The Elements of Child-protection

by Sigmund Engel

Whereas in former times various kinds of productive work formed part of the economy of domestic life, so that the child had opportunities for seeing and learning such occupations in its own home, to-day we find that not even children’s toys are made at home, but are bought ready-made. Manual training is also advocated, on the ground that it is necessary to ensure that there shall be an adequate supply of skilled manual workers. This, we are told, may contribute to keep alive the lesser industries which tend to disappear before the great manufacturing industry. But the replacement of handwork by the work of machines is a tendency of evolution which no one has the power to arrest. It is not truly the aim of manual instruction to produce skilled adult manual workers; we advocate it simply as a means of education which has nothing whatever to do with technical education.

Manual training must be carefully adapted to the child’s age, and in the case of very little children must take the form rather of a game. Its character may be very various: the preparation of drawings and models, experimentation with tools, the construction of tools or other useful objects out of wood, clay, dough, iron, &c., garden work, and the like.

Although the results of manual training are so remarkably good, it is only quite recently that it has been utilised as a means of education. The explanation perhaps is that manual work being all done by slaves, serfs, body-servants, and wage-labourers, was despised by the upper classes, and for this reason its great educational value was so long overlooked. Ethical and educative influences are so completely lacking to wage-labour, that the child should not be occupied in wage-labour, but only in manual work of an educative influence and tendency. Instruction in productive work, involving an explanation of the fundamental methods of the production of commodities and habituation to the use of the simpler tools must form a part of education. The attempt to extend manual training expresses the general tendency of evolution. The elementary schools of most civilised countries show that manual training can be readily introduced into the elementary school curriculum. Indeed, in the public elementary schools of many countries, manual training is now compulsory, especially as regards instruction in feminine manual occupations. But manual training cannot be developed to the fullest extent, nor can this method be expected to furnish the best possible results, until capitalist production for profit has been replaced by social production for use.

Preparatory Schools.—What we said about crèches applies, though with some differences, to preparatory schools. Children go to the modern elementary school at a comparatively early age, and are subjected to the discipline of school without any preparatory initiation. Institutions whose aim it is to prepare children for the life of the public elementary schools are known as preparatory schools. The idea that before the age of school-attendance the child should be methodically employed for some hours daily, that the occupation should be physical, and that the work should be so arranged as to appear to the child as a kind of play, is not a new one. Alike on educational and on social grounds it is certainly desirable that the period of public education should begin earlier than the present age of compulsory school-attendance. Such is indeed the tendency of evolution, and in Hungary we have already advanced far in this direction.

Supervised Playgrounds for Children (Kinderhorte).—With the growth of capitalism there have come into existence (though somewhat later than the preparatory schools) supervised playgrounds for children (Kinderhorte) to provide care and training out of school hours for the school children whose parents work away from home. These institutions may be associated with the schools, or may exist independently; there may be separate playgrounds for boys and for girls, or the two sexes may play together. In the United States of America there exist “Children’s Clubs” for school-children, which differ from preparatory schools, inasmuch as their main purpose is to provide entertainment.

Increasing Importance of the Public Elementary School.—The family circle in which the proletarian child lives tends, as a rule, to counteract the beneficial effects of school life. Nor are the other elements in the environment of the proletarian child such as tend to exercise a good educational influence. For this reason quite recently the question has been mooted how the school may best counteract the evil influences of the family and the environment. As time goes on the public elementary school becomes ever more important, its circle of duties becomes more comprehensive, and it undertakes many elements of education which formerly appertained to the parental home and the environment. The public elementary school and the associated institutions begin to exercise functions outside the domain of education in the narrower sense, and to absorb some of those formerly exercised by the poor-law authorities, inasmuch as the schools are coming to satisfy other needs of the proletarian child in addition to the need for education. Consider, for example, the association with the public elementary school of preparatory schools, supervised playgrounds, baths, gardens, workshops, savings-banks, &c.

Feeding of School Children.—The children of the lower classes are to-day quite unable to pay for their schooling. If every pupil had to pay school fees, a strict enforcement of compulsory school attendance would involve gross injustice to the poorer classes. If the State makes school attendance compulsory, the State must make it possible for every child to attend school. Many children fail to attend school because they lack proper clothing, and especially boots and shoes. Is it not the duty of the education authorities to provide for poor children of school age the clothing they need to make it possible for them to attend school? This is not as yet recognised as a public duty, but we see an unmistakable movement in its direction. In most countries public elementary education is already free, in some cases for all the children, in others only for the poorest; school materials and books are as yet supplied gratuitously only in France, Switzerland, and the United States of America.

Is it a part of the work of the public elementary school to provide food for the pupils? (Should it provide a dwelling? Even those whose demands are most extensive ask merely that the elementary schools should provide a home for the child during the day time, on the one hand during school hours, on the other during the intervals.) The question of the feeding of school children was first mooted by the teachers about thirty years ago. It was evident that a smaller or larger proportion of the children attending urban schools (in wealthier towns from 3 to 10 per cent., in the suburbs of large towns even as many as 90 per cent.) were unable to derive adequate benefit from their teaching because they were underfed. The proletarian mother lacks sufficient time to prepare food for her children, especially the midday meal. Few workmen earn enough to provide a dietary in conformity with hygienic demands. The school is often far from the home, and the children have neither time nor desire to return home to dinner. The need is especially striking during the winter months, inasmuch as at this time there is more unemployment, whilst it is precisely at this season of the year that hot meals are most necessary. Moreover, whilst it is simply cruel to force half-fed children to learn, they hinder the progress of the others. It is objected that the feeding of school children conflicts with the principle of parental responsibility, and that it impairs the intimacy of family life, which demands, as all will admit, that the members of the family shall meet one another at least at meals. Our aim, we are told, should therefore be to do away with the poverty which is the cause of so many children coming to school underfed. But school feeding may be so arranged that the parents are charged for the meals at cost. Moreover, it is proposed to supply only breakfast and dinner—meals which many proletarian parents are in any case unable to take at home.

School feeding can be combined with instruction for the girls in cooking and domestic economy. The meals may be given in the school, which is the best plan, or in special institutions. The feeding of school children must be kept entirely in the hands of the education authorities; it has nothing to do with the poor-law, and it is absolutely necessary that it should be kept completely distinct from poor-law administration. (Who is to determine the children’s need—the poor-law authorities or the school? The latter, in my opinion; but this cannot always be done off-hand—in doubtful cases a house-to-house visitation will be necessary.)

Quite recently it has been claimed that the feeding of children in the public elementary schools should be entirely gratuitous—that is to say, that food should be provided for well-to-do as well as for necessitous children. This claim is supported by the following arguments: (a) It is a logical consequence of universal free education; (b) if school meals are provided for necessitous children only, as if in relief of destitution, then, however tactfully this may be done, parents and children alike feel ashamed and suffer from a loss of self-respect. The following objections are made to these views: (a) Feeding satisfies a natural need, education a need peculiar to civilised man; (b) it is possible to provide a suitable diet in the family circle, but not to provide there a satisfactory education; (c) provided the feeding of the children is general, no one need be ashamed, if those parents able to pay have to pay, whilst the others are fed gratuitously. But these objections are not worth further consideration.