Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2020 8:15 am
The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations
by Mrs. Frederic Schoff
President National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers
Director Home Education Division, Bureau of Education, Washington
American Academy of Political and Social Science
Source: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 67, New Possibilities in Education (Sep., 1916), pp. 139-147
[Founded in 1897 as the National Congress of Mothers by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst]
The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations was the pioneer organization in studying and promoting every phase of child welfare, and it must ever stand at the very heart of all child welfare movements, because without cooperation no real betterment can be secured for children. It was the first national movement to widen and deepen the influence of fathers and mothers through the demand for educated parenthood and a wider vision of childhood's needs and parental duty. To help the home to do its best work, a practical plan for reaching every home must be found. The Parent-Teacher Association and the Mothers' Circle were selected as the mediums best adapted to reach all homes. Through the well organized school system a way was open to provide opportunities for home education for parents, and at the same time establish sympathetic, intelligent cooperation with the great body of teachers who were sharing with parents the education and guidance of the children.
Neither parents nor teachers were in touch with each other, and children suffered by lack of this mutual understanding -- while the work of the teachers was greatly increased by lack of it. The Congress assumed the task of organizing Parent-Teacher Associations in every school. It also assumed the educational direction of these associations, in order to make them of real value to parents, to ensure their continuance, and to keep them true to their fundamental, far-reaching purpose. There had been parent associations of various kinds, but the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations originated the movement to make them universal, and to widen the scope of the educational system by making the schools serve a double purpose in education, by making it possible for parents to learn through them all that would enable them to be better fathers and mothers. The plan included the wider use of school buildings, opening them for reading rooms and recreation centres wherever the need existed, and placing the responsibility for all this in the hands of those most concerned -- the parents and teachers of the children in the schools.
A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOR PARENTS
The Congress, in its comprehensive plan for a nation-wide system of providing educational help for parents, assumed the functions of a National University for Parents with headquarters in Washington, but radiating its educational guidance to all who could be reached.
It was soon found necessary to establish state branches, through which extension work could be done, carrying the message to mothers just where they were. The interest and cooperation of state superintendents of schools were enlisted. Every officer gave her time and financed her work. For information a pamphlet on "How to Organize Parent-Teacher Associations with Suggestions for Programs " is published by the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, 910 Loan & Trust Bldg., Washington, D. C. The Child Welfare Magazine, Box 4022, West Philadelphia, gives each month a program and publishes reports of work of Parent-Teacher Associations all over the United States.
SCOPE OF PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS
In the organization of Parent-Teacher Associations, the following reasons for their formation are given. Parent-Teacher Associations have three main reasons for existence:
First: To give fathers and mothers the opportunity to better educate themselves for intelligent home-making and child-nurture.
Second: To enable parents to learn what the schools are doing in order that the home may offer effective cooperation and that the schools may also cooperate with the home.
Third: To study community conditions affecting the welfare of the young with the purpose of arousing a sentiment of community responsibility.
The Parent-Teacher Association, needing for its full success the membership of parents and teachers of all political parties, all religious beliefs and of many different opinions as to the right and wrong of various movements, cannot afford to risk antagonisms needlessly. There are other well established agencies available for discussion and action along these lines. Let the Parent-Teacher Association confine itself to its own single high purpose, that of bettering conditions for "citizens in the making."
The world has no greater need than that of a wiser, better trained parenthood; this need is not yet recognized in school and college courses; the Parent-Teacher Association, therefore, serves as almost the only study class open to parents who wish to learn more of the duties of their calling. It raises the standard of home life through the education of parents; and through organization gives power for united and effective service.
COOPERATION OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS
The Parent-Teacher Association has long passed its experimental stage; from leaders in education everywhere letters come asking the help of the Congress in organizing and providing educational programs. State superintendents of public instruction in the states of Delaware and Washington have made it a part of their work to request all principals to organize parent-teacher associations as members of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. Valuable pamphlets on this subject have been published by these superintendents. Hundreds of other state and county superintendents have given invaluable cooperation. Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, of Chicago, in a letter dated January, 1916, says:
MOTHERS STUDY CONDITIONS OF CHILDREN
Ever since 1897 conditions of childhood outside the home have been a subject of exhaustive study by the Congress. When it began its work, children were in prisons and jails in every state, associated with confirmed criminals in all court procedure and before and after trial. No state except Michigan had assumed the responsibility of providing adequately for its dependent or orphan children. No state had, from the mother's viewpoint, provided for the all around protection of the welfare of the children.
