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MOOSEHEART MAGAZINE
Conversations With Six Hundred Thousand
WHAT THEY THINK OF IT
traditions to a certain extent, and you have a chance for service there to the girl and education to the girl by finding out some of the fields where ,,,	. it is possible to train the girl.
Warning and advice was a valuable" part of the conference especially from Dr. Snedden, formerly Commissioner of Education in Massachusetts, and nowTrofessor of Education in the Columbia Training College for teachers:
Or,we״f Mre one.״,r1two burdens that the Loyal Older of Moose will have to lay on itself. If you are going to be experimental progressive, and if you are going to advance, your education cannot be cheap education. It will be expensive. If you are good and energetic, and especially if you want in-״v tea(*ers, you have to pay the price.
*ou ״ave set yourselves a very varied program.
■ hen /?}* meet diversified educational needs, in view of the many kinds of education, you may have to extend your equipment and gather up your oiphans from all over the country to that one great rftvte״r rntl 1..cnn conceive that you may have a city o± from five to six thousand people, and for the purpose of doing the work to advantage, you may have to work on that scale ”
given by the Governors at the Astor Hotel, three of the speakers set forth the
IwWT'e-S■!0a uhe ^00seheart system, of whom two had visited it and were speaking from personal knowledge President Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the Moose Order and honored it by his magmfmeiu address at the Pittsburgh conference ntWTP C°5d n°1' have him with us, but an-i a l°re4 Roosevelt, also a Moose, eloquently set forth the task of the Order:	“We ought to
give increased attention to working on the subject education; that is of vital importance everyth]fJ,eobeCifU+e^t S°/S wi,thout saying that on the children of today depend the country of tomorrow; and supplementing the mothers, who are the most important, and the Moose, who are second m importance in the question of children, the next thng is the schools, and they deserve our constant attention.”
Miss Ada Patterson, Staff Correspondent of the ״ev' York Journal, said: “In Mooseheart the sense
?W?Tlblhij IS very strons' in that they train them to be self-supporting, but I should say that is only half The idea of service, the beauty of ser-™e- J® meuleated there. Give a boy or girl an idea
!vfiU'rTu She 0We!? t0 society that self-supports, and that they must be of service to humanity.” Another honored guest at that dinner was James P. Munro, a member of the powerful National . Board for Vocational Education, who some time ago visited Mooseheart without explaining to any-body just who he was. His golden words deserve to be inscribed on the book of remembrances of the Loyal Order of Moose for they were unsought Because they are the words of a hard-headed, practical business man, entrusted with responsibili-ties by the United States Government, and be-cause they emphasize the most important part of the work of Mooseheart, the effort to make the children feel their responsibility to each other and to their country.
In addition to the pleasure and honor of being here this evening, ladies and gentlemen, I owe three debts to the Loyal Order of Moose. First as an individual, to your delightful Mr. Adams ’for a charming day at Mooseheart in his hospitable company, showing me the wonderful plant that you have out there. Your chairman has not nearly enoug-h adjectives in describing the natural and acquired beauty and advantages of that splendid place, and I have seldom enjoyed a day more or learned more m the course of eight or ten hours as I did m that day at Mooseheart. Second, the “cjpt .1«at I owe to Loyal Order of Moose is as an official, to the splendid care and training that you are giving the disabled boys whom have been so hospitably taken in by you. There are at this moment 83. The third debt I owe is as a citizen, and it is that you are demonstrating there at Mooseheart the whole gospel of education, as it should be carried on.”
“You are demonstrating furthermore that every child has a right to work and to build under propei-guidance and supervision and that the child has a right to learn to earn a living. You must call to Mooseheart all the greatest teachers in education either as advisers of as workers that you can find’ in this country, working out these great problems of providing education in the real sense and thorough sense and all around sense for every boy and girl, not only at Mooseheart, but through vour example, in every corner of the United States.'”
That i׳ T.1 they seem to think of it.
By PROFESSOR ALBERT BUSHNELL HART Harvard University-----Mooseheart Governor
conference, the seriousness with whch the problems of the system, the training, the education, the service of Mooseheart, all have been attacked, we may well express the confidence that the splendid beginning which you have now made in your institution is but the foundation stone for an enlarged, a more extensive and more useful work in the future.
“We realize that you are in a position to work out, to make a contrbution, and to offer a solution to some of the interesting; and difficult questions of our education, and we believe that in the spirit with which you have begun your work, the attack you have made upon your problems, we have the promise that you are going on from this beginning to an even greater accomplishment in the future, and that from Mooseheart will come lessons that shall be of service to public and private education the country over.”
The same educator expressed the relation of the Order to the school in phrases which should be cherished by every Moose:
“It is a happy thought that this Order of yours formed for good fellowship should set itself to the sacred task of training the helpless and dependent members of those of your own Order. That obligation of your brothers, that realization of the duty that you owe, is a beautiful aspect of the society of the Moose that must commend it to right thinking and to highminded people everywhere. I particularly rejoice in learning of the educational activities and the desires of the Order to hear that you accept this obligation and render these services as the right and due of the youth being educated, and not in any sense of charity. If so you preserve to these children self respect, you preserve to them their manhood and their womanhood, you send them through the school and out into the world with their heads erect, feeling that the misfortune which came into their lives in the death of their parents has been in some measure made good by the service rendered by the brothers of their parents.”
