How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
- Author:
Rudolph R. Reeder,
Ph.D., Superintendent New York Orphan Asylum. New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1909.
The conventional pity which the term orphan child is apt to excite, a pity heightened through the ages by harrowing poems and Christmas stories, is rather thrown back on itself by the cheerful picture of two hundred orphans drawn for us by Dr Reeder. In fact, after reading his book we find ourselves insensibly transferring our sympathy to those children whose parental handicap debars them from the wise training and pleasant pastimes of an up-to-date orphan asylum.
The orphanage in question has a beautiful country home at Hastings-on-Hudson, whefe the children live in small groups or families, self-dependent in household work, in gardening and in various interests of the home. It is here that Dr Reeder has carried on an educational experiment of great value, and has worked out some admirable theories as to the rearing of children.
The first chapter deals with the importance of providing nourishing food, of having it well cooked, of varying it frequently, and of using the appetite incentive as an educational factor. For instance, we see the child cultivating his radish, lettuce, and onion beds, with the option of eating his crops, selling them, or giving them to his friend. Dr Reeder speaks of one week when so few radishes were offered for sale that the orphanage raised the price, with good results. The orphanage supply store with its array of gastronomic delicacies offered the necessary incentive for earning pennies.
After the food question comes exercise and environment. Dr. Reeder dwells on the advantages of country life, the ideal environment for the growing child, and of the value of that side of his life called play. He tells of play-houses built by the children themselves, of skating in winter and swimming in summer, and of many pursuits and possessions which do away with the alleged barrenness of institution life. As a cure for dependency and lack of self-reliance, two of the dangers which threaten the institution child, Dr Reeder recommends industrial training. The girls learn house-work, cooking, sewing, gardening; the boys raise chickens, vegetables, learn carpentering, etc. Work in each cottage is divided up among many apprentice hands. Dr Reeder believes that hand work and head work should both have a place in the training of a child. But in order to have their life at the orphanage a real preparation for life in the world, the economic training is emphasized. The children are taught how to earn, save, spend, and give money. The wage-earning positions in the orphanage and the saving banks provide for the first two. A certain proportion of the wages received must be spent 011 clothes. These purchases the child either makes alone, or with the help of an older person. The important thing is to give them a buying experience. Each child earning a dollar or more a month is required to keep an itemized expense account, and submit it each month for inspection. One of the most important arguments in favor1 of economic training is the protection it affords the boy or girl, who, as Dr Reeder shows, is often in danger of being exploited for mercenary ends, or made to serve a number of years without wages. Dr Reeder believes that an institution for dependent children should maintain its own school rather than send its wards to the public schools. He accuses the latter, with some justice, of being “bookish, abstract,” and out of touch with the hum of modern life … the hand-me-down suit of twenty years ago, not the tailor-made suit that fits.” In criticism of the usual public school curriculum, he says, “Why shouldn’t the boys and girls drop out of school as soon as allowed to? They want life and want it more abundantly than they find it in the_ schoolroom.” In Dr R’eeder’s plan, “the child plants the radish, cultivates it, pulls it, brings it to school, paints its picture and finally eats it.” There yoi have the maximum of education with the minimum of waste!
Everything possible is used in the class-room, even questions of interest arising in the complex life of the orphanage. The following is an amusing example. “One of our horses is wind-broken and has some trouble with his knees, but he is a large, fine looking horse, and a free goer. A man in Dobbs Eerry has offered us one hundred and twenty-five dollars cash for the horse. Shall we tell him the horse is unsound? After much discussion pro and con in general assembly, it is decided to vote on the question. The result: the girls all voted that we should tell the man the horse was’ broken-winded and slightly off on his legs, causing occasional veterinary bills; the boys all voted that we should accept the offer and let the buyer take his chance on the deal.” And yet there are people who believe that woman’s entrance into politics would only lower the moral standard!
In his chapter on punishment Dr Reeder shows that constant occupation for the child does away with the necessity of frequent punishments. Two rods which -can be used effectively in his opinion, are a system of fines and deprivations. lie believes in putting children on their honor wherever possible, and in trusting them that they may become worthy of trust, and he thinks, “you fight the battle alone in training a child, if you do not have his conscious co-operation in the work.” His experience has taught him that punishment inflicted by the social group injured, is twice as effective as punishment by one in authority. He does not agree with Dr Abbott in his book recently reviewed for the Clinic, in which discipline and instruction are concealed under a sugar-coating of make-believe. In this regard Dr Reeder tells an amusing story of “an indulgent mother who was unable to get her young son to bed without resorting to devices, one of which was for a member of the family to impersonate a hotel proprietor, receive the boy as a guest, and show him to his room.”
Stress is laid on the value of having in the child’s life the example and influence of older people whom he respects and admires. Asked to name the chief factor which may make or mar the child’s future wellbeing. he unhesitatingly says, “the personality of teacher, foster-parent, or companion.”
Dr Eeeder’s book is full of interest. To handle two hundred children in an institution, to keep them healthy, occupied, orderly, and happy, and to train them to become self-supporting men and women in the future? this is a great work and Dr Reeder’s way of going about it commands our highest respect and admiration. E. R. W.
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