high schools. The average age of all Future Farmer members is approximately 17 years. Designed to meet the needs of young men who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm, the Future Farmers of America provides an avenue for acquiring knowledge and skills through "learning by doing," experiences in leadership, character development, sportsmanship, cooperation, service, thrift, scholarship, improved agriculture, organized recreation, citizenship, and patriotism. Such applied activities make it possible for a farm boy to put his education into immediate and productive use. Training for Responsibilities Farm boys who are trained and willing to accept responsibilities and render productive service are needed in the military and home fronts of America. Members of the Future Farmers of America have responded to their part in this task and are rendering a challenging account of themselves. Over 150,000 Future Farmer boys are in the armed services. Three Future Farmers were with Jimmy Doolittle when he first bombed Tokyo. Future Farmers have also made an outstanding record in purchasing and selling war bonds and stamps. Most of the money used to buy these bonds and stamps was earned from their farm projects, collection and sale of scrap metals, repair of farm machinery and equipment, and from wages for farm labor. To date, the National Organization, State associations, local chapters, and individual Future Farmer members have purchased approximately 10 million dollars worth of war bonds and stamps. Any objective consideration of "Tomorrow's Agriculture" inevitably leads to the conclusion that industry and agriculture should continue to develop close cooperative working relationships, since they are so interdependent. Farmers not only supply our food, but they also form a large segment of the customers for business and industry. Whatever threatens their financial success endangers the health of business and industry. City people should City people should therefore be vitally interested in the farmer's welfare, at least to the extent that our food supply is not jeopardized, and our national economy unbalanced. Our recent food crisis has perhaps caused more thought to be given to this matter by city folks than ever before. In order to provide business and industry with an opportunity for developing a better understanding of and closer cooperation with our national program of vocational education in agriculture and activities of the Future Farmers of America, a national foundation known as the "Future Farmers of America Foundation, Incorporated," was recently organized and incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia. Corporations and business concerns desiring to promote the best interests of students of vocational agriculture and Future Farmers of America will find that this Foundation offers an opportunity to stimulate worthy achievement by these farm boys. Financial contributions to the Foundation are made without reservations, limitations, or restrictions by the donors. While donors will not be identified with specific Foundation prizes, awards, or activities, each donor will share in the credit for all Foundation activities rather than in one specific project in which his particular business or industry may have some vested interest. The Future Farmers of America appreciates the unselfish interest being taken in this Foundation by many large industries, companies, and business concerns throughout the country. The successful farmer of "Tomorrow's Ag riculture" is the Future Farmer of today. and revised. Among the special facil ties considered were agricultural shop school and community canneries; brary facilities; homemaking room lunch rooms; science facilities; scho and community recreational facilitie elementary classrooms; school equi! ment and furniture; postwar material heating, ventilating, and lighting con munity schools; and special facilitie for physically impaired children. The U. S. Office of Education an George Peabody College jointly sponsored the workshop. Ray L. Hamor senior specialist in school plant, Office of Education, was director and S. L Smith, president of the Interstat School Building Service, co-director They were assisted by staff members from southern State departments o education. Chief State school officer in each ori 15 southern States selected two repr sentatives from his State to attend th workshop on scholarships from the General Education Board. The workshop was planned for the benefit of staff members in State de partments of education, county and cit superintendents, principals, scho board members, college teachers, libra: ians, and supervisors of homemaking lunchrooms, and agriculture. A sum mary of the deliberations and conclu sions will be published in bulletin for by the Interstate School Building Serv ice, Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn Consultation Service Continue The Social Hygiene Consultatio Service that has been provided by th U. S. Office of Education for the pa year, through the cooperation of the U. S. Public Health Service, will continued. The aim of this program to aid schools and colleges, through th provision of consultation services an materials, to develop programs tha will prepare children and youth to me life problems of health and human r lations in the family and in the community. The services are available to schools i school systems, teacher-training in stitutions, and professional and lay groups. Requests should be directe to the U. S. Office of Education, Was ington 25, D. C. A National Leaders Conference on Visiting Teacher Problems by Katherine M. Cook, Consultant in Educational Services voted to the discussion of a num voted to the discussion of a number of considerations and issues involved in extension and improvement of visiting teacher services was held at the Office of Education June 22-23. The conference was addressed by Commissioner Studebaker and by the Assistant Commissioner, Bess Goodykoontz, who gave an account of recent expansions in school programs of which