CHAPTER XVI

_WHAT SCHOOLING SHOULD THE COUNTRY BOY HAVE?_

It is a well-known fact that rural life conditions have been changing

rapidly within the past decade or more. It has taken us a long while to

get away from the thought that the farmer is to be anything other than

merely a plain, coarse man, comparatively uneducated and innocent of the

ways of the world. But we are at last seeing the light in respect to

this and many another such traditional belief of a menacing nature. We

are now looking forward expectantly to the time when the rural community

shall contain its proportionate share of people educated or cultured in

the full sense of either of these words.

CHANGES IN RURAL SCHOOL CONDITIONS

Many of those now in middle life can easily remember when the farmer boy

was sent to school only during the time when his services were not

required for the performance of the work about the field and the home.

This period was narrowed down to about three months in the year. After

the corn was husked in the fall, he entered school, usually about

December first. And at the first sign of spring, about March first, he

was called away to begin preparations for the new season's crop. During

these sixty days, more or less, the growing lad was supposed to pick up

the rudiments of learning and by the time maturity was reached to have

worked himself out of the ranks of the illiterate. So he did, for he

learned to read falteringly, to write a scrawling hand, and to solve a

few arithmetical problems.

We observe the new order of things. In practically all the states there

have been recently enacted laws requiring every normal child to attend

school during the entire term and to continue for a period of seven or

eight years. The splendid results of this provision have only begun to

be apparent, but another decade will reveal them in large proportions.

Back of this new legislation in behalf of the boys and girls is the new

ideal of the possibilities and the worth of the ordinary human being. We

are just beginning to understand this splendid truth; namely, that with

very few exceptions all of our new-born young have latent within them

all the aptitudes necessary for the development of beautiful and

symmetrical character. The modern ideal of public education recognizes

two things: first, the right of the child to the fullest possible

development; and second, the duty of society to see that the child

receive such training whether the parent may wish to accord it to him or

not.

The author is especially desirous that the reader appreciate the

situation sketched in the foregoing paragraph. What does it mean? It

means that our children are at last to have more nearly equal

opportunities of development, that their worthy aptitudes or traits are

to be brought out through instruction and made to do service in the

construction of a sterling character. It means that we shall have

cultured artisans as well as cultured artists; that the plain man behind

the plow or in the workshop shall be capable of thinking the big,

inspiring thoughts as well as the little, puny ones. It means that there

will spring up everywhere among the ranks of those once regarded as low

and coarse, a magnificent society of men and women who, as individuals,

will feel and realize a secret sense of power and worth, and who will

shine in the light of a new inspiration.

THE BOY A BUNDLE OF POSSIBILITIES

It has been proved beyond question that the ordinary child contains at

birth potentialities of development far greater in amount and variety

than any amount of schooling can ever bring into full realization. If

you will make a list of one hundred different and highly specialized

vocations, and pause for a moment to contemplate the matter, you will

doubtless agree that any common boy might be so trained as to some

degree in any one of the hundred that he might be made to do fairly

well in several of them; and that he might become an expert in at least

one of them.

[Illustration: PLATE XXVII.

FIG. 34.--Only whittling. But in the case of these country boys it is

thought of as not mere idling, but as a pastime that leads toward the

world of industry.]

So, there is little need of being worried over the thought that the boy

is a natural-born dullard, without native ability to learn and finally

to make his way in the world. It is true that there is occasionally a

real "blockhead" among children, but such cases are quite as rare as

imbecility and physical deformity. Indeed, such cases are nearly always

connected with one or both of the defects just named. Then, while in the

usual instance the child is to be assumed to possess an ample amount of

native talent, one of the specific problems of his parents and teachers

is that of learning in time what his best latent talent is, so that it

may give proper incentive and direction for his vocational life.

CLASSES OF NATIVE ABILITY

Roughly speaking there are three classes of native ability in the human

offspring: the super-normal, the normal, and the sub-normal. The first

is constituted of the geniuses--few and far between, perhaps one in a

hundred to five hundred. The second is composed of the great mass of

humanity upon which the stability of the race is built and out of which

the geniuses--and the majority of the sub-normals--spring through

fortuitous variation. The third class is constituted of the

feeble-minded, the imbeciles, and the exceedingly rare natural-born

criminals--altogether, perhaps one in every two hundred or more of the

population.

Now, what we are trying to get at here is a fair estimate of what the

parent may reasonably look for by way of a stock of native ability in

his child. The natural-born genius will be known by one special mark;

namely, he will be so strongly inclined toward one special line of work

or calling as to need no outside stimulus or incentive to make him take

it up. Indeed, in the usual case of a pronounced genius it is a very

difficult matter to prevent the individual from following out his one

over-mastering predisposition.

The marks of feeble-mindedness or idiocy are too well known to need

description. Such cases are also so rare and so special in their manner

of treatment as to call for no extended discussion.

THE GREAT TALENTED CLASS

The great masses of humanity are constituted of what we mean here by the

talented. That is, as described above, at birth they possess a large and

abundant stock of potentialities of learning and achievement--much more

than can ever become actualized because of the comparatively limited

time and means for education and training. Of course, we recognize that

among the talented classes there is an endless variety of combinations

of abilities. So are there many degrees of ability.

But in addition to the foregoing marks of latent ability in the great

middle classes we must note a distinctive feature of the development and

education of such classes. It is this: _The two great conditions

necessary for the successful development of the ordinary child are

stimulus and opportunity._ Unless the slumbering talents be awakened by

the proper stimuli, they may slumber on throughout the whole lifetime

and no one detect their presence; and unless opportunities for

development be given to satisfy the awakened talent, it may return

permanently to its condition of quiescence.

In attempting to furnish the necessary stimuli and opportunities for the

development of his boy, the farmer has--if he will only use it--a great

advantage over the city father. The great variety of work-and-play

experience afforded by the rural situation, the fairly good general

schooling now coming more and more into reach of all farm homes, the

many conditions contributory to self-reliance and independent thinking

in the case of the boy--all these raw materials of stimulus and

opportunity lie hidden about the common country home. But the parents

must themselves become wider awake to the meanings and purposes of such

materials, or otherwise their value is lost through disuse. And again,

it is urged that parents make the same careful study of their children

as they do of farm crops and live stock. See the reference lists

following the first five chapters.

ROUND OUT THE BOY'S NATURE

Fortunately, the new provisions of the schools are furnishing more and

more definitely the equipment and the course of training most necessary

for the masses of the growing children. Fortunately, too, the illiterate

father is not to be permitted to dictate as to what subjects his boy is

to study in the school, there being not only compulsory attendance, but

strict requirements that every child pursue the prescribed course. The

time is fast approaching when the rural parent in any community can feel

assured that this course of study has been mapped out by expert

authority in just such a way as to serve the highest needs of his boy,

the idea being to teach and awaken every side of the young nature into

its highest possible activity.

In the usual case it is a waste of time to attempt to predetermine the

boy's vocational life before he has gone at least well up through the

intermediate grades of the common school; and even then, there is

usually not much indication of what he is best suited for. So, one of

the great purposes of the common school course is that of sounding the

boy on every side and in every depth of his nature, so to speak, in

order to find what is there, and to determine what he is by inheritance

best suited to do as a life work.

[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII.

FIG. 35.--An illustration of how to keep the boy on the farm. Every boy

needs to acquire early an intimate knowledge of some great industrial

pursuit.]

The usual inclination of the rural parent is that of looking at his

son's education too strictly in terms of dollars and cents and to be

impatient at the thought of the boy's taking a broad, fundamental course

of schooling. Such school subjects as language and composition are

especially thought of as a useless waste of time. But fortunately, as

indicated above, the choice is no longer left either to the boy or his

father. The former must pursue the subjects assigned him and allow time

to prove the wisdom of such a procedure, as it most certainly will.

Wherefore, let the rural father attempt to think of his boy, not merely

as a coming money-maker, but as a coming _man_; a man of power and worth

and influence in the community in which he is to live, a man of whom his

aged father in future time will be most proud, and by whom he will be

highly honored.

OTHER IMPORTANT MATTERS

As suggested above, the evidence is very overwhelming in effect that it

is the duty of rural parents to give their children a broad, general

course of training as a foundation for efficient life in any place or

position. Moreover, it must not be thought for a moment that the legacy

of money or property will in any wise furnish a satisfactory substitute

for such a course of training. Mean-spiritedness and narrow-mindedness

are almost invariably prominent traits of the man who has been prepared

to know nothing outside of his business even though that may be a big

business. On the other hand, extensive culture, including a character

well developed in all of its essential elements, is by far the best

equipment that can possibly be furnished the boy for his start in life.

Now, while the growing boy's education must not be especially prejudiced

in favor of any particular calling, there is no good reason why the

farmer's son should not be given the benefit of every possible intimate

and wholesome relation to the father's work and business. That is, he

must not be forced to take up the vocation of farming, but he must be

given every opportunity to know its best meanings and advantages. And if

he is finally to leave for some foreign occupation, he must go with a

profound sense of the possible worth and integrity of the calling of his

father. Then, in order that there may be maintained most friendly

relations between the farm boy and the farm life, see to it that he has

an occasional outing. Widen the scope of his home environment by means

of sending him outside occasionally. Let him go off to the state and

county fair and learn what he can there. Let him participate in the

grain and stock judging contests, as heretofore recommended. Let him

attend some of the larger sales of blooded stock and learn there to know

more intimately the possibilities of animal husbandry. Accompany him on

a trip to the big city occasionally--under proper provisions and

restrictions--and help him to acquire some valuable lesson which may be

taken back to the rural community and used to the advantage of the

latter.

Also, what about the literature in the home? Although a chapter has

already been given to the matter, for the sake of emphasizing its great

importance it is again referred to here. Why not see to it that there be

secured a few enticing volumes of the clean and uplifting sort? A very

few dollars will furnish the nucleus of a library of which the boy will

soon become proud. Ask the school superintendent or teacher to make out

a list of ten of the best books for your boy and then secure these at

once. Bring into the home also one or two of the best standard magazines

and keep constantly on the table one or more of the best and cleanest

newspapers. Then, see to it that the boy's life be not so nearly dragged

out during the day's work that he cannot spend thirty minutes or more of

each evening at the reading table.

DEVELOP AN INTEREST IN HUMANITY

All education is for the sake of human welfare. The thing learned like

the material thing possessed is most worth while in proportion as it

serves some high human purpose or need. There is abundant opportunity to

teach the country boy that education cannot well exist for its own sake

or purely for one's own selfish uses. So it is well early to awaken the

youth's interest in people. Have him compare his own lot with that of

others in very different circumstances. Take him occasionally to the

orphanage, the industrial (reform) school, the imbecile and insane

asylums, the prisons, and the sweat-shops in the city. Thus through

acquainting him with how the other half lives you may cause the boy to

reflect seriously on the best meanings and possibilities of his own

life, and to plan in his mind a splendid ideal of integrity for his own

coming manhood.

