That Last Waif; or, Social QuarantineFletcher, Horace
History
That Last Waif; or, Social Quarantine
Fletcher, Horace
Child welfare
The origin of the name "Quarantine" is traced to republican Venice at
the time when she was mistress of the Adriatic and of the outside
world of commerce as well. It referred to the period of forty days
prescribed as a term of probation during which vessels, men or
merchandise coming from infected ports should not enter the harbor.
Names of institutions often stimulate the efforts of those employed
under the title in the direction of the aims of the institution, and
names given to children sometimes seem to determine their occupation
or in other ways to influence their character or career.
Students of Child-Life find in the lives of Ulysses S. Grant, William
Tecumseh Sherman, and many others who have achieved military glory, a
steady inclination to be worthy of the heroic names they bore, and
some go so far as to associate the patriarchal qualities of President
Lincoln with the subtle suggestion insisted on by the name of Abraham.
It is reasonable to suppose that names in constant use carry strong
suggestion with them and for that reason we have adopted the names
"Character-Building and Habit-Forming" by which to designate the
several schools that are intended to fit children for the independent
individual employments of mature life.
For the same reason we have adopted--invented, if you like--the name
"Quarantinist," to apply to such as share our sympathy for health and
harmony in all branches of social and individual economy, and the name
"Neglectist" to apply to all others, not by imposition, but by
inference.
Who is there that would like to be known as a neglectist, and who is
there, having joined the ranks of the quarantinists, that would not
constantly be reminded to apply the suggestion to matters of
individual care?
"Kindergarten" is a beautiful name, with fine poetic significance, but
unfortunately is not quite sufficiently descriptive of its high
purpose. In common acceptance it means a something intended
principally to "amuse children and keep them out of mischief until
they are old enough to learn something useful."
The method of analysis and training that has ripened out of the wise
suggestions of Saint Froebel is the most important acquisition to
pedagogy that has ever been discovered and is applicable to any branch
of education and also to the use of industrial institutions in
improving the condition and status of employees as well as
establishing cordial relations between employers and their employees.
A splendid example of the latter application has been carried to
success by the National Cash Register Company, of Dayton, Ohio, whose
happy and enthusiastic employees number nearly two thousand persons of
all ages and both sexes, scattered in every part of the world where
commerce reaches, but the subject of this institution and its methods
is worthy of a special treatise. It is an "object lesson" which should
be known to everyone within the whole range of contact between
directors and directed in industrial pursuits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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