Woman's Club Work and Programs Part 32

BOOKS TO CONSULT--George Albert Coe: Education in Religion and Morals.

George Hodges: Training of Children in Religion. Sir Oliver J. Lodge: Parent and Child. E. D. Starbuck: The Psychology of Religion. E. P.

Saint John: Stories and Story Telling. Horace Bushnell: Christian Nurture.

The Sunday-night supper should have a large place in the life of the home. The children may prepare it alone or with slight a.s.sistance, and it will be found an excellent way of interesting them if they tire of the long afternoon. The subject of the memorizing of Scriptural pa.s.sages and of hymns may be discussed, and personal experiences on this line may be given.

X--MODERN CHILD STUDY

1. _The New Movement and Its Breadth_--Interest among physicians, teachers, clergymen, psychologists, and parents. Some reference to the vast literature, encyclopedias, etc. Discussion of helpful books.

2. _Physical_--Study of food values for the individual baby and the growing child. Fresh air and sleeping outdoors. The outdoor kindergarten. Sensible clothing. Gymnastics for deficiencies.

3. _Mental_--Care against overstimulation. Interesting diaries of development. Cooperation between teacher and parent. Studying the child's individuality. Books for successive ages. Private versus public schools. What is an ideal education? Is it possible under ordinary conditions?

4. _Moral and Religious_--How are morals best taught? Books that help the parent and teacher. Individual problems (lying, etc.). Knowing our neighbors' children, their character and influence.

5. _Practical Outcome_--Mothers' clubs. Magazines of child culture.

Increased place given to child life in the modern world. Are children too prominent in the home life?

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Mrs. M. F. Washburn: Study of Child Life. M. P. E.

Groszmann: The Career of the Child. E. A. Kirkpatrick: Fundamentals of Child Study. W. B. Drummond: The Child, His Nature and Nurture.

The subject of mothers' congresses may be discussed: Are they practically helpful, or merely speculative? Present the topic of inst.i.tutions for children, homes and asylums for orphans, for the blind, the crippled, the feeble-minded; also, children's courts and the Big Brother movement. Discuss at this meeting the question of adopting children.

CHAPTER XXII

MISCELLANEOUS PROGRAMS

When clubs have serious subjects for their year's work, which require considerable reading and the writing of substantial papers, it gives variety to arrange the general program in such a way that a light program comes between two heavy ones; or at least to have every third meeting of quite different character from the rest.

Often clubs can invite a speaker from outside to take up most of the hour; a traveller, a settlement worker, a college professor, an actor, a journalist, a judge of a Children's Court, a student of bird life, all have something worth while to contribute. Perhaps a writer will read from his books; or a musician will sing or play, or an artist will tell of life in the ateliers of Paris or Rome. Even in a small town one can find some one who has a friend who will come and help in such ways, and there is no better way to rouse interest in a club than to offer such meetings occasionally.

Where it is impossible to provide anything of this kind, it is still a good plan to have miscellaneous meetings from time to time; but there is always the danger that these will be spoiled by having them consist of odds and ends, a paper on one subject followed by another on something which has no relation to the first, and perhaps a third which is still further afield. It is best to have but one topic for each meeting, with music if possible, and a social hour afterwards.

One of the best ways to begin a miscellaneous program is to take up current events for ten minutes. It is possible to plan systematically for these, so that one member is responsible for a report on foreign affairs, wars or politics, or whatever is of national importance anywhere; another for great scientific discoveries or important inventions; a third, noteworthy music; a fourth, for the great book of the hour; a fifth, for anything of especial importance to women. No one should write these brief outlines, but merely give them informally. The material can be found by following the daily papers, or looking up articles in review magazines.

Clubs which study a historical or literary subject often find it interesting to begin these miscellaneous programs with a roll-call, members answering to their names with quotations from the authors of the period, or from one author alone. There are books of quotation which give the best short lines for such recitations, and one gets a good, if brief idea of writers in this way.

As to the matter of miscellaneous programs, the subjects should not be too heavy and papers should not be too long or too seriously written.

Popular themes, the books of some well-known author, the magazines of the day, a philanthropy, a brief study of a political figure, all work out easily. Above all, whatever theme is selected, there should be a discussion of the subject at the close of the meeting. Women do not speak easily and naturally impromptu, and it is an immensely valuable training to be obliged to present one's views clearly, concisely and to the point before even a small audience, and even a short experience of this kind in a club is of enormous a.s.sistance. If the subject of the discussion is announced in advance members may prepare themselves to take part.

