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Melba Judge Lehner and Child Care in the State of Utah
Melba Judge Lehner. All photographs accompanying this article are from her files.
Melba Judge Lehner and Child Care in the State of Utah
BY LAVON B. CARROLL
CHILD CARE PROGRAMS IN THE PAST have never focused on the development and welfare of children as much as on solving the problems of adult society," Melba Judge Lehner, professor emeritus of family life studies, Weber State College (University), said at the beginning of our interview concerning her lifelong work in child care and development. A small but active and alert woman in her eighties, she still takes care of a large, beautiful garden at her home in Ogden in spite of failing eyesight and keeps abreast of developments in child care. She is deeply concerned about and committed to improving the welfare of children. A central figure in two crucial programs, the WPA nurseries in the 1930s and Lanham nurseries and extended day care programs during World War II in Utah and Idaho, she later established the child development program at Weber State College. In view of the current intensification of interest in child care outside the home, her experience is valuable in gaining perspective on a major problem of our time.1
Since the industrial revolution child care outside the home has been are current social, economic, political, and even amoral issue. It is an ongoing concern, as anyone who reads newspapers, watches television, or listens to radio discussions is aware. For example, an editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune asserted, "If children are truly a Utah priority, the state should be ensuring decent day-care services for the children who need it most Day-care conditions for low-income children are abysmal in this state. . . ."A few days later, Roger Wilkins, a professor at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, told a radio audience that "One dollar spent now on Head Start programs will save $4.75 down the road."2
Melba Stuart Judge Lehner, a pioneer in establishing such programs in Utah, was born August 10, 1907, in Wellsville, Utah, where she lived until age nine when her parents moved to Idaho. Her mother died when she was twelve, and she returned to live with grandparents in Wellsville along with her brother and three cousins from Montana, all teenagers She now wonders how her grandparents could have put up with five lively adolescents but adds that they all shared chores Living with their grandparents enabled the children to continue their schooling in Logan.
Melba obtained a B.S degree in home economics from Utah State Agricultural College (USAC, now Utah State University) in Logan in 1929 and taught school for a year in Green River, Utah, before going to Rochester, New York, where her brother was studying. There she met and married Thomas Judge, an engineer for General Railway Signal They had a daughter, Janice, who was two years old when her father was transferred to Brazil. Mrs. Judge decided that she did not want to take her young child to what might be a difficult situation and instead returned to Logan to renew her teaching certificate at USAC. The Great Depression of the 1930s was well underway and teaching positions, as well as other job opportunities, were limited.
While pursuing her studies Judge became interested in a program of child development that had been set up in 1932 by Elsa Ann Brown Bate, head of the department during 1931-41. It was the only one of its kind in the state at that time. Bate established a nursery school in conjunction with this program as a laboratory for the study of child development. Melba Judge became involved in this new study and obtained a second B.S. degree in 1935. (She returned to Utah State University during the 1960s to earn her M.S. degree when the program had expanded to offer advanced degrees in family relations.) In 1935, however, she had little idea of what opportunities existed in this relatively new field but concedes that she "was in the right place at the right time" considering subsequent events
Along with the rest of the United States, Utah experienced severe economic problems during the depression that were somewhat alleviated by government programs initiated under various emergency relief acts. Understanding how child care in Utah evolved during this challenging era will help illuminate Melba Judge's career. As one observer wrote, "Until the Depression, the United States was the only major industrial country that did not provide some type of federally funded child care program On October 23, 1933, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) authorized funds to provide wages for unemployed teachers and other workers on relief."3 Then, "in 1935 President Roosevelt and the Congress laid the foundation for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). . . . With almost $5 billion, or ten times the amount given to FERA, the WPA absorbed about half the government's total expenditures."4 It came to the attention of state agencies that a program of nursery schools or day care centers might be set up under the WPA.
Judge emphasizes, as do many sources on the subject, that the expanded child care project was initiated "not primarily to care for children, but to supply jobs for unemployed teachers, nurses, nutritionists, clerical workers, cooks, and janitors. By 1937, the programs had set up nineteen hundred nurseries caring for about forty thousand children."5 The remarkable factor in this development was that "for the first time public funds, both federal and state, became available for day care." The WPA nurseries, as they came to be called, were "identified as an educational service," Judge said; and most of the nurseries were "located in school buildings," although there were some exceptions to that in Utah The funds for this enterprise were not, however, administered by the school districts or institutions but by federal and state agencies
The first nursery school set up in Utah under this project was located at the University of Utah under the direction of Naomi Woolley in September 1935.Typical of such programs at that time, it had the dual purpose of providing employment for needy teachers as well as training women on the relief rolls in better methods of child care Taken under the university's wing after the emergency programs expired, this is the only depression-era nursery school still in existence in Utah.