The boy's education is not going on rightly if he is not being

introduced to the current affairs of the world. The literature suggested

above should be made to serve the purpose of bringing his attention to

these matters. He should become interested in the political welfare of

his community, his state, and his nation, and learn to feel his

responsibility in regard to such things. But he will probably not

voluntarily acquire these better relations to society at large. It

should therefore be regarded as the urgent duty of the parent to give

the necessary guidance and instruction.

Finally, we must again be reminded of the high ideals of education and

culture necessary to, and consistent with, substantial country life. The

greatest of producing classes--the agronomists--must and can in time

rank at the head of all others in moral and intellectual worth. So, let

the rural parent look ahead and formulate in his own mind the splendid

vision of his son grown up to full maturity of all his best powers. Let

him see this future citizen as a man of magnanimity, of splendid

personal force, and of great constructive ability in the important work

of budding up the affairs of the community in which he is to live.

REFERENCES

Chapters in Rural Progress. President Kenyon L. Butterfield.

Chapter VI. "Education for the Farmer." University of Chicago

Press.

Education for the Iowa Farm Boy. H. C. Wallace. Pamphlet.

(Free.) Chamber of Commerce, Des Moines.

Value during Education of a life Career Motive. C. W. Eliot.

Annual Volume N.E.A., 1910.

To keep Boys on the Farm. M. E. Carr. _Country Life._ April

1, 1911.

Education Best Suited for Boys. R. P. Halleck. Annual Volume

N.E.A., 1906. p. 58.

The Training of Farmers. Dr. L. H. Bailey. The Century

Company. Contains a statistical study of why boys leave the

farm.

The Best Thing a College does for a Man. President Charles F.

Tawing. _Forum_, Volume 18. p. 570.

The Care of Freshmen. President W. O. Thompson. Annual Volume

N.E.A., 1907. p. 723.

Proceedings of Child Conference for Research and Welfare.

Page 142. "The Discipline of Work." Frederick P. Fish. G. E.

Stechert & Co., New York.

The Young Man's Problem. Educational Pamphlet No. 1. Society

of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. New York. 10 cents. Every

parent should read this excellent discussion on sex

education.

CHAPTER XVII

_WHAT SCHOOLING SHOULD THE COUNTRY GIRL HAVE?_

Perhaps it need not be urged that the country girl be provided with the

same general educational advantages as those outlined for the country

boy, as the plain demands of justice would mean as much. She, too, must

be thought of as possessing all the beautiful latent possibilities, and

high ideals of personal worth and character should be constantly

entertained for her in the minds of her parents. And then, they must

allow no ordinary business concern about the farm home to stand in the

way of her unfoldment in the direction of these higher ideals.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS RELATING TO THE GIRL

Over and above those provisions which relate to the general development

of the country boy there are several special considerations in reference

to his sister. For example, she has a more delicate physical organism

which must be shielded, especially at times, against the heavy drudgery

that will naturally fall upon her willing shoulders. And then, the

standards require of her rather more of refined manners than they do of

her brother. Moreover, it may be shown that a refined and attractive

personality will become a larger asset in her life than in his.

Comeliness and habitual cheerfulness and numerous other like qualities

must be thought of as necessary and helpful characteristics of the

well-reared country girl. It will also be much to her advantage to have

some special training in at least one of the so-called fine arts. Let

her have her musical education or some advanced work in literature or

painting. A sum of money invested in something of this sort while the

daughter is growing may be considered a far better investment than if

the same amount were laid away to invest in a dowry.

PROTECTING THE GIRL AT SCHOOL

It is not merely obligatory that the farmer send his young girl to the

district school regularly, and thus round out her nature symmetrically

through instruction in all the common branches. The delicate nature of

the normal girl requires far more protection than is often accorded it.

Unlike the city walks and pavements, the country road leading to the

schoolhouse is often menaced by muddy sloughs, tall vegetation, and deep

snow banks. Wading through such places, especially in bad weather, gives

undue exposure, the feet frequently becoming wet and the body thoroughly

chilled. Many children sit all day in the schoolroom in this condition.

As a result of the lowered vitality the incipient forms of various

diseases enter the body, there perhaps to return intermittently and with

more serious effects as the life advances.

What may be done as preventive measures, it is asked. Simply this:

Prepare a better road from the home to the schoolhouse, by putting in

foot crossings over ravines, by mowing weeds and grass, by filling and

draining low places, and the like. On stormy days and on occasions when

the young adolescent girl is passing through her monthly period of

weakness--one especially endangering the health--it will be advisable to

provide a conveyance to school and back.

Country parents also often need to be cautioned in regard to

over-working the school girl. Some even require her to do practically

the same amount of work as she could well endure were there no extra

burdens at school. Manifestly, this is both unjust and injurious.

Observe the conduct of the young school girl for a few days. If there is

no song and laughter in her life; if she is not ruddy in complexion and

buoyant of step; if she mopes and drones about the place; do not censure

her, but seek a constitutional cause and watch for evidences of an

over-requirement of work.

The close inspection of the health of school children, now conducted in

many cities, brings out the somewhat startling fact that many boys and

girls come to the class room every morning fatigued and depressed beyond

the point of effective study. The old way was to call them dullards, to

punish them, to shame them out of the school, to humiliate their

parents. The new method of dealing with such children calls for

scientific measures. First, the exact conditions are ascertained by

experts; second, the parents are urged and helped to provide for the

child more sleep, better food, more fresh air in the living chambers,

more recreation, a relief from over-work, or some special medical

care--as the particular case may demand.

If one wishes full evidence of the effective gain for studentship that

results from the new manner of treatment of the dull and backward pupil,

let him examine the many reports of individual cases as published in the

_Psychological Clinic_ at the University of Pennsylvania, especially the

issues of 1909-1910. The indifference or the thoughtlessness of country

parents may easily allow for the existence of the foregoing bad physical

conditions in the case of their own daughter, and as a result her

otherwise promising life may become permanently blighted.

LESSONS IN MUSIC AND ART

The ordinary farmer needs to learn to take more pride in his daughter

and in her accomplishments. The time will come when he will be far more

proud of her wealth of character than he will be of her wealth of

material goods. A country father of moderate means bought a first-class

piano for his two girls and employed a music teacher. "You may think

that I cannot afford such things," said he. "But I can. I am running

this farm for the good it will do my family." He was a true philosopher,

as well as a successful farmer.

It is entirely practicable and most helpful to her development to

provide that the country girl be given instruction in music, or art, or

something special and advanced in the form of needlework. In its best

sense this special instruction will not be thought of as vocational

training, but rather as a necessary manner of giving permanent

expression to her aesthetic nature. The author believes that the matter

should be stated even more emphatically. That is, not to give the normal

girl some such means of indulging her aesthetic tastes is seriously to

neglect her education, if not to do her a permanent wrong.

While vocational training and economic advantages are important

secondary considerations in connection with the daughter's instruction

in the fine arts, the father who helps her become an amateur in one of

these lines thereby renders her a splendid service for life. It is

neither very difficult nor very expensive to arrange to have the girl go

to the near-by town or to a neighbor's once or twice per week where she

may receive competent instruction in music or painting. To make the

arrangement most effective there will need to be a musical instrument in

her own home, a conveyance at her ready disposal, and a regular

allowance of time for practice. No just and affectionate parents can

deny their young daughter any fewer advantages than these, if the means

for securing them can at all be acquired.

THE REWARD WILL COME IN TIME

The lessons in painting or fine needlework may be provided for in the

same way. If the expense seems heavy, the far-sighted parents will think

of their declining days of the future and imagine the large return the

daughter may render them through the skill which they have been

instrumental in developing in her.

But without waiting for old age to overtake them the father and mother

of the girl artist may derive some benefits from her work. She may

furnish the table service with hand-painted chinaware or adorn the walls

of the home with attractive paintings. And also, as heretofore

indicated, the daughter may herself in time conduct a class of amateur

students of the fine art in which she has made preparation.

One word of precaution must be offered in reference to the training here

considered. In the usual case the girl is not started young enough. Her

advancement in the music, for example, is likely to be much more rapid

and her skill much more marked, if the age nine to eleven, rather than

five or six years later, be chosen as the beginning time. The author has

witnessed many pathetic instances of adult girls in a desperate attempt

to master the mechanical part of the introductory music. The extra

amount of desire and effort possible at this more advanced age do not

nearly compensate for the better memory and the greater facility of hand

and finger movement possible at the earlier age. This same general law

of early beginning probably holds good in respect to the other fine

arts.

In relation to all the foregoing seemingly trivial matters there comes

to mind what is perhaps the most serious problem that confronts

practically every well-reared young woman; namely, that of her

successful marriage to a worthy young man--a subject to be discussed at

length in another paper. And so it is contended that if her future

happiness or well-being be a consideration, if the realization of her

fondest hopes and her instinctive desires be worthy of the thought of

her parents; then, they must by all means see that some of the foregoing

refining qualities become woven into her whole character during the

formative period. Thus she may be given practically every possible

advantage in finding that true life companion.

THE MOTHER'S OFFICE AS TEACHER

In his usual familiar and straightforward way "Uncle" Henry Wallace thus

addresses the country mother through the medium of an editorial in

_Wallaces' Farmer_:--

"It is the mother that shapes and molds the character of the girl. If

she is sweet spirited, looks out upon the world hopefully and desirous

of seeing the best in men and women, her daughters will as a rule have

the same sort of outlook. If she permits gossip and fault-finding at the

table, her daughters may reasonably be expected to do likewise. If she

sharply criticises the preacher's sermon at the Sabbath dinner, she need

not expect her daughters to become devout. If she is a poor housekeeper,

how can she expect her daughters to excel in that finest of all arts? We

know something of the depth and tenderness of a mother's love, how

earnestly she seeks the welfare of her daughter; but if she has a wrong

conception of what is best in life, even this unspeaking affection may

be the source of evil instead of good.

"One of the first things you should consider about that girl of yours is

her health. Give her plain food and plenty of it, sensible clothing, a

well-ventilated and well-lighted room, and all the exercise that she

wants, even if she does seem to be something of a tomboy; and, barring

accidents, she will usually be healthy through early girlhood. When she

begins to develop into womanhood is the time for you, mother, to do what

no one else can. Tell her about herself, about the changes that must

come, and about the care she must take of herself if she is to be a

healthy and happy wife and mother. A mistake here through false modesty

is often the source of trouble for years to come."

HOME-LIFE EDUCATION

This book is based on the assumption that every good young woman is good

for something of a practical nature. In considering the make-up of such

a character, it seems reasonable to assert that no other qualities stand

out more prominently than the trained ability to carry on successfully

the work of the household. The necessary drudgery of the home life seems

to be the greatest burden that modern society has placed upon women.

Proportionately great should be the preparation to bear this burden. The

ideal to be realized is, perhaps, not that the girl may be enabled to do

more of such work, but that she may be trained to be true mistress of

it. Woman's work is never done, and it never will be, no matter how many

worthy women kill themselves in an attempt to finish it. So the greatest

thing to be desired in respect to this unending round of toil and

drudgery is that of a well-poised, spiritually-minded character, such as

may enable its possessor to sit down at the end of a working period

unusually long and in spite of the confusion and unfinished business

restore the composure and keep in touch with the higher implications of

life.

