The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-13
TALK ID PARENTS
 BY MISS BRADFORD.
Large Crowd of Mothers Attends Meeting at South
 Highlands School

More than 250 mothers who are mem- bers of the South Highlands School 1m- provement association were present at the regular monthly meeting yesterday afternoon to hear a talk by Miss Lula Bradford. supervisor of the primary grades of the city schools.
 A feature of the afternoon was a Ian tern demonstration in which Holland slides from the schools collection were shown on the big lansern and eXplana- tons of each. picture were given by pu- pills of the primary grades
 Miss Bradford charmed her hearers by her talk. The crowd was so large that all could not get into the lantern room and many had to stand in the corridor Miss Bradford. accordingly, spoke from the doorway so that all could hear her. She praised the lantern exhibition and said she liked it so much better than sim liar demonstration she had seen in Balti- more, when the explanations of the pie lures were made by the teachers them- selves. She thought it of much more im- portance and more interesting to en- courage the children by letting them make the explanations as is done at the Highlands school.
 With so many parents present the speaker took occasion to impress upon them the importance of their obligations in keeping in close touch with the school work of their children and pointed out how much better results were achieved in schools where there was close coop eration between teacher and parent.
 Miss Bradford related many school in- cidents from her own life to show how much better results were secured where the teacher and parent had a proper ac quaintance and understanding of each others problems. She cited an instance of two children of wealthy parents who seemed to make no progress. who simply couldn't learn. A visit to the home dis closed that they ate pork shops sausage, buckwheat cakes and other such food for breakfast. A tactful suggestion about a change in breakfast diet brought in- stant results in the attention the chill dren could give to their studies and their consequent development Another case was where she had sent word home by child to bring a quarter to pay for window it had broken. An irate father came to school next day to protest She asked him to sit down and listen to the children recite and sing awhile. He be- came interested that he stayed through the whole session and before he left wanted to pay for two windows.
 But she said the teacher must also appreciate the parents probleps. She told of her own irritation because fam fly of children was invariably late to school and finally sent for the mother to come with an explanation. A poor, grail woman appeared next morning with the information that she had six little ones and that the teacher must hurry because she had get back home to the baby whom she had left tied to chair leg until she could run over to the school
 She said it was always an inspiration to speak to children, but that it was more to talk to their parents be- cause she felt when she was speaking to parents that the lessons she tried to
 impress were so much more farreach-
 ing. The parents are after all the most
 interested in the progress of their own children, she said. and can be of most service when they really understand what 1t means to show a persistent and continuous interest in the school work of their little ones.