CHAPTER discriminate chumship. Misfits in society. The proper field for morals or moral sentiment is voluntary human action. Struggle between the higher and lower. The appeal of religion to a healthy, nor- mal, happy boy. Religion a motive power to give up wrong and to do right. A boy's idea of God and duty and religious observ- ance. Religious expression. The instinct of worship. The stages of the evolution of the religion of boyhood. Jesus Christ as the world's greatest hero. Conscience. "What shall a boy do?" is a problem. Harnessing aptitudes. Fitting a boy to a calling vs. fitting a calling to a boy. Pre- venting misfits. The business of education. Parental personal ambition must often be sacrificed for the salvation of the boy. Dabbling in many things. Value of manual training and technical studies. Danger of neglecting the cultural. The motive of a vocation. The spiritualization of work. PAGE It is the unknowable which has always baffled man. The grow time. Two skilled Exit mother, enter father. Well governed cities, IX. THE LANGuage of thE FENCE.. A piece of chalk in the hands of an evil- minded boy. Fence language is but the reflection of the thought life of the boy. Crimes of manhood begin during boyhood. The impure joke. Results of 288 inter- Ideals of the city, the state, the nation, the school, the church, will never rise higher than the ideals of the home. Intensity of love of home born in man. "Speeding up" of life. Parental control. Parental delinquency re- sponsible for juvenile delinquency. Results of questionnaire sent to boys. Boy barom- eters. Homecoming of father. All homeless XI. SKEDADDLING FROM SUNDAY SCHOOL........ 223 "Man am I grown." "Skedaddle” means to run away, to retire tumultuously. Older CHAPTER boys retiring from Sunday school. Statis- There is a tide in the affairs of the Sunday school if. Testimony of a judge. Result of questionnaire given to boys. Unprepared- ness. Danger of producing "half-baked" teachers. Sunday attendance a habit. The XIII. THE CHURCH, THE PREACHER, THE SERMON, A parable. "Morbus Sabbaticus." A diagnosis and the remedy. Churchless boys and boyless churches. Seating capacity of Protestant churches vs. attendance. Fill- ing the pews a problem. Reasons given by boys as to why they do not go to church. Beatitudes for church goers. Instinct of worship in every human being. "How can a minister help a boy?" answered by boys. The kind of sermons boys would preach to PAGE FOREWORD These studies and observations of boy life formed the material delivered in courses of lectures on "Boyology" or Boy Analysis, before the Young Men's Christian Associations of Boston, Providence, Lawrence, Cambridge, and at Mothers' Meetings, Parent-Teachers' Associations, and Women's Clubs, and are now presented to that larger audience of parents, teachers, and workers among boys, who are interested in this intricate piece of human machinery known as the boy. Twenty-six years of actual contact with many thousand boys has convinced the author that many of the boy's ways remain as yet uninterpreted as well as misinterpreted. He is the original sulphite, keeping everybody awake and interested when he appears upon the scene. He will ever be a new subject for discussion and analysis, and in need of friendly interpreters. May this little volume introduce him to a host of such friends, who will secure for him the inalienable rights of boyhood and genuine sympathy during the struggles of youth. No attempt has been made to adhere to technical or scientific terms, but rather to the language of those who may be short in psychology, physiology, pedagogy, and sociology, but who are long in common sense and "heartology." Acknowledgment of deepest gratitude is made to the host of publishers and authors who so generously permitted the use of quoted material. "Out of the mouths of many witnesses, the truth shall be established." A bibliography of helpful books and their publishers will be found at the end of the book. Boston, May, 1916. |