Social Activities in the High School

Social .Activities in the High School'

BY L. J. MUIR, PRINCIPAL DAVIS COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL

[The editors of the Era will appreciate a constructive answer tothe criticism so forcefully set forth in this paper. It should show away by which the evils may be remedied. It might include, amongother things showing how money may be put to better use, the state-ment that all the Church magazines, if taken by a family, would costa trifle more than one-fourth as much per week, for all the family, asone high school student, out of that family, is spending weekly forconfectionery. And yet one hears, now and then, complaints aboutso many Church publications and their cost. The point, of course,that we make is that one-fourth of the cost of confection for oneperson in the family might be better spent to purchase the six Churchmagazines as food for the mind for the whole family. Try it by sub-scribing for the Era. Its one thousand pages of good reading mattercost you less than two postage stamps a week.—Editors.]

I am fully aware that my discussion of this subject is largelyin the nature of a destructive criticism. But I am reminded thatsociety improves in a large measure by the process of eliminationand destruction. It is the elimination of the unfit that clears theway for the survival of the fit. So, after all, what appears to bedestructive may in its effect be constructive, since it renders moreprobable the survival of the fittest in social organization. But,though I approach this problem in the attitude of a critic, I assureyou I do not look with any great alarm upon the activities affordedour young people in the high schools of this state. If all theactivities into which they enter as young men and young womencould be as wholesome and as well regulated and supervised, asare those in our high schools, I should have little fear for thefuture of the state of Utah. But, nevertheless, there are occa-sions for thoughtful criticism. For the sake of clearness I havearranged my thoughts under six headings, as follows:

1. The social activities of the high school are too largely animitation of college life. They have been carried to the highschools by the graduates of the college, and have been appliedwith little readjustment. Even to the college student these activi-ties come as a great privilege, and his enjoyment and practice ofthem is often looked upon with concern by thoughtful people.And yet these privileges are handed down, frequently in intensi-fied form, to the adolescent in high school. The result is thatmany high school students lose their balance in the lure of the

*Read at the Utah State Teachers' Convention, December, 1915.

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privilege and pleasure about them. They have come to be theirown guardians; they select their own friends and companions;they spend their money as they please. And all this contributesto a social precocity, the expression of which is too frequentlyincreased license, indifference to the counsel of teachers andfather and mother, disobedience to the rules and regulations of theschool, and finally incorrigibility. Why can not the high schoolcreate traditions of its own, shaped to enrich and not to excitethe lives of adolescent boys and girls? Let me suggest that thereshould be fewer, but more wholesome, social expressions in ourhigh schools.

2. The social life of the high school is in a great degree adistraction from the high purposes of education. It is a processof unlearning. It tends to keep the student's attention awayfrom intellectual pursuits. The high ambition with which he en-tered high school gives way before the immediate allurements towhich he is subjected. Life seems to be a fancy to him, a placefor the display of whims and fads, for chewing-gum and candy,a place where sham and insincerity may succeed as well as gen-uine, truthful endeavor. Society is today making a costly effortto perpetuate the best in human development. Success towardthis end is the only justification for our institutions of education.Is the degree of our success in this direction great enough? Arenot too many of our young people failing to come to the best inany real and substantial measure? Is it not probable that thequality of social life to which our educational institutions invitethem is to some extent responsible for their failure? And is itnot possible so to reorganize the social activities of the hi°hschool that they will direct the mind of the student toward hisschool work and not away from it? Here is a field for the mindof a great organizer.

3. The social life of our high schools substitutes fopperyfor genuine manners and refinement. The Smart Aleck is thehero of the school, especially in the estimation of the youngerstudents. To be the leader in some foolish prank is a greatachievement, meriting fame and popularity. I have felt for yearsthat we are failing in our public high schools to give proper em-phasis to genuine manners. A comparison of the students in ourprivate institutions with those in our public high schools in thematter of deportment reveals the full difference between cultureand culturine, as George Ade calls it. It would be a fine thingfor our students if we could secure more richness in culture andless richness in clothing, an equally fine thing if we could supplantthe impudent foppery which breaks out everywhere among themby a modest and wholesome refinement. To do this will requireorganized and persistent effort, but it can be done. Fopperymust be unlearned. It is, so far as I know, the onlv insinceritv

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which has popular approval. It is a popularized sham. Thesocial life of the students is responsible for its growth, and mustbe charg'ed with the obligation of destroying it. Somewhere inthe social activities of our high schools the genuine in mannersand refinement must be given emphasis.

4. The social activities of the high school are based toolarg'ely upon the commingling of the sexes. In my judgmentthere should be more entertainments which do not cross the sexline. The high school years of life should be the occasion for theforming of deep and lasting friendships, and not merely the op-portunity for the expression of the mating instinct. These shouldbe the years in which boys should discover the rich and enduringqualities of manhood; the years in which girls should come to thepurest ideals of womanhood. But this unrestricted comminglingof the sexes disturbs the natural evolution of the ideals of youth,forcing the maturity of instincts and emotions, for which therecan be no natural and proper function. In this there is greatdanger. At this point in life wholesome ambitions are frus-trated, air-castles that have stood for years are wrecked, andhigh talents, rich with the power of human uplift, are dissipated.It is difficult to secure all the good which should come from co-education, and at the same time avoid the extremes from whichthe liabilities come. The problem here is the development ofmoral stability and the creation of a purpose in life, from whichstrength will come to turn aside from the fanciful distractions thatpresent themselves. More wholesome social activities, especiallyfor girls, more for boys, may help to give the poise and balancewhich youth seems so often to lack at this age in life.

