660 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
School Questions. —In a recent R. 
N.-Y. there appeared several letters on 
the district school question cdncerning 
the advisability of Summer sessions in 
place of Winter ones, and a query as to 
whether the hot school lunches were the 
practical success these are cracked up to 
be. In regard to a Summer school for 
country children, at first thought the idea 
seems able to hold a good deal of water. 
As one contributor said, the Winter 
school is a fertile carrier of all sorts of 
dangerous diseases, which thrive particu¬ 
larly in the coldest months, and this 
being the case any thoughtful parent 
dreads the Winter school days, because^ 
the pupils are certain to become inocu¬ 
lated with bad lung colds, measles, epi¬ 
demics of all kinds, and so on without 
end. This was typically illustrated in 
the writer's own district for the past two 
years. My little daughter attends school 
half a mile distant, and last January (a 
year ago) she caught the prevailing in¬ 
fluenza at school and brought it home to 
the rest of the family. None of us died 
at the time with that devastating life- 
taker. but most of the family were ser¬ 
iously sick. We might have had the “flu” 
just the same if Ann had not been of 
school age. but as we were unusually 
careful to keep isolated on the farm we 
have always thought that our house might 
have escaped had it not. been for the 
keeping of school. 
The Spread of Illness. —This Winter 
the grippe or influenza arrived late on 
the scene, as all know, but as people con¬ 
gregated together always spread such an 
epidemic first, it is not surprising that 
the first signs of “flu” should have ap¬ 
peared in the schoolhouse. and of course 
Ann promptly contracted it, and once 
more our family were the innocent vic¬ 
tims. This was the case in practically 
every house in this town where there 
were children of school age. and while 
others in no way connected with school 
had the distemper, yet the families where 
the children lived were conspicuously 
sick—and always sick before the rest of 
the town. It is true that all sorts of 
children brought together in several rooms 
harbor diseases, and it is not strange that 
thoughtful parents deplore the means by 
which these are caught. But I do not 
believe that we can change existing laws 
and customs, no matter whether roads 
are almost impassable in Winter, as wit¬ 
ness this season, or whether toll is taken 
from every family in town by some con¬ 
tagious disease. 
Objections to Change. —In the first 
place, the teachers would never consent 
to giving up "their pleasant two months’ 
vacation for a vacation during Winter. 
Next, the children would rebel at 
study hours in their natural play time, 
and we can imagine that the quality of 
their work would suffer if Summer were 
to supersede Winter for the acquiring of 
knowledge. ITabit is a hard thing to break. 
It is true that country folk complain 
justly against the hardships of Winter 
school, but even they would hesitate to 
change present conditions. I agree, how¬ 
ever, that if teachers and scholars would 
consent to keep school during the hot, 
humid months and let out during January 
and February, much good might result, 
although disadvantages would remain as 
a matter of course. 
The Distant School. —Those unfor¬ 
tunate children who belong to a “com¬ 
munity'’ school and who have to be car¬ 
ried miles each night and morning to 
their destination are surely to be pitied 
such a Winter as this—or at any other 
time. I am thankful that our county 
does not sanction this innovation, and 
parents who can see their youngsters 
start out on a morning 10 degrees below 
zero for a long, cruel ride to the school¬ 
rooms far away must be callous indeed. 
It isn’t right or natural, and the ex¬ 
posure and long hours spent away from 
the proper home influences must have a 
depressing effect all around on the little 
victims. It may be “cheaper” and a 
higher grade of education may be handed 
out on this plan, as its adherents urge, 
but the counteracting influences offset 
these 100 per cent—for there is something 
in life beside the facts found between the 
covers of a school book. 
Hot Lunches. —As for the hot school 
lunches which are such a fad and nothing 
more at present, I have never approved 
of them, and never shall until convinced 
of their real need more than I am at 
present. The Home Bureau in our 
county has been instrumental in starting 
the hot lunch idea throughout this sec¬ 
tion. and practically most of the district 
schools have tried it out this Winter. 
The II. N.-Y'. correspondent comments 
on the unsanitary features of 20 or more 
children carrying their milk to school in 
20 or more clean or otherwise containers 
and then dumping the resulting fluid into 
one pan for making cocoa or soup. This 
part of the hot lunch program has always 
been disagreeable to me, and must be to 
any fastidious mother. If diseases and 
germs by the million could not be trails- | 
mitted in this way, please show me why 
not. In fact, so much danger is afforded 
by this practice that it should be actually 
prohibited instead of encouraged, and 
proves once more that theory instead of 
good common sense is rampant for the 
time being. The hot lunch enthusiasts 
for children say that the cold dinner pail 
is unhealthy and unnecessary and that 
the pupils need something warm during 
the middle of the day in cold weather. 
