At the outset, it is important to contrast the 27,000,000 hours a year,
during which the school has charge of all the children, with the
135,000,000 hours at the children's free disposal. Yet we are inclined to
charge the schools with the responsibilities of many failures in the
physical and moral make-up of growing boys and girls. The greater part of
the education of the boys and girls is received outside of school through
the various activities which fill up these 135,000,000 hours a year.
Society has, therefore, a great responsibility in directing the activities
of the free time of young people.

People employed in the home, store, factory, shop, or office, in a year
of 365 days spend about 2880 hours of this time in sleep. Taking the
average working-day as nine hours and the number of working-days in the
year as 300, excluding Sundays and holidays, each person is employed in
needful occupations 2700 hours during the year. Out of the working-days, a
total of 2100 hours are at each person's disposal to use as he sees fit.
Of the remaining 60 days, 15 hours of each day are for free use,--or a
total of nearly 35 per cent of the entire year. What are the children,
young people, and adults doing with this time?

One answer is found in the records of the juvenile court, in rescue homes,
in reformatories, in the police and criminal courts, in jails and
penitentiaries, in hospitals for the treatment of venereal diseases, the
insane and feeble-minded; another in the fallen women (and men, too), of
whom so much has been said of late; another in the crowded saloons and
busy restaurants in the heart of the city, with their music, bright
lights, food, liquor, and overdressed, painted women with their consorts;
still another in the billiard-rooms and the moving-picture theaters.