Farm Boys and Girls Part 16

5. The increase and improvement of professional leadership among country teachers, ministers, and all others who serve the rural community in offices of educational direction.

6. The perpetuation among all the people of country communities of a definite community ideal, and the concentrated effort of the whole community in concrete tasks looking toward the realization of this ideal.

7. The recognition of the country school as the immediate initiator of progress in the average rural community of Illinois.

8. The study and investigation of country life facts and conditions.

9. The holding of annual country life conferences.

10. The protection of this federation and of all country life from any form of exploitation.

THE VOCATIONS OF BOYS AND GIRLS

A most commendable work for the rural social leader would be that of showing the possibilities of guiding country boys and girls more scientifically in the direction of their coming vocational life. Too often, there may be found a mistaken farmer who is attempting to force his boy to take up the farm life when as a matter of fact the boy is in no sense fitted for such vocation and should be trained for a distinctly different line of work. Then, on another occasion, you will meet a man who is farming simply because he has to do it, and who is over-anxious that his boy be guided in the direction of something else. The point especially to be emphasized here is that the parent cannot choose arbitrarily a vocation for his child. The native interests of the latter must be consulted again and again, while the child is growing up, and in the end the young person must decide the matter for himself.

The world is full of wrecks of human character who are such largely because of the single fault of their never having been trained scientifically in a vocational way. So advance as best you can the idea that parents must be most patient in awaiting the development of the various instincts and desires in their growing children, and for the final decision of the latter in respect to a calling. It should be made clear that many of the best and ablest men in the world floundered about not a little in deciding upon the final choice.

This very important matter of choosing a vocation for the young man and the young woman will be taken up in Chapters XVIII and XIX of this book.

OTHER LOCAL POSSIBILITIES

It will be understood that the possibilities of church and Sunday school work in a rural neighborhood are not intentionally slighted. Little is said in regard to them here simply because of the fact that there is a country-wide organization with well-directed local branches and with a flood of excellent literature constantly at work in building up the church and Sunday school life. The reader may be reminded, however, that this field still presents many excellent opportunities for serving the highest interests of the home community.

The matter of purely social gatherings for the boys and girls is important. It will perhaps be found that they are running to cheap, degrading dances, either in the home neighborhood or in a near-by town.

If the rural leader can break this thing up and subst.i.tute a literary club, a better form of social intercourse, or any other gathering, for the cheap dance and its resultant debauch, the effort will certainly be most commendable. It is not as a rule advisable to condemn and denounce these cheap affairs, but rather to begin at once a movement in the interest of the better subst.i.tute. Just as soon as the latter begins to take form, the young people will naturally discontinue their degrading affairs. Chapter XIII of this book will offer a more extended discussion of the social problems of country youth.

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

FIG. 26.--An example of the little lonely school in the woods, a problem of the social worker. Not enough children to stimulate one another properly in the lesson-getting and play activities.]

THE BOY-SCOUT MOVEMENT

There is much to commend the boy-scout movement as a country organization. It must be thought of as an educative inst.i.tution. In discussing its best meanings and possibilities, Professor E. L. Holton, of the Kansas State Agricultural College, says: "Education as used here means habits of health, of work, of thrift, of observation, and of research. It is habit that determines the health of an individual and the sanitary conditions of a community; the social and moral level of the worker and the quality of his work; the returns from the farm and the ideals of the farmer; a man's bank account and his insight into the secrets of his environment. Habit has its physical basis in the flesh, the blood, and the nerve cells. There must be actual first-hand experience and leadership hitched up with text-book knowledge in educating the boy. The old elemental instincts of adventure, pugnacity, gang life, and following leadership must be taken into account and made to work out into life-compelling desires."

Before attempting the organization of the local Boy Scouts, one is advised first to send to the national organization and that of the state, if there be any, for literature and directions. The only caution which it seems necessary to give here is that there be connected with the conduct of the organization some serious problems and requirements and that it be not given over exclusively to merely doing wild and daring "stunts" and "hiking" about the country.

RURAL BOY-SCOUTS IN KANSAS

As an example of what is being done by way of organizing the rural boy scout movement, the Kansas plan under the direction of Professor E. L.

Holton is here given:--

The Agricultural College Council is organizing companies of Rural-Life Boy Scouts in all parts of Kansas. The aim of the Council is "a company in every community." There are 160,000 boys in Kansas eligible to membership. It seeks to encourage boys to learn the secrets of the prairies, the streams and the forests, and be able to read nature as well as books; to have a growing bank account, and to do some type of work better than it has been done by anyone else.

During the month of July or August there is to be a five to ten days'

Rural-Life Camp of Instruction in each county, which is to be attended by all companies of the county. This camp of instruction will be under the direction and management of the County Council. The program will consist of:--

1. Games and athletic contests.

2. Contest in judging farm crops and stock.

3. Naming birds, wild animals, fish, flowers, trees, shrubs, etc.

4. Reporting on the savings bank accounts.

5. Contests in any other line of work carried on in the county.

6. Talks on rural life subjects.

The duties of the individual scout are as follows:--

For the Third Cla.s.s--

1. Know by sight and call ten common birds.

2. Know by sight and track ten wild animals.

3. Know by sight five common game fish.

4. Know in the fields ten wild flowers.

5. Know by leaf, bark, and general outline ten common trees or shrubs.

6. Know the sixteen points of the compa.s.s.

7. Know the elementary rules for the prevention of typhoid fever.

8. Plant and cultivate according to the latest scientific methods not less than one-half acre of some farm or garden crop. (The town boy may subst.i.tute a town lot.)

9. Own and care for according to the latest scientific methods some type of pure bred domestic animal. (This includes poultry.) Value not less than $10.

10. Maintain a bank account of not less than $15.

11. Shall strive to graduate from the common schools.

For the Second Cla.s.s--

1. Know by sight and call twenty common birds.

2. Know by sight and track twenty wild animals.

3. Know by sight seven common game fish.

4. Know in the fields twenty wild flowers.

5. Know by leaf, bark, and general outline twenty common trees and shrubs.