The Boy in the Private School
By Charles Keen Taylor.
To discuss a boy’s relations with his school would really take a great amount of space, it being possible to write volumes upon the subject. All that will be attempted here will be to bring out for consideration a few salient points chosen on account of their importance and common neglect.
In the character and body building of the school-boy there are two separate responsibilities, that of the parent and^.that of the attitude toward the schools. The American school-boy suffers The parents should see to it that their sons have a correct school.
greatly when he is compared with his English cousin, for instance. The English boy is taught to look upon his school a’s a place not to be considered lightly. The average American boy is no respecter of educational institutions, just as his father does not think a great deal about real culture. Then the average American boy looks upon his teachers with little or no respect, and this follows naturally from the father’s private opinion that the man who teaches, or, for the matter of that, the woman who teaches, does go only for the reason that he, or she, has failed at everything else; and perhaps this attitude, as much as any other, is the cause of the inadequacy of the average teacher’s salary?a salary at which a good carpenter or second rate plumber would promptly turn up his nose. The mentality and cultivation of the succeeding generations depend largely upon the efforts of the teachers of a country, and for such a work the best men and women should be demanded. But the best men and women are not going to beggar themselves by receiving day-laborers’ wages, when they can just as easily earn comfortable! livings otherwise, and particularly if they are going to be looked down upon, not only by their charges, but by the parents of their charges as well. It is a duty of parents to cultivate in their children a proper respect for their teachers. Parents should also give their children a proper attitude towards their lessons. Many children dislike their lessons because they see no practical value in them. Children are intensely practical. They see little value in geography, history, geometry, and the like, not realizing that the mental discipline they get is probably the most valuable thing gained at school, a mental discipline that will enable them to attack the much more difficult problems which will be placed before them later on. If children would look upon lessons as a kind of mind-training, just as they can be made to look upon physical exercise as body-training, they would begin to work at their daily tasks in a different spirit and to their own great mental advantage.
That the parents should give their children a knowledge of personal hygiene, and should see that they are sensibly clothed, goes without question. Yet many would be surprised at the ignorance, the total and almost criminal ignorance, of such subjects, shown by the parents of many children. If you have doubts, get any teacher to narrate his or her experiences.
And now for the school’s part, and we will not discuss the actual teaching, for that is beyond the sphere of this brief paper. Parents can and should demand of the schools, first of all, that the class-rooms be well lighted, well ventilated, that the desks be arranged according to the direction of the light and adjusted to the size of the children, and also that the rooms be not crowded. One would think that in these enlightened days the question of lighting and ventilation need not be mentioned, and yet should the writer give a faithful description of conditions in these respects in schools seen by him, he would hardly be believed, for he has seen all grades of inadequate lighting, down to one small window for a large room, and he has seen the desks placed in all kinds of improper positions, as regards the direction of the light, even instances where the pupils directly faced the light. Generally speaking, in many schools, it looks as though the windows had been inserted merely to break the monotony of the walls, and for no other earthly reason. As to ventilation?I doubt if there are any rooms in the whole country, used for assemblies of any kind, more abominably ventilated than are the average school-rooms. There are brilliant exceptions, of course, but if you enter an average class-room, especially on a winter day, you will find the closeness and foulness of the air almost overpowering, and will not be a bit surprised at the restlessness of the inmates.
The seemingly innocent question of the ‘recess’ is one of gravest importance. “Recesses,” says Dr A. K. Gardner, “are fearful exposures to scholars of all ages.”1 This, of course, means the short recess of, say, ten or fifteen minutes, with which long *A. K. Gardjier. Our Children; their Physical and Mental Development. periods of study are broken. In spring and autumn they are above criticism, but in winter they are dangerous almost beyond description. And this is the reason why. When the recess bell rings, no matter if the temperature outside be way below freezing, out go the children, pell-mell, from their close, over-heated rooms, into the cold, and without adding one extra stitch of clothing. This is so common that nothing is thought about it, either by the parents, the schools, or, least of all, by the children themselves. Out they go, in dire need for fresh air, no doubt, and the result is a chilled body, and, painfully often, a doctor’s bill, and more than a few undertakers’ bills to make good balance, for everything from simple ‘colds’ to the terrible pneumonia result from such exposure. The writer, in fact, one cold winter, saw class-rooms; with no less than 30 per cent of their pupils absent at one time, all with colds or throat or lung troubles of more or less severity, and to no other cause could they be attributed than to their exposure, during recess, to the exceedingly cold, damp air of the playground. The schools, then, should see to it that at recess the children wear the extra garments with which their parents have provided them.
And then comes the question of ‘lunches’. It is surprising how many mothers lack discernment in providing lunches for their children’s use at school, but it is infinitely more surprising to see what kind of food is frequently sold to children at school lunch-counters, or at lunch-counters connected with schools. A few may have hot, nourishing soups for sale, with bread and butter, or rolls, or the like, but the majority make great profits by the sale of soggy cinnamon buns, crullers, indigestible pies, or other similar dainties. No wonder so many children suffer from digestive troubles, have headaches, and undergo a mental eclipse of more or less severity immediately upon partaking of the lunches generally provided. In schools, where lunches are a necessity, lunch-counters should be run by the school, or under the direction of the school, whose duty it would be to limit the sale to nourishing and easily digested foods.
There is one more duty of the school, and one almost if not quite neglected by the great majority of them. It is the school’s bounden duty to give its pupils true ideals of public morality, so that when the boys go out into the world they will carry with them such principles that they will throw their energies against the civic corruption so rife in our cities, be scrupulously honest and aboveTHE BOY IN THE PRIVATE SCHOOL. 135 board in their own business dealings, and will have such high principles of right living that the present flame of private immorality will perish from sheer lack of fuel. But if there is one duty of the school upon which it is quite useless to enlarge, it is this very one of moral training, for the simple reason that the failure of the parents in this regard is worse, if possible, than the schools; and thus arises the vast amount of immorality which exists among our very school-children, to their infinite injury, and our infinite shame.
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