SlIllllllllllllllllllillllliilllillljUM^ A HAND BOOK CONTAINING Suggestions and Programs FOR COMMUNITY SOCIAL GATHERINGS At Rural School Houses Revised Edition Prepared by L. J. HANIFAN, State Supervisor of Rural Schools Under the Direction of M. P. SHAWKEY, State Superintendent Charleston, W. Va. 1914 IllllllllllllWllUlM TRIBUNE PRINTING CO., CHARLESTON, *». VA. library HNlVOStfV OF ILLINOIS OLDER THAN WEST VIRGINIA.’ Ltd Krt«i' OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 27 OCT19I4 A HAND BOOK CONTAINING Suggestions and Programs FOR COMMUNITY SOCIAL GATHERINGS At Rural School Houses Revised Edition • Prepared by L. J. HANIFAN, State Supervisor ot Rural Schools Under the Direction of M. P. SHAWKEY, State Superintendent Charleston, W. Va. 1914 WSi?Vi a PREFACE. Our experience with the “Social Center” work in West Virginia the year 1913-14 confirms our belief that the great majority of teachers everywhere are willing, yes anxious, to do more for the country boys and girls than merely “keep order” and “hear recitations,” provided only that they know what to do and how to go about it. The summer of 1913 Superintendent Shawkey called for a thousand volunteers among the 7,000' rural teachers in the state to organize their respective communities into “social centers” for the purpose of social, recrea- tional and intellectual benefits. As a general guide, a “Hand Book” was prepared and furnished to those who were willing to undertake the work. M ore than a thousa nd teachers enlisted in this work of vitalizing the rural school and rural l ife. The results were greater and better than had been anticipated. This Hand Book is prepared as a revision of the one issued in 1913. It aims to follow the same general plan of suggestions and programs. But the experience of teachers in working out this plan has indicated several needed changes and additions. We make no pretense of having perfected a plan for rural “social center” work. Everything in this Hand Book is in- tended to be only suggestive. The teachers, the superintendent and the people themselves must be depended upon to put the “social cen- ter” idea into practice. This idea will work itself out, once the people of the community get together. Every teacher ought to undertake the work this year. L. J. Hanifau. Charleston, W. Va. CONTEXTS. Introductory 5 The Social Center Idea 6 What is a Community Social Gathering? 7 Selected Reports and Statements from Teachers 8 General Suggestions 12 Suggested Programs 14 Section I. Special Day Programs 16 Section II. Farm Programs 27 Section III. Miscellaneous Programs 39 Questions for Debate 51 References to Literature on the Social Center and Rural Life ... 52 Rural Life Reading 54 INTRODUCTORY . Last year we asked for a thousand teachers who would hold some community meetings in their school houses during the term. In re- sponse to this call more than a thousand volunteers enlisted for the service. Some of these succeeded in a marked degree. Some met with indifferent success and some made a failure of the undertaking. It is not too much to say. however, that on the whole the work proved a great success. In many instances the meetings not only resulted in material improvements, such as books, libraries, furniture, or appar- atus for the school or improvements on the building and grounds, but they brought about a quickened life both in the school and the com- munity and a more cordial relationship between the two. In some cases, indeed, they brought to both school and community a revelation of a richer life neither had even dreamed of before. To suggest the possibilities of these meetings a “Hand Book” was issued last year. The demand for it exceeded expectations. Bequests for copies came from nearly every state in the Union and from foreign countries. A second edition was printed. Finally the United States Commissioner of Education sent a copy to every county super- intendent in America. Assuming that this unusual interest will con- tinue and that the work in this state will be even more successful the coming year than it was last year, this revised Hand Book is issued. It is earnestly hoped that teachers will not regard the Hand Book as a manual and follow it literally. One of the best things about the whole scheme is that it develops originality and leadership. There are many things that might be done and many ways of doing them that are not mentioned here. Let teachers discover the other and better things and work out the best ways of doing them. There are many agencies that would gladly cooperate with any teacher who takes up the work, but it will be vastly better for the teacher and the people to go ahead in their own way and see how much can be accomplished. I am confidently expecting some very valuable and interesting pro- grams to be worked out in our schools during the ensuing year. Very truly yours, THE “SOCIAL CENTER " IDF A. It is generally agreed that there are fewer opportunities for the peo- ple of the country to get together and have a general good time than there used to be. There used to be the husking bees, the barn raisings, the threshing days, even the log rollings. There used to be the apple cuttings, the bean stringings, the sugar makings/ There used to be the spelling bees, the old time “literaries,” the “heated” debates. There are not so many of any of these “diversions” today. In many com- munities nearly all