ing his assets and in eliminating his liabilities, or in avoiding situations in which the latter would militate against the possibility of successeven in school.

Make good citizenship desirable by arranging to make it rewarding. Why should the nonconformist be coaxed to be good by being given opportunities to lead whereas the more intellegent but well behaved are taken for granted and ignored?

SCHOOLS HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO ALL YOUTH

(By Herold C. Hunt, Under Secretary, Department of Health, Education, and

Welfare)

I wish to thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my views on some aspects of the problem of juvenile delinquency and the position of our public schools in relation to this problem.

If some investigation in the year 1900 had asked the men in charge of our schools what their responsibility was toward children and especially to older youth who behaved in a fashion which is today described as delinquent, I believe the answer would have been, "We have no responsibility for such youth." Expulsion from school was the remedy (for the school) and other agencies, usually the courts and police officials, were expected to protect the community. In the course of the last 50 years, this attitude has changed as the idea has developed that the schools have a responsibility for all children and youth. However, like most ideas, it is not universally accepted nor very well implemented in many schools where the responsibility is realized.

My second thought on the subject is that the schools have been given responsibilities at a much faster rate than they have been supplied with the knowledge of how to deal with the problems, or with the means to meet their responsibilities for which they have knowledge of what would be the constructive thing to do. Research on effective ways to deal with the school's responsibility in preventing and dealing with juvenile delinquency is needed. Additional resources are required in many situations if school leaders are to do more than they are now doing.

In general, I would say that the schools are becoming increasingly concerned about the education of all youth. They have a responsibility to provide education for all children. Children and youth who have major problems of adjustment should not be excluded from school or necessarily sent to special schools. All groups of exceptional children (handicapped, low intelligence, delinquents, etc.) require some special training by teachers who have special preparation. Many communities have not yet recognized the delinquency-prone child as an exceptional child and have not provided funds for the special help that such a child requires.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE
PREVENTION OF DELINQUENCY

(By M. D. Mobley, executive secretary, American Vocational Association) I believe that education has a great part to play in the prevention of juvenile delinquency. We are all aware of some of the social changes that have been taking place in our society and the effect that

it is having upon the public schools. For many years the schools have served as a residual institution to perform many of the tasks that the home, the church, and other institutions of our society have failed to perform. This talk of taking on added responsibilities along with the problem of increased school population, has placed a great burden on the public schools.

At the present time, public education is suffering due to lack of financial assistance and to the great shortage of competent teachers and counselors. The public schools will not be able to meet this added burden placed on them by society unless the Federal, State and local governments are willing to provide funds that are needed to carry out a broad program to meet the needs of all youth.

It is my feeling that public education has become quite traditional in many respects. It has grown out of the system used in Europe. and accepted by many people who are unwilling to meet the challenge that has been placed before us by modern society. The educational program today must be a broad program since youth cannot enter the world of employment until they are 16 years of age or older, due to laws that have been established. The cultural and economic status of the families from which the youth come are contributing factors to school attendance and school interests. The educational program should challenge the interests of all youth. Many of the youth are not physically, emotionally, or intelligently capable of the high academic standards that are often forced upon them. The public school system should provide for these individuals an opportunity to develop in an activity type program which would involve the use of the hands. This does not necessarily mean that their training. would be vocational but would give them an opportunity to explore the possibility of field or fields of work that lie ahead.

It is my firm conviction that a sound program of vocational guidance should be developed. After participating in an activity type program the youth could then make a decision as to his life's work; vocational education would then have a great part to play in the future development of the youth.

It should be pointed out that vocational education should not be made a dumping ground where youth would be placed. This would be an extreme waste of time, money, and effort. An individual who has not made a decision on his life's work would be better cared for in an activity type program. Such a program would consist of a program often found in the public schools which is called the practical arts program. In some way Federal stimulation might be given to the States to encourage this type of program through funds for supervisors of the practical arts phase of our educational program.

It has been my privilege to visit Baltimore, Md., and see this type of program in operation. Dr. Charles W. Sylvester, assistant superintendent of schools in charge of vocational education in Baltimore, had a great deal to do with developing such a program in that city. I would suggest that you invite Dr. Sylvester to appear before your committee and give you his experiences in developing programs of education to meet the mental and physical capacities of all youth. I am sure he could bring to your committee some excellent suggestions as to the role that education in general and vocational and practical arts education in particular can play in preventing juvenile delin

quency.

PRESENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM MUST ASSUME ITS SHARE OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR DELINQUENCY

(By Mrs. Theo M. Shea, assistant professor of education, St. Louis University)

The increase in the percentage of delinquency among juveniles must of necessity have many causes and since education has a direct effect on every child's life pattern the present educational system must assume its share of the responsibility.

It would appear unrealistic to say that the present system, whether we look on it as "a system" or many diverse systems constituting a whole, is responsible for the increase.

The breakdown of family responsibility and authority, the moral climate of the community, the unrest and chaos resulting from population movements, technological change, and all that this implies as well as the capacity of the individual must be considered in this relationship to delinquency. Since each of the persons involved in any of these relationships have been exposed to some form or some measure of American education then to that extent education is related to delinquency.

In our present system of education there seems to be too much confusion as to the actual responsibility of the school; where the authority rests and the purpose of the school in terms of the parent and the child.

Since we must be concerned with present-day education as one factor in the rise of delinquency we should consider this:

Adolescents mature in different ways at different chronological ages, no two being exactly alike. The school laws and child-labor laws set chronological age limits as to when a boy or girl may leave school and/or go to work.

Many adolescents are thus forced to remain in school, or leave school and be unemployed, because the curriculum provides nothing of interest or of use to them. Many of these adolescents are mature and have good potential abilities in certain employment areas.

