[Untitled film about Boys Town, 1950s?]

[Music] Tom education has two primary aims one a good education should teach a boy how to live and two it should teach him how to make a living both are considered essential to his wellbeing each boy is placed in one of three General programs college preparatory vocational farming Trad and farm students spend half of each day in their specialized Fields college preparatory students devote fulltime to Scholastic courses academic Fitness alone does not qualify a teacher for a position in the boy toown school system for these boys the product of broken homes have special needs in terms of Human Relationships and emotional understanding the teacher at boy toown must be equipped by native endowment and training to respond to those needs from the heart as well as from the mind as in most schools throughout the country the majority of boy toown students do not expect to go on to college they must be prepared there for to earn a living after graduation today the vocational Department of boy toown offers practical training in 15 essential trades ranging from printing to automobile mechanics preparing the boy for the real work a day world which he will one day enter here he becomes familiar with machines tools and working conditions he experiences the thrill of working with his hands and he learns that there can be intelligence in his fingers as well as in his mind upon completion of a full course in any one of the trades taught here the boy receives a high school diploma and a trade certificate which qualifies him to enter his chosen field with a 2-year Apprentice [Music] rating the agricultural program at boy town has developed into one of the best equipped scientifically operated farms in the middle west with main crops of corn wheat oats produce and alala dairy products eggs Pork and Beef most of it consumed on the premises basically the farm is run by men of skill and training in scientific farming and serves as a practical working Schoolhouse for those boys who have chosen agriculture as their life's work it is a rare year that does not bring the 4 Club of boy toown at least one award and usually more from State and county fairs and from nationally known Liv stock [Music] expositions give a boy something he likes to do and the chances are you'll wind up with a healthy happy well adjusted youngster many a homeless and neglected boy gets into trouble for no more reason than that he has never had a chance to find himself he has been pushed around backed into a corner and robbed of any feeling of importance like this boy only recently arrived in boy town and not yet adjusted to life here healthy social adjustment is not achieved overnight sometimes sad to say it is never achieve if you want to know what kind of a future your boy will have examine his everyday living habits does he tend to withdraw and isolate himself from boys his own age does he refuse to listen to reason and always insist on having his own way does he give up easily in the face of difficulties these are some of the problems investigated and worked through by the welfare department at boy toown fundamentally the program here is based on counseling and teamwork between the boys the welfare staff and the teachers most of these boys originally came to boy Town weighed down by a feeling of inferiority induced by shameful neglect and lack of sympathy in their previous [Music] environment here at boy toown every effort is made to instill in the boy a feeling of self-confidence of warm acceptance and Security in short to provide an environment that comes closest to a real home we in the welfare department and on the teaching staff at boy Town know that the boy with mental and emotional problems needs help and we try to see that he gets it we know too that the feeling of inferiority in a boy is a tragic thing it constitutes one of our major problems here at boy toown a boy will know he is worth something only if he can feel wanted if he is accepted and respected by those with whom he Associates every day we feel that these factors of encouragement and social acceptance are as essential to normal growth in the boy as the food he eats and the air he breathes the job as we see it is to cultivate in the boy a true sense of Valu in terms of himself and his relationship to others the important thing to us is not how much talent or ability he has but what he learns to do with what he has free play activity is one of the first and most important lessons in child care and guidance through play he learns how to give as well as take he finds he can't always have his own way but must yield to the pressure of the group if he wants to continue as a part of that group in other words to belong this training and discipline enables him in later life to adjust to the requirements of business social life and good citizenship in the extensive and intensive infr mural program there is room in one or more sports for every boy in Boy town this great field house can accommodate hundreds of boys engaged in basketball wrestling handball gymnastics and volleyball even while indoor varsity football practice is going on out on the track and other playfields in every season of the year there is always something taking place in every sport at every age level in house against house league competition or on a most informal and sometimes times hilariously halfhazard choose up sides [Music] [Music] bases touchdown as for the inter Scholastic competition football is the big sport With Boys Town teams year in and year out holding their own and more against some of the crack high school teams from coast to co [Music] [Music] [Applause] Coast in the early days father flan used to say you've got to take the hungry look out of a boy's eyes before you can start helping him find himself that tradition has been extended into a maxim that says feed them first feed them well and half your worries are over this then is feeding time at boy Town three times a day big healthy meals planned by expert dietitians and prepared by experienced Cooks in ample quantities for growing boys the age of adolescence is a critical period in a boy's life physical and psychological changes are takes in him he is growing into a sharper awareness of selfhood he has social needs that must be filled after school hours and off the playing field the social side of life at boy toown takes in a varied program that ranges from weekly movies for the entire population of boy town to for and informal proms house dances and parties for the older boys [Music] religion forms a very important part in the boy's life at boy toown every boy whether Catholic Protestant or Jew attends his respective religious instruction two periods a week this Chapel donated by a noble and generous lady since passed away is one of the most beautiful houses of God in America a monument not only to the citizens of boy toown but to all underprivileged children everywhere in this Sanctified building is heard the Glorious music of the Boy toown Choir a group of 60 fresh Young Voices heard every year on tour in the major concert Halls of the nation from Carnegie Hall in New York to fill armonic Auditorium in Los Angeles California about a year after my father died my mother Mar again I couldn't seem to get along at home anymore I started hanging around the streets looking for trouble and most times finding it some social service lady wrote to boy toown about me and the next thing I knew here I was and not liking it I figured to give it a play for a week or two on account of my mother and then light out somewhere anywhere but somehow I stuck around no walls no locked gates to shut me in everything wide open nobody watching funny how you get to feel about that and no uniforms just regular clothes it made a big difference I [Music] stayed well it's almost 5 years now and I'll be graduating soon high school diploma and apprentice machinist card I made a couple of the teams and sang baritone on the concert choir I've seen plenty of other kids come here some by train or bus or hobo style or hitchhiking on their own lots of them in pretty bad shape a few not many from juvenile court they all made out okay most of them how do we feel about this place well it's tough to talk about what it means to us where we might have wound up if we hadn't come here to live it's home but that doesn't say at all we found things here we never figured we'd ever have the kind of things other guys have who' got real homes and other kids in a family about boy town well all I can say is and believe me that's plenty it's a place called home every year almost half a million people come to visit they find that boy toown is not a correctional institution that it doesn't belong to any individual or group or to any Civic or governmental agency they find that boy toown belongs to and is self-governed by the boys who live here and call it their home how then is boy Town supported not by money from City County state or federal government nor from Civic or church groups but entirely by donations from people the world over people who want to share in providing The Unwanted neglected boy with a home an education and a start in life on a footing with more fortunate boys these citizens of boy toown know that private donations built the roof over their heads put the food on their tables gave them the clothes they wear but there is no feeling among them of accepting this generosity as their due there is dignity here light-heartedness and friendliness because they feel themselves not objects of public charity but co-workers in a great social project building toward a better life in the years to come [Music] [Applause] [Music]