Posted: Friday, March 18, 2005 12:00 am
DARLENE JOHNSON
ELGIN - I just wanted to share with you an informative book I read about the Rev. Flanagan's Life. He is the founder of Girls and Boys Town on the outskirts of Omaha. He spent a lot of his life in research of following up on kids that got in trouble and what happened to them.
First, he began with trying to help the migrant workers who had no place to stay when the harvest was done. He bought an old run-down hotel and the guys who stayed there helped him fix it up. Soon the Rev. Flanagan saw there were a lot more men in need. So he got a larger run-down hotel and fixed it up. He let other men who had no jobs stay there. The workers said don't do that; you will get drug addicts, alcoholics, thieves and killers in here. But he said they are God's people too. So he tried to help anyone who would come.
The Rev. Flanagan soon found out it was almost impossible to help people well into the life of serious sin, so he said built an orphanage to help young boys in 1929 the year of the crash on Wall Street. People told him it was too rough of times, but he said God wants me to. People came forth to help him.
In a nutshell, the Rev. Flanagan said these are the important ingredients in raising a good child.
1. Make sure children know they are loved.
2. Discipline children when they do wrong.
3. Use these types of discipline: withhold privileges like no ice cream or not having a friend over; b) give them extra work, like cleaning the garage; c) give them extra school work, like studying the dictionary.
4. Have children learn and participate in all the sports they can.
5. Have children learn music and participate in it.
6. Have children attend church regularly.
7. Have children attend a weekly Bible study.
8. Children should be responsible to make their bed each day.
9. Be responsible to help some way in the housework chores on a regular basis.
The Rev. Flanagan said if you follow these guidelines there is a 96 percent chance you will have a good citizen emerge into society upon graduation from high school.