Boys and Girls’ Clubs

Boys and Girls' Clubs They Make the Best Better

BY GEORGE GARDNER

In four years, the boys and girls' clubs of the state of Utah have grown from a handful to a club of 24,468. This year they added more than $65,000 to the wealth of the state. And in the four years they have had three national champions, Merle Hyer

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Left to right: Howard Dalton, National Champion Potato Grower, 1914; Merl Hyer, National Champion Potato Grower, 1913; Horace Cannel, won state of Utah prize for best potatoes, 1913.

and Howard Dalton, potato champions for 1913 and 1914, and Hattie Holbrook, champion canner for 1913. The boys and girls' club work is one of the most powerful factors for education in the state today. Not from the standpoint of numbers, though the numbers now reach far beyond the dreams of those who began the work. It is not from the possible finan- cial gain, though their pace of economic crop production can not long be followed by the farmers of the state; for one of them has cleared four hundred dollars from his acre. Another has

878 IMPROVEMENT ERA made a yield of more than seven times the average potato yield for the United States, and has cleared many times as much as did the old and experienced farmers in his neighborhood. It is not for these reasons that it is such an important factor in educa-

tion. It is an important factor in education because it gives the boy and the girl such deep interest in the work they do, and the way they do it. Any one who has taught in a public school, or even visited one, will know that work done under the whip and without interest is "love's labor lost." One of the most successful teachers, has said that the most es- sential thing is to inspire the stu- dents to want to do the work and let them do it themselves.

I think I may say, without fear of contradiction, that more boys and girls have entered this work with a desire to do the work,

BERNICE ROBERTS Sweepstakes champion girl,)1915,

than any other educational work of an equal cost. And still, only a few years ago many boys wanted to leave the farm. Wanted to throw away all the prac- tical knowledge gained in fif- teen to twenty years and start at the bottom of a new pro- HATTIE HOLBROOK, fession. They had felt only Champion Canner for Utah, 1913. the sweat, and had only heard the early morning call to the chores, and there was no in- terest. They worked, but too often, just because father wanted them to work. Now the girl and the boy work with the parents they have ;

an end in view, and an interest. And the home, which is as great an educational factor as the school itself, extends its in-

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fluence many years. And if results are to be a test for education, the Boys and Girls' Clubs of Utah are a powerful factor.

WINNERS IN THE M. I. A. VOCATIONS AND INDUSTRIES CONTEST, 1915 Left to right: Charles Lester Hartle, Winder ward, Cottonwood stake: Chas. Jay Davis, Ramah, N. M., St. Johns stake, and Lewis Ashton, Le Grand ward, Liberty stake. For rules, regulations, and particulars for 1916 contest see May Era, pp. 661-3.

The Wild Columbine

Mountain crests of the west May hide thee from the throng: The poet hears the song That thou sing'st.

He will tell how the dell Thy secret kept from men: 'Twas told him by a wren In the spring.

Half afraid in the shade, A tender flower grows: A flower Nature chose For her queen.

Columbine, thou'rt divine, Thy petals, snowy white. Thy lesson of delight: "Be ye clean." MIDWAY, UTAH Guy C. Coleman