Farm Boys and Girls Part 1

Farm Boys and Girls.

by William Arch McKeever.

PREFACE

In the preparation of this book I have had in mind two cla.s.ses of readers; namely, the rural parents and the many persons who are interested in carrying forward the rural work discussed in the several chapters. It has been my aim to give as much specific aid and direction as possible. The first two chapters const.i.tute a mere outline of some of the fundamental principles of child development. It would be fortunate if the reader who is unfamiliar with such principles could have a course of reading in the volumes that treat them extensively. Nearly every suggestion given in the main body of the book is based on what has already either been undertaken with a degree of success or planned for in some rural community.

I am very greatly indebted to the following persons and firms for their kindness and generosity in lending pictures and cuts for ill.u.s.trating the book: E. T. Fairchild, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Topeka, Kansas; J. W. Crabtree, Princ.i.p.al State Normal School, River Falls, Wisconsin; George W. Brown, Superintendent of Edgar County, Paris, Illinois; O. J. Kern, Superintendent of Winnebago County, Rockford, Illinois; Miss Jessie Fields, Superintendent of Page County, Clarinda, Iowa; A. D. Holloway, General Secretary, County Y.M.C.A., Marysville, Kansas; Dr. Myron T. Scudder, of Rutgers College; Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York; _Rural Manhood_, New York City; _The Farmer's Voice_, Chicago, Illinois; _The American Agriculturist_, New York City; _The Oklahoma Farmer_, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; _The Inland Farmer_, Lexington, Kentucky; _The Farmer's Advocate_, Winnipeg, Canada.

My thanks are also due _Successful Farming_, of Des Moines, Iowa, for permission to use excerpts from President Kirk's article on the model school, and portions of a series of brief articles written for the same magazine by myself.

The references given at the close of the chapters have been selected with considerable care. It will be found in nearly every case that they give helpful and more extended discussions of the several topics treated in the preceding chapter.

WILLIAM A. McKEEVER.

MANHATTAN, KANSAS.

FARM BOYS AND GIRLS

CHAPTER I

_BUILDING A GOOD LIFE_

If you were about to begin the construction of a dwelling house, what questions would most likely be uppermost in your mind? If this house were intended for your own use, you would doubtless consider among other important matters those of comfort, convenience of arrangement, attractiveness of appearance, strength, and durableness. The great variety of dwellings to be seen on every hand is outwardly expressive of the great variety of ideals in the minds of the people who construct them. No matter what means there may be available for the purpose, it may be said that he who builds a house thereby ill.u.s.trates in concrete form his inner character.

With practically the same quality of materials, one man will construct a house apparently with the thought that its chief purpose is to be looked at. Much work and expense will be put upon outer show and embellishment, while in its inner arrangements it may be exceedingly cramped and thoughtlessly put together. Another will erect his building with a thought of placing it on the market. Cheap workmanship, weak and faulty joinings, and the like, will be concealed by some thin covering meant to last until a profitable sale has been made and some innocent purchaser caught with a mere sh.e.l.l of a house in his possession. Occasionally, however, there is found a man whose plans conform to such ideals as those first named.

WHAT IS A GOOD LIFE?

As with the construction of a house, so it is in some measure with the building of a character. Some lives apparently are constructed to look at; that is, with the thought that outer adornment and a mere appearance of worth and beauty const.i.tute the essential qualities. Other lives are, in a sense, made to sell. Not infrequently parents are found developing their boys and girls as if the chief purpose were to place them somewhere or other in the best possible money market. A life is worth only as much as it will bring in dollars and cents, is apparently the predominating thought of such persons. And then, occasionally, a life is built to _live in_; that is, with the idea that intrinsic worth const.i.tutes the essential nature of the ideal character.

But what _is_ a good life? And why is not this precisely the question for all parents to ask themselves at the time they begin the development of the lives of their own boys and girls? a.s.suming a fairly sound physical and mental inheritance on the part of the child and the given environment as the raw materials of construction, what ideals should parents have uppermost in mind before undertaking the tremendously important and interesting duties of constructing worthy manhood and womanhood out of the inherent natures of their children?

