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Show National P.T.A. Reaches 65th Birthday With Glance Back, Plans for Future An organization that devotes itself to children and their welfare wel-fare reaches senior citizen status sta-tus this February, with a schedule sched-ule full of further projects in behalf of children for the years ahead. The National Congress of Parents Par-ents and Teachers celebrates its G5th birthday on February 17, the anniversary of the "National "Nation-al Congress of Mothers" held in Washington, D. C, in 1897. This session marked the beginning be-ginning of the P.T.A. Its founding, found-ing, by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst, will be observed this year by more than 47,500 parent-teacher associations throughout the U.S. and in communities of Americans Ameri-cans living overseas. Mrs. Clifford N. Jenkins, of Roslyn Heights, L.I., N.Y., president pres-ident of the National Congress, calls the P.T.A. "a great social invention." and programs of home and traffic traf-fic safety education; Urging regular physical examinations ex-aminations for millions of children chil-dren from birth through high school; Raising the standards of treatment for youthful offenders offend-ers and helping establish juvenile juve-nile courts for minors; Donating millions of dollars in scholarships for prospective teachers. Backing bond issues directed toward improving facilities for children's education and recreation. recrea-tion. Large as such achievements may loom, Mrs. Jenkins points out that "much remains to be done for children, in this changing chang-ing world of 1962." "Through the P.T.A." she says "we help alleviate the hardships and confusion that result from change, and we help to establish services to meet new needs." Oak tree emblem adopted in 1922 represents relationship of members, mem-bers, local units, and state branches to parent trunk of National Congress of Parents and Teachers. i v v n sfr - . -v s g wC 4 I ? ' s J1 '. ' " ' ' ' ' s fc -;-A MM m:& Since 1897 P.T.A.'s have been sponsoring public kindergartens. Photo above is from an early issue of The PTA Magazitie. Below, in P.T.A.-sponsored kindergarten today, children make simple experiment in science. Like other inventions, she notes in her Founders Day anniversary an-niversary message, "it was created cre-ated out of need the need of parents for more knowledge about children's health, growth, and development; the need for child labor laws and juvenile courts; the need for health and recreation facilities; the need to build broad highways of educational educa-tional and vocational opportuni-tiess opportuni-tiess that might be traveled by all children and youth, not just the fortunate few." Historic-minded P.T.A.'s across the country may mark the Founders Day observance with a glance back to the time of the first Congress. In the words of one historian for the National Congress, those were days "bustling with progress and growth . . ." but with educators edu-cators "calling for increased appropriations to the public schools, more attention to teacher teach-er training, more practical cur-riculums, cur-riculums, and greater consideration consid-eration for handicapped children chil-dren . . ." The time was ripe for reform "especially for launching a movement directed toward the welfare of children." Young Mrs. Birney and the philanthropic Mrs. Hearst sparked what was soon to become be-come a nation-wide organization of which they are memorialized as Founders. Since that time, P.T.A.'s have continually directed their efforts toward: Establishing and supporting public kindergartens; Pioneering hot school lunch programs and supporting adequate ade-quate appropriations for them; Conducting parent-education workshops in all parts of the nation; r-Sponsoring safety legislation f ' v WSWWn JSL lit y -:- |