of these have been entirely abandoned. Nothing has taken their places. Many of the rural churches have been aban- doned, the ministers having either starved out, or left the country. Perhaps the best means we have left for getting the rural folk together is the Sunday School. This, however, is usually active only during the summer months. What are the results of all this change ? In the first place the people in the country are without amusement, recreation, or social life. They do not even visit one another as they did formerly. Families live in varying degrees of isolation. This situation makes living in the country dull, uneventful, uninteresting. As a final result many of our country boys and girls and not a few older ones leave the farms and go to the cities where they congregate on the streets, at the “movies,” at the club, at the dance halls, at the theatre, sometimes at the pool- rooms, gambling dens and evil resorts. And we are not to censure too severely these young people for leaving the farms and going to the cities. Man is a social animal. He takes to society naturally. Isolation from his fellows is unendurable to youth or grown-up. If he cannot find congenial associates in the country he will go to the city. If he cannot find good company there he may find bad. He must have companions. Therefore, just as long as the country fails to provide some means of social enjoyment the boys and girls will con- tinue to go to the cities in large numbers. This migration to the city would not be so bad if the city were the best place in the world for these young people to live. As a matter of fact, no city is either all good or all bad. But in every city there is opportunity for young people to be bad. Many of our country boys and girls go to the city and make good. We sometimes boast of the 7 large number of men from the country who now hold responsible posts both in business and in the professions. But we fail to mention the ]arge number who have utterly failed to make of themselves anything except crooks, criminals or loafers. Whether a country boy will make good in the city depends largely upon the boy in the first place, and in the second place upon the kind of company he gets into when he reaches the city. Other things being equal the country boy has greater evil temptations in the city than the city born youth has, for the reas- on that the latter grows up amidst the city environment, becomes acr customed to it as he grows, while the country boy plunges im- mediately into an entirely new environment, to which he is wholly unprepared to adjust himself. When a country boy or country girl leaves the farm for the city the father and mother can never be quite sure that their child will not fall by the wayside as one of the tares. What, therefore, shall be done to make living in the country toler- able to our country youth? The solution devolves upon the school. Upon the teacher rests the immediate responsibility of leadership in all that may be done. She must secure the cooperation of the ministers, cf the parents and citizens, in devising ways and means of bringing the young people together often for social enjoyment, mental recrea- tion, even for merely good fellowship. The boys and girls will do their part if only proper leadership and encouragement are afforded them. WHAT IS A “COMMUNITY SOCIAL GATHERING?” People will not come together unless something of common interest prompts them to do so. For some years now the rural folk have had no such common community interest. The church is of common in- terest only to its membership. The farmers have lived apart and run their own farms in their own way. The schools have been left to the school officers to run as they think best. No one thing has been of sufficient interest to bring the people together. Hence, stagnation, monotony, prejudice, isolation, drudgery — these have constituted coun- try life. In order to change this sad condition something of common interest to the whole people must be provided. A wedding, if it bring the people together, might be a community social gathering. A farmers’ institute, if it be made to concern the whole community, is an excellent community social gathering. A “husking bee,” a “good roads day,” the “summer chautauqua,” the “'agricultural fair” — all 8 these and many similar community meetings are of the nature of a community social gathering. The important thing is that there be something of common interest to all the people of the community. Let the people be brought together by something of common -interest to all and soon they will have a common interest in many community undertakings — the improvement of the schools, the building of roads, the planting of trees, the growing of corn, the breeding of stock, the beautifying of their homes. To supply this motive for the assembling of the people to consider, or to enjoy, or to improve something of common interest to all the people of the community is the purpose of the “ social center” move- ment in the country. The programs outlined in this Hand Book may be suggestive of how this may be done. However, something not mentioned in the programs may have a more powerful community interest than any given here. For example, one teacher found upon coming into the community that the school house was almost inaccessible on account of the briars, weeds, stones and logs upon the school grounds. She did