Page 31 - 1916 February - To Dragma

110 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

THE PARENT AND THE TEACHER

E L I Z A B E T H HIESTAND, P '12

Graduate Student at Northwestern

Many difficulties prevent a sympathetic and complete understand
ing between the teacher and the pupil. A great factor, not to b
disregarded, is the atmosphere of the home, the psychic and parenta
background of the child. One method of gaining acquaintance wit
the family is the organization of a Parent-Teachers' Club, whic
meets frequently and in which all parents are urged to meet th
teachers of their children. This has been found quite successful i
a community of more than average culture; but when we try th
same plan in a less advanced town, it is found very difficult to secur
a good attendance at these meetings and progress is slow.

The best system within the knowledge of the writer is the "advis
ory plan" as worked out in a certain small city of the Middle West

In the first place it should be noted that the high school was o
the five year type just now receiving so much attention from
educators. The attendance at this school averaged a thousand, the
instructors numbering sixty. Each pupil was listed in a certain
gioup in which his neighbors within a given radius found places
Sometimes there was some distance between the members of a group
in a sparsely inhabited portion of the city, but each group contained
twelve to twenty girls or boys as the case might be. The men
teachers took the groups of boys and each woman member of the
faculty had a group of girls under her wing. A n advisor had
several duties, among which may be mentioned that of assisting a
pupil to select his course sensibly, with proper regard to his per
sonal fitness and vocational desires. Thus the advisor was at the
same time a vocational guide.

In order the better to assist the pupil in his choice of work the
advisor found it necessary to go to his home and actually see his
parents. These calls, jocularly spoken of among the teachers as
"parochial calls," or "going paroching," were at first looked upon
with some degree of suspicion by the parents. They did not know
what to make of this organized invasion of their territory. Very
soon, however, they changed their attitude and . asked that the
advisor call i f he happened to be a little slow about arriving. The
visitor was cordially received in most cases and eagerly questioned
as to the child's position at school. This was a much more agree-
able way to come in contact with the school, an object of awe to
many, than visiting it.