Cooperation between parents and teachers

Media

Part of The Philippine Craftsman

Title: Cooperation between parents and teachers
Creator: Hove, Charles E.
Language: English
Year: 1916
Rights
Fulltext: 20 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN standing between office and field results in a real advantage to both. If everyone could fully appreciate that reimbursement vouchers and all other accounts must not only actually be correct, but must also have the appearance of being legitimate claims against the Bureau, considerable difficulty in effecting payments could be avoided. Upon the Directors rests the responsibility for deciding questions of policy, originating plans of action, and supplying the incentive for effective work. They are interested in securing thorough cooperation between office and field and among the various divisions of the office. Undue emphasis by one department might be almost as detrimental to the organization as a lack of attention on the part of another. For the success of the Bureau as a whole, all departments must be made to assist in preserving the general balance. COOPERATION ON THE INCREASE. The issuance of the Service Manual several years ago brought about a better understanding between field and office than had existed before. Since then, carefully prepared circulars have helped greatly in clearing up doubtful points. Conferences of division superintendents, principals, and supervising teachers, at which members of the General Office force have been present, have made it possible to remedy difficulties before they assumed serious proportions. Cooperation is on the increase. It pays well and it is certainly worth cultivating. COOPERATION BETWEEN PARENTS AND TEACHERS. By Cuabl es E. Hove, Actins Division Superintendent of Schools, Nuevn Vizcaya. Under the civil law as well as under the common law, teachers are considered to stand “in the place of a parent” with reference to pupils under their care. This relationship of the teacher to the father and mother, through the child, implies and makes necessary the closest cooperation in all things affecting a child’s training. Cooperation of teachers and parents should not be one-sided— it should work both ways. Some teachers are continually asking the local officials and parents for assistance, but forget that the school owes the parents and community in general all the help it can give. Much extra work should not be required of pupils when their parents need them; rather they should be encouraged to help their parents. One of the difficulties with attendance OTHER ASPECTS OF COOPERATION 21 is to keep pupils in their classes during the rice harvest. Regular attendance is necessary for the accomplishment of school work. During the busy seasons, however, if parents need their children at home, their wishes should be given every reasonable consideration. With the approval of the division superintendent, halfday sessions may be held, and the industrial work may be done in the rice fields at home. The all-the-year-round school and teacher, with short vacations at convenient times, will make possible much closer cooperation between parents and teachers. The plan of “home-work credit” used in Oregon opens great possibilities in cooperation. By this system students receive credit toward graduation for work done at home, such as caring for animals, cooking, bookkeeping—almost any work which they do regularly. The parent or person for whom the work is done certifies to it monthly on a report card; the instructor inspects at intervals; and the student is given credit the same as for lessons or work at school. The idea is similar to the “home projects” of some Massachusetts schools which are teaching agriculture. A boy may have at home certain work of his own—raising pigs or potatoes or caring for an apple orchard—the materials, tools, and capital usually being supplied by the parents. His teacher inspects the “project” and gives instructions, and often talks with the father about his son’s work and about the farm work in general. Evening meetings for the farmers of the neighborhood are held by the agricultural instructor. Intermediate farm schools in the Philippines cooperate directly with the farmers in some instances, the farmers cultivating parcels of land under the supervision of a teacher. There is much cooperation, too, between parents and teachers in industrial work, and it is increasing rapidly. The time may soon come when the teachers will be so well trained along industrial lines that parents will be disposed to follow their advice. Then the schools will be able to teach both parents and children the latest and best methods in agriculture and in homemaking. At present, parents frequently assist the schools by fencing grounds and plowing, by giving the children seeds and industrial materials, and by loaning tools and animals. Most of the cloth for sewing and, in some places, the materials for cooking classes are supplied by the parents. They often bring from the forests rattan and kilog for basketry. Both food-producing and ornamental plants are obtained from the homes of the pupils. Parents also assist the industrial classes by sending in garments for making or