Chapter I: Preface

The average boy is not understood by the average parent. This misunderstanding produces not only indifferent training of the boy but also soul-stress for the parent and his son. Intelligent training will improve the quality of the man into whom your son will develop. To be able to give such training, the parent must first know how. The education of the parent in the subject of boy-training is the pretentious purpose of this volume, which I approach with full consciousness of my own limitations.

This book is the result of my association with and study of large numbers of boys from ten to twenty years of age, and in it have been embodied, consciously or unconsciously, some ideas of other writers on this subject.

I have endeavored to present in elementary form a brief, practical study in adolescent psychology and its application to boy-training, written in language which the average parent, guardian or teacher can readily understand. With this end in view, there has been an elimination of technical terms, as far as may be--even at possible risk of scientific inaccuracy of statement. It will not be necessary for the average reader to peruse these pages with a dictionary at hand. They were written not for psychologists, but for parents, in the hope that a work both readable and comprehensible will acquaint the average reader with the laws governing boy-life and their application to his training with greater clarity than a work abounding in abstruse phraseology and scientific nomenclature.

The pages which follow will be devoted to a discussion of the problems of the normal boy--the same red-blooded, harum-scarum youngster who occupies such a large place in your life--and not especially to the delinquent boy. I indulge the hope that this volume may aid you, in some degree, to a better understanding of your boy, his problems and their solution.

EDWIN PULLER.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE ETERNAL BOY-PROBLEM 1

Boy-problems are as universal as boys--Boys too often regarded
as necessary evils--Necessity for training--How to study the
boy--Tendencies in present-day education of children--Character-
culture should come first--The home is the place and the parent
the agency--Boys more difficult to train than girls--The boy’s
viewpoint--Parental indifference to boy-training--Each boy is an
individual problem.

II. PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY 15

Causes of waywardness--Wrong training and bad environment--
Parental ignorance concerning boy-training--An instance--
Heredity--Accountability of the parent--Spending money--Laxity
of discipline--Average parent not fully equipped for his job.

III. CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 30

Table of psychic characteristics at several ages--Infancy and
imagination--Early boyhood and individualism--Early adolescence
and hero-worship--Later adolescence and thoughtful mental
attitude--Age when puberty occurs--Period of motor activity.

IV. ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY 52

Adolescence the period of storm and stress--Change from
childhood to manhood--Puberty--Physical indicia--Mental
indicia--Psychic disturbances--Truancy and wanderlust--Lack of
continuity of purpose and action--Proximity to the savage
state--Humor--Sex-consciousness and its manifestations--Love
affairs--Plasticity of mind--Will-power appears--Age of
discretion--Cycles of susceptibility to religious influences--
Age of experimentation--Hero-worship and its manifestations--
Object of hero-worship--Gratitude lacking--Reflective period--
Introspection--Sense of perspective is distorted--Visionary
ambitions--Dislike of older boy for younger--Will-power,
mental and moral stature attained.

V. THE BOY’S VIEWPOINT 80

Difference of viewpoint at differing psychic ages--Youth and
age contrasted--The boy’s desire for physical expression--
Inability for sustained mental or physical effort--Adult must
put himself in boy’s place to understand him--The natural adult
leader of boys--Boy lives in the present--Parent must do child’s
thinking for him--Injustice to boy from failure to consider his
standards.

VI. OBEDIENCE 92

The cornerstone of child-training--Children’s attitude toward
parents--Its causes and effects--Character is predicated on
obedience--Parental prohibitions which cause disobedience--Habit
of obedience formed most easily in early childhood--How
obedience may be cultivated--Commands must be founded on justice
and reason--Disobedience results from parental caprice or
injustice--Illustrations--The rational quality in the boy--
Importance of paternal example.

VII. THE REPRESSIVE METHOD OF TRAINING 104

Age when training should begin--Repressive method is negative--
Illustrations of repressive commands--Their effect on the boy--
The play spirit in the young--A factor in mental and moral
growth--The passive system of training--Evils of lavish supply
of money--Effects of repression are depressing--Acts should not
be prohibited without suggestion of other acts to fill the void
created--Mental inspiration of praise.

VIII. THE SUGGESTIVE METHOD OF TRAINING 117

Necessity for formulating definite plan of training--Impossible
to state a simple rule--American habit of drifting out of touch
with offspring--Duty of fathers to continue intimacy with sons
through adolescence--American children not generally well bred--
English, German, French and Japanese methods contrasted--
Suggestion is informative and inspirational--Negative commands
produce mental hostility and will combat--Illustrations of
effect of suggestion--A father’s plan--The big brother
comradeship of father and son.

IX. THE HABIT OF FALSEHOOD 132

Imagination a characteristic of childhood--Fantasy as real to
childhood as reality--The cause of lies--Illustrations--The
fisherman’s lie--Clarity of mental processes largely determines
whether a statement is a lie or an untruth--The lie of the
older boy--Desire to avoid punishment the chief cause of
falsehood--The remedy for falsehood--Moral suasion, its
definition and application.

X. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 143

The place occupied by corporal punishment as a corrective
measure--Reasons advanced for its use--Illustration from a
banker’s experience--Average child does not rebel against
authority--But only against authority unjustly or harshly
exercised--The boy’s view of corporal punishment--Breaking
the boy’s will--Unjust or excessive punishments conduce to
lying--Effect of nagging on children--Mental _versus_ physical
punishment--Effective substitutes for corporal punishment.

XI. THE CIGARETTE HABIT 157

Effect of nicotine on human organism--A physician’s opinion--
Tobacco and the adult--Age when boys acquire the habit--Effects
of tobacco on adolescents--Opinion of Dr. Seaver based on
physical measurements of smokers and non-smokers--Cigarette
most pernicious form of tobacco--Influences which actuate boys
to acquire the habit--Poisons in the cigarette--Acrolein and
carbonic oxide--Moral effects--Juvenile criminals are generally
cigarette fiends--Methods used to dissuade boys from beginning--
Suggestion of a remedy for those who have contracted the habit.

XII. BOY GANGS 173

Gregarious instinct in boys--Craving for association with their
own kind--Two kinds of boy gangs--The supervised gang--The
unsupervised gang--Illustrations of each--The gang leader and
his qualifications--The necessity for a meeting place--Morals
of unsupervised gang always lower than morals of its individual
constituents--Motives for gang activities--Their code of
honor--Street gangs are training schools for delinquents--Gang
spirit inherent in all boy-nature--Supervised gangs and their
influence on character development--Necessity for urging boy to
join good gang.

XIII. THE BOY SCOUT INFLUENCE 183

The magic of the name Scout--The Boy Scouts of America--What the
movement is--Ranks and requirements--Good turns and
illustrations--Appeal of uniform and hikes to boy before
joining--Purpose of organization is character-building--A
former method of teaching ethics--Scout camps and hikes--The
camp-fire tale as a means of training--The qualities which
Scout associations develop--Boy Scout organization founded on
sound psychology--A denatured gang--Opinions of sociologists--
The universality of its appeal to boyhood--An efficient method
of training boys in mass--It keeps the boy busy--The busy boy is
the best boy--A field of social service for the adult.

XIV. JUVENILE READING 206

Potent influence of books on the boy--Next to environment and
companions--Two-fold value of literature--Desire of boy for
something to read--He reads for entertainment; studies because
compelled to--Reading must be suited to mental and psychological
requirements--Fairy tales--Adventure tales--Informative books--
Dime novel and nickel library--Their effect on morals and
literary taste--The bad book in the outward dress of good
fiction--The psychological requirement for thrilling adventure
tales--Comic Sunday supplements--Ideal companions for boys found
in best books--Doses of literature as remedies for diseases of
character--Stories of animal life--The juvenile magazine--A list
of books useful for outlining a course of juvenile reading.

XV. AGENCIES FOR SEX-INSTRUCTION 227

Importance of accurate sex knowledge--Misinformation acquired at
a very early age--Necessity for scientific instruction--Former
antipathy to discussion--Parent is natural teacher of sex--
Neglect of parental duty--Necessity for other agencies of
instruction--Grammar schools, high schools, colleges, etc.--
Danger of premature sex excitation--Individuals who are best
adapted to teach--Teacher, physician, biologist, special
lecturer--Opinions for and against the school as agency for
sex-instruction.

XVI. ON OUTLINE OF SEX-INSTRUCTION 238

Periods in child’s life when instruction should be given--
Instruction should be suited to his psychological requirements--
Mother should begin instruction--Method known as the biological
approach--Nature and amount of instruction necessary--Father
should assume instruction at puberty--Necessary admonitions--
Influence of theatrical productions with a sex-appeal--Musical
comedies, burlesque and vaudeville shows--Sex-hygiene
societies--A list of pamphlets published--A list of books
recommended.

XVII. CHILDREN’S COURTS 254

An instrumentality for reclaiming the wayward boy--The state
formerly regarded delinquent boy as a criminal--New attitude
toward dependent and delinquent children--Their mental and
moral concepts not matured--Infractions of law are
manifestations of moral disease which it is the state’s
business to cure--Child under sixteen cannot be a criminal--
Delinquent child is a ward of the state--The Juvenile Court--
Methods of dealing with boys--The probation officer--Laws
for control of delinquent parents.

XVIII. CONCLUSIONS 270

Every boy has inalienable right to be well trained--Basis of
boy-training is parent-training--Insight, tact and patience
necessary--Boy’s need of father’s companionship--Certain
physical abnormalities affect intellect and character--Effects
of heredity contrasted with environment--All boys possess a
common nature--Summary of rules bearing on boy-training.

YOUR BOY AND HIS TRAINING

YOUR BOY AND HIS TRAINING