Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-09-12
The Separation of Parents and Chill.
dren.

WE sometimes hear it said that the
American people are different from Eu-
ropeans; that they are ahome-loving race;
whereas the Europeans, especially the
French, have no homes, have no word for
"home" in their language, and are forever
gadding about; whereas the Americans
do not care for pleasures that are only to
be had in public; hence, for them, no
| need of squares, "piazzas, ""places," pub
lie gardens, parks, ETC., ETC., etc. We will
not discuss here the question whether the
French are as domestic people as the
English are. In the strict sense of that
word they probably are not, for their eli
mate does not make it necessary that they
should hug the earth as their island
neighbors do; but that the love of the
family is as much developed in France as
| it is anywhere in the world-that, in fact,
to speak the truth and fear not, it is
rather stronger in France than it is any
where else in the world-we do most
powerfully and potently believe, and
| stand ready to give good reasons for so
believing. Yet it is certainly true that
| they spend little of their leisure time in
| doors, and the middle term that recon
| Giles the two statements is, that when they
| go abroad, the family, as rule, goes all
| together. Now we see no reason for
doubling that Americans, if the proper
means were provided, would come in
time to take as much open-air exercise as
the French, and that they would enjoy as
much as the French enjoy taking the air
father and mother and children, all to-
| gether. We think it in the highest de
gree desirable that this should be. One
of the most prolific sources of misery
and crime, in this civilized world of ours,
is found in the separation of the interests
of parents and children. In this respect
we have much to learn from the
French and Germans, and much to un-
learn from the English. Our immediate
| subject has to do with only one form that
this separation takes, but, it ought to be
seriously reflected on, how many are its
forms. In England it begins in the nurse
ry, and ii is far from uncommon for it to
begin as early with us. Then there comes
the Sunday y-school, an institution with
which there would be no fault to find if it
were not to be suspected that it is coming
to take the place of home instruction in
Religions lamentable thing, if we only
knew it. That children should go away
| from home to be taught their secular
studies has become so universal, and is a
custom so old-established, that there is no
use in asking whether it be wise or no;
but here in America it is only one in the
long list of separations between parents
and their children. Perhaps it is more
conspicuous in our aniusements than it is
in the serious work of every day; but a
foreigner, accustomed to seeing mothers
sharing with nurses the supervision OF
their children in the parks and gardens
fathers, mothers, children, and nurses, all
together at the fairs, and abroad on fete-
days, and all the family, even (as in the
case of working-people) to the baby, en-
joying the theater together-how must the
foreigner in question be puzzled when he
observes the marked separation that ex-
lists among us between the elder people
and the younger in their amusements!-
Scri6ner's Monthly