Dr. Thomas D. Wood, Lake Placid Conference, 1902.
CHAPTER V
RESPONSIBILITY
The ideal of “home” is protection from dangers from within—bad habits, bad food, bad air, dirt and abuse,—shelter, in fact, from all stunting agencies, just as the gardener protects his tender plants until they become strong enough to stand by themselves. The child’s home environment is certainly a potent factor in his future efficiency.
But more than physical protection is that education in all that goes to make up profitable living, acquired by following the mother or nurse in her daily round and in having legitimate questions answered. Imitation is the first step in good habits, as in learning to walk or to read. That which is set before the child should be worthy its imitation, and be of value when fixed as a habit. Habits of health, correct position, deep breathing, clean ways, distaste for dirt in one’s person or in one’s vicinity, liking for fresh air, for simple food, good habits of exercise, of reading, and the thousand and one trifles that go to make up the efficient worker in adult years, all belong to the well-ordered home, where, as one author puts it, the child is the business of the day.
But the State cannot risk its property too far.
When mothers become so careless or ignorant that half their children fail to reach their first birthday, and of those that live to be three years old a majority are defrauded of their birthright of health, some agency must step in.
If the State is to have good citizens it must provide for the teaching of the essentials to a generation that will become the wiser mothers and fathers of the next. Therefore, even if we regard this as only a temporary expedient, we must begin to teach the children in our schools, and begin at once, that which we see they are no longer learning in the home. “The achievement at Huddersfield, England, is especially noteworthy. The average annual number of deaths of infants for ten years had been 310. By a systematic education of mothers the number was in 1907 reduced to 212. The cost of saving these ninety-eight lives was about $2,000.”[11]
One university has established a course in the care of children, much to the amusement of the press. The United States Commissioner of Education has, however, been a responsible mover in the idea.
But real progress by means of family education means the stable family and the permanent dwelling. Where is the family in the permanent dwelling today? Among any class, except the agricultural, where is the stable family?