visiting teacher service is an important one. It was attended by leaders in the two professional fields concerned, i. e., education and social work. Opportunity was thus afforded for a meeting of leaders of two professional groups with widely differing backgrounds in training and in practices followed. The calling of the conference was interpreted as an indication of increased realization by school systems of their responsibility for total child needs and effective methods of fulfilling it. A Forum for Discussion The immediate purpose of the conference was that of providing a forum for he discussion of pertinent problems concerned with visiting teacher services n school systems, a growing and inreasingly important phase of progressive school programs in State as well as n city school systems. The conference ▪rought together probably for the first ime around a common table national eaders concerned with the preparation nd training of visiting teachers and fficials administering and supervising he services of those for whom the precribed courses in education and social work are designed. This important rea, unlike most phases of school prorams, involves not alone the profesonal field of education, but also that E social work. It is important to keep in mind, that, hile established visiting-teacher serve is at present limited in the number I city school systems and proportion -public-school enrollment served, the ld is a new and growing one. Clari fication of functions, wider understandings of the need of the service and its place in school systems as well as acceptable standards in such matters as certification, qualifications of personnel, are still to be achieved. Cooperative leadership from the two fields concerned should be of special value to school systems at this time and in this stage of the development of the service. Who Attended In the selection of representatives to constitute the personnel of the conference the following were the basic considerations: Reasonable geographical distribution; agencies concerned with the preparation of candidates for visiting-teacher positions, including colleges of education in higher institutions of learning, schools of social work in universities and colleges, institutions maintaining both education and social-work departments, and regular teachers colleges; State departments of education; school superintendents, State and city; and supervisors of visiting-teacher services, State and city. Representatives of the Children's Bureau and of the Office of Education working in the field of visiting-teacher services were also among the conferees. Following is a complete list of the conference members with their professional positions, which indicate the interests they represent. Representing preparation for and practices in visiting-teacher services: Rhea Kay Boardman, Associate Professor of John B. Dougall, President, New Jersey Alonzo G. Grace, State Commissioner of Ed- John S. Haitema, Chief, Division of Special W. L. Lemmel, Superintendent of Schools, W. E. Peik, Dean of Education, University Emilie Rannells, Assistant Director of Coun- Martha W. Smith, State Supervisor of School Attendance, State Department of Education, Alabama Helen Russell Wright, Dean, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago U. S. Children's Bureau: Bessie E. Trout, Consultant, Social Service Division U.S. Office of Education: J. W. Studebaker, Commissioner tional Services Hazel F. Gabbard, Specialist in Parent Education Helen K. Mackintosh, Specialist in Elementary Education David Segel, Specialist in Tests and Measurements Some Issues in Findings Conditions concerned with the status of visiting teacher services in cities of 10,000 and above in population, disclosed in a recent study made in the Office of Education, constituted one incentive for calling the conference and supplied the basis for much of the discussion. Some of the important issues indicated in the findings of the study were: ing teachers in school systems be de(1) How should the functions of visitfined to insure complete services, avoiding overlapping on the one hand, and neglect of important services on the other? (2) How shall positions essential in a complete service be classified according to functions and responsibilities? (3) What constitutes adequate preparation of candidates for each of the positions so classified? (4) How establish appropriate certification regulations according to preparation, experience, and position concerned? (5) To what extent is uniformity of standards desirable in such considerations as qualifications of personnel, certification, functions, administrative placement of services, titles designating persons qualified to perform the services, and the like? (6) How can visiting teacher services be extended to a greater number of school systems and expanded in those in which the service is now established, in order more nearly to meet recognized needs? These and similar questions suggested by the experience of educators and social workers in the field as well as by returns of the study were among the topics of the conference discussion. Among significant disclosures of the study is the fact that so few, relatively, of the total number of school systems in the United States have as yet established visiting teacher work on a professional basis as an integrated unit in the respective systems. It follows, of course, that the services of visiting teachers are available only to a small percentage of the children enrolled in public schools. If one may paraphrase the wording, though not the implications, of one of Dr. Dewey's well known statements, that which is desirable for children in the most progressive school systems is desirable for children in all school systems; in other words, if visiting teacher services are essential to the achievement of the full objectives of education in progressive school systems, they should be extended to all systems to the end of reaching 100 percent of the children enrolled as needed. At present probably not more than onethird