Evening star., 1939-12-10
BY MRS. C. d. LOWE,

ny NA1Nos " Ds Ao"Lb
President d. @. Congress Of Parents and
Teachers.
With q number of other WASH
ington citizens, attended the Safe
ty Institute, held at George WASH
ington University recently, and they,
no doubt, were as deeply impressed
as I was with the need for safety
education in our country. BY safety
education do not mean that which
is taught in the classroom alone,
but that which can be taught in our
everyday living-as 1t reaches out
into every avenue Of human en-
deavor and becomes q factor which
should be reckoned with at every
turn.
The Parent-Teacher Association,
as a whole, has joined with other
groups in sponsoring safety pro-
grams; 1t has, in the past, held
seminars and panel discussions with
safety" as the topic; it has as
sumed proprietary interest in the
schoolboy patrols and expended
much effort to see that the boys are
properly dressed for the sudden
changes in temperature which
Washington experiences. ,.
Many Ways to Prove Value.
But there are so many other ways
in which parent-teacher people may
prove of value in this safety pro-
gram. After all, there Is no other
group Of people so biologically close
to the citizens of tomorrow" as
ours. I firmly believe that we have
a very definite responsibility toward
our young people-those boys and
girls now in school who in a wear
or two-10 or IL at the most-will
be straining at the leash to learn
to drive, to sit at the wheel of
daddy's car and pilot 1t through
the maze OF traffic on Washington
City streets. Most of us hesitate
to trust young boys and girls with
the family car, believing that they
lack the experience and judgment
which are the necessary require
ments of a good driver.
II, instead, we would make every
ef1ort to impress upon our young
people, from the time they first
begin to show an interest in auto
mobiles, the fact that they are the
future drivers and In their hands
will rest the responsibility of con.
serving human life through the me-
dium of safe and sane driving. I
believe we will have accomplished
quite 9 lot. Confidence begets con-
f1dence and if we adopt the atti-
tude, early in life, that young people
are fully capable of assuming re-
sponsibility commensurate with
their years, believe we will be
educating a group of boys and girls
who will not be unworthy of the
trust which we may place in them.
Train for Safe Driving.
This, realize, is touching only
upon the subject of trafic safety,
but since automobiles can be the
source Of so much genuine pleasure,
with the marvellous roads stretch
ing from one end of our country
to the other, beckoning the adven-
turous spirit of youth, it seems to
me that we should make every ef-
fort possible to train our young
people to be safe drivers; to Judge
distances accurately, to be able to
meet emergency quickly and eff
GENTLY. And, above all, to realize
that the monfent they slide under
the wheel of an automobile they.
and they alone, are responsible for
what that car does.
A course in automobile driving,
including simple mechanics, might
very well be a requirement in all
Of our high schools, for sooner or
later practically every person yearns
to drive car and, sadly enough,
frequently learns by the trial-and-
error method.
The Board of Managers will meet
Tuesday at 10 am. in the National
Education Association Building.
The D. c. Congress of Parents and
Teachers is cooperating in the
city-wide community Christmas,
which will include the collection and
distribution of toys. Details of the
plan will appear in the newspapers.
Powell Junior High.
There will be no regular meeting
of the association in December, but
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