Milford chronicle., 1922-11-24
VISITING TEACHER
WORK In DELAWARE
Big Economic Saving for the State Through Increased School Attend
ance is Described by Miss Leila A. Thomas in Her Report
the State Board Of Education.

How the Visiting Teacher of Kent
County has cut down truancy, inter-
ested the parents in their children's
education, and brought about a big
emOnomic saving to the State Treas
ury through increased school attend
ance, is described by Miss Leila A..
Thomas in her report to the State
Board of Education. Incidentally the
work accomplished by Miss Thomas
in Kent County is being done by the
other Visiting Teachers of Sussex and
New Castle Counties. These visiting
teachers being made possible through
the foresight of the Delaware School
Auxiliary Association.
The work of the Visiting Teacher is
based on the principle that in order
to educate the children, the home and
school must work together. Parents
must understand what the school is
trying to do in order to cooperate
with it. Teachers must understand
the child's home conditions in order
to know his educational needs.
The Visiting Teacher is the con-
Meeting link between the home and
the school; the schools representative
in the neighborhood and the neigh
borhood representative in the school.
She visits the school to understand
their work and the homes of the chill
dren needing assistance, in order to
establish a friendly relation with the
parents to explain any difficulties, and
to enlist their cooperation.
In a school system representing the
most advanced methods in education
there is always the child who fails TO
make the prescribed progress, gener-
ally because of Poor Attendance. Then
there are some who fail to measure
up to the expected standard of behaV-
ior, and so every school has class
termed Difficult" These are PROB
lens for the Visiting Teacher.
Has to be Tactful
Trunacy is a problem which re-
quires much tact, for openly to ac-
cuse any boy or girl of playing tru-
ant is at once to arouse antagonism
on the part of the parents. Miss Thom-
as explains one case in detail as fol-
lows:
zone one occasion was called to a
school on a case of truancy more diff
ficult than any before because the par
ents were entirely unaware of the
fact. The teacher explained that the
girl was a habitual truant. 1t was my
duty as Visiting Teacher to go to the
home of the girl and talk with the mo-
ther. It is difficult to tell the parents /
their boy or girl, as the case may be,
has played truant and so the usual .
question arises, "How shall I break
the news?" Knowing the girl was cut |
of school 1 called, telling the mother
1 was Visiting Teacher for Kent Coun-
ty and being especially interested in
the progress of all the boys and girls, [
1 wondered how her girl was getting
along since she had been absent from
school quite bit, during the past two
weeks.
Immediately the look on the mo-
theirs face told the stOry-that the alb
sence from school was news, so
said, "May I talk with your daugh-
ter now?" The reply was: "She is at
school," Then came the discovery that
the girl was really truant. The mo-
ther was quite grieved, and during the
conversation which followed, she
said: 81 did not know there was such
a person as Visiting Teacher connect
ed with the School System. I'm glad
10 huOW IL anu WlOn " JAAelAl4A JOA
many, many times for calling to see
me today. I thoroughly appreciate {
your work, your interest and the help It.;
you have been today" i
The majority of home visits in Kent {
County, which numbered 428, were to I
persuade parents to keep their chill {
dren in school regularly though other
things such as conduct, scholarship, t
and home conditions had quite
share. !
That the work of the Visiting Tea '
cher is succeeding is proven by the l
figures taken from Miss Thomas re- I
port. i
School attendance in the State was I
increased during the year 1920, just I
22.2 per cent. In the year 1921 this
was increased by 81 per cent and the c
present year 81 per cent, or a total Of v
81 per cent in three years. +
To bring this about, it was not only t
to visit the homes but to il