Farm Boys and Girls Part 2
Psychology. J. R. Angell. Chapter XVI, "The Important Human Instincts." Holt.
Essentials of Psychology. W. B. Pillsbury. Chapter X, "Instinct." Macmillan. Rural parents will find this entire text a non-technical and fundamental help.
Development and Education. M. V. O'Shea. Chapter XII, "The Critical Period." Houghton, Mifflin Company.
Psychology of Child Development. Irving King. Chapter on "Instinct." University of Chicago Press.
Your Boy: His Nature and Nurture. George A. d.i.c.kinson, M.D.
Chapter II, "Elements of Character." Hodder & Stoughton, New York.
An Introduction to Child Study. W. B. Drummond. Chapter XII, "The Instincts of Children"; Chapter XIII, "Instincts and Habit." Longmans. The book is worthy an entire reading.
A Study of Child Nature. Elizabeth Harrison. Chapter I, "The Instinct of Activity." Chicago Kindergarten College.
Observing Childhood. A. S. Draper. _Annals American Academy_, March, 1909.
Are we spoiling our Boys who have the Best Chances in Life?
Henry van d.y.k.e. SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE. October, 1909.
How to civilize the Young Savage. Dr. G. Stanley Hall. _Mind and Body_, June, 1911.
CHAPTER III
_THE RURAL HOME AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT_
That the farm home is an ideal place in which to build up the lives of growing boys and girls has become almost a trite saying. But that rural parents are yet failing to realize the child-nurturing possibilities of such a place may be exemplified in thousands of instances. When we point to the farm home as being the best possible place for rearing children, we mean that it contains all the crude materials for such work, and that there must be in charge of that work some one who is conscious of the many aspects of the problem. So we hope to show the fathers and mothers of the farm community, not what they might do if they were differently situated, but as specifically as possible what there is in the present rural home situation that can be made directly available in the construction of the lives of their children.
WHAT AGENCIES BUILD UP CHARACTER?
First of all, we must ask, What are the ordinary forces which need to be brought into service in the development of children? At the head of the list, we should name play, as furnishing a great variety of instructive activities; then, work and industry; after that, the recreation that comes properly after the performance of work. So, we have with all their implied meanings the three great child-developing agencies: play, work, recreation. Now the question naturally presents itself, Can the ordinary farm life be made to furnish in right amount and proportion these three essential elements of character development?
1. _Play._--The necessity of indulging and training properly the play instinct of the child is becoming so fully appreciated of late that many of the state legislatures, and even the national Congress, have seen fit to make it a matter of deep concern. In order that all children may have full exercise of the divine, inherent right to play and to learn through play, many so-called child labor laws have been pa.s.sed. These enactments have prescribed conditions under which children will be permitted to work at gainful occupations, and in the majority of cases they have strictly forbidden such child labor below the ages of fourteen to sixteen.
But the foregoing efforts in behalf of the young have been of a somewhat negative sort, merely guaranteeing the child the right to play. On the positive side, much is also being done. The scientific students of child life have been pointing to the great benefits of play and to the present need for larger means and fuller opportunities for play on the part of the ma.s.ses of children. As an outcome of all this research and public agitation, there is now in progress a general movement which looks to the placing at the disposal of children everywhere the equipment and apparatus necessary for building up the character by means of play experience. The large cities are expending millions of dollars on munic.i.p.al playgrounds, and the towns and rural communities are catching the spirit also.
It has been shown beyond a question that adult life can be prepared for and enriched in many ways by means of scientifically provided play during childhood. Two or three results are especially sought through the playground training: (1) better physical health and increased power to resist disease; (2) enlarged opportunities for the outlet of the spontaneous activities through the use of the hands and other parts of the body; (3) the provision of a powerful deterrent of evil thought and deed and of juvenile crime; (4) the manifold opportunities for learning how to get along with one's fellows and to treat them in fairness and justice.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE III.
FIG. 3.--This beautiful Kansas home, with its large orchard and many shade trees adjoining, was constructed "away out on the barren plains where no tree will grow." In this place an excellent family of nine children grew up.]
It has already been urged that sound health const.i.tutes one of the foundation stones of good character. Play is especially conducive to sound health. Some may think that work without much if any play will bring about the same results in the child life, but such proves not to be the case. The monotony and drudgery of enforced labor have been crushing the lives of children everywhere, especially until the wise legislation of very recent years prevented such thing. Strange to say, the same amount of exertion in spontaneous play may build up and strengthen the physical and mental life of the child. What is the secret of the striking difference in the result? Spontaneity! is the answer.
The child goes at his play with a joy and an eagerness which are entirely absent from work--a sufficient guarantee that his nature is being fed upon the very stuff which his soul craves. It is true that children will play in a bare room containing nothing more than a pile of trash, but such a situation is woefully lacking on the side of instruction. Very little will be learned from a year of such ill-provided play.
So, there is every necessary reason for urging that the farm home provide not only the time and the occasion for the play life of the children, but that the means and proper materials also be looked after.
