Nowadays people often say that children are not allowed anough unstructured time free from soccer games, ballet lessons, tutoring etc. Children are not free to roam about as some of us were in our childhoods. The article I saw in the Pantagraph on March 4 1916 gave an example of the structured activities that were suggested in 1916. The Boys and Girls Club was being introduced in Bloomington and was already in use in Chicago and the collar counties.
The club seemed a great deal like the 4 H club of my childhood. Agricultural pursuits like vegetable growing and livestock maintenance prevailed. The club members were required to farm a bit of land -- usually a tenth of an acre. They were to pay the going rent to their parents for the parce and keep records of all expenses and returns. They were to learn to can their produce and sell it. All of this was to be done under the supervision of the teachers of the local school district -- as if the teachers did not already have enough to do -- and the parents. There was no mention of where the starting capital for this business venture was to come from.
Essentially, the children were to set up a little business and regulate themselves like little business men and women throughout the summer. I wonder how many children actually participated in these clubs. I was a 4 H member, but only ever participated in cooking, sewing and knitting, never in livestock raising. I had enough vegetable and chicken experience from the family plot to deter me from wanting to do more in that line!
I wonder how many children did take part in these sorts of activities and whether it prevented them from enjoying the attractions of the theater, the street cars and the candy shops?