Five months later, in February 1936, Elsa Bate set up a similar nursery school in conjunction with her college program at USAC. It was located in a home off campus. She enlisted Judge, who was still a student, to help with the project because the women on welfare rolls eligible for employment under the WPA guidelines were unskilled in administering and directing such an enterprise Judge relieved welfare employees in the WPA nursery school while they received training in the college nursery school for periods of up to two weeks. She was not paid during the first year and performed these duties as part of her training. The next year she received a small stipend.
Working with underprivileged women and children was challenging for judge at first, since they had different backgrounds from those she had known For instance, the children of college professors and more affluent community members in the college nursery were fussier eaters but generally seemed more accustomed to interacting congenially with others. The disadvantaged children usually ate the food prepared for them without complaint but often needed instruction in how to cooperate with and relate to other children.
Judge found it necessary to revise the schedules and adapt the procedures of the college nursery to the needs of welfare recipients She always found them willing to work and learn. They were proud and disliked taking welfare, she recalled. Expressing gratitude for the experience of working with these families, she said it gave her an understanding of problems she had not encountered previously and equipped her for the later work she was to do on a statewide basis.
As the need for child care services became apparent throughout the state, Verna S. Carlisle, head teacher at the USAC college nursery under whom Judge had trained, was selected as the state director of the program. Recognizing Judge's maturity and abilities, Carlisle asked her to become the field supervisor. Ample funds were provided to set up the nurseries where needed
Program leaders decided to try to establish the nurseries in cooperation with local schools, particularly institutions of higher learning where they hoped that some permanency could be ensured An arrangement similar to those at the University of Utah and at USAC was made later in 1938 at Weber College in Ogden. As the program expanded throughout the state, however, it was not always possible to find such accommodations.
One of the first steps taken was to send letters to college and university administrators, superintendents of school districts, and other community leaders asking if they would like to participate. Judge followed up on the responses, traveling around the state to meet with those who had indicated an interest in the program. Such organizations as the Ogden Martha Society Nursery School, Neighborhood House, the Children's Service Society, and the Wells Center in Salt Lake Cityoffered their facilities and help.
Judge proceeded to form committees of local individuals who would help find accommodations where the nursery schools could fulfill their goal of helping to improve the conditions of unemployed, impoverished families. Nurseries were set up in churches, elementary schools, public libraries, and community centers. Equipment and personnel were provided through the program. Although designed primarily to help the disadvantaged, the program received a certain amount of money to enable the hiring of professional, college-trained personnel like Judge to guarantee a high level of quality.
Accordingly, nursery schools were set up in St. George and Cedar City in connection with Dixie College and Southern Utah State College respectively. Other nurseries were established in Price, Helper, Parowan, Manti, Mt. Pleasant, Ephraim, Vernal, and Moab. In Provo the school was located in a Presbyterian church Additional nursery schools in Salt Lake City were started at the Neighborhood House, which had previously sponsored similar programs, and in cooperation with the Children's Aid Society. In Ogden the nursery school was located in a home near the old Weber College campus on 24th Street. Judge spent the winter of 1937-38 with a Mrs. Smoot in St. George while she set up the schools in southern Utah.
One carpenter based in Salt Lake made all the simple furniture for the schools. He and Judge together designed some of the equipment. They made creative use of such things as orange crates for chairs, shelves, etc., to economize. Later, their designs were compiled in an interesting bulletin, Nursery School Furniture and Equipment,6 with detailed drawings of such equipment, published by the Department of Public Instruction in 1943 under the direction of Superintendent Charles H Skidmore The sturdy, simple items included both indoor and outdoor playground equipment, the design of which has not been greatly improved in more recent years
As Judge traveled about the state organizing the nurseries she encountered some incredible circumstances such as shanty towns where families were living in tents or shacks improvised from all kinds of materials She remembers one that was covered with old license plates Appalled by these conditions, she did her best to try to mitigate the deprivations of these unfortunate Utahns.