for mending and by purchasing articles 22 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN either directly or through their children. The cooking classes of the Nueva Vizcaya High School last year gave several wellattended lunches, charging ?0.30 or 5*0.40 per plate. This school sold in Bayombong, a small town, products of its cooking classes to the value of i*875 during the year, making a considerable profit. Sometimes parents assist their children in preparing materials for industrial classes and they frequently help with gardening. It is not rare to see a parent working side by side with his son in preparing the boy’s plot for planting. One of the girls of the Nueva Vizcaya High School was very slow with her embroidery work. Finally, the teacher directed her to take the work home and complete it, and in a short time she brought it back, an excellent piece of finished work. But inquiry developed the fact that her mother had done the work. Such cooperation is liable to be carried too far, but within limits it should be encouraged. Probably the closest cooperation between parents and teachers is in the settlement farm schools, most of which are located among the non-Christian peoples. The parents will do anything within reason for these schools, from helping to clear the land to helping eat the farm products at the dormitory table. Improved breeds of hogs and chickens are being introduced among the people. More corn is now generally planted by the Ilongots and it is ground at the school mills. A young carabao, the gift of an Ilongot headman, is being broken to work by the boys of the Maquebenga, Nueva Vizcaya, school. The schools help the parents directly in many ways. Boys usually take home the products of their gardens; girls frequently make articles of clothing for home use. Girls should do a part of their cooking at home under the supervision of teachers. Mothers sometimes sew on the school machines. Sometimes the Ilongots grind cane at the school mill, one of the pupils driving the carabao for them. Fathers borrow the plows and other tools when the implements are not needed at school. School kitchens and cooking outfits are useful to the people at the celebration of public fiestas. The building itself should be at the service of the public for the holding of occasional dances and public meetings. One teacher when asked if the new concrete school building was so used, replied that he did not know that this was permissible. A certain principal objected to the use of a new schoolhouse for public entertainments because the people attending might soil the building—a lost opportunity to teach the people of that town neatness and cleanliness. Teachers should realize that OTHER ASPECTS OF COOPERATION 23 the school plant belongs to the people, and that under proper supervision it ought to be used in any reasonable way that will benefit parents and pupils, or the community in general. COOPERATION IN THE CITY SCHOOLS. By Pa ul C. Tr imbl e, formerly Chief Clerk, Department of SchoolB, Manila. No discussion of the work of the department of city schools in cooperation with other Departments of the Government or private agencies would be complete without mention of the fact that such cooperation is by no means a one-sided proposition. While the city schools are frequently called upon to help in worthy governmental and private activities, they are also assisted at frequent intervals by these same agencies. An example of friendly cooperation between different branches of the Government service, in which the department of city schools is directly concerned, is in connection with the industrial division of the Bureau of Prisons. The Bureau of Prisons maintains a bamboo and rattan shop and turns out work of a very high quality. Many of the prisoners have acquired great skill in handling these materials. The city schools frequently send teachers to the industrial division of the Bureau of Prisons where, working with prisoners, they acquire proficiency in bamboo and rattan work and return to direct these courses in the intermediate school shops. In exchange for this service, a regular embroidery teacher is sent each afternoon to the Bureau of Prisons to instruct the women prisoners in fine needlework. The Philippine Bureau of Health, which has accomplished so much toward freeing the Islands from epidemics during the past years and in making Manila the healthiest city in the Far East, would probably never have been able to accomplish the work it has done without the assistance of the schools throughout the provinces and in Manila. During the dry season, it is sometimes necessary to turn into the Manila mains the water from the Santolan River which is not so free from contamination as that from the Montalban River. When this is done, information is sent out to every home in the city through the city schools. Children are advised to tell their parents not to use water unless it is boiled. Both infantile and adult death rates have been reduced through this means. In return for this assistance and for the assistance rendered by the city schools in stamping out epidemics, and in the dissemination of useful information regarding health in general, the Bureau of Health