Date of Award
1930
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Graduate Group
Education
Abstract
Educators have for a long time felt the need for knowing something about the immediate social and economic environment of the pupils in our schools. In his study published in 1916, Holley pointed out in much detail certain facts showing the relationships between the persistency of children in school and their home conditions. The study by Counts published in 1922, showed that in four American cities, the secondary school population was of a highly selective nature.
This investigation is an attempt along the lines of the above studies, yet more intensively, to survey the social, economic, and educational characteristics of a single secondary school population,-that of Cheltenham Township Public School System. More specifically this study is concerned with questions such as these: What is the distribution of the secondary school group among the grades in the school system? How is it distributed among the curricula which the senior high school offers? What is the home background of the pupils in terms of parental occupations, ethnic origins, parental education, and so forth? What community contacts of a recreational and educational nature do the children have? Of what clubs are they members? What hold does the Church have on them? The Sunday School? The theatre? The movies? Of what library facilities do they avail themselves? What is their intelligence? What are their hopes for future education? For life occupations? How prevalent are physical defects among them? How successful are they in their school work? And finally, are there any significant relationships between any of these characteristics?
Answers to questions of this sort should paint a more intimate picture of the secondary school population. It's believed that some of the facts obtained may be of use m evaluating the school curriculum and the program of guidance, and in indicating desirable modifications of them. The value of such information for the purpose of curriculum making is now generally assumed in order that the schools may adapt themselves to local needs.
Recommended Citation
Wessel, Herman M., "The Secondary School Population in Some of its Social and Economic Relationships: A Study of the Secondary School Population Enrolled in the Public Secondary Schools of Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania" (1930). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2672.
https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2672