DIFFICULT BOYS 347 



for these variants. In some schools full cognizance is taken of these 

 normal peculiarities. Economy, however, demands that all children 

 of about a certain ' grade ' shall pursue a ' systematic course.' The 

 product is not what it should be. 



The personal influence of the teacher is recognized increasingly. In 

 some of our colleges a plan of subdividing the classes into small 

 groups and placing them under tutors has been found of largest value. 

 (At Princeton University a modified Oxford tutorial system was first 

 initiated with excellent effect by Woodrow Wilson. This is now 

 adopted by several other colleges.) 



Indeed valuable horses and dogs get more careful personal teaching 

 than most children. Boys whom we characterize as ' difficult ' have 

 become so largely by neglect or postponement of some important item 

 of education. They have become warped, unsymmetric, psychically 

 and physically. The prevention is right education, so also is the cure. 

 The first thing is to correct faults of misdirected impulse, the next is 

 to teach the elemental principles of self-restraint, disentangling errors, 

 illuminating doubts, always encouraging and leading to wholesome cus- 

 tomary lines of action and thought. Endless difficulties would be pre- 

 vented, boundless good would be afforded, if from the earliest teachers 

 to the highest university professors there should be pursued some uni- 

 form plan of notes or records on individual aptitudes, tastes, tendencies, 

 capacities. Some teachers are endowed with instinctive capabilities for 

 meeting unusual problems. Some also, the majority, are astonished 

 and distressed, even annoyed and resentful in the face of individual 

 peculiarities, good or bad. !N"o one should judge too soon whether the 

 peculiarity be altogether good or bad. 



Errant impulses are by no means understood. Geniuses have ex- 

 hibited strange individualisms. They are rare (geniuses), it is true, 

 but how many times do well-meant efforts to suppress spots on the 

 leopard, or to paint out the stripes on the tiger, fail to make of a well- 

 bred wild cub a respectable tabby cat. The power of a nation resides 

 in men of individual dominant personality. 



We want our boys and young men to have ample opportunity to 

 evolve their own individualism. University curricula are now made 

 increasingly liberal. Why should not the primary schools adopt similar 

 principles ? It is quite true a ' system ' is desirable for the average 

 boy, but a sliding scale ought to be within the reach of any one who is 

 recognizably unfit to pursue the customary methods. 



Our ' difficult boys ' may be divided roughly into those who are 

 provided with overmuch impulse or too little, the robust exuberant doer, 

 or the torpid dreamer. It is obvious that each needs motor education, 

 partly similar and partly diverse. The chief defect of our school sys- 

 tem is the lack of opportunity for motor education. In country dis- 



