The Republican., 1922-11-02
STREET EDUCATION.

Is your child city child!
If so, did you ever stop to think
where he is being educated?
You probably send him off to school
the school is taking care of him for
every day and heave a sigh of re-
lief as you think to yourself, "Well,
the day"
Is it? How much time is your child
spending in school, and how much
outside of school? And where is he
spending his time outside of school?
Let us do some mental arithmetic.
You will probably admit that when
a child has spent at home 10 hours
in sleep, 8 hours for meals, and 5
hours for general activities, the city
child has pretty well exhausted the
possibilities for being kept whole
somely occupied by the ordinary city
home And he has pretty well eX-
hausted all the adults in the home.
Now for the school. We are ac-
customed to think of the school as
taking care of children for hours
a day. But when you count up the
small part of the whole year that the
school is in session you will find that,
counting the 365 days in the year, the
school takes care of your child only
two and a-half hours a day. And it
is the 365 days that you are interest
ed in, for you have your child to pro
vide for, not for the school year, but
for all the days of the year.
But, you will say, there are the
libraries, supervised play, churches,
recreation parks Boy Scouts, etc.
Eyes, but investigation has proved
that all these activities do not pro-
vide on the average for all the chill
dren of the cities for more than 10
minutes a day for the 365 days in
the year. Not more than one-fourth
of the city children attend Sunday
schools regularly. The Sunday school
period is one hour. This averages
only IS minutes per week and 2 min
utes per day for each child.
Now, to add up-16 hours in the
home plus 21a in school plus II min
utes in outside activities make 18
hours and AZ minutes a day. That
leaves 5 hours and IS minutes of
your child's time to account for in a
24-hour day.
Where are the city children spend
ing these remaining five hours?
Veal know the answer. The av-
erage city child is spending them on
the city streets. 1t is the city street
and alley which are educating city
children for over hours a day. In
other words, the city has your child
for twice as many hours day to
educate him in the wrong direction
as the school has to educate him in
the right direction.
1t is this street education which
is really molding the lives and char
acters of our city children, for the
city street is most efficient teacher
It is teaching children to loaf, moi
play; to destroy, not construct. It
creates love Of quick, cheap, pass.
ing excitement, not habits of sus-
tanned Wholesome enthusiasm and in.
terest. 1t develops an attitude Of
"What's the use?" instead of nour.
ishing and developing the most prec
ious thing in children,an eager intel
lectual curiosity. The city street dis.
torts and deforms children. 1t de
stroys their powers of healthy
wholesome growth.
Are you willing to leave your chile
to the mercy of the city street? Z
Or will you help to make the schoo
a successful competitor with tn
street?
Will you help the school authori
ties to provide within the school tn
activities that all children love
Fairgrounds, shops, gymnasiums
science laboratories-places wher
children may be kept wholesomely oc
cupied all day long, and where adult
may come in the evening for recrea
tion and pleasure?
n