It is not really a difficult matter to teach the ordinary growing girl

to work and perform faithfully all of her assigned duties. It is more of

a task to teach her how to quit when she has worked long enough and

thereby to preserve her health and prolong her services.

[Illustration: PLATE XXIX.

FIG. 36.--These country boys and girls supply the home neighborhood with

the produce from the school garden. Such work is first-class vocational

training.]

EDUCATION FOR SUPREMACY

It is unquestionably a splendid aid to successful womanhood for the

growing girl to be taught how to cook and sew and take care of a house.

But as a guarantee of peace and happiness throughout life she had better

be taught many specific lessons in self-mastery. And it seems certain

that the farm home offers many more advantages for developing a poised

character in the young woman than does the city home. So let it be seen

to by country parents that their girls be trained from childhood to meet

life's stress and storm with calm composure and sweet serenity. Only

such training will suffice to tide the latter over the great crushing

ordeals that tend at some time to fall to the lot of every good woman.

Conditions in the well-ordered country home may be made to contribute to

another form of self-mastery in the growing girl. That is, she may be

made supreme over the conventionalities of dress and the social customs

that touch her life. By this it is not intended to prescribe in respect

to such things as the style or appearance of the young woman's clothing.

She may be first or last or medium in the list of the well-dressed. But

it is here contended that she can be trained to subordinate these

matters to a personal charm that is her very own, and that emanates from

a beautiful and well-poised life within. It is quite as destructive to

good character for one to be meanly clothed through necessity and at the

same time envy and despise those who are better dressed as it is to be

among the richly adorned and try to make mere adornment a mark of better

and superior rank in society, or a means of lacerating the feelings of

one's associates.

The country mother will let pass one of the rarest forms of opportunity

for refining and beautifying the character of her daughter if she does

not educate the latter rightly in respect to these conventionalities.

Train her to be neat and attractive in appearance, but at the same time

teach her that no manner of outer adornment can cover up or substitute

for sweetness and purity of the inner life. The splendid effects of such

an education will reveal themselves to best advantage in the young woman

when she has finally entered a home of her own. If she cannot then and

there shine in a light that emanates from her own soul, the sacrificial

work of ministering to the needs of her own household will never be well

performed.

AN OUTLOOK FOR SOCIAL LIFE

Provision will by all means be made that the growing country girl be

introduced to the best social life within reach. She must mingle with

those of her own age and learn how others think and act. She must attend

parties and the other social gatherings, especially the literary

societies if there be any available. For the sake of her training, if

for no better reason, she may be brought into close relation to the

Sunday school and the church. It will be good, indeed, if she find some

congenial work in one or both of these organizations. Let it be

remembered that the healthy-minded, well-matured woman is very probably

at her best and is most highly satisfied and contented with life only

when she has opportunities to perform some kind of worthy social

service. Farm parents may well bring it about, therefore, that their

young daughter have some specific deeds of altruism to perform. Let her

carry a small gift or a word of cheer to the door of the sick or the

infirm. Let her make with her own hands some simple, inexpensive present

to be carried to the one who needs it most and whose heart will be made

glad by it.

Above all things else, it must be provided that something more than the

mere grasping nature of the young country girl be indulged and

developed. Some there are who still contend that life for men is, at its

best, a game of chance and contention. But such an ideal, if held up to

the growing girl, will tend to check or destroy all that is best and

most beautiful in the feminine nature. Young women especially must learn

through practice that the best and most beautiful character is

altogether consistent with the performance of deeds of service and

altruism.

Finally, educate into the daughter as much habitual cheerfulness as

possible, let her heart be made glad again and again, not merely

because of what she has, and because of what she receives day by day,

but also and especially on account of what she gives out of the best and

sweetest of her own nature in behalf of those whom she may find occasion

to help and cheer on their way over the journey of life. All this will

help to make her a creature of whom not only the other members of her

family, but also the entire community will be most proud.

REFERENCES

My Escape from Household Drudgery. Mary Patterson. _Success

Magazine_, August, 1911.

Proceedings of Child Conference of Research and Welfare.

Beulah Kennard. Page 47, "The Play Life of Girls." G. E.

Stechert & Co., New York.

Women's School of Agriculture. I. H. Harper. _Independent_,

June 29, 1911.

The Girl of To-morrow--Her Education. E. H. Baylor. _World's

Work_, July, 1911. Prize essay.

Education of Women for Home Making. Mrs. W. N. Hutt. Annual

Volume N.E.A., 1910, p. 122.

Give the Girls a Chance. Canfield. _Collier's_, March 12,

1910.

The Durable Satisfactions of Life. Charles W. Eliot. Pages

11-57, "The Happy Life." Crowell.

The Kind of Education Best Suited for Girls. Anna J.

Hamilton. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1907. p. 65.

Parasitic Culture. Dr. George E. Dawson. _Popular Science

Monthly_, September, 1910.

Training the Girl to help in the Home. William A. McKeever.

Pamphlet. 2 cents. Published by the author. Manhattan, Kan.

CHAPTER XVIII

_THE FARM BOY'S CHOICE OF A VOCATION_

Turn which way you will upon the great broad highway of life and there

you will always be able to find the wrecks and broken forms of

humankind--men and women who have failed in their life purposes. Strange

to say, that particular aspect of the science of character-building

which has to do with the substantial preparation for vocational life has

been very much neglected. By what rule do men succeed in their callings

and by what different rule do other men fail? Are some foreordained to

success and others to failure? Is there an inherent strength in some and

a native weakness in others? Is there a type of education and training

which specifically fits and prepares for each of the native callings?

None of these questions has been thoroughly gone into with a view to

finding out what were best to be done and what best to leave undone. So,

we blunder away, hit or miss, in the vocational training of our boys and

girls.

SHOULD THE FARMER'S SON FARM?

In attempting to give helpful suggestions to farm parents relative to

their boy's vocation, perhaps this question will first demand an

answer. The tentative reply to it is this: The farmer's son, or any

other man's son, should follow that calling for which he is best suited

by nature and in which he will thereby have the greatest amount of

native interest; provided it be practicable to prepare him for such

calling. Some farm boys are destined by nature for mechanical pursuits,

others for social or clerical work, others for captains of industry, and

so on. Likewise, the city boys may reveal in their natures a great

variety of instinctive tendencies and interests which will be found of

great worth in guiding them into a successful life occupation.

Yes, the farmer's son should by all means take up his father's business;

provided that at maturity he may have both native and acquired interest

in the same and that to a degree predominating any other native or

acquired interest.

IMPATIENCE OF PARENTS

It can be proved that the country boy matures more slowly than the city

boy. For example, at the age of sixteen, he is behind the latter in

height, weight, school training, and sociability. But while the city boy

matures more rapidly, the country boy makes up for the loss by a longer

period of development. It is the author's firm belief that this fact of

slow growth proves a tremendous advantage to the country youth in that

it allows for greater stability of character, and especially for a

greater amount of courage and aggressiveness in form of permanent life

habits.

But one might well wish that all rural parents could realize the evil

consequences of being impatient with the son in respect to his choice of

a life work. Many a good boy yet in his teens is hounded and driven

about by the continuous nagging of his parents, who ignorantly believe

that he should have his future destiny all planned and ready for its

realization. As a result, this same good boy is often driven to

desperation and to the point of leaving the home place--of breaking away

from the affectionate ties that bind him to parents, and of seeking the

position wherein he might earn a living. As a matter of fact, few young

men have any very clear or reliable vision of their future life at the

age of eighteen, or even twenty. Many of the best men in the world are

faltering and uncertain even as late as twenty-five. However, if the

relatives and friends would only exercise all due patience, offering

only such helps and suggestions as can be given, and trusting the future

finally to throw upon the problem a light from within the youth

himself--then, we may be assured, practically every man will finally

come to some line of effort that will bring him a comfortable living.

WHAT OF PREDESTINATION?

The old-fashioned idea of a boy's being marked by the hand of destiny,

"cut out for" some particular calling in life, still has a place in the

minds of the masses. The kindred belief that some men are "natural-born

failures" has also wide currency. A third superstition is the very

common opinion that others are "just naturally lucky." All these

traditional opinions are the outgrowth of ignorance of human nature such

as may be dispelled by means of a course of instruction, or a carefully

arranged course of home reading, in modern psychology.

None of the foregoing superstitions would be worthy of our attention

were it not for the gross injustice which they entail upon children.

Parents everywhere--in both city and country--are dealing with their

children upon the assumption that one and all of these fallacies are

true. "My oldest boy just naturally has no luck," said the father of

three sons and two daughters. "He changes around from one thing to

another and fails every time." But what of this particular boy's early

training? Was it the same as that of the others? Did he enjoy equal

advantages? Did his parents when married really know anything about

rearing children? or, did they really mistreat their first-born through

ignorance and use him as a sort of practice material from which they

learned how to do better by the succeeding ones?

Until the foregoing inquiries about the "unlucky" son's boyhood life be

fully answered, we cannot reasonably permit ourselves to condemn him.

There is nothing more in predestination than this; namely, it can be

shown that the child is born with not a few latent abilities--aptitudes

for doing and learning this and that--and that one of these aptitudes is

likely to have correlated with it more than the average amount of nerve

development in the corresponding brain center. As a result, that

particular aptitude will require less training than the others and will

tend to predominate over them as maturity is approached.

The reply of the psychologist to the statement that some men are

"natural-born failures," is this: Few if any of those possessed of

ordinary physical and mental qualities at birth are necessarily so.

Excepting the feeble-minded and the like,--whose marks of degeneracy are

usually apparent to all,--it may be asserted on the highest authority

that none are "natural-born failures" to any greater extent than they

are "natural-born successes"; but that they have within the inherited

nerve mechanisms many possibilities of both success and failure.

THREE METHODS OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING

We should be willing to overlook almost any other interest in this

discussion for the sake of inducing in the farm father the belief that

his young boy is a potential success--the belief that this boy is

furnished by nature with the latent ability to shine somewhere in the

broad field of human endeavor--provided he be rightly trained and

disciplined during his growing years. Here, then, is probably the

greatest of all the human-training problems; namely, the vocational one.

Roughly speaking, there have been three methods of vocational training.

1. _The apprentice method._--First, historically there has been the

apprentice method, the youth being "bound out to learn a trade." The

chief faults of this traditional way of teaching the boy to be

self-supporting were these: it made no allowance for intellectual

development, and it gave the father too much authority to choose the

calling for the boy.

A modern offshoot of the old-time apprentice course is the trade school

which flourishes in many of the big cities to-day. This new institution

has one great advantage over its prototype. It offers such a great

variety of forms of training that the youth may exercise much free

choice. But it preserves one of the serious defects of apprenticeship in

its neglect of the intellect of the learner. The modern trade school can

never hope to do more than prepare young men and women to make a good

living. It is a get-ready-quick institution, and can never be expected

to give the student breadth of view and depth of insight into the great

problems of human life.

