Not only in the family, but in the State, and in all the walks of life, the attention given to children is productive of the most profit.
"And a little child shall lead them!"
SUMMARY
"He is at once admitted to the school, where in most cases the influences of cleanliness, decency, and home surroundings, transform him in a few weeks from a homeless, dirty waif, ragged, hungry and hopeless, into a bright, well clad, well fed lad, with the opportunity before him of receiving a good education and learning a trade which will give him an object in life. The Training School is in no sense a prison, and has neither bolts nor bars nor corporeal punishments. The boys are governed by love and kindness; and, although they are taken from the street and gutter, it is surprising as it is gratifying to find how short a time produces an entire change in their appearance, manners and conduct."—Oscar L. Dudley, Secretary and General Manager of the Illinois School of Agriculture and Manual Training for Boys, before the National Conference of Charities and Correction.
SUMMARY
The author believes that character-building and habit-forming institutions should be appreciated and supported as fundamental bases of government, in that they are nurseries of good citizenship, and not simply as minor branches of education, as at present classified, and that no intelligent effort should be spared to make them available to the Last Waif in a community as well as to the most favored.
Character-building and habit-forming institutions, as here meant, include the crèche, the kindergarten, domestic science, manual-training schools and parental farms of demonstrated usefulness; the special usefulness consisting of supplying nourishment for infants necessary to supplement that received at home, teaching suggestions from which to absorb self-respect, and also respect for thrift and order, and the provision of ample opportunities for the discovery of that talent or preference for some useful occupation with which every normal human being is equipped at birth—the one occupation that every person would rather pursue than do anything else, or be idle,—if only it can be found.