Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-06
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
THE problem of the bad boy is as
old as creation.

An experiment has been in progress
in the District of Columbia schools for
the past three years, some OF the re-
suits of which have just come to light.
It is not concerned with ordinary bad
boys, but with the pathologically bad
the obviously incipient criminals VINO
are found in the school system OF the
National Capital. Some of these chill
dren are so abnormal as to be mate
rial for the psychiatrist. They all are
misfits in the schoolrooms-boys who
will not or cannot learn and VINO seem
to have an Unborn drive toward GRIM
ina1 careers.
If anything is to be done with them
they must be handled as individuals
and not as members of class. They
are anti-social and apparently can't
be made to conform to the require
ments of any group. So long as one
of them is member of class ne
makes the orderly conduct OF that class
| impossible.
Old Ideas Out of Style.
Reform schools are filled with such
children. They graduate from the re-
| form schools to the jails, from the jalls
to the penitentiaries and from the peni-
| tentiaries to the electric chair. They
used to be considered congenital GRIM
| inals. concept which now has gone
out of style. They arise from all sorts
of homes, social conditions and an
cestry.
| Different schools OF pedagogy adj
yocate different methods for dealing
with bad boys. None of the methods
seem to apply to these children, as
class
They may be tried under teachers
who are strict disciplinarians. Corporal
punishment, of course, is prohibited by
! law in the District schools, but an
| almost military strictnesS Is possible.
| Teachers of this class demand abso-
| Lutte obedience, good manners and
punctuality, and work with an adequate
machinery of rewards and punish
| ments.
These children don't respond to disci-
pline. Instead of melting them TO
| make good, 1t results only in hatred
! of a teacher-usually a Sullen, vim
dictive hatred Boys of this type don't
hesitate to strike a woman.
| Advisers in Contempt.
Then there is the gentle, motherly
| soul-the sentimentalist. who pats the
| boys on the back, cries over them, tries
| to inspire them to be great and good
men. This system doesn't work, either.
| 1t only nurtures contempt. What's
| the use of appealing to the better ma
| lures of boys who, it seems, have no
better natures to appeal to? The
| motherly counsel goes In one ear ano
| out the other. The children may prom
Use to be good, but promises mean
nothing in their young lives. They'll
be promising the kindly Judge tne
same thing later on-and picking MS
/ ~,oclrat 1,,I,op ba leaves the courtroom
! if he doesn't watch out.
| Another method is to put them In
| atypical schools, where they are segre-
gated from other children until they
| seem fit to be returned to regular
| classes. Only Indifferent success at
| tends this method. 1t may be the
worst possible procedure with children
| of this type, as is shown, by Efforts 10
analyze their personalities.
| They can't be trusted, they are
| bad influence on other children, and
| some of them are dangerous.
| The way to deal with them IS to
put them In reform schools. This sim
| DIV gets them out of the way. 1t doesn't
The problem of the bad boy-the
| mean. suIlen. dull. INSCRIPTIONS boy
with criminal tendencies-was giving
St:pt. of Schools Ballou and Assistant
Supt. Kramer some bad hours three
wears ago. There seemed to have been
an increase of them with the social
nervousness which followed the war.
Experiment Is Started.
At this time a young graduate stu
dent at George Washington Univer-
sitv applied to MIR. Kramer for a job
in the District schools. Harold D.
Fife wanted teaching appointment IN
one of the high schools, but he. was
tired of waiting for a vacancy.
Mr.. Kramer told him OF this bad boy
problem. Something must be done and
the school officials didn't know ex-
actly what to do or how to do 1t.
at the opportunity to ind out. IL
was an experiment from the first
and an experiment 1t remains
He was given a vacant room IN the
Gales school. First and G streets, and
put on his own responsibility for the
redemption of the possibly criminal
element among D. G. school children.
Supervisor of special schools, w. B.
Patterson is in general charge OF the
special school.
Fife took the job to heart and in the
past three years he has brought about
some remarkable transformations OF
character.
He has not worked with any definite
psychological system, but has applied
various systems, in accordance with his
Judgment of the individual case.
Everything is individual. There Is no
set of rules which can be applied
to any two bad boys with any reason
able expectation of success.
One Principle in Mind.
rYzt~~ njv41a he no IN
mind he expresses:
There is no such thing as an in
herently bad boy. The bad boy is a
misunderstood boy. The essential
thing is understanding of the forces
responsible for the individual person.
atty"
Some of the cases, he finds have
physical basis, some organic inferior
ity which has escaped attention be-
fore. This is not an important ele-
ment, however, among children sent
to the Gales special school. for usually
they have been examined rather care
fully by school physicians.
Mere often he finds psychic in
feriority begotten Of social conditions
which results in what might be called
dual personality the term being
Invested of any mystical significance. 1t
turns out that the anti-social behavior
of the child Is only mask to cover
up something else and that strict dis
cipline or mothering we're equally in
effective, because they treated only the
surface symptoms without uncovering
the thing the child was trying sub
consciously to hide.
Gases Of DR. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
in real life are quite common, he finds,
among children. But, as in Steven
sons story, the tendency almost always
is toward the increasing dominance of
the Mr.. Hyde personality unless the
case is taken in hand in time When
the individual has become a confirmed
adult criminal there is little to be done
about it.
These inferiority completes seem to
be about the most fruitful causes of