DIFFICULT BOYS 349 



The most promising agency in eliminating the difficulties which 

 impair manhood in boys, future men, citizens, is the kindergarten, the 

 principles of education outlined by Froebel. This aims at the highest 

 idealization of life, largely through the play instinct. Whatever criti- 

 cisms are made on the kindergarten teaching can only hold against 

 methods of application. So far these objections have to do chiefly 

 with its lack of adjustability to established educational methods, and 

 Mill cease when the exponents of Froebel acquire greater breadth of 

 knowledge, a clear appreciation of the practical needs of society. Our 

 established methods of education leave much to be desired, but it will 

 take time and thought to bring about a perfect system. Meanwhile it 

 seems plain that the one means of both prevention and cure of difficult 

 boys is to be found in a perfect home. 



The ideal home, where two parents live with and for their children, 

 where mutual helpfulness is fully afforded, where the fundamental 

 impressions are given and received, is the greatest agency in primary 

 education. Unfortunately this ideal home is made difficult of attain- 

 ment because of a multitude of factors, especially in large cities by 

 altered, artificial, perverted methods of living. The instinctive nat- 

 ural helpfulness, so necessary to arouse the sense of individual respon- 

 sibility, finds little opportunity for growth. Unless the boy is encour- 

 aged to bear his part of the burden, to contribute his share to the body 

 domestic, as in the primitive home, he can not grow symmetrically, or 

 become certain, exact, in his more robust impulses. Instincts of re- 

 sponsibility find small encouragement. 



To be sure, we can not check the inevitable trend of modern indus- 

 tries which aim by over-specialization to reduce the individual to the 

 rating of an intelligent machine, whether in the lower or in the higher 

 industries. If, however, we can succeed in fostering the spirit of the 

 home, in implanting early, in the plastic childish brain cells, the ideali- 

 ties, the desirabilities of home, much will then be accomplished. Ad- 

 mitting that the conception of the home, once implanted, is forceful 

 for so wide an influence, let us waste less time in other directions and 

 concentrate our efforts on erecting and preserving the ideal of the home. 

 This the teaching of Froebel is capable of accomplishing. The con- 

 cept of divided responsibility is constantly presented. Pictures of 

 domesticity, object lessons in practical helpfulness, are parts of the 

 course of instruction. Children taught on this principle will carry 

 through their lives clear ideals of home. When they become parents 

 these instinctive promptings, these deeply suggestive pictures, early 

 implanted, will act as unerring guides to parenthood. 



The first thing a troublesome boy must learn is unquestioning 

 obedience. In this way he may become a perfect intelligent machine. 



