The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-10
CONCERNING SCHOOL CIIILDRENS SUMMER VACATION

An oft repeated expression in a cer-
 babies of the family. The child's auni
 told her not to eat too much sugar
 that 1t would be bad for her.
 "Yesm,' responded the little gir
 meekly. T know 1t is. Everything you
 like is bad for you.e
 L It must often seem that way to chil.
 dren, that everything desirable is un.
 der the ban, and that life Is made up o1 a circumscribed area surrounded b,
 growns-ups who have little interest ir them except to prohibit their doine what they would like to do
 l An earnest primary teacher has said more than once that she should like to be I-year-old boy for awhile and live in his thought-world, see life as he lsees it, and see herself, the teacher as The does. Then she should want to be herself again and teach in the light of her experience.
 Even the most tactful teachers make mistakes in dealing with children, and people who are in charge of children and have not tact sympathy, skill and patience blunder constantly. Unfor- tunately there are many of these and they, as we'll as the children, are losers. Doubtless more mistakes are made.
  tunities are lost in directing children S leisure time than their work. for less thought Is given to the former and the aims are less definite.
 Just now the disposal of the chil- dren's vacation should be given serious consideration. for the most of the schools are closing this month, and the children are finding themselves free from the routine of the school year They have been directly in charge of teachers for five or six hours a day and have been occupied with duties connected with school for one, two or three hours longer each day: and sud. denly to be without any employment will leave room for good deal of prof1tless wasting of time.
 group of very sensible mothers was discussing this matter recently in a school improvement meeting. The children of whom they were thinking are from to 12 years old, rather too young for the usual organizations and young peoples clubs. Of course they are not on the verge of becoming des- perados. but 1t has been found that there is among them rather distress ing amount of the unwholesome, and the mothers want to remedy this. It Is Ian example of the average conditions existing in every community. As typ- cal case is that of one of these mothers W liO udS lOuT CnlluTb0. lHe OluSSt IS a little boy who is finishing his first year at school. just now going out bit from the home nest. He Is fine straightforward little fellow popular with the other boys, good in his school work, fond of his dainty little sister younger than he, and not yet shaken in his comradeship with his mother. She Is anxious that her children keep the refinement of feeling that their home training Is giving them and anxious too that they be democratic enough to associate harmoniously with other children: and she Is finding that she is facing a rather difficult problem. It Is not easy to choose or to reject asso- ciates for her children. This typical mother Is saying what others in her position are saying, that she does not want the careful home training to be
 lost. but that she does not want her children to be hothouse plants. She believes that 1t would be not only weak, but undesirable and entirely im- practical to keep them away from all other children. So many mothers are in the same dilemma. and with their anxiety, they see the ridiculous side of everybody's trying to keep their chill dren from being contaminated by as-