New-York tribune., 1908-07-23
THE AWKWARD AGE.
G. Stanley Hall Has Some Interesting
Things to Say of This Trying Period.


Boys are problem Many parents have ad-
nitted it, in irritation. grief. despair OF utter
bewflderment according to their various natures.
There is a certain age which the term "hobble-
dehOy" seems express better than any other.
at which bows are in everybOdy's way. including
their own. c. Stanley Hall. who writes about IL
in the August humber OF "Appleton's Magazine
calls IT the awkward age" Nor is mere awb-
wardness the worst of 1t. in many cases.
.'In the last few years. he says. Il have re-
cefved several hundred letters from parents and
friends who do not understand how tardy the
development Of the ethical nature IS prone to be
in boys The burden Of these is: MY boy is we'll
grown is a good student in school. Is healthfuI.
but is an incorrigible liar Or. My boy.
all right otherwise. Is very Obstinate very
profane,' or 1oathes school and IS chronic run
away The parents or relatives are at their wits
end. ready for almost any desperate remedy"
Dr. Hall holds that trouble with the Amer
lean boy is that he has been left too much to the
women The -hOOdlum age" he says. is the time
when the mother shOula turn the boy over 70 his
father Fathers, however, seem painfully In
clned to shirk their responsibilities in this re-
spect and a consequence America is fun OF
young cubs half-OTphaned and left TO female
guidance in school. home and church. II may seem
a slight thing that city gangs defy and outwft
the police. commit petty depredations break
into to steal fruit cigarettes. collect
pistols, half of them toy ones in cellars, sheds
other Iairs plan petty rOgueries dark alleys
insult schoolgirls. play tricks passers-
Bly, swagger and bully each other; but these are
nurseries where the criminals Of the future are
being reared
Yet no one. according DR. Hail. is more easily
Influenced than young boy, II goes at II in
understanding way. ITO the right influence he
yields himself almost with abandon" But how
is the father to supply this fnfiuence-hOw is he
to deal with this strange. young. puzzIing. rest
less bunch Of energy. shooting ali at out ot
childhood into manhood?
To establish level Of cOnfdence-that is the se-
cret. The boy lately quite Indifferent to the af-
fairs Of grOwn-ups. begins TO be interested in the
world I'm which live. He begins 70 reach I'D
to mans estate Powers stir in him which he COM
prehends dimy not at ALL but which make him
very curious. This Is the time when he needs
moral fatherhOOd." Intimate talks with his
father. In which the man. not talking down to
the boy not talking for effect. fnduigng In re-
serves-which the young are quick 10 detect-shaII
share with the boy the lessons he has learned in
the school Of life. These what boys crave and
need 1T is not enough says DR.. Hall, ''to IN
duct the boy betimes into the fathers business
methods Little by little the father should share
with his son his views on mon and morals. poll
tics. religion. ways of spending time and money.
civic duties how to keep weII-and not only that.
but also HIS thoughts and experiences concerning
women marriage and parenthOod- He should be
told his fathers and mistakes and the
heredty he has grappIe with. Talks like these.
says Dr. Hail. more than anything else stimulate
and fatter a boy and wake him UP to think and
do his best.
The age of pubescent ferment" says DR.. Hall.
varies three four years. and school grades
interfere with those of nature. He holds that boys
passing through the pubic crisis should associate
with one another rather than with those who have
not yet reached that stage.
Morals are three-fourths Of Hfe' he says, and
the morals OF the two periods very different.
even where pronciency In school studies is the
same. Also. at this time, girls and boys should
draw little apart from each other. and more even
for the girls than the boys for the girl even
more than her brother. needs special regimen
during the age Of puberty He notes curious
fact that while wOnans 'psycho-ph vitality
is greatest in the reproductive part OF her sys-
TEN it is precisely that part which is most easily
drawn upon. Undue drafts upon the brain, school
work which is beyond her, may cause her system,
In it's effort strike balance. 10 depete the
vitality of the reproductive organs. which may be
/ drawn upon and give sign. so that before her
/ parents suspect it the girl is condemned 70 go
| through life struggling with defect or abnormality