Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1908-03-16
w. T. COLUMN.
THE Spelling OF BOYS.

(From a paper prepared by Mrs.
A. K. Story for the Woman's Literary
club of Barton.
The subject is SO broad a one that
hardly know where to begin, but will
commence with the mistake of rob-
bling boy of what seems to me the
greatest necessity in the developing
of a child, mentally and physically,
and that is good, healthy, wholesome
and whole. souIed fun. 1t is in the
child mind that enjoyment Yields it's
greatest power: can we not all look
back at some pleasure of our child
hood that would now seem trifling
enjoyment it brought at the time? It
takes little time and a little study
on the part of the parents, little
spending of leisure and energy, but,
spending these, there seems to me no
reason why the key to the boys whole
nature may not be found. When you
know what child enjoys, you know
the present nature of that child, and
you know what ne will become if that
nature is permitted to develop. The
pleasures of the average boy need as
careful attention and are quite as
important as the selection of his food
or the overseeing of personal cleanli-
ness.
In every boy of average originality,
health and good mentality, there is
stored up battery OF energy that
must be used in some way, and it all
rests with the parents in which direc-
ton this energy is to be sent. When
one has an entertaining book, or
congenial friend upon whom one
would wish to spend his time, it does
seem a nuisance, to say nothing of it's
being good deal of physical drain,
to turn the house into a temporary
circus tent, but a broken chair is so
much more easily mended than a
broken heart, and it does not seem
like putting it too strongly to say that
one may well prevent the other.
A child can be child without being
barbarous, and it is not necessary for
"boys to be boys" but it does seem
necessary for them to spend some OF
their surplus energy on a go' d,
healthy laugh at very freauent
intervals.
On the other hand, there is the even
greater mistake of not allowing a boy
any of the hardships that years and
experience must inevitably bring.
How .can boy be manly and self.
reliant if he is never allowed to work
out on his own responsibility any Of
the problems that arise? They are
bound to come later in life, when the
issue must depend upon his judgment,
and is it not better to teach him to
judge forE. himself, rather than be
thrown later where he must think for
himself after his ability to Judge has
been perhaps greatly weakened by
too much parental propping?
| 1t is curious fact that the average
human being, at some time of his life
passes through some abnormal stages;
but that simply goes to show that our
syste m of training, either prenatal Or
postnatal, is somewhere defective.
1t was surely never the original plan
that any human being should be alb
normal at any stage. Nothing that is
low, mean or evil is natural or in
evitabIe; such things are simply bad
effects from bad causes, and these
causes can be changed. Teach the
boy what pleasure and trouble are
for; teach him the effect of different
lines of thought and action. He will
understand and become thoroughly
interested after you have awakened
10 him the desire for a great, true life.
So much trouble comes during boy
hood, and especially i'll late life
because boys, as rule, are never
asked Or taught to think anything
oat for themselves. Thinking should
b as natural as breathing; but how
few there are OF US who have had any
Of this sort Of training. We teach oul
boys a prayer, which they are ex-
pected to say each night, then the
ten commandments, and that each Of
the sins therein mentioned is punish
able in some far-away aud awfu
manner,-and the boy probably wor'
ries, if he has an acute conscience
or does not think Of it at all, if he
hasn't, over the queerness of the
VIII Die thing. Why not put his religion
OH practical working basis-some
thing that he can grasp sufficiently t.
use as a guide? Aiboy is nothing i
not practical. Why fill his mind will
ethics so vague that they mean moth
mo tn Won as a guide in the 1eyerv