Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1917 — WING TOOM’S BOYS AND GIRLS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WING TOOM’S BOYS AND GIRLS

More Child Work Might Result in Les> Child Labor. LET INTEREST GROW SLOWLY I "*» How the Young Folks' Activities Can Be So Directed as to Benefit Their Mental and Physical Health.

By SIDONIE M. GRUENBERG. , SOONER or later we are going to be shamed Into abolishing child labor in this country. It is difficult to find a single enthusiastic defender of the system that grinds the lives of little children into textiles and hardware and breakfast foods while grownups walk about wearily in search of work. And there are more and more persons every day becoming enthusiastic in advancing the notion that the children are to be saved for human living. In the meanwhile, however, most children seem obliged to choose between the labor offered them and demoralizing drifting and loafing. First of all we should clear up the perplexing confusion between work end labor. We speak of people’s work, but hardly realize that the bulk of the population is engaged in performing for hire various kinds bf service in which they are not at all interested. Most people labor for wages, doing what they are directed to do, in a large proportion of cases having fio understanding and no concern as to the outcome of their efforts. This is the kind of “work” that is offered to most children when they leave the schools and go to the factories and mills and shops. Now there is nothing to be said in defense of anyone spending his days at that sort of thing except that he needs the money and does not see any other way of getting it. On the other hand, the opportunity to keep busy doing something that is worth while, something that has an obvious purpose and interest to the worker, is the kind of opportunity that every child should have. Because the world’s work has become so organized as to leave only drudgery for children and for most parents, the early experiences of most children effectually prevent the development of a healthy attitude toward work. The adults hate their dally occupations, and it is not apparent that application will bring returns in proportion to the exertions made; as a partial result the children grow up in an atmosphere unfavorable to the spirit of workmanship. * There is every temptation to shirk, every suggestion for escaping responsibility. In addition to this unfavorable atmosphere there is the absence, in most homes and in most schools, of the op-

portunity to acquire work interests. The child is naturally active; the child would ever so much rather do something than sit still or watch someone else do it. Indeed, that is one of the reasons we’ have so much difficulty keeping him “In order” at home and at school. But this activity is either suppressed dr it is directed into channels that cannot hold the interest. Writing Compositions or parsing sentences or doing sums is not quite active enough for most healthy boys and girls. They want to* do something with their hands; they want to make something that will be there to be seen and understood and appreciated when it is finished. For the child’s physical health, as well as for his mental health, he needs the opportunity to do real work, to produce real results. This is quite as necessary as athletics or gymnastics and quite as necessary as ’citing or ’rithmetic. But in most homes there is little or nothing that the child can do, nothing that is worth while in an educative way. ..... Then the homes that still have opportunities for work should utilize these just as far as possible in the child’s development. The child’s interest in work as an accomplishment must grow. One of the ways of killing that interest is by overloading it early in the child’s life. This interest should grow slowly and unconsciously out of the play Interest. At its best, the work interest cannot be distinguished from the plaj interest. " This is seen v hen a man likd Huxley, devoting himself through years of hardship, to most arduous research, asks to be considered an “amateur,” a werker for the love of-the work. And this is seen with all great artists and inventors and organizers. We know how the child’s play shifts from aimless movements to the imitations of the activities of his elders, from mere sianlpulatton 6f objects and materiUs to the planned and purposeful. “making'* of things. When the child once reaches this stage there

should be constantly before Mm the materials and tools that can be used In “making”'things, and whatever material is “spoiled” in the course of making is a very cheap charge against the child’s education in work. The dress that, a little girl makes for her doll may not be as “fetching” as the one bought in the store, and It may even cost more in materials and attention from olders; but It is worth at least two or three of the dresses that you can buy. A little boy who delights in making cranberry preserves when his mother lets him gets much more satisfaction from the experience than he does from eating the mess, and begets a valuable part of his education at the same time. He may never become a chief cook or even a chemist, btft he ought to learn how to carry out more and more complex combinations of processes and to take satisfaction in getting results. It is not to be expected that all homes will ever be equipped with the variety of materials and tools that will give each kind of work Interest its opportunity to experiment It Is all the more important that the school should give children, from the earliest years, the experience of planning and

executing the making of all sorts of projects. In connection with the plays and festivals, in connection with the drarrihtlzatlon of literature and history, In connection with the publication of school papers, in connection with parties and entertainments, the better schools today furnish the children opportunities to do real work in a wide, range of materials. The sewing and cooking, the painting and carpentery work, the designing and planning, make up the very substance of abounding life. If we had more work perhaps there would be less labor—for adults as well as for children. '

The Child Would Much Rather Do Something Than Sit Down and Watch Someone Else Do It.

The Dress She Makes May Not Be as Fetching, but It Is Worth Two or Three of the Dresses That You Can Buy.