Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/127

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120
CHILD LABOUR PROBLEM.

"We cannot exculpate the schools. They are as wasteful of child life as are the homes. From bottom to the top of the American educational system we take little account of the time of the child. We are anxious to do everything under the sun, and to put into the head of the young child all that it is expected to know."[1]

The opinion of Dr. Draper is corroborated and confirmed by Dr. Woods Hutchinson, who says:—"This utter lack of appeal of the public school curriculum to the working boy of thirteen or more, is one of the principal causes of the rush of child labor into the shop and the factory,[2]

It is not only the school curriculum that is distasteful.[3] The child is prone to leave school because of three other considerations within the school itself. They will be mentioned rather than discussed. They are:—

  1. Supra, p. 9.
  2. "Overworked Children." By Woods Hutchinson, M.D. Proceedings Fifth Annual Conference, National Child Labor Committee, 1909. P. 120.
  3. American Education. By Andrew S. Draper. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1909. A justly severe arraignment of the present school system.