| Summary: | "Child guidance, as it is generally understood and applied today, is merely the therapeutic assistance given to socially and mentally handicapped children, in addition to parental and school education. Only a very few educators consider the healthy child in need of any form of guidance, but the contributors to this volume belong to this small group. It is thus the aim of this volume to set forth in the broadest sense the theory and practice of child guidance for the normal as well as for the subnormal child. Child guidance, as we understand it and present it here, is not merely an extension of such guidance as that developed under medical auspices. It is broader and more comprehensive in its general concepts. If we compare the sum total of educational influences on the youth of earlier days with those of our own times our most imposing institutions dwindle before the role played by the much less organized and less pretentious primitive folk cultures. Although, viewed from the standpoint of modern science, we may now consider much of the ancient wisdom as superstition, we find the folk wisdom of a prescientific age meeting the important problems of juvenile development more squarely and possibly more adequately than does our modern education. It is therefore the aim of this volume to outline the broad fundamental problems which the science of child guidance must encompass rather than to indicate the all too apparent deficiencies of our present practice in the field. Its main task is not so much one of specific detail as one of broad definition and outline. A broader comprehension of life and an education to prepare youth to meet it will constitute true child guidance. Guidance, so understood, will change the balance of our educational values. It will give weight not so much to merely inducting knowledge in the classroom as to imparting knowledge which will guide youth in every phase of existence. The study of the table of contents of this volume will reassure the reader as to the comprehensiveness of this carefully planned work. Additionally, the selection and arrangement of material has been made to reflect as closely as possible the present stage in the development of child guidance. Special emphasis was given to the last three parts of our volume: Social Aspects of Child Guidance, Religious Aspects of Child Guidance, and Social Viewpoints for Child Guidance"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
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