The Boy and the Sunday School | Page 5

this
kind a natural resentment on the part of the boy which sometimes
makes him moody and reticent. This, in its turn, causes the parents to
try to curb what they consider a disagreeable disposition on the part of
the boy. Sometimes this takes the form of resentment at the fact that the
boy wishes at times to be alone, and so fathers and mothers are
continually on the watch to prevent the boy from really having any time
of his own. All of these things put together have but one logical result,
the ultimate break between the boy and the home, and the departure of
the boy at the first real opportunity to strike out for himself, thus
sundering all the home relationships.
Perhaps one of the saddest things in the home life today is the neglect

of the father to see that his boy receives the necessary knowledge
concerning sex, that his life may be safeguarded from the moral perils
of the community. This is not always a willful breach of duty on the
part of the father, but usually comes from ignorance as to how to
broach this subject to the boy. A great many growing lives would be
saved from moral taint and become a blessing instead of a curse if the
father discharged his whole duty to his growing son, by putting at his
disposal the knowledge which is necessary to an understanding of the
functions of the sex life.
To recapitulate, several things are necessary to bring about real
relationships in the home life between the parents and the boy. These
are: a place for the boy in the family councils as a partner in the home
life, the boy's right to companionship with his parents, the privilege and
responsibility of private ownership, the right a boy has to his
personality and privacy, and tactful and timely instruction in matters of
sex. This might be enlarged by the parents' privilege of caring for and
developing social life for the boy in the home, a carefully planned
participation in its working life, instructions in thrift and saving, and a
general cooperation with the school and the church, as well as the
auxiliary organizations with which the boy may be connected, so that
the physical, social, mental and spiritual life of the boy may become
well balanced and symmetrical. Add to this the Christian example of
the father and mother, as expressed in the everyday life of the home,
and especially through family worship and a recognition of the Divine
Being at meal time, and without any cant or undue pressure there will
be produced such a wholesome home environment as to assure the boy
of an intelligent appreciation of not only his father and mother, but of
his home privileges in general, and of the value of real religion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE HOME
Allen.--Making the Best of Our Children. Two vols. ($1.00 each).
Field.--Finger-posts to Children's Reading ($1.00).
Fiske.--Boy Life and Self-Government ($1.00).
Kirkpatrick.--Fundamentals of Child Study ($1.25).
Putnam.--Education for Parenthood (.65).

II
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND THE BOY

Of the primary institutions that are cooperating in the life of the boy
today, without a doubt the public school is the most efficient and most
serviceable. Today the school offers and compels a boy to get certain
related courses of study which will make him a better citizen by fitting
him in a measure for the procuring of an intelligent and adequate
livelihood. The school by no means is perfect in this matter, and as
long as over fifty per cent. of the boys fail to graduate even from the
eighth grade in the grammar school, and but one per cent. go to college,
there will be great need of a reconstruction of its methods of work.
Without question, the curricula of the public school should be modified
so as to meet the needs of all the boys in the community and vocational
and industrial training should have larger place in our educational plans.
The boy who is to earn his livelihood by his hands and head should
receive as much attention and intelligent instruction as the boy who
aims at a professional career. However, with all its limitations, the
public school is the only institution which has a definite policy in the
education of the boy. The leaders of the public school system know
whither they are going and the road they must travel to reach the goal.
Perhaps the greatest weakness of our public school system today is the
inability, because of our division between church and state, to give the
boy any religious instruction in connection with what is styled "secular
education." For the first time in the history of the world has religious
instruction been barred from the public school, and that