2. _The cultural method._--The second-oldest method of preparing men for

a vocation is what has been called the cultural method. It has aimed at

high advancement in book learning with the thought of finally enabling

the student to enter a professional class comparatively few in numbers

and supposed to possess a superior advantage over the great mass of

human kind. One fault of this method has been to emphasize learning for

its own sake and to defer too long the training of the individual in the

material and practical side of his calling.

But the chief fault of this cultural method has been its contempt for

common labor and ordinary industry, its theory being that true education

prepares one to avoid such practices. If the young man wished to prepare

for law or medicine or teaching or the ministry,--one of the "learned

professions,"--then the old classical school was at his service. But if

he would become a mere artisan or industrial worker, there was no

advanced course of schooling available.

3. _The developmental method._--The third and newest method of preparing

the young person for his vocational life is in reality a compromise

between the first and second. It provides that the learner shall have

book instruction and industrial training at the same time, and that both

of these are to be regarded as cultural, since taken together they

prepare for independence of thought and action, and for the vocation, as

well. This new method of preparing young people for their life work

would call nothing mean or low. It aims to serve all impartially in

their struggle for self-improvement and vocational success. But its

motto is the development of head and hand together. It seeks to produce

cultured handicraftsmen as well as cultured artists and professional

men.

THE FARMER FORTUNATE

Our justification for the foregoing somewhat lengthy discussion of the

different theories of education is that of wishing to be certain of

bespeaking the father's patience and forbearance in the preparation of

his son for the vocational life. The farmer is most fortunate in having

ready at hand a large amount and variety of industrial practice to

supplement the boy's book lessons. In this respect he probably has a

superior advantage over all other classes.

But in guiding his boy gradually toward the vocational life the farm

father can easily mistake what is merely a passing interest on the

former's part for a permanent one. The carefully kept records of farm

boys show that they take up many different lines of work with great

enthusiasm, and yet soon tire of them and drop them. These serial and

transitory interests are usually mere juvenile responses to the

awakening of some new nerve centers. They are not much different in

nature from the brief passing interest which the child has in his

various playthings.

Now, the chief function of these transitory interests in special forms

of work and learning as shown by the young growing boy is this: to

furnish the occasions for a great variety of activities and practices

for trying him out on all the possible sides of his nature. Not one of

these intense boyish interests is necessarily very directly preparatory

to his final choice of a vocation, while all are indirectly so.

Therefore, if the fifteen-year-old son chances to win in a corn-raising

contest, or at a live-stock exhibition, or if he manifests unusual

interest in arithmethic, declamation, or nature study, do not regard any

of these as necessarily pointing to his best possible vocational work.

Presumably, at such an undeveloped age, he is still in possession of

some latent interests and aptitudes, one of which may far outweigh any

such thing hitherto awakened in his life. Give him time to mature and,

if at all practicable, send him on to college.

WHAT COLLEGE FOR THE COUNTRY BOY

It is the opinion of the author that the State Agricultural College, as

now situated and organized, is the ideal institution of higher learning

for the country-bred youth. It offers him every reasonable incentive and

opportunity for continuing in the calling of his father, if he be so

inclined, while at the same time it gives instruction in many other

departments of learning. Whether the state institution be a separate

one or merely a college within the organization of the state university

matters little. In either case the young man will be brought within

reach of a course in scientific farming, stock raising, horticulture,

and the like, either to choose or let alone--and the so-called cultural

work will still be there for the taking.

THE FOUNDATION IN WORK

Many rural parents, weighted down with the over-work of the farm,

cherish and express a very earnest desire that their sons may find some

easier form of earning a living. So they deliberately plan with the boy

the "easy" course to be pursued. Said one such farmer: "Wife and I

decided that there would not be much in it for Henry except hard work if

he settled down on the home place, so we decided to send him to college

and educate him for something that offered less work and more pay." So

they shielded the son from the heavier duties of the farm and encouraged

in every way the boy's thought of an easy way to success.

But one thing these well-meaning parents failed to foresee. That is,

when the boy entered college, he began to look for that same sort of

royal road to learning. The assigned lessons and tasks soon took the

appearance of drudgery and he dodged and avoided them wherever possible.

In less than a year the youth had failed at college and was back home.

"The confinement of the college did not agree with his health." More

than three years have passed since, and the boy has spent the time

drifting from one "job" to another and all the while growing weaker in

character and integrity.

Here we have but another instance of the old, old story, with its tragic

aspects. Yet, nearly all the faltering, vacillating men now drifting

about the country might have been saved through careful training in the

performance of work. The boy who would be insured success in his coming

vocation must be required to buckle down to solid work of a kind and

amount to suit his years and strength. He must learn through the

character-building experience of toil, not only what it means to stay by

an assigned duty till it is performed, but he must also experience the

unfailing joy of work well done. He will thus have the advantage of the

spur of successful effort and acquire the beginnings of that splendid

self-reliance which is a distinguishing mark of all successful men.

CLEAN UP THE PLACE

But there is a sort of drudgery and of ugliness against which the boy's

nature instinctively rebels, and it ought to. By this we mean to refer

to the actual conditions of over-work and the accompanying run-down

appearance that characterizes so many farm homes to-day. No wonder the

boys hasten away to the city to find a "job."

Why not clean up the place by cutting away the underbrush and weeds, by

planting shade trees and repairing fences and out buildings, by painting

and renovating the house and barn?--and all this as an investment in

behalf of the children and their possible future interest in the farm

home as the best place on earth in which to dwell? All this and more

might be urged as means of guiding the thoughts of the farm boy towards

the possibilities of his taking up the calling of his father. And while

all these material advantages may not serve to overcome the natural

tendency of the young man to seek a radically different type of

occupation, they will at least make it more certain that his natural

abilities for an agricultural pursuit were not left unawakened.

MONEY VALUE OF AN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

The College of Agriculture in Cornell University some time ago made an

inquiry into the educational status of the farmers in a certain county

of New York. It was found that out of 573 farmers, 398 had not advanced

farther than the district school, 165 had attended high school one or

more years, and 10 had received a college education. The 398 who had

attended district school only were receiving yearly for their labor

$318; the 165 farmers of high school education were receiving annually

$622; and the 10 who had attended college one or more years were

receiving an average of $847 income for their services.

The foregoing investigation is at least suggestive in its results. It

tends to prove that there is an actual earning-capacity value in the

higher agricultural education. While the matter has never been

extensively studied, it can doubtless be shown that the graduates of the

agricultural course are receiving much larger incomes than any of the

classes named above. In addition it can doubtless be shown that these

graduates are better equipped, not only for earning a livelihood, but

for substantial citizenship. Of course there are many notable exceptions

to this rule, but the rule is, nevertheless, general.

Now, if the farm parent wishes to figure his boy's future on the basis

of money-earning capacity, he can easily be shown that the higher

schooling in the average case increases such capacity. In addition there

is abundant evidence of the fact that the higher schooling gives the

young man a much better equipment for serving the society in which he is

to live.

A SUCCESSFUL VOCATION CERTAIN

Finally, it may be said that the successful vocational life of the

ordinary country-bred boy may be guaranteed as practically certain,

provided he have every ordinary advantage of development and training of

which he is capable. Train him early in lessons of obedience and work;

make his life more wholesome through ample play and recreation; see that

he learns how to earn money and how to save a part of his earnings;

provide that he attend the public school regularly until at least the

grammar grades be finished; give him an opportunity to become personally

interested in the business side of the farm life; allow him

opportunities to mingle with the cleanest possible society of his own

age; and then await patiently his own inner promptings as to what line

of work he should take up. A college course may prove necessary in order

to help him uncover deeper and better levels that lie hidden in his

nature. Then, after he has chosen a calling in this careful and reliable

way, with all your might, mind, and soul encourage and support him in

his efforts! This is practically the only way to make a big, efficient

man and citizen of your boy and to make his calling a _divine_ calling.

REFERENCES

_Vocational Education._ Published bi-monthly. $1.50 per year.

The Manual Arts Press, Peoria, Ill.

Vocational Education. John M. Gillette. Chapter VI,

"Importance of the Economic Interest in Society." American

Book Company.

Vocational Guidance of Youth. Meyer Bloomfield. Chapter II,

"Vocational Chaos and its Consequences." Houghton, Mifflin

Company. The entire volume is most timely and helpful.

The Problem of Vocational Education. David Snedden, Ph.D.

Houghton, Mifflin Company.

New Type of Rural School House. W. H. Jenkins. _Craftsman_,

May, 1911.

Vocational Direction, or The Boy and his Job. _Annals

American Academy_, March, 1910.

Education for a Vocation. President's address before the

N.E.A. Annual Volume, 1908, p. 56.

Vocational Direction. E. W. Lord. _Annals Academy of

Political and Social Science_ (Philadelphia), March, 1910.

Social Phase of Education. Samuel T. Dutten. Page 143, "The

Relation of Education to Vocation." Macmillan. The entire

book is sound and sane.

Income of College Graduates Ten Years after Graduation. H. A.

Miller. _Science_, Feb. 4, 1910.

Occupations of College Graduates as Influenced by the

Undergraduate Course. F. P. Keppel. _Educational Review_,

December, 1910.

Assisting the Boy in the Choice of a Vocation. Pamphlet. Wm.

A. McKeever. Manhattan, Kan.

CHAPTER XIX

_THE FARM GIRL'S PREPARATION FOR A VOCATION_

What, may we ask, are rural parents doing in regard to the careful

preparation of their growing daughters for the vocational life? The

author has frequently asserted that many a farmer is to-day giving

vastly more thought to the question of preparing his live stock for the

money market than to preparing his girls for their life work. The

seriousness, the well-nigh cruelty, of this situation becomes apparent

only when we inquire into the facts. How long must this carelessness

continue? How long will farmers remain indifferent to the tremendous

responsibility of giving their children every possible aid in the

direction of a high and worthy occupation? Their chief concern continues

to be centered too exclusively upon the cattle and the hogs and the

corn. Are the boys and girls to be left to shift for themselves? And are

they to continue to have their careers determined by mere chance and

incident?

[Illustration: PLATE XXX.

FIG. 37.--Country school girls learning the rudiments of cooking. In no

distant future such work will be required along with the traditional

subjects.]

WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK

So, if the country father having a young family were here before us, we

should ask him: What is the outlook in regard to a happy future for

your growing daughter? Do you want her to take her place among the men

and be forced to do some sort of man's work in order to obtain her

bread? or, do you earnestly desire that she find some sort of worthy

woman's work? And if the latter be your choice, what helpful agencies

are you bringing to bear upon the situation? In the midst of all your

consideration of these matters touching your daughter, we should have

you most earnestly and prayerfully consider at least one thing; namely,

with few possible exceptions, the healthy, growing girl looks forward

instinctively to the time when she is to become mistress of a household

of her own. And in every case, if the girl fails to become such a

mistress, there is only one reasonable alternative to be thought of and

that is to provide that she engage in some sort of work which will give

expression in the largest possible measure to that which is best and

truest in her feminine nature.