The first WPA nursery schools were modeled after the earlier ones at the colleges and universities. It must be emphasized here that because Judge was responsible for the establishment of most of the WPA schools, her influence was predominant in their design and administration Her training at USAC had been under women schooled in the most advanced theories of child development They owed much to the modern studies and theories of such schools as the Merrill-Palmer in Detroit, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Iowa. Later, several of the head teachers and supervisors in the Utah program, like Joy Wiswald, Ruth Skidmore, and Roma Tueller, were products of these schools. Child psychology was then in its infancy as a legitimate area of inquiry, although there had been earlier movement in this field initiated by European pioneers like Froebel in Germany and Montessori in Italy They emphasized educating and developing children. This presented a marked contrast tojust caring for the children after the model of the French Creche that had been used in earlier endeavors to meet the needs of working mothers in industrial areas.
The techniques and philosophy that informed and guided the work of conducting the Utah programs were compiled by Melba S Judge in Nursery Schools: A Handbook of In-Service Training for Nursery SchoolTeachers-W.PA.,7 published in 1940 by the Federal Works Agency, Works Progress Administration, Utah. Federal policies in place at that time did not allow Judge to place her name on this important document. It has stood the test of time and could serve today as an excellent manual for conducting preschool programs.
The WPA nursery schools operated from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and included a morning snack, lunch, and a nap Each school accommodated twenty-five to thirty children, ages two to five A parent education program was instituted in connection with the schools. Parents were expected to meet once a week to study problems of child rearing Each school had a supervisor, cook, housekeeper, custodian, and two or three teachers as well as other assistants. Discipline was fairly strict, and standards of hygiene and personal responsibility were inculcated. For example, Judge's Handbook suggested that the children's hands be washed "in running water using soap only when necessary. Dry carefully to prevent chapping."
An important goal of the program was to give the children an experience of order and stability often lacking in their own families. Mealtimes especially were to be conducted with order and grace, with the children participating in the table setting and serving. Independence, self-reliance, and consideration of others were encouraged. The children were expected to replace their own dishes after meals and to pick up the toys they had used during play periods They were taught cooperation and respect for others Health concerns were also a part of the program; cod liver oil, a favorite dietary supplement of the thirties, was administered to each child daily. The Handbook directed that the attitude of the nursery teachers and assistants toward the children "should express common sense, naturalness, and sympathy."
Although the prescriptions and guidelines contained in the Handbook compiled by Judge are admittedly idealistic and may not have been rigorously observed at all times and in all places, one is impressed by the broad, intelligent approach to the crucial task of shaping and caring for small children in programs that were originally instituted for expedient and pragmatic economic and social reasons
Those involved in the nursery school programs enjoyed some lighter moments also On one occasion, Judge recalls, she was visiting the school in Helper during the story and music period that was a feature of each school's daily activity. It was the only time when all the children gathered around the teacher who would tell stories and lead singing. The nurseries were usually notified ahead of a supervisor's visit, and, as expected, on this occasion the youngsters sang traditional children's songs. When they finished, they were asked what else they might like to sing. One boy suggested "Roll Out the Barrel." This embarrassed the teacher but amused Judge who directed the children to go ahead with the song
Judge remembers some distressing situations too. When children were absent from school, the nursery attendants would go to their homes to see if there was a problem On one occasion they found that a mother had not sent her children because they all had the "itch" (scabies), one of the many distasteful afflictions that beset impoverished families. In another instance, a family fumigating a shack to rid it of bedbugs had burned it down along with their meager possessions. There was a desperate need for cleanliness, food, and order among a great number of people during the 1930s,Judge observed.