The first juvenile court and probation system was established Chicago in 1899, the bill for it being drafted by Hon. Harvey B. Hurd. The Congress appreciated fully the advantages offered by this new system and worked unceasingly to promote its establishment in every state and in other lands, by conducting a systematic propaganda which was successful in many states.
Detention houses instead of jails were promoted. Recognizing that successful probation work is an educational function, and can only be successful when done with sympathetic insight into life, the Congress has never ceased its efforts to place probation work under educational direction. Judge Lindsey1 [1. Pamphlets on "Next Steps Forward in Juvenile Court and Probation Work" --Report of Ben B. Lindsey and Mrs. Frederic Schoff, Chairman and Vice- Chairman Juvenile Court and Probation Dept. National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Association. "Small Town and Rural Probation Work, Applicable to any County." Send to 910 Loan & Trust Bldg., Washington, D, C.] says: "There is no one factor or influence among the many good influences working for human betterment in this country that has done more to advance Juvenile Court and Probation work than the Mothers' Congress."
PROTECTION AGAINST CHILD LABOR
The Congress in 1902 inaugurated its child labor committee, and used its efforts to prevent the employment of little children in mines and factories, and to insure better factory inspection, and has ever since given its influence to promoting protection of children in industry. It has opposed all employment of children in occupations injurious to life, health or character, and the committee has given exhaustive study to the entire subject of work for children, earnestly working against abuses. An investigation is being made by the committee on the effects of child labor laws on child-life in different states, with a view to present and future welfare of children. Superintendents of schools and parents have called the attention of the committee to the necessity for such investigation.
MOTHERS' PENSIONS
In a study of children coming into juvenile courts, children who were truants and little children who were working, the children in orphanages and institutions, the Congress saw the necessity of keeping the mother with her children, and in 1911 inaugurated a nation-wide movement to secure mothers' pensions to prevent the breaking up of the home when through poverty or death of the father, the mother is unable to keep it.
There is an aspect to this question which has wielded its influence in the evolution of a plan that would enable the mother to keep a home for her children. The struggle for existence has driven many children of tender years into the ranks of wage-earners before they were physically able to do the tasks required of them. Deprived thereby of any chance for the fundamental education which would enable them to fill places where there would be opportunity for advancement, these children have become a source of anxiety to all who are interested in the future of society. Some plan must be devised that would make it possible for the home to be sustained without the work of little children. Thus the nation-wide movement to secure mothers' pensions has a meaning and purpose the scope of which is not fully realized even by some of its warmest advocates.
A working mother with the best qualifications for being a good mother to her children, cannot exercise her powers when she is absent most of the daylight hours and must work far into the night to keep the roof over their heads. The state has decided that her service to the children is more important than her service as a wage-earner. It is safe to predict that truancy will decrease 50 per cent when the mother's pension becomes operative. Thirty-five states have adopted this preserver of the home, and a mother's care for the children, and in every state the Congress has been an active factor in securing this legislation, and in placing its administration outside of charity. Pennsylvania and New York methods are recommended.2 [2. "The Evolution of the Mother's Pension -- Its Scope and Object." The pamphlet used successfully in legislative campaigns in a number of states can be supplied by application to National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, 910 Loan & Trust Bldg., Washington, D. C.]
SAVING THE BABIES
By careful tests the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations has proved that 70 per cent of babies who die before they are a year old, can be saved by education of mothers in infant hygiene. All the knowledge possessed by physicians and health boards counts for nothing unless the mothers, who have the actual care of the babies, can themselves possess the knowledge of the proper care and feeding of babies.
