Farm Boys and Girls

by William A. McKeever

Fig. 34.—Only whittling. But in the case of these country boys it is thought of as not mere idling, but as a pastime that leads toward the world of industry.

So, there is little need of being worried over the thought that the boy is a natural-born dullard, without native ability to learn and finally to make his way in the world. It is true that there is occasionally a real “blockhead” among children, but such cases are quite as rare as imbecility and physical deformity. Indeed, such cases are nearly always connected with one or both of the defects just named. Then, while in the usual instance the child is to be assumed to possess an ample amount of native talent, one of the specific problems of his parents and teachers is that of learning in time what his best latent talent is, so that it may give proper incentive and direction for his vocational life.

Classes of native ability

Roughly speaking there are three classes of native ability in the human offspring: the super-normal, the normal, and the sub-normal. The first is constituted of the geniuses—few and far between, perhaps one in a hundred to five hundred. The second is composed of the great mass of humanity upon which the stability of the race is built and out of which the geniuses—and the majority of the sub-normals—spring through fortuitous variation. The third class is constituted of the feeble-minded, the imbeciles, and the exceedingly rare natural-born criminals—altogether, perhaps one in every two hundred or more of the population.

Now, what we are trying to get at here is a fair estimate of what the parent may reasonably look for by way of a stock of native ability in his child. The natural-born genius will be known by one special mark; namely, he will be so strongly inclined toward one special line of work or calling as to need no outside stimulus or incentive to make him take it up. Indeed, in the usual case of a pronounced genius it is a very difficult matter to prevent the individual from following out his one over-mastering predisposition.

The marks of feeble-mindedness or idiocy are too well known to need description. Such cases are also so rare and so special in their manner of treatment as to call for no extended discussion.

The great talented class

The great masses of humanity are constituted of what we mean here by the talented. That is, as described above, at birth they possess a large and abundant stock of potentialities of learning and achievement—much more than can ever become actualized because of the comparatively limited time and means for education and training. Of course, we recognize that among the talented classes there is an endless variety of combinations of abilities. So are there many degrees of ability.

But in addition to the foregoing marks of latent ability in the great middle classes we must note a distinctive feature of the development and education of such classes. It is this: The two great conditions necessary for the successful development of the ordinary child are stimulus and opportunity. Unless the slumbering talents be awakened by the proper stimuli, they may slumber on throughout the whole lifetime and no one detect their presence; and unless opportunities for development be given to satisfy the awakened talent, it may return permanently to its condition of quiescence.

In attempting to furnish the necessary stimuli and opportunities for the development of his boy, the farmer has—if he will only use it—a great advantage over the city father. The great variety of work-and-play experience afforded by the rural situation, the fairly good general schooling now coming more and more into reach of all farm homes, the many conditions contributory to self-reliance and independent thinking in the case of the boy—all these raw materials of stimulus and opportunity lie hidden about the common country home. But the parents must themselves become wider awake to the meanings and purposes of such materials, or otherwise their value is lost through disuse. And again, it is urged that parents make the same careful study of their children as they do of farm crops and live stock. See the reference lists following the first five chapters.