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Show National P.T.A. Finds Varied Ways To Meet Range of Children's Needs Major goals are the same in some 47,000 P.T.A.'s of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, even though ways of approaching them are as diverse as the various communities. In Alaska, whore children leave for school in the dark and return home in the dark, every child carries a flashlight. To attend at-tend l'.T.A. meetings the president presi-dent of the Alaska Congress of Parents and Teachers frequently travels hundreds of miles per day in country where temperatures tempera-tures may stay around 25 below zero for weeks at a stretch. She can reach many communities only on-ly by Btnall plane. In Hawaii, the autumn ripen-int ripen-int of the entice crop makes fall the season for "summer" vacation vaca-tion from school. The state's mid-ocean locale makes the Hawaii Ha-waii Congress president an accessible ac-cessible consultant to parents and educators who fly in from Southeast Asia to learn more about the l'.T.A. American schools in Europe take advantage of their location to offer foreign language studies in elementary grades and to hold joint clasres with native children. chil-dren. l'.T.A.'s in the European Congress of American Parents and Teachers are concerned, too, with problems of establishing residence for children of U.S. servicemen and government employes em-ployes applying for admission to stateside colleges. Here in these far-flung areas as well as in all the areas where 47,000 r.T.A.'s serve, each local unit of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers adapts its own program to fit the needs of its youngsters. "This is the way of the P.T.A.," says Mrs. Clifford N. Jenkins, of Koslyn Heights, L.I., N.Y., who now heads the 12-million-membership organization organiza-tion as National Congress president. presi-dent. "Ve have one essential objective objec-tive as an organization," she X ' ' ' Mrs. Clifford . Jenkins, president presi-dent of the National ((ingress of Parents and Teachers. lf 1 - 1 .' J . X 1 Children of every age and heritage are the concern of the P.T.A., as the National Congress of Parents and Teachers this fall schedules sched-ules a new membership effort aimed at adding more workers to the P.T.A. "team" that now includes more than 12,000,000. notes. "It is the welfare of children. chil-dren. But our individual approaches ap-proaches to promoting their well-being may vary as widely as do the children themselves. This fall the National Congress Con-gress is scheduling a new membership mem-bership effort to enroll more people parents, teachers, other interested persons in P.T.A. activities. "They will find local programs pro-grams challenging and vital," Mrs. Jenkins promises, "because P.T.A. activities center around the needs of each community and the children who are its future." fu-ture." In Alaska, for example, the Congress of Parents and Teachers, Teach-ers, concerned about education for children of homesteaders, is currently urging a study of road maintenance in outlying areas, so that children in isolated rpots may be assured of passable routes to school. Getting to school is a real problem, even in well-settled areas, according to Mrs. Itobert C. Cole, who heads the Alaska Congress. Her home in Spenard is only eight miles from Anchorage, Anchor-age, but morning and evening she sends the family dog along to protect her two children from wild moose that roam the woods in the quarter-mile area between home and bus stop. P.T.A.'s in the nation's newest itate are seeking to preserve Hawaiian culture in terms of dances, language, and music. Mrs. Teruo Yoshina, of Hontv lulu, president of the Hawaii Congress, sees this interest as an important segment of Hawaiian Ha-waiian P.T.A. activity. Another aspect of the state's P.T.A. program pro-gram its emphasis on adult education ed-ucation is of special interest to the groups from Thailand, Pakistan, Pa-kistan, India, Cambodia, and Indochina In-dochina who have lieen entertained enter-tained there during recent months. Parent-teacher cooperation is something new in most of the nations where the European Congress of American Parents and Teachers functions; but its president, J. Cordon Smock, finds that educators abroad are anxious anx-ious to cooperate in joint programs pro-grams to help American youngsters young-sters learn more about the culture cul-ture and people of the countries in which they are living. Meeting problems of a more conventional nature is "typically P.T.A." as well, Mrs. Jenkinp points out. For example, The parking problems of some 500 students who drive to school daily at Elkhart (Ind.) High School recently gave rise to a P.T.A. survey of available parking space in the neighborhood. neighbor-hood. These students now have maps showing free and metered space, all within easy walking distance. Lack of a library in one of the elementary schools in Fords, N. J., was corrected through P.T.A. effort. Nearly 1,000 l ooks were collected, indexed, and installed in-stalled in shelves built by a P.T.A. father. Library service is dispensed by some of the P.T.A. mothers. Firearms safety is taught in special classes arranged bv the Scottsdale Tavan (Ariz.) P.T.A., with "safe hunter" badges awarded to youngsters who com plete training given by expert riflemen. An unprotected walk on a highway bridge, a twice-daily hazard in Boise, Idaho, for some 75 Whittier School pupils, got tho P.T.A.'s attention. Now a protective railing, erected by the state highway department, makes the well-traveled route a safe one. "In nny of these situations," says Mrs. Jenkins, "the P.T.A. first sees and then serves a local need. Service to communities and to children everywhere will continue to grow as more and more persons join the P.T.A. local, lo-cal, state, and national partnership." |
