Analyzing Character | Page 9

to do must be the thing for which he or she
is preeminently fitted. "Let him follow his bent," say some advisors,
"and he will find his niche." This does not happen often. The average
young man is immature. His tastes are not formed. He is undeveloped.
His very best talents may have never been discovered by himself or
others. It is well known to those who study children that a boy's earliest

ambitions are to do something he thinks spectacular and romantic.
Boys long to be cab drivers, locomotive engineers, policemen, cowboys,
soldiers and aviators.
A little nephew of ours said he wanted to be a ditch-digger. Asked why,
he said: "So I can wear dirty clothes, smoke a pipe, and spit tobacco
juice in the street." The little fellow is really endowed with an
inheritance of great natural refinement and a splendid intellect. As he
grows older, his ideals will change and he will discover there is much
to ditch-digging besides wearing dirty clothes, smoking a pipe, and
expectorating on the public highways. He will also learn that there are
things in life far more desirable than these glorious privileges. Of
course, these are mere boyish exuberances, and most people do not take
them seriously. On the other hand, they illustrate the unwisdom of
trusting to the unguided preferences of a youthful mind. The average
young man of twenty is only a little more mature than a boy of ten. He
still lacks experience and balance.
Those of us who have passed the two-score mark well know how tastes
change, judgments grow more mature, ideas develop, and experience
softens, ripens or hardens sentiment as the years go by. It is
unquestionably true that if children were given full opportunity to
develop their tastes and to express themselves in various ways and then
given freedom of choice of their vocations, they would choose more
wisely than they do under ignorant, prejudiced, or mistaken judgments
of parent or teacher. Yet the tragedy of thousands of lives shows how
unscientific it is to leave the choice of vocation to the unguided
instincts of an immature mind.
INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATION
Boys and girls often choose their careers because some popular friend
or associate exerts an undue influence upon them. George is going to be
a doctor. Therefore Joseph decides he, too, will be a doctor. Mary looks
forward to being a teacher. Mary is the very intimate chum of
Josephine. Then Josephine decides, also, that she is going to be a
teacher. We knew one earnest and popular young man in college who
persuaded about three dozen of his associates to join him in preparation

for the foreign mission field. In one class in college a fad caused
several young men to lose good opportunities because they decided to
take up the practice of medicine. In one high school class, several
young men became railroad employees because the most popular of
their number yearned to drive a locomotive. And this enterprising
youth, with parental guidance and assistance, became a lawyer.
POOR JUDGMENT OF PARENTS
Parental bad judgment is one of the most frequent causes of misfits.
Even when parents are sincere and try to be wise, choice of a child's
life work is very difficult for them. In the first place, they either
underestimate or overestimate their children. What parent, worthy of
the high privilege, can be absolutely impartial in judging the talents of
his child? Arthur Brisbane says that Nature makes every baby look like
a genius in his mother's eyes, so that she will gladly sacrifice her life, if
necessary, for her child. It may be a wise provision, but it does not tend
to make parents reliable guides to vocations for their offspring.
Then, many parents do not know work. They do not understand the
demands of the different professions. Their point of view is narrowed
by their own experiences, which have been, perhaps too harsh, perhaps
too easy. Many parents have a narrow, selfish, rather jealous feeling
that their children cannot be any more intelligent than they are. "The
old farm was good enough for me; it is good enough for my son"; "the
old business was good enough for me; it is good enough for my son."
This is the attitude. This is why many parents either refuse their
children the advantages of an education and insist upon their going to
work at an early age, or compel them to take a hated schooling.
On the other hand, there are parents who consider their children
prodigies, geniuses, intended to occupy some great and magnificent
position in the world. Most frequently they hold their judgment entirely
apart from any real talents on the part of the child. Few human woes are
more bitter than the disappointment and heartache of both