OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 393 



are specially likely to be out of keeping with the original effort 

 expended by the child. 



We should take every pains to let the children feel that the 

 rewards in life come only with the expenditure of adequate effort. 



(3) The effect of these contests may be to inflate the child 

 and to give him undue and untruthful estimate of his own im- 

 portance. A shrewd observer of a boy's prize excursion re- 

 marked that every boy after he got home should be punished; 

 but another observer suggested that the boys in the neighbor- 

 hood would probably prevent him from getting the bighead. I 

 do not indorse these remarks, but it illustrates the dangers that 

 are likely to accrue unconsciously to the child. It is a doubtful 

 undertaking to single out certain children in a community for 

 unusual recognition or reward. 



(4) The children are liable to be exploited, and this is one 

 of the most apparent dangers in the whole situation. They are 

 likely to be used in the making of political or other public reputa- 

 tion, or in accomplishing advertising and propaganda for insti- 

 tutions, organizations, publications, commercial concerns, and 

 other enterprises, or to. exploit the resources of the state or the 

 agriculture of a region. Children should never be made the 

 means of floating anybody's enterprise. 



Every part of the "boom" and "boost" element must be taken 

 out of this work, and all efforts to make a display or a demonstra- 

 tion. Substantial enterprises may stand on their own feet, and 

 the work with children may stand on its own feet and not be 

 tied up to undertakings to which it does not belong. 



Recognizing the dangers that may come from the organization 

 of boys' and girls' clubs, how can we so safeguard them in the 

 new time that these dangers will be eliminated or at least re- 

 duced to the minimum? I think that we can safeguard them if 

 only we recognize the essential nature and function of such 

 contests. 



The fundamental consideration is that all this kind of work 

 is educational. It is not primarily agricultural work, not under- 

 taken directly to improve the farming of a region. The primary 

 consideration is its effect on the child. If we cannot accept these 

 propositions, then I should be in favor of giving up the boys' and 

 girls' contests. 