In "Final Report of the Child Protection Program," dated January 1943, Ruth Skidmore (McFarlane), who worked in the program from 1938 to 1943, notes that "Five Summer Training Sessions were held alternating summers at Utah State Agricultural College and the University of Utah." These seminars sought to make the workers in the program well trained and familiar with the best methods and policies of child care. Skidmore reports that the "full time of the workers for four to six weeks each summer was scheduled in concentrated study, discussion, observation and participation. Special consultants and authorities in child psychology, child guidance, nursery school procedures, nutrition and parent education were made available either through the institutions, or by direct WPA request."8 Judge played a prominent part in the sessions where child development and parent education were discussed, bringing her practical experience in the field to illuminate the academic aspects of the training The seminars attracted a number of participants from outside the state
Because of her training and reputation Judge was asked to go to Idaho in 1939 to help in the administration of WPA nursery programs there under conditions of poverty similar to those in Utah Ruth Skidmore, who had been hired by and had worked under Judge as a supervisor in southeastern Utah, was selected to take her place. She found Judge an excellent supervisor and called her a methodical, accurate, and independent thinker. Judge could evaluate a situation and make a decision quickly, and she was usually right, Skidmore said.9 She was also solicitous of her supervisors and helpful in solving special problems. For example, on one occasion she arranged for a hyperactive child who disturbed all the other children during rest period to take his rest in the furnace room with the janitor, there being no other place to take care of him
In her supervisory role, Judge drove all over the state, generally alone, and, Skidmore noted, she was reputed to drive very fast for those times The roads during the 1930swere sometimes in poor condition and, considering the additional hazards of weather, one is impressed by Judge's courage Once she did have an accident and slid down an embankment, but the first persons on the scene were friends who rescued her only a little the worse for wear.
Both Judge and Skidmore agreed that Utah communities were interested and cooperative in supporting the nursery school programs. Individuals who were drawn into the federal programs that complemented and supplemented the nurseries also generally worked well together to achieve their objectives. The nursery schools were integrated with adult education and recreation programs. In 1940 Mack Nicholayson, Clifford L. Frye, and Darrell J. Greenwell were associated with these programs.
Judge's stay in Idaho was cut short by the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent entrance of the United States into World War II. Soon many WPA nursery schools were closed throughout the country; others were converted within the next two years into wartime nurseries War industries and the military services quickly replaced the welfare programs that had been initiated during the depression
Several years earlier national leaders had recognized that the United States might be at war and that women would be needed in defense factories and other essential industries. After war was declared the need became urgent, and, as one account noted, women at work meant an increased need for child care:
A clear distinction needs to be made between the WPA nurseries and the wartime or Lanham nurseries, although they did merge and the latter utilized the methods, equipment, and personnel of the earlier ones. Here again, it is important to recognize that many of the organizational and administrative methods employed in the WPA nurseries and later in the Lanham day care and extended day care programs in Utah were initiated by Melba Judge although she gives much credit to her co-workers and others involved As field supervisor she had been in constant personal contact with the nurseries throughout the state; she did not administer her territory from a central office. It is understandable that she would be chosen as one of the key persons to setup the new program.
At the recommendation of Winifred Hazen, parent education director in the State Department of Education, Judge returned to Utah in 1942 to conduct a survey of the state to see where child care was needed to facilitate the war effort. It was not possible to automatically convert all the Utah WPA nurseries to wartime day care centers since many of them were not located in areas where war industries were being developed. Euphemistically labeled "The Child Protection Program," the Lanham nurseries were created as an emergency response to World War II labor needs Fortunately, Melba Judge, and others throughout the country who genuinely cared for children and had developed methods and philosophies for their best care, had established in the WPA nurseries a program that could be converted without a great deal of stress to serve the country in wartime. The Lanham nurseries, named for Fritz Garland Lanham who had introduced the legislation, were integrated with the public school system rather than the institutions of higher learning, although colleges and universities were still involved. The administration of the program also changed to correspond more with the regional school districts that dispensed the funds They were set up under the direction of Jenny Campbell, state supervisor of elementary education.
Since the largest wartime installation in Utah, Hill Field, was close to Ogden, Judge was assigned there and given an office in the Ogden City School District headquarters with a secretary, Phyllis Chapman, to help her carry out the establishment of wartime day care centers throughout Weber and Davis counties Authorities at Hill Field, impatient with the state agencies that were trying to setup quality child care, had instituted its own program. Judge remembers visiting it and finding everything in disarray. According to her, it was a "fiasco" because those in charge had no training or experience in child development. Their underlying assumption seems to have been that training was not necessary because anyone could "care" for children, a fallacy that has proved disastrous many times over.
