Show your school and its hs preb problems jems 1 by 0 B CRANE CHANE let me ask you this quest question ion what factors in a community tend to make a good school tins this question at first may seem a simple thing instead the child the school and the community are very complex and intricate organic machines when ever you deal with human beings in groups or individuals you are dealing with factors that no one has a complete knowledge or understanding ot of in fact our knowledge of the more intricate workings of the human mind and body are still rather limited each individual ai presents a separate and ilis distinct problem or set met of problems how these problems are solved depends almost entirely on how the community thinks as a group and on the quality of the leadership that is found there the policy that the school may take on any problem depends on the attitude of the community coming back to the original question as to what factors in the community tend to make a good school let us mention a few of these factors attendance available wealth that can be spent in the school the inherited mental quality of the people and the dominant character traits of the community it would be impossible to ta discuss each one of these factors in this article so I 1 will confine this discussion to the attendance factor there are only two kinds of students who absent themselves from school the first one is the student who absents himself only when conditions make it very necessary he may even argue with his parents over staying out he uses every possible means to pe be in school as aa much as possible ile he may be a very intelligent student or he may be a dull student buthe but he finds an abiding spirit in school work he may not clearly sense the real value of school or what it willbo lor himbur fie fae felldin fells inwardly it Is good for him some s students do not have this feeling strong enough to keep them in school but the parents do and as a result by various means they tide the student over the weak period briod of the educational experience the school the parent or the community does not need to woo boory ry very much it if at all about such future citizens he has inherited or acquired the essentials for a successful student the second type of stu student dentis is just the opposite from the first he looks for every possible excuse to be away from school if the parents cooperate with the pupil which is much more common than one would think then the problem becomes simple forthe for the student and very difficult for the community and the school the number of excuses that a boy can think up Is s almost beyond belief there Is nothing to interest intel est him he has no clothes the teacher does not like him he says that he is dumb 6 he has a job his parents need him he just does not like school or his health is not god such are a few of the excuses that the delinquent student offers this is the type of student that usually causes the disturbance in the school he is the one chati that when he Is out of school is usually bumming in town he gets into mischief it is this type of student who may become a ward of the juvenile court he is the problem pupil he may become our problem adult the inmate olour of our prisons or our mental hospitals he is our neer do well of adult life many of them overcome these negative traits as they grow older and become useful members of our community but as I 1 look back over my teaching experience I 1 see this type of pupil in not very favorable circumstances the real trouble is that they could not adjust to the school community and they fall fail to adjust to the adult community there are three factors that may contribute to such condition in the pupil the first one Is the parents and the home they may have failed to give the student the desirable traits when born bom or they may have failed to train the youth properly the second one may be the failure of the community to give the child the proper protection from outside influences fluen ces or instill in it the correct attitudes the third one may be the school which may fail to of fer the leadership and facilities that will hold the interest of the pupil in some school districts this problem is being met as much as it can with the materials that are at hand such a program would necessitate the employment of extra teachers and the purchase of more equipment the question is would the cost be worth the results where does the parent of the absent student enter into the picture let ms ma list a few of the types of parents one meets as interview in behalf of the school work and the pupil i 1 the parent who whom m the child has put in its place the te parent Is afraid to tell the child what to do when to do or how to do the process Is actually in reverse the child has command of the situation and knows it 2 the parent w who h 0 can see no wrong in the child every person in the case is wrong but the child 3 the parent who makes all of the excuses for the child illness tired a visit or a trip c cannot ay get up in the morning or needed at home some parents in this type do not hesitate to lie will such an attitude on the part of the parent teach the child to be dishonest 4 the parent faient who is more for his personal gain at the expense of the child 5 the parent who deliberately robs the child of its character by teaching it bad habits 6 the parent who does not give a damn in other words the child is an orphan with living parents 7 the parents who build the child up to a greater point than he be can attain and as a result the child tries to escape 8 the parents who preach one thing and do another the child inherits the traits of the patients parents and so in spite of the preaching makes a big circle and ends up in the footsteps of the parents 9 the parent who falls fails to cooperate with the child in some phase of school or home project work the child becomes discouraged and tries to escape 10 the parents who know everything ery thing and belittle the school the student eventually wants to quit why go to school when you can learn at home all of the above types of parents contribute more or less to the absence of children some of these types are more serious than others j the whitin gabo abo these kinds of parents here fiere is because absence is not always a school problem but much more a 9 community problem we must ask ourselves what kind of a place we twenty years from now what we do now with our children will determine to a great extent what the community will be in the future are your schools worth some of your individual time in thought and action what can you do in your home and community to make the schools a successful en ter prise |