The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-23
Three Naughty Boys
R@ H. ADDINGToN BRUCE

Parents perpI&Sfd by naughtiness in their children espe6SAHy snaughtiness so extreme that it involves Reft. truancy, persistent falsifying and violence or sullenness of tenn per--do not always appreciate that there IS no one sure cure for the condition they de- plore. ft
 In fact, many parents of bad boys and girls fail to appreciate this, as is impressed upon me by my own correspondence Ere quently I receive letters asking for some remedial measure to put stop to Juvenile delinquency. st.
 But no one measure will prove effective in all cases, for the simple reason that napghti- ness has numerous causes and every naughty child presents a problem calling for indiv1d- ual investigation. Take, as instances to make clear how necessary such investigation may be, three cases from real life, the cases of three boys I will call Jim and Bob and Joe.
 All three still were little fellows, barely in their teens, but quite unmanageable. In their badness" they closely resembied one another. indulging in petty thefts, resolutely playing truant, lying recklessly, and showing villainous tempers.
 Jim was perhaps the most difficult of the three. When in one of his tantrums he would break furniture and even strike his mother. A delinquent act that brought him to the ju- , venile court gave clinical psychologist op- portunity to study him. It was found to state the result as briefly as possible, that Jim's naughtiness was, al bot tom, nothing but an expression of revolt against an over-affectionate mothers desire to keep him in a state of dependence on her. He had all the normal boys energy and urge for self-expression. Denied sufficient freedom of action, kept in his mothers apron strings so to speak, he exploded in a misbe- havior which subsded so soon as his mother was persuaded to less oppressive policy.
 Bob, on the opposite, was a victim, not of too much affection, but of too little. His mother had married a second time, not long after his fathers death, and Bob soon had l it forced in upon him that he was one of the unhappily large group of children who are not wanted. | Out of the emotional storm that this en- gendered, his misbehavior sbrang The one thing indispensable to it's cure was astouch of real love, and fortunately the social worker who discovered what was amiss labored not in vain to obtain for Bob a larger measure of love in his home.
 Joe, finally, was naughty not because oi maternal over-affection or' under-affection but as reaction to a chronic nerve strain | from unsuspected defects of eyes and teeth His misbehavior, in other words, was really symptomatic of physical disease.
 | Given properly fitted spectacles and careful dental treatment, given also some special habit restraining, his whole demeanor changed To quote from the final report on his case:
 He is now healthy boy, with a boy s natural curiosity, with good manners, good | temper, with no more than the average ner- rousness, and with every prospect of taking | his proper place in society and developing into m efficient and moral citizen
 And these cases, remember, illustrate but three of many specific causes for extreme naughtiness in children. The sooner it is gen erally recognized that there is no cure-aIl for such naughtiness and that naughty children should have the benefit of expert inquiry the better not only for the children them selves, but for their parents and society.