Judge set out to find adequate housing, personnel, and equipment. In Ogden she was able to establish three child care centers immediately through the help of the Ogden City School District. One, the Pioneer Nursery School, was located in a church that had been serving as a museum All the antiquities were moved out to accommodate the children. Another was set up at the condemned Quincy School where the lower floor was still usable and the third at Bonneville, a wartime housing project at the north end of town. Fortunately, Judge was able to recruit a number of highly competent persons who had worked in the WPA nurseries, women like Roma Tueller Winn who was a trained social worker, having studied at Merrill Palmer. Winn was the head teacher at one of the WPA nurseries housed at the old Central School, a facility that was not ideally equipped for this purpose. She recalls having to take the children almost a block away to use arestroom.11 Under the pressures of first the depression and then the war it was necessary to make do with what was available.
Winn, who later transferred to the Granite School District's Lanham nursery program in Salt Lake County, felt that Judge was an excellent supervisor with whom she and others in the program worked comfortably and shared basic philosophies about child care and development. Both Winn and Judge found that teachers who had been trained to teach in the elementary and high schools had a more difficult time adjusting to the preschool level than mothers and other unskilled workers. The teachers had a more regimented approach that was oriented to the curriculum rather than to the direct needs of the child. They had to acquire new attitudes and techniques to adjust to work in the nurseries.
Judge supervised all the nurseries set up in Weber and Davis counties, including those in Ogden City. They were established near or at wartime housing projects—Arsenal Villa, Washington Terrace, Anchorage, Sahara Village, and Verdeland Park—to be convenient for parents working in defense installations A number of other day care facilities were set up throughout the state where they could support wartime activities The table on p 56 shows the location of nurseries and extended care centers as of September 15, 1944.12
LANHAM ACT CHILD CARE CENTERS IN UTAH * See end of article for Table.
The funds for the nurseries were received through the Federal Works Agency office in Salt Lake but administered by the various school districts. Although directives, bulletins, and guidelines were sent out from the FWA office, Judge had, because of her extensive experience, established sound working principles of her own One of her most successful strategies was to organize committees of prominent educators and able community members to advise and direct the program. Typical of this was the Weber County Child Care Committee which met regularly to discuss the problems of the community and the program. 13 In addition to Judge, the impressive list of members included:
Dale Anderson, Department of Welfare, Utah Army Service Forces Depot
Martha Mills,Utah Army Service Forces Depot
Ester W.Porter, Civilian Personnel, Naval Supply Depot
Chief Warrant Officer Ernest Walo, U.S. Adjutant General Section, U.S Quartermaster Depot
Viva Olderoyd, Employee Relations Branch, Civilian Personnel, Hill Field
SaraWhite, Manpower Commission
Rev.G. R.Woods,African Methodist Church
Mrs. Frank Turner, Ogden Resident
Marcia Maish, Children's Aid Society
LaWanna Buffmgton, Employee Relations, Ogden Arsenal
Nellie U. Hendricks, Weber County Board of Education
George Simmons, Chairman, Weber County Commission
Sarah McCracken, Ogden CityBoard of Education
Harold Welch, Ogden City Commission
RayK.Goates, Ogden CityRecreation Department
June Coop, Ogden CityRecreation Department
W.Karl Hopkins, Superintendent, Ogden City Schools
Mrs George S Eccles, Citizens' Representative
Judge Theodore Bohn,Juvenile Court
Mrs Ira Martin, Executive Secretary, Office of Civil Defense
Lenore Billings, Civil Service Commission
Willamelia Smith, Weber County Welfare Department
LaVerna Peterson, Utah State Board of Health
Barbara Cordon, Community Building, Washington Terrace
Ezra Felstead, Executive Secretary, Community War Services Board
Under the WPA program parents were not charged for placing their children in the nurseries. During World War II it was suggested that part of the cost of day care could be met by a modest fee for each child—usually from $3.00 to $4.50 Since the program was designed to work closely with the schools and employ trained teachers, recommended salaries were to be consistent with the pay scale in the districts involved and the qualifications of the person, bearing in mind that day care staff worked six days a week during the school year and summer vacation period. The head teacher, according to Judge's files, received $185.00 per month. Assistants received from $125.00 to $145.00 per month. The chief cook was paid $115.00 and the assistant $105.00, while the housekeeper got $95.00 and the janitor $140.00 Since these salaries were higher in many cases than those of some public school teachers, willing workers were not hard to find Given this pay scale, operating expenses for July 1945 for the Pioneer Nursery School in Ogden, for example, amounted to $1,999.82.
