The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-08-18

Everybody is familiar with the old
adage, God made the country. man
the city, and the devil the small town"
Personally | believe the small town is
very much worse than the city for the
rearing Of children. In the country, |
know, there are a great many things
that boy can do in the way of much
helpful work in gardens and fields, but
there is no place in the world where
there is so much idleness as in the
small city, and the problem of diver
sion for the young man during his
leisure hours is no less in "A city the
size Of Marquette than il is in New
York City; in fact, it is greater here
than 1t is in the larger cities. In the
larger cities IL is possible TO see the
very latest thing that is going on, and
they have the use OF public museums
and art galleries which cannot be had
i'm the smaller cities.
The child problem of today exists
for two important reasons, namely the
father neglecting his family and the
mother neglecting her home. They say
| the American father is very generous
with everything except himself. He
| requires so much time for his business
! that he has no time at home with his
| children, no time to share in their
play. for camping, and n hundred and
| one other things he could do. There
is no other way for a father To keep i'm
constant touch with his children than
| through play with them where he
| meets them in the most familiar rela-
| tionship. No father would sell the
virtue of his daughter, or the future
| Of his son for any money, but still he
| is doing It every day by permitting
| them to roam about the streets rather
| than providing some proper amuse-
ment for them during their leisure
time. The homes are disappearing
| from America; there are no homes any
| more. The children are spending their
nights on the streets, at picture shows,
pool rooms. dance halls, ice cream par
lors and other places. They should he
kept track of, and we should know
whore the young people are.
The greatest problem in rearing a
girl or boy is the problem of their
| leisure time.
Children form most Of their habits
in play, most of their vices in idleness.
A good girl can play basketball with
four loose girls and she won't suffer
from the play, but let her loaf around
with them for "a while and it may take
a lifetime To overcome the effect of it.
1t is during idleness that the boy
learns vice, learns to smoke cigarettes
and to shoot craps, to tell the smutty
story, and to do all the things we
would keep him from.
We generally speak Of play az ply
steal activity, but it is no more physi-
cal than mental 1t is a general cX-
preston of the whole life of the child.
When you have child in play you
have the whole child in action. The
social spirit that enables you TO min
gle with others and become one of
them is learned by children out of
their play. | taught sixth grade for a
while in New York City. At the end
strangers. In one game of baseball
we got more acquainted than we did
during the six months before. The boy
who stands on the outside and don't
know how to get into the game be-
comes the undesirable man in the
community.
Organized play is especially valuable
a
tionalities into one, Of matchmaking
the races into the American race. on
the east side of New York there was
neighborhood of Jews and one of
Italians. Neither would associate with
the other, but each was always pelting
ings. and chasing the other up and
down the street We opened play
ground right in the center, that is, be-
tween the two districts. The Jews
came in and the Italians came in, but
one stayed on one side of the grounds
and the other on the other side. We
tried our best to get them to mingle,
but without much success, so we or
ganized baseball mines, putting in four
Italians and five Jews, or perhaps the |
other way round. We also introduced
other games such as tugs of war, ETC., |
and at the end of few months they
had forgotten their prejudices. Racial |
prejudices tend to keep people apart. !
IL one child is Catholic and one is |
Protestant it will make difference, |
and so will it If one is Republican and |
the other Democrat. That is why play |
is so essential; If you can get children |
to play together you will get friend
ship as a result If the school can af- |
ford to spend it's time in teaching the
children 'rthmetic, it can take the |
time to teach them friendship.
think we have not always realized |
this great social problem in this cOun-
try. You go to any city in Europe and |
you will find for three or four or
twenty generations the people have
been living in the place where they |
were born, but what do you find in
this country? You find communities
made up of Greeks. Swedes, French
and Italians, and people from every
part of Europe, and they have an here
ditary hatred for each other. You