The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-03-02
TELLS NEEDS OF
BOY IN teen AGE
Church School Solves Problem
Saws international Head

a, authority on boys and the evil
mich confronts every youth is john
I. Alexander, superintendent of the
Teen age division of the international
c,,dav School association, who will
1elyer an address at the Upper PENN
ala Rovs Conference i'm Escanaba this
,,orth. speaking To the Chicago
civic association of Chicago recently
on the subject of Boys in Their Teen
H Are" Mr.. Alexander said
The old home is not what ii used to
ho" He said that the Sunday school
g., not what il used to he, either The
ohic and economic revolution has
srent away the old home, with its
.hores on which "A boys character used
e. no founded. and the errands that the
,elephone now supersedes; also the
emil, worship religious training. The
II sunday school is not now for kids ami
women" he said, for while the Y. NJ.
= ND to five years ago was the
greatest mems organization of the sort,
with membership in North America
n ig7S57 men, there are now enrolled
in the church schools. formerly Sun
doy schools" 100000 men,
! The solution of the religious train
| ng need for BOYS and girls in the
ren age, Mr.. Alexander has discov-
/ cred. is the church school with rclig-
inns education courses parallel To the
secular courses in sthe public schools.
The church will thus furnish the re-
ligious education and the schools the
secular education, all being harmon
ized i'm great whole through the
agency of the Sunday school union.
which is non sectarian and interde-
nominational.
Money Value Of Boys.
I'm one Colorado city. Mr.. Alexander
said, one-sixteenth Of all the credits
for high school diplomas are given for
marks i'm the church schools. In some
state teachers schools, the pupils re-
crive similar credits for teaching re-
liglous courses in the church schools.
So each class of schools il working
after It's own part, yet all are part
Of the whole. said Mr. Alexander.
Quoting figures, Mr.. Alexander inn
pressed on the business men the ire
mendous money value today of the
boys and girls. and that if boys and
girls are 10 he a real Civic asset, they
have 10 he developed like any other
unleveloped asset.
Every free institution in North
American has been built on moral and
religious convictions of the early pio-
reerS," said Mr. Alexander. IF these
Institutions are to he maintained, the
boys and girls must he trained, as all
problems are solved in the teen years.
The high water mark of what we call
conversion comes at 14l2 years. The
high-water mark of criminality comes
at l4i2 years, and that is the time
when boys and girls are leaving the
schools in droves. so ii is the high
water mark of vocational life. In that
age religious conditions must he main
tanned.
For the first time in the world, re-
gious instruction has been barred
from the schools. We have no business
to take the money of taxpayers and
put 1t into any system of religious
training. The church has business
enough to handle in its Sunday schools,
or church schools, If It ever wakes up.
i is the business of the church schools
to get these religious convictions into
the youth Of today. If ever there wos
time when there is need of religious
convictions. it is now. The sex prob
lem is in the teen age and religious
convictions are needed to give poise
and balance at that time"