The National Congress of Mothers has for years conducted constant campaign to awaken mothers and make them realize that more than instinct is required to have healthy babies, and to give them a chance to live. It has a method of learning of mothers of babies, and sends a bulletin on The Care of the Baby. It has sent appeals to all state and local Boards of Health to establish and maintain Departments of Child Hygiene, to see that every new mother is informed of all that will help her to give proper care to her baby and furnish protection to the milk supply; to have a Parents' Educational Bureau as a part of the equipment of every Board of Health, and to see that every mother is given the opportunity to visit it. In Portland, Oregon, the city cooperates with the local branch of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations in maintenance of a most successful Parents' Educational Bureau. Through the Child Hygiene Department, National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, vast amount of work for baby-saving has been done in many states.
STATE CHILD WELFARE COMMISSIONS
The Congress urged the appointment of an unsalaried state child welfare commission in every state to study every phase of child welfare, to consider existing conditions and to recommend needed improvements. Oregon has complied with the request. Its commission, appointed by Governor West, has done fine work -- Chairman, Mrs. Robert H. Tate, 1811 E. Morrison St., Portland, Oregon. Every state requires the work of a child welfare commission, made up of broad-minded, unsalaried citizens, with the governor as ex officio member and with reports to the legislature that the members may have in mind the development of a system of state protection for the physical, mental and moral development of all its children. The Congress has done, and is doing, valuable work in many states in the extension of kindergartens as part of the school system in cooperation with the Kindergarten Division, United States Bureau of Education and National Kindergarten Association.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COOPERATION
Federal cooperation has been given the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations from the beginning, for the relation of its work to the youth of the nation was fully appreciated. Three international child welfare conferences have been held in Washington, the invitations for all nations to participate being sent by the Department of State. At the first of these the President of the United States delivered the main address. Federal cooperation with several divisions of the Department of Agriculture has been mutually advantageous during many years.
HOME EDUCATION DIVISION ESTABLISHED
The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations most earnestly desired that the United States Bureau of Education should recognize that parents are educators, and in as great need of suggestion as teachers in schools, or as farmers in agriculture. When recognition was given by the Commissioner of Education to the fact that the larger part of children's education is conducted by parents -- and that possibilities for preparation and study must be provided for them, an important step for child welfare was taken, and an unlimited field of service to parents was opened. The Home Education Division of the Bureau of Education was established in September, 1913, in cooperation with the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. The official announcement is here given:
WORK OF THE HOME EDUCATION DIVISION
The extension of Parent-Teacher Associations, the cooperation of 40,000 women recommended by superintendents of schools, the distribution of educational bulletins to mothers, the preparation of reading courses for parents, for boys and girls who have left school, for men and women wishing to pursue home study, the provision of certificates for all who complete the courses, the replies to many questions from individual mothers, have brought much appreciation and have given a keen perception of the great need for the work of home education. Thirteen million children under school age in the United States are under the exclusive care of parents. Education in physical care means life to thousands. Education in the development of moral habits will prevent the blighting of many lives at their beginning. The greatest educational work is done in the first six years, and no after care can make up for neglect then. Eighteen million children of school age spend one tenth of their time in school, while nine tenths of their time is under parental direction and guidance, showing the relative educational responsibility of parents and teachers.
Twenty million boys and girls who have left school need encouragement in the continuance of education during the most critical years of youth, when insight and sympathy can lead upward, but when lack of it has driven many away from home influence. The federal government now considers the education of children from infancy instead of from the age of six, and it considers their education for twenty-four hours a day, instead of five hours, and for twelve months of the year instead of ten months, as heretofore.
During 1915, 95,000 reading courses were sent out by request, and over 25,000 letters were sent. Thousands of bulletins on The Care of the Baby have been sent to mothers, while two editions of 1,000 Good Books for Children have been published. This was prepared by the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations.
Two joint tours of representatives of the Bureau of Education, and officers of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, and National Kindergarten Association, have been arranged during 1915-16, covering the western and southern states in the promotion of home education.
FOREIGN INTEREST
Extension of national organizations similar to the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations is assured. The Chinese government requested the Congress to send its president to China to aid the government in forming a National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. Japan through private sources has also asked this help. The Marchioness of Aberdeen has accepted the duty of organizer for Great Britain. Cuba has already organized. Argentina has taken steps toward national organization.
