Kemper Military School - Yearbook (Boonville, MO)

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,Hr l .A Letter to Parents of Boys N CONNECTION with the rearing of your son you are, no doubt, con- fronted with numerous and perplexing problems. You have for him ideals of learning, culture, character, and manhood that he seems more or less unlikely to attain. His personality is mysterious, you find yourself lacking in the power to understand him and especially in the time needed to devote to the solution of the problems -that he presents. . Many of the problems that beset you and your boy are beyond your con- trol. In the last twenty years the attendance of high schools has increased be- tween 300 and 400 per cent with the result that the schools are woefully crowd- ed, and classes are so large that boys who need personal attention receive little or none, lose interest in their work and drop out or fail. If a boy has graduated from high school and goes to a large university he receives little or no personal attention from the faculty, has no opportunity to participate in activities un- less he is of outstanding merit, becomes lost in the crowd or is carried away with distractions, loses interest in his work, and drops out with very little profit from his university experience and sometimes with a positive loss. The small college, which avoids some of these pitfalls, frequently offers too few at- tractions to interest the boy. . E Furthermore, moderngconditions have handicapped the boy with idleness. The present day father grew up busy with chores or helping his father. The present day boy has no chores, and business is so specialized that few fathers can find a place in their business for their sons. The result is disastrous for the boy. He frequently has most of the afternoon nandqthe evening with noth- ing to do but amuse himself. His companions of both sexes are as idle as he and a condition results that is proiitless, harmful and always potentially dan- gerous. Idleness does not make muscular or moral fiber, or furnish visions and ideals, or prepare a boy for man's estate. It does tend to fill prisons and pro- mote failure. Another problem of adolescence is sex. The problem is aggravated by co- education. At this age girls mature more rapidly than boys to the disadvan- tage and embarrassment of boys in class competition. Boys do far better school work when in classes composed of boys only, where the subject matter is presented by men and for boys. As bad as the problem is in school it becomes most acute after school hours when boys and girls, both idle, are left to provide their own entertainment for the rest of the day. Picture shows, good and bad, long rides in automobiles, unchaperoned parties, uncontrolled athletics, and Pagv Five

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COLONEL T. A. JCI-INSTON Superintendent

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KEMPERmMlLlTARYMSCHOOL other pleasures too frequently fill the time. Parents are too busy or too much out of touch with their children to know what their children are doing, or find it impossible to regulate matters because of lax discipline of other parents. A correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post presents the matter thus: I have been a good deal interested lately in scientific management, the main principle of which seems to be that a man ought to look over his work carefully and find out where he is weak. In some ways I am a successful man. I have built up a good business-my credit at the bank is first-class and other busi- ness men listen to my opinions with respect, but as a parent I am a fiat fail- ure. If I had no better control over the subordinates in my ofiice than I have over those members of my household who are supposed to be subordinates to me, I should be 'broke' in six months. I know a number of men who are trying to hold down jobs for which they are plainly incompetent, and I have considerable contempt for them. I think they ought to clear out and turn the jobs over to men who are competent. I know, too, from my business ob- servation, that an incompetent boss usually demoralizes the peo- ple under him. If he isn't up to his job, his subordinates-espe- cially the younger ones,-don't really have a fair show. I argue that, as an incompetent-parent, I must be having a bad influence on my children. As I look over the families of my friends, I con- clude that at least 50 per cent of parents are no more up to the job than I am. Also, I notice this: If I had charge of my next-door neighbor's children I wouldn't for a minute let them do some of the things they do now, although my own children do pretty much the same. Ilike his children very well, yet I am not so besotted but that I would stop them from doing things that are harmful. Very likely he would stop my children too. I think we need a class of professional parents to take charge of children and be just and kind to them-but not foolish. Kemper Military School offers itself for this service. You may well ap- preciate the happy condition that exists at Kemper where all boys are under the same rule, where there is no divided authority and where this danger time is filled with profitable activities such as military drill, athletics, recreation, su- pervised study, etc. It gives boys who have reached the high school or early years of college the education and training necessary to complete their prepara- tion for college, university or business life, and at the same time applies expert methods, developed by long and 'successful experience, to character building and the formation of the habits and aptitudes of the efficient man, especially striving to create an environment that develops the best in-the boy, and sup- presses what is wrong or harmful. Kemper is no educational experiment, as is indicated by the facts detailed elsewhere showing its history of eighty years of continuous operation in one Puyv Sir