Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-19
What Shall be Done With Such a
Glass.
REPORT OF EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL
Iowa State Association Of Teachers
Considers Some Phases OF the
Questions Children who
Turn Out Bad.

Neglected Children" The text is print
ed below:
/. One-fourth of all the children
born in this country die before ceach-
ing the age of one year, and one-third
of them never reach the age of five
years.
2. The report of the superintend-
ent of police of Chicago for the last
of 77,441 arrests 10000 were of youth
under sixteen years of age. Of these
991 were girls and sos were tender
children under the age of ten years.
Chicago is typical city and these facts
are repeated everywhere. But they do
not tell the whole truth, for officers
and courts are proverbially lenient to
children. In Iowa, several bands of
juvenile criminals of various sorts have
been brought to light within the past
few months.
While conditions may be worse in The
congested centers of population, near
y every rural community, even in the
prairies of Iowa, has its contingent of
young men and women who are going
,headlong into dissipation. vice and
crime. The roll call of the "best fam
lilies" in the average community will
reveal many individuals who have not
turned out WE'LL" ten per cent is not
too large an estimate for this class.
4. OF the 727,775 children of school
age in Iowa, only 554,992 were last
year enrolled in any school and about
1854, 400 were in daily attendance. AS
the law allows sixteen years for the
completion of work that may easily be
done in one-half or even one-fourth of
the time, this fact should not be given
undue weight. Many of these non-at-
tending youths are high-school grad
yates, college students and graduates,
teachers and the happy heads of inde-
pendent families.
S. For her blind and deaf and. feeble
minded children, Iowa has made suit
able provisions; but she is far behind
many of the older and some of the
younger states in legal provisions that
look to the protection of innocent and
capable childhood from the vicious sur
roundings, from the ignorance and in
fuence of parents and from the greed
of parents and employers.
6. Few children are absolutely in
corrigible. Every criminal youth may
be reformed. But many are so ne
elected that they become lawless and
vicious or reach physical maturity
without that equipment of health,
knowledge, skill and character that is
the rightful heritage of every Amer
lean child. Some are orphans, and
Others would be more fortunate if they
were orphans. Many parents find their
efforts to rightly discipline and train
children counteracted by social inf1u-
ences which they cannot control. Tn
der present conditions, in spite of
parents, schools aud churches, many
children are truants, loafers, cigarette
smokers, and petty gamblers. Precoc-
ious sexual depravity, stimulated by
social customs, impure literature, and
vicious associations, are running thous-
apds of promising youth.
Z. The necessities Of labor, the re-
sponsibility of maturity, and inciden-
tial, contact with the better social
forces affect many an unpromising
youth SO fovorably that he is reformed
and makes a self-respecting and re-
spected citizen. If it were not for this
patent fact, present conditions would
be truly alarming.
Remedial Measures.
1. There is great need of a general
Strengthening of the sense of parental
responsibility and of the discipline of
the home. The multiplication of so
cieties," sclubs," ''orders," and various
public religious functions is taking the
father and the mother away from
home and often leaving the children
of the rich, the well-to-do and the in
telligent without parental direction
and companionshop.
2. The schools must emphasize
those subjects and methods that tend
to strengthen character. Music, art,
literature. history, manual training,
gymnastics-these are the subjects
richest in moral suggestiveness. While
the standards for scholarship for teach
ers should not be lowered, those OF
character and culture should be raised.
3. Well equipped kindergartens
should be established in all cities and
towns as rapidly as suitable persons
can be found to take charge OF them,
beginning in the slums.
A. Industrial schools-polytechn in
tie true sense-should be established
in many places thru public or private
beneficence.
$. Ample provision should be made
for the care and training of all orphan
children and those who are grossly
neglected. This provision should in
clude suitable institutions, schools,
officials and systematic plan for plac-
ing as many as possible in homes where
thew would be welcomed and loved.
We have one excellent state institution
at Davenport, several private ones, and
one society that makes business OF
finding homes for homeless children.
6. A compulsory attendance should
at once be enacted. This law should be
based upon the experience of states
and nations that have been successful
in the enforcement of such measures,
and then it should be rightly execut-
ed.
Z. We need a lave regulating the
employment of child labor.
s. Industrial boarding schools for
truants, youthful vagabonds, etc,
should be established in every congress
sional district of the state, in rvery
county, if necessary, and those schools