The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-05-22
|CIG lll5'lTl'|El SMOKllNG
SUPERINTENDENT SAYLOR
ON THE SUBJECT
From \ Standpoint OF . Teacher-says
Teachers Must Have the Home Influence
Without Which They Cannot Correct the
Boys Habits.

fact that it youth is told not to do GER
tain things they are all the more apt to
get out behind a woodshed and do it.
The paper further stated that certain
teachers had talked to the boys against
the habit. The teachers misconstrued
the tenor Of the article, got mad, and
appealed to Superintendent Saylor.
That gentleman, in a friendly letter to
the News, writes the following points
pertinent to the question:
st is not my purpose in noticing your
article Of last Friday to write a So
called r%efutation, o to complain.
/ would like, since the matter is raised,
to add some new facts. 1t is generally
conceded that a boys associates and
his environment outside of the school
room are responsible for his bad habits.
Sometimes the home is responsible. I
have known the home to teach a child
to swear, use tobacco, etc. Again I
have known other homes while endeav-
oring to protect their boys to be so un-
wise in their protection that the effect
was to drive the boys into bad habits.
Generally speaking, we assume that
the home can be trusted to work for
the child's best interest.
The most potent force in making a
cigarette smoker is the back alley or
hay-mow and street influence. The in
fluence of associates, the influence and
example of adults while the boys are
roaming around the streets are the fac
tors to be considered as shaping the
acts of the boys. The street influence
shows itself detrimental upon girls
too. The main reason girls are more
free from Objectionable habits is be-
cause they receive more protection
from the home.
"The teacher can tell the child that
has come from the home where a large
share of street influence is allowed to
shape its life. The police and every
body in the city understands what it
e to allow a boy to ''come up on
the street without any useful home
training. Our streets and reform
schools are full Of them. Again every
body is fully informed as to what it
means toward fixing the right conduct
of children when the home reduces the
street influenceto the minimum and en-
larges the home influence to the max
imum. Boys that are protected, in
structed and trained into right habits
seldom if ever give the city, school or
home any concern. The home and the
street have the boy three hours to the
schools n during nine months in the
year, and all the time during the other
three months. It does not seem reason
able that the school can be responsible
in a wholesale way for causing boys
to take on any Objectionable habit, es-
pecially when we make it the supreme
are to throw around them helpful in
luences.
ssWe know that the boys come to us
cigarette smokers. The very first day
Of every term they can be told. When
the failures are counted up at promotion
time, boys are greatly in excess over
the girls, and the cigarette smokers the
n greatly in the majority among the
boys. Of all the boys that have given
us trouble the cigarette smoker again
leads. We believe it to be one Of the
great influences that causes boys to
drop out of school. The boys mental
ability and acumen is dulled. He finds
it difficult to keep up with his class and
finally drops out. I do not assume that
cigarette smoking does all of this, but
that it contributes largely to these
ends | do not doubt. When you stop
to think that probably not over ten per
cent of the boys smoke cigarettes, and
yet are s%eventy-fve per cent of all the
above classes, it raises a very reason
able supposition of it's detrimental eff
fects.
Il wish to repeat that these boys
come to school with their habits fixed.
They are not made by reason of the
teachings Of the school. It is true, an
occasional teacher may be unwise by
q OF the way a moral truth is pre-
sented, but the great majority of them
teach wisely. Elliott school is particu-
larly free from weak teaching along
this line. Elliott nor any other school
can not regulate the street life of the
child. We have the child from 9 a. m.
TO $3.50 p. M, and the home must do the
rest. We could take any patron through
the school and point u the children
whose street life had been reduced to
the minimum, and whose home life has
been increased to the maximum and
filled full Of helpful influences. It
leaves but little for us to do in teach
ing right conduct. We can point. on
the other hand, to the opposite, and in
nearly every case it leaves all for us to
do, and in many instances we can do
very little with il in the short time the
chile is withus. The public school can
g be made a s%scure-all.o It can
supplement- the home, city and state,
but when left to itself it has 0 than
Is can handle successfully. The street
life Is the curse Of the city boy and
would be Of the city girl il she was
granted the same un~restrained free