The ideals of a nation are created and inspired by the homes. To help all homes to give true high ideals of life, of citizenship and of duty to God and man is to lay sure and strong the foundations for a great nation. The work of the Congress is civic work in its highest sense, and it welcomes the cooperation and membership of all who would give a happy childhood to every child.
by Mrs. Frederic Schoff
President National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers
Director Home Education Division, Bureau of Education, Washington
American Academy of Political and Social Science
Source: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 67, New Possibilities in Education (Sep., 1916), pp. 139-147
[Founded in 1897 as the National Congress of Mothers by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst]
Active members of the Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board are Edward Clifford, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, J. M. Wainwright, Assistant Secretary of War, Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Surgeon General M. W. Ireland of the Army, Surgeon General E. R. Stitt of the Navy, and Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming of the Public Health Service. Dr. T. A. Storey, of the College of the City of New York, formerly chief inspector of the New York State military training commission, was executive secretary over the period covered by the report. He has been succeeded lately in that position by Dr. Valeria H. Parker, an active figure in the social-hygiene work of the National League of Women Voters, the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Associations, and the American Social Hygiene Association.
-- Journal of Social Hygiene, Vol. VIII, January, 1922, by The American Social Hygiene Association
The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations was the pioneer organization in studying and promoting every phase of child welfare, and it must ever stand at the very heart of all child welfare movements, because without cooperation no real betterment can be secured for children. It was the first national movement to widen and deepen the influence of fathers and mothers through the demand for educated parenthood and a wider vision of childhood's needs and parental duty. To help the home to do its best work, a practical plan for reaching every home must be found. The Parent-Teacher Association and the Mothers' Circle were selected as the mediums best adapted to reach all homes. Through the well organized school system a way was open to provide opportunities for home education for parents, and at the same time establish sympathetic, intelligent cooperation with the great body of teachers who were sharing with parents the education and guidance of the children.
The National Congress of Mothers’ Clubs lent strong support to both G.F.W.C. [General Federation of Women’s Clubs] and W.C.T.U. [Women’s Christian Temperance Union] pure food, drink, and drug campaigns. Its members were concerned with all aspects of homemaking, child health and development, and children’s education. The quality of food and medication they gave their children was of utmost importance to them. Often they assisted public health officials, took part in food fairs, and agitated for food and drug regulation. Many state and local Mothers’ Clubs joined state and national federations of women’s clubs and were active pure food, drink, and drug advocates. Mothers’ clubs also functioned in temperance unions, particularly before 1890, and assisted in projects involving the well-being of children, such as introducing and monitoring scientific instruction in schools.
The Montgomery, Alabama, Mothers’ Circle was one of the earliest proponents of pure food and drug legislation in the South. Organizing on March 10, 1900, under the name of Montgomery Mothers’ Union (later changed to Circle) for the purpose of training for motherhood and solving problems of mothers, the Mothers’ Circle joined the National Congress of Mothers’ Clubs in February 1901 and affiliated with the Alabama State Federation of Women’s Clubs in April of the same year. The Circle established a household economics committee shortly after it organized and in April 1902, this committee divided into two subcommittees, one to investigate food values and another to promote pure food regulation. To kick off her organization’s crusade in 1902, Mrs. Moritz of the Domestic Science committee presented an extensive and detailed paper on the “Chemistry of Foods.” In 1903 she reported that through her correspondence with a Mr. A.A. Wiley in reference to the “Pure Food” bill, that he had promised to push the bill through the Alabama legislature. From 1903 through 1906 the Circle’s minute books frequently refer to attempts to influence state pure food and drug legislation. Following animated discussion in the February 1, 1906, meeting, the members petitioned national legislators for federal regulation.
-- The Pure Food, Drink, and Drug Crusaders, 1879-1914, by Lorine Swainston Goodwin
At a meeting of the Mothers’ Circle of P.S. 52, The Bronx, held March 21, 1917, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
Inasmuch as the members of this Circle have learned that the City authorities are trying to introduce the duplicate school plan into P.S. 52, The Bronx; and
Inasmuch as the members of the Circle, the introduction of said plan would not be for the best interests of the children attention P.S. 52, be it
Resolved, By the Mothers’ Circle of P.S. 52, The Bronx, that said Circle is opposed to the introduction of the Duplicate School Plan into P.S. 52, The Bronx, and respectfully requests those in authority to reconsider any plans for including P.S. 52, The Bronx, among the Schools in which said Duplicate School Plan is to be introduced; and be it further
Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the Board of Education, the President of the Board of Aldermen, the President of the Borough of The Bronx, the Acting City Superintendent of Schools, the District Superintendent of the 23rd and 24th Districts and such other persons as may be designated.
