Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-10-02
The Separation of Parents and Chill
dren.

WE sometimes hear it said that the
American people are different from Eu
ropeans; that they are hOme-loving race
whereas the Europeans, especially the
French, have no homes, have no word for
"home" in their language, and are forever
gaddlng 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 a 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 I'M
learn from the English. Our immediate
subject has to do with only one form that
this separation takes, but, ii ought to be
seriously reflected on, how many are its
forms. In England it begins in the nurse
ry, and it is far from uncommon for it to
begin as early with us. Then there comes
the Sunday-school, an institution with
which there would be no fault to find if ii
were not to be suspected that it is coming
to take the place Of home instruction in
religion-a lamentable thing, if we only
knew it. That children should go away
from home to be taught their secular
studies has become 50 universal, and is a
custom so old-established, that there is no
use in asking whether it be wise or not
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 amusements 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 las 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!-
Scribner's MONTHLY.