Evening star., 1935-01-06
.133BOYS' DIARIES
ENL|GHTENPR|EST
Struggles of Transition From
Childhood Recorded in
Frank Terms.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

from the diaries of 1873 boys between
the ages of II and 16 inclusive in
study just reported by Rev. Urban
Nagle from the psychology department
of the Catholic University here.
The boys who kept the diaries at
Father Nagle's direction were stu
dents at st. Mary's Industrial School
in Baltimore, at another Catholic in
stitution, and at various parochial
schools. The intent was to get un-
der the surface Of the development
of religious thinking during the
transition period from childhood. Va
rious safeguards were adopted to pre-
vent the boys from merely recording
what had been suggested to them or
what they thought it would be proper
to say-one of which was the promise
of absolute secrecy.
Underlying Consideration.
Father Nagle found that the boys
were stirred and perplexed by many
things which did not appear on the
surface and that not infrequently
the estimate which teacher would
get from a youths overt behavior Is
totally inadequate when one knows
what the subject really is thinking.
There is q progressive development,
he finds, from the twelfth year on
ward, with an extremely critical pc
riod arising at about the fourteenth
year when the familiar moOrings OF
childhood are shaken or washed
away by new experiences. doubts Of
authority and original thinking be-
gin to appear, and the boy becomes
outstandingly self-conSciouS.
Starting with the 12-year-old,
Father Nagle concludes from his
diary studies: He is extremely ortho-
dox and prides himself more upon
acquired knowledge than upon mani
festations of originality. He stands
apart from older and younger broth
erS caught between the free imagery
of credulous childhood and the free
thinking of adolescence. We have
found evidence that his religion Is
very objective and very much ready
made. Disillusion and violent temp
tation have not yet made it per-
sonal thing reaching in to affect
him, but rather he sits apart in a
phiiosophic attitude and gaZes on the
unseen world which is being un-
folded before him. The justice of
God is impressive, inasmuch as it
will be meted out to the world. but |
not so much as it applies to himself. |
Obedience to superiors. justice and
fair play in dealing with his asso-
ciates seem to be based on mixed |
motives-partly because there is God !
who sees such things and partly be- |
cause these things are expedient."
13-Year-Old Different.
The 13-year-old, Father Nagle
found, was differentiated from the
younger group by rather sharp rise
in originality. He concludes: "The
solemnity with which the 12-year-old |
repeated stories from the Bible has |
given way to a much more familiar |
style and stories are embellished with |
personal touches as the narrator's !
confidence increases.
SELF has reached higher peak of |
importance than before, but the boy
is still very righteous, although he is |
less a world hero. Self criticism has
not yet made a conspicuous appear |
ance and although shortcomings are
mentioned it is usually in the same |
breath with an assurance or promise |
of improvement. Authority still is an |
external thing and the taSkmaSters
in the persons of parents and teach |
ers are not half as exacting as the
taskmaster Of few years later-the |
boys own awakening conscience"
But at IA on an average-or at an |
equivalent age, depending on the boys |
rate Of development-thes storm breaks, |
the self becomes the center of the |
picture, the boy is assailed by doubts |
which can be solved satisfactorily |
only in his own mind, and for the |
first time there is breaking away
from dogma and reinterpretation in
terms Of ones own experience. The
boy is no longer satisfied to take some |
body's word for it.
This is transition period, Father |
Nagle points out, between two ad-
justments to the world. The boy be- |
gins to speculate between God and
the universe. Somewhere in the 1871
year-old period two lines of charac-
ter are beginning to diverge from the |
common pattern of boyhood which is |
likely to characterize the individuals |
in their adult lives. One is toward |
practical shrewdness, the other toward |
generous simplicity. Perhaps for the
first time Father Nagle has got at the
genesis of two fundamental types of |
character in mankind.
Fight at Ball Game.
He illustrates these developments in
the diaries of two representing the |
extreme of each type. The one is |
always practical. He is lazy, but he |
resolves to do his work right to keep
out of trouble. He has a fight at a |
base ball game:
When I was at bat ball came
over my head and the umpire said
strike one. I was mad and thought |
could fight him, but when we fought |
he knocked me so that I could not
say word, and that gave me lesson
to be just to others who could not !
fight"
Presumably, in common with his
kind the world over, he was not es-
pecially concerned with justice to-
ward those whom he could fight.
The same boy was day dreaming
while attending mass. He was having |
glorious fight with another boy, |
which took his thoughts entirely from
the progress of the service. That day
he hit a smaller boy, who told his
brother, who proceeded to administer
to the dreamer a sound threshing in
real life. That taught him a lesson |
He would not day dream at mass any
more because it resulted indirectly in
threshing, and there might be some
mystical repetition of the experience.
This boy forgets to say his prayers
before going to bed. AS a result his |
conscience hurts him and he cannot |
sleep. Henceforth he resolves not to
neglect his prayers-lest he suffer |
another sleepless night. The very
frankness of the diary entries indicate
the youths complete naivete. He
cannot comprehend any other motive
for conduct than its practical results.