New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis, Part 48

Author:
Publication date: 1938
Publisher: New York : Random House
Number of Pages: 630

USA > New York > New York City > New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis > Part 48

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466 SOCIAL WELFARE

16 traveling alone were given protection; nearly 1,000 children, girls ar women were housed at its Guest House; 228 prospective brides were m and their marriages assisted-or, if marriage proved inadvisable, the were helped to return home or make other plans; and 289 runaways we. found and cared for.

The transient, including even the panhandler and the hobo, can g lodging and food for the night in one of the city's two lodging houses f men or in its shelter for women, or in the lodgings provided by sever voluntary agencies. In one year of the depression, an average of 1283 000 men and 300 women were thus sheltered in the city's houses or in ila Camp La Guardia, regardless of legal residence, or in private roomir ro houses at city expense. In all, from 16,000 to 18,000 were housed night by public and private agencies. When the transient's true residence is e tablished he is of course sent back home-at the expense, if necessary, ( the city's Department of Public Welfare.

The figures last cited are exclusive of seamen, several thousand of who: are in port on any given day. Nineteen agencies (including two j Hoboken) care for them, providing club rooms, books, religious service recreation, shelter, food, employment services, and, when necessary, cas relief. Early in 1938, an average of 1,500 seamen were maintained night. by the Department of Public Welfare, and several hundred more in cor tract shelters at city expense. In the homes provided by the Sailors' Snu Harbor, from 700 to 800 aged seamen comfortably pass the last years ( their lives.

The unattached and homeless who are properly the city's charge may } lodged and fed in the municipal shelters, in commercial lodging houses, ( in contract shelters at the expense of the Department of Welfare. Age persons without homes are lodged in the City Home for Dependents o Welfare Island which has 2,000 beds, or in the City Farm Colony on State Island (with 1,300 beds) where they may do such light work as they as capable of. In the latter part of 1937 approximately 48,000 aged persor were being given old age assistance in their own homes by the Departmer of Welfare, and some 7,600 were living in the 76 private homes for th aged. The Tompkins Square Apartments building, privately maintained, something of a model of its kind. In one and two room apartments, sing! or married elderly persons may live comfortably, doing light housekeepin if they choose or eating their meals in the community cafeteria, their healt supervised by a resident professional nurse.

The Department of Public Welfare cares for 1,300 of the city's blinc

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GOOD SAMARITAN

d private agencies serve 7,000 others, providing instruction in Braille ading, a circulating Braille library, outdoor occupations and vacations, dustrial training, and employment that brings a monetary profit.

The poor man who gets into a row with his landlord, his neighbor, or e police can obtain free legal aid from a number of agencies in New brk. The one that specializes in this work and does the major portion of freports that it handled in 1937, 26,439 civil cases and 2,417 criminal er ses. Many of its clients come to it on recommendation from other social encies. In civil cases its activities are confined to New York City, though acts in cooperation with legal aid societies in other cities. Its criminal pork is confined to the representation of those accused of felony in the burt of General Sessions and the Manhattan Felony Court. The larger art of its business consists of the collection of wages and other money aims, assistance in matrimonial difficulties, workmen's compensation and rsonal injury claims, landlord and tenant disputes, and small matters in nnection with estates. ht ,

The social agencies, public and voluntary, that perform all these local rvices, and many others of which space forbids mention, number no wer than 1, 167 according to the 1937 edition of the New York Direc- ry of Social Agencies. More than 450 work in the field of family service id relief, including 95 organizations caring for the aged. There are 38 at provide care for the unattached and homeless, 75 that render various rvices to immigrants, foreign-born and travelers, 88 that provide pro- ctive and correctional service, 19 that serve seamen, and 91 that main- in non-commercial residences for men and boys or women and girls. lose to 340 agencies render health services, in addition to the 133 hospi- Is and the 1,533 clinics already mentioned. There are 90 maternity serv- es and 18 nursing services. Fifty-five clinics and 43 city hospitals and istitutions attend to persons who are mentally sick. For children there are o fewer than 366 agencies, among them 83 for dependent children, and 34 non-profit vacation services. In the fields of recreation, education, em- loyment and neighborhood activities, there are approximately 250 organi- itions.