March 22, 1917
Mrs. Salinger, President.
-- Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, by New York (N.Y.). Board of Aldermen
Greene County:...The Mt. Gilead Household Science and Mothers' Circle has held meetings the first Thursday in each month at the homes of the members. Meetings are well attended, interest good. Enough members are in a position to entertain to make each one's time come once in two years, which is not hard on anyone. Endeavor to have a roll call at each meeting which will bring helpful thoughts from each one present. Then we have a paper on some domestic science topic followed by discussion, and select one of the topics for Mothers' Circle work as outlined by David C. Cook, and follow that paper by discussion of questions in the quarterlies furnished by him. We all take the "Mothers' Magazine" to aid in answering the questions. The women on a farm are so busy that without some such an organization as this they would never take time to brush up on many of the things so essential for mothers to think about.
-- Year Book 1916, by Illinois Farmers' Institute. Department of Household Science, compiled and edited by Mrs. H.A. McKeene, Secretary
Organizations Promoting Education in Child Nurture
At the present time educational work in child nurture and home making for the parents of the United States is in its infancy. The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, which covers the various phases of parental education, was incorporated om 1897. The Home Education Division of the Bureau of Education was established in 1913. The State boards of health in some of the larger cities are giving education in health and hygiene. The settlements are reaching the people in congested districts. A few of the universities and colleges are doing extension work covering phases of home education. Some churches are giving attention to the necessity for education in child nurture. Kindergartners have always recognized the necessity for it by establishment of mothers clubs in connection with the kindergarten. The United States Public Health Service and various bureaus in the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Labor publish educational bulletins dealing with this subject. School superintendents and principals cooperate in establishing parent-teacher associations. The Young Women's Christian Associations have worked for better homes, while visiting nurse associations and various local organizations have extended help to parents. The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations devised the plan of a mothers' circle or parent-teacher association in every church and every school, reaching mothers and fathers of children before school age as well as during and after school age. Upwards of 500,000 parents have been brought together for study by the work of the congress, while teachers everywhere testify to the increased efficiency of the school resulting from intelligent cooperation with the home. With national offices in Washington, and branches in nearly all States, with a definite plan of education and organization, with cooperation with educational specialists, Government departments, universities, colleges, schools, boards of health, and other organizations, a machine valuable for transmission of education to the remotest districts has been formed. The cooperation of the Home Education Division of the Bureau of Education and the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations has brought many thousand letters from parents and teachers asking advice and help.
-- Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year ended June 30, 1914, The U.S. Bureau of Education, Created as a Department March 2, 1867, Made an Office of the Interior Department July 1, 1869
Neither parents nor teachers were in touch with each other, and children suffered by lack of this mutual understanding -- while the work of the teachers was greatly increased by lack of it. The Congress assumed the task of organizing Parent-Teacher Associations in every school. It also assumed the educational direction of these associations, in order to make them of real value to parents, to ensure their continuance, and to keep them true to their fundamental, far-reaching purpose. There had been parent associations of various kinds, but the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations originated the movement to make them universal, and to widen the scope of the educational system by making the schools serve a double purpose in education, by making it possible for parents to learn through them all that would enable them to be better fathers and mothers. The plan included the wider use of school buildings, opening them for reading rooms and recreation centres wherever the need existed, and placing the responsibility for all this in the hands of those most concerned -- the parents and teachers of the children in the schools.
A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOR PARENTS
The Congress, in its comprehensive plan for a nation-wide system of providing educational help for parents, assumed the functions of a National University for Parents with headquarters in Washington, but radiating its educational guidance to all who could be reached.
