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For those who are immediately aware of the limitations of our current formal schooling for children—parents, child psychiatrists, other workers in the field of child guidance—as well as for those whose personal recollections of grade and secondary schools are filled with negatives and nothingness, Professor Rasey's book comes as a herald of a new era. It would be too sanguine to expect that this approach, even multiplied a thousandfold, could offset the limitations of overcrowded schools, poorly equipped classrooms, as well as the hobbles placed on children by the milieu from which they come to school. However, here is an approach without which even the most modern physical plant would be barren.
Professor Rasey has written this book for teachers and teachers in training, but it is as well of professional value for all workers in the field of human relationships. She has directed her text in holistic fashion towards the understanding of the growth of the child toward maturity and the growth of the teacher with the child toward a mature personal relationship. In the words of Gordon Allport in the introduction, she has brought to this task “a spirit that sweeps away the dust of impersonality which has settled over much of the educational psychology and child psychology taught in this country.” However, in doing this, Professor Rasey has used a method so unique, and, I must add, not easily apprehended, that more than a passing comment must be made about it. She has endeavored to present her material in a manner “psychological rather than logical”; her goal is to facilitate re-thinking and re-feeling in order to make our “ways” consistent with our “new theories.” Here is an attempt to bring ideas and feelings, theory and practice together in a way which will result in the maximum functional effectiveness. The purpose is to transmit a feeling for the whole individual that is the growing child to the teacher, another growing person, to the end that a human relationship emi