Institutional Training 69 



children in the natural family, are the most healthy stimu- 

 lants in the formation of character. The dull monotony of 

 institution life which reduces everything to the dead level of 

 a colourless existence has much to answer for." 1 



"Such training I feel sure is not an effective one, for 

 girls at any rate. It may not be bad for a boy who is to 

 become part of the great industrial machine ; but for a girl 

 the question is a different one. She is certain to be sent into 

 an ordinary household as a domestic servant, where initiative, 

 common sense, and powers of observation are far more needed 

 than the power to fit into a great system, and to do what she 

 is told and only what she is told." 2 



The special reference of both these quotations is to Poor 

 Law District Schools ; but I have quoted them as illus- 

 trating a feeling very prevalent about institutional training in 

 general. 



I have already shown that objections which may fit some 

 institutions do not necessarily apply to institutional life as 

 a whole. 3 



A second answer seems to be that although the life of the 

 child in the Scattered Home, or of the child " boarded-out," 

 gives greater opportunity for originality of effort or develop- 

 ment of personality, yet the very discipline and routine of 

 institutional life may be necessary for the suppression of bad 

 habits and the formation of good ones. In higher strata 

 of society do we not frequently hear the expression, " Oh ! 



the 's have sent their boy to boarding-school : they could 



do nothing with him at home." I do not wish to suggest for 

 a moment that any form of institutional life can be equal to 

 the ideal boarding-out home, but rather that a well-managed 

 institution is to be preferred to the second or third rate 

 separate home, and also that there may be special reasons 

 why certain children will do better in institutions. 



1 Margaret Alden, Child Life and Labour, p. 130. 



2 Miss E. N. Williams, Report on Condition of Poor Law Children, p. 103. 

 * See above, p. 44. 



