HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 81 



during childhood and youth. Habits of thought and of 

 action formed then are likely to control in later life. Self- 

 indulgence during early life in ways and manners harmful 

 to the individual himself and offensive to others gives rise 

 to social and personal limitations during the later years of 

 manhood and womanhood. The degree of self-control and 

 self-denial learned and practised during youth is a very satis- 

 factory measure of any growth towards a well balanced 

 complete manhood and womanhood. One of the chief ends 

 of school attendance is to acquire ability in making those 

 choices in one's manner of life, and in all matters of skill and 

 knowledge, that contribute most to the well-being of the indi- 

 vidual himself and of other people generally. 



In acquiring information, in grasping the relationships 

 of facts, and in making applications of knowledge, unless 

 there is a clear discernment on the one hand between what is 

 for the well-being of the individual and of society, and on 

 the other of what is degrading for all, the purposes of schools 

 may be largely defeated. The development of an intellec- 

 tual and moral nature in an individual is a relatively slow 

 process requiring a lifetime. The conditions for this develop- 

 ment are in large part within the control of the individual 

 himself. It is his own choice whether his educational prog- 

 ress shall be toward the formation of habits that experience 

 and science have shown to be best, or toward those whose 

 results are harmful to himself and to others. Enlightenment 

 in hygiene and sanitation, and in the ways of right living 

 generally, assumes that every one who is at all reasonable 

 and sane will do what is known to be best, and avoid doing 

 what is either questionable or absolutely harmful. 



One of the fundamental facts concerning growth from 

 childhood into self-directing manhood or womanhood is the 

 gradual assumption of responsibility, and a manifest readi- 

 ness to discharge duties without compulsion. Regardless 



