The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1911-02-23
training ths Boy to work.
BY VIM. A. M'KEEYER
Continued From Last week.

our great complex society there Il
perhaps none which of necessity
are so much over-worked as are the
mothers in the home. And while
many of the writer's for Women's
Magazines proceed on the assump-
tion that there Is domestic helper
in practically every home, such as
sumption shows an utter lack OF
knowledge of the true situation.
Not one.tenth OF the households In
which promising children are grow
ing up-boys and girls who as men
and women are to assume the
responsible places In the upbuild-
ing of the nation--is there any do
mestic help from the outside. The
mothers of these noble citizens of
the future are to-day practically all
giving up their life-blood in the
performance of the thousand and
one pressing duties incident to
modern home-making. Therefore,
1t is often both a practicable and
commendabIe thing to train the
growing boy in the performance OF
certain routine housework. In ad-
dition to the reason just cited
namely, that such assistance will
partly relieve the over-burdened
mother-there are other and very
important ones. Theroutine house
work furnishes an e7erready means
of training the boy ln the perform
ance of regular task in accordance
with the recommee dations given
above. Very impd tant. too, an
acquaintance with work pre-
pares the growing boy for the po-
sition of the coming man who will
know definitely how to appreciate
the burdensome requirement of the
ordinary household and how in the
future to be properly considerate oi
the one who Is walking the way oI
life at his side.
EXAMPLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL
SCHOOL
SinguIarly, we must look to the
Industrial School (once called Re
form School), where boys anc
girls are detained by authority o
law In order to find out about the
only example of what may b'
achieved by means of scientific oc
cupation of the time of boys anC
girls. Here we observe schedule
lof work and play and recreation
which, If made a strict require
ment of all the BOYS and girls o
the country, would bring well nigl
startling results by way of elimi
mating crime and debauchery anC
by way Of transforming society a
a whole. In some respects OH
public school system is wrong II
that 1t enforces too much discip
line of one kind for a term o
months and then too little of an,
kind for another term. Vacation
should be brief. Only a week o
J, two in length, and throughout th
, school year there should be fewe
hours in the school room and thes
should be alternated with juvenil
f industry as well as play. Herein
the author believes, lies the solu
ton of the general problem of SC
3 entific character-building.
In spite of the fact that the boy
s and girls taken into the industri'
school have already been starte
f on the road to crime and depravit
by means of a system which train
every side Of a young life. thes
schools are enabled after a term {
years not only to reclaim the juv'
t. nile delinquent but finally to plac
d the latter among the ranks Of Il
!. worthiest of those who have grow
il up from childhood under bette
! J. advantages. / challenge the rea'
1t er to disprove the foregoing stat
: ment by means of consulting Il
= superintendents and the records
the industrial schools themselve
To quote from one Of the most {
of 6cient of these superintendent
u "Under the training we give, o
y = boys gradually lose all interest
!. crime and idIeness. We hold the
6. strictly and regularly TO the ps