At a certain rural home in the state of Michigan, where two boys and one girl were growing up, were found the following nearly ideal arrangements for the play life: a small clump of trees, which afforded opportunities for climbing and ample shade during the warm weather; a swing hung between two of the trees; a pole serving as a horizontal bar between two others; and a ladder leading to a rude playhouse constructed between the forks of a branching maple tree. Thereabout were seen also a boy's wagon, two home-made sleds and other materials of this same general cla.s.s, not to mention a fairly well-kept lawn, where the children could romp.
Now the cost of all the foregoing materials would be trifling in a money sense and not very expensive in point of preparation and work, while they would pay for themselves a hundred-fold in their results for character-development. If necessary, it could even be shown how just such provision for the play of the boys and girls on the farm will in time add to the actual cash value of the place and to the money-earning power of the boys and girls whose lives are being served. It seems altogether fitting to remind rural parents of their duty in respect to their children even though the mortgage may not yet have been lifted, and even though some of the live stock may have to suffer a little, and some of the farm crops deteriorate slightly. Let there be provided, first of all, some adequate materials for the indulgence of the play instinct of the child.
2. _Work._--This term implies a wide meaning, and deserves a lengthy discussion. In a chapter to follow under the t.i.tle "How Much Work for the Country Boy," we shall give due attention to it. The purpose here is to advise the parent to make a study of the situation and to make provision for the amount and kind of work and industry necessary for the proper culture of the growing child.
First of all, there must be appreciated the sharp distinction between work and play. The latter is spontaneous, allowing the child to follow his caprice of mind. He may take up one play activity and drop it at any moment that another appeals to him more strongly. But with work, the situation is different. The purpose is outside of and not within the performance, as in the case of play. The work looks toward some end necessary of achievement and carries with it the elements of sacrifice, of giving out of one's life something that is his very own in order that some other thing may be acquired. In the case of work the normal child probably at first finds almost any a.s.signed task irksome. He feels that he is being more or less unfairly or unnecessarily driven to it and that when he grows to be a man, he will have a lot of money and hire somebody else to do the work.
All natural, healthy-minded boys are at first somewhat stubborn and rebellious in regard to work. No matter how good their parents may be, if merely turned loose in the world without direction and the spur of authority, they will almost invariably avoid manual labor. So it might as well be put down at once as a rule that every boy who is to become a real worker and an industrious character must be set definitely at his tasks while a mere child and held strictly to their performance. After much persistent urging, the young worker begins to forget the thought of being driven to his duty and to acquire instead a habit of industry.
By slow degrees he develops within a sense of obligation in relation to work, also a feeling of responsibility for tasks done or left undone.
Finally, after years of this sort of experience, the young industrialist reaches a point in his life when he can throw himself enthusiastically into some sort of well chosen occupation. And then and there emerges from his inner consciousness the exceeding great joy known to so many of the industrious men and women whose worthy life-long devotion to work is constantly reconstructing this good world in which we live.
It will be understood, of course, that the term work as here used includes the school training. The ordinary child regards the appointed duties of lesson getting in the nature of work and feels the same pressure of insistence and compulsion in relation to them.
Unquestionably, the ordinary school course goes part way toward furnishing discipline in industry. The course of the newer schools about to be inst.i.tuted throughout the country will reach still farther in this direction. It is very encouraging indeed to observe that the public school curriculum is destined to include, not only the study of books and the recitation of lessons learned from books, but also the many forms of manual labor and industry applicable to the character of the growing child. But until the public school authorities have provided such an ideal course of training, parents must see to it that the cla.s.s-room duties be thoroughly supplemented with carefully a.s.signed home tasks of the industrial training sort. In a later chapter specific attention will be given the question of the schooling of the country boy and the country girl.
3. _Recreation._--What a vast amount of misunderstanding and misuse there is of this term! Observe, if you will, the real meaning of the term or of the kindred word, to re-create. It implies in this use that the body has been depleted, worn out, or fatigued by work and that there is to be a rebuilding of the same. But it is amusing--or would be if it were not so pathetic--to see how city parents often bestir themselves in an effort to provide recreation for their idle boys. Many of these boys who are seen loafing about the home town during practically the entire summer vacation period are given an outing in order that they may thus be furnished "recreation"--from indolence.
But farm parents are inclined to err on the other side. That is, they tend to over-work their boys and not to give them enough outings to furnish proper recreation and renewed zeal for the work required of them. Hence, the need of carefully considering the matter of the outings for the farm boy and girl. It can most probably be shown, for example, that the boy who works on the farm five and a half days of the week and who is given the other half day for rest and recreation--that he does more work in the five and one-half days and does it better than he would do in six full days without the half-holiday. The question here is that of a balanced schedule. How long should the boy be held to his task before being allowed a holiday or recreation period?
Just how can these half-holidays, outings, and the like, be worked into the farm boy's program so as to make them contributive to the up-building of his character? What of this sort can be done to cause him to return to his a.s.signed tasks with greater zeal and enthusiasm? How can it be provided that the boy may look forward to these outings with a thrill of joy during the long days he has to spend behind the plow or in the harvest field? Finally, how can these recreation periods, large and small, be so a.s.sociated with his work-a-day tasks that he may come to regard farm life as a wholesome type of vocation--one that he may follow with pleasure and profit for himself, and one in which he may succeed so well as to make his achievements const.i.tute a living commendation of such a calling to others? In a later discussion there will be shown many methods whereby the recreation experience of the farm boys and girls may be properly looked after.