not abuse the board of education nor the school trustees for allowing such conditions to exist. Bather she set a day when the school grounds must be cleaned up. The pupils and the citizens were interested in this project. Some roll- ed and burnt the logs ; others cut the briars and weeds ; still others cleared the ground of stones; the ladies directed the cleaning-up of the interior of the building. What better “social center 5 meeting could possibly have been held than this one? Everyone had helped and, therefore, had a personal interest in the school. The teacher’s pluck and personal interest gained the confidence of the people. Her success was assured at the close of that day. SELECTED REPORTS AND STATEMENTS FROM TEACHERS When “social center” meetings were proposed for the country dis- tricts, the year 1913-14, some of our rural teachers were eager to see what they could do. Others hesitated, fearing it could not be done or doubting their own ability to carry out such work. About 15 per cent of the rural teachers undertook the work and carried it out with vary- ing degrees of success. Near the close of the year I secured from the county superintendents the names and addresses of a few teachers in each county and wrote these teachers asking for a report on what they had accomplished. These reports are very gratifying indeed. Doubt- less the teachers themselves were surprised at the ready response of both parents and pupils to this opportunity to enjoy a little social and intellectual recreation. As a tribute to those who undertook the “social center 7 work last year and as a suggestion to others who were willing, doubtless, but who were afraid to undertake it lest they should fail, we insert here some excerpts from these personal reports. One of the best of these reports is from Miss Mabel Sutherland, St. Albans. Miss Sutherland taught the Barnett school, a one-room coun- try school about two and one half miles fronythe town of St. Albans. 1 visited this school. It was just about like the other 6,999 ruraL schools in West Virginia, for the chief differences among schools are always to be found in the teachers. I am going to reproduce here Miss Sutherland's modest account of one of the programs at Barnett School. “The program was called Tndian Night.’ 1, Song. — ‘My Old Kentucky Home.’ 2 f Devotional Exercises. 3. A Story of an Indian Girl. (By a pupil.) 4. Who are the Indians ? (By a citizen.) 5.. ‘Indians.’ (By the district supervisor.) 6. Hiawatha Dramatized. (By 15 pupils.) 7. 1 Song. — ‘America.’ “Ii* the play, Hiawatha, I told the boys that this was their program. I do not think I ever saw children enjoy anything so much as in pre- paring for this play. The boys brought in two white oak ‘trees’ that would just stand upright in the house. These they placed on either side of the stage. They built a wigwam of poles covered with coffee sacks. On Ihe floor they spread branches of pine. “The girls dressed a large doll as an Indian baby, strapped it to a board and tied it to one of the trees. They used this in the first scene to represent Hiawatha’s baby-hood. “The ‘chiefs’ wore plaid blankets and caps made from paper sacks, trimmed with turkey feathers. The other boys wore suits made of coffee sacks trimmed with bright fringe. All wore caps trimmed with feathers. “Some of the girls trimmed brown dresses with bright fringe. One wore a black skirt and red sweater trimmed with red fringe. One wore a loose white dress trimmed with bright cloth. All wore their 10 hair braided and trimmed with feathers. And each wore several strands of beads, some of these made of red crepe paper. They painted their faces with damp crepe paper and powdered this with browned floor. This made them have a complexion like an Indian. ‘'The boys had three Indian songs and two Indian dances, in which they sang and danced well. “There were about eighty- five persons present, almost all of the parents. Some of the parents said, ‘We are surprised that the children could do so well/ ” We wish it were possible to reproduce a great many reports of the good work of the “social center” last year, for we are conscious of the fact that other reports are fully as worthy of especial attention. We select this report mainly for the reason that it shows what may be done if the teacher exercises proper initiative in drawing upon ma- terials right in the neighborhood. Miss Sutherland did not put any one to the expense of buying Indian costumes. There were plenty of coffee sacks and turkey feathers right there in the neighborhood. These were used and to better advantage than anything that could have been purchased in towns. We give very brief quotations from two other reports to indicate the variety of the work done. One teacher reports as follows : “We had in the early fall a meeting that we called ‘ a dinner at home.