Harnessing College Power to Promote Public Welfare in the SouthAuthor(s): Jeannette Paddock NicholsSource: Journal of Social Forces, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Nov., 1923), pp. 45-47Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3005177 .

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The Journal of Social Forces 45

miles away, connected by hard surface road, is

readily available. Field work done in the city is

under the supervision of the local Red Cross

chapter. The Durham Community Chest Asso-

ciation offers additional facilities for intensive

field work.

For research field work the School of Public

Welfare for the past two years has conducted

special studies in cooperation with the State

Board of Charities and Public Welfare. For

1922 the research work was a study of street

trades for children with case work inquiry into

home conditions. The year before a study was

carried out of children's placement work in a

number of child caring institutions. At present the school is undertaking a social study of the

city of Durham with special reference to juvenile delinquency.

Such, in brief, are the facilities and natural resources of the School of Public Welfare, which

ought to oifer unusual opportunities for all- round training for social work in the Ameri? can democracy. The greatest lack at the present time is that of an adequate number of students for intensive mutual stimulation to social achieve-

ment, but this need will be met, no doubt, in pro- portion as the social conscience of the South be- comes quickened, and as the School of Public Welfare is able to convince the people in ever

widening circles of influence that it stands

equipped and prepared to meet the call for social

leadership with workers trained in social tech-

nique and imbued with the spirit of service.

HARNESSING COLLEGE POWER TO PROMOTE PUBLIC

WELFARE IN THE SOUTH

Jeannette Paddock Nichols

PUBLIC

WELFARE has not been a thing in which colleges have customarily inter? ested themselves, up to the present. This

is partly because suggestions coming from tempo-

ary residents of a place are unpalatable to its

denizens; partly because the policy of the col?

lege usually is strict aloofness from the entangle- ments of problem solution; but mostly because

educators have not appreciated the value of at-

tempting an immediate and practical application of those theories which they teach with the pro- fessed belief in their future usefulness for the "life" for which the students are supposed to be

undergoing "preparation." This failure of the

college to feel the pulse of life has had disastrous

consequences. Because of it education has re?

tarded, rather than assisted, human progress, by

failing to inculcate a sense of social responsi-

bility. But of late some educators have bestirred themselves with ways and means by which the

college curriculum might be made to function in

community life. In several subjects plans have been proposed and tested, have alternately suc- ceeded and failed. It is the study of sociology, without doubt, that offers one of the most chal-

lenging opportunities.

The fault with the teaching of sociology lies

chiefly in the restriction of it to the pages of

books and the walls of classrooms. Glibly we talk of "conditions" and "forces," with the mini-

mum amount of correlation with existence. It

all seems vaguely interesting to the general stu?

dent, who seldom thinks of his own possible con?

trol over, or functioning with, the conditions and

forces. Only advanced students are permitted to assist in the neighborhood houses or to attempt to make surveys in special, limited fields. Un-

fortunately, comparatively few students go on

into these advanced courses. So the vastly larger

group, who simply taste sociology by the spoon methods of a general introductory course, get no

impulse from it, and are, by that much, less

useful as citizens when they have finished college. This brings us to the particular question. Can

the college, through its introductory work in

sociology, become a motive force in determining the environment of the small southern city? In

such a limited milieu, what means must be used

to make sociology function actually in the lives

of the individual student and community? The

means, it is believed, are findable. Search and

experiment are the only requisites. In the hope

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46 The Journal of Social Forces

that one of the recent attempts along this line

may invite helpful suggestion, its larger details are briefly described here.

In some respects the conditions environing this

experiment were singularly inauspicious: a church college, of one of the stricter sects; a modest enrollment, about five hundred; non-co-

education, girls; a cotton mill town partly of the

type still reminiscent of the War Between the

States, but dependent for its prosperity upon five

large mills, three of which belong to the same

corporation. In other respects the situation seemed promis-

ing: the one introductory course in sociology had never attracted any alarmed attention; the presi- dent of the institution was a gentleman still in middle life who had earlier and elsewhere be- stirred himself along the lines of public welfare; the person in charge of the sociology work was

only an "acting" head, contracted for but one

year and coming from such a distance as to be left unrestricted by some of the accepted mores of the college and its town; and above all, the student body enjoyed a wholesome esprit de

corps of which no small part consisted in an un- shakeable belief in the past and the future of the "oldest and best." However, the approach in the matter of the sociology experiment was distinctly in the present.

The first care was to make certain that the best available human material was used. For this

purpose registration was made elective and open to the less immature upperclassmen only, and was

kept strictly on a "permission from instructor"

basis, with preference given those who had taken, or were taking, economics. Thus, by a process of selection, the group was limited to a working number, about twenty-five, of those apparently possessed of real interest in sociology, regardless of their more or less total ignorance of the same. To them were held out no f alse hopes of ease and comfort. They were warned that the discussion method would be so used in the class periods as to demand individual participation; that each must be responsible, within wide limitations, for the selection of her own readings; and that not less than one-third of the work and credit for the course would have to do with field work, of which a detailed weekly report must in each case be submitted.

