The record-union., 1894-11-30
4 QUESTION WORTHY OF THOUGHT.
Why Do Boys Leave School Soonel
Than GirIs2
What Can We Do About Tt - Miss
Weeks Paper Before the Teach
ers' County Institute.

The following paper was read before
the Teachers County Institute last Tues
day by Miss Annie c. Weeks of this city,
and was considered by the institute so
excellent and full of food for thought to
parents and teachers:
In the old days it was the exception
when girls were found advancing in the
path OF knowledge beyond an exceed
ingly short distance, which they were
supposed to tread with timid and hesi-
tating, not to say apologetic. feet.
Now, as we look through the lower
grades OF our schools, we find boys and
girls In about equal numb bers, working
side by side, and receiving the same in
struction.
Soon the scene changes. In our eighth
and ninth grades and in the High School
the girls outnumber the boys almost two
to one. Never was the educated man
more needed in the community than
now. Never did young men have more
desperate need OF every aid that educa-
ton can offer than at the present mo-
ment. Our schools are open and teach
ers stand ready to give instruction. Yet
from the seventh grade onward, there is
loss among the boys out of all proper
ton to that among the girls.
The modern Eve still finds the fruit of
the tree of knowledge fair to look upon.
but II she were TO ot1er it to the young
Adams among her classmates il would
apparently no longer prove a temptation,
unless she were to persuade them that it
would lmpart knowledge of the rules OF
football or the noble art OF selt-defense," I"
or that other knowledge which perhaps
implies arttulness rather than art, skill
III the acquisition of wealth.
The boys are being defrauded of their
rlghtful heritage. They are losing what
most of them can never regain and,
hal ia
desire TO possess their heritage.
Why Is 1t? What can we do about it :?
Some time ago L determined to submit
these questions to the pupils OF the ninth
grade and to their parents, hoping that
from more than eighty homes containing
thoughtful men and women and children
there might SHINE forth light bright
enough TO enable me to see some possible
solution OF the problem.
To-day / will, as far as possible con-
stltute myself sort OF medium through
whom my boys and girls and their
parents may convey to you some food for
thought and suggestion.
First come the opinions of the pupils
themselves-bOys and girls between the
ages OF II and Is. They speak with evi-
dent trankness and a beautiful disregard
OF age, sex or position in the dealing of
their blows, which fall alike on teachers,
parents, companions and themselves
about the subject, and there is little in
what these have written beyond a reitera-
ton OF the fact itself. Others, however
speak from actual knowledge and OBJ
Servatlon, and many of their quaint and
simple eX DreSSlonS of opinion would be
extremely funny if they We're not so sad
denlngY showing as they do with how
light grasp many OF our youth hold
their privileges. and how easily that
grasp relaXes altogether.
y Nearly all, boys and girls alike, speak
OF tue one cause which Is so often the re-
suit of circumstances beyond the power
OF the Individual to alter-poyerty and
destitutlon. AS several say, there are
more ways open for boy to earn little
money than tor girl, aud consequently
more boys drop out for that reason
when the parents wages are insufficient
Tor the family maintenance. For this
trouble where is the remedy? Our hearts
grow sore as we realize the agony and
sorrow through which human beings
pass in the awful struggle to live, ii that
can be called life out OF which all light
and happiness are crushed by the steady
pressure OF actual want. TO borrow an
expression from a recent writer, we say
in piouS phrase that the 'laborer is
worthy of his hire, but we do little to
make the hire Worthy of the laborer,"
and until something is accomplished in
this direction the woes of poverty will
fall, not on the poor alone, but on the
whole Nation.
AS l look over the papers L find the
pupils observing, just as we do, that be-
sides these unfortunate children of want
there are many others who leave school
In early youth. Their parents are able to
support them, and are not actively un-
willing to allow them educational priv
ileges. Indeed, it appears that many of
the parents would feel certain pride in
In ,l-xN
school, II the boys themselves were really
anxious to attend.
The girls have some theories which they
promulgate with unru11ied serenity-the-
ories which might well cause the defunct
advocates OF the lnteriority of women to
rise untlmely from their graves i'll horri-
lied protest. one speaks for many when
she says: ''Of course girls are more in
telligent than boys, and so like TO 90 to
school better than boys do" One young
girl comes nearer what seems TO me the
real truth when she writes: 'I think
that, very often, before boys and girls
reach the high school the girls think more
about their education than do the bows
A girl at fifteen seems one or two years
older than boy at the same age, and al
though a boy may be as bright, in nv
mind girl looks more into The future
whereas a boy is thinking of football.
baseball and other games equally as inn
portant in his eyes"
1t is that very combination of young
ness' in thought and manliness in feeling
that makes a boy at once SO likable and
so perpIeXing. He requires so much
careful control, and he is SO impatient OF
any restraint.
One girl thinks that 'of course educa-
tion is a needful thing, but men do not
need TO know things that are taught in
the high grades in order TO become COM
mon laborers, farmers or mechanics, and
now, girls are the ones to become school,
mistresses"; and this idea, in whole or in
part, is at the root of some OF the diff
Guilty. There is widespread feeling that
Tor people generally nothing but the most
rudimentary education is of practical
benefit.
BY the way, that good old word
practical" as many people now en-
ploy it, is rapidly becoming the most
hopeless word in the language. 1t is
like a compresslble covered wall,
closing in, and in, and farther in,
shutting out the light and air of the
soul, the inspiration OF poetry, the knowl-
edge of science, the great lessons of his
tory-aIl that Will tend TO lessen mans S
mlseries or help him to forget them
leaving the unfortunate victim standing
helpless, with nothing TO do but TO try, in
that miserable little space. To make a
living" while his eyes are so blinded
that he does not even realize that be is
surrounded by darkness, and his percep-
tions are so deadened that he does not
know there is anything better beyond
The boys tell US over and over again
that through playfulness and inattention
some of their companions fall behind
their classmates, take home bad reports.
lose interest and then, as they express il.
''tease'' to be allowed 10 go TO work. The
different ways in which these statements
end seem equally sad 10 me. Some say