El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-12-20
TEACHERS
NOW HELP
PARENTS
Visiting Teacher Is New
Link Between the School
And the Home.
PUPILS GET CREDIT
FOR WORK AT HOME
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

Nv IS necessary LIdL Ale SCuUO4
and the home should work
together if the best interests of the
child are to be served. School and
home leagues, parent and teachers or
CARNATIONS, and numerous other as
sociations of similar nature have been
attempted in many towns to bring this
unity about. Their success has been
surprising in many localities; IN
others they have failed utterly, US
ually because the mothers would not
affiliate when invited by the schools.
Consequently, the school must go 10
the mother 1t is going TO 90 TINS
through the visiting teacher, an oIIlce
lately established in NUMBER OF
large cities. The visiting teacher IS
the strong link which will connect the
home with the school, and bring about
harmonious cooperation Inc heaIIns
happiness and mental progress OF the
child depend largely upon the coopera-
ton between the two forces having
greatest control over his existence
Many of the largest city schools are
composed almost entirely of children
of foreign birth. To the poor foreign
mother, lonely and fr1endIesS IN
strange land, where even the language
may be unintelligible to her, the mo-
dern school, with its new ideas OF SAM
tatiOn, recreation, food and other mat
tiers, too often seems an INSTITUTION
menacing the very life of her child.
Itbreaks the rules she has been taught
were essential to their well-being-
Not long ago some little Lithuanian
children came into q public k1ndergar-
ten in Philadelphia They were ut
orally sWaddled with clothing IN
vestigation proved that most of their
garments were seWed on in the fall and
were not removed until the warm
weather of the following summer The
daily bath was utterly unknown
IL, 70 %
children as their own mothers had
taught them. When the little ones
were bathed in the school bathtub and
supplied with fresh, clean underclotn-
ing, several mothers appeared at the
school, raging with wrath, and their
anger was hard to appease- But the
children did not die as they expected
On the contrary, they seemed stronger
and were less troubled with sore
threats and colds than the babies who
were kept at home without bathing
The visiting teacher soon had these
mothers attending a baby bathing class
in which scientific instruction in child
hygiene was given by the school nurse.
The public school is the great civic
center through which reform move
ments of every kind are being carried
into the homes Modern sanitation,
food preparation and hygiene, as
taught in the public schools, give the
most substantial aid to all the disease
preventive crusades which are being
carried on for the public good The
special health crusade, organized IN
Birmingham, Alabama, last year, was
typical of this. It began in the schools
where the mothers were invited to
hear special courses of health lectures
from the leading medical specialists
of the city. They were permitted 10
bring their young children with them
These were cared for by the school
nurses while the mothers attended
the lectures. Afterwards, special eli
MICS for children were held and the
mother whose child was puny and
weak was given suggestions OF means
likely to benefit it
Lessen or stop Home Study.
Cooperation between the school and
the home is quite Is important for the
well-to-do child as for his less favored
classmate, and it may require even
greater tact upon the part of the visit
ing teacher to bring this about The
childs school work is Influenced by
his home conditions. and il is only
when the school and home are brought
to know each other that the teacher
can understand how to gage the
child'S efficiency. The child who is
permitted to attend the theater at
night or to go to other places of
amusement when he should be either
preparing his lessons or getting his
healthful sleep, is just as much handi-
capped in his work as the child who
works late at night helping to finish
contract clothing. The school must
show each mother how much her child
loses by either course
The great variance between the con-
ditiOns of the homes of public school
children is responsible for the move
ment to lessen, or to do away entirely
with all home study. The aid which
a fortunate child receives from the
books and other influences of his well
furnished home gives him an unfair
advantage over the less favored one.
Consequently, this year many schools
are rearranging their schedules so as
fn ha crr n he n
the school room where all the adVan-
tageS are equal This is done by add
ing another half hour to the daily ses-
sion. In Meriden, Conn, the home
work has been greatly reduced for
all the grades, and in Sacramento, Cal,
tt has been practically abolished.
The best result brought about by
the cooperation between the home and
the school is the plan for giving the
child credit in school for work done
in the home. This has been put into
effect in a number of city schools this
year. In St. Louis, printed slips were
sent home to the parents giving the
list of work done in the home for
which credits would be allowed in
the school, if certified to by the parents.
This movement is especially helpful
in making domestic science work
practical to the girls. The girl who
knows that she is credited for fifteen
minutes work upon her school aver
ages each time she washes the break
fast dishes is much more willing to
help her mother in this way. The
practice she receives is quite as help
full to her as if she did this work in
the domestic science class room Pre-
pairing a meal may entitle her to 80
minutes or even an hours credit
Credits for Home Work.
In one city, the girls are excused
from attending the domestic science
class for a month during which time
they attend to some specific work in
their own homes. The mothers
cooperate with the teacher in assign
ing definite tasks, such as keepink
the bathroom hygienically clean, tax
ling care of a certain room or attending
to a certain part of the food prepara-
ton. A father who has been inter
ested in this system of school credits
for home work recently wrote to a
teacher: My daughter is entitled to
an "a" mark for the thorough manner
in which she has cleaned and reno
waited my den"
It is becoming recognized that GER
tain duties should fall upon the boys
OF the family. Credit may be given
them for caring for the furnace. clean
ing up the cellar, pOrches or yards
and for all sorts of repair work and
the making of furniture and other
articles used in the home. A boy in
Ohio earned credits for so hours work
in his school reDOrf bV work he did in