5. Dancing forms too large a part in the social activities ofthe high school. Probably as many as half of the formal enter-tainments of the high schools are dancing parties. Properly con-ducted, the dance is a beautiful occasion for entertainment. Thechief evil of dancing comes from the excess to which it is carriedand from the fact that dances are frequently poorly supervised.Because of these facts, all the evils that follow the social life ofthe high school express themselves most boldly in the dancingparty. Here the youth, the mere boy and girl, imitates the col-legian ; here work most powerfully all the influences which dis-tract the mind of youth from the pursuit of knowledge; herefoppery is master of ceremonies; here the commingling of thesexes is most intimate; and here the avenues of extravagance areopened wide. I recently selected fifty young men at random fromour high school students, and submitted a questionaire to themin relation to dancing. I discovered that these fifty young menattend per month 114 dances, or an average of 2.28 dances each.The admission fee is uniformly 50 cents, resulting in a total of$57 per month, or an average of $1.14 for each youth. Of the

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fifty boys only three do not dance, while five attend only two orthree dances a year. Eight of the fifty dance every week. NowI am sure this is not an extraordinary record, either in city orcountry life. I also inquired as to the feeling of the parents uponthe question of dancing. Thirty-five of the boys reported thattheir parents approved of their dancing; ten said their parentsgave approval when they went with good company and did notgo too frequently; fifteen said their parents were entirely indif-ferent toward dancing. It would seem, therefore, that the dance-hall is a respected institution among us, and does, in a generalway, enjoy the confidence of parents. Whether or not this is awholesome indication, I am scarcely prepared to say. I do feel,however, that our dances should be more carefully supervised, andthat parents should more often attend them. The social functionrequiring the greatest supervision is usually given the least.Young people frequently go to church with their parents, butparents very seldom go to the dances with their sons and daugh-ters. Dancing as an amusement would be greatly uplifted by thepresence of parents. The effort now being made to standardizedancing in the parties of the high school is certainly a step in thedirection of progress. Another very fortunate change would bethe substitution of the matinee dance for the evening ball. Whilethe authorities of the high school can not limit the number ofdances which the students may attend, they can limit the numberpermitted as a part of the activities of the school. This^ I amsure, our high schools are already doing. I wish some organizerof amusements could suggest to us some form of entertainmentwhich could be used occasionally as a substitute for the dancingparty.

6. The social life of the high school conduces to habits ofextravagance in young men and women. Attendance at highschool is coming to be very costly. A large part of the expenseresults from the demands which the social life of the school im-poses upon the student. Usually he is not a wage earner whilein school, and he cannot in three months of vacation lay awayenough to carry him through nine months of schooling. He musttherefore depend upon the home for at least a part of the meanshe spends while in high school. To ascertain what the probableexpenditures of high school students are, I asked fifty young menhow much spending money they had per week, and for what theyusually spent it. I found that the fifty boys are spending, just asthey see fit, $68 each week, or an average of $1.35 each. I foundthat $28.65 of this amount is spent for confectionery, or 57 centsfor each boy. Now, assuming that this group of fifty is typicalof the school in general, these figures say that the 140 boys in thehumble Davis county High School enjoy the privilege of spendingat their sweet liberty the sum of $2,872.80, or $20.52 each, which

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is more than twice the entrance fee imposed upon them by theschool. Carrying these figures through the entire student-body,and assuming that the girls spend one-half as much each per weekas do the boys, I find that the amount of spending money allowedby the conservative parents of Davis county to their sons anddaughters in high school will reach $10,296 for the nine monthsof the current school year. This sum will pay the salaries of theten teachers engaged in their instruction for the whole year, andthere will be $750 left over for the equipping of a library. AndI venture the guess that these are not unusual figures. Highschooling is becoming a luxury, and the student without moneyoften suffers embarrassment in the presence of those who havemeans, and who are encouraged to spend it in the social activitiesbuilt up about the high school. Of course, all this money, andprobably more, would be spent if the students were not in school;but that fact does not lessen the wrong involved. It is the mani-fest duty of the high school to do some constructive work againstthe extravagance of its students, and especially where that ex-travagance is the result of the social life of the high school itself.

KAYSVILLE, UTAH

Promises of Spring

The dull, gray days are wintry still, and rainIncessantly descends on hill and plain.It seems the sun will never shine again.Like armies vast, the rain drives to and fro,And from the valley banishes the snow—And yet, the Winter's passing seems so slow.

But through the rain the trusting eyes will seeSweet Spring but sleeps, bud-bound, in vine and tree,Waiting the waking kiss of early bee.And faith's keen ear will hear the thrushes singAbove the storm, and catch the homing wingOf each returning promise of the Spring.st. george, utah

Ethel Jarvis