Farm Boys and Girls Part 21

Unless the country dance can be radically reformed, it must be very strongly advised against. There is something about this occasion as usually conducted which seems to invite coa.r.s.e characters and disreputable conduct. The country dance has so often been the scene of vice, drunkenness, and other such evils as to have received a permanent stigma of cheapness. The only seeming possibility of making a success of it is by the method of inviting a very exclusive set to attend, and this thing is so suggestive of aristocracy and sn.o.bbishness as to cause not a little ill feeling in the neighborhood. Under present conditions the country dance cannot be so managed as to make it contribute to the social and moral uplift of country young people. There are many better forms of entertainment which may be subst.i.tuted for it.

Along with the country dance should be rated the cheap professional entertainments that are so often given in the country school houses.

Many of these are not only degrading but are morally evil in their suggestions, while they tend to give the young a depraved taste in respect to public shows and theaters. The school trustees may well exclude all such "shows" from the building.

ADDITIONAL FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT

The farm parents most desirous of leading in the young people's entertainments, and best fitted to do so, may find it impracticable to invite the young into their home. In such case, there are several other ways whereby the desired ends may be achieved.

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

FIG. 31.--A rural scene in Canada, where the church and the school are situated together. The large barn in the background is significant. Much of the daily thought and conversation is centered here.]

1. _The social hour at the religious services._--It is deemed quite advisable that those who plan the religious service in the country have thought of a social hour in connection therewith. The latter may prove fully as helpful in a constructive sense as the former, and it can in no wise detract from the value of the religious meeting. This combination of events is already being successfully tried in a number of places.

For example, at the mid-week evening service, there is given first an hour to the prayer meeting or the discussion of the religious topics and the church work. After that, the scene is changed into one of clean, wholesome amus.e.m.e.nt with the special thought of giving the young people social entertainment and training. It has been found that this very method of uniting the religious and social service under a carefully planned program sometimes more than doubles the attendance. Of course the first essential for the success of such a meeting is that an able leader be in charge of it.

2. _A country literary society._--In times gone by the country literary society has played a mighty part indirectly in the building of the nation. Many a statesman or leader of the people has received his first aid and inspiration at the little old country "literary and debating society." There is no good reason why this same general form of society might not continue to do its effective work. However, in its best form, there will be some additions to the old procedure of merely debating the important public questions. The program makers may well have in mind the ideal of bringing out every form of talent latent among the young of the community. It is especially advisable that every young attendant be given an invitation to do the part of which he is most capable, and that he be urged to do it. It is quite possible to arrange a program upon which only the ablest and most capable young persons of the neighborhood may appear. But such would be a violation of the best purpose of the society; namely, not merely to provide a first-cla.s.s entertainment, but an entertainment _which shall bring out the greatest possible variety of talent and awaken interest and enthusiasm on the part of every member_.

Then, let the motto of the ideal country literary society be, "Something worth while for every member to do." The old-fashioned country society, like the older public school, was too narrow. It touched life and awakened interests in only a few places. The old school tested a boy in the three R's and geography. If he did well in these, he was "smart." If he failed in the traditional subjects, he was branded as a dullard and crowded out of the school, although in respect to some other untested activities he may have been a slumbering genius. So with the primitive "literary and debating society"; debating and "speaking pieces" were practically the only numbers on the program and usually only the ablest were allowed to appear. Ordinary talent in debating and reciting and all manner of promising talent in other lines was allowed to slumber on in the lives of many of the young people in attendance. Now, it is practically a certainty that every member of the young literary society can perform a part very acceptably, provided the discerning leader know what that part is. And best of all, the bringing out of such talent means the awakening of many other splendid interests among the youthful members of the community, and finally the development of moral courage and other forms of manliness and womanliness.

Now, to come to the point of a social result, the so-called literary entertainment can easily be made up in two parts, the literary and the social; and there should be set apart an hour for the latter.

3. _The social side of the economic clubs._--In many instances, there will be organized boys' corn-raising or crop-improvement clubs, and with them country clubs of the girls interested in household economy. These club meetings may be made the occasion of not a little social improvement. The boys and girls may meet at the same hour and place, and after the business has been disposed of there may be a coming together in a social way. Such arrangement is highly advisable for two reasons.

First, it will certainly increase the membership of the clubs; and, second, the social instincts of the young people may be suitably indulged.

SOME CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS

The leader interested in the foregoing plans may again be reminded of the necessity of inst.i.tuting a social organization of such a nature as to touch all the young lives in the neighborhood. The rules and regulations governing the society should therefore be drawn on broad and liberal lines, not forgetting the great possibilities of awakening slumbering interests and apt.i.tudes, and of building up a social community that will draw young people to it.

If one will take the time to drive for a hundred miles in a direct line through the farm districts, as the author has done, he will be not a little surprised at the striking contrast in the social conditions of the various neighborhoods pa.s.sed through. In one instance he will be told that there is absolutely nothing present to invite the young--a dull, dead place with perhaps many run-down farms and farm homes to keep it company. He will learn that the young people of such a community are running off to some neighboring town where many of them find a cheap and degrading cla.s.s of entertainment. But the next adjoining neighborhood may present a converse situation. One will be told that the young people are happy and contented there, that they have frequent meetings of their social clubs and other forms of organization; most probably the appearance of the neighborhood will be likewise much better than that of the other one mentioned. Attractive homes, well-kept roads and hedges, and other evidences of prosperity will meet one's view.