Such a census is impressive, and our casual visitor, mentioned in the rst paragraph, might well conclude that the system of social agencies is rganized to meet every human need. But even assuming that all the parts re operating adequately in their several fields, which is far from true, the ystem still suffers from one vital defect-it is inadequately planned. It rew, as the instruments of democratic society are likely to grow, spon-

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taneously and therefore piecemeal, the left hand not knowing what t right hand was doing. The result has been that there is both too much al too little. Several agencies may be doing the same kind of work in sor areas, while other areas are neglected, and major needs of the future loc without any appropriate instrumentality to meet them. There has been the past a lack of central facilities through which the dozens or hundre of agencies concerned with a given problem could pool knowledge ar create and implement programs.

Crowded Manhattan appealed to the imaginations of philanthropis hence three-quarters of New York's settlements are situated in that bo ough, which houses less than a fifth of the city's population. Schools we formerly thought of as merely educational institutions, hence for yea their playgrounds and assembly rooms were padlocked after school hou in congested areas which, as social workers knew too well, were crying f recreational opportunities. Even those social agencies that are most su ceptible of exact measurement-the hospitals-have more beds than a needed for many acute diseases, while the chronically sick and those st fering from tuberculosis and venereal disease cannot be adequately car for. The social and medical techniques for handling these diseases a perhaps eventually eradicating them have been splendidly developed- and find progress blocked because there have been no central instrument. ities to plan and provide in advance for the increased hospital and clini equipment called for by those techniques.

In the past three or four decades definite progress has been made remedying this defect, particularly in closer cooperation and interre tion of city and voluntary agencies. To bring together diverse agenc. operating in a given geographical area of the city, so that they might wo smoothly together, regional councils were some years ago organized in districts of the city. In greater or lesser degree, these have served th purpose of making the various services available to the individual or fam needing them with a minimum waste of time, energy and money.

In 1925 a majority of the city's agencies, public and voluntary, creat the Welfare Council as a central machinery for exchanging informati and effecting, on the foundation of exact knowledge, workable techniqu and programs of action. The Council now includes some 812 meml agencies, of which approximately 150 are bureaus or subdivisions of mui cipal departments.

One of the primary functions of the Council is the exchange of info mation. Its Social Service Exchange records in a vast card catalogue

Art in New York

THE ROMAN COURT, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Above: THE CLOISTERS, AT FORT TRYON PARK, A BRANCH OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Below: FIFTH AVENUE FACADE OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

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Above: MACHINE ART EXHIBIT; below : MODERN MURALS EXHIBIT; BOTH AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

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EXHIBITION GALLERY AND SCULPTURE COURT OF THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

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ENTRANCE HALL OF THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AND,

MORAMAS IN WAY OF HISTORIC SCENES

A FEDERAL ART PROJECT CLASS IN THE LEONARDO DA VINCI SCHOOL

NEW YORK'S FIRST OUTDOOR SCULPTURE EXHIBIT (APRIL, 1938)

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GOOD SAMARITAN

ces brought to the attention of any of its member agencies, and tells tem which other agencies if any, have had the same case before, thus per- Etting the elimination of a deal of duplicating effort. The Exchange has Indled as many as 10,000 inquiries in a single day.

The Council's Bureau of Information Services answers the multifarious destions that member agencies put to it-where John Smith may obtain thatment for his particular ailment, where a certain specialized type of in- frmation may be obtained concerning the blind-the hundreds of con- cte problems that turn up in the course of the day's work. It also tells te inquiring layman where to obtain the answer to the question that has ten puzzling him.

