You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This book is a final presentation of a five year study set up within the Commission on Secondary School Curriculum of the Progressive Education Association. Its purpose was first to clarify the dynamic picture of the adolescent working out his life adjustments and second to define the responsibility of the secondary school educators in helping the adolescent work out these adjustments. Dr. Zachry, the organizer of the study, included in her staff workers representative of the various fields of education, psychology, medicine, anthropology, sociology and social work. The investigations were carried on in both private and public secondary schools and the data gathered from many sources such as direct observation, anamnesis, discussion groups, products of class work, interviews with guidance counsellors, and so on.
The result is a carefully arranged, clearly written, well-indexed textbook, invaluable for teachers, guidance workers and other specialists in the field of education. As a contribution to progressive education, the study is doubtless of very great importance. The psychoanalyst may find that the book falls somewhat short as a comprehensive study on adolescence because of the simplification of causality and the special emphasis on the approach necessitated by the goal of educating the educator. Nevertheless, it is well worth reading.
The preface outlines the school's responsibility toward the adolescent in his adjustments to life, the school's resources for understanding these needs of the adolescent and the actual rôle that different members of the staff can play in this process. The scheme of the book is based on the view that adolescence is a transition period in which profound emotional adjustments are being made, towards self, towards people and towards the community. These three aspects are then discussed in three major parts, captioned: Changing Attitudes to the Self, Changing Personal Relationships, and Changing Attitudes to Basic Social Institu