TROISIÈME SECTION

— 414 —The enthusiastic spirit which can be so easily arousedunder the right leadership was manifested again in an unusualdegree when the time came for gathering in the winter vegetables.The task was placed before the girls as a sort of gamewith the resuit that about fifty at a time worked steadily,cheerfully and without disorder until the entire crop had beenharvested.Religions Instruction.—Religious instruction is given oncea week by outside teachers supplied by whatever church maywish to send a représentative ; expenses are paid by the institution.At présent there is a Roman Catholic, a Jewish, anEpiscopal, and an Evangelical class. The Sunday services areconducted by various clergymen from Hudson in turn, or bysome one from outside, whom the superintendent may be ableto secure. The form of service has been carefully prepared andis approved by ail the churches.It is our aim that within eighteen months after she entersthe school each girl shall have had book school for one sessionevery day five times a week during eighteen months, and alsoshall have gone through the classes in laundry, cooking andplain sewing, besides doing her prescribed share of houseworkin her own cottage, and attending gymnastic and singing classes.She is also expected to attend a class in religious instructionand chapel services on Sunday. During the summer she takespart in the outdoor games and in the garden work.As a matter of fact, we have been unable to carry outthis program, because we have not enough iudustrial teachersand class rooms. Girls have to await their turns for classesand so remain in- the school a longer time than might benecessary, if we had enough instructors and class rooms totake care of them as rapidly as they became ready for thework. Girls who must go out first have to be put in ahead oiothers who have a longer time to stay. The girls who thushave to stay long, in order to receive the training that weknow they should have, become somewhat discouraged and arelosing the benefit that they might obtain from a long parole.With more school rooms, more equipment and more teachers,— 415 —we would be taking care of a larger number of girls each yearand more satisfactorily than we are now able to do.Our capacity does not meet the requirements of the State.If buildings cannot be provided rapidly enough to meet thedemands, a larger force of officers and teachers would hetp thesituation by preparing the girls to live outside in a much shortertime than that now required for their equipment. The cost ofmaintenance, except the salaries, would not be increased, forthe average population would remain the same, but a largernumber of girls would be benefited.Paroles.—The importance ôf the parole as a part of oursystem of training becomes a more established fact as the yearsgo on. By virtue of the laws of 1909 we have guardianshipof the girls until they are twenty one, and there fore everygirl will spend some time on parole. It is not given by fixedrule. It is granted or witheld as seems best in each case,regardless of outside application, influence, or interférence.The "danger period" in most cases is not during the firstfew months that a girl spends outside of the school, but laterwhen the novelty of the outside life has lessened, when theinfluence of the school and officers has become weakened byabsence and by the entrance of new influences into the girl'slife. It is then that she needs a friend to hold her to the idealsshe has made hers at the school. The girls are very humanand they are young. Imagine what it means to a girl ofeighteen to try without aid to hold to a standard which manyolder persons find it hard to keep under the best of conditions.With no help from her family, she struggles, not only to hold.to this standard herself, but to lift her family to it, to lead themto something of which they are entirely ignorant and unappreciative.If she wearies and fails to be what her friends hadhoped she might be, shall she be blamed, or shall she receivecrédit for the struggle she has made, the greatness of whichcould be realised only by entering into her life with ail itsweight of heredity and environment.Time, watchfulness and the authority to act in her behalfwill assist many a girl to get firmly established in the way of