; 1029 '4 B8 >py 1 T H E S E R V I C E OF THE VI SI TING AND CONSULTING TEACHER BROWN THE SERVICE OF THE VISITING AND CONSULTING TEACHER BY ALLAN P. BROWN, S. B. Formerly Principal of the Imperial Valley Union High School, Imperial, California, Visiting and Con- sulting Teacher, Santa Barbara, California. 1915 The Printing Studio ofD. H. Schauer San Marcos Building Santa Barbara, California Copyright 1915 By Allan P. Brown All Rights Reserved :^AR -9 (915 C'C!.A3 96 48 2 I- r TO The boys and girls who care for the best life ; and to those who do not now care, in the hope that, some day, they may, this little book is affectionately dedicated by The Author The Service of the Visiting and Consulting Teacher The services of the visiting and consulting teacher are these: To bring to child life and to youth the guiding friendship of a big brother or sister, who loves children and young people, and men and women, — a big brother or sister who knows, by actual experience, some- thing of the demands of the world's everyday life, and who has sought to meet these demands with devo- tion, ability and training. Centuries of civilization have not materially changed the instincts of human nature, in many respects. We still have a longing for what we naturally want, and we don't like what we don't like, even if we have to keep still about it. Then, too, human ability is weak, after all. "The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." Alice wants to get her arithmetic, but nature has given her a handicap in that particular subject. She is good in some other things, but when she tries to see why the numerator and denominator of a fraction have to be treated with perfect fairness, her mental machinery stops work- ing. And there is some reason for the trouble, too, but no one seems to have had the time to look after the matter. What is the result? Alice stumbles along, takes the book's word for it, and the teacher's, and goes home with the convic- tion that something is wrong, she doesn't know just what, or why, or where. The next day it is some other trouble, and the next, another, and so on. Thus, before very long, it is not arithmetic that Alice is studying, a good portion of the time, but troubles. For, we know that trouble in one thing casts its shadow over every- thing. This is as true as human consciousness is true. If we have trouble we may try to hide it from others, but we know, only too well, that we cannot really deny it to ourselves. Now, what is the life cost of trouble? It is this. First fear, then unhappiness, followed by gradual discouragement, and the giving up of noble ideals. This, in turn, is sufficient, in many cases, to change the whole life plans of a boy or girl. Is there nothing that can be done about it? And, if something can be don& about it, is it worth while? There is much being done about it, and the work is considered very- well worth while. The universities and high schools have their personal interviews and conference hours. The public grade schools have their special study rooms. But no one, as yet, would think of taking Alice out of her class and sending her to the special study room. Because, if she were to go, there are Thomas and William who ought to go with her, and half a dozen others. And this is only one school in the city. Now comes the visiting and con- sulting teacher and sits down with Alice, and Thomas and William, one at a time, or two or more at a time, as may best fit the matter in hand, spending five or ten minutes with each one. Troubles are cleared away for that day, and perhaps for the next, and some important things are really and truly under- stood. Then Alice and Thomas and William go back to their rooms, and Edith and James and John take their places, either singly or to- gether. Thus, at the end of an hour, the visiting and consulting teacher has talked sympathetically, helpfully, and professionally, if you please, with half a dozen or more little men and women. At the end of five or six hours, he has helped twenty-five or thirty or more, in two or more schools. Nature is very prompt in her ap- preciation of assistance. Before many days, or perhaps, almost at once, the teachers notice that Alice and Thomas and William are show- 6 ing a decided improvement in their work. As one teacher put it: "Thomas and John are doing so much better. They seem to have more self respect and command of themselves. Thomas, particularly, is actually doing things. Before this I had to just let him go along, as best he could, because he could- n't really do anything, you know. I think it is wonderful that one can notice an improvement so soon, where you would think it would take weeks and weeks." Again, in the same school, the principal, a careful, conscientious, young man, came in one morning, and said, earnestly : "I want to say that there is very marked change in William's work." William's case had been partic- ularly troublesome to the principal. The young man did not know whether it was a lack of application with the boy or something far more serious. A brief investigation" showed plenty of trouble, but the evi- dence, from day to day, was rather conflicting. For instance, in simple multiplication, as elsewhere, the things that William really knew seemed very elusive, so he was given a clear case from newsboy's row. If one newspaper cost five cents what will twenty-five cost? He was shown how to write the numbers down, how to put the product down, how to point off. Having been taken over the road once could he go over it again, alone ? Oh, no. Four times he tried it, with an air of easy superiority. He would glad- ly have let the matter go. But there was someone at his elbow to s take him back gently and start him on the road again. He grew more serious. The fifth time he got it, and was congratulated by a sincere handshake. His dull, yet shrewd- looking face lit up with an unusual