EDUCATION OF AMERICAN PARENTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 158, 6 July 1937, Page 12

EDUCATION OF AMERICAN PARENTS

A Move For a More Complete Understanding.

"Tun mist interesting and worthwhile aspect of i'flu cation I have ever beov, associated with." paid Mi-s. F. W. Hurt, who arrived in Auckland this morning by the Maunganui, "is that department of adult education known in Cnlifornia :i* parental education." Mix. [fiirr, herself an educationist with an M.A. decree and yea re of experience in teaching, is the wife of Professor F. W. Hart. Their namee both appear on the list of speakers for the Xew Educational Fellowship conference. "Parental education is part of our State education," Mrs. Hart said. "Education is compulsory for children between the ag<>ts of five and eighteen, but with the nursery echools co-opera-tion on the part of the parente is compulsory, too. Xo child is accepted in these schools unless its parents agree to attend group diseueeions. With the older children the parent education i» not compulsory, but most of the mothers are glad to be able to meet the leaders of the groups and discuss problems with them." In the days when all the standards of behaviour were set, and did not change much from generation to generation, education was simpler, and the fact that parents were, not in touch with their children's development did not matter so much, Mrs. Hart said. But to-day life has changed. It was changing ail the time, and changing rapidly. Parents felt more and more the need for thought and knowledge, for adjustment, with their children, to the demands of the new civilisation.

Parent education was guided I>y the Parenty Teacher Association. This association organised, for the State, discussion groups where parents met a leader. There were no set lectures, the talks grew out of the needs of parents and children. The leaders were certificated by the State—not necessarily teachers, but had to have had experience with children; some of psychology, and to be able to draw out of the parents problems which concerned them, and give a lead to the thought. Everybody's Problems the Same. "It is perhaps not as strange as it seems," Mrs. Hart said, "that the problems that come to light in these groups are much the same from whatever class the group is composed of. Aristocratic mothers have the same problems to face as those from the poorest parts. The relations of parents to children, and the difficulties arising from these relations, are tJie same in all walks of life." "Women in America are intensely Interested in education, ,, Mrs. Hart said. "They take an, active part in the affairs of the- country; are politically minded and growing—owing to the League of Women Voters—more and more interested in politics. The League of Voters aims at giving them an intelligent appreciation of the politics of the age. They can attend lectures, where both sides are given without any bias. The league takes no sides, but makes a study of every situation. Just ns the Parent Teacher Association explains the ?chools and the children to the parents, so dope the league explain to the voters much of the world around them." The establishing of desirable human relationships, through education in all matters pertaining to children, homes, and the political world outside, was the aim of the movements with which Mrs. Hart identified herself. American women did not stop growing intellectually because they got married and had families, Mrs. Hart said. She had brought up a daughter, and taken her M.A. degree when her child was quite young. Her daughter is now a keen scientist, and although she has juet married, her mother says that she expects her to go on studying science, keeping herself in line with changing times.