of the city systems in the United States are making an effort, often an inadequate one, to furnish such services. This emphasis on conditions in city systems is not to be interpreted as minimizing the need for expanding these services to nonurban communities. communities. Here there has as yet been too little progress to necessitate a special study, though an encouraging movement to provide visiting-teacher services on a State-wide scale appears to be getting under way in a few States. The conference considered the need to increase the number of school systems which provide visiting teacher services directly, that is, as part of an integrated school program; and indirectly, that is, in cooperation with other agencies, at some length. One need obviously is for wider understanding of the place of the service in school systems and one means of achieving it, through increased publicity. It was believed by persons experienced in the field of education and disclosed in the systems canvassed by the study referred to, that lack of recognition of the importance of this phase of education is a powerful factor influencing the present limitation in its scope. Certain suggestions of the conference in this respect are being carried out by the Office of Education. Among other considerations, provision for more adequate funds for the establishment of visiting teacher services in postwar planning is an important one to which the attention of citizens, planning groups, and officials concerned, should be called. Guide to School Systems Definition of the functions of visiting teachers on a more widely accepted scale than now prevails, a subject involving certain controversial issues, was dis cussed by the conference from varied points of view and varied local needs and practices. While the immediate need of the children served is generally accepted as the ultimate criterion for these as for all educational services, it was the sense of the conference that agreement on standards which are of general application are not only feasible but essential to the adequacy and efficiency of visiting teacher services. A committee of the conference was appointed to outline a statement defining functions of visiting teachers and present its suggestions. The committee considered it desirable to present at this time a preliminary report which the conference accepted in principle, acceding to the committee's request that it be given further time to make certain refinements in the statement presented after study and consideration. The later report presented after the conference had adjourned, has been submitted in writing, as agreed upon, to all members of the conference for additional consideration. Since the fundamental agreements as expressed in this report may have value as a guide to school systems now considering postwar plans for the establishment of new or enlargement of already established visiting teacher services it is summarized here. Included are the following specific duties: 1. Organize a visiting-teacher pro gram. 2. Work with the difficulties of children as they are found in children who present problems in their adjustment to school situations. Act as consultant to parents, children, and school personnel on problems of children. (This assumes a thorough knowledge of the problems most comsymptoms indicative of such problems, mon to children, and especially the so that prevention can be considered as a main objective of the visiting-teacher program.) 3. Interpret the program to the com munity, to the various lay and profes sional agencies, to the school staff, to parents and children. 4. Work with parents, community agencies and individuals to modif whatever conditions are necessary to meet the problems of the children. 5. Cooperate in stimulating total faculty planning on the problems of children, to assist in adjusting the program to the individual needs, and/or assist the children to adjust themselve to socially acceptable patterns. 6. Work out mutually an understanding of the school and the commu nity agencies and how they relate i their functions. 7. Assume responsibility for referral to appropriate community agencie which involves knowing all the agen cies, local and State, which serve chil dren, and knowing how to secure and how to use their services. 8. Devise and maintain an adequate system of records. 9. Through cooperative effort of al interested groups, stimulate the development of such necessary services to children as are not available at the preent time. High Standards Desirable Just what should constitute adequate qualifications of visiting teachers based on the functions previously defined and the kinds and amount of professional preparation necessary to insure such adequacy was a topic of special concern in the conference discussions. There is, of course, general agreement that high standards are desirable. That they should be commensurate with salaries available or salary scales prevailing in the system in which the visiting teacher is employed, are practical considerations, which cannot be ignored. Minimum requirements applicable to those entering the service, with goals to be attained on the basis of experience and additional professional study and accomplishment are generally admitted essentials in setting up standards in all types of educational services, including visiting teaching. There was general agreement in the conference that certification of visiting teachers on a plan corresponding in principle to that which generally prevails for teaching and other educational positions is a necessary accompaniment of practical steps in standardization of qualifications of visiting teachers. Standards applicable to professional qualifications and to certification go hand in hand if legal recognition is to be insured. tandi ificati band red. From a practical standpoint the present situation concerned with qualifications and certification of visiting teachers is an important consideration in standardization. While a number of States and cities have set up qualification standards