Ordinarily, in planning for the future of their daughter, parents might

as well consider the problem as having a two-fold aspect. Assuming first

of all that the girl instinctively desires to preside over a home of her

own, how can she best be prepared for that place? Second, in case that,

by some miscarriage of plans, she fails to reach this most worthy

ambition, what may she safely fall back upon as an adequate means of

self-support? Now, if this statement of the matter be a correct one, it

seems that the general scope of the problem of preparing a girl for her

vocation ought to be fairly clear. Still another way of putting the

situation is this: The girl must be carefully prepared, not only for her

first choice of an occupation, but also for her second choice, because

of grave danger of the failure of her first choice to be realized.

There is a perplexing aspect of the whole question implied here, and

every parent who has a daughter should become aware of it and also

prepared to confront it. That is to say, almost any ordinary man may go

out into the open market and push his quest for a life companion and be

able to return in the course of a very short period with one at his

side. But with the girl it is radically different. Practically her only

stock-in-trade consists of her personal charm and her pecuniary

advantages. And many a young woman with both of these qualities very

strongly in her favor fails, by some chance or other, to receive an

acceptable offer of marriage. Statistics widely gathered will show that

age is also a very positive factor in this matter, and that the ratio of

probability of marriage of a single woman begins to fall very rapidly

before she reaches thirty.

DESIRABLE OCCUPATIONS FOR WOMEN

While there is abundant evidence to prove that the great majority of

normal young women desire instinctively and above all things else a

happy marriage, including a contented home life and children to care

for, some alternatives must be now pointed out in case of failure to

realize the highest ambition.

1. _May teach the young._--School teaching is perhaps the most common,

as well as the most commendable, occupation for unmarried women. In many

a case, the farmer's daughter will find it greatly to her advantage to

engage in this occupation for one or more terms. Thousands of the most

worthy young women in our land are devoting their lives to this highest

of secondary vocations for women. The work of teaching gives exercise to

the altruistic feminine nature and approaches in a fair degree the

satisfaction which comes to the mother who is sacrificing for children

of her own.

But school teaching wears heavily on the vitality of nearly all young

women who follow it long. Diseases peculiar to the sex are said to be

very prevalent among such teachers, probably resulting from an excessive

amount of standing. Tens of thousands of girls are going from the farm

home to the school room, some of them to remain permanently in the

business, but the majority to earn money of their own and to place

themselves in better position for successful marriage. So, perhaps the

first duty of the country parents to the daughter who takes up school

teaching is to see that the latter's health be not seriously impaired

thereby. After that, the young woman's proper advancement in the

profession may be thought of. The ungraded district school is an

excellent trying-out and testing position for the young teacher. But if

she continues many terms in the school room, graded work will prove more

advantageous, especially in the important matter of bringing the young

woman into the company of marriageable young men.

2. _May take up stenography._--A vast army of young women now support

themselves with the use of the typewriter. This work pays slightly more

the year round than school teaching. It is somewhat more confining; but,

for various other reasons, it is less deleterious to the general health.

Such office business, however, subjects the young woman to many

temptations. It is the opinion of the author that stenography is not at

all a desirable occupation for the farmer's daughter to enter. The

continued absence from home, the constant association with people

differing radically in tastes and manners from the rural population, not

to mention again the many temptations to accept lower moral

standards--these and other matters will tend to estrange the farm

daughter from her parents and to make them feel that something of the

former charm of sweet simplicity and home affection has passed

permanently out of her life.

One thing at least is to be considered before the daughter be permitted

to leave the country home for an office position. That is, the work is

not to be considered as permanent, but rather as a possible means of

preparing for marriage and the contented home life that should follow.

3. _May do social work._--Next to the work of teaching, perhaps the

social-service work now being developed and carried on in the cities

would make its appeal to the true-hearted young woman. Here again we

have a sort of task that dips into the affections and sympathies of the

worker and furnishes an opportunity for her to give freely out of the

best she has in her make-up. Among the fortunate considerations of

teaching and social work are the opportunities they offer for the

sympathetic care and guidance of children--the indulgence of altruism

and the mother instinct in the young woman. Parents will observe as a

rule that their daughter returns from such occupations as these with

increased affections for the home family and the home life and a broader

and more general interest in people.

In recent years there has developed a new and remarkably promising field

of social work for both young men and young women. Charitable,

philanthropic, and other social-welfare institutions have been greatly

multiplied, while their work has been put on a scientific basis. The

modern method of securing employees in such places is that of calling

persons especially trained and fitted to do the work required, and to

pay reasonably for the service. Several new, first-class schools and

institutions for training workers in this human field have been recently

organized.

Now, if country parents become anxious to have their daughter go away to

the city and find desirable employment and that at living wages, the

author recommends this new line of social work most highly. For reasons

given above, and for others, it will prove an excellent stepping-stone

to the home life--the work is in the general field of human betterment

so inviting to the natural instincts of the well-reared young woman; the

associates are persons likewise interested in human welfare and ranking

high in moral and religious character; the required work is usually of a

nature to awaken the deepest sympathies and affections and to make the

countenance of the worker shine with a new spiritual light.

4. _May secure clerkships._--Clerking and general store work is much

followed by young women to-day, but such work may be put down in the

list of hazardous occupations for women of any age. Close economic

conditions in the cities force many thousands of girls to leave home and

seek clerkships at a wage so low as indirectly to undermine the health

and more directly to impair the morals. Great armies of these girls are

compelled to live in dingy, cramped quarters, to subsist on much less

than the quantity of wholesome food necessary for good health, to

practice the strictest economy in matters of dress--to say nothing of

the constant temptation to sell their virtue as a means of increasing

the small income to the living margin.

Only in extreme cases, therefore, will intelligent farm parents consent

to their daughter's leaving home to take up a clerkship, and that when

her home life and her social surroundings can be satisfactorily foreseen

and arranged for in advance. Even then, the question must be raised:

Will this new position probably prove helpful as an introduction to a

better form of occupation?

No other possible occupations for the farmer's daughter will be listed

here excepting that of trained nurse--a position in which many young

women are doing a splendid service for humanity and at the same time

supporting themselves adequately. But of course such a position should

not be thought of unless the girl feels an inner call to take it up.

Practically all other outside lines of work for women are too masculine.

Parents should by no means allow their daughters to take up a life task

that means nothing other than mere money-making. Many women, it is true,

are succeeding to-day in business callings, but they are doing so as a

rule in violation of certain laws of nature. Many of these business

women are masculine in their dispositions and they become more so as the

unnatural calling continues to be pursued.

A COLLEGE COURSE FOR THE GIRL

At first thought it would seem that ability to prepare a good meal and

to do her own sewing might constitute all the education in household

economy necessary for any young woman. But such proves not to be the

case. There are hundreds of home-making problems, great and small, for

which mere knowledge of the two important affairs just named will

provide no answer. While the ability to cook and sew well are doubtless

essential characteristics of the good housekeeper, they are not at all a

guarantee that their possessor is a good home maker.

Parents must learn to take the larger and more liberal view of the

future of their children. Not merely practice in the culinary art, but

also a developed and refined personality; not merely industrial

efficiency, but also constructive ability of a social nature; not merely

mechanical skill in managing the details of housework, but a set of

well-matured, effective plans for making the home over which she

presides a place of joy and contentment for the other members of the

family--these are some of the evidences of character which the wise,

far-seeing parent might well desire for his daughter. Now, it is the

thesis of this chapter that the normal woman is at her best only when

she has become mistress of her own well-managed household. But such an

exalted position can scarcely be reached except through a broad, general

course of preparation.

The one-sided, classical college training has spoiled for life many

otherwise good and happy women. Such a course tends strongly to draw the

mind and the affections of the young woman away from the home and from

motherhood and other such matters so fundamental to the well-being of

the race. But in seeking for an ideal school for the daughter the farmer

will find unsurpassed that institution which offers extensive courses in

household art and management, supplemented fully with work in the

so-called culture subjects--language, literature, history, sociology,

psychology, and economics. This work constitutes what might be called a

balanced schedule of instruction for the young woman. If pursued to its

conclusion, such a course of training enriches her personality and

multiplies her opportunities for future usefulness many fold.

ASSOCIATIONS WITH REFINED YOUNG MEN

If the young woman's preparation for her life work be satisfactory to

all, she must have extensive experience in the society of young men such

as only the co-educational college can give. As her position in the

rural home has been already too much isolated, an exclusive women's

college is least to be desired as a place to educate the country girl.

But the domestic science course in a state university or a state

agricultural college will be found almost ideal. Here the girl may be

held to a reasonable performance of her assigned duties, while at the

same time she may mingle freely in the society of both sexes.

Indeed, if the thesis of this chapter be a sound and tenable

one,--namely, that normally woman's highest satisfaction is to be sought

through helping her attain efficient home life,--then, there is every

reason for agreeing with the late Professor James in his contention that

every young woman ought to be taught how to know a good man. It is

distinctively the business of the young college woman, not only to

prepare well all her lessons in household economy and the literary

subjects, but also to keep her eye out for a suitable life companion.

And her father should be made to realize that her opportunities for

marrying a man of high worth and ability are increased many fold through

the completion of a course in the ideal form of co-educational college.

Marriages among college mates are usually most successful, both in the

final establishment of substantial home life and in point of resulting

in a reasonable number of well-reared children. Statistics gathered

widely show that the young woman college graduate marries somewhat later

than her non-attending sister, that she has slightly better health, that

her children are somewhat fewer, but better reared.

[Illustration: PLATE XXXI.

FIG. 38.--a girls' class in sewing. No girl of this age needs to wear

any better garment than she can make with her own needle if she be

rightly trained. Such training is a part of real preparation for life.]

MAKE THE DAUGHTER ATTRACTIVE

It may therefore be urged upon all rural parents, as a cold business

proposition, as well as a duty, that they take every reasonable

precaution to develop in their growing daughters both an attractive

personality and a beauty of the inner character, whether she be so

fortunate as to attend a good college or not. All this must be done with

a thought of rendering the daughter as attractive as possible in respect

to any worthy young man who may in time seek her heart and hand in

marriage. It is time for parents to cease passing this thing by as a

mere piece of sentimentalism and to begin to do the fair thing by their

girls. Why should it longer come to pass in this enlightened age that

some parents break down the physical health of their girls with the

burden of over-work and thus consign them to a life of moping and bitter

disappointment for the future; that other parents indulge their girls in

the giddy, butterfly type of life and thus blight their prospects of a

substantial and satisfactory place in human society?

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

In summarizing and concluding this chapter we wish to remind the reader

of what has been said in the preceding ones. There are a number of

distinctive elements that must be carefully wrought into the character

of the farmer's daughter with a view to laying a substantial foundation

for her future career.

1. First of all, the girl's health must be kept in mind. She must not

have an over-burden of work heaped upon her delicate shoulders, nor must

she be allowed to expose herself unnecessarily to the inclemencies of

the weather so common in the ordinary rural districts. There are many

women moping about to-day, ill and despondent much of the time because

of the negligence of parents who permitted them when growing girls to

wade about through mud and slush and thus impair permanently their

physical well-being. Many of the minor ailments of mature life recur

habitually, and that because they were permitted to be acquired when the

organism was young and sensitive.

