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From Nashville I went south through Mississippi
to Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, to New
Orleans. Then west again by road to Houston
(Texas). Here I left the Greyhound and
Continental Trailways buses (for whose services
and drivers I am full of admiration) and flew west
again to Tucson (Arizona), and then by road via
Phoenix and the Grand Canyon back across the
Mohave Desert to Los Angeles. At Christmas time
I flew to Mexico City for a week and then flew
back to New York for a final week's stay there
before returning home on the liner United States.
'My position as Senior Psychologist for Special
Schools and Special Units in the Greater London
Borough of Hounslow entails work with many
groups of handicapped children; my previous
research at Martindale School while working for
the Paediatric Research Unit at Guys Hospital
made me particularly interested in the special
learning characteristics or disabilities of braininjured
children, and membership of a closely knit
team at the Heston Hearing Clinic has strongly
increased my interest in deafness, language
disorder, and the behavioural characteristics of
children whose handicaps can be traced to
maternal rubella. For this reason I was particularly
anxious to see work with the neurologically
impaired, the rubella deaf/blind, and the autistic
child. But at the same time I was anxious to get
as much of a general picture as I could of
developments in all areas of special education and
remedial education. Due to the kindness of very
many people, who not only talked to me and
showed me their work, but suggested other people
I should see as well, I was able to see much more
than I had planned and a wider variety of
provision. I was sorry I did not see all the
individuals and centres on my original list, but
with such a long journey and fairly tight schedule
it was not always possible to time my stay in an
area to the convenience of all the people I wished
to see. I regretted this very much and appreciated
the real efforts made by some very busy research
workers and teachers to fit me in among all their
commitments. I only hope I can do the same for
American workers in this field when they visit
Britain. From many who had already visited I was
relieved and proud to get glowing accounts of
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British hospitality, including some from my own
area of Hounslow.
'Although I had read and heard a fair amount
about the American educational system, I really
only understood certain aspects of it while there.
As students of comparative education know, the
history of the United States as a nation and its
evolving philosophy have been responsible for
some underlying differences in purpose which have
not been as important in Britain, politically a
much older country. As a minor example, it took
me a little time to get used to the Stars and Stripes
flying outside public (State) schools. I knew that
in many schools the day began with the Oath of
Allegiance round the flag in each classroom, but I
was interested to note that a Parent-Teacher
Association meeting began in the same way. The
unifying role of the school towards creating a
nation out of immigrants from many countries was
originally imperative, and although immigration is
at a low tide the tradition remains. (Having
commented to American friends on how rarely
one sees a Union Jack flying in Britain except on
public buildings—certainly not outside a petrol
station or a private bungalow—I returned to find
my country in the throes of a "Back Britain"
campaign, with the Union Jack displayed on every
commodity imaginable— an ironic twist of
circumstances!)
'We do not think of our educational system as
being particularly centralised as compared with,
say, that of France, yet by contrast with the
United States it seems very much so, and yet
paradoxically with greater freedom in some
directions. Although the provision of State
schooling here is carried out by LEAs, the central
government has a larger voice in how education
is organised, and HMIs try to ensure that there
are standards below which schools may not fall.
Education is still very much a district or State
responsibility in the USA and therefore one can
find a much greater variety and quality of
provision, depending on the wealth of the
community, the interests and social conscience
of the local electorate, and the general
progressiveness of the district or State. The
Federal authorities appear to be taking a larger