It was soon found necessary to establish state branches, through which extension work could be done, carrying the message to mothers just where they were. The interest and cooperation of state superintendents of schools were enlisted. Every officer gave her time and financed her work. For information a pamphlet on "How to Organize Parent-Teacher Associations with Suggestions for Programs " is published by the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, 910 Loan & Trust Bldg., Washington, D. C. The Child Welfare Magazine, Box 4022, West Philadelphia, gives each month a program and publishes reports of work of Parent-Teacher Associations all over the United States.
SCOPE OF PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS
In the organization of Parent-Teacher Associations, the following reasons for their formation are given. Parent-Teacher Associations have three main reasons for existence:
First: To give fathers and mothers the opportunity to better educate themselves for intelligent home-making and child-nurture.
Second: To enable parents to learn what the schools are doing in order that the home may offer effective cooperation and that the schools may also cooperate with the home.
Third: To study community conditions affecting the welfare of the young with the purpose of arousing a sentiment of community responsibility.
The Parent-Teacher Association, needing for its full success the membership of parents and teachers of all political parties, all religious beliefs and of many different opinions as to the right and wrong of various movements, cannot afford to risk antagonisms needlessly. There are other well established agencies available for discussion and action along these lines. Let the Parent-Teacher Association confine itself to its own single high purpose, that of bettering conditions for "citizens in the making."
The world has no greater need than that of a wiser, better trained parenthood; this need is not yet recognized in school and college courses; the Parent-Teacher Association, therefore, serves as almost the only study class open to parents who wish to learn more of the duties of their calling. It raises the standard of home life through the education of parents; and through organization gives power for united and effective service.
COOPERATION OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS
The Parent-Teacher Association has long passed its experimental stage; from leaders in education everywhere letters come asking the help of the Congress in organizing and providing educational programs. State superintendents of public instruction in the states of Delaware and Washington have made it a part of their work to request all principals to organize parent-teacher associations as members of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. Valuable pamphlets on this subject have been published by these superintendents. Hundreds of other state and county superintendents have given invaluable cooperation. Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, of Chicago, in a letter dated January, 1916, says:
Since the organization of the Congress of Mothers and of the Parent-Teacher Associations, I have known the leaders in Chicago and many of the workers in Illinois outside of Chicago. These auxiliary associations have endeavored to work in the spirit of the National Association. They have been invaluable in bringing the parents into close relations with the schools. They have had a marked influence on the administration of the schools. The barrier which had been quite generally erected between parents and teachers has been removed. They have helped revive the feeling that the public schools are the people's schools; are to be strengthened by the people.
MOTHERS STUDY CONDITIONS OF CHILDREN
Ever since 1897 conditions of childhood outside the home have been a subject of exhaustive study by the Congress. When it began its work, children were in prisons and jails in every state, associated with confirmed criminals in all court procedure and before and after trial. No state except Michigan had assumed the responsibility of providing adequately for its dependent or orphan children. No state had, from the mother's viewpoint, provided for the all around protection of the welfare of the children.
The first juvenile court and probation system was established Chicago in 1899, the bill for it being drafted by Hon. Harvey B. Hurd. The Congress appreciated fully the advantages offered by this new system and worked unceasingly to promote its establishment in every state and in other lands, by conducting a systematic propaganda which was successful in many states.
Detention houses instead of jails were promoted. Recognizing that successful probation work is an educational function, and can only be successful when done with sympathetic insight into life, the Congress has never ceased its efforts to place probation work under educational direction. Judge Lindsey1 [1. Pamphlets on "Next Steps Forward in Juvenile Court and Probation Work" --Report of Ben B. Lindsey and Mrs. Frederic Schoff, Chairman and Vice- Chairman Juvenile Court and Probation Dept. National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Association. "Small Town and Rural Probation Work, Applicable to any County." Send to 910 Loan & Trust Bldg., Washington, D, C.] says: "There is no one factor or influence among the many good influences working for human betterment in this country that has done more to advance Juvenile Court and Probation work than the Mothers' Congress."
