I chose supper time for my first visit, and found him, as I hoped, at home, a little tired from his day’s play and hungry, of course. His mother was there too. She was surprised when I told her that her son had not attended school that day, nor indeed for many days previously. We talked of many things, and just before leaving, I ventured to ask Walter what he wanted to be when he was a man. He was then twelve years old. He did not hesitate an instant. He wanted, he said, to be an architect. And then his mother showed me a little calendar he had painted which adorned the closet door. We struck a bargain. If he went to school regularly, I was to arrange with his teacher to give him a palette and brushes so that he could paint. It was possible to do this as he was in a special class in which the course of study is more easily adapted to the child’s needs.
The next morning, when I opened the classroom door, two pairs of smiling eyes greeted me—the teacher’s and Walter’s. At once the teacher and I planned our campaign. Walter was to learn that at school he could get a chance at leadership too, for could he not play games there? At first, perhaps, they seemed tame compared with those under the bridge, for the classroom or the school-yard, even when given over to ball or bean-bag, does not easily associate itself in the child’s mind with scenes of adventure. However, the chance of some time being captain of the team had charms even for him. The proof is to be found in the fact that he attended school regularly, earning, in so doing, his palette and brushes and at the end of the term promotion to a regular class.
The work of the visiting teacher has passed the experimental stage. The position was created to bridge a gap in the existing school machinery. The visiting teacher’s province lies outside that of the regular teacher, the attendance officer and the school nurse, though like the attendance officer and the school nurse, she goes into the child’s home. To her is assigned the group called the “difficult” children, and it is her aim to discover, if possible, the cause of the difficulty which manifests itself in poor scholarship, annoying conduct, irregular attendance, or the need of or desire for advice on some important phase of life. It is too much to expect the regular teacher, handicapped as she is by her large class, to cope with such situations. Nor is it to be expected that those qualified to act as attendance officer or school nurse, were they not already overburdened, should do the work of the visiting teacher. In her is united the training that makes a teacher and a social service worker, and it is because of this combination that she is able to widen the regular teacher’s reach and help her interpret and solve the problems as they present themselves.
From the school she learns that the child is apparently making little effort; that his work is “C” or worse; that he is perpetually making trouble in the class room and is never attentive: that he seems lifeless, unable to keep pace with the class; that he attends so irregularly that it is impossible to teach him anything, or that he has no time to study and the situation at home is such that he must leave school and go to work. With these facts as clues she sets to work; it is impossible to define her methods, for they vary with her tact and resourcefulness and with the specific character of the problem before her. Briefly, they are the methods that spring from a friendly interest, an intimate personal relation.
Between the home and the school the visiting teacher vibrates, carrying to the former the school’s picture of the child and returning to the school to reinforce that impression or to shed new light upon the problem. There is no fixed number of times that she is expected to travel this path, as there is no fixed hour of the day for her visits. The urgency and complexity of a situation alone determine her movements. Nor is there any regular routine of action that she follows. Whatever in her judgment seems imperative, she endeavors to effect, using to this end everything the ingenuity of man has devised to make smooth the rough places of life.
It is a focussing of interests that she demands. The child is the pivotal point on which she hopes to bring all her knowledge and experience to bear. Sometimes it is the expert teacher’s training that she invokes; sometimes the psychologist or the physician, general or special, that she consults; or again it is the social worker to whom she appeals. Before these she lays the facts, the reasons why her services have been sought and from them she asks co-operation. To the adult, she is the visiting teacher; to the child, she is simply the “lady cop.”
The results achieved do not always show a complete cure. In some cases there has been a marked improvement in scholarship, conduct or attendance,—at least a good start in the right direction has been made. In other cases the child has been transferred to a different class, regular, special or ungraded, or to a trade school, where his chances at succeeding in making a place for himself are increased. Again, the information the visiting teacher shares with the regular teacher has resulted in a change of attitude toward the child, in an expansion or contraction of the course of study, or in her giving the child extra instruction in study periods or out of school hours. Finally, he has been helped to promotion, even to graduation.
Last year 1,157 cases were handled by the seven visiting teachers maintained in New York by the Public Education Association. The majority of these came directly through the school, but in a few instances the visiting teacher was called in by the child’s mother, a neighbor, or the child himself, all of whom, looking to her for help, show not only an appreciation of the fact that something is wrong, but also an understanding of what the visiting teacher is trying to accomplish. Their appeal emphasizes the necessity for just such a connection as she makes. Other cases came through settlements, charity organizations, churches, or the visiting teacher herself, whose attention had been attracted to some child on her rounds through the classrooms. In every instance, however, before the child technically becomes a case, the principal and teacher are conferred with. His school record must show him to be below standard in either scholarship, conduct or attendance, or in need of such advice or information as will, if followed, enhance his general well being.
Five hundred and five of the children visited were below standard in scholarship. This deficiency might be due to any one of a number of causes directly traceable to “home conditions,” such as congested or unsanitary living quarters, child labor, “overburdened childhood,” and ignorance of or indifference to the school’s claims. Or it might be that some school adjustment was necessary; for example, de-moting the child that is mentally and physically unequal to the grade’s requirements; or drawing him out in recitations, should he be nervous or timid; or helping him in the preparation of the studies that trouble him.
Three hundred and thirteen children were below standard in conduct; that is, they were either out of sympathy with the school environment or they were guilty of some offence, such as stealing, lying, cheating, or sexual irregularity.