The nursery school pay scale created one of the few stressful situations that Judge encountered in supervising the program She remembers approaching the superintendent of the Weber County School District, Dr. William P. Miller (later president of Weber State College, 1953-71), for help in recruiting teachers for the nurseries. With many teachers leaving the public schools for more lucrative defense jobs and the Lanham nursery program paying higher salaries than many school districts, Miller faced the problem of keeping the county's schools staffed. He responded curtly to Judge's need, although he apologized later, explaining that he was under a great deal of pressure at the time Judge and Miller became close friends during their years together at Weber State
The Lanham nurseries, although similar to the WPA nursery schools, were called day care centers because they were open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and cared for from fifty to seventy children. Like the former nursery schools, they had a supervisor, cook, assistant cook, janitor, and from four to six trained women teachers depending on the number of children. A lot of the equipment that had been designed and built for the WPA program was utilized. The experience gained in the earlier program helped immensely in facilitating the war effort by providing well organized and supervised programs of child care
Following the policies that had predominated in the evolution of such institutions, only children from the age of two to five were accepted at these centers. Parents had to arrange for infant care elsewhere. The children were divided into three groups—two year olds, three and four year olds, and five year olds—so that the ratio of caretaker or teacher to child could be adjusted.
Itwas soon apparent that this did not meet all the needs of working parents whose older children sometimes required supervision both before and after normal public school hours. Under the extended day care program children up to fourteen years of age could receive supervision and food Guidelines for this program suggested that "Since the extended school program is closely related to the elementary school department every effort should be made to integrate the before and after school program with the regular school activities."14 Addie Swapp was chosen to head this program in Utah. Many of the personnel were regular teachers who stretched their work day to contribute their skills to the war effort This program provided peace of mind and security to families engaged in defense work. Nationally, according to one report, "By the peak of the program in 1945, between 105,000 and 130,000 children were enrolled in these centers."15
A report submitted by the Weber County School District office, March 14, 1946, indicates that this district alone operated a program from January 1944 to February 1946 in which about 650 children were served. The Weber program addressed the health and education needs of the preschool child with a schedule that "included morning inspection, breakfast, mid-morning lunch, noon-day meal, afternoon nap, rest periods, washing and toilet periods, and free play activities." Th e report noted that the program had "qualified personnel," including teachers with college degrees and some who "had majored in Child Development." Th e staff participated in a variety of training programs, including an intensive summer session during which "a nutritionist was employed and gave individual instruction in the centers as well as group instruction and demonstrations." 16
Th e weakest part of the wartime day care program seemed to be the involvement of parents It had been one of the main objectives of both the WPA and the Lanham nurseries to improve the education of parents about child development and care The Weber report states that "Because of the war situation and the long working hours of parents, it was impossible to do an adequate jo b in parent education." Nevertheless, informal daily contacts with parents, individual conferences between the parents and head teacher, distribution of mimeographed material pertaining to child care and guidance, and group meetings gave many parents new insights They often expressed their appreciation of the program and learned the value of having teachers who were trained to handle young children care for their offspring.17
As noted earlier, neither the WPA nor the Lanham nurseries had as their primary object the benefit of children Helping impoverished families in the depression and, later, the war industry were the principal aims. So, the positive values derived by families from the programs were actually by-products of social and economic necessities Given that historical background, Judge expressed hope that present and future programs may change that emphasis to make the children's needs the central concern of day care.
Typical of programs dependent upon temporary government grants, the day care centers, having made their contribution to the success of the war effort, were closed in 1946. Some national voices objected to this short-sighted action since a number of women such as war widows and women with disabled husbands and other exigencies needed or wished to remain in the work force.
Judge found herself unemployed It seemed that the immense amount of work and care that she had invested during the past ten years in providing quality child care in nurseries and day care centers throughout the state and region was to no avail. However, with her good record and wealth of experience, she was not without a job for long. She had served on the state board of the PTA for several years, acting as chair of the Preschool and Parent Education Committee. Winifred Hazen, who was head of the parent education program of the State Department of Public Instruction, arranged for judge to become the director of parent education in the Ogden city schools and to teach child development classes at Weber College She held these positions from 1946 to 1950.
