The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-06-26
TRAINING A FATHER
(By DR.. David Starr Jordan)

Fathers are quite as hard to train
as boys, and from experience all along
the line, have come to the conclu-
sion that fathers and boys alike will
mostly go their own way, in the long
run getting what is coming to them"
But it is in the power of the father
to help boy to realize his best In
stead of his worst tendencies and pos
sibilities. To this end, a father should
be sympathetic and patient, helping
the development of whatever natural
taste or genius boy may have. Vir-
tue is never negative and boy is
held from idleness or vice by giving
him something better to work at. If
a boy has u real love for some study
or for some worthy line of work, en-
courage that 1t marks the way out
from temptation. A boy needs in his
development sympathy rather than
financial help. His ideals need
Strengthening, not his purse. To have
money to burn will ruin all those who
burn it. 1t is hard to raise boy who
is rich and knows that whatever he
wants is his for the asking. He is
likely to be content with what money
can buy, and it cannot buy very much
that is worth having. 1t can help in
many things, but a mere aid is not the
thing itself.
The father can promote the plain
virtues of sobriety, honesty, tolerance
and kindliness. The most effective
way of teaching these virtues is for
him to illustrate them in himself-to
show how righteousness looks when it
is lived. Occasionally a father sue
cessfully proves his point by becom-
ing the awful example. But that is
not the best way, and right living can
be most effectively taught, not by pre-
cept but by practice. And remember
always that right living is a positive
thing. 1t is not secured by inhibi-
tions. Don't don't, don't never
leads to anything worth while. Don't
say to boys: Keep off the grass.
NtSD ouI VI tuS III u iNSNp away iioii'
the slums" Rather indicate places it
is better to go to: This way to cit
izenship; this way to science, to art,
to worthy profession"
the boy is the germ Of what the man
is to be. You cannot change his ma
ture much, but you can develop the
best in him till it overshadows the
worst The life of man at forty will
be what was in his heart at twenty
one.
And a father may say to his boys
something like this, which in one way
or another l have said to thousands
of boys in this and other countries
your first duty in life is toward
your afterself. So live that your af'
terself- ,he man you ought to be
may in his time be possible and ac-
tual.
Far away in the years he is wait
ing his turn. His body, his brain, his
soul, are in your boyish hands. He
cannot help himself.
What will you leave for him?
will it be body unspoiled by lust
or dissipation a mind trained to think
and act; q nervous system true as q
dial in it's response to the truth about
you Will you, Boy, let him come as
man among men in his time?
cor will you throw away his inherit
ance before he has had the chance 10
touch it? VIII you turn over to him a
brain distorted. a mind diseased; a
will unframed to action a spinal cord
grown through and through with the
devil grass we call wild oats?
"Will you let him come, taking your
place, gaining through your expert
ence, happy in your friendships, hal
lowed through your joys, building on
them his own?
cor will you fling it all away, de,
creeing, wanton like, that the man
you might have been shall never be?
"This is your problem in life-the
problem vastly more important to you
than any or all others. How will you
meet it, as man or as a fool? 1t is
your problem today and every day
and the hour of your choice is the
crisis in your history