The Jersey City news., 1904-06-02
PARENTAL
SCHOOLS
State Civic Federation Rec
ommends Their Estab-
lishment in New
Jersey.
SIMPLY PLACES OF DETENTION
Their Aim Is Preventive and
Corrective and They
Would Fill a Great
Want.
SIMPLY PLACES OF DETENTION

The establishment of parental schools
in New Jersey is urged by the State Civic
Federation and is brought to the notice
of the public as often as possible. In a
recent report, issued in pamphlet form,
the address delivered by Superintendent
Of Schools A. B. Meredith, of Nutley, on
the subjetct is printed. Mr.. Meredith
says that the enforcement ofthe State
compulsion education LAW and the child
labor law requires the establishment of
parental schools. They should be estab-
lished and supported by the State and
county, or possibly in a few cases by the
municipality. If the State, by means of
special schools, cares for those who
through physical deficiency cannot avail
themselves of the common school privi-
leges, it ought to make like provision
for those moral deficiencies who will not
avail themselves of the common schools.
truant, the habitual absentee and the in
corrigibleyas
The parent school is place of deten-
tiep~o It is Intermediary between the day
truant school, or what is coming to be
known as the probation school and the
reform school TO be sent here pupil
is not necessarily school offender. 1t
provides salutary place for those whose
home conditions and moral tendencies
would eventually lead to dissolutions and
crime.
The aim of the parental school is pre-
Tentive and constructive. The school
should be 50 located as to provide for
such units of population as will furnish
not less than the minimum and not more
than the maximum of pupils that can be
grouped in such schools to the best ad-
vantage The ratio is probably 200 pu-
pills to 4ee,0o0 population.
Such schools should be placed in the
gcounny on ood farms, and should be
organized on the cottage plan, with
about thirty pupils to a family. The
cottages should have every modern
equipment, each with an open dormitory.
There should be proper school building
with adequate manual training equip
ment and gymnasium. The pupils should
be under constant supervision and should
assist in the care of the house and
grounds The discipline should be firm,
but kindly, and the formation of proper
habits of thinkin and acting should be
secured through living interest in what
ever empleys the time.
Manual land moral training is of pri-
mary Importance in a parental school.
The course of study should include man
ual training, domestic science, drawing,
gardening and farm occupations, gym
nastics and military drill.
A pupil should be sent to the parental
school by way of the Juvenile court, with
as little publicity as possible. This trans
ference should not be made until the pu-
Pill has been for a certain length of time
under the care Of the probation officer
Dismissal from the school should be
through system of probation or parole
The primary aim of the school is educa-
tional, not the serving of definite SEN
teace. The personal contact of the pu-
pills with strong and sympathetic men
and women will be the greatest educa-
tional factor in the school, Hence the
ability and character Of the officers and
teachers of the school should be of the
highest quality, and they should be es-
peeIaily adapted to the work.
1t becomes the duty Of the State to re-
claim and educate those who are way
ward and inclined to vagrancy and crime.
There must be a training in self-control,
and this may be best gained by preserv-
ing the boys self-respect. ITO brand and
treat him as criminal is to stamp out
eelf-respect in the beginning. Inc boy
should be saved from the environment Of
which he is a victim. saved from a home
of parental indifference and demoraliza-
tion. The truant is not recreatit to the
public good as he sees it. He is no more
50 than are those who would treat them
as criminals and make parental schools
prisons.
II the congested part Of the population
are many reckless youths who are the
terrors of the neighborhood and the de-
spair Of the officers School has been I'M
suited to their refractory natures. They
are averse to boohish learning and chafe
under restraint They leave school and
become habitnal absenteas and loafers.
The community for its own sake needs to
be freed from them. The danger to So