APT pgs. 5–6, Sept. 1911

"American Primary Teacher," 1911 September edition.

“Vintage time piece,” as AI saw it.

Well, to begin, I’d like to say I’m sorry it’s been months since I worked on this little project. When I’m actually at my laptop, I’m working, so when you see me on Notes, it’s generally because all I have on me is my cellphone.

Thank you so much for stopping in again. YOU are appreciated.

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-Best Friends of Boys

So, to get started, we’re going to be introduced to Judge Julian W. Mack out of Chicago, who was also the “President National Conference of Charities and Correction” in 1911. According to Wikipedia, he was quite an educated man, having graduated Harvard, top of his class, in 1887. His letter here in the American Primary Teacher is full of interesting clues about the times in which he lived.

Note: This is a rather lengthy letter, so I will not be typing it out in its entirety, but we’ll focus on a few bits of it.

The Judge’s letter.

Beginning with paragraph 3:

It has always been good citizenship, good morals, and good Christianity for men to live like princes, provide wife and children with every luxury of home and college, and support churches and Christian missions out of the blood money earned by the children¹ of widows and of unfortunate fathers.

But the change is coming. A child at labor no longer means eight, or ten, or even twelve years. We have almost universally raised the significance to fourteen, and in all highly enlightened states to sixteen.

The heights have not yet been reached, but that which has already come to be is far above anything that was twenty years ago as a rainbow is above a thunder cloud for beauty.

Further down, we read:

When this century dawned benevolence meant memorial buildings, monuments, and tablets, colleges and universities for young men and women, never anything for children but asylums.

The rest of the Judge’s letter.

I find this next paragraph interesting, and not surprising in the least:

Educational psychology has been written from the point of view of the logic of philosophy, and even much of child study has been written by men who were highly impatient if a real child interrupted their meditations on child study. They have a panic if a child laughed at the wrong time or in the wrong place.

Maybe you recall some family stories from your own childhood about the adults not allowing the children to speak… “Do not speak unless spoken to.” I cringe when I hear stories like that.

Photo by Nastya Dulhiier on Unsplash

Anyway, he carries on about some positive strides society has taken to do things for the children as well as how the children, in turn, teach the parents. Ending with this paragraph:

Men of means and men of brains, men of culture and men of conscience are being led by the children, so that life means more and one’s effort counts for more in the uplift of humanity.

Given many of the things he wrote, especially about the “hobo and hoodlum boys,” I do believe he’d be flabbergasted at the way things are currently going.

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-Laugh, Little Children.

“Laugh, Little Children” shared to APT in 1911.

And now for a bit of poetry shared with the American Primary Teacher by the Chicago Evening Post:

Laugh, little children, laugh and sing,
And just be glad for everything;
Be glad for morning and for night.
For sun and stars that laugh with light,
For trees that chuckle in the breeze,
For singing birds and humming bees—
Be one with them and laugh along,
And weave your gladness in your song.

Let nothing but the twinkle-tears
Come to your eyes these happy years,
When you are free of task and toll
And all the frets that come to spoil
The hours of folks whose feet have paced
The road along which you must haste—
Laugh, little children, for it drives
The shadow out of other lives.

Go romping care free as you will
Across the meadow, up the hill,
And shout your message far away
For all the world to join your play.
This is the time for laughter; now,
When time has not set on your brow
The finger prints that come with care
And leave abiding wrinkles there.

Laugh, little children, laugh and sing
And coax the joy from everything;
Take gladness at its fullest worth
And make each hour and hour of mirth,
So that when on the downward slope
Of life the radiant sky of hope
Will blend above you all the way
And make you happy, as to-day.

That finally concludes this post. Thanks again for being here and supporting me along this silly journey of mine. As always, you are greatly appreciated, and have a fantastic weekend!

1. And today’s pampered puffs think they have it bad.