338 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



DIFFICULT BOYS 



By J. MADISON TAYLOR, A.B., M.D. 



PHILADELPHIA 



A LONG and somewhat intimate acquaintance with boys and teach- 

 -*~y- ers of boys, many of whom are my close personal friends, has 

 given me opportunity to formulate certain conclusions which may help 

 others. I have always been fond of the society of boys, being endowed 

 with youthful tastes and aptitudes, and find it profitable to study boy- 

 hood hopes, pleasures and ambitions. I have also taught boys and 

 traveled with them in various capacities, and have a grown son whose 

 friends I have tried, and with some success, to make my own. My per- 

 sonal work has brought me in intimate contact with many phases of the 

 human mind other than normal and particularly with problems of 

 psychologic imperfections. This attention to abnormalities of the mind 

 and character has not had the effect of making me over-suspicious of 

 finding defects of the mental processes, because it is obvious to the 

 student that few brains are free from obliquities and regrettable limi- 

 tations. The tendency is for me rather to view with tolerance inevi- 

 table vagaries which surprise and shock those who assume that the 

 >mind of most folk is sound and dependable. Teachers and parents 

 are overready to become amazed at sudden variations and deviations 

 'dn the thoughts and actions of those entrusted to their keeping. Kinder- 

 garteners seem to assume as a fundamental principle that any child 

 subjected to what they define as suitable conditions of environment and 

 education can develop into a perfect being. Lawyers divide people into 

 two sharp-cut classes; those who are altogether sane and responsible, 

 in season and out of season, and those who are insane, fit only to be held 

 in check by restraint. Clergymen are over-tolerant of peculiar action 

 and speech, often to a degree that they are not so helpful as they should 

 be in enforcing authority where capability for responsibility is ques- 

 tionable. They frequently urge the objection that a stigma falls upon 

 those who are at any period admitted to be in need of special training 

 or restraint. Among medical men there is too little knowledge and 

 much unwarranted fear of mental problems. They know something, but 

 not enough, as a rule, and occasionally err on the side of condemnation. 

 Physicians and teachers should clearly appreciate that the mind of 

 man in his earlier years varies widely in degrees and qualities of devel- 

 opment, even more than in differences of bodily growth. Again, vary- 

 ing conditions of home influence, early schooling or accidental train- 



