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Show KNOW YOUR SCHOOLS .... "Report Card" is Modernized By Ray D. Warner Elementary Supervisor The present-day philosophy of education for the elementary school is based on knowledge and understanding under-standing of child growth and development, de-velopment, the training of the "whole child," the recognition of individual differences and of learning learn-ing through wholesome experiences experienc-es in school. The goal of the modern institution institu-tion is to develop the whole child and, with parents, study that development. de-velopment. The reporting of pupil progress to parents is considered ont of the school's obligations, and it is encouraged by administrators adminis-trators since it helps to create harmony between home and school. This connection is an important phase of improving the school's guidance service. Only Contact j The system of reporting pupil I rjroeress to Darents is often the only contact between the parent and the teacher. A modern educational educa-tional institution should therefore provide for continuous study and evaluation of the reporting system to insure a good program of reporting re-porting to parents and to serve the puropse of motivating the educational ed-ucational program through desirable desir-able public relations that a good reporting system can create. The reporting method1 used should be revised as experience, research, surveys and other studies point the way for improvement. In the past few years many studies have been made of policies of reporting a pupil's progress. A dissatisfaction is being expressed toward the older methods of making mak-ing reports, and many educators and students are attempting to build systems of marking and re-v re-v porting the progress of children which will be satisfactory. About a year ago an article by Regina H. Westcott appeared in the Journal of the National Education Educa-tion Association. In this article Mrs. Westcott told of a conference confer-ence where parents met to discuss dis-cuss this problem. One parent said, "The school would be hard put' to devise anything any-thing more' damaging to more people than our . type of report cards. This Friday is report card a 1 day, and already I'm bracing myself. my-self. Just about every kind of ugliness appears among the children chil-dren when grades come out hate, jealousy, backbiting, taunting, de-ceitfulness, de-ceitfulness, shame, despair, mean ridicule, fear." Pent Up Distress Mrs. Westcott continues, "Opening "Open-ing the flood gates could not let loose dammed up water any more violently than this impassioned speech released the distress pent up in parents." Finally out of the welter of discussion came the constructive question, "What are we going to do about it?" Even with this trend toward modification and reconstruction of marking systems, there are still many diversities and no one seems to have found a system of reporting report-ing that had brevity and continuity continu-ity . The work of the school is limited limit-ed by the amount of intelligent cooperation received from the home. The aim of educators in Duchesne County is to solicit more cooperation from the parents in all field's of education and to construct a system of reporting which will be most satisfactory from the viewpoint of parents in the home, the teachers in school, and the administration of the school. I believe that through increased understanding of current educational educa-tional philosophy and practices of reporting pupil progress, the parents par-ents and teachers can work more closely together, and the child will receive better guidance and better training both at home and at school. ' The reporting system in Duchesne Du-chesne County is presently being studied by some of our Principals in their respective schools. A report re-port of these studies and recommendations recom-mendations will appear in a future column on "Know Your Schools." |