Our Schools in War Time—and After

by Arthur D. Dean

Furthermore we are familiar with the two types of camps: the adult-labor and the recreation camp. The work camp is much the older, dating back to the building of railroads and the opening of lumber districts. In the past decade the recreation summer camps have become a potent factor in secondary-school life, making a complement of the school year's work by laying stress on the physical development of outdoor woodland and country experiences. Some of these camps, while primarily recreational, have had courses in manual training, college preparation, arts and crafts, and languages, yet so clearly is their play nature of chief importance that no one thinks of them as work camps.

Now the farm-cadet movement involves the farm labor of the schoolboy, who is sent out and credited for his work by his school and is added to a camp life where in a squad of his fellow schoolboys he is looked after by an appointed leader as if in a Y.M.C.A. camp. Thus we have, out of familiar ingredients, a new compound, bringing into relation the boy, the parent, the supervisor, the employer, and the school.

This agricultural movement in connection with the schools had its inception at the Philadelphia meeting of the Eastern Arts and Manual Training Teachers' Association early in 1917. At once three Eastern states—Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York—began to formulate plans for its operation.[10] For it was not to be the simple expedient of excusing boys from school to work on farms, as has been the practice in many localities, but a plan whereby the boy was to be retained in the school system, substituting in his course during a portion of the year agricultural work for the academic and vocational studies of the regular curriculum.

In analyzing the problem it was found that there were three types of boys to be considered: (1) the boy in a farming district, who could be employed on the farm of his father or a neighbor; (2) the boy in a town near an agricultural center, who could be employed within a radius of a few miles of his home and school; (3) the boy from a city, who would have to be sent to distant farms and whose welfare would not be in the charge of his school principal and parents. The case of the first boy is very simple; the second is also easy of solution; but if the third boy is to be used, there will need to be a carefully worked-out plan for his placement, record of work, accommodations, and general welfare. It is for the third boy that the camp must be established, where he will be looked after by a responsible person who will see that he has the proper tent, board, work, and sanitary arrangements.

The plans of the different states for utilizing boy power, while aiming toward the one desirable end of increasing our food production, have differed widely in detail, owing to the variation in the compulsory-attendance laws, to the latitude exercised in some states in excusing boys prematurely, and to the varying degrees of investigation of placement, record of work, and supervision. All states agree in giving the boy who is excused for farm work credit in his school work. Canada, too, excuses boys over 14 for farm work, allowing them full school credit for three months' labor. While it may be urged that it is not pedagogically sound to give credit in one subject for the work in another, a way out of the difficulty might be found in a rearrangement of the school year and vacations in districts where there is a large percentage of excused boys; or special classes could be devised for these boys when they return to school. In the large high schools shorter intensive courses could be included in the program so that the boy who was preparing for college would not lose his work in such subjects as English, history, and mathematics. In the case of language and science there must be a loss which it is difficult to repair. If the present conditions persist, administrative ingenuity can solve the question of work and credits. It is not one of the serious aspects of the problem, provided always that there is no release of children below the compulsory-attendance age.

In Massachusetts the work of mobilizing schoolboys for farm labor was in charge of the state's Committee on Public Safety. Their principles in acting were as follows:

Mobilize the schoolboys; keep those under 16 at home to work on home, school, and community gardens; enlist the high-school boys between 16 and 18, too young for military or naval service, but old enough to render real service; move them where farm labor is needed; make them understand that enlistment for farm service is in all ways as patriotic as any other service for the nation's defense.

With the appointment of a subcommittee to formulate the detailed scheme of placement and supervision, having Frank V. Thompson, Assistant Superintendent of the Boston schools, as chairman, the plan for the coöperation of schools with agriculture is, for boys 16 and over, as follows:

1. (a) The farm-labor service is to be recognized by a bronze badge containing the seal of the commonwealth and inscribed "The Nation's Service" and "Food Production." (b) An honorable discharge, similar to a discharge from the army, containing the signature of the governor, will be issued to boys who successfully complete their service on farms. (c) Tufts, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts Agricultural College have agreed to give a trial term or year to such candidates as present an honorable discharge, without further entrance requirements, provided their school work was satisfactory up to the time of leaving and the principal so recommends.

2. The existing school organization is used to conduct the enterprise. For each 25 boys enlisted a supervisor is appointed, a male teacher of strong ability in the local school,—in towns where there are several supervisors, either the superintendent of schools or the principal of the high school. A general head supervisor in charge of the state work has an office in the Statehouse. Each local head supervisor and each supervisor of 25 boys receives the same sum ($100), the money being obtained from a local contingent fund, from an additional appropriation, or by subscription.