Professor Richards, Director of the Cooper Union in New York, paid a high tribute to the Superintendent:
“In any project like that at Mooseheart one great big consideration necessary to meet these many, problems and to solve them successfully, and effectively, is to get hold of the right man to guide it, a man of experience, a man well informed, a man who has perspective of the whole situation as it is developed in this country, who can study all peculiar and special conditions and who can guide it in the right direction.”
Another group of men whose experience was put at the service of the conference were the experts of the national and state governments; and their summary of what Mooseheart seems to be doing showed an appreciative understanding of our difficulties and hopes. Among them Mr. Stimson, who has been especially interested in agriculture, made a notable remark as to our responsibility: “The problem of Mooseheart as I take it is.to take these children bereft of fathers and mothers; bereft of support, to father and mother them, to schoolmaster them, to do everything, to take these children and keep them up to about eighteen, keeping them until they are ready to go out into life.” The bigness of the work impressed Mr. Weaver: “We all consider carefully that Mooseheart is a school that prepares for life; and the question that has been in my mind and is still in my mind is just what does it all mean? Are you planning to prepare for life in such a manner that each student who is leaving Mooseheart as a graduate is prepared to discharge the responsibilties necessary in seeking employment, or in taking up employment in that particular job? If that is the case, then my next question is, how many jobs, or how many different jobs can be opened to boys and girls, appreciating the volume of work in planning it, and the tremendous equipment that will be necessary in order to meet the needs of particular individuals whose capacities and tendencies are to be carefully studied through the prevocational period.” The girls’ side of the problem, which is one of the most important, was discussed very helpfully by Mrs. O’Leary of Trenton, New Jersey, who has had long experience in dealing with children.
“You at Mooseheart will have to do pioneer work. You are not hampered by public traditions. You are off by yourselves. You can establish your own
w
־ HAT do they think of it ?
What does who think of What? “It” naturally means the most significant part of Moosedom, namely, Mooseheart.
“They” means the people who are qualified to express an opinion on what Mooseheart is doing. The officials of the order, the governors of Mooseheart, and the officers of the institution who see it every day, have an opinion about it which is as impartial as the belief of a mother that her boys and girls are the best looking, best mannered, brightest, and most desirable of all the hoys and girls. They feel a confidence in the thing that they are working upon. Nevertheless, the friends of Mooseheart, whether within or without, would like to know how it looks to other people and especially to people who spend their lives in trying• to solve the problems of an education that trains for life.
Not often does such a chance come to learn the candid views of experts as was offered through the recent vocational conference called by the Governors in New York. It included members of national and state commissions, heads of renowned institutions, business men, professional men, soldiers and journalists. They were all friendly, yet all free to criticise the vocational education that Mooseheart is striving to secure. They all have special opportunities for knowing what is going on in other places; and some of them the advantage of actually visiting . the estate and seeing the children in their home. Their counsels were good, their interest was friendly, and they left their impressions in golden words which all the friends of . Mooseheart will be glad to know.
The conditions and needs of Mooseheart were very clearly stated by Mr. Reader, head of the famous Orphans’ Home near New York City, who is renowned throughout the United States as one of the best guides for dependent children. “You have the child for a period of years; you have it physically and intellectually and socially and economically, and religiously and industrially and every other way. He is all yours and his time is yours. It isn’t a touch and go proposition with you as it is with a good many institutions where they tarry for a short time and pass on. You have him 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 52 weeks a year for about ten years, so that you are going to be responsible for this product.
“If there are no great men and great women that come from Mooseheart in the next twenty or twenty-five’years we will know where to charge it up, because the proposition is in your hands, and it is a great opportunity as well as a great responsibility.’ Let us not forget that it is only life, rich, full, free, natural and individual that prepares us for life, and let us keep these boys and girls close to the fundamentals of life.
Another man whose problem resembles ours is Arthur Williston, head of Wentworth Institute of Boston, one of the most successful technical schools in the United States. His mind turned toward the variety vocational training.
“It seems to me that your job very largely is to send your boys out with an attitude toward the job; and it does not make much difference whether it is one thing or another, whether it is printing or carpentry or stenography or anything else, as long as it is something worth while, that the world wants done, in which a boy can earn his living at the start, and to which he carries this spirit. Then, if he has the capacity, he can become a great farmer, a great lawyer, or anythng else, if he has these qualities.”
The conference was favored by the presence of President Horrick, of Girard College, a famous institution founded nearly a hundred years ago for boys who otherwise could not have a chance in life.
Its graduates have taken places of great importance in the world. It was, therefore, highly encouraging to have President Horrick say:	“I
have been thinking as I have been listening to the discussions, that there is after all a great deal of likeness in the purposes whch guide your enterprise and the purpose which seems to have been in the mind of Stephen Girard in the foundation of his instituton. He saw the need for the service of helpless children, to those who were without opportunity which he thought they merited.
“If I catch the spirit of the discussions today, if we may trust the wisdom that has caused this