It would appear that one of two things need to be changed, namely1. Adjust the curriculum to suit the needs of this type of student from which a high percentage of delinquency comes. Provide in fact, not theory, a curriculum that suits his needs in every way possible. This is not in any way a suggestion that standards be lowered but made sufficiently diverse to suit greater numbers of students.

2. Readjust the child-labor laws to permit mature adolescents. to find employment in satisfying positions which require the skills that they appear to have thus allowing them to assume responsibilities they need to have.

One other point, adolescents often manifest symptoms of confusion and unrest which should indicate need for guidance in making proper choices. In too many schools this guidance is lacking. Teachers do not have sufficient training or the insight to recognize these danger signals and give or get help for these students. Schools do not utilize efficiently all the community agencies available to them.

EARLY PRIMARY GROUPS SHOULD BE LIMITED TO 20 CHILDREN (By Miss Carol Kahler, assistant professor of education, St. Louis University)

Since delinquency appears to be a result of the constant interplay of multiple facets of our culture and each individual child who becomes involved in delinquent acts, it would appear that one great need would be for increased collaboration of all community agencies concerned with the welfare of children. Immediate collaboration needs to be furthered at the level of consultation concerning children who have been found to be delinquent and concerning areas known to be high delinquency areas. While this has theoretically been a practice, in actuality the collaboration too frequently has taken place only at the courtroom level after repeated delinquencies, duplicate case studies, and long-term individual agency efforts. The cooperative planning needed on a preventive level can become an actuality on the basis of such immediate working relationships.

My second suggestion is in the nature of a well-grounded hunch and involves only the school. As increasing enrollments are confronting the schools with unprecedented problems of staffing classrooms, the goal of small class groups seems unrealistic. However, it would appear that psychological evidence of the importance of the first few years of school in determining the constructive part that agency can play in the later lives of children should legislate for early primary groups which are limited to 20 children. This involves careful consideration of the real problems involved in making more teachers and more classroom available to the 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old children while increasing the class size of more mature groups. This suggestion may seem nebulous and little connected with the problem, but if delinquency is viewed as a problem which frequently culminates during the preadolescent or adolescent period, rather than one which arises there, credence might be given to this suggestion.

PREVENTING JUVENILE DELINQUENCY BY IMPROVING
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION

(By W. W. Carpenter, professor of education, University of Missouri)

It seems evident that the major responsibility resting upon us today is to preserve our America from those enemies at home and abroad who have planned our destruction. It also seems evident to a close observer that the problem is twofold: First, the preparation of American youth to work directly or indirectly with other peoples all over the world and; second, to preserve in American youth in training for citizenship at home and abroad, the love of America and its traditions, and the willingness to live for it or die for it if necessary.

The first problem seems more easily recognized by our American people than the second. In general it represents our ability to live with other peoples of other nations and to assist them in every way possible to attain economic, physical, political, and social security. The second problem is less well recognized, but just as important; namely, to assist our American youth to learn to live with themselves and their parents and friends in the true American spirit, to recognize the aims and purposes of this great Nation and to desire to cooperate in every way to make it truly the home of the free and the brave.

Child delinquency may be thought of as the tendency on the part of a number of our youth to disregard the faith and beliefs of our fathers and to resent and resist the social obligations that have evolved since the beginnings of our Nation. Let it be said in passing that some of the social obligations need to be reevaluated and soon. In reality then the two problems merge in that delinquency of the child may eventually cause the destruction of our Nation; and when and if the moral fiber of our Nation at home is destroyed, then it follows that we will lose the opportunity to help others as well as to help ourselves.

The solution of the problems involved is quite difficult amd complicated, although the process that must be followed seems as clear as the tone of a crystal bell. The problems involved with the process have been well stated time after time in the discussion in our journals and recognized since the beginning of our Nation, namely, that education is essential to the perpetuity of our Nation and our world. The problems involved in attaining the fundamental principles laid down, however, seem insurmountable to many because of tradition, precedent, selfishness, lack of vision and lack of a clearly defined policy of responsibility for what and by whom. There is also the failure to recognize the need of saving the world and America, rather than the local neighborhood only; failure to recognize that education is our first line of defense and if it fails, all fails; the failure to recognize that to those persons serving as teachers has been officially delegated, and to no others, the sacred responsibility of passing on the heritage and contributions and processes of our democracy to succeeding generations; the failure to recognize that teachers must be highly trained for their positions, must be highly paid and their welfare adequately protected by sick leave plans, tenure, retirement, and other welfare considerations.

The process of controlling and eventually removing child delinquency is clear; it is through education. But what kind of education, who should administer it, who should pay for it, how shall it be organized, and other questions arise in your mind. Not the one-room school, not the slipshod method of keeping account of our children in most States, not the neglect of their health and leisure, the utter disregard of their sacred personalities, or the treatment now afforded the delinquent ones? Then what?

Let us glean from some of the literature relevant ideas of an educational plan that can, if evolved, save our America and the world. Let us review our faith in America, the rights of American children, the teacher in wartime, the migrating child, and the case for Federal support. Let us recognize that youth in school district A are also citizens in State A and of the United States of America. As such, the Nation and the State and the school district become members of a team working together, planning, cooperating, and spending together that every child may be a worthy citizen of his school district, of his State and of our good old U. S. A. Let us recognize the necessity of a nationwide continuing census and a continuing health service administered through the State departments of education, and supported in whole or in part by Federal funds. Let us recognize the importance of teacher training of all kinds, including the preparation of experts to handle those who do stray from the usual path. Let the Nation and State more fully cooperate in the support of these programs.