Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-12-07

t0os turned his back and fatty refused
to return to the very school George
had foTsaken. The average boy has
a big kind heart and a longing to do
the right and the natural outbreak If
his sensitive independence alone would
never break him for the reformatory.
Subsequent Treatment Dangerous
ut is the subsequent treatment
given by parent, guardian or teacher
that drives him into the ranks of the
delinquent or dependent. May God
take up and help the boy who has
never had a father in patient love eX-
press his grief at this first offense of
the boy and then, in complete forgive
ness anchor his hope to the boy for
noble future.
Along with this self suff1ciency and
independence of the boy II or IA years
of age the problem is more difficult
because of a certain parental selfish
ness. The infant is caressed, fondled
and Rugged when it should not have
so much of it, while the lad who is in
reality hungry for love is held ut
arms length. DR.. Forbush says: The
12-month-old infant is submerged in
toys, but the 12-year-old boy has moth
ing at home to play with. There most
parents are wanting. The seeming
self suficiency and independence of
the lad is misinterpreted. He does
want something, a machine, a book,
a game. or material of which to create
something. This genius to explore
and create must be wisely directed at
home or it may be woefully misdirect-
ed by some wiser CD companion Of
the street, the pool room, or saloon.
COmpanIOnshIp of Parents.
There may be a rare exception,
but, generally speaking, the solution
of the problem of the boy after the
beginning of the gang age is compan-
ionship, whether on the part of the
parent, teacher or the leader of clubs.
Here is prominently the fathers OPP
portunity May Goo pity the father
that gets too old to be companion
and chum of his own boy of the gang
age through adolescence. The average
parent is an excellent 1aw-giver and
the young boy is an obedient subject,
but during the multifarious phenomena
of adolescence and the stages of the
radical transformations of this which
G. Stanley Hall called natures re-
generation there is something born
as the boy energies from the depend
ent to the independent and that some
thing is the VIII. Perhaps the great
difficulty is that it is too much like
the parent will and there are two
dangers: first. the parent may not rec
ognize this similarity and proceed TO
break the will resulting now in two
serious storm centers instead of the
one during the child obedience. This
works havoc all along the storm course
and leaves devastation in the wake.
The second danger ~ that the parent
may recognize the kinship of the new
orn-self-asseTtive will and deliber
ately abandons it Better abandon It
than try to break it, but too often in
either case the result is seen either in
the detention school, or worse, in the
criminal court
Main or Build.
"The whole career of the lad de-
ponds on what is done with and for
this will of his. We can MAIN him
for life or build him for eternity. Be
yond question the solution is compan
ionship. First of all, companionship |
Of the parent willard the sons will |
The greatest cross any parent must |
bear is the cross of his will and with |
the child will. To prevent it. what