18
MOOSEHEART MAGAZINE
schools, especially the history and citizenship courses.
Health
In several other directions Moose-heart is making its contribution to the development of modern education for modern needs. The first is the great care and attention given to the health and bodily welfare of the children. Outdoor life, medical and dental examination, preventive medicine, watchfulness over growing young people, mean not only good digestion but good thinking.
The School Year
Mooseheart has established a school year which much more nearly corresponds to the needs of children and the signs of the time than, the accepted public school year. Instead of forty school weeks in the best schools which is often cut down to thirty-eight, we have forty-eight weeks of school exercises. That solves the question of children hanging about in the long summer vacation with very little to occupy their hands or their minds. This arrangement does not mean that the children are overworked. First, because, besides Saturday and Sunday, they have outdoor life every day, and a great variety of amusements and recreation. In addition, the time is divided into academic and vocational
Your Wife, Your Mother, Your Sister or Your Daughter
May not be a member of the Women of Mooseheart Legion because there is no chapter of that organization in your city. Arrangements have been effected by which the wife, mother, sister or daughter of any member of the Loyal Order of Moose who does not live in a city where there is a Chapter of the Women of Mooseheart Legion, may join the Home Legion at Mooseheart by paying $2.50 initiation fee and dues of either $3.00 or $6.00 per year as she may desire. If she pays $3.00 per year dues, she will not have benefits. If she pays $6.00 dues - ; she will be paid $5.00 per week for total disability after the first week and not to exceed thirteen weeks per year, with the exception of certain disabilities, prescribed by the by-laws, and $50.00 funeral expenses. This is worthy of investigation by any wife, mother, sister or daughter in the Order. One dollar per year of the dues and all surplus money of the Home Legion go to Mooseheart.
For particulars write to
RODNEY H. BRANDON, Grand Regent.
Mooseheart, 111.
that end, the Governors and the officers and the regularly designated teachers make it their business to plan, improve and put in operation a school in which the attention of the children is steadily directed to the ideals of energy, of work, and of service.
The first necessity of schools is a place in which the school sessions may be held. After a series of makeshifts, which could not be avoided while the Institution was getting under way, the model schoolhouse was at last completed in 1917. Before it was all fitted up and in use, it was already too small; and every week put it farther behind its purpose of accommodating all our school children. Six months ago, five portable frame buildings were set up next to the school-house, so that they could be supervised by one principal. They were soon outgrown and the Governors have just put in another battery of five. They are all steam connected, and so far have been entirely comfortable and suited to the purpose. It is clear, however, that other permanent buildings must soon be provided for the school purposes. The High School is certain to grow faster than the grades, because a far larger proportion of children will take the High School course than in public schools. Hence the time is not far distant when a special High School building will be needed; and so far whatever is needed the Order has cheerfully made possible by its contributions for Mooseheart.
Teachers
The next necessity is teachers, and Mooseheart has brought together a corps of expert and experienced young women for the academic studies. Most of the department heads and their assistants are also vocational teachers. Besides the regular kindergarten and school teachers, several specialties have been cared for, such as the director of outdoor life, and a special kindergarten teacher, whose duty is to ke^p the little folks occupied whenever possible in the open air. Special sewing and cooking teachers are also provided. For the High School work the teachers are selected in departments and some of these also have classes in the grades—a teacher of history, a teacher of science, a teacher of mathematics, and so on.
Our schools have now been definitely subdivided on the modern principle of six years in the grades, three years ih the Junior High School and three years in the Senior High School. Mooseheart is not subject to the .withdrawal of children as they come to the age when they can earn wages; and therefore must count on keeping up large numbers in the High School. Hence we must look forward to recruiting a larger corps of teachers including some men; for it is good for both boys and girls to carry on their upper school work under teachers of both sexes. Most of the vocational teachers in subjects chosen by boys are conducted by men; but they ought not be the only ones to come under that influence.
Mooseheart Course of Study
Now that the course is adjusted the next step is to make out a course of study which shall fit this particular school and its special needs. For more than a year Governor Hart, Superintendent Adams and Principal Spencer have been working upon a complete course of study, academic and vocational, of which the academic part is now in type and will be issued as a volume soon. The vocational part of this work has been delayed owing to the disturbances of the war, but it will soon be finished. We hope and believe that the formal working out of these plans will not only give form and substance to the instruction at Mooseheart but will help other similar institutions to solve their problems. The list includes courses which are approved at other high and lower
The same idea of community life and community service goes into the indoor life and recreations. We encourage student bands, student orchestras, student singing clubs, social gatherings—whatever	brings the
children into common action. They not only keep children well and happy, but prepare them also for later enjoyment. Young people who can play on a musical instrument, _ can sing, can act, can dance, find lives pleasanter wherever they go, and have a life fund of rational pleasure.
