The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-28
INDUSTRIAL REFORM SCHOOLS.
The Need for Them and Great Suc-
 cess of Their Methods.


 The worlds new education is a com bination of the purely mental or abstract as imparted by modified text book course, and the manual or concrete. taught by handling objects and learning to make practical use of them.
 It is based upon an almost equal use of hand and brain; not the cultivation of either at the expense of the other; if either is given preference 1t is safe to say, since the larger part of the world s work is industrial, that it Is wise to pro- vide more of the manual than the mental, more especially because modern methods of industrial instruction always include certain amount of mental training through text books. This is essential no. living, but to enable the child the more quickly to perceive the underlying prin- ciples of the industrial ocupations. The cation." is at this time generally under stood; but nowhere is it more appreciated or more successfully applied than in the reform schools of the most civilized coun- tries.
 No governmental institution is so vital ly necessary or so productive of good re- suits as the industrial reform school for delinquent children. In spite of all the efforts of country, State or community to surround the family with the largest pos sible measure of security in the pursuit of comfort and happiness, to provide ev: cry advantage for the educating and training of the offspring of the family, per centage, more or less small. of the
  or happiness or anything else conducive to goodness. and like per centage of children exhibit corrupt tendencies. Be- sides side this the lay & of atavism % occasion, even the most representative families. Neglect, lack of parental authority, total misunderstanding of the powers of the child. poverty, vicious surroundings and idleness are the most potent fator in developing retrosrade tendencies in
  the child-if there were not so many text. books: If it were not required of each child to study all of them and to digest the same measure of each; If more man Srammar course were provided for the chttd constitutionaly non-adapted for high class or specialized mental work, and compulsory. attendance were the rule there would be fewer delinquent children. Many children, who have little or no fit- ness and absolutely no desire for text even accept severe punishment with a certain degree of pleasure If by so doing they can escape the more dreaded text book book study would take up with delight brain perception teaches his fingers how to make beautiful things and would pa- hently endure the book instruction nec- essary to the occupation.
 Although experience proves that by the use of modern advanced methods a small number even of adult criminals may be
  greatest amount of good in stemming the tide of criminality can be accomplished by preventing the young boy from be- coming the old offender. Possibly the oc- casional adult reformations are to be ac> counted for by the fact that some of these adults may somehow have encountered during 6urh the plastic period of youth % some few of the principles of right thinking and living, the seed of which experience, although long dormant, was not dead. hut x1yhn tba child he. albeit unconsciously. says good bye to self respect and hope. The peni- tentiary stifies and degrades, the work, no matter how effective of itself, fails to interest, because 1t gives no promise of future advancement or reward, and the confinement either breeds an ardent de- sire for escape and revenge or a soul killing apathy.
 The industrial reform school gives to the delinquent child a sort of special treatment such as is required in every case of disease whether of body, brain or soul. 1t gives every encouragement and chance for voluntary self development that prison denies From every long es- tablished well conducted school of this kind. and there are such in every State or country where civilization Is up to the standard of today, comes the encouraging hJrorably discharged and doing well in various walks of life, even after long trial: All can show creditable list of pGrils who have become prominent in
 
 world. who are earning honest and com forCable ivings as firemen, overseers, pilots. postmasterS, musicians, doctors, lawyers ministers. librarians. engineers, mechanics and farmers
 Many of the boys who become inmates of these schools have never been guilty of more than a tendency to become idle and worthless and those who have more gravely transgressed did so at an age and under circumstances that make 1t dis grace to remember their mistakes, they being more often sinned against than sinning."
 When boys leave such schools they are adapted for many kinds of domestic. office and farm work, shoe and harness making, carpentry, painting, printing gardening, electrical and machine work and the like, At least s5 per cent of them are good when dismissed, and what is still better, they stay good In com munities where this industrial reform work has been tested it's merits are so well recognized that 1t Is not hard to find employment for these honorably dis charged pupils and the per centage that gives satisfaction Is most encouraglngly large. L. H. Craighead, vice-President Alabama Boys Industrial
 School.