Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/325

 CHICAGO VACATION SCHOOLS

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The one great lesson that the vacation schools teach is that this class of children can be reached only through personal con- tact with the teacher. Advice, direction, and admonition mean nothing to them. A teacher must come down to the children, play their games, think their thoughts, and gradually lead them to understand the natural laws of the Creator. In the regular school work the average teacher begins her cut-and-dried pro- gramme at 9 o'clock and finishes it promptly at 3:30. In six weeks she knows the names of the children of her room, and possibly can tell whether John is bright or dull, mischievous or angelic. She has learned that, since the child was branded by the previous teacher; but as to his tastes, delights, occupation out of school hours, the games he likes to play, the places he haunts, or the hovel he calls home — all these concern her not. In the vacation schools the teacher has to know her pupils at once. She goes with them to the woods, walks with them by the brook, hears the same birds, beholds the same landscape; and in the shade of some friendly oak she listens to the sad or happy tales told by the children of their home life; she hears how the mother depends upon John's selling papers for the support of the family; she sings songs of nature, patriotism, and love. The teacher thus gives her pupils the attention and the affection which the children crave. Many children have we heard say: "Oh, if our regular school was like this!" The secret of successful work in vacation schools, as well as in other schools, lies in the spirit with which the teachers enter the work. With a corps of natural teachers, having the spirit, with sufficient money to carry on the work as it should be done, the vacation schools of Chicago would be one of the greatest of factors in training children for citizenship. I

A PUPIL FROM THE JONKS