through certification. based on preparation of visiting teachers for functions prescribed, observance of minimum standards applicable to the complete staff employed is not the universal practice in cities throughout the country. At one end of the scale, some visiting teachers, especially in the larger cities reporting in the Office of Education study, hold bachelor's degrees in education, have 2 years of graduate work in schools of social work, and additional experience in teaching and as visiting teachers. At the other end of the scale, a large number of cities reported visiting teachers with little or no professional training or experience in either education or social work. Between these two extremes there is in actual practice practically no middle ground if one is considering acceptable minimum standards applicable to the total staff of visiting teachers, including professional preparation in both education and social work. Those with the high qualifications at the top end of the scale as indicated are apt to be located in the larger cities. and to have positions corresponding somewhat in responsibility and salary to those of supervisors or directors in other phases of the school program. Their qualifications which represent also the minimum required for membership in the National Association of School Social Workers tend to be the maximum as reported in actual practice. There are no goals to attain so far as professional preparation is concerned. For the cities as a whole, however, salaries of visiting teachers are the same or about the same as those paid teachers in the respective systems though qualifications are less standardized. To illustrate: While all classroom teachers are required to hold certificates, usually those based on special preparation for the type of work in which they are engaged, only 68 percent of the cities. canvassed by the Office of Education study which maintained organized visiting-teacher services required any type of certificate of visiting teachers, and SCHOOL LIFE, October 1945 that usually a teaching certificate; only 3 percent required a special visitingteacher certificate, i. e., one appropriate to performance of visiting-teacher functions. The prevailing title by which workers in this area are identified as used in city school systems is "visiting teacher." A number of States have designated that title in the law providing for the service, or in the certification requirements set up. The National Association of School Social Workers has adopted and is hoping to further the use of the title of "school social worker." The conference discussed this question only briefly owing to the pressure of time for other absorbing questions. However, a report of a committee appointed to consider the matter was prepared and is now under consideration by the members of the conference. As yet no title completely satisfactory to all those concerned has been proposed. When the committee report has been considered by all members of the Office of Education conference, it is possible that some helpful suggestions may become available. There is considerable agreement that preparation in both fields involved, education and social work, is essential to efficiency in the training of visiting teachers. The amount of preparation in terms of number and kinds of courses to be completed in higher institutions varies among the preparatory institutions, and according to State and local certificating requirements. Regulations concerning the field service in social work and practice teaching in education (or experience in either or both), requisite as the minimum qualification acceptable for certification are as yet subjects on which opinions and practices differ. Problems growing out of this lack of widely accepted standards involve educational systems, colleges of education, schools of social work, State departments of education and other officials responsible-school officials and leaders in the educational field especially, since education is the responsible employing agency for visiting teachers. ing teachers. There was practically unanimous sentiment on the part of the conference group that there is a very real need for additional study on these matters and additional conferences devoted to their further consideration and discussion and that such conferences should be held at as early a time as possible. In the meantime, it is to be expected that many certificating authorities will set up standards for certificating visiting teachers as State legislation providing for their employment is enacted. Title Committee Appointed Selection of an appropriate title for visiting teachers which is acceptable and meaningful from the point of view of the functions assigned to them, and as officials primarily of school systems with liaison relationships to social welfare agencies, is of real significance. Unless laymen, including parents and school board members understand the place of visiting-teacher services in the school program, liberal support may not be forthcoming. Titles of school employees in a new field must convey a definite meaning in terms of essential functions to be performed. Other matters concerned with visiting teacher services, in-service training among them, were touched upon but limitations of the time available, and the previously accepted scope of the conference, prohibited adequate discussion. While the purpose of the conference was, as indicated above and announced when the call was issued, that of discussion of guiding principles and exchange of points of view and experiences, rather than arrival at definite or permanent conclusions in respect to the problems discussed, it was characterized by the group as a whole and individually as a meaningful and fruitful one. It offered an opportunity long coveted by interested leaders in education and in social work to exchange views, discuss problems of mutual interest and significance, and to promote wider understanding of the unity of purpose which characterizes workers in the field of visiting teacher service by whatever term identified, classroom teachers, and school officials generally. A unanimous request for a follow-up conference to be held this fall was presented to the Office of Education by the appropriate committee at the final session. It is to be expected that many of the problems for which time was inadequate for full consideration may receive further study in the interval and may then come up for more conclusive action. 