Few persons seem to appreciate the value of solitude as a means of recreating and building up the inner life. Probably one of the greatest agencies in the development of many a powerful personality is the fact that its possessor was compelled by force of circ.u.mstances while young to spend much time in the company of his or her own thoughts. It is impossible to think intelligently while one is doing any body-straining work; for example, wood sawing or hay pitching. But there are many forms of occupation for boys and girls on the farm which permit of comparative rest of the body. So the foundations of many a worthy career have been laid in the silent reflections of the boy spending the day alone in the woods or on the prairies with his cattle and dog and pony, or sitting on the seat of the riding plow.
Likewise, the farmer's daughter, during the performance of many simple, non-fatiguing tasks, reflects perforce upon the larger meanings of life and makes out in mind many plans for the time when she hopes to undertake the mastery of various trying and interesting problems. Lack of this enforced solitude and its attendant reflections--lack of the discovery of the joy of being at regular intervals alone with the great soul of Nature and with one's inner consciousness--doubtless contributes in some measure to the undoing of city boys and girls. The constant turmoil of the street, the excitement of the ever changing scenes and situations, give an over-indulgence to the senses, ripen the judgments too early, and rob the character of those soberer habits which later enable one to find good in the common situations and the common people of the world.
It is, therefore, recommended that farm parents provide for a part of the sterner duties of the boys and girls such tasks as will allow for comparative rest of the body while the mind may tarry undisturbed with the reflections of the inner life.
MOVING TO TOWN FOR THE CHILDREN
The practice of the well-to-do farmer who moves to town to "educate his children" is an old story and is fraught with many a hidden tragedy, to say nothing of the impoverishment of the land and of the social order left behind. Why cannot the intelligent farmer remain on the home place and join a movement having for its purpose that of making the neighborhood a more desirable place of human habitation?
One of the dullest places in the world is the country town which has been filled up with retired farmers. These are usually men who came into the place for the purpose of getting all the possible advantages at the lowest possible cost. In the typical case the new city dweller of this cla.s.s secures a very good residence, and that often, if possible, just outside the city limits, in order to avoid local taxes. He takes little or no interest in the town's munic.i.p.al affairs and votes against nearly all proposed improvements. He keeps his own cow, horse, chickens, and garden, and brings extra supplies in from the farm. Gradually he takes on a few of the city ways. That is, he uses less home produce and does some buying at the stores. But for want of stimulating employment he gradually grows stouter and mentally more stupid, sleeping away many of the hours of the day in his chair--an indication that he is dying at the top and that he is soon to be cut down. Really, the retired farmer is a nuisance to the town and the town is a bore to him.
But what of the children whom he brought in to "educate"? They learn rapidly, soon taking on the city manners. The natural restraints from evil conduct, which the farm home furnished, are now wanting. The blare and bl.u.s.ter of the town both excite and delight them, while the parents have positively no rules or standards by which to govern and direct their young in the new situation. All the boys and girls need to do in order to gain parental consent for going out at night is to declare that "everybody is going" or that they are "expected" to be there, and the thing is settled. Thus the young ruralists newly come to town go dancing and prancing off into a veritable world of sweet dreams and delights--spoiled forever for any service that they might have rendered in building up the country community--and finally destined to become mere cogs in the ever grinding wheel of some city.
A BACK-TO-THE-COUNTRY CLUB
Nearly every town and city of the United States has had a so-called Commercial Club. This has been in reality a boosters' club bent first of all on bringing big business to the place and thus opening the way for a bigger population. Anything for the sake of more people has been the watchword. Now, I would reverse this order of things. Nearly every one of these towns and cities needs a club or committee that might have for its purposes: (1) to show the would-be retired farmer how to shift the burdens from his wife as housekeeper, how to provide better social and intellectual advantages for his children and yet _stay on the farm_; (2) to find means and methods whereby to plant in the rural community those persons of the city population who are not making a fair living in their present positions, seeking first of course to choose those who are capable of transplanting and then preparing them with care for the change.
I am satisfied that this thing can be successfully thought out,--that is, how the worthy poor city family may be removed to the country and there through hard work gradually acquire enough land whereon to earn a fair living at least. This end will never be accomplished by merely driving out the poor families, but rather by means of scientific and sympathetic practice of re-establishing them. Well-conducted research shows that these poor people are nearly all const.i.tuted of good, sound, human stock. So, if transported under the conditions named, there may be expected to come forth in the second generation a splendid crop of rural boys and girls.
REFERENCES
Report of the Commission on Country Life. Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. Sturgis-Walton Company, New York. A brief but epoch-making book. The student of rural problems will find it a splendid outline guide.
Cutting Loose from the City. E. G. Hutchins. _Country Life_, Jan. 1, 1911.