SCHOOL AND THE HOME. Direct co-operation between home and school is far less developed in England than in the United States (see PARENTAL EDUCATION) or Germany. Never theless, English parents and schoolmasters are beginning to think alike, or at least to realize that they are all fighting in the same cause—the welfare of the rising generation. Schoolmasters, thanks to improvements in status and salaries, have largely shaken off the pedagogical dust that was once apt to envelope them. The average parent, on the other hand, is better educated than for merly, and better able to meet the schoolmaster on his own ground and to enter into reasonable discussion of the joint prob lems of home and school.
Open days, held in connection with civic and education weeks, enable local parents to visit the various schools and institutions which their children attend, and to see for themselves what is actually being done for the pupils. During an education week, the schools of an area usually combine to arrange an exhibition of school work, and to give concerts and demonstrations open to the public. Public meetings are held and addressed by local educa tion officials and officers, as well as by outside educationists or representatives of the Board of Education. All this has an ex cellent effect in stimulating the interest of parents in schools of the town in which they live. An attractive handbook is usually published at the time setting forth the educational facilities of the area and indicating where further information can be obtained. The London County Council publishes especially valuable guides of various kinds to education and the choice of employment, de scribing the wealth of educational opportunity provided in London.
A few parents' councils exist in England in connection with public secondary day schools, but these do not compare in any sense with the powerful parent-teacher associations of America. The English parents' council, where it exists, has usually been formed on the initiative of the headmaster or headmistress; its function is to arrange parents' meetings, at which some well known educationist or the headmaster or headmistress addresses the gathering on a subject of interest to parents. Discussion is invited, but it is rare for animated discussion to arise. An ex
ception is the Parents' Association (56 Manchester street, Lon don, W.), which is concerned with the interests of parents send ing children to public, preparatory and private schools all over the country. The formation of this association was due to parental initiative, and schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, while welcomed as associate members and of ten invited as speakers, have no voice its councils. The Parents' National Educational Union (26, Victoria street, London, S.W.) exists mainly for the purpose of furthering the ideals and methods of Miss Charlotte Mason, its late founder. This union, better known as the "P.N.E.U.," publishes The Parents' Review and conducts 'what is known as the "P.U.S." or Parents' Union school, a scheme by which chil dren can work in home schoolrooms and be examined on a com mon syllabus.
While, no doubt, many of the members of governing bodies of English schools are parents, there has been no general movement towards appointing them as such on these bodies. In 1927 a parent of a boy in the school was elected to the council of a newly created public preparatory school, and the precedent is one that will no doubt be generally followed as parents combine to make their influence felt. Such an appointment, if judiciously made, should greatly help a school, while obviating carping and dissatisfaction. In the few cases where a woman takes an active part on the governing body of a boys' school, her experience is usually of great value in questions concerning diet, health, and the domestic economy and internal finances of the institution. In certain garden cities and satellite towns the elementary schools enjoy the patronage and support of local educational associations which include parents and other citizens. Where such an associa tion exists, there is some likelihood that the children of all classes in the community may attend the public primary schools, as commonly occurs in the United States. A parents' representative is now obligatory (Decree Jan. 24, 1928) on governing bodies of French secondary schools (boys and girls), and such a represent ative must be chosen from the parents' association, or, in default of such, from the parents themselves.
See Radice, Home and School (1926). (S. RAD.)