for fifteen pupils while the other room should be fitted for various forms of manual and elementary trade work, such as carpentry, cabinet making, lathing, bicycle repairing, printing, brass and copper work and other kinds of mechanical work in simple form. The ideal arrangement is one teacher who can also do the manual work.
To these schools none but the persistent truants have been sent and yet for seven years the attendance has been almost perfect, the average attendance for the entire time being more than 99 per cent.
The reports for the past seven years show very clearly the improvement in the method of dealing with truancy. Before the Special Schools were opened all persistent truants were arrested and taken before the Juvenile Court. This was a very expensive and unsatisfactory way of dealing with the problem. These truants are now taken care of by the school department at no expense beyond the cost of their education in a public school. The following figures are taken from the reports sent to the Superintendent’s office for the past seven years.
Enrolment. No. cases taken before Juvenile Court 1905-‘06 5(5 37,877 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. 1906-‘0 7 30 42,998 1907-‘0 8 1 46,092 1908-‘0 9 2 48,430 1909-‘1 0 3 52,054 1910-’ 11 2 57,038 1911-’ 12 0 67,875 1912-‘13 . 2 (est.) 80,000
As a direct result of the work of the Special Schools truancy cases from the city have disappeared from the Juvenile Court calendar. This represents the saving of many boys who otherwise would have gone from one delinquency to another until they had become hardened offenders and the inmates of a reformatory.
We can only realize the extent and importance of this work when we know that 90 per cent of our criminals begin their career as truants. Arthur J. Pillsbury, formerly Secretary of the State Board of Examiners, says: “In nine cases out of every ten the first step on the criminal highway is taken by the truant.” Mr. Pillsbury also says: “In very self-defense children must be kept in school. There will be no diminution of criminality until this is accomplished.” These startling statements, which are corroborated by the best authorities, demonstrate clearly that truancy is not only an educational problem, but a great social and economic problem as well. It logically follows then that money spent in correcting the truancy habit is a good investment. The Special Schools for truants have saved the State of California thousands of dollars during the seven years of their existence. Their work has been still more valuable and far reaching in that they have saved hundreds of boys from careers of criminality and started them well on the road to upright living and good citizenship.
Boys are kept in these schools for periods of varying length, ranging from a few days to several months. More than 95 per cent make good after their stay in the Special Schools. This result is rather remarkable when the fact is considered that no boy who has been excluded from the regular schools for any cause, has been refused admission to the Special Schools. The troublesome, disagreeable, disorderly boy is a most valuable asset and the school must not refuse him a place just because his independent nature refuses to conform to arbitrary standards that even experts cannot accept.
The Special Schools have demonstrated the fact that truants will attend school when school conditions are natural and the boy is not compelled to adjust himself to an environment artificial in its nature and detrimental to the individual growth and development of the independent boy. As a direct result of these schools expulsions have disappeared from the Los Angeles schools, suspensions are reduced to a minimum, and the so-called bad boy has practically ceased to be a problem there.
Notable Features on Program of Hygiene Congresss. The Fourth International Congress on School Hygiene, and the first to he held in America, at Buffalo, August 25-30th, will be by far the most elaborate effort yet made in this country toward getting the problems of school hygiene before the world.
The program committee announces a program of two hundred and fifty papers and fifteen symposiums, taking up hygiene from the following points of views:
The hygiene of school buildings, grounds, material, and up-keep.
The hygiene of school administration and schedules.
III. Medical, hygienic, and sanitary supervision in schools. The contributors to the program make up a notable list of speakers, college presidents and professors; state, city and county commissioners of education; teachers and superintendents of public schools, medical college professors; state, county and city health officers; physicians in private practice, engineers and architects. Special discussions are being arranged on the following subjects: School Feeding: arranged by the Committee on School Feeding of the American Home Economic Society. Oral Hygiene: arranged by National Mouth Hygiene Association. Sex Hygiene: arranged by the American Federation of Sex Hygiene. Conservation of Vision in School Children: arranged by the Society for the Prevention of Blindness.
Health Supervision of University Students: arranged by Dr Mazyck P. Ravenel, University of Wisconsin.
School Illumination: arranged by the Society of Illuminating Engineers. Relation between Physical Education and School Hygiene: arranged by the American Physical Education Association. Tuberculosis among School Children: arranged by the Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis.
Physical Education and College Hygiene: arranged by the Society of Directors of Physical Education in Colleges. The Binet-Simon Test: arranged by Professor Terman, Stanford University. The Mentally Defective Child: arranged by Dr Henry H. Goddard, Yineland, N. J.
The Congress is open to all persons interested in school hygiene upon the payment of a fee of five dollars. Application for membership should be sent to Dr. Thomas A. Storey, College of the City of New York, New York City. President Wilson has accepted the honorary office of patron of the Congress. The president of the Congress is Mr. Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University. The vice-presidents arc Dr William H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins University, and Dr Henry P. Walcott, president of the recent International Congress on School Hygiene and Demography, and chairman of the Massachusetts State Board of Health.
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