Any occupation around the home, if it be one which ministers either to the pleasure, comfort or profit of individual members, is quite likely to knit that family into a more compact group. It keeps the children more at home. The interchange of service and advice which brings into relief the interdependence of the individuals stimulates this one of the important characteristics of domestic society. There has been an indication in recent years to lay upon the schools the entire training for manhood and womanhood. It is expected to teach manners and ethics, to give the proper kind of academic information, to formulate character, to even teach "nature." It is impossible to do this. The finest character, habits of study, executive ability, and the social attitude must be started and nursed to strength, if not to maturity, at home. Five hours each day under incomplete authority can accomplish little else than formal instruction. Even the beginnings of technical and scientific training have their roots deep in these childish hobbies which originate and flourish at home, where a deep obligation rests upon parents to make the most of this early time. It is a lead the school can follow, but never originate. The school represents the average educational ideal of a given community, and when schools are inefficient, languish and give indifferent service, it is an excellent index of the local culture standard. Therefore, when parents develop to their highest pitch the enthusiasms and abilities of childhood, when they foster family life and enrich it so that every member, particularly the younger ones, become active participants, and feel that they too have work to contribute to the general welfare, then and then only will the school by force of public sentiment revise its own standards.
There is a Fascination about Raising Animals whether for Sale or as Pets. To the Child this Occupation Acquires the Dignity of a Real Business
Two More Illustrations which will Suggest Plans for the Future
For reasons such as these every home should be a kind of unofficial training school, in which the courses are mostly elective. Some outdoor hobbies which the children will enjoy should be maintained, and, on however small a scale, the house and grounds should be planned with this in view. The city boy and girl will have somewhat limited choice, but even there one can enjoy several hobbies, even in a flat. One can at least grow things, for there are few corners, even in a city, so dark that some plants will not flourish.