138 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



world. Such, companions as would help in the 

 character problem may be invited into the home. 

 The companionship of life through literature is 

 suggested by the need. Inquiry will open up a 

 field of influence from this source that is almost 

 compelling. As a matter of fact there is no child 

 so difficult as the one that is seclusive, individual, 

 unsocial. One can not steer a ship that is stand- 

 ing still. One can not guide a life that moves not. 

 This social impulse is the great danger and the 

 great opportunity. It is the period of hero-wor- 

 ship. This element may enable one to hold in 

 check and direct other activities not so directly 

 noble or easily controlled. 



This is the period when the child starts to 

 school. This event renders the problem very com- 

 plex. Of our public school system we are justly 

 proud as being, all things considered, the highest 

 mark of our civilization. Otir public school teach- 

 ers rank far above the average of our people in 

 intelligence and morals. To mention school life 

 as intensifying the difficulties of child-culture 

 above any one factor yet encountered, is not to 

 speak slightingly of these. But the school neu- 

 tralizes the distinctive features of the home to a 

 considerable degree. It is a leveler. Into it go 

 the influences of all the homes of the community, 

 and some of them are careless and indifferent to 

 a degree that renders the children from them a 

 moral infection. These homes have none of the 

 ideals for which we are pleading; crime and filth 



