Our Schools in War Time—and After

by Arthur D. Dean

Aid the nation;

Increase the food supply of the country in war time and during a world-wide shortage of food;

Conscript the national enthusiasm for athletics to national usefulness;

Assure a vigorous and healthy rising generation;

Reap the advantage of organized effort with its moral and educational results;

Develop constructive patriotism.

As may be gathered, Dewey's idea was not only to organize the rural and village children for farm work but also to send the city children into the country in camps and tent colonies. He said further that the plan was not a dream and that it could be done.

A friend in writing to me of his attempts in Massachusetts to make the dream a reality said, "It is like nailing a jellyfish to a board." Referring to the difficulty of obtaining competent boys, on the one hand, and of convincing farmers of the value of city-boy labor, on the other, he further stated that it was a difficult proposition to sell something we did not have to somebody who did not want it.

Few, if any, of us knew very much of the experience, in this direction, of England, France, and Germany. To be sure, we had heard that France had attempted in a large way to use children at farm labor, but had given it up and had replaced them with old men, women, and partially crippled returned soldiers; and we knew that with the alarm of the scarcity of labor and the diminishing number of the world's acres under cultivation England and Germany had called upon women and boys below military age to help meet the needs of the situation. But we in America did not realize, to quote Dewey again, "that we could enlist the school children in this work in such a manner that they could serve with results as beneficial to themselves as to the nation."

Before considering in some detail the idea of using agricultural labor of children in America (and it is a subject worthy of elaboration, for even if the war closes to-morrow, we shall be short of farm labor for many years—perhaps always), let us see what England and Germany have done to utilize school children for farm work.

In England many of the boys of 14 to 16 in the public schools have volunteered for vacation and holiday agricultural work in hoeing, planting, and harvesting; some of this was gratuitous labor, these boys coming from the prosperous classes and therefore being able to give their services.

In July, 1916, the Education Board published a report showing the number of children excused from attendance at school for the purpose of agricultural employment in England and Wales on May 31, 1916. The total number so excused was 15,753, of which number 546 were between the ages of 11 and 12; 8018 between 12 and 13; 5521 between 13 and 14, and of the remaining 1668 cases the ages were between 12 and 14. Figures quoted relate solely to agricultural employment and do not show the full extent of withdrawals from school. They also relate to withdrawals of children who are not qualified for total exemption under the law. The report also states that "the board has no information as to the number of children who have been excused from school attendance for purposes of industrial employment or employment other than agriculture."

Early in 1917 several of the county education committees formulated plans for using the labor of children who were to be excused only for holidays, special periods, and part times, the general sentiment being, even in the emergency, that no more children must be permanently excused for agricultural or industrial employment. These schemes are worthy of attention as endeavors to retain children in school, at the same time modifying the arrangement of the educational requirements to allow them to perform farm and garden work.

The Education Committee for the Lindsay division of Lincolnshire considered, at a meeting held on April 13, 1917, the desirability of taking steps to secure that the school holidays this year are fixed at such times as will enable the children to be of most assistance to the farmers, and it was resolved that the finance committee should be requested to consider the preparation of a scheme enabling managers to amend the school time-tables in such a way as will give the maximum of opportunity for the older children to work on the land during the spring and summer.... They further considered...that in view of the present emergency and the need of additional labor, especially in agricultural work, the board will give favorable considerations to proposals for extended or additional holidays in rural areas under certain conditions. Two schemes were presented, setting forth alternative methods which managers might be authorized to adopt by which advantage can be taken of the concessions of the board, as follows: (1) A scheme to give a number up to eighty additional afternoons on which the older children can be employed on the land, managers to be informed that a school year of not less than 320 attendances will be accepted as fulfilling the requirements of the board, instead of a minimum of 400 as heretofore. On up to eighty days, older children, above prescribed age, may be released at noon for employment on the land, whilst the school will be open as usual for the younger children, and their attendance recorded, though not in the official register. (2) A scheme to allow up to eight weeks extra during which the older children may be employed on the land, managers to be informed of the number of attendances required as in scheme one. Older children, above a prescribed age, who are to be employed on the land, need not attend school for a period up to eight weeks in addition to the ordinary holidays. The school will be kept open as usual during such weeks for the younger children, and those attending will have their attendance recorded, but not in the official register. Under either scheme it will be necessary for the managers to fix the period or periods for the year during which the scheme would be in operation, and in some of the larger rural schools it might be possible to release a teacher as well as the older children.

At a meeting held on April 27 it was resolved to issue the schemes to the managers, impressing upon them the fact that the one object is to secure increased production of food.[9]

At Grimsby a committee was appointed to consider the employment of children on gardens, allowing an acre plot to each school, and 25 children, under a teacher, to work in cultivating it. All these children are required to attend school in the morning, and the consent of their parents must be obtained by them before they are permitted to begin afternoon work. Since, as in Lincolnshire, the aim of the work is increased food production, the crops derived from the cultivation of the land acquired by the town are to be divided among teachers and scholars engaged in the work.