The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-05-07


gardening work, aid them by some
cooperative method to have the lots
properly plowed and prepared for
show them how to plant, cultivate,
and harvest, so as to obtain the best
results
grown should be used first as food
for the children and their families;
then the surplus should be marketed
to the best advantage. Through the
help of the teacher this can be done
in cooperative way. Ten or fifteen
cents worth of vegetables each day
from the gardens of each Of 200 chill
dreE would amount to $40 or $50. In
the summer and fall when the sur
plus is large and can not be market
ed to advantage, the teacher should
direct and help the children in can
ming and preserving for winter use
or for sale. The canning and tomato
clubs Of the southern states have al
ready shown what can be done in this
way.
1t is difficult to estimate the re-
suits of this plan when it shall be in
full operation throughout the coun-
try For the children it will mean
health, strength, JOY in work, habits
of industry, an understanding of the
value of money, as measured in
terms of labor, and such knowledge
Of the phenomena and forces of ma
ture as must be had for an under
standing of most Of their school les
sons. They will also learn something
at least of the fundamental principle
Of morality; that each individual
must make his or her own living;
must, by some kind of labor of head,
hand or heart, contribute to the COM
mon wealth as much as he takes from
it; must pay for what he gets in
some kind of coin.
This plan in full operation would
probably do more toward keeping
your children out of the factories and
mills than all of the child-labor laws
on the statute books. A boy ten or
twelve years OF age, with a quarter
of an acre of ground, working under
careful direction, can produce more
for the support of the family than
could be purchased with the child's
wages from the mill. Children
should not be ground in the mills nor
sweated in the factories; their
strength should not be sapped and
their nerves racked by working in
the heat and dust of indoors, yet all
children should learn to work; it is
good for them and they joy in it. To
work with it's feet in the soil, it's
| head in the sunshine, and it's lungs
filled with good fresh air is not a
bad thing for any healthy child.
This plan will also do much to
solve the problem of the idle negro.
A larger part Of the negroes of
the southern states live on the out
skirts of cities and small towns.
Their cabin homes are frequently on
large lots and surrounded with va
cant lots covered with weeds and
rubbish. During the vacation months
the negro children roam idly on the
streets, falling into mischief and
vice. Under proper direction they
might make, on these back yards and
vacant lots, enough to support them
selves and more; at the same time
they would be kept from vice and
would gain habits of industry. In
, cidentally negro quarters would be
changed from places of ugliness to
places of beauty.
Probably one of the most valuable
results of this plan would be to make
it easy for most children to attend
school three or four years longer
than they do, thing more and more
desirable, since education for life
and citizenship in our industrial, civic
and social democracy can not be OBJ
tanned before the age of adolescence.
If child can contribute to it's sup
port while in school, it may remain
in school much longer than if it must
be carried as dead weight until it
quits school to go to work.
Compared with the results, the
cost will be inconsiderable. No addi-
ton to the number of teachers will
be required. 1t will only be neces-
sary to require different preparation
for one teacher in each school.