Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 211, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1916 — TRAINING TODAY'S BOYS AND GIRLS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRAINING TODAY'S BOYS AND GIRLS

Their Misdeeds Seldom Evidence of Wickedness. PLAYING HOOKY WONT HURT Parent Who Remember* How Thing* Used to Feel I* One Who Knows How to Manage His Boy. By BIDONIE M. GRUENBERQ. »T THE club Jones was reading the /V paper to himself and making com* inents to all within hearing. Suddenly he sat up and put down the paper. “Was that Waite’s boy,” he asked, “that was mixed up in that affair down at the lake?” No one seemed to know. Didn’t even know there had been an affair. In that case Jones had to read to them. It was the story of a boy who had gone over the edge of a pier and was pulled out by another boy who happened to be passing. The boy who happened to be passing was young Bob, and he happened along at a time when he was supposed to be in school. That was the point. Although no one denied that It was eminently proper for him to jump Into the water and save the ragged stranger, all were agreed that he had no business there. He was obviously playing truant. “If a boy of mine did that,” scald Saffron, “I’d let him take all the medals and fine speeches that were coming to him, and after the celebration was all over I would take him into the woodshed and give him the worst licking of his young life.” That sounded very heroic and very reasonable. After all, it’s wicked to play truant. It was only a lucky chance that the boy came along in time to save the other child —perhaps this one had been a truant also. The chances were even that another time, he’d got run over by a fire engine. The boy’s place is in the school, and he had no business along the lake front. He needed a lesson that would teach him his place. It made Saffron real angry to think of a son of his committing an outrage upon law and morals. And the things he had in mind to do were —well, they were just the expressions of his anger. They were not thought out policies of applying force where it would do the most good. They were the Instinctive appeals to violence, and had just about as much moral value as Bob’s own dereliction. And Brown, who bad not been saying anything, could see that. And so he joined the conversation. He would not approve of truancy. He knew it was a bad thing and liable to lead to worse things. But there’s no use get-

ting excited over it. Didn’t we all do the same thing when we were young? Or at least we were all tempted to, and If we did not yield it was just our good fortune and not our superior virtue. Besides, its the sort of thing a chjld will do just because he is a cMld.' WBen he gets to be as old as we are he won't be tempted to go down to the lake. Remember that boys will be boys. Give him a chance to grow up and he’ll be ail right. This did not sound so heroic, but it did seem reasonable. After all, a day out of school breathing the fresh air and taking good exercise won’t hurt any boy. He could make up his school work just as easily as though he hud been absent oy account of sickness, and this was better than sickness. Thousands of boys play “hooky” and then grow uj/ to be decent citizens — gome of them even become teachers or ministers. Let him alone, and he’ll grow up all right Young B‘ank, whose children had not yet reached the age of truancy, was interested, but bewildered He tad expect* d to lay, up a supply of practical wisdom to use In possible emergencies In the future. But he djd not find the conflicting counsel very helpful. Evildoers ought to be punished, of course; otherwise there would be no premium on doing the right thing. But If a child does what we consider “evil” without malice, should he still be made to suffer —especially when he is very likely to outgrow the instincts that lead to such acts? s The trouble with Saffron was that lie had not taken the pains to think out the right and wrong of playing truant, nor Mte right aw* wrong of

ponlahing children. He was Just as Impulsive as the truant himself, with this difference. Whereas the boy had an uncomfortable feeling that he wa# doing something that was wrong—because it was disapproved—the man had the assurance that he was in the right, for in the punishment of children he was countenanced by generations of parents and most of his contemporaries. The trouble with Brown was that, whereas he had learned enough to know that the misdeeds of children are id most cases the outward expressions of perfectly healthy Instinct*, and not evidences of “wickedness,” and whereas he knew that most children will outgrow these misdeeds, he had nt) Jdea that there was anything to be done about It except to permit the fates to finish the story. It is well for all of us to know what Brown knew. But that Is not enough. Children will outgrow their childish Impulses, but what will take their place? One of the ways In which the grown-ups acquired that feeling of righteousness In the presence of childish misdeeds was through the Impressive indignation of their parents on the occasions of their own childish errors. It may be- wrong for Saffron to put so much stress upon the wickedness of truancy, but It is just as wrong to evade the issue and

treat it like teething, as something that will pass away was something else to do besides whipping ’thildren; Brown needed to learn that there was something to do. As we become more and more familiar with the development of the child’s mind we realize that many of the symptoms that are so alarming to others are in no way indications of depravity. But there is the danger that In learning this We may become indifferent to all symptoms. A child is to be watched and understood; this will avoid frequently the resort to violence. But he is to be understood and helped; this will save us frequently from the sin of omission. We must know not merely enough to improve ou the methods of revengs and penalty; we must krtow enough to evolve a positive program of constructive assistance to the child at every point at which his instincts conflict with the requiremento of the world to which he must adjust himself.

Remember That Boys Will Be Boys.

He Was Supposed Be in School.