* This occupied one afternoon. The pupils sent special invi- tations to parents and friends. Each girl and boy brought a basket ' of food that they had cooked. Some of the boys just popped corn. The first object was to create a. desire to excel. The second object, to teach table etiquette. Third, to teach cooking. This meeting was considered a success and almost every person in the community was present. Since that time there has hardly been a day but some pupil has brought something new that she had cooked for me to test.” And another: “Among other meetings the school gave an entertainment, a pie social, for the benefit of a sick person in the community. Aside from church gatherings these meetings have been the only social gatherings of any kind in the community. They have been eagerly looked for- ward to by the children. I was afraid at first to try to have anything going on at night. Now everything goes on nicely.” Now just a few statements as to results: “I can accomplish much more this year than I did three years ago when I taught the same school. The people are much more friendly 11 and sociable towards one another. We had a peanut social at which we raised $13.85 with which we purchased four neat, framed pictures for the walls, a dictionary, a dictionary stand, and eight books for the library.” “I think the social center meetings caused the parents and residents of the community to realize that the school is not merely a place for the children to go five days out of the week, simply to do formal recit- ing of a certain number of lessons. Ihese meetings have brought much local talent before the public which incites great interest.” “The children by attending these meetings did better work in school and the parents took greater interest in the improvement of the schools.” “These meetings have aroused a sentiment for better school build- ings which are much needed.” “I visited all the parents as soon as possible, organized two literary societies, and gave out that we wished to have a box supper. Instead of the usual box supper it was more like a church festival. We realiz- ed $40.95, with which we purchased seventy-nine books, two dozen drinking cups, a globe and five pictures. The boys made a cabinet for the drinking cups and framed the pictures. I attribute my success to the visiting and to these meetings.” “Our average attendance was 44. Heretofore, they tell me it was only 15 or 20. Four young men and women who had been out of school three or four years attended regularly and did excellent work. The people are petitioning the board to build them a two- room build- ing for next year and employ two teachers. Twenty-four children got Perfect and Faithful Attendance Certificates.” “My success this winter is due largely to these meetings. I never taught a school before where I was able to hold interest till the last day. Interest did not prevail among teacher and pupils alone but reached the entire sub-district. One patron remarked on the last day of school that it was the only school he had ever become interested in.” 12 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 1. Personal Work. The success of these community meetings will depend very largely upon the personal work of the teacher, and nothing will count for so much as the teacher’s personal acquaintance with the patrons of the school. If the people know the teacher personally, and have confidence in her, they will gladly respond to her leadership. 2. Advertise. The pupils themselves are the best advertisers if properly directed and encouraged. The county papers can usually be utilized to ad- vertise the program. A few notices should be posted in conspicuous places. 3. Begin planning at tlce opening of the session. The first week of the school term is the best time to begin the work. The first meeting should be held not later than at the end of the first two weeks. 4. Make the first meeting a good one. If the first meeting is a failure it will be difficult to get the people out next time. The people will get a lasting impression, whether favorable or unfavorable, of the first meeting. 5. Make each meeting worth while. If there is to be an entertainment, the program must entertain. If it is an instructive program, there must be something that the people can take away with them. Make the program such that the people will feel that they have been repaid for their coming. 6. See that the meeting begins on time. Do not bore those who come on time by delaying the beginning of the program until late comers arrive. After the first meeting the 13 people will be on time if it is understood that the program will begin at the hour set. 7. Organization. Do not kill the “ social center” with a stiff, formal organization. Constitution and by-laws are unnecessary. The citizens must have prominent parts both in the organization and on the programs. It is suggested that a citizen be made chairman. Barely should the teacher fill this office. But the teacher should be behind all that is done. She should be the guiding spirit. She can so direct the organization that a capable presiding officer will be chosen, or that the # most suitable persons will appear on the programs. She must be the leader through others. A skillful teacher can do this. 8. Have one or more citizens placed on most of the programs. Such recognition of the patrons will not only add strength to the program but will also avoid the appearance of its being merely a school affair. 9. Have regard for other community activities. From fifteen to twenty of these community meetings should bo held within the term. It is suggested that as many of them as possible should be held during the fall months so that when there is a religious revival or other meeting in the community these meetings at the school houses may go over until another time. These meetings may be held weekly for two or three of the first months of the year. The teacher must be governed by the local conditions. fO. The