PROTECTION AGAINST CHILD LABOR
The Congress in 1902 inaugurated its child labor committee, and used its efforts to prevent the employment of little children in mines and factories, and to insure better factory inspection, and has ever since given its influence to promoting protection of children in industry. It has opposed all employment of children in occupations injurious to life, health or character, and the committee has given exhaustive study to the entire subject of work for children, earnestly working against abuses. An investigation is being made by the committee on the effects of child labor laws on child-life in different states, with a view to present and future welfare of children. Superintendents of schools and parents have called the attention of the committee to the necessity for such investigation.
MOTHERS' PENSIONS
In a study of children coming into juvenile courts, children who were truants and little children who were working, the children in orphanages and institutions, the Congress saw the necessity of keeping the mother with her children, and in 1911 inaugurated a nation-wide movement to secure mothers' pensions to prevent the breaking up of the home when through poverty or death of the father, the mother is unable to keep it.
There is an aspect to this question which has wielded its influence in the evolution of a plan that would enable the mother to keep a home for her children. The struggle for existence has driven many children of tender years into the ranks of wage-earners before they were physically able to do the tasks required of them. Deprived thereby of any chance for the fundamental education which would enable them to fill places where there would be opportunity for advancement, these children have become a source of anxiety to all who are interested in the future of society. Some plan must be devised that would make it possible for the home to be sustained without the work of little children. Thus the nation-wide movement to secure mothers' pensions has a meaning and purpose the scope of which is not fully realized even by some of its warmest advocates.
A working mother with the best qualifications for being a good mother to her children, cannot exercise her powers when she is absent most of the daylight hours and must work far into the night to keep the roof over their heads. The state has decided that her service to the children is more important than her service as a wage-earner. It is safe to predict that truancy will decrease 50 per cent when the mother's pension becomes operative. Thirty-five states have adopted this preserver of the home, and a mother's care for the children, and in every state the Congress has been an active factor in securing this legislation, and in placing its administration outside of charity. Pennsylvania and New York methods are recommended.2 [2. "The Evolution of the Mother's Pension -- Its Scope and Object." The pamphlet used successfully in legislative campaigns in a number of states can be supplied by application to National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, 910 Loan & Trust Bldg., Washington, D. C.]
SAVING THE BABIES
By careful tests the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations has proved that 70 per cent of babies who die before they are a year old, can be saved by education of mothers in infant hygiene. All the knowledge possessed by physicians and health boards counts for nothing unless the mothers, who have the actual care of the babies, can themselves possess the knowledge of the proper care and feeding of babies.
The National Congress of Mothers has for years conducted constant campaign to awaken mothers and make them realize that more than instinct is required to have healthy babies, and to give them a chance to live. It has a method of learning of mothers of babies, and sends a bulletin on The Care of the Baby. It has sent appeals to all state and local Boards of Health to establish and maintain Departments of Child Hygiene, to see that every new mother is informed of all that will help her to give proper care to her baby and furnish protection to the milk supply; to have a Parents' Educational Bureau as a part of the equipment of every Board of Health, and to see that every mother is given the opportunity to visit it. In Portland, Oregon, the city cooperates with the local branch of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations in maintenance of a most successful Parents' Educational Bureau. Through the Child Hygiene Department, National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, vast amount of work for baby-saving has been done in many states.
STATE CHILD WELFARE COMMISSIONS
The Congress urged the appointment of an unsalaried state child welfare commission in every state to study every phase of child welfare, to consider existing conditions and to recommend needed improvements. Oregon has complied with the request. Its commission, appointed by Governor West, has done fine work -- Chairman, Mrs. Robert H. Tate, 1811 E. Morrison St., Portland, Oregon. Every state requires the work of a child welfare commission, made up of broad-minded, unsalaried citizens, with the governor as ex officio member and with reports to the legislature that the members may have in mind the development of a system of state protection for the physical, mental and moral development of all its children. The Congress has done, and is doing, valuable work in many states in the extension of kindergartens as part of the school system in cooperation with the Kindergarten Division, United States Bureau of Education and National Kindergarten Association.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COOPERATION
Federal cooperation has been given the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations from the beginning, for the relation of its work to the youth of the nation was fully appreciated. Three international child welfare conferences have been held in Washington, the invitations for all nations to participate being sent by the Department of State. At the first of these the President of the United States delivered the main address. Federal cooperation with several divisions of the Department of Agriculture has been mutually advantageous during many years.
