1937 River Oaks Magazine Article

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Our School

ONE of the finest elementary schools in the country is right here in River Oaks for the advantage of our children. It is headed by a woman of national reputation in the world of progressive education – Eva Magaret Davis. It is staffed by teachers selected for their ability to understand the child equally with the subject to be taught. Truly this school is in the hands of trained child psychologists and offers the best to be had in scholastic education, personal development and adjustment of the child, and citizenship-consciousness. To those not abreast of the times in educational trends this school is a revelation – and to those who are, it is a source of keen satisfaction and pride. Besides the stress that is put on the pupils’ attainments in scholarship this school has supplementary activities that are unique enough for special mention.

The P. T. A. organization alone is enough to endear the River Oaks Elementary School forever to the parents in the community. Hail a P. T. A. which never requires its members to make sandwiches or sell cakes or have benefits; which meets only four evenings a year for a short business session and discussion followed by a talk on problems of vital interest to the genus parent; which functions smoothly as an organization through committees , (headed by a chairman) which have a definite sphere of activity, each sufficient unto itself but all under the general direction of a president. The mechanics of activity involved in this most efficient of P. T. A.s are worked out in peace and quiet and every member has an individual job, does it, and that’s all there is to it! A list of the committees appointed will give idea of the scope of this P. T. A. – Library, Parental Education, Supplementary Aid, Public Relations, School Life and Grounds Committee.

Of importance is the monthly discussion of the faculty with Dr. A. R. Malloy, psychiatrist of the Child Guidance Clinic, on problems pertaining to the timid and pampered child. Only case histories are cited – no personalities allowed – but much is gained in the understanding of child nature.

Reformation of the report card system his been an ambition among educators for some time. In River Oaks School it is going to begin this year. Teachers, parents and pupils last year united in studying this subject with the result that a card has been formulated that is the first step in realization of a fairer system of designating a pupil’s progress. Personality and its component qualities have their place with scholarship. Such a card supplies the need for both parents and pupils and is consistent with the philosophy of the school.

A Student Council held every two weeks wherein the children take up the problems and activities of school life, proceeds with such thoughtful discussions and intelligent results that there is much hope for the future legislation of our nation if these young citizens ever lend a hand. This council system is fine training and gives excellent results at school. Every council member, elected and instructed by his group, takes his own problem to the council meeting, discusses it and the problems of other groups, takes back to his group a full report of the solution arrived at and the discussion that led up to it. These young and school-trained psychologists will invariably arrive at an appeal to the self-control of the student body if the problem is one of behavior. Nothing is illustrative of the strides made in public school education so much as this one part of it. Compare it with the horrors of suppression and inferiority that were carefully pounded into us of the early 20th century culture!

(Photo Insert) – Eva Margaret Davis…Principal of River Oaks Elementary School from its beginning, an advocate of the progressive thought both in the education of the child and in his adjustment to society.