Editor Suggests Boy Scouts Repair and Protect Schools, July 31, 1923

A Suggestion for the Boy Scouts

The summer vacation offers an opportunity to consider what the school building needs to make it habitable and comfortable for the school children this fall. Are any of the window panes broken and out permitting the rain, wind, dust, and birds to enter at will? Or any other minor repairs needed?

Summer vacation time is also the season for “campers.” Fortunately not all “campers” are vandals, but an unlocked school building and an abundance of unprotected ?? in the school yard does offer an invitation to the passing “camper” to help himself, a temptation that is not often resisted.

Here is your opportunity, Boy Scouts, to protect your school yard by a good fence and keep the gate locked. Put the windows in good condition. Repairs cost and so does protection, but what is spent for protection almost invariably lessens the repair bill. A rural school building with the windows closed and protected by shutters or wire screens, doors securely fastened, gates locked tells to any passer-by a story of community and pupils that take an interest and price in their school plant. Such a community invites the best class of settlers; the others pass on.

If there are no Boy Scouts in the district, the boys and girls could organize a School Improvement Club and do this work.

From the editorial page of The Wilson Times, July 31, 1923. The boys' and girls' School Improvement Club suggested by the editor are the forerunners of the Extension Service's 4-H Clubs.