The Child and Family Life Department records relate mainly to the operation of the Hospital School, and include reports, minutes, correspondence, and a wide variety of visual materials, including photographs, slides, negatives, and films documenting the programming efforts of the staff and the experiences of its patients. The evolution of educational philosophy and changes in hospitalization and treatment can be seen both in the documentation as well as through the images that are included in the record group. The records (7 linear feet, 2 oversize boxes) date from 1922 to 2001, but primarily document the period from 1922 to 1960. The records are organized in three series: Reports and Histories, Correspondence, and Visual Materials.
The Hospital School (now known as the Child and Family Life Department) has since 1922 provided support for sick and disabled children to continue their education and growth during extended stays within a hospital setting. At their September 1922 meeting, the University of Michigan Board of Regents accepted the contribution of $1500 from the King's Daughters of Michigan to pay the annual salary of a teacher for the sick and crippled in the University Hospital, beginning the Hospital School program. Miss Ruby Carlton served as the first paid staff member of the University Hospital School, with school rooms located in the Main Hospital (for cases of acute illness) and in the South Department, where convalescent cases resided. While intended to serve children between the ages of 7 and 15, in the early years of the school, staff also instructed older patients as well as patients boarded out by the hospital.
The Hospital School was situated within the Social Services Department, which also consisted of departments for Case Work, Occupational Therapy, Special Activity, and Library. Dorothy Ketcham, Director of the Social Services Department in 1922, is largely credited with garnering the support of the hospital administration and the School of Education for the establishment of the Hospital School program. Ketcham described the purpose of the school in her volume One Hundred Thousand Days of Illness as "to assure the child and adult healthy minds while developing vigorous bodies. Our approach has always been to help the patient maintain normality, providing social experiences to safeguard this growth process" (xiii).
In her first year of work, Carlton supervised some 30 volunteer student teachers, one student for credit, ten volunteer storytellers (largely from the Department of Public Speaking), eight volunteer Binet testers (from the School of Education's advanced course in mental testing) and one part-time teacher, Winifred Milor, who served for two months over the summer. Pupils numbered 324 in the first year, while the length of attendance ranged from as little as one week to the entire year. Daily instruction time was limited to between one and two hours, due to limited staffing.
The Crippled Children's Act of 1927 allowed for financing the bedside teaching of crippled children through the provision of state funds for curriculum, texts, personnel and methods approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. To meet the requirements for funding, the Hospital School established a relationship for supervision by the University of Michigan School of Education. Children from the Michigan Children's Institute (MCI) began attending the Hospital School's courses in 1939, with responsibility for MCI transferred away from the Hospital School during the 1950s. The 1956-1957 Annual Report indicates that plans were in the works for the establishment of a program for these children in either the Ann Arbor Public Schools or by the hiring of their own teacher on a full-time basis.
Outside financial support has been key to the functioning of the program over the years, with the King's Daughters and Kiwanis clubs contributing funds for many projects, including a recreation room and gifts for the annual Christmas celebrations. Beginning in 1928, the Galens Honorary Medical Society raised and provided funds for the establishment of an arts and crafts program within the hospital. This included a fully functional workshop where looms, sewing machines, a jigsaw, and carpenter's benches, amongst other tools, were available.
With a philosophy of treating the entire patient, the Hospital School program has been home to a Boy Scout troop in the 1920s and 1930s, a number of resident animals, including two "honey bears" in the 1950s, arts and crafts programs, vocational training, citizenship training, and an annual holiday celebration, amongst a plethora of recreation and educational programs. The Hospital School program was featured in a Life magazine article in 1956.
Following the opening of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in 1969, the Hospital School relocated from "Old Main" where it had resided since its establishment. The space in Mott included six multi-purpose rooms, and a large activity center on the top floor. The activity center contained an arts and crafts area, children's library, kitchen, outdoor playground, and administrative offices.
The move to Mott also prompted the first of several reorganizations of the Hospital School and Activity Program. Despite several name changes, the mission remains largely the same as that of the Hospital School established in the 1920s. With a staff that includes recreational therapists, activities therapists, child life specialists, an art therapist, and a music-and-health consultant, as well as an active volunteer population, the program continues to provide hospitalized children the support and opportunity to grow and learn.
In 1985 the name was changed to the Child Life Department to reflect the growing emphasis on meeting the psychosocial aspects of hospitalization. In 1999 the title was expanded to Child and Family Life.
For additional information about the Hospital School, the researcher may wish to consult:
The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey, pages 990-992, which includes a description of the Social Services Department, the Hospital School, and the Occupational Therapy Department.
One Hundred Thousand Days of Illness by Dorothy Ketcham. (Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1939).
Name Changes
| Date |
Event |
| 1922-1985 | Hospital School |
| 1985-1999 | Child Life Department |
| 1999- | Child and Family Life Department |
