VIII.  The School

=(1) Teacher and the Child=

For several reasons, there has been a change in the relationship that used to exist between teacher and child.  Earlier the teacher lived in, and was part of, the community and so knew something of local conditions and the tensions of his pupils’ lives.  This gave him a more intimate knowledge and sympathetic understanding of a child’s difficulties.

Today in the cities, and particularly in the quickly growing urban areas, there are different conditions.  Schools are new and big, without a tradition of long community service; teachers have difficulty in finding accommodation in the district from which their pupils come; to meet the shortage of permanent staff many partially trained persons have to be used as relieving teachers; even qualified teachers have to move frequently to meet promotion requirements.

As a result the knowledge that once came to a teacher from sharing the same environment as the child has now to be acquired in some other way and, probably, from within the school.  This knowledge is of great importance in diagnosing maladjustments that might lead to delinquency.

In primary schools the situation is met by the establishment of a system of visiting teachers who can investigate the circumstances of a problem child.  Perhaps of greater importance, the presence of visiting teachers reminds class teachers that children have difficulties out of school.  The Committee feels that: 

(a) As many of the problems have a medical origin, there should be as much official liaison as possible between the public health nurses and the visiting teachers.  This would automatically make the services of a medical officer available.

  (b) Particularly in rapidly growing industrial areas, the number
  of visiting teachers should be increased.

In pos t-primary schools there is at present no official system of linking the home and school in the investigation of problems.  Traditionally the headmaster has done this, but with the increase in the size and complexity of schools he has now too little time for this work.

Post-primary principals, in their evidence, appeared worried by the problems of conduct arising from the inability of pupils to leave school until they have reached fifteen years of age.  It has already been shown that the pattern of juvenile delinquency which is the subject of this investigation is found particularly in this age group.

It therefore seems desirable that some help should be given to post-primary schools.  The Committee makes no specific recommendation[2] how this should be done, although it is emphatically of the opinion that there is a need for this help, and that the personality of those doing the work is of more importance than the question as to which organization should control them.

This is only the immediate step.  Everything possible should be done to restore the community bond between teacher, parent, and child—­by the stabilizing of the teaching service, by the provision of houses for teachers in newly developed areas, and by continuing the effort to increase the number of women in the service.