2. The daughter must be taught how to carry on practically all the

necessary details of the housework. The plain cooking and sewing and the

general care of the home must be required as duties on the part of every

promising girl. It is especially obligatory on the part of rural parents

that they train the daughter in such a way as to make her a true

mistress of the household over which she may sometime preside. She must

learn through specific guidance how to subordinate the heavy home tasks

to her spiritual well-being.

3. It is also essential that the girl learn how to manage the business

affairs of the home; especially, how to purchase the supplies of the

kitchen and the larder in the most economic fashion. She must also learn

both how to secure her own personal belongings at a reasonable cost and

how to make them serve her real needs without unnecessary expenditure

of money. It will be a great achievement in her behalf if the girl

approach her marriage day thoroughly imbued with the thought of

cooperating with her husband in the general business of maintaining a

home.

4. We would remind the reader again of the necessity of giving attention

to the development of an attractive personality in the growing girl.

Pleasing manners, refined expressions, neat and attractive apparel,

kindliness and sympathy, frankness and straightforwardness--all these

should enter into her make-up and be thought of as parts of her

permanent character. They will also go far toward winning to her side a

suitable life companion.

5. The young girl on the farm should have much advice in respect to the

nature and character of men. This will be achieved partly through her

well-ordered social life and partly through specific talks from

thoughtful parents. Country girls are probably less informed in respect

to the natures of men than are city girls. Many beautiful and innocent

young women are led astray either before or after marriage by evil and

designing men; many of them consummate marriages with men who have an

outer appearance of trustworthiness, but who harbor within some most

serious and insurmountable evil and disease. Although she may not for a

time be conscious of what her parents are doing, the latter should be

for years purposely engaged in preparing their daughter to know at sight

a good man.

Finally, it may be said that there is no greater charm or thing of more

superior beauty in this good world of ours than the character of a woman

who has been well-born and well-reared, and who has been safely guided

into the home of her own wherein she reigns as mistress supreme. In this

ideal home the love and sympathy and the kindly deeds of the true

home-maker will reveal themselves permanently in the lives of her

children and her husband and the many others who come into contact with

her constructive personality.

REFERENCES

Women's Ways of Earning Money. Cynthia Westover Alden. A. S.

Barnes & Co.

The Home Builder. Dr. Lyman Abbott. Houghton, Mifflin

Company. Sympathetic and cheering.

Almost a Woman. Mary Wood Allen, M.D. Crist, Scott &

Parshall, Coopertown, N.Y. A plain talk to the young woman

about her sex nature.

The Problem of Vocational Education. David Snedden, Ph.D.

Chapter XII, "The Problem of Women in Industry." Houghton,

Mifflin Company.

The Vocational Guidance of Youth. Meyer Bloomfield. Chapter

I, "The Choice of Life Work and its Difficulties." Houghton,

Mifflin Company.

Parenthood and Race Culture. Charles W. Saleeby M.D. Chapter

X, "Marriage and Maternalism." Moffat, Yard & Co., New York.

Should Women work for their Living? M. Yates. _Westminster

Review_, October, 1910.

Social Diseases and Marriage. Educational Pamphlet, No. 3.

American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, New York.

10 cents. Every parent should read this booklet.

Vocational Training for Girls. Isabelle McGlaufin.

_Education_, April, 1911.

A Healthy Race; Woman's Vocation. C. M. Hill. _Westminster

Review_, January, 1910.

Social Adjustment. S. Nearing. Pages 128-148, "Dependence of

Women." Macmillan.

Purposes of Women. F. W. Saleeby, M.D. _Forum_, January,

1911.

Does the College rob the Cradle? H. Boice. _Delineator_,

March, 1911.

The College Woman as a Home Maker. M. E. Wooley. _Ladies'

Home Journal_, Oct. 1, 1910.

The American Woman and her Home. Symposium. _Outlook_, April

17, 1910.

Teaching the Girl to Save. Home-Training Bulletin No. 7. 2

cents. Wm. A. McKeever, Manhattan, Kan.

CHAPTER XX

_CONCLUSION, AND FUTURE OUTLOOK_

In concluding this volume we wish again to remind parents of the

necessity of working for specific results in the rearing of their

children. Modern man, unlike his ancestor, who roamed over the earth, is

a creature of complex and highly refined make-up which no primitive or

natural environment could possibly produce. The forces that work upon

his character development are so radically different from those which

formed the life of his remote forbears as possibly to account for the

contrasts in the two forms of finished personality.

Although there is evidence to support the theory that man belongs to the

general evolutionary scheme of animal life, the progress of the race has

been so very slow that a thousand years of time can show no very

distinct improvement either in physical form or mental quality. While

the human young is exceedingly plastic as an individual,--yielding

easily from one side of his inherent activities to another,--the race is

relatively fixed and stable.

STRIVE FOR PRECONCEIVED RESULTS

Parents and other instructors of the young must therefore accept their

charges as made up of very complex potentialities of learning and

achievement--each a bundle of latent characters transmitted to him from

the ancestral line. Many of these inherited characters are too weak in

any given individual ever to show in his life conduct; many others will

come to the surface only in response to proper stimuli and practice;

still others will break out and show a predominance almost in defiance

of any training intended to counteract them.

But the teacher and trainer of the infant child may accept the theory

that the latter, if taken in time, can be bent and modified many ways in

his character formation; that such plasticity is, however, always

subject to the relative strength or weakness of the many inherited

aptitudes and activities latent within the individual.

There is no good reason, therefore, why the parent should not begin

early to build up the character of his child in accordance with a

preconceived plan; provided such plan do no violence to any of nature's

stubborn and inexorable laws. The parent may also accept this task as a

long and tedious undertaking, and expect to get results in proportion as

he works intelligently for them. The farmer does not even think of

producing good crop results from his land without hard work and much

thought; then, why should he expect so delicate a plant as the human

young to reach satisfactory maturity without much care and

consideration? By far the greatest sin against the child is neglect of

his training.

CONSULT EXPERT ADVICE

We must not be unmindful of the necessity of a balanced schedule of

activities for the child. The vegetable plant must have air, sunlight,

moisture, nitrogen, and so on, to support its growth. If one of these

essential elements be lacking, the result is fatal to the fruitage. So

with the child. If the best character results are to be expected,

certain essential elements must be put into use. We have named them as

play, work, recreation, and social experience. But as one approaches the

individual problem of child training it does not prove so simple and

easy as these terms imply. When and how to give each of these necessary

exercises, how much of each to furnish, the means thereof, and the

like--these and many other such questions begin to arise.

When the parent reaches the point of perplexity in dealing with his

child, it is a fairly good indication that his interest is aroused, at

least. But what is to be done? Simply the same thing he would do at the

point of perplexity in the wheat propagation, _consult an expert_. If

one of the work mules becomes lame or reveals a bad disposition, should

the owner take it to an electrician for advice? If the family cow

becomes locoed or shows an unusual result in her milk product, should

one consult a piano tuner? Yet, strange to say, parents are often known

to do similarly in dealing with the perplexing problems of

child-rearing. Consult the popular magazines and the book shelves any

day and you will find many lengthy dissertations on the boy and the

girl, written not infrequently by persons who have spent a lifetime

studying _something else_. But they are very fond of children and they

mistake this fondness for knowledge of an expert kind; and worst of all,

they offer it as such.

The farm parents who wish to receive expert advice in the treatment of

their children must learn to consult directly or through literature only

those who have made a long and intensive study of child problems. And in

the latter case they need not expect to obtain all necessary help from

one source alone. Usually the child-study expert is a specialist in only

one certain part of the field. For example, at the University of

Pennsylvania under Dr. Lightner Witmer, there has been made a specialty

of the sub-normal child. We should probably obtain from that source more

expert help in that one phase of child welfare than from any other

source in America. If one wishes reliable help on the subject of

diseases of children, he should naturally expect to obtain it from some

medical authority, from one Who has spent long years practicing in a

general hospital for children. One of the very few great sources of

information on the general psychology of child development is Clark

University, where many child-welfare problems have been worked out by

experts under the able direction of Dr. G. Stanley Hall.

MEET EACH AWAKENING INTEREST

A very reliable general rule of guidance for the parent child trainer is

to strive to furnish intensive practice for each and every childish and

juvenile interest at the time of its awakening. As stated in Chapter II

the most predominant interests in the young emerge in response to the

unfoldment of instincts and the development of organic growths within.

Perhaps all do so. But the point of importance for the parent is to meet

each of these awakenings at the time of its highest activity with

intensive training. The instinct to play, to fight, to steal, to run

away, to work (?), to fall in love, to engage in some occupation, to

marry and make a home, to have children--these have been named as

especially important by virtue of their awakening successively the

individual's interests in matters of great consequence to character

development.

But instincts are blind. Their possessor does not foresee the way they

point. They come suddenly and catch the subject unprepared to direct

their force in what we call intelligent ways. Hence, the extreme

necessity of there being present at the side of the child, at the time

of his instinctive awakening, some mature and intelligent person who has

been through the experiences the former is about to begin, and who will

sympathetically point the right way and insist that it be followed.

WORK FOR SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

One can scarcely become deeply interested in the future of his own child

without coming intimately into touch with the child welfare problems at

large. Even country parents, isolated though they may be, will discover

that serious study of the matter of bringing up a family of good

children will require that they study the lives of other human young.

Moreover, they will need the use of other children as "laboratory"

material for training their own. All this will gradually lead the way to

a fuller social sympathy in such parents and to the inculcation of more

wholesome social ideals in the minds of their offspring.

Finally, the rural parents who are seeking a full and adequate

development of the young members of their own family will most probably

see their way clear to assume a helpful leadership of the young people

of the neighborhood as advocated in Chapter X of this volume.

While many agencies for the betterment of rural youth have been

discussed,--such as the County Y.M.C.A., the Boy Scout Movement, and the

Social and Economic Clubs,--the neighborhood which has at least one of

these agencies intensively at work may be considered fortunate. And it

may be said that such a neighborhood is well on the way to economic

improvement as well as social improvement.

THE OUTLOOK VERY PROMISING

Throughout the United States there is being manifested a general

tendency to accept the theory that our human stock is relatively sound.

While there are seemingly large numbers of the criminal, delinquent, and

dependent classes, they are in reality comparatively few in proportion

to the entire population. And when we accept the estimate of the experts

that about ninety per cent of the cases included in the classes just

named are preventable through wise foresight and training, the outlook

for a better race of human beings becomes most cheering.

"The proper study of mankind is man," says the poet. But for many

generations we have regarded this statement as mere poetry and not

necessarily truth. Our policy up to the recent past has been rather

this: The proper study of mankind is everything _except_ man, leaving

the all-important problems of child-rearing to the decisions of wise old

grand-mothers and debating societies. But a radical change has come, and

that within this present generation. Men and women highly trained in the

colleges and universities are now applying their scientific methods to

the study of man with no less zeal and earnestness than that which has

characterized the student of the non-human problems for many generations

of time.

