In 1922, a young Belgian 'pedologist' named Raymond Buyse accompanied the famous Dr. Ovide Decroly on a study tour of the United States of America. They met with well-known American professors to learn more about the 'scientific' study of the child and especially about applied American psychology.

Buyse noted his impressions of the trip in a diary. These are scribbles, sometimes difficult to decipher, written on loose sheets, held together by a ring binder. They reflect the culture shock experienced by Buyse in confronting this dazzling nation. The young scholar writes in a lively style and with humour about his meetings with the 'great' psychologists and educationalists of that time, visualizing his impressions of the land and the people with little drawings in the text.

Here the record of this fascinating scholarly and cultural encounter is published for the first time, both in the original French with an English translation. In their exhaustive introduction Marc Depaepe and Lieven D'hulst explain the historical context of this both personal and intellectual journey to the present-day reader.