Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-02-02
Mrs. Smith Postpones
School Age Proposal
As Parents Protest

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to postpone her proposal to lower
the compulsory school age from five
years to three years.
The parents got a little too "ex-
cited" over her suggestion to dis
cuss it 'intelligently," Mrs. Smith
said after two days of steady tele-
phoning by indignant parents. The
fathers and mothers seem to have
gotten the idea she wanted to take
their children away from them.
Mrs. Smith said.
Meanwhile, the Citizens Com
mittee for Child Care Centers voted
last night to ask the District Com
mlss1oners for public hearing on
continuing the present emergency
nursery school system, but dis
claimed the idea that child care
centers can improve on the home.
In policy statement, the Rev
Francis McPeek, committee chair
man and director of the Social We'll
fare Department, Washington Fed
Grafton OF Churches, assailed sup-
gestions that the committee wants
to take children out of their homes.
The. committee is trying only to hold
homes together by providing dav
care for children of women who
must work to preserve the family
unit, he told committee members at
a meeting in All Souls Unitarian
Church,
Capt. Rhoda K. Milliken. chief of
the Women's Bureau, Police Depart
ment, said that if the District fails
to provide for continued operation
OF the centers, juvenile delinquency
will rise and citizens will pay even
more to support children in public
institutions.
The Rev. Mr.. McPeek complained
OF publicity following the proposal
by Mrs. Smith for school training
OF 3-year-olds. Comments that
schools are taking over the par
ents' jobs are wholly irrelevant, he
said.
Sees Struggle for Home.
THE blunt and painful truth is
that many parents of the city have
no chance at all to create a home
Tor their children unless there is
some safe place for the children
to stay during the working day.
he declared. 'The alternative is a |
swollen public-assistance budget.
Wretchedly miserable assistance
grants and the eventual destruction
of the initiative of parents who are
doing their best now to make ends
meet and to give some homelife to
their children"
First, Mr.. McPeek said, the COM !,
mittee seeks $4,000 for operation of
the Districts % centers until June
30. Fourteen of the centers. estab-
lished in the public schools as a
war emergency measure by the Fed
eral Government, are scheduled to
close February % when Lanham
Act funds are withdrawn. Second.
1t wants sufficient number of per-
manent centers to provide for wom-
en- who have to work and can find
no other method of properly caring
for their children.
A partial survey of the parents of
more than 900 children in the CEN
tiers shows that 1876 mothers are the
sole support of their children; 81
have husbands still in the armed
forces, and the overwhelming ma jor-
ity of parents receive joint incomes
OF less than $4,000 year, Mr..
McPeek reported. |
Mother Cites Experience.
A mother of two children, Mrs.
Ely R. Carroll, 713 Atlantic street
Sc, answered the question of what
they did before the war by reporting
that she tried "in-laws and out
laws" maids and private centers,
but never obtained adequate care
fqr her children until she put them
in a public center.
The cost of most private centers
Is prohibitive, while those which
charge only a nominal fee lack the
facilities to care for these children,
Miss Gladys Cook, executive direc-
tor of the Foster Day Care and
Counseling Association, said.
Capt. Milliken said the same
women who say that working moth
ers should stay home" are the very
women who will try to hire them as
domestics at low wages and work
them for long hours"
In the two years before the centers
were established, the police were
called in several times to investigate
cooperative" nurseries, where they
found the children living under
horrible conditions, she said. Capt.
Milliken recalled that she referred |,
the mothers to social agencies in
the District until the agencies told
her to stop because they could not
ind proper facilities for the chill
dren.
Bombarded by Comment.
Mrs. Smith, who after 10 years
service is now the senior member
OF the board, said she had never ]
been so bombarded with comment
before.
1 just can't seem to make them ,
understand it," she said. /,
Mrs. Smith said she was only ad-
Vocatlng that a 9 am to 3 pm.
class be opened for the Swear
old youngsters, not that the nursery
schools run from am. to pm,
as they now do.
She said she will take the mat
ter up again, however, after the
immediate question, that of con-
tinulng the present emergency nurs-
cry system through June 30. is
settled.
Meanwhile DR.. Rex Buxton, direc-
tor OF the Washington Institute of
Mental Hygiene, expressed concern
over Mrs. Smiths proposal. Except
IN rare cases, youngsters of 3
years are better off at home, the
psychiatrist said.
Mother Love Needed.
. Nursery schools have something !
to offer to children from crowded,
lnsanitary or perhaps lonely homes. IS
DR.. Buxton said. X
But a child of needs more b
than sanitary conditions" he said, Iv
HE needs mothers love-" 1t