SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 865 



sake of the child's future, not only for his happiness and the happineKS 

 of all connected with him he must be taught obedience to right, whether 

 he understands it or not. 



Teach him as soon as he is old enough that obedience is not restraint 

 but that it is freedom, and that freedom is not license, but balance or 

 justice, and until the average boy can understand this he must obey if 

 possible through love. I have only pity for the child who obeys only 

 through fear. Where people advocate breaking a boy's will, they know- 

 not what they do. 



The first action of a child is impulse and an act of a child means 

 an end, although we cannot see the end the child has in view, and the Jife 

 worth of the child depends upon the worth of these ends. It may be 

 years before the child realizes himself how he should accomplish this. He 

 may resist until physically exhausted, like a game cock, but his will is 

 not broken. But while we have been writing on obedience, our average 

 boy is growing older. Boys don't wait for theories; they are practical 

 and every day facts. 



Suppose we have him fairly well drilled in obedience to my way of 

 thinking. You now have the first factor in a noble manhood. But you 

 notice slang seems to creep into his conversation; you wonder if the 

 last hired man swore around the barn. (Of course his father doesn't.) 

 And you wonder if he uses slang before you and oaths at school. Then 

 your neighbor tells you that her John never swears, and you think, is 

 there any comparison between her stupid John and your bright Charley 

 who learns good and bad both as readily. And then you think how the 

 last day of school Charley looked so bright and yom were so proud when 

 he stood on the platform and delivered "The Charge of the Light Brigade" 

 that he had learned so quickly, and Mrs. Brown told you going home 

 that she did not approve of declaiming, as it made them so bold. You 

 felt just a little anxious for fear your Charlie was a little more than an 

 average boy. "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." Ah I More 

 than uneasy is the head that wears the crown of mother. 



And now comes the question of the embryo man. Temperance, 

 economy, truth and justice must confront the average boy. Then he musi 

 know what goes to make the physical boy stronger and better, and right 

 along with these lessons of morality. The boy may have naturally a 

 strong physique, so much the more danger that he may harm it by deeds 

 of strength to shew his admiring comrades what he can do. In these days 

 of college athletics, when the papers are full of football, when the captain 

 of the University team is the most looked up to man in town, no wonder 

 our high and grammar schools emulate them. 



Our boy must be taught that he is wonderfully and fearfully feade. 

 He must be taught that the pen is mightier than the sword and that his 

 body is for use, noble use and not for abuse. Teach him that bodily 

 exercise is a necessity to bodily strength and virtue, but all work or play 

 must be tempered by good, sound sense. 



Now teach him that he must think carefully and honestly, and that 

 the one essential of a good strong body is a pure body. In a word teach. 



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