1. _Good health._--It is a difficult task to develop a sound, efficient life without the fundamental quality of good health. So it may be well to remind parents of this fact and to urge them especially to avoid in the lives of the children, first, the beginnings of those lighter ailments which frequently grow into menacing habits--for example, the diseases that become chronic as a result of unnecessary exposure to the weather--and second, those various contagious diseases which so often permanently deplete the health of children, such as scarlet fever and whooping cough. It is now held by medical authority that every reasonable effort should be made to prevent children from taking such infectious ailments--that the so-called diseases of children can and should be practically all avoided.

2. _Usefulness._--The newer ideals of character-building call for the early training of all children as if they were to enter permanently upon some bread-winning pursuit. Such training is a most direct means of culture and refinement, provided it be correlated with the proper amount of book learning and play and recreation. Such uniform and character-building discipline tends to preserve the solidarity of the race, and to acquaint all the young with the thoughts and feeling of the great productive cla.s.ses. It may be this is now regarded as both a direct means of culture and of leading the young mind into an intimate acquaintance with the lives of the ma.s.ses. Such training is regarded also as one of the best means of preserving our social democracy.

Therefore, although on account of inherited wealth the child may apparently be destined for a life of comparative ease, even then there is every justification for teaching him early how to work as if he must do so to earn his own living. Much more will be said about this point later.

3. _Moral strength._--In the construction of a good life, moral strength must be estimated as one of the important foundation stones. But this quality is not so much a gift of nature or an inheritance as it is an acquisition. It cannot be bought or acquired through merely hearing about it, but it must come as a result of a large number of experiences of trial and error. The child acquires moral self-reliance from the practice of overcoming temptation in proportion to his strength, the test being made heavier as fast as his ability to withstand temptation increases. As will be shown later, it proves weakening to the character of the growing child to keep him entirely free from temptation and the possible contamination of his character in order that he may grow up "good."

4. _Social efficiency._--The good life is not merely self-sustaining in an economic way, but it is also trained in the performance of altruistic deeds. In building up the lives of the young it will be necessary and most helpful to think of the matter of social efficiency. Therefore, it will be seen to that the child have practice in a.s.suming the leadership among his fellows, in taking the initiative on many little occasions, and in some instances to the extent of standing out against the combined sentiment of his young a.s.sociates. Of course, during all this time he will be backed strongly by the advice and the insistent direction of his parents, the idea being to induce him to think out his own social problems and to carry forward any suitable plans of a social nature that he may devise.

5. _Religious interest._--Few parents will deny that religious instruction is just as essential to the development of a good society as is intellectual instruction. Indeed, there is much evidence to bear out the conviction that religion is a deep and permanent instinct in all normal human beings. This being the case, it is fair to say that such an instinct should have some form of awakening and indulgence in the life of the child. However, there is no thought or intention of prescribing any particular form of religious faith. He might at least be sent to Sunday school and to church regularly where he may be led to do a small amount of religious thinking on his own account.

6. _Happiness._--The good life is a happy life. But nearly all the students of human problems seem to think that happiness eludes the grasp of the one who seeks it in a direct way. "I want my children to be happy and enjoy life," is often the remark of well-meaning parents. They then proceed as if joy and happiness could be had for money. It is true that during his early years of indifference to any serious concern or personal responsibility, the child may be made extremely happy by giving him practically everything his childish appet.i.tes may call for and allowing him to grow up in idleness. But there comes a time when the normal individual begins to question his own personal and intrinsic worth. The instincts and desires of mature life come on and if there be not available the means for the realization of the better instinctive ambitions, then bitterness and woe are likely to become one's permanent portion.

However, it may be put down as a certainty that happiness and contentment will naturally come in full measure into the life that has been well built during the years of childhood and youth. If the good health has been conserved, a life of usefulness and service prepared for, moral strength built into the character, social efficiency looked after continuously, and something of religious experience not neglected--it will most certainly follow as the day follows the night that the wholesome enjoyments and the durable satisfactions of living will come to such an individual.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE II.

