Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/330

 312

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

while the Philadelphia board this year opened three schools on petition from the Civic Club.

One of the most significant statements is that of Superin- tendent Cogswell, of Cambridge, Mass., in his report for 1897.

He says: "The value of these schools consists not so much in what shall be learned during the few weeks they are in session, as in the fact that no boy or girl shall be left with unoccupied time. Idleness is an opportunity for evil- doing These

schools will cost money. Reform schools also

cost money It

is by no means certain

that, considered in the

light of dollars and

cents only, it is not true economj' for the city to spend money

for vacation schools."

In i8g6 Mr. Daniel Cameron, president of the Chicago board of education, in his outgoing address said, in effect, that "the problem of the children in crowded districts in the summer was one which the board would find it must very soon face ; that there seemed pressing necessity to cope with the growing evil conditions ; and that the vacation school, as conducted that year in Chicago, seemed to offer a solution of the difficulty."

A great number of teachers and principals testify to the demoralizing effect of the long weeks of idleness and the neces- sity of spending the greater part of the early fall months in over- coming the summer deterioration.

In the following pages the attempt is made to give some account of the vacation schools in regard to which any informa- tion has been obtainable. If the list is incomplete, it is because

A LUNCH ON THE FARM