[Illustration: PLATE. XXXII.

FIG. 39.--Sowing the seed, all by herself.

FIG. 40.--Thinning the vegetables.

New York Scenes.]

Through the able conclusions of the painstaking expert the so-called

institutional life has been especially improved. The industrial

(reform) schools are now practicing a system of balanced activities--of

study, work, play, and the like--such as the findings of these

investigators have warranted. The method of paroling the delinquent

child, after he has spent a term of preparation, was proved most helpful

through the careful tests of a large number of cases. Recently the

parole system has been effectively applied to certain classes of

penitentiary convicts. A most productive agency for good now in use in

many of the prisons and all the industrial schools is that of building

up the waste places in the individual life through specific training and

instruction. The first question raised in such cases is, What is the

particular moral defect of the individual? second, What are the causes?

third, What will reconstruct his character and give permanent relief?

That is, the expert psychologist and the expert sociologist are being

called into service with the expert alienist and physician. The purpose

is to save and reconstruct the whole man. Compulsory education and trade

schooling are now very common in state prisons.

In the care and protection of the insane and the feeble-minded our

country can boast of but slow progress. Many of the members of these

classes are permitted to run at large and even to marry and beget their

kind. Now, while our human stock is in its mass very sound and sane,

there are constantly being thrown off from it these mentally defective

classes. The complete obliteration of all such classes to-day would not

result in their complete disappearance from the race. Others would be

born as variants from normal parentage. But the evil of it all lies in

the fact that we are still permitting many of these defectives to

multiply, and that in the face of the fact that a normal child has never

been reported among the offspring of two feeble-minded parents.

THE MODERN SERVICE TRAINING

Of all the institutions contributing to the direct improvement of the

race there is perhaps none surpassing in importance the modern training

school for social workers. In New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St.

Louis, and other large cities such may be found usually affiliated with

some university or college. The general purpose is that of training men

and women to go into the field of social service and apply the methods

and conclusions worked out by the research student. Hitherto, much of

the social work has been conducted by persons possessing merely

religious zeal and enthusiasm. Their efforts were praiseworthy, but they

lacked the training necessary for coping with modern educational and

economic problems. The distinctive feature of the new methods is that it

is based on scientific and business principles. That is, the social

worker is trained in the same methodical way as the prospective lawyer

or school teacher, and is also paid reasonably for his services.

The modern social worker not only proceeds with a well-defined plan, but

he usually makes or requires a survey of his newly-opened field. The

social survey--now becoming more common as a means of beginning a

campaign of improvement in the cities--has revealed some most

interesting, as well as distressing, situations in the submerged

districts. The housing situation, sanitary conditions, wages and incomes

of different classes, sweat-shop employment, the protection of workmen

in shops and factories, child-labor conditions, and so on--these are

examples of the problems of the investigator, while his tabulated

reports serve to guide the social worker. Now, the duties of the latter

are many, but in general they lie in the direction of improvement of the

conditions as found. Among the undertakings that often fall to his lot

are: establishing new social centers in congested districts, providing

for new parks and playgrounds, locating reading and recreation rooms,

organizing self-help and home-improvement clubs among the lower classes,

conducting cooking and sewing schools, and the like.

Of special interest to the rural dweller is the fact that the modern

methods of first making surveys and then applying remedial agencies is

now being extended into the country districts, giving many marked

results already and promising greater ones for the future.

THE STATE DOING ITS PART

That the nation and the state are active participants in these new forms

of child-conserving and man-saving endeavor is indicated on every side.

The national government has encouraged the states in the enactment of

stringent child-labor laws. In the usual instance children under

fourteen to sixteen years of age are prohibited from working away from

home at gainful occupations. Correlated with this is the

compulsory-education law in the several states.

The national and state governments have also cooperated in the enactment

of laws prohibiting the adulteration of foods and foodstuffs and in

enforcing better sanitation. As a result of such measures, state and

local, together with the help of greatly improved hospital practice, the

infant mortality in several of the large cities has been reduced more

than fifty per cent in the past decade.

Inspired by the splendid pioneer work of the National Playground

Association, the cities and towns have recently made very rapid progress

in the establishment of playgrounds and recreative centers for old and

young. Many millions of dollars have already been expended for such

purposes. Now the country districts are adopting the same means of

social improvement.

The primary system of selecting candidates for political office is

proving to be a most potent agency for the general uplift. By means of

it, better men are being inducted into office. Better still, the old

corrupt practice of the ward politician, so deleterious to the character

of youth, is losing its once powerful influence on government.

The so-called social evil, so damaging to the health and morals of

thousands of our best young men and young women, is now under fair

promise of improvement. The remarkable survey of the Chicago Vice

Commission and the work of the other well-planned organizations looking

to the solution of the same general problem have proved most effective

in revealing the true conditions and of awakening the public conscience.

All of these activities in the interest of putting down the sex evils

point very clearly one moral to all conscientious parents; namely, that

the best and most certain method of inculcating lessons of purity in the

case of the young is through preventive measures, and through the

practice of purity during the years of growth. Open and frank discussion

of the sex problems as they arise normally out of the experiences of the

child, admonitions and prohibitions in regard to impure associates, the

insistence upon a single, and not a double, standard of purity for the

two sexes--these are some of the specific duties of parents.

As an instance of what may be achieved by way of helping the weak and

depraved to defend themselves against debasing habit, and especially of

what may be done by way of prevention of a character-destroying habit

in time of youth, the Kansas prohibitory law is cited. The longer this

statute remains, the more effective its work and the more unanimous the

public sentiment supporting it. So popular has this measure become that

no political party and no faction of any other class has been able to

take any effective stand against it. It can be shown to any fair-minded

investigator that the great majority of the citizens of Kansas are total

abstainers from the use of intoxicants; also that the state has brought

up a new generation of tens of thousands of men, now mostly voters, who

have no personal knowledge of the use and abuse of alcoholic drinks and

who have become confirmed as total abstainers for life.

Another unique Kansas measure--ignored and derided at first only less

than was the prohibitory liquor law when new--is the statute forbidding

the use of tobacco in any form on the part of minors. The wisdom of this

statute is supported by the conclusions of scientific study of the

effects of tobacco on the young. The general purpose of the law is to

prevent the youth from taking up the tobacco-using habit before reaching

full maturity of years and judgment. The general result will be the

gradual development of a generation of total abstainers from the use of

tobacco.

THE NEW ERA OF RELIGION

Even into the sanctuary of the modern church is the new scientific

spirit finding its way. It has become an accepted principle of procedure

among ministers and other church workers of late that the best way to

save souls is not to depend wholly upon divine grace, but to assist this

subtle power by means of the constructive work of many human agencies.

Preventive measures that aim at safeguarding the young against evil

contaminations, the institution of social improvement organizations and

of literary and economic clubs, the formation of good-fellowship

societies, of societies for conducting social surveys, of committees for

giving vocational guidance and for the administration of spiritual

healing--these and numerous endeavors of the same class give evidence of

the great service which the modern church is rendering young humanity.

And all this splendid work is being carried forward without doing any

violence to the essential doctrines of the great historical institution

so long engaged in its serious efforts in behalf of human salvation.

FINAL CONCLUSION

As a closing remark the author can only express again his belief that no

past age ever held out such inspiring hope and such splendid

encouragement to the many parents who appreciate the needs of

intelligent care and training for their children. And because of the

natural advantages of the surroundings, country parents have the

greatest justification of all for being enthusiastic over the outlook.

Now, let them go patiently and reverently at the work of bringing up for

the service of the world a magnificent race of men and women--men who

have brain and brawn and moral courage and religious devotion; women who

have a profound sense of maternal responsibility, an inspiring

superiority over the perplexing duties of the household, a deep and

far-reaching social sympathy, and such a poise and sublimity of thought

as to reveal the divinity inherent in their characters. For lo! In the

hidden depths of the natures of the common boys and girls there lie

slumbering these splendid possibilities!

REFERENCES

The Meaning of Social Science. Albion W. Small. University of Chicago

Press. An epoch-making book, restating ably the general

problem of social reconstruction.

Report of Committee on Rural Social Problems, National

Conference Charities and Corrections. Address Porter R. Lee,

Sec'y for Organizing Charity, Philadelphia, Pa.

Annual Report. Association for Study and Prevention of Infant

Mortality, 1211 Cathedral Street, Baltimore.

Government Report on Children as Wage-earners. Department of

Commerce and Labor, Washington, D.C. This department is

bringing out nineteen volumes in all, each covering a

particular problem of women and children as wage-earners. The

following are especially related to the subject matter of

this chapter:--

The Beginnings of Child Labor Legislation in Certain States;

A Comparative Study.

Conditions under which Children leave School to go to Work.

Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment.

Causes of Death among Women and Child Cotton Mill Operatives.

Family Budgets of Typical Cotton Mill Workers.

Hook Worm Disease among Cotton Mill Operatives.

Employment of Women and Children in Selected Industries.

Reports and Circulars National Christian League for Promotion

of Purity, 5 East 12th Street, New York.

Annual Report of National Conference of Charities and

Corrections, 1911. Charities Publication Committee, New York.

See this valuable volume for reports of progress in the

different lines of child-welfare effort.

The White Slave Traffic. _Outlook_, July 16. 1910.

The Rockefeller Grand Jury Report of White Slave Traffic.

_McClure_, May, August, 1910.

Moral Research in Social and Economic Problems. G. Connell.

_Westminster Review_, February, 1910.

My Lesson from the Juvenile Court. Judge Ben. B Lindsey.

_Survey_, Feb. 5, 1910.

INDEX

Acquired characters, not transmissible, 7.

Agricultural education, money value of, 286.

Agriculture, as a rural school subject, 120 ff.

Anger, a healthful instinct, 16;

right treatment of, 17 f.

Aristocracy, fostered in the schools, 103, 104.

Bank account, necessary for boys, 223.

Bill, Arthur J., 231.

Boardman, John R., advocate of rural play, 156.

Books, for children, how to choose, 74;

a selected list, 75 ff.;

on child-rearing, 79, 80.

Boys, bad companionships for, 202 f.

Boy Scouts Movement, 311.

Boy Scouts, Professor Holton's definition of, 165;

how to organize, 165 f.;

in Kansas, 166 ff.

Boys leave the farm, why, 62, 63.

Bread-making clubs, 150 f.

Bread-winning, cultural, 3.

Building site, suited to children, 68.

Business career, instinct for, 24.

Business, training for farm boy, 220 ff.;

finding the boy's interest in, 221 f.;

dealing fair with the boy in, 225.

Butterfield, President Kenyon L., 140, 161.

Character-building, agencies of, 28 ff.;

must go on with schooling, 90 f.;

requires religious training, 94.

Chicago Vice Commission, 317.

Child-rearing, rural, 90 ff.

Children's hour, recommended for evening, 67.

Children's room, good illustration of, 64 f.