In 1950 Melba Judge married Joseph Lehner, director of health services at Hill Air Force Base. He was a vigorous outdoorsman who taught her to ski and to play golf and tennis They enjoyed these activities until his death in 1976
Lehner continued her career at Weber which in the late 1940s was in the process of planning the move from the lower to the upper campus Henry Aldous Dixon, college president, had asked the members of the home economics faculty to make suggestions for a cooking and sewing laboratory Even though Lehner was then only a part-time employee, she requested that plans for the department include a child development program and a nursery school. Dixon told her that there was no room for it but changed his mind when two things occurred. He attended an accreditation conference in the Northwest where he was shown a nursery school with an observation window and became aware that the trend in education was toward studying personal relationships and child development psychology. Then he learned that the daughter of a friend of his who had taken Lehner's child development classes could not transfer her credits to another institution because she had not had the nursery experience Asa result, Dixon invited Lehner to help plan for accommodations for a nursery school at the college. The cooking and sewing areas were rearranged so that room could be made for the child development program.
When Alda Hurst retired as head of the home economics department at Weber College in 1950, Dixon asked Lehner to assume the position. She was surprised to learn that she was the whole department, obliged to teach foods, clothing, home management, etc Early in this new calling she taught twenty-eight hours of home economic subjects during the year Later she gained some assistance, hiring Bessie Mumford to teach clothing and Carol Tribe to teach foods.
In 1952 Winifred Hazen offered Lehner $2,000 from her state budget to set up a project at Weber relating to parent education. Lehner organized a nursery school in the home that President Dixon had vacated on the lower campus of Weber College in 1951 upon acquiring a new residence The nursery was open from 9 a.m to noon, and parents worked one day in the nursery and attended a class related to child care. This format was based on the model of the parent cooperative nursery school and laid the foundation for the child development program on the new campus.
Later, in new quarters on the upper campus, the nursery school accepted about twenty children in a morning session and twenty-five in the afternoon. Lunch was not served, but other aspects of nursery school care in which Lehner was so well trained were incorporated into a program that still flourishes at Weber State University. When the new Education Building was constructed, the nursery school was designed by Lehner, Ruth Williams, and Gordon Geddes, members of the faculty at that time
Presently the Weber State University program has expanded to include two nurseries or preschools operating from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. with the emphasis on child-parent training. There is also a day care center where children of working mothers can be cared for from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. All facilities have laboratories and kitchens and are used to train students in child development and family life theories and skills
Lehner feels that teacher training at all levels should include some experience in this area because many of the problems that occur in the elementary and secondary schools (and perhaps beyond) can be traced to the development of children during these early formative ages. Her long and valuable experience has resulted in an outstanding program. When she retired in 1972it had become a distinctive part of the educational curriculum In 1983 the Melba Lehner Children's School at Weber State was named in her honor In June 1992 WSU gave further recognition to Lehner for her contribution to child care and higher education by awarding her an honorary doctorate.
Soft spoken and gentle of manner, yet with a forcefulness of purpose that impressed those who have worked with her, Melba Judge Lehner successfully established a crucial program that will inevitably continue to play a significant part in directing and shaping the future of our society through intelligent care of our children.
NOTES
Dr Carroll is emeritus professor of English, Weber State University.
1 Much of the information on which this article is based derives from extensive interviews with Melba Judge Lehner as well as reports and other documents pertaining to Utah child care programs that she has donated to the Utah State Historical Society Library Items in this collection will be cited as Lehner Papers During her involvement with the WPA and Lanham nurseries Melba's last name was Judge, and that is the name used in the first part of the article Her later career at Weber State roughly coincided with her second marriage, and in the latter portion of the paper that name is used.
2 Salt Lake Tribune, February 4, 1991;PBS radio broadcast, February 8, 1991.
3 Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, Who's Minding the Children: The History and Politics of Day Care in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973), p 37.
4 Ibid., p 45.
5 Reprinted in Salt Lake Tribune, April 4, 1984, p. A15.
6 This rare item is found in Lehner Papers.
7 Item in Lehner Papers.
8 This report is part of Darrell J Greenwell's "Final Report of the State Administrator [Utah], Record Group 69, National Archives, Washington, D.C, microfilm copy in Utah State Historical Society Library.
9 Interview with Ruth Skidmore MacFarlane.
10 Steinfels, Who's Minding the Children, p 67.
11 Interview with Roma Tueller Winn.
12 May Stevens, Federal Works Agency, compiled this list.
13 See committee file in Lehner Papers.
14 Lehner Papers.
15 The WPA in Action (New York: Crown Publishing, 1962), p 228.
16 Report in Lehner Papers..
17 Ibid.
