Visiting Teachers
NEWS AND COMMENT.
Last July, in conjunction with the National Education Association, the first national conference of visiting teachers was held in New York City. A report on “The Visiting Teacher in New York City,” compiled by Miss Harriet M. Johnson, was presented to the conference and has recently been issued as a pamphlet of one hundred pages, by the Public Education Association. That association employs nine visiting teachers and the Board of Education has seven more, under the general supervision of Associate Superintendent Edson. Visiting teacher service has not been confined to New York City, where it was started some ten years ago by Miss Mary Marot. In Boston the work was begun about the same time, and there are now seventeen home and school visitors who work in connection with settlements or other private organizations. Meanwhile the movement has spread to other cities. In Rochester and Mount Vernon, N. Y., in Springfield, Mass., and in Montclair, N. J., the departments of education have introduced it; while in Philadelphia, Hartford, Baltimore, Columbus, O., and Chicago, the visiting is’carried on under the direction of psychological clinics, parents’ associations, and other welfare agencies.
The report presented by Miss Johnson is the third issued by the association. The first, by Mrs. Nathalie Henderson Swan, was published by the city superintendent of schools in his thirteenth annual report. The second, by Miss Mary Flexner, appeared in 1913 as bulletin number 15 of the association. From the beginning the movement has had the hearty support of Superintendent Maxwell, and also of the principals and teachers in the schools in which the work has been conducted.
“The visiting teacher experiment was undertaken,” says Mrs. Swan in her preface to Miss Johnson’s report, “in the belief that if the school could extend its reach into the homes of the children, better citizens could be developed, many failures prevented, and future expenditures thereby saved to New York City. When a child grows up to be a public charge or falls below his or her possibilities as a citizen, whether the failure be attributable to the school because it did not meet his needs, or to adverse conditions in the home, the State suffers as well as the individual and it is the State that pays the cost. The State, therefore, in the interest of its own future and for the sake of economy, must adapt its instrument, the school, to meet the problem of these failures. The visiting teacher is the arm of the school extended into the home to draw the school and the home together for the benefit of the child… . The training of the visiting teacher differs from that of other members of the school staff. She must have had experience in social work in New York City, as well as experience in teaching. She must understand the characteristics and prejudices of the people among whom she works. She must have the power to deal effectively with adults as well as with children… . The visiting teacher explains the aims of the school concretely to the parents, and gaining their cooperation wherever possible, makes whatever changes and adjustments are necessary in the home in order that the child may gain the full benefit of his school training. She also explains the home situation in detail to the teacher, so that the child is individualized, however large the class. She reports to the principal the gaps and dangers in the child’s surroundings which it is necessary for the school to supplement and meet. She thus stimulates cooperation between the home and the school… . She not only knows the individual families, but she knows the social and industrial life of the district, which knowledge, combined with her experience in teaching, enables her to help the principal in adapting the school to the needs of the neighborhood.”
Following Mrs. Swan’s introduction, Miss Johnson takes up the discussion of the topic. “There is a group of pupils,” she remarks, “who seem unable to take their training in wholesale fashion, but need more individualized treatment. They are below standard in scholarship without belonging to the mentally subnormal class, they are difficult in conduct without being disciplinary cases, and though they avoid truancy they are not in constant attendance. … In the course of dealing with the children under her care, the visiting teacher makes an informal survey of the neighborhood where her school is located, asking herself such questions as the following: Of what nationality is the neighborhood made up, and what in general is the standard of living and of education? What are the types of dwelling? What industries employ the fathers and mothers of the school children and do they also employ child labor? What play opportunities does the neighborhood present in its parks and playgrounds, its churches or settlements? What agencies exist there that offer additional educational advantages to the children and what special experiments are being made in the regular schools to meet the problems of the exceptional children? Are there trade, high, vocational or continuation schools which can be used? What societies are available for relief, correction, or medical assistance?”
A facsimile of the record form used by the visiting teacher is shown, with a typical case record filled out. “Its form is that of a sheet folded to 5 x 8 filing size. For field work it is carried in a loose leaf book. … At the termination of work on a case it is filed in a 5 x 8 cabinet and serves as a folder holding supplementary history sheets or correspondence… . Such a record form,’’ comments Miss Johnson, “must be regarded as a useful adaptable instrument, not as a measuring rod for each case. … It forms a very suggestive guide for a visitor beginning the work, and … is a most valuable means of estimating the efficiency and the resourcefulness of the members of the staff.” In several tables the reasons for referring children to the visiting teacher are analyzed, and also their age-grade distribution, nativity, physical condition, and economic status. The most effective measures of treatment are discussed, and a few specimen cases are summarized.
“The children who impress their teachers as needing special care,” Miss Johnson concludes, “are chiefly recruited from the ranks of over-age and retarded children, the majority of whom come from homes in which conditions are socially or economically adverse. A very large proportion of them have some physical defect, ranging in seriousness from dental trouble to heart disease; … it is very probable that the visiting teachers’ percentage is no larger than that of the total school population.”
“The next step forward,” she believes will be, “the organization of social activities in a department of Social Service which shall be a recognized feature of each school… . Such a plan will eventually mean changes in organization, in the opportunities for social training offered by colleges and training schools and in the requirements demanded by those teachers seeking administrative positions in the school system, which, for a long time, educators have been advocating and toward which the educational systems of the country have been moving.”
Religious Education and the Coming Social Order.
Educators and religious leaders will get together to discuss the religious significance of the present world struggle in the convention of the Religious Education Association which meets in Fourteenth General Convention, Boston, February 27 to March 1, 1917.
The convention will take up the theme “Religious Education and the Coming Social Order.” The program is planned to face the question: How should youth be trained to meet the needs and demands of the great changes that are sure to follow the world war? It is therefore a convention on preparedness, not by armament but by education. The association is an international organization; it has members in all the warring countries and it is expected that the attendance will represent many nations.
The speakers at the convention include representative persons of many churches and schools, such as Bishop Francis J. McConnell, President William Douglas Mackenzie, Rabbi William H. Friedman, Governor McCall, of Massachusetts, President John H. Finley, Rev. Dr Howard Melish, Prof. Edward C. Moore, Dr Katsuiji Kato, of Japan, Prof. W. J. Davidson, Prof. J. E. Keslerj Texas, Prof. Theodore G. Soares, Chicago, Dr Richard Cabot, Boston, Dr. Abraham W. Rihbany, Rabbi Henry Levi, and other distinguished men and women to a total of over one hundred. Organizations representing the college, theological seminaries, churches, Sunday schools, public schools, private schools, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., family life, art, and social movements will have their own programs. Commissions which have been working for a year or more on special investigations, problems and plans of work will present their reports. Some of the most important of these have to do with the reorganization of church work on an educational basis. Altogether there will be about thirty-two meetings open to the public. Programs will be sent on request, as they are issued by The Religious Education Association, 332 So. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 111.
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