It was around this last project that the whole

plan centered. There had to be established, with

all the town's available social agencies, some

basis for cooperative endeavor. So the professor in charge secured permission for field work from

the directors of the various agencies, especially of the mill village community clubs. She stressed

the mutually beneficial nature of the enterprise: the girls would make themselves practically use-

ful to the social agency at the same time as they were perfecting themselves in their college assign- ments; they would work directly under the super? vision, and with the express permission, of the

agency to which they were assigned. On this

basis a variety of contacts was established. The

organized service, similar to associated charities

in other cities, put to use six students. A large

orphanage, on the cottage plan, took f our. A res-

cue home for unmarried mothers wanted two.

The fresh air school for tubercular children

needed the same number, as did the children's

detention farm and an old people's home and a

free clinic for mothers and babies. Finally, the

leading cotton mill corporation consented to the

installation of two workers in each of their three

community houses.

The next problem was to fit the field to the

girl and vice versa. For this purpose, the new-

comer on the faculty confidentially submitted ex-

perimental assignment lists to several professors and students of long standing, to determine per? sonal fitness and needs. Then the final assign- ments were announced as experimental, thus in-

suring a favorable student reaction. In but two

cases were readjustments necessary. Apparent fitness for a field did not always determine assign? ment, because certain student types stood so

badly in need of a shock out of their otherworld-

ness that they had to be thrust into experiences

extremely disagreeable to them, in the company,

perhaps, of a fellow student not of their own

immediate "set." What sort of experiences these

might be, readily will be imagined by all readers

familiar with the typical nurture given the middle

class girl of the south.

It was not long after their first introduction to

their strange work that the girls began to show

a decided reaction to it. They had never actually realized that fellow-humans could be as un-

washed, as hardworked, as poorly fed, as illy housed or as inadequately clad, as the ranks of

the miserable into whose homes they were de-

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The Journal of Social Forces 47

tailed to go. Quite contrary, was all this, to their inherited notions of divine dispensations and compensations, notions which no amount of classroom lecturing and library reading could have jolted without this practical demonstration. Vivid indeed were those first weekly reports of the people and the things, seen, smelled, felt, tasted and heard. Then came the inevitable

query of "Why?" Cause and effect were insist-

ently sought after. The inescapable reactions between individuals and groups, whether in the field or the college, gradually entered perception. When the least comprehending student in the course announced to the class one day how she had come to the conclusion that the unmarried mothers with whom she was working were not so much in league with the devil as the victims of circumstances, we felt that we were getting on. By this time the weekly reports were less like blurred mass pictures; they were more finely drawn, suggesting the background, and the gen? eral scheme of the group pictured. They had evolved from simple description to analysis.

It is unnecessary here to do more than briefly suggest the implications of this method. No

aspect of theoretical sociology was encountered

without an attempt to correlate it with field and

college experiences. Although the limitations of

student background and library funds had made

a text-book necessary at the outset, it could be

discarded after the best had been used and de-

pendence placed upon readings in books and

periodicals in its stead, especially the latter. Of

readings no definite amount was stipulated. In

other departments in that college the students

turned in "notes" on so many "hours" or pages (small books preferred) of "parallel." But in this one, understanding rather than quantity was the measure. Each submitted a list of read?

ings, but without notes, being required to demon- strate her knowledge in discussion and individual

reports. When the mid term examinations were

due, each sociology student tendered, instead, her best effort along the line of a correlation between

certain salient features of theoretical and applied sociology lying particularly within her individual

experience. Meanwhile, the degree of responsibility which

each girl was allowed to assume, varied with the

type of agency with which she worked and with

the lengthening of her period of service for it. For example, the rules of the cotton corporation were such as to forbid the field students from

remaining at work in the community houses or in the homes of the mill villagers without the

presence of the social agent paid by the company. This rule was at first strictly enforced; but

gradually the usefulness of the students so in? creased the confidence of the agents in them that

larger freedom was allowed and a decided ex-

pansion in function was the pleasing result. Breadth of view and variety were afforded by

such devices as lectures given to the class by special agents, inspections of public and private institutions, and visits, by the students, to each others* fields of service.

When the time rolled around for the final ex-

aminations, the class had advanced beyond the

stage of analysis to that of synthesis; and on the

strength of that advance, the introductory course in sociology was concluded with the production of a joint monograph. For this purpose each

group of field workers assembled their part of what was called a "Social Survey" of the city. Therein, under the headings of: fresh air school,

juvenile detention home, child welfare council

clinic, door of hope (home for unmarried moth?

ers), cotton mills, and organized service, they simply stated the conditions and factors in each field and offered suggestions for betterment. The data were prefaced by an introduction explaining the aim and scope of the survey. A conclusion summarized and synchronized the whole. These, also, were the work of students.

What was done with the survey? It can not be said that permission is at present obtainable for its printing; but everyone with the public welfare of the south at heart must wish that it, and others like it, be printed. And in the mean-

time the experiment undoubtedly had its effect

upon the students* point of view, the college cur-

riculum, and some of the town's social agencies. It may be likened to a pebble, with a widening circle of influence. In so far as each student in

the sociology class tried to function in her subject at college, each in turn has gone to her own or

another community with the added power of a

mind imbued with some of the principles of social

responsibility. This is one way by which we

may harness college power effectively to promote public welfare in the south.

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