Is there a tendency for the farmers of your locality to move into town?  If so, why?  What becomes of their farms?

Review the points made in the discussion of topics 4 and 5 on page 38 (Chapter iii).  Continue to develop plans for cooperation in the home and school.

What does it mean to be “in training” for athletics?  In the light of your answer to this question, what would it mean to be “in training” for citizen ship?

READINGS

See Readings for Chapter IX.  Also: 

“Housing the Worker on the Farm,” Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1918, pp. 347-356.

“What the Department of Agriculture is Doing for the Housekeeper,” Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1913, pp. 143-162.

“The Effect of Home Demonstration on the Community and the
County,” Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1916, pp. 251-266.

“Farm Tenantry in the United States,” Department of Agriculture
Year Book, 1916, pp. 321-346.

Lessons in Community and National Life:  Series C, Lesson 32,
“Housing for Workers.”

CHAPTER XI

EARNING A LIVING

LIVING, NOT EARNING, THE END IN VIEW

The most conspicuous activities that we see going on in the community are usually those that have to do with earning a living or the production of wealth. [Footnote:  The activities by which we earn a living are also the activities by which wealth is produced.  It is important to understand that when we speak of “wealth” we do not necessarily mean great wealth.  A boy who has a fifty-cent knife, or a girl who has a twenty-five-cent purse, has wealth as truly as the man who owns a well-stocked farm.  The difference is merely in kind and amount.  Food, clothing, houses, books, tools, cattle, are all forms of wealth.  Any material thing, for which we are willing to work and make sacrifices because it satisfies our wants, is wealth.  Earning a living is merely earning or producing wealth to satisfy our wants and those of others.] Indeed, some people become so absorbed in the business of earning a living that they seem to be living to earn rather than earning to live.  It does not do to forget that not earning, but living, is the real end in view.  Unless we know how to use what we earn to provide properly for all of our normal wants, the effort we spend in earning is very largely wasted.

Nevertheless, before we can enjoy a living it has to be earned, by ourselves or by someone else; and the activities by which it is earned occupy so important a place in our lives, are so closely dependent upon the community, have so much to do with our citizenship, and receive so much attention from government, that we must give them some consideration in this chapter and several chapters following.