Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/331

 THE MO VEMENT FOR VA CA TION SCHOOLS 3 1 3

no record of other schools has been found. No attempt, how- ever, is made to include the many summer classes of one kind and another which have for years been maintained by individu- als and societies, with the same motive, perhaps, but less con- sciously understood, and which have done good service in combating the weariness, or worse, of the many idle hours.

Boston, 1885. — Though from Cambridge comes the first mention of vacation schools, to Boston belongs the honor of being the pioneer actually to realize them. In 1885 Mrs. Quin- cey Shaw opened the North Bennett Street Industrial School classes during the mornings of six weeks in July and August. Five hundred children between the ages of three and eighteen were enrolled, while the daily attendance averaged 250. The attendance has varied from year to year, and new classes have been added to those first opened. The expense has run from $700 to 81,500, approximately. It, however, appeared to me, from a visit in 1896, that this was a place in which a variety of classes was offered to attract the children, and entire latitude of choice allowed them, rather than that it was an organized school in the general acceptation of the term, with only such work as seemed fitted to produce the best results in the children. The following extract from the report of 1896-7 perhaps expresses the motive and success of these classes :

"Ten large, airy rooms are filled daily by children from the streets. The occupations provided for them are all manual, and every effort is made to arouse and maintain a lively interest and regularity of attendance by means of thoroughly good teaching, by abundant variety of work, and by the attractive and (wher- ever possible) useful character of the occupations. Among these are sloyd, leather work, typesetting, chair-seating, basket weav- ing, cooking, plain sewing, fancy work, paper folding, drawing, clay modeling, color work, and kindergartens of two grades. One of the results of last summer's work which gave most evi- dent delight to the children was the reseating of sixty-six shabby chairs, most of which were brought from the houses of the little boys, who carried them back, almost as good as new, with boisterous satisfaction, thanks to their own skill."