To explore neglected needs and foresee approaching ones, to eliminate plication and keep procedures fresh and effective, the member agencies ( the Council doing similar work are grouped in sections for periodic con- sltation. These sections, drawing upon their intimate knowledge of daily Ge work, have set standards and created programs in public health, fam- i and child welfare, group work and recreation, which were later taken er and applied by special agencies or city departments. City and state elfare agencies, foundations and philanthropic groups are more and pre looking to such voluntary efforts to explore the field before appro- iating money to new fields of work or to an expansion of the old.

To provide hard factual knowledge on which workable programs can be bilt, the Research Bureau of the Council makes studies of special areas of cial work. Some of these have become standard reference works in their veral fields. For example, its current records of agencies' expenditures many fields have provided the indispensable basis for this rational ancing.

The Council also constitutes a kind of central forum where the city so- Il agencies can frame recommendations for legislation and constitutional ovisions affecting public welfare. The New York City charter which ent into effect January 1, 1938, and the later Administrative Code were fluenced in no small degree, in their social service and health provisions, the recommendations assembled through the Council's good offices; and e New York State constitutional convention of 1938 will have for its idance, in framing the social provisions of the new basic law, the con- lered judgment of the city's social agencies, framed after long consulta- n under the Council's auspices.

A further step in the consolidation of a city-wide welfare program was ken with the launching in 1938 of the Greater New York Fund, Inc., to

470 SOCIAL WELFARE

solicit supplementary funds for the city's voluntary agencies from corpor tions, business firms and their employee groups, leaving agencies free solicit from individuals as before. The distribution of the sums so co lected obviously called for a central admission and distribution committe under Council auspices, possessed of full information concerning both t work of each participating agency and the needs still unmet. Out of t. social service "map" thus called into being, and with the support of sf cific reports made from time to time by the Council's research bureau al others, a further step, it is hoped, will be taken toward the preparation a practical city-wide plan for the consolidation and extension of Ne York's social services to implement its present knowledge and to meet impending needs.

Among the outstanding items of unfinished business which such a pi gram must take into account are the prevention of crime, the provision good low-cost housing, the prevention and eradication of certain types disease, and the care of chronic illness. The soundest basis for the ho that these problems may eventually be solved lies in the fact that today faiths and all neighborhoods, all types of agency, public and volunta: are learning to work together toward the fulfillment of a common plan.

EDUCATION

Learning for Life

NGHE FIRST schoolmaster to make an appearance in what is now the City eet New York was one Adam Roelantsen (or Roelandsen), a native of olland who disembarked at the tiny settlement of New Amsterdam in a pr 33. Evidently the province at that time offered small opportunity for one ton tent upon teaching the young idea to shoot, as tradition has it that this pes oneer disciple of the birch and book was obliged to take in washing, ho way of eking out a modest income derived from the Dutch West India lay company. But something of Roelantsen's failure as a pedagogue may have ntamen due to a cantankerous disposition, as evidenced by the frequent an. pearance of his name in provincial court records of the time. Forsaking ucation after a few years, he achieved minor distinction as Provost and ember of the Burgher Corps of New Amsterdam.

The rudimentary instruction dispensed for a fee in private homes or red rooms by Roelantsen and his successors during the Dutch period was iefly of a religious nature. So, too, was most of that provided during the suing English period. A public school, "free for 20 pupils," seems to .ve been opened about 1732; but for more than 150 years in province id colony, the clergyman rather than the schoolmaster predominated in e classroom, and free public education in the modern sense was all but known. The schools were adjuncts of the churches, conducted by ligious sects for the children of their own members. A powerful organ- ation calling itself The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in poreign Parts, sponsored by the Church of England, maintained virtually 1 English schools in the colony from about 1700 to 1776. During that eriod, the only event of major significance in New York's educational inals was the incorporation, under a royal charter granted in 1754, of ing's College, reorganized after the Revolution as Columbia College.