Child study, a necessity, 308 ff.

Cigarettes, law against, in Kansas, 318.

College education, for farm boy, 283 f.

Compulsory education, now general, 251.

Consolidation of rural schools, illustrated, 109, 123.

Cornell University, model rural school 115 ff.

Cornell University, 286.

Corn-plowing, may be divine calling, 98.

Corn-raising clubs, 150 f.

Corn Sunday, in rural church, 95.

Country boy, the right schooling for, 250 ff.;

his interest in humanity, 259;

must know current affairs, 260.

Country church at Plainfield, Ill., 87;

at Ogden, Kan., 87, 92;

Commission management of, 88;

too narrow, 92;

as social center, 94 ff.;

at Danbury, N. H., 96;

at Lincoln, Vt., 96;

federated society in, 96.

Country dwelling, its relation to juvenile character, 54 ff.;

plan it for the children, 56, 57.

Country girl, business training for, 255 ff.;

why she leaves home, 236 f.;

rules for training in business, 239;

not to be a money-maker, 247;

earning money in the South, 249;

schooling for, 262 ff.;

to be taught music, 265 f.;

vocation for, 290 ff.

Country Life Commission, 42 f., 148.

Country mother, as teacher, 268;

report of Country Life Commission, 42;

conservation of her energies, 44 ff.;

conspiring with the children, 51 f.

Country school, to be redirected, 152 ff.

Crying, good for infants, 14.

Dance, usually degrading, 164;

hard to control, 211 f.

Department of Agriculture, 148.

Dickens, Professor Albert, 110 f.

Disease, relation to habit, 3;

avoidance of by care, 3.

Domestic economy, for girls, 298 f.;

in the rural school, 122.

Exhibitions, by rural Y.M.C.A., 139 f.

Fairchild, Supt. E. T., 108 f., 118.

Farm barn, not to be better than the dwelling, 62.

_Farmer's Voice_, 60, 73.

Farm girls, danger of over-working, 182 f.;

working in the field, 188;

sometimes misjudged, 190 f.;

work schedule difficult to make, 191;

and self-supremacy, 192 f.;

social companions for, 201.

Fear, nature and purpose of, 16, 19.

Federation for country life in Illinois, 161 f.

Good health, fundamental to development, 3.

Good life, definition, 2.

Hall, Dr. G. Stanley, 309.

Happiness, a part of the good life, 6;

how obtained, 6.

High school, rural provisions for, 124 f.

Holton, Professor E. L. on Boy Scouts, 165.

Home conveniences, necessity for farm women, 47.

Home life education, 270.

Home sanitation, in the rural school, 132.

"Homing" instinct, 23.

House help, training the children for, 49.

Human stock, mostly sound, 7, 8;

potentially good, 9.

Humble parentage and leadership, 9.

Instincts, of children to be studied, 310;

two are fundamental, 12;

related to impulse, 14;

for home life, 23;

for business, 24.

James, Professor William, 300.

Kansas, Rural Boy Scouts in, 166 ff.;

a boy genius of, 227.

Kansas State Agricultural College, 165.

Kirk, President John R., quoted, 112 f.

Leadership, of farmer and wife, 146 ff.;

preparation for, 148;

in Y.M.C.A., 133 f.

Library, for neighborhood in farm home, 155.

_Literary Digest_, 73.

Literature, purpose of in country home, 69 f.;

best adapted to the child, 71, 72;

types of, 72 f.;

on child-rearing, 79.

Marriage, planning for the daughter's, 291 f.;

to be studied, 300 ff.;

training the girl for, 20, 21.

McNutt, Rev. M. B., and his work, 86, 87;

church built by, 87.

Mendel's law, and human inheritance, 8.

Minister, of city should preach in the country, 85;

a country type, 86 ff.

Moral strength, an aim in character-building, 4;

acquired through trial and error, 4.

Mothers' club, organization of, 160 f.

"Mother's hour," recommended, 46.

Moving to town, to educate the children, 36;

how it affects the farmer, 36, 37.

National Corn Exhibit, 230.

Native ability, three classes of, 251 ff.;

how stimulus and opportunity assist, 253.

Newspaper, kind for the farmer, 73.

Occupations for women, 293 ff.

Oklahoma Agricultural College, work at county fair, 229.

Play, growing interest in, 27, 28;

practical uses of, 28 ff.;

an excellent set of materials for, 30;

sharply distinguished from work, 31;

after Sunday School, 97;

neighborhood center for, 159.

Play apparatus, model in farm home, 154.

Playground, apparatus for, 118 ff.;

for home and school, 154 f.

Playground Association of America, 155, 316.

Population, decrease in country, 83.

Prohibitory law, in Kansas, 318.

Psychological clinic, 265.

Recreation, meaning of misunderstood, 33;

how related to farm work, 34 ff.;

for rural youth, 139.

Religion, the new era in, 319;

interest in a part of life, 5.

_Review of Reviews_, 73.

Rural manhood, 148, 156.

Rural school, changes in view-point of, 102;

to serve all, 103 f.;

compulsory attendance upon, 106;

model at Kirksville, 112.

Rural schoolhouse, better ones needed, 107;

location of, 108;

in Kansas, 105;

model at Cornell, 115.

Saloons, a menace to boys, 206 f.

School grounds, size, and adoption of, 109.

School playground, 117 ff.

Sex evils, to be studied, 317.

Sex habits, secret, 204.

Sex instinct, as socializing agency, 199.

Sexual love, instructive and extremely helpful, 20;

necessity of careful treatment, 20 ff.

Smoking, bad for boys, 205 f.

Social democracy, fostered by training, 4.

Social efficiency, training for, 5.

Social entertainment, how to conduct, 209 f.;

several forms of, 211 ff.

Social renaissance, in the country, 199.

Social sensitiveness, a form of fear, 18;

great value in training, 19, 20.

Social training of farm youths, 197 ff.;

in economic clubs, 215;

a working plan for, 198 ff.;

based on sex instinct, 199;

menaces to, 200 ff.;

in ideal country home, 208.

Social training schools, 314.

Social work, for girls, 295 f.

Solitude, a means of culture, 35.

Stenography, for girls, 294.

Teaching, hard on young women, 203.

Tuberculosis, is it inheritable? 8, 9.

University of Pennsylvania, 309.

Usefulness, as ideal of education, 3.

Vacations, based on instincts and desires, 163, 226.

Vacations, necessity of providing for, 176 f.;

a father's plan for, 177 f.

Vocation, for farm boy, 275 ff.;

should it be farming, 275;

go slow in choosing, 276 f.;

three methods of training for, 279 f.;

preparation of farm girl for, 289 ff.

Vocational schools, in the South, 229 f.

_Wallaces' Farmer_, 43, 44, 73.

Waters, President H. J., 127.

Wealth, not evidence of substantial country society, 84.

Witmer, Dr. Lightner, 309.

Women, occupations for, 291 ff.

Work, as basis of society, 171 ff.;

for the boy's sake, 172 f.;

wrong attitude of workmen toward, 174;

a father's method of training boy for, 175 f.;

a schedule of hours for, 178 ff.;

how much for the girl, 183 ff.;

foundation for vocation, 285;

necessary as discipline, 30, 31;

not liked by natural children, 31;

acquired fondness for, 32;

a part of the good school course, 33;

spiritualized by country church, 98.

_World's Work_, 73.

Y.M.C.A., rural 129 ff.;

purposes of, 131;

how to organize, 132 ff.;

leader for, 133 f.;

how to conduct, 136;

example of rural in Kansas, 143 f.

The following pages contain advertisements of a

few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects.

THE RURAL OUTLOOK SET

BY PROFESSOR L. H. BAILEY

Director of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University

_Four volumes. Each, cloth, 12mo. Uniform binding,

attractively boxed $5.00 net per set; carriage extra. Each

volume also sold separately._

In this set are included three of Professor Bailey's most

popular books as well as a hitherto unpublished one,--"The

Country-Life Movement." The long and persistent demand for a

uniform edition of these little classics is answered with the

publication of this attractive series.

The Country-Life Movement

_Cloth, 12mo, 220 pages, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.34_

This hitherto unpublished volume deals with the present

movement for the redirection of rural civilization,

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from the city problem, known as the back-to-the-land

movement.

The Outlook to Nature (New and Revised Edition)

_Cloth, 12mo, 195 pages, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.34_

In this alive and bracing book, full of suggestion and

encouragement, Professor Bailey argues the importance of

contact with nature, a sympathetic attitude toward which

"means greater efficiency, hopefulness, and repose."

The State and the Farmer (New Edition)

_Cloth, 12mo, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.34_

It is the relation of the farmer to the government that

Professor Bailey here discusses in its varying aspects. He

deals specifically with the change in agricultural methods,

in the shifting or the geographical centers of farming in the

United States, and in the growth of agricultural

institutions.

The Nature Study Idea (New Edition)

_Cloth, 12mo, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.34_

"It would be well," the critic of _The Tribune Farmer_ once

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NEW BOOKS ON AGRICULTURE

How to Keep Bees for Profit

BY D. E. LYON

_Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.50 net_

Dr. Lyon is an enthusiast on bees. He has devoted many years

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How to Keep Hens for Profit

BY C. S. VALENTINE

_Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.50 net_

Mr. Valentine is a well-known authority upon the subject. His

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Manual of Gardening

BY L. H. BAILEY

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This new work is a combination and revision of the main parts

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How to Grow Vegetables

BY ALLEN FRENCH

_New edition._ _Decorated cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.75 net; by mail,

$1.80_

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BY KATE V. ST. MAUR

_Cloth, 12mo, fully illustrated from photographs, $1.75 net_

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The Earth's Bounty

BY KATE V. ST. MAUR

_Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.75 net_

The present volume, though in no sense dependent on "A

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The Fat of the Land: The Story of an American Farm

BY JOHN WILLIAMS STREETER

_Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_

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Three Acres and Liberty

BY BOLTON HALL

_Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.75 net_

Possibilities of the small suburban farm, and practical

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The Feeding of Animals

By WHITMAN HOWARD JORDAN

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Rural Hygiene

By HENRY N. OGDEN, C.E.

Professor of Sanitary Engineering, College of Civil

Engineering, Cornell University, and Special Assistant

Engineer of the New York State Department of Health

_Illustrated, decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net; by mail, $1.68_

"Farmers and other dwellers outside of cities will find

Professor Henry N. Ogden's 'Rural Hygiene' an invaluable

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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Punctuation has been made consistent without note.

Archaic or alternate spellings have been retained.

Plate X: 1st edition has a different caption for this plate:

An illustration of "Corn Sunday," as instituted by

Superintendent George W. Brown in the rural churches in

the vicinity of Paris, Illinois.

Page 99, References: "Colton" changed to "Cotton" (John

Cotton Dana).

Page 127, References: 1st edition has 1906, not 1905, as

publication date for "The Most Practical Industrial Education

for the Country Child."

Page 140, "One boy may have have caught" changed to

"One boy may have caught"

Page 329: "County-Life" changed to "Country-Life" ("The

Country-Life Movement.")