light. It seemed as if the clouds began to break away right then. But there are many nice, bright boys and girls, everywhere, who do not have any such trouble as Wil- liam had, yet they do not see things quite clearly. They greatly appre- ciate a little help where it is needed. "A word in season, how good it is." As a capable, genial, principal said, in a large school, where there is a marked mixture of races: "Togo is a bright, good boy. But he needs more help in his English. I wish that I could help him." A few mornings later the princi- pal said happily: "I think that I can notice an im- provement in Togo already." Then he went on to explain that the thir- teen-year-old boy from far Japan seemed to have found a new inter- est and enthusiasm in his school life. "I would like to send in my Chi- nese boy," said a spirited young woman. Alfred bears a surname of his race, with a Christian name com- plimentary to the land of his adop- tion. He is lithe and alert, but he likes to understand things before going far with them. "What does Mt. Olympus mean?" says he, in somewhat abbreviated English. "Just who was Zeus?" This bears out his teacher's com- plaint: "He refuses to pronounce a word unless he understands it." 10 Would that there were more of his kind. "I have a girl," said another teacher, in another school, "she is so far behind. I ought to put her back ; but she hates to go back, she is so big." Eulalia bears the name of a for- mer Mexican ruler of international repute. She takes her arithmetic quickly, leaves her classroom with all promptness, and accompanies the visiting teacher to the office. She sits shyly on the edge of her chair, keenly alert for every word of instruction. She is easy to teach, considering her great needs, and the willing, grateful child is so anxious to learn. If she but knew English as well as she does Spanish, how much easier it would be. How- ever, she knows English well enough 11 to get along with that part very well. It is the pure, simple arith- metic that is causing the most of her trouble. Some foundations are very care- fully gone over, with the assistance of nickels, pennies and dimes. The clouds begin to clear away. She is told, very definitely, just what to do for the next time — and what not to do. She is shown just how to do it, and is given a complete model, which she is to look at only when necessary. All of this requires more than ten minutes. But it is the first inter- view, and much has been done that will not have to be done over again, with a girl like Eulalia. She goes back to her classroom with a new hope. Eulalia "is on the road to recovery," as her next interview shows, two days later. 12 Some emphasis is laid on this case, because Eulalia is the "good child," who wants to do her best in her troubles. And was it not of this spirit, in the world's good children, big or little, that the Master really spoke, when he said, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." One recalls the noble words of England's great and good Queen Victoria, when she was a young girl : "I may not be able to be great but I want to be good." There are thousands of young people in the world who "want to be good," who want to do the best they can, in their studies, and in the far greater school of life. But, now and then, their problems and troubles seem, at the time, beyond their comprehension, and they real- ise keenly that world-old truth, 13 "how shall a man know lest he be taught r It does not take a good guide long to tell you which turn in the road to take, which trail on the moun- tain. It is true you might find out for yourself, in time — but, at what a cost — at this cost, too frequently, that you do not arrive where you should have arrived, either that day or any other day. There was once a great and good man, whose inspired influence con- tinues strong in the world today, who said that the true teacher should be "gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness in- structing those that oppose them- selves." There are thousands of boys and girls today who do not want to go to school, who do not want to take 14 the counsel of their parents and teachers ; but experience has taught fathers and mothers and teachers that so many of these thousands of boys and girls regret their folly, bitterly, when it is too late. What would fathers and mothers not give if they could only reach the hearts of their boys and girls, and lead them to "recover themselves out of the" error of their way, before it is too late. The visiting and consulting teach- er can sit down alone with William or Alice, and talk over with them, kindly but seriously, lifers great problems that are pressing for solu- tion. William and Alice will have to solve their own life problems, but a little guidance, at a critical mo- ment, at an important turn in the road, may mean everything. For, 15 the visiting and consulting teacher visits the home as well as the class room. He knows what the class teacher is not at all likely to know. Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, out of the over-flowing burden of their hearts, give him sacred confidences, as they do to the minister and the physician. And these confidences he holds in sacred trust for the guiding and saving of human life unto its highest ends. Thus, for the thousands of boys and girls and young people, who "want to be good," and who want to know "the truth," the visiting and consulting teacher, the good big brother and sister, offers his or her love and life service. Yet, not only for these, but for those less fortunate ones, who do not "want to be good," who do not want to know "the 16 truth," and who "oppose them- selves," as yet, in their own best lives; but who, "peradventure," may be led "to the acknowledging of the truth" and to "recover them- selves," before it is too late. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 348 969