The opening in 1787 of a free school for colored children, under the ispices of the Manumission Society of New York (founded 1785), has een characterized as marking the "first faint impulse towards free public

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EDUCATION

education" in the city. A stronger impulse, and one of much wider sco; PP came with the organization in 1805 of the Free School Society, under tiga presidency of DeWitt Clinton, then mayor of New York. The Societ avowed purpose was to provide educational facilities for poor children whom the existing church schools were not available. The gradual enlarge ment of that purpose to embrace public education for all, regardless economic status, led to a change of name in 1826 from Free School Socie to Public School Society-a change that marks the real beginning of N. York's public educational system.

Supported at the start mainly by voluntary contributions, the Socio later received regular grants of money from the city treasury. Its first scho was erected in 1809, on a site near the northeastern corner of the prese City Hall Park. With its change of name and its enlargement of scope that of a semi-public agency, it came into sharp conflict with several of t city's foremost church organizations, chiefly on the question of whether part of its funds should be used for the support of schools controlled religious groups. This conflict led to the establishment in 1842 of a puby Board of Education, which worked in cooperation with the Society un the two bodies were merged by legislative act in 1853.

During the 48 years of its existence, the Society supervised the instru tion of some 600,000 children and trained nearly 1,200 teachers. In add tion to several elementary schools, it brought into being a free academy. embryo of the present City College. By its merger with the Board Education, the board acquired property then valued at about half a millid dollars.

The subsequent history of public education in New York City is mair. a record of gradual expansion and of frequent organizational changes, meet ever-growing needs. That history has its shabby as well as its cred able aspects, and the record is by no means one of uninterrupted and u impeded progression in the direction of high educational ideals. As other large cities, the public school system of New York City has suffer heavily in the past from stupidity and self-seeking, from lack of unde standing and vision, on the part of many of its so-called public servan In this, as in other fields of community effort, real progress has ber painfully slow and difficult.

Educational policies and procedures in New York are at present unde going the severest test in their history. They are in a state of upheaval ar rebuilding, with all the temporary confusion that drastic change ar opposition to change of necessity bring about. A campaign for sweepir

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LEARNING FOR LIFE

scop provements is only in its initial stages. That campaign is directed er tainst stultifying curricula, inertia, overcrowding, lack of funds, inade- ciet ren ate building and mass methods of teaching. Old-time fixed ideas and d-time powers-that-be oppose the forward movement. But with the largesent political regime a new era has begun to dawn, and the long strug- e shows signs of becoming a gradual victory.

Nogressive Education

Early in the present century, the intricate and powerful organization that chentrolled public education in New York was assailed by a handful of col- eselge professors with new-fangled notions about what they called "progressive pe ucation." They not only proposed changes in methods of instruction but f tade forceful suggestions as to how the city's vast school system ought to her conducted. Many a skirmish centered around the demand for a new vo- d¿tional training for modern life and industry, to replace the dull and out- ubioded educational methods so long in force. The child's interest in school un came a matter of greatest importance-unlike the old philosophy of edu- tion according to which, as Mr. Dooley expressed it, "it doesn't matter that you teach a boy so long as he doesn't like it."

add ny- d Under the old system, which still persists to some extent, dingy and ar- aic school buildings, most of them destitute of playgrounds and without fficient sunlight and air, received great crowds of children in double or Lidiple sessions, few of the pupils attending full time for lack of space and lequate teaching staff. Mass education was doled out without regard to inle needs of the individual child. A harassed teacher, herself not infre- iently ill-prepared for her job, was confronted by a conglomerate of hu- edifan beings comprising numerous nationalities, of diverse ages and sizes und of widely varying home background and familiarity with the English singuage.

erd Packed into crowded classrooms, they received an identical limited edu- deltion by means of the assigned lesson, the memorized question and an- ntiver, the infrequent written test. They left school to face the world celquipped with a few facts soon to be forgotten, having little or no prepa- tion for suitable individual occupation, and with only a vague individual leppreciation of social and economic factors soon to loom up with terrific nlgnificance in their lives. In other words, individual equipment for suc- unless, usefulness and happiness in a complex modern world was too fre- iluently absent altogether. The student was hurled forth into the maelstrom

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EDUCATION

of modern life in a great city, to sink or swim as best he could with 1 latent individual faculties undeveloped.

