Evening star., 1947-01-21
Training
For Teachers
On Duty Urged
Idea Is Advanced
At Wilson College
PuneI Discussion

Providing District public school
teachers with free training while
they are actually conducting classes
would be one way of preparing them
to cope with educational problems
arising from their own thinning
ranks. local educators were told last
night.
The idea was advanced by ]. Nor
man Nelson, associate superintend-
ent in charge of high schools, dur
ing panel discussion at Wilson
Teachers College.
"It's high time the city provided
the teachers with this training nec-
essary to their development" Mr..
Nelson asserted. "I think we have
q case for the Board of Education
here"
Mr.. Nelson's recommendation was
one of several made by a group Of
eight school teachers and officers
brought together by Miss Jessie La
Sale, associate superintendent in
charge Of educational research.
Morale Lift Suggested.
Miss La Sale asked them how they
would meet problems imposed by aI
steady decline in pupils reading
ability over the last five years, ac-
companied by a drop both in the
total number of teachers and the
quality Of those more recently added
to the school system.
Others in the panel replied as
follows:
Mrs. Agnes N. Arnold, assistant
principal of Mcfarland Junior High
School, said it was matter of lift
ing teachers morale" Whether 1t be
a question Of giving them more pay,
better equipment or a freer hand in
policy making, she declared, they
should be provided with whatever
it is they need, "for the teacher is
the key to the whole system"
Walter E. Horn, teacher of metal
shop and boy cadets at Anacostia
High School, said progress depended
on the "co-operative attitude and
understanding of parents" in seeing
that the child is guided at both
ends instead of just one" In some
cases, he said, it would be necessary
to educate the parents along with
the child" to get the desired results.
Miss Myrtle T. McKnew, counselor
at Mcfarland Junior High School,
recommended bringing to the at
tention of social agencies the great
need" for some one to give chill
dren of broken and unstable homes
the support they so much need"
More Guidance Urged.
Miss Bernadette Dore, principal
of the Barnard School, called for
more psychiatric service and child
guidance. With a child's maladjust-
ment so often traceable to home en-
vironment, she said, 1t would be a /
good thing if social workers could
be assigned to them like truantl
ofdcefS. ss6 G1
Mrs. Nell Daffer, teacher of the
girls adjustment group at Powell
Junior High School, agreed with MI.
Nelson with respect to the need for
more in-service training for teach
ers, although she did not specify
how it should be obtained.
Teachers don't always take ad-
vantage of this opportunity to better
themselves" she said.
Miss Muriel Crosby, teacher at the
Fillmore. School, advocated more
classes for the maladjusted pro
Wded the stigma usually attached to
them" is removed. She also ad-
vised making the grading and in
struction systems in the elementary
and junior high levels more nearly
alike to eliminate confusion" on
the part of the pupils moving up.
Miss Hilda Mohun, teacher at the
Noyes School, said more parents
should be encouraged to take part
in child growth and development
studies as means of better equip
ping themselves to rear children.