CONCEPTS
OF
SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMMING
35
In conclusion, let me say that mental health programming concepts and models
I have sketchily summarized for you are by no means either the best
or
the only
ones in operation. They were selected simply to indicate the range
of
possibilities,
a
range limited only by the imagination of the educators and mental health people
who desigii and carry them out. What we need in mental health are interested
peoplepeople interested in helping
to
identify areas of weakness and
to
help
young people develop skills in living.
John Gardner’s book
Excellence
makes
it
similar point with regard to education.
He states: “Education
in
the formal sense is only part of the society’s larger task
of abetting the individual’s intellectual, emotional and moral growth. What we
must reach for
is
a
conception of perpetual self-discovery, perpetual reshaping to
realize one’s best self, to be the person one can be.”
This task is
so
broad that
it
can never be accomplished by
one
group alone.
The most important thing right now is
t,o
rec*ognize that mental health and edu-
cation are not on opposite sides. We are both in the middle of
it,
and shared responsi-
bility will only
t)e
possible when we learn to talk with each other, when we develop
genuine respect
for
each other’s abilities, when constructive cooperation will be
seen as more satisfying than destructive competition.
BIBLIOGHAPHY
CORSINI,
It.
J.,
&
HIJW.+RD,
I
).
1
).
Phglewood Cliffs, Yew Jersey:
Prentice-Hall,
1‘364.
CUTLER,
K.
L.,
SPIETH,
P.
E.,
&
WILKINSON,
MAHY
F.
School arid rrierital health program.
Review
of
Edudiimal Research,
1062,
33,
476-483.
KRUQMAN,
M.
Orlhopsychidry
ad
the school.
Sew York: Americaii ()rthopsychiatric Associatioii,
19%.
LONQ,
N.
J.
Direcl help to lhe classroom teacher.
Wi~shingt.cbri,
I).
C.:
Washirigtori School
of
Psychiatry,
School
Research Program,
1966.
MORSE,
W.
C.,
CUTLER,
It.
I,.,
&
FINK,
A.
H.
Public school classes jor the emoliaally handicapped:
A
research analysis.
Washington,
1).
C.
:
Sat
ioiial Education
Association,
Coiiiicil
for
Exrep-
Crilzral
inridenis
in
teaching.
tiorial Children,
1964.
19*59.
IIEDL,
F.
When
we deal wilh children.
Sew York: Free
Press,
1966.
REDL,
F.,
&
W.4ITENiiEHO,
W.
W.
.Medal hygiene
in
teaching.
(2nd
etl.) New York: Harcourt Brtice,
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEAI,
A
POSSIBLE
LOCUS
FOR
A
NATIOWAI, RIENTAI, HEAI,TH PROGRARI’
WILLIAM A. HUNT
Loyola C.:niversi/y, Chicago
In
discussing the American school as
a
lo(-us for
a
national mental health pro-
gram,
I
should point out immediately that 1 ani riot primarily concerned with
methods of
t
reatrnent, but rather with the organizational aspects of the problem.
We have mental health programs galore and
our
research efforts are daily adding
to their number.
I
would submit that our present know-how
is
sufficient
for
a vast
improvement,
in
present performance, arid that
a
major difficulty lies not
in
the
quality
of
our information, but
in
a
lack
of
efficient application. Our present efforts
are
fragmented, highly specific*, arid uiic:oordinated. Such provisions for cooperation
IPreaeiiied at a
cciiiference
OII
“The SchoolL-It8
I-riique
Ilole
a?
a Meiital Health
ltewurce.”
.-
~~
University
of
Nehrwkn, Janiiary
1067.