The Governors believe strongly in the principle that home enjoyments involve home responsibilities; and therefore they make it a point that the children of Mooseheart shall perform the kind of household duties expected of children in good homes. Here again the narratives of the seniors show how much solid advantage grown boys find in being able to take care of themselves; to make a bed and make it right; to take care of their own rooms; to keep a building and its premises neat and picked up; to cook a meal—all these accomplishments will find their place in frontier camps, and bachelor quarters, and homes. Those of them who may come to live in barracks will realize how much it is worth while to the soldier to acquire such humble arts as sewing on buttons and mending clothing.
Another feature of the home life of Mooseheart is the steady effort to make the surroundings cosy and attractive. Several gifts of good pictures, engravings, photographs, water colors and oils have recently been made, with which to brighten the walls of the living rooms in the dormitories; not forgetting the Pioneer Club and the shacks of the boys. Gifts of good pictures and ornaments will always be welcomed. The grounds also are kept in good order and grow more and more attractice as the grass, shrubs and trees fill in. “The Public Work Line,” a simple and satisfactory mode of punishment, is often directed to putting things in order on the grounds. The concrete columns for the electric lights add much to the appearance of the property, as well as to the comfort and convenience of those who live here.
The Superintendent’s Report in this and in the preceding Year Book describes in detail the methods by which 700 fatherless children can learn to earn, use, and care for money. The bank, of which “A Visitor” has written the interesting description which is printed in this Report, is not a plaything. It is on a small scale what the regular commercial bank is in the large. It offers opportunities of deposit, a checking account, discount and exchange. Pains are taken to give the children the opportunity to earn small sums of money so that they may have a little balance at their command. Some of the older boys have laid up several hundred dollars for a start in life, or for future education. The department store _ at which the children make their little purchases, the savings system, and the high school course in business relations are all intended to aid children to feel their place and responsibility in a world of affairs.
Vital Education
One of the foundation stones of Mooseheart is that it is not an asylum but an institution of learning in which the pupils live. It has taken several years to organize a school system for children varying so much in age and previous opportunity. Now, however, the whole school is arranged from the kindergarten up to the High School, and we are adjusting the pre-voca-tional and vocational training accordingly. Here again, Mooseheart must be thought of as “The School That Trains for Life”—not simply for life at Mooseheart but chiefly for the outside. f ■cannot too often be stated that the proof that Mooseheart is on the right road is the ability of its graduates to earn their living, and to take their place in the community. To
The Mooseheart Year Book
(Continued from page 8)
fills the lungs and strengthens the muscles, and partly because it puts emphasis on the “get-together” idea. The community’s spirit is strengthened by the formation of the “Life Guards,” of little local athletic groups and clubs, and especially by the development of the Boy Scout and Camp Fire Girls movements, which have the additional benefit of putting the Mooseheart groups alongside and in line with the similar organizations in other places.
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Your Boy or Your Neighbors Boy
Is going to join the Moose when he gets to be twenty-one years old. The minimum initiation fee will certainly be $10.00 when that time comes. It may be a great deal more.
By special dispensation, just obtained, Mooseheart Lodge, Junior Order of Moose, at Mooseheart, Illinois, will accept any young man, between sixteen and twenty years of age and who is properly vouched for and passes the necessary examinations, into active membership for $2.50 initiation fee and $7.00 per year dues. This lodge pays j $7.00 per week for total i disability after the first week and $100.00 funeral expenses. Non-beneficiary membership may be had for four dollars per year. Of the dues one dollar goes to Mooseheart each year.
The reason this lodge can give such extraordinary service at so small a figure is that there is no charge for hall rent and very little overhead expense. The active resident members of this lodge are Mooseheart students and they offer this facility to other young men to come in with them.
Reaching the age of twenty-one a member of this lodge will be transferred to any Loyal Order of Moose Lodge he selects by the payment of one dollar transfer fee.
This is a great opportunity for your son or your neighbor’s son to get into the Moose now at a reduced figure.
For particulars write to
RODNEY H. BRANDON, Supreme Secretary, Mooseheart, 111.