The independent-reporter., 1910-12-29
MAYNARD GIRLS
REFORMED
Homes Fail
Work Belongs to State
Why Motives of Love and Pity Have
Failed.

institutions are founded on high mo-
tives of love and pity. but they have
failed because they did not educate
the public, with all its delusions,
concerning the delinquent girls.
These girls must be treated the same
as delinquent boys. We must come
to recognize that one act of immorali-
ty does not make them permanently
immoral"
These views are expressed by Rneta
Childe Dorr in an article in the JAN
uary Hampton's Magazine. mo scien-
tific study of delinquent girls ever
came out of a philanthropic or reli-
gious institution" Mrs. Dorr contin-
ues mo effort to educate or enlight-
en- society as to the real nature of the
terrible problem known as the social
evil has ever been made. Without
scientific study and analysis of the
facts, we cannot hope to produce re-
forms
This work properly belongs to the
state. and where 1t is we'll done, the
results are sure Come with me to a
modern state institution, where the
delinquent girl receives intelligent.
scientific treatment.
This Is the New York State Trian-
ing School for Girls at Hudson, N. Y.
The New York Training School re-
ceives girls from twelve to sixteen
years of age. They are committed
to the institution under a plan of in
determinate sentences, which provide
that the girls shall not be detained
after they reach eighteen years of age.
Out of the one hundred and thirty
four girls committed last year. four
were sent for theft and one for for
gerry. OF the four theft cases only
one failed to combine immortality with
felony Most of the others in the in
stitution are what are known as fall
en- girls" They are children who are
the despair of the Juvenile court
judges all over the country. Most
of them, practically all of them are
children of the poor.
Here no girl Is bowed down with
despair. The managers have thrown
aside conventional ideas of the npture
of the offense commonest in girls de-
linquency They have agreed In the
first place to treat 1t like any other Of
fense, to regard it as socially intoler-
able but morally quite forgivable
They have agreed that it is curable
and that a girl once cured of her
fault, or rather her habit, is as good
a girl as she was before. They GO
further and declare that she is bet
ter girl than she was before; that her
character is better, her will stronger
her heart and mind clearer and purer
"The underlying principle of the
treatment at Hudson is the assertion
that what the girls need is not repent
ance but development; not regenera-
ton but enlightment and direction.
They need mental awakening and edu-
cation, self-respect and an entirely
new point of view. They get all this
through school, home life, physical
training, trade and domestic training,
hard work indoors and out. They
are cared for like the children they
are, and they are taught to protect
and control themselves. Above all
they are taught to forget the pasa
This last is radical departGge In
deed. In other attempts at reform
ing girls. precisely the opposite policy
is followed. Under the oaf fashioned
system no girl is allowed to forget
her past. 1t is something of which
she is constantly reminded. She is
enjoined to pray for forgiveness
every night before she sleeps; she Is
taught to regard herself as the pos
SCISSOR OF q dreadful secret Such
conventions are repudiated by the
wise wemen in charge of the New
York. Training School. The girls are
Taught to forget, they are trained to
seave the past absolutely behind them
The worst possible way to reform
q bad girl is to put her to work as 6
domestic" declares MRS, Dorr. Con.
slider the amount of eonventionaliti
attaching to the usual methods of re-
forming children, especially girls,
sha says In her article. "In spite o.
thousands of failures, the common
theory is that the girl who goel
wrong muijt be segregated from as
sociation with her fellows, that the
only proper industry for her is house
work, the only proper environment
Is a private kitchen. 1t Is known thai
the girl Is usually pleasure loving
gay and frivolous. Nine times in ter
she lacks all social opportunity. In
spite of this knowledge, people imag-
inc that they can reform a girl of this
kind by still further denying her So
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