In one district visited, the author found that this better situation had an interesting history and that it was nearly all traceable to a quarter of a century of public-spiritedness of one man. This resident had settled upon a quarter section of good land. While he was reconstructing his own home and its surroundings into a place of attractiveness, he was continually engaged in awakening the entire neighborhood in behalf of better things. He had led out in establishing a well-attended Sunday school in the district, had been instrumental in inst.i.tuting regular preaching service there twice each month, had led the entire neighborhood out on more than one occasion for a day's work in improving and beautifying the school grounds, had been the organizer and director of the country literary society, and of more than one club of farmers and their wives. During all this time he was correspondent for one or two county papers and used every occasion for advertising the home community. All together, it was a most commendable and far-reaching service which this one man performed for his own neighborhood. So, it may be said that wherever there is one inspired leader in a country community, there is life.

Finally, it may be urged that the biggest thing in the rural community is not the big crop of corn or wheat or the excellent breeds of live stock. Important as these things are, the great concern of the community should be the development of sterling character in the lives of the growing boys and girls and the cleanness and integrity of the personalities of every one within the neighborhood limits. To that end let this social center ideal be actualized, becoming a place toward which the thoughts of all will go frequently and fondly during the hours of care and toil. Let it be made a place the thought of which will forever impart a full measure of good cheer, of contentment, and of honest courage to the mind of every member of the society thereabout.

Let it be a place so ordered and arranged that things sacred and divine may reach down to the things often thought of as very commonplace and mean, and exalt the latter to their true and proper place. Lastly, let it be earnestly desired and planned for that every heart in the rural district shall be rekindled with a living fire of enthusiasm in behalf of the general improvement--of interest in the things that are high and divine, and of affection and good will toward all in the community. Let some local resident rise up as leader and bring this order of things to pa.s.s, and the social experiences of the young people will naturally become of such a nature as to develop them into men and women of great worth and efficiency.

REFERENCES

Wider Use of the School Plant. Clarence Arthur Perry. Chapter IX, "Social Centers." Charities Publication Committee, N.Y.

Chapters on Rural Progress. Kenyon L. b.u.t.terfield. Chapter XIV, "The Social Side of the Farm Question." University of Chicago Press.

Development and Education. M. V. O'Shea. Chapter XIV, "Problems of Training." Houghton, Mifflin Company.

Social Control. Edward A. Ross. Ph.D. Chapters VII and VIII, "The Need and Direction of Social Control." Macmillan.

The Girl Wanted. Nixon Waterman. Forbes & Co., Chicago. A wholesome and cheering book for girls.

Confidences. Edith B. F. Lowry, M.D. Forbes & Co. Plain, helpful talks regarding the s.e.x life of girls.

See the excellent editorial article, "Forces that Move Upward," _Farmer's Voice_, June 15, 1911.

Causes of Delinquency Among Girls. Falconer. _Annals American Academy_. Vol. 36, p. 77.

Democracy and Education. Dr. J. B. Storms. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1907, p. 62.

The Efficient Life. Dr. L. H. Gulick. Chapter III, "Life That is Worth While." Doubleday, Page Company.

The Ideals of a Country Boy. A. D. Holloway in _Rural Manhood_, May, 1910.

Why Not Education on the s.e.x Question. Editorial article.

_Review of Reviews_, January, 1910.

Report of Vice Commission of Chicago. Chapter V, "Child Protection and Education." Guntorf-Warren Printing Co., Chicago.

The Spirit of Democracy. Charles Fletcher Dole. Chapter XXIX, "The Education for a Democracy." Crowell & Co.

The Education of the Boy of To-morrow. A. D. Dean. _World's Work_, April, 1911. Prize essay.

College and the Rural Districts. W. N. Stearns. _Education_, April, 1911.

The Boy Problem. Educational pamphlet No. 4. Society for Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, N.Y. 10 cents. Treats ably the question of social purity.

Genesis. A Manual for Instruction of Children in Matters of s.e.x. B. S. Talmey, M.D. Pract.i.tioners' Publishing Company, N.Y.

CHAPTER XIV

_THE FARM BOY'S INTEREST IN THE BUSINESS_

The theory that the boys and girls who grow up in the country must in time become settled in farm homes of their own has neither logic nor psychology nor common sense to support it. It is never a question of whether or not a boy will take up the work of his father, but whether or not he will find at length the true and only calling for which his nature is best fitted. If the parents of the country boy will keep the latter question clearly in mind, many a problem in the latter's rearing will be made much easier.

In order to break the monotony of the style of expression, much of this chapter will be addressed somewhat directly to the father of the country boy.

WHAT IS IN YOUR BOY?

If a man should come suddenly into possession of a piece of land having a productive soil, one of his first questions in regard to the soil would be, What will it best grow? Farmers blundered and starved along for generations in an attempt to make a first-cla.s.s farm produce the wrong crops, or to produce the right crop through the wrong manner of treatment; and this simply because they used methods of tradition and guess rather than those of science.

Now apply the foregoing situation to the boy problem, if you will. So long as we attempt to secure from him the wrong results and deal with him by wrong methods, we are likely to conclude that there is "nothing in him." Therefore, in order to act intelligently and helpfully in the matter of giving the young son a business relation to farm life, it is first necessary to determine, as far as may be possible, the bent of his mind, remembering that the great artist, the great writer, or the great captain of industry is just as likely to be born in the country home as elsewhere. In fact, we shall learn in time, much to our advantage, that there must be a careful sifting process which will result in sending some of the country-bred young men directly to their important places in the city, and some of the city-bred youths to the rural industries.

MUCH EXPERIMENTATION NECESSARY