All this is true enough, but it seems to 
me that children for generation after 
generation have passed through the din¬ 
ner pail stage without noticeably harmful 
results, and they had better keep to the 
old ways until really practical and more 
perfect ones are substituted. It is cer¬ 
tain that a composite soup or cocoa is 
far from being the perfect solution, and 
personally I would risk my child on a 
cold dinner of nourishing sandwiches, 
bottle of pure milk to be warmed on stove 
or register, cookies, fruit, and so forth, 
sooner than the heated milk in every 
degree of uncleanliness brought by any 
number of children. 
Wasted Time. —It also takes a lot of 
time to get up those lunches, and half of 
the morning session is often of necessity 
devoted to cooking tin* day's lunch instead 
of for lessons. This is expensive, and 
bids to be more so now that teachers are 
to be paid practically double what they 
were two or three years ago. The chil¬ 
dren’s minds are incidentally on their 
dinner instead of lessons—all of which 
speaks for itself. If warm lunches are 
absolutely necessary at this late date, as 
we are told, then my plan would be to 
provide each child with a thermos bottle, 
to be filled at home with a boiling soup, 
cocoa or whatever is desired, and then 
eaten hot at the required time. This 
would surely meet all objections and is 
generally practiced by those mothers who 
do not approve of the cooking being done 
on the spot. If not all the pupils could 
afford a small thermos bottle, the school 
could hold a social or entertainment and 
devote the proceeds to the cause. If it 
is so vital as we are told, no better way 
could be devised for spending the funds, 
and everybody would eat their own germs 
—and keep well or sick accordingly. 
Other Methods. —Where school lunches 
have been a conspicuous success I think 
that a separate organization altogether 
has had them in charge and the teacher 
is not obliged to spend her noon or fore¬ 
noon hours preparing a meal for her 
scholars, nor have the scholars been 
obliged to bring materials from home to 
cook up at school. A soup kitchen or the 
like is provided in tin 1 cities for destitute 
and undernourished children, and likewise 
for those who prefer to buy a hot lunch 
instead of carrying a cold one from home. 
These are an entirely different matter 
from the district school service, and are 
distinct and separate from the school 
routine. Both teacher and pupils soon 
get tired of cooking under often trying 
conditions, and agree that the benefits 
are not equal to the work. Perhaps this 
idea will bear more discussion, and those 
who have found it all good can tell us 
just why. But as I said, my findings so 
far go to prove that the hot lunch as now 
practiced has its decided limitations, and 
I do not approve of it at all. 
Farm Prospects. — I do not know just 
what to think at this writing as to the 
outlook for a fair farm prosperity this 
year. According to the 40.000 farmers 
whom the Post Office questioned, there is 
a vast amount of dissatisfaction among 
those of our profession, yet I cannot 
really think that they represent agricul¬ 
ture as a whole. Everyone knows that 
farming is a long, hard, almost thankless 
job—but when we get too discouraged 
and too sick of the whole business we can 
always sell out and try our luck in other 
lines. 1 think that a great part of the 
40.000 have been plain unfortunate, pcr- 
Mareh 27, 1020 
haps, and so are unduly embittered and 
at a loss as to how to keep on. In my 
own community the farmers who are suc¬ 
cessful are good managers and everlasting 
workers, and so I conclude that the two 
go hand in hand where success is con¬ 
cerned. Not every farmer wants to work 
eight hours before noon and eight hours 
after, but those who do usually win out 
in the end, and if they think this way too 
hard and too unjust, then they had better 
give up farming and get into something 
surer and easier. Those men who have 
been blessed with a fitting share of brains 
and ambition and with life partners hold¬ 
ing the same virtues have been pretty apt, 
even in the discouraging past, finally to 
own their farms, with a tiny nest-egg in 
the bank. But many farmers everywhere 
still do business in the same old inefficient 
way. and keep worse than useless cows, 
and get along with just as little manual 
labor as the law allows. My sympathy 
cannot go out to these—and I think that 
some of the discontented 40.0(10 probably 
belong in this class. It sounds unfeeling 
and all that, but such failures and non¬ 
money makers—and the reasons why— 
are apparent in every community. 
The Future. — I think that farming 
is going to have a hard year or two 
ahead, whereas dairymen for two years’ 
have actually made just a little money 
in most cases. Milk is in superabund¬ 
ance owing to better methods of produc¬ 
tion and better dairies, while our exports 
have dwindled to almost nothing because, 
of the foreign exchange situation. It is 
likely that dairymen will have to lean on 
side crops more than they have done for 
several years in order to break even. 
)Ve will have to grow more and more of 
our own feed and food, and if we con¬ 
tinue to clothe ourselves and buy an oc¬ 
casional carpet or piece of furniture or 
the like. I guess we will have to raise our 
(Continued on page 061) 
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the International Way 
IT ISN’T sun - drying that puts 
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CHICAGO 
OF AMERICA 
(INCORPORATED* 
USA 
