Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-11-28
Wh0t Is the
Matter With the
Modern Boy?
BY BISHOP WARREN A. GAMBLER

MT. Il nOHldS bdhcAs TIE dDAS IACehU-
master of the famous Tome school, in
Maryland has recently contributed to
the New York Times a valuable article
on the subject. What is the Matter With
the Modern Boy?'
| Dr. Baker in the course of his ar
ticle says, 1T is to be feared that
| the American boy today is receiving
the kind Of instruction and is pur-
| suing the Kind of diversions that
! will lead to mental degeneracy and
national incompetency. The fear
thus expressed is we'll founded. AL
ready there are in evidence many
| signs of mental degeneracy and ma
tional incompetency and moral de-
linquency in a multitude of Ameri-
| can youth.
! DR.. Baker in the course of his article
insists properly that intellectually and
scholarship must be given higher
standing in the general opinion of our
country. He goes on to say:
| II suppose General Won Bernhard
would say that America needs a war to
elimenate the fiippancy and throughtless-
! ness and trivality of our boys. We GER
tanly do not want war, nor do we need
one but We naed a national shaking up
something that will make us realize
fully that all is not well with the Ameri-
can youth. that the kind of training
that many of them are receiving is not
going to produce great thinkers, or great
statesmen, or great artists
THE BOYS CODE.
One of the strongest and wisest para
graphs in the article of DR.. Baker is the
following:
Now ldays, the greatest thing in
the life of the average boy is ath-
letics. This is another name for or
ganized play. but it has not the SIM
plicity, or the freedom, that it used
to have. 1t is surrounded with
greater amount of ceremony. 1t re-
Quires a greater amount of para
phernaIia; ii has become convention
allied. Certainly play, or athletics,
has a much larger share of a boys
time and interest than ever before.
The advantages of well-controlled
outdoor sport can hardly be over
estimated. The change that has TAX
en- place is that play has become in
tensifed, and especially that il has
assumed an unnaturally important
part in the thoughts of the boys.
as a primary thing that everybody
should aspire to be star in one or
more sports. He may be anything
| else that he wants provided he is
athletic. To be grind is almost
objectionable, but if the grind is at
the same time an expert player his
good scholarship is accepted as a
sort of appropriate, but by no means
| necessary establishment, of his nat
ural greatness.
when boys discuss their fellow
students, success in their minds
usually means athletic achievement.
IT is, of course, exasperating to find
boys develop tremendous excitement
over an athletic triumph, whereas
the intellectual successes of a
school arouse no enthusiasm. This
is discouraging; but it would be an
intrepid schoolmaster who would
hope to succeed in readjusting the
values which schoolboys place upon
things"
This eminent educator is right in con
demning the disproportiOnate attention
paid to athletics. In many colleges anC
high schools sport outranks study. L
has become a business, and this bushes:
dispIaces the serious work of the stud
ent. Thereby the ideals of young mel
are lowered and their aspirations mis-
directed. Intellectual attachments arr
no longer the supreme thing; but stal
playing occupies the highest place IL
the minds of the students. Literary
societies anguish, and the intellectual
/ contests in such bodies no longer en-
gage interest.
) All this would be sufficient reason fol
cOndemning and abandoning the whole
r program of intercollegiate athletics
but there are other objections to this
> athletic program which are equally
strong.
intercollegiate sports increase
greatly the expenses. of students in
college. Costly coaches are en-
ployed, whose salaries exceed, in
most cases, the salaries of the presi-
, dents and faculties of the colleges
in which these directors of sport are
: engaged. Naturally these men mag
Nifty athletics, and use the newspa-
! Ders for advertising their business.
BY this craft they have much gains,
and it is to be expected that they
} will do all they can to promote the
business from which they draw such
large incomes.
, But all this business must be pai'
: for by students. in some Institutions tn;
expenses of the ball teams are addet
to the other college expenses and col
: lected by the treasurers of these institu
tfons In others the matter is cared To-
! By an assessment laid on each student
which assessment every man must pay
on pain of ostracism by his fellow stud
r ents. Whether the process OF cor
lection be by the one or the other Of
, these methods is of no Importance; b!
either process an added fee is exacteC
from every student. This is a burden
to the poorer men i'm college, who gener
ally speaking are the best men.
This needless burden is further in
creased in other ways by which indeii
mite expenses are incurred that can no
be stated exactly. There are. railroad
fares and hotel expenses which parents
must pay for their sons, who follow th'
ball teams from town to town. More
= over. if a considerable number OF yount
e men are to be absent from college Ger
: tain number of days during each week
| il is inevitable that courses of STUD!
J.; must be proportionately abridged, or TN
Y collegiate terms must be sufficiently eX
a tended to make up for these absences
J. In the former case the course OF stud!
becomes moro or less cheat; and IN tn
$ latter case the expenses of the colleg
s vesr are increased BY so much as tn