Training the American Boy
By Editor
President G. Stanley Hall, an authority in educational matters, writes in Appleton’s Magazine: “My studies have years ago convinced me that never has even the American boy been quite so wild as now, and never in the world have so many young cubs been so half-orphaned and left to female guidance in school, home, and church. It may seem to some a slight thing that city gangs defy and outwit the police, or commit petty depredations, break into a store to steal fruit or cigarets, collect pistols, half of them toy ones, in cellars, sheds, or other lairs; plan petty rogueries in dark alleys, scare or insult schoolgirls, play tricks on passers-by, swagger and bully each other; but these are nurseries where the criminals of the future are being reared.” And yet he tells us that at this impressionable age is just the time that the boy ought to be trained, a time when the father should have a part in the training instead of the mother, but we would like to add, a time when both father and mother should spend all the time and interest possible in the training of the boy. It is the crisis in his life, and those who neglect it, neglect it both at their own peril and the peril of the boy. President Hall is simply stating what is an observed fact everywhere, and such facts ought to call for humility of soul on the part of the church and the religious teachers of the world.