FIG. 2.--These Canadian lads are enjoying their first lessons in live-stock management. We call their conduct play, but surely no one was ever more in earnest than they.]

IS THE HUMAN STOCK COMPARATIVELY SOUND?

There are now among the students of the home problems many who are seriously interested in the matter of breeding a better human stock.

Many noteworthy conclusions have already been reached, and ample proofs have been produced to show that the human animal follows the same general lines of evolution as do the lower animal orders. It is shown in general, for example, that little or nothing that man has learned or acquired during his life is transmitted to his offspring. That is, even though a man devote many years to the intensive study of music or mathematics or the languages, such study will not affect the ability of his child in the study of the specialized subject. The same unaffected result obtains in respect to any other form of expertness of the merely acquired sort. For example, the fact that a man through long practice becomes expert in the use of the typewriter does not affect the character of the child in respect to such ability. It is a no less difficult task for the child to learn to master the use of the typewriter keyboard.

On the other hand, it is shown very conclusively that physical and mental characters inborn in the life of a parent tend at all times to be transmitted to the child, although many traits are known to be wanting in the first generation of children and to appear in the second or successive generations. According to the law of Mendel, the traits of the parents are transmitted to the child about as follows: one-half of the elements of one's physical and mental natures are inherited from his parents, one-fourth from his grandparents, one-eighth from his great-grandparents, and so on. In any given case, however, there might be great variation from this rule of the averages, just as actual men and women vary more or less widely from the average human height of so many feet and inches.

There is no thought here of discussing the intricate problems of eugenics. The purpose of this brief dogmatic sketch is that of attempting to induce parents to believe that the great ma.s.s of our American-born children are comparatively sound in their physical and mental inheritances. The pathologists profess to be able to prove that nature is most kind to the new-born child in respect to inheritance of disease. In fact, it is shown that very few diseases are directly transmitted through the blood, and that many once so regarded are now found to be infectious in their natures. There is considerable indication, however, that the children of the diseased--tuberculous parents, for example,--inherit a weakened power of resistance for such disease. But this matter is somewhat foreign to our present discussion.

Best of all, for our present consideration, is the great ma.s.s of evidence sustaining the theory that about ninety-nine per cent of our new-born infants are potentially good in an economic and moral sense.

That is to say, this great majority of the young humanity have latent within their natures at the beginning of life the possibilities of development into sound, self-reliant manhood and womanhood.

So, the writer of these lines would gladly lead rural parents to the point of being very courageous and optimistic about their infant children. He would have them see in the latter all the possibilities of good and efficiency that they may care to attempt to bring out by thoughtful and conscientious training. For that matter, it can be shown that many of the leaders of men are constantly springing up out of the ranks of the common ma.s.ses and from those of humble parentage. Some of these great leaders, it is true, are what may be called accidental geniuses in respect to their native strength and their persistent life purposes. But many others, and perhaps the majority of them, are merely men and women who have been reasonably sound at birth and who have been trained from childhood to maturity in a manner that best served to build up strong, efficient character.

REFERENCES

The references given at the close of each chapter are meant to direct the reader to specific treatment of the topics named. It is thought that nearly every chapter or book referred to will be found helpful and instructive to such persons as may naturally become interested in this volume. In some instances a line of comment is given to make clearer the contents of the reference.

Must Children have Children's Diseases? Newton. _Ladies' Home Journal_, April, 1910.

_Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette._ Gazette Publishing Company, New York. $1 per year, monthly.

The Miracle of Life. J. H. Kellogg, M.D. Good Health Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich. Read especially pp.

363-388, "How to be Strong."

Our Duty to Posterity. Editorial. _The Independent_, February. 1909.

Relation of Science to Man. Professor A. W. Small. _American Journal of Sociology_, February, 1908.

Character Building. Marian M. George. A. Flanagan Company.

Treats the ethical problems of the home.

Through Boyhood to Manhood. Ennis Richmond. Chapter 1, "Usefulness." Longmans.