Fig. 29.—An industrial exhibit in a country school. If the boys and girls could enjoy frequently the refining experience of having their work observed by approving eyes, their appointed tasks would seem lighter.
And yet much of this fatal choice of an independent vocation on the part of many young women doubtless results from bad management of the growing girl. In too many country homes especially, the work is complete master of the housekeeper and not the converse, as the case should be. As a result, thousands of good women who ought to be in the pink and prime of life are going pathetically to the only rest which the conditions seem to allow—the grave. It is an awful thing, this wreck of so many good lives through over-work. Under such conditions, may we reasonably censure the many young women who foresee such a fate as a possibility for themselves and avoid it through choice of an unmarried life and independent support?
Girls are more readily enslaved to work than boys. It is comparatively easy to teach a young woman to work, but it is an extremely difficult matter to teach her when and how to quit work. Here, then, is the point whereat we would center the attention of the parents of the country girl. Make her mistress of her work. Develop in her by actual concrete lessons the ability to stop and rest or take recreation at the necessary time, even though the work be not half done.
Summary
1. Give the girl a trifling daily task at four or five years of age, merely for the sake of discipline. See to it, however, that her young life be occupied chiefly in play and enjoyment and outdoor recreation.
2. Gradually increase the amount of work required, but always with an eye single to the girl’s physical growth and character-development. Some definite thing to do as a regular daily requirement will prove most helpful.
3. Continue throughout the daughter’s growing years to provide for her pleasure. Her schooling, her personal belongings, her social advantages, and the like, must all be made to serve the purpose of making her life in the home a happy one. As she grows in strength and years, she will assume the increased amount of work with willingness and even with pleasure, provided the assigned duties be vitally related to her present purposes and her life interests.
4. Moreover, country parents must learn to think of themselves as first of all engaged in bringing up their children for a better human society; and secondly, as engaged in farming and housekeeping. If this point of view be held to persistently, the crops may often suffer and the housework frequently remain unfinished, but the vital interests of the boys and girls will continue ever to be served.
5. Finally, let us continue to appreciate the value of outings and vacations as potent factors in relieving the drudgery of work about the country household. Women’s work in the country home naturally calls for much isolation and seclusion. The pre-adolescent girl should be taken out of the farm home once or twice per week during the summer vacation. It is good for her to go with her mother to the town market and to the women’s club meetings. As soon as she enters young womanhood, a square deal for the girl who helps in the home will call for a weekly outing of some kind and a careful provision for her social needs. All of this outside intercourse will serve to quicken the body and the intellect of the girl as she goes daily about the household duties, and to give her