HOME EDUCATION DIVISION ESTABLISHED
The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations most earnestly desired that the United States Bureau of Education should recognize that parents are educators, and in as great need of suggestion as teachers in schools, or as farmers in agriculture. When recognition was given by the Commissioner of Education to the fact that the larger part of children's education is conducted by parents -- and that possibilities for preparation and study must be provided for them, an important step for child welfare was taken, and an unlimited field of service to parents was opened. The Home Education Division of the Bureau of Education was established in September, 1913, in cooperation with the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. The official announcement is here given:
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Education
Washington
The Home Education Division, which has just been established, will do whatever it can to help parents:
1. To further their own education by recommending to them interesting and valuable reading matter.
2. In regard to the care and home education of their children, with reference to: (a) physical care and health, sleep, food, etc.; (b) games and plays; (c) their early mental development; (d) the formation of moral habits.
We hope to interest the boys and girls who have left school and are still at home, and by directing their home reading and study we may be able to further their education.
It is our intention to issue bulletins and literature, practical in their character, which will be available to every home. The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations has agreed to assist the Bureau of Education in this work and can supply much literature not available through this office.
If the parents of your school district could be brought together at the school house or any other good place, perhaps once a month, to discuss their common problems, it would be mutually helpful. Will you let us know if you are willing to take up this matter in your school district and make a beginning by inviting some of the parents who are interested in such matters, and by enlisting, if possible, the cooperation of the teacher or teachers. The Bureau will send a brief form for simple organization of a Parents' Association, if you desire it. We expect to have a great deal of valuable matter for use of parents and teachers and for older boys and girls.
Rightly used, the home is the most important factor in the education of children. Through its Home Education Division, the Bureau of Education is trying to help the home to do its best work. Your cooperation will be invaluable. Kindly let me know if we may expect it.
Yours sincerely,
P. P. CLAXTON,
Commissioner.
WORK OF THE HOME EDUCATION DIVISION
The extension of Parent-Teacher Associations, the cooperation of 40,000 women recommended by superintendents of schools, the distribution of educational bulletins to mothers, the preparation of reading courses for parents, for boys and girls who have left school, for men and women wishing to pursue home study, the provision of certificates for all who complete the courses, the replies to many questions from individual mothers, have brought much appreciation and have given a keen perception of the great need for the work of home education. Thirteen million children under school age in the United States are under the exclusive care of parents. Education in physical care means life to thousands. Education in the development of moral habits will prevent the blighting of many lives at their beginning. The greatest educational work is done in the first six years, and no after care can make up for neglect then. Eighteen million children of school age spend one tenth of their time in school, while nine tenths of their time is under parental direction and guidance, showing the relative educational responsibility of parents and teachers.
Twenty million boys and girls who have left school need encouragement in the continuance of education during the most critical years of youth, when insight and sympathy can lead upward, but when lack of it has driven many away from home influence. The federal government now considers the education of children from infancy instead of from the age of six, and it considers their education for twenty-four hours a day, instead of five hours, and for twelve months of the year instead of ten months, as heretofore.
During 1915, 95,000 reading courses were sent out by request, and over 25,000 letters were sent. Thousands of bulletins on The Care of the Baby have been sent to mothers, while two editions of 1,000 Good Books for Children have been published. This was prepared by the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations.
Two joint tours of representatives of the Bureau of Education, and officers of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, and National Kindergarten Association, have been arranged during 1915-16, covering the western and southern states in the promotion of home education.
FOREIGN INTEREST
Extension of national organizations similar to the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations is assured. The Chinese government requested the Congress to send its president to China to aid the government in forming a National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. Japan through private sources has also asked this help. The Marchioness of Aberdeen has accepted the duty of organizer for Great Britain. Cuba has already organized. Argentina has taken steps toward national organization.
The ideals of a nation are created and inspired by the homes. To help all homes to give true high ideals of life, of citizenship and of duty to God and man is to lay sure and strong the foundations for a great nation. The work of the Congress is civic work in its highest sense, and it welcomes the cooperation and membership of all who would give a happy childhood to every child.