The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-01
THE VACATION SCHOOL
THE EXPERIMENT As TRIED IN CHI
CAGo AN ENTIRE SUCCESS.
A Thousand Tried to Enter
where Only o Could BE Admit
ted-This Seasons Plans.

AC 1&CAAO 9EAR0~ -
all large cities. 1t cannot be swept aside
nor ignored. The cry of the juvenile sum-
mer idler has penetrated educational cir
Giles with Macedonian insistence. In Bos-
ton, New York, Cleveland and Chicago the
public school authorities are making a care
full study Of this question. In each of those
places vacation schools have been conducted
for two years past by voluntary associa-
tons and supported by private subscrip-
tions. The success of these schools has
justified the following statement. made by
Superintendent Lane, in Chicago. He says:
Il believe that within a few years the
school boards of every large city In the
United States will recognize that vacation
schools should be made a part of the public
| school SYSTEM Testimony from parents
and children proves the value of the school
discipline afforded pupils in the vacation
time, and the experiment has convinced all
observers of the desirability Of summer in
struction for children"
With the closing of school doors and the
locking of the schoolyard gates come anx-
ious hours for mothers and the uniformed
preservers of the public peace, who realize
that it still idle hands for whom mis-
chief is divided. The question of what to
DO with her active boys and restless girls
during the long summer confronts many a
mother, and fills her with dread of vaca-
ton days. For those who can sing truth
fully, ''Ho, no! The wood, the hill, the
dale!'' the anxious question is solved, but
for the large majority of our boys and girls
| no helpful, pleasant occupations are planned
to fill the long hours of the summer months.
Vacation, instead of the pleasant recrea-
ton time that it ought to be, becomes sim
ply a restless, idle drifting till the schools
open again in the fall and regular duties
begin once more. The success of the sum-
mer schools in New York SO impressed Miss
Mcdowell. who is at the head of the uni
versity settlement III Chicago, that she was
led to arrange a session in the Medill School
two summers ago, the expenses OF which
were paid from the school funds. Inc
board of education was said to be very en-
thusiastic over the success of this school,
and promised hat vacation schools should
be established in a number of localities the
following summer. But summer came only
to find school funds exhausted. However,
Miss Mcdowell, with the help of friends,
succeeded in establishing a school in the
Seward building, near the university set
tlement, in 1897. At first those in charge OF
this plan were not sure that the boys and
girls would be interested in 1t, but the open
ing of the school soon proved the eagerness
which the children felt for summer school
work. So many longing little applicants
presented themselves that they had to be
carefully selected, and only those allowed to
attend classes whom the teachers believed
to be most in need of the school work. A
L1OQSo1l II ~ tAAO NAAOt WIZ ~AN
school was first opened, and only three hum
dred could be allowed to remain. A stray
boy was sometimes found trying to 'sneak"
into school, and one visitor tells, of seeing
q sorrowful little girl sucking her finger
and swinging her small legs discontentedly
from a back seat in the sewing class. In
reply to a question, she t~earfully yolun-
teered the information that there was not
room for her. so she came every day and
looked on while her sister and the other
little girls worked mats and made neat
hens in roller towels.
BEAUTY AND POETRY.
The work in the vacation school combines
the useful and the recreative in the most
delightful way. The object is to make the
school hours as valuable and happy as pos
sible. THE pupil is to be brought in touch
with the ideal side of life, to be shown, if
possible, some of the beauty and poetry in
the world, to have placed before him ideals
Of citizenship and high standards of right
living" The three hours and a half each
day that the children were within school
walls were spent without textbooks, but
they were learning delightful things about
birds, and bees, and grasses, and wood cary
ing; ana ous ea eel n1eou1 me e p Q were per per
at boxes and shelves hour after hour, and
the girls threw themselves with enthusiasm
into the work of learning how to make
housekeeping a fine art. The various de-
partments at the Seward school included
kindergarten work, sloyd (manual training),
IldlQIG 0LuQJS nlNSlSp " -
sewing and good citizenship" Nature
study aims to help the child to see the
things about him and to realize their rela-
ton to each other. Those who had charge
of the nature study brought into the school
rooms plants, grasses. flowers and fruit, and
t neipG ma ter inii Several u times S1@ay during Grfieeu the ie sesl
sion each class was taken for an excursion
to the country.
for sixty pupils, and both boys and girls
thoroughly appreciated the work. Eighty
girls enjoyed the sewing class, which was
calculated to arouse any girl to interest in
her needle. Visitors spoke of the satisfac-
ton with which a little girl would finish
off q seed label or a bread and butter pot
boy worked at a corner shelf or a bread
board for home use.
GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
The requirements for good citizenship were
kept constantly before the children. The
"Clean City League was one of the most
practical and interesting features Of the
school. Through this organization, we are
told, systematic instruction was given in
regard to city ordinances governing the
cleaning Of streets, alleys, yards and gar
bage boxes. The children were reminded
that it is a citizens duty to keep his prem
Uses in a sanitary condition and to see that
his rights as a taxpayer are not neglected.
1T is his right to have a clean city, and
it is his duty to bring in formal complaints
of all violations of ordinances" they were
told. The members of the league were asked
to observe the condition of the neighbour
hood and taught to file proper complaints
TO the authorities. These complaints were
sent to the City Hall and received proper
attention. The children were shown that
the sanitary officers cannot do everything.
and that unless the householder does his
and her part the inspector cannot do his.
The children were regular in their attend
anco and few dropped out during the school
weeks. Those who had formerly been habit
ual truants came eagerly day after day.
One German mother said: I'VE don't have
any trouble making our children go 10
school now. We do have trouble, though,
keeping them at home" The vacation
schools in Chicago found that it was pos
sible to teach children what they most
needed TO know They also showed by the
effect produced upon the neighborhood in
which the pupils lived that the summer
school is a distinctly useful and efficient
agency for the promotion of the best
interests of the city. Until the school law
shall be so amended as to admit vacation
schools as a part of the school system the
work must be carried on through the agen-
cy of interested individuals. A committee
from the Woman's Clubs in Chicago pre-
poses to raise funds for carrying on the
work in several school buildings this sum-
mer, and the various organizations repre-
scented there are responding generously to
the strong plea which is being made all
over the city. The consensus of opinion in
all cities where this subject has been dis
cusSed is that the vacation school is not
merely a l1lxrrv hi1f O naopCGifU cI1nnluinO