35o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Not, however, if he run wild and lawless till manhood, or not then 

 without endless pain and punishment can he learn his life lesson. All 

 good in human beings comes from seizing and utilizing the period of 

 receptivity to all manner of impressions, the formation of habits of 

 obedience, of accurate response to orders, to the facilities of craftsman- 

 ship. This is highest at birth and diminishes in a parabolic curve. 



The boy physically strong, but intellectually weak, should not be 

 judged by the same standards as the one physically weak but intelli- 

 gently keen. Each will tire in his line of defects before the comple- 

 mental capability has time to assert its potency. Neither should he 

 hastily be judged inferior, because within his sphere he may be worthy 

 of confidence and equally useful. Barr thinks that the stimulus of 

 music is equal to that from books. The ever-present sensitiveness to 

 disharmonies is developed by rhythmic sounds as well as by military 

 drill. As energies are developed they can be specialized, directed into 

 suitable channels, to varying applications, if not falsely forced, only 

 wisely encouraged. 



The problem of educating the tumultuous, effervescent or exasper- 

 ating boy is usually solved by the military school. The enforcement 

 of implicit obedience, the sharing of responsibilities by boys acting as 

 petty officers and many other features constitute satisfactory methods, 

 in the main sufficient. They often lack something essential. Sol- 

 dierly qualities in the teachers may be absent, they being not themselves 

 adequately trained for their accidental role. Again the routine of an 

 ordinary school, constructed on military lines, even those of govern- 

 mental foundation, often fails, because the industrial feature is absent, 

 the only relaxations being leisure, or the ordinary athletic games. 



Probably the best means of making clear the ideal methods, so far 

 as we can adduce them, is to cite the course of training at a school 

 where the best results are attained; where the boys, all difficult prob- 

 lems, yet become developed into, not only useful citizens, with rarest 

 exceptions, but some of them achieve high qualities although their 

 early status was desperately bad. The one in my mind is the Glen Mills 

 School, Pa., originally the House of Eefuge for Philadelphia. The 

 boys are only admitted when committed by the law after perpetrating 

 overt acts. Every one is of the most . difficult kind. The special fea- 

 tures of the Glen Mills School are the paternal, intellectual, agricul- 

 tural, industrial and military. Other schools there may be conceived 

 on a similar system, but I am- safe in claiming that nowhere are these 

 features in all branches so consistently and thoroughly carried to a 

 legitimate issue. None achieve such uniformly satisfactory results. 

 One item of equipment is superior, a magnificent gymnasium, the gift 

 of Mr. Alfred Harrison. Here the boys enjoy every opportunity of a 

 gymnasium, a drill hall, indoor games, basketball, preliminary baseball 