19 Pan American Club Activities N analysis of reports received dur- Division, University of South Carolina, Inter-American Educational Relations, U.S. Office of Education, from sponsors and student officers of hundreds of Pan American Clubs in every State in the Union, shows many new developments in activities during the past year. An increasing number of Pan American clubs in high schools are establishing scholarship funds to enable members to spend a part of their college life in study in one of the other American Republics. Such planning by the students indicates serious purpose and intention to obtain first-hand knowledge of their neighbors to the south by residence among them, and is a logical development following the preference expressed by high-school students generally in a recent poll of the Institute of Student Opinion. Replying to the question, "If, upon graduation from high school, you could have a travel scholarship or be an 'exchange student' in another country for a year after the war, which of the following would you choose?", more than one-fourth chose a South American country or Mexico. Another development rather widespread during the past school year, is the observance of Pan American Week in April rather than of a single Pan American Day. Much original material and new ideas for school assembly programs, exhibits, and community projects have been produced. more students, teachers, and parents have cooperated in learning about the people of the Western Hemisphere for the purpose of understanding them better. Thus A third development in Pan American club activities is the increase in the number of exchanges of letters, scrapbooks, flags, pictures, stamps, music, and books between groups in the United States and in the other American Republics. Summaries of the activities of a few representative Pan American clubs fol low: South Carolina Reports Inter-American Affairs in South Carolina, a publication of the Extension in the State. It includes accounts of the activities of some clubs in detail and original poems in Spanish by members of the Spanish Club at Booker Washington High School, Columbia. The publication also announces radio programs of the music of the Americas, fellowships at the university summer school for teachers interested in preparing teaching materials about the other American Republics, and items about speakers who have addressed audiences in the State on inter-American affairs. Texas Pan American Student Forum Pan American Student Forum of Texas culminated the year's activities with contests in a number of fields of inter-American interest. The executive secretary, Myrtle Tanner, a member of the staff of the State Department of Education; the State director, Laura Sue Plummer; and the State program chairman, Neal M. Nelson, announced contests last fall and worked out the rules for conducting them with a State committee of club members and sponsors. The contests were in four general fields: writing essays in Spanish and English, radio scripts, and poetry on Pan American themes; singing or playing music of the other American Repub lics from a selected list; speaking extemporaneously on certain phases of inter-American understanding and cooperation; and answering questions on the other American Republics in a quiz program. The fourth field attracted the greatest number of entrants and was designed to encourage Forum members to learn as much as possible about the other American Republics. Teams of two members from each club answered questions on the history, geography, customs, and inter-American relations of the 21 American Republics. The contest ended in a tie with teams from three clubs having a perfect score. The Forum has undertaken to raise a scholarship fund to enable a student of the United States or of one of the other Teachers' Day in America One of the resolutions adopted at the First Conference of Ministers and Directors of Education of the American Republics, which met in Panama in September 1943, is entitled "September 11, Teachers' Day in America." The resolution, approved for the United States by Commisisoner John W. Studebaker, calls for the expression of "gratitude and devotion" to teachers in recognition of their "unselfishness and sacrifice" in carrying out the program of their high office. Teachers' Day, long celebrated in Latin American countries, thus became an allAmerican event, and was observed in the United States for the first time in 1944, and again in 1945. It is requested that information concerning observances of Teachers' Day recently held be sent to the Division of International Educational Relations, U. S. Office of Education, Washington 25, D. C. This issue of SCHOOL LIFE goes to press too early to include reports of observances held this year, but they will be included in a future issue. American Republics to study for a year in a country of the Western Hemisphere other than his own. A State board of directors, composed of students and sponsors, have made plans for activities of the Forum next year. Members hope that a meeting of representatives of all the Pan American clubs in the State may be held in connection with a variety of contests designed to show individual as well as group interest and achievement in knowledge and appreciation of the I other American Republics. Clubs in New York City Schools Pan American Highlights, issued by the Committee on Inter-American Cooperation of the Board of Education. New York City, is a mimeographed. illustrated booklet summarizing the year's activities of Pan American clubs in some of the elementary, junior, and senior high schools of the city. It in |