i62 EMIL MUNSTERBERG 



regarded as of little value, as in Germany so often happens. 



It is as true of America as of England that the care of 

 children belongs to the most promising field of relief effort. 

 The physical and moral education of poor children, with the 

 exception of those in poorhouses, is almost entirely neglected. 

 They grow up in dirt, indolence, and sickness, and many fall 

 victims to premature death, or are taken to prison. On the 

 contrary, the health and mortality of children in the poorhouses 

 are preserved; they receive an education which enables them 

 to care for themselves. 



The arrangements for children correspond to those in 

 other lands, — institutional care in great orphanages, of which 

 America possesses some of the first rank, or in small homes; 

 and the union of both systems by reception of the children at 

 first in a central place, and their transfer hence to family care — 

 the so-called state public school system, or the Michigan sys- 

 tem, because it was first applied in Michigan, and now enjoys a 

 great reputation in America. Along with the exclusively 

 public and exclusively private care of children exists the sys- 

 tem of subsidies from public means to private institutions. 



More and more the system of family care gains in im- 

 portance, although at first it was hindered in the attempt to 

 remove children from poorhouses by the tendency to replace 

 poorhouses with splendid institutions for children. Life 

 in a family, especially in a well ordered rural family, pre- 

 pares the child for life far more satisfactorily than is possible 

 in an institution. In an institution the children are taught 

 rather too much of heavenly and too little of earthly things. 

 The atmosphere is only too well adapted to train them in 

 dependence. Shelter is provided; food is always ready; cloth- 

 ing, good beds, warm rooms are at their disposal, without the 

 least thought or care on the part of the children. 



Altogether different is family care. It is said in a report 

 of Illinois in 1899: 



''In a real domestic household all members of a family are 

 bound together by reciprocal ties. In the nature of family 

 life, persons help each other and make sacrifices in turn. 

 There is the great world in small, and the relations of the mem- 

 bers to each other correspond to those which the child will find 