Such was the old type of school, the old way of learning. What of t new way and its champions? Although there is demand for better teachin better buildings and more modern equipment, the essential difference } tween old and new lies in the spirit within rather than in material appl tenances and outward aspects. Emphasis in the new point of view h shifted from school and subject-matter to the pupil himself, to activity at interest rather than passivity and coercion. The new picture shows an ale and expert teacher guiding students eager to learn by doing interestit things, instead of forcing them into unwilling subjection to book memo: zation. "A fuller, richer school life while learning," "health, fresh a: ten sunlight, space," "learning by experiences," "developing the whole child "the aims of education must include personal health, personal happine and success,"-these statements of objectives are coupled with a demar New that active administrative positions in the public school system shall 1 esti held by trained educators.

An exact definition of progressive education is not easy to formulat Whatever the child is interested in or can do, whatever man aspires to, encompassed within its scope. It has neither confines nor limitations b only horizons, which when approached spread ever outward to wid learning. The essence of the creative school is ever-continued growth. Eac generation develops, discards, builds anew for its own day. The teache must be mature and creative personalities, possessing a flexible and activ awareness. They must be able to create an atmosphere of joyful explor tion in varying occupations and studies, for the highest type of moder school must never become fixed or static.

The leading pioneer in this movement was Dr. John Dewey, dean ( American philosophers, who formulated a new theory of education as fa back as 1895 and ever since that time has remained the most influenti: exponent of progressive education. Dr. Dewey attracted a large followin among educators. Especially prominent among those who defended pro gressive education in New York were William Heard Kilpatrick, for near. three decades with Teachers' College; Frank Pierrepont Graves, State Con missioner of Education; and Stephen F. Bayne, Associate Superintender of Schools of New York City. For years these educational leaders brough to the attention of officials and public the great advantages of progressiv education for both society and the individual.

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The Estri les

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LEARNING FOR LIFE

ganization and Control

of The public school system of Greater New York comprises 54 school chin ce b ppu stricts, covering an unevenly inhabited area of more than 300 square les. The population of this area is considerably in excess of 7,000,000. January 1, 1938, the number of school organizations in the city system whis 839, and the number of pupils on register in these schools was y ad 196,766-more than equaling the total combined population in 1930 of allew Hampshire, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The number of stimmployes required for the Department of Education in 1938 was 46,541; mo d the sum of $97,797,956.93 was provided by the city for the depart- agent's expenses, in addition to $54,707,507.44 estimated as receivable ild om the State.

ine nan Responsibility for the general educational policies and management of ew York's public school system is vested in a Board of Education, con- Il Isting of seven members appointed by the mayor for seven-year terms and rving without salary. Two of the members must be residents of Man- lauttan, two of Brooklyn and one from each of the three remaining o, broughs. A President and Vice-President of the Board are chosen from bre members. Although a lay body, the Board "seeks to inspire the profes- idonal staff to greater achievement, and often takes the initiative in advocat- Eating betterments for the school system." It is assisted by an Advisory Board he cti Industrial Education, consisting at present of five non-salaried members pointed for two-year terms.

A local school board in each of the city's 54 school districts supplements le work of the Board of Education. Each local board is made up of five embers, appointed by the president of the borough in which the school strict lies and se. zing five-year terms without salary.

The chief executive officer of the school system is the Superintendent of chools, who with eight Associate Superintendents is elected by the Board f Education for six-year terms. The salary of the Superintendent is 25,000 a year, and each of his associates receives $12,500. Collectively ey comprise the Board of Superintendents. The Board of Education also ppoints, upon recommendation of the Board of Superintendents, 33 ssistant Superintendents, with permanent tenure after a three-years' pro- ationary period, at an annual salary of $10,000.

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New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis, Part 48

Author: Publication date: 1938 Publisher: New York : Random House Number of Pages: 630

Author:
Publication date: 1938
Publisher: New York : Random House
Number of Pages: 630