I--A CENTURY OF DRESS

A very simple but most interesting program for one miscellaneous meeting may be prepared on this theme. Divide it into three parts, having the first paper on The Dress of Our Grandmothers; speak of its durability, its simplicity, its lack of change from one season to another; mention the bonnets, mitts, slippers, m.u.f.fs and fans; ill.u.s.trate with old prints or fashion plate or ill.u.s.trations from books of about 1820 and 1830.

The second paper would then be on The Dress of Our Mothers. This will cover the periods of 1860, with its hoopskirts, its coalscuttle bonnets, its shawls, worked collars, and cameo pins; 1871 too, should be represented, with the tied back skirts, the small hats perched on chignons, the ridiculous sunshades. Read Miss Flora McFlimsey at this point.

The third paper would be on Our Own Dress, showing the extreme styles, short, with scanty skirts and huge hats. Speak briefly of the sudden change of styles and their causes, and the tendency to extravagance.

Discuss topics such as these: How far shall we follow the dictates of fashion? How much of a woman's income should be spent for clothes? What of our daughters' dress?

It will add to the interest of this program if the three papers are read by members in the costumes of the times of which they speak, or if three or four tableaux are shown ill.u.s.trating the papers. Have little ballads about dress sung if possible, the Old Grey Bonnet, the Owld Plaid Shawl, and Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be? among others.

Several programs might easily be made from this outline; one, on Peasant Dress, with ill.u.s.trations from all countries; another on Colonial Dress; a third on Quaker Dress. By using the dress of all nations and all times, an entire year might be delightfully spent on the subject of Women's Costumes.

II--EMERSON AND HIS TIMES

Clubs which prefer literary study will find this subject most interesting, and like the previous one, capable of expansion into many programs.

Begin with a roll-call, the responses being selections from Emerson's prose and verse.

The first paper would be on his boyhood, his parents, his home life and education, his marriage, his ministry, his quiet life in Concord.

The second paper would take up the friends so closely a.s.sociated with him, especially Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Th.o.r.eau, Longfellow and Whittier. The story of Brook Farm may come in here, or have a special paper by itself; close with his travels in England.

The last paper would be on Emerson's work as author and lecturer; of his place in his own day; of what Englishmen thought of him, especially Carlyle; of the influence of his essays on young men.

Have readings from prose and verse; read also from some estimates of him by great writers. See A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by James Eliot Cabot. Discuss, Is Emerson's place among philosophers what it was a generation ago? Does the modern idea of social service find encouragement in him? What was his att.i.tude in regard to individualism?

III--CHILDREN AND BOOKS

This is one of the topics on which it would be interesting to have the club invite some speaker, perhaps a librarian, to speak. She would probably take up some of the following topics. The effect of the public library for children of the poor, of their interest in it, their delight in the warm, charming reading-room, their growth in personal cleanliness as they learn to care for the books entrusted to them. Of what books children draw from a library; of the reading of history, of fairy stories, of poetry, of books of adventure. Definite and helpful suggestions will be given for children who have books at home, of what parents should give them to read, and how to interest them in good literature.

If no speaker can be had for the meeting, divide these topics into two or three papers, and have members write or speak on them.

Close with a discussion on these lines: What books have replaced the Rollo Books, Little Prudy, and the Elsie Books? What of giving children grown-up writers to read such as Shakespeare, Don Quixote, Mallory and Bunyan? Does much reading of stories vitiate their taste for better literature?

This program will be more delightful if songs about children are interspersed; Eugene Field's verses set to music by De Koven are admirable.

IV--MURAL PAINTING

In preparing this program look up in advance plenty of ill.u.s.trations from historical books on art and architecture, magazines of art, and prints and photographs of famous examples, such as the Sistine Chapel.

The first paper will of course deal with the earliest form of mural painting, found in Egypt, a.s.syria, and Greece. Describe these, and notice the colors used by the Greeks.

The second paper should speak of the wonderful paintings in churches, of altar pieces, and the decorations in fresco of walls and ceilings; select from the many examples of churches in Italy. Then the guild halls of the middle ages should be mentioned, and the curious work on bridges and elsewhere in Germany. The third paper should speak of the extraordinary interest to-day in mural painting; note that of the Houses of Parliament and other places abroad; show pictures of the work of Abbey and Sargent in the Boston Public Library, and of Blashfield and La Farge in the Congressional Library at Washington and elsewhere, and the excellent mural paintings on our public buildings, court houses and capitols, and some public schools in New York.

Discuss: The Cost of Mural Paintings To-day: Are They Worth While?