Our Schools in War Time—and AfterDean, Arthur D. (Arthur Davis)
History
Our Schools in War Time—and After
Dean, Arthur D. (Arthur Davis)
Education -- United States; World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Schools
III. _Military farm-training camp._ This is a type of camp where city
boys, under the direction of a school or some organization, go into a
farming community and open up new land which otherwise would not have
been put under cultivation. These boys stay at the camp during the
season. They do not work for the farmers near by, or, at least, not
ordinarily,--the intention being to establish a self-supporting and
self-maintaining camp for the use of the boys who attend. The land is
tilled, the seed planted, and the harvest gathered for the benefit of
the boys. Any profits are given to the boys or to the school, and any
expenses for conducting the camp, or overhead charges, usually come out
of the organization or school represented. It is questionable whether,
generally speaking, this type of camp is on a sound economic and
agricultural basis. If such a camp could be carried on for a number of
years with a strong school or other organization behind it, and plenty
of capital, it is very likely that it would succeed. It takes capital
to establish good soil conditions and purchase tools, farm machinery,
and stock, and to put up buildings. It is a highly desirable type of
camp to consider in terms of many years or where a school wishes to
give its boys a military and farm experience. But in the food emergency
through which the country is now passing, it is doubtful if this type
of camp should ever have been started. It is, however, an excellent
type to establish as a permanent adjunct to a city school system.
IV. _Coöperative camp where the boys share in proceeds._ This type
of camp is practically like III, and if the farm land is new and the
camp leader is untrained in agricultural operations and the boys are
unskilled, it is about as likely to be doomed to failure as is the
other.
V. _The village- or country-school type of camp._ This is a camp
where the schoolboys, under the leadership of a teacher, go to the
outskirts of the village and develop a garden. If the land is good and
the teacher knows agriculture and the boys attend to business, they
will most certainly receive an excellent practical training useful to
them in life. They will have learned how to work in the soil, how to
work together for a common purpose, how to stick to a job until it is
finished, how to look ahead from the time seed is purchased until the
crop is placed in the hands of the customer. All these things are good
and they are useful to any boy, but, of course, from the standpoint
of increasing the food supply in any large way through the growing of
wheat, feed corn, oats, rye, buckwheat, potatoes, and large fruits
there is little to be said. The work is to be commended on the basis of
its value to the individual boy.
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