216 The Nature-Study Idea 



summer schools are protests against an idle 

 summer. Herein is where the farm boy ac- 

 quires much of his efficiency for the battle of 

 life in the fact that he has no long periods of 

 enforced idleness, laziness and emptiness. He 

 is kept at work. He grows up with an appre- 

 ciation of the value of time. He knows what 

 industry is and what it brings. Steady effort 

 and application become the warp and woof of 

 his life. The town boy of the upper and middle 

 class, on the other hand, is likely to become ac- 

 complished in feats of idleness. One fourth his 

 time is mere vacation, or, rather, mere vacancy. 

 He is handicapped when later he comes squarely 

 against the realities of life. 



I believe in a long vacation if the time is 

 occupied in some well-directed effort. I am 

 glad to see the development of the summer-camp 

 idea for both boys and girls, where, under com- 

 petent and sympathetic guidance, with firm but 

 kindly discipline and something like Spartan 

 fare, they are led to see and to know the 

 nature in which they are. In such camping- 

 out experiences the youth comes hard against 



