Abstract
The subject of this study is the effect which the policy of the individual child, as expressed by the Labour Government in 1939, had on the development of social services in education. This development was examined chiefly from 1935-1948, but the requirements of the study meant that the inclusion of material from outside this time period was necessary. Social services have been interpreted to mean those services which developed to cater for the emotional and physical well being of a child. The emphasis of this study is on the services which developed in the context of the primary and secondary school systems : health services in schools, Vocational guidance and careers advisory service, the Visiting Teachers service, and lastly the Psychological service. Since the Child Welfare Division of the Department of Education comes outside this definition, it is not specifically included in this study.
A variety of primary sources form the basis of this work. The Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives proved a valuable source, and gave the basic facts of the development of
social services in education. The substance of my essay was largely derived from the Education and Health Department files at National Archives in Wellington. Examination of these files was time
consuming due to the large volume of material which had to be sifted through. This effort was amply rewarded by the insights gained into the inner workings of the services, the problems, personalities, and developments. Letters from the public included in these files also gave an account of how the community viewed these changes.
Some of the material in Chapter IV was based on an oral history exercise on the development of the Visiting Teachers Service in Otago, which I researched in 1986. I placed great importance on my interview with Dr C.E. Beeby, and on his article in the Listener because he was Director of Education at the time. His contribution to the development of social services in education was decisive. Allowance had to be made for a natural bias, but he gave an insight into the changes in education, and contributed a sense of the personalities of the time.
Some secondary sources were very useful in checking information. Education Today and Tomorrow provided a clear statement of the Labour Government's policy on education. Ralph Winterbourn's
Guidance Services in New Zealand Education was a good reference book, since he was another important personality in education during this period.
The development of the policy of the 'individual child' was extremely important since it set the theoretical basis in education until the present day. In 1986 Dr C.E. Beeby wrote "For me, the most important discovery in education over this century has been the discovery by the school system of the individual child".