Page 47 - 1913 November - To Dragma

52 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

I f carefully regulated compulsions were had in the United States,
as it is in New York and Massachusetts, together with consistent effort
on the part of the whole country, the educational standard of our
lowest classes might be materially raised.

Since the early nineties vacation schools have been making steady
headway in the United States, until at present they are to be found
in nearly every city of the Union. Some of the vacation schools of-
fer purely academic courses, while others include manual training,
mechanical drawing and domestic science. I n the first class, pupils
who through illness or unavoidable absence, have failed to pass dur-
ing the regular school term, may make up their deficiencies. In the
second class, idle hands may find helpful occupation, and tired bodies,
through well-directed play, healthful recreation. Narrow, dirty al-
leys, hot pavements, crooked streets and crowded tenements, allow
small opportunity for the child to stretch his limbs and expand his
chest in beneficial exercise. The vacation school, with its large, cool
rooms and spacious yard, is a restful place in the summer time. "For
both teacher and pupil, the vacation school affords an occupation of
choice, and one which, making small demands upon the head, satis-
fies the heart and fills the hands."4

Games are introduced into the schools for educational and social
purposes, while new ideals of cleanliness are inculcated through the
daily use of baths connected with the schoolhouses. The manual
training and domestic science, besides the courses in housekeeping
sometimes given, supply to the child that industrial training which
he or she is incapable of obtaining at home.

In most of the cities the authorities are receiving hearty coopera-
tion from the children. They seem to hold themselves responsible
for the success of their school. Their work is well done, and they
are always orderly. The play period is never encroached upon, and
the children are allowed as much freedom as possible. Thus in
these schools, the children are developing self-reliance and self-con-
trol, necessary qualities of good citizenship.

The vacation schools may be of much service to the community at
large by a well-chosen series of lectures delivered in them. I n 1909,
under the auspices of the Visiting Nurses' Association, a course of
lectures was given in Chicago upon the proper care and feeding of
infants, the necessity of cleanliness and suitable clothing, the prepa-
ration and preservation of milk, and the use of barley water and the
various substitutes for milk which are employed during the period
when intestinal disease is prevalent among infants. Thus the school

•Perry, p. 191.