* * * * *

Objectionable publications, films, broadcasting, and television have
been the subject of expert appraisal in many countries. The Committee
has made its recommendations in this section of the report fully aware
that many authorities can describe these matters as no more than
secondary influences in the causation of juvenile delinquency.

To what degree these things are directly causative no one can say. Their
influence is imponderable. But whatever their influence, the Committee
is firmly of the opinion that practical measures to control what is
offensive to many would be an indication of a renewed concern for the
moral welfare of young people. The result would be the replacement of
undesirable material with something much better.

_VIII. The School_

=(1) Teacher and the Child=

For several reasons, there has been a change in the relationship that
used to exist between teacher and child. Earlier the teacher lived in,
and was part of, the community and so knew something of local conditions
and the tensions of his pupils' lives. This gave him a more intimate
knowledge and sympathetic understanding of a child's difficulties.

Today in the cities, and particularly in the quickly growing urban
areas, there are different conditions. Schools are new and big, without
a tradition of long community service; teachers have difficulty in
finding accommodation in the district from which their pupils come; to
meet the shortage of permanent staff many partially trained persons have
to be used as relieving teachers; even qualified teachers have to move
frequently to meet promotion requirements.

As a result the knowledge that once came to a teacher from sharing the
same environment as the child has now to be acquired in some other way
and, probably, from within the school. This knowledge is of great
importance in diagnosing maladjustments that might lead to delinquency.

In primary schools the situation is met by the establishment of a
system of visiting teachers who can investigate the circumstances of a
problem child. Perhaps of greater importance, the presence of visiting
teachers reminds class teachers that children have difficulties out of
school. The Committee feels that:

(_a_) As many of the problems have a medical origin, there should
be as much official liaison as possible between the public health
nurses and the visiting teachers. This would automatically make
the