Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-08-22
Crime Among Children.

No habitual reader of the daily pa.
pers can have failed to notice the large
number of crimes of violence reported
as being committed by mere children
upon their companions. These acts Of
violence are often surprisingly cruel
and show either malice or an indiffer.
ence to the suffering of others hard &c
account for in young children. No,
are they confined to the children of the
lower classes. Boys belonging to re-
spectacle Christian families, whose
home training ought to have been such
as to fit them to be something bette,
than youthful ruffians, are among the
most conspicuous examples of this class
of offenders. The crimes of which
they are guilty range from mere care.
lessness in the infliction of bodily sui
fering to deliberate intent to iniure
Thus the boy who the other day kicked
another boy in the stomach so violently
that he died in short time, probably
did not mean to do his comrade serious
harm he was simply Indifferent to the
consequences of his act. But the school,
children who recently pushed, kicked
and pressed upon q puny lad on the
schoolhouse stairway until he was sc
severely injured that he lived but few
days, evidently meant to inhict suffer.
ing, and took pleasure in doing it,
though Of course they did not intend
actually to kill their hapless victim
These are but samples of what is con
stantly occurring.
The frequency of these acts of crimi
nal violence among children is well
calculated to awaken serious inquiry
What is the cause of them? What is
the special defect in the training oil
these young people, that leaves them
so utterly unframed, like little savages
in the important matters of kindness
goodwill and self-restraint in their inter
course one with another ? The boy OF
nine or ten who deliberately picks up
stone and hurls it with all his might a,
the head of little girl. as we knew one
to do the other day, has clearly, what.
ever else he may have been taught, been
sadly neglected in the matter of his
moral culture.
And this leads us to ask Does not
the greater part of the responsibility
for this sad state of things rest with the
parents of these headstrong, cruelty
loving children? Were an inquisition
to be made into the subject of home
training, we fear it would be found
that in most cases there had been nc
moral training at all in the homes OF
these juvenile offenders. Even in
Christian homes, boys are too often left
to simply g''c~ up, SO far as their moral
education is concerned. They are not
taught with tender solicitude the nobil.
ity Of self-restraint, the beauty of kind
ness, the obligation to obey with con
scientious care the great "law OF
love-" They grow to boyhood and
manhood regardless of these things,
because they have never been taught
them. Something must, of course, be
put to the account of temperament,
something, perhaps, to that OF heredity.
The surroundings of the boy will al
ways exert strong influence upon him.
But it nevertheless remains true, that
the neglect OF moral training at home
is one of the main causes of the juve-
nile violence of which we hear SO
much.
Senator Burnside not long ago pro.
posed in the United States Senate that
training in the virtues of kindness, gen.
tleness and goodwill should form part
Of the curriculum of the public schools
in the District of Columbia. The pro-
vision was laughed at by grave Sena.
tors. But is not such training needed
in our public schools? Sectarian relig-
ious instruction is plainly out of place
there but instruction in virtues that
make men better citizens ought not to
be out of place in the only schools that
large numbers of our future citizens
ever attend. And that very Book which
many too conscientious people would
exclude from our schools is the noblest
textbook of morals that could be EN-.
ployed for this purpose.
In fine, We need both at hcme and at
school more careful moral training OF
our boys and girls--a training that
shall impress upon them, along with
the homely virtues of honesty, sobriety
and purity, the sacredness of person
and life. Such training, sincerely un.
dertaken, would do much to restrain
the tendency to crimes of violence in
the growing northumberland and
Chronicle.