Part 22 (1/2)

The echo or shadow type is a serious problem. He it is who generally hinders the good things in life and helps the bad. He can swear by the ward boss in party politics, or he can prove himself an obstacle in the way of civic and national righteousness. The Teacher's task in his case is to somehow or other strike the cord of independence, teach him to do things by himself, think for himself and stand on his own feet. Along the coasts of the North Sea, they teach boys to swim by throwing them out beyond their depth. It may be necessary to awaken manhood and independence in the echo by swamping him when he is alone.

THE BULLY

The bully will be the worst type for the Teacher until the right boy comes along; there is no use in the Teacher worrying himself until he does, because of the bully's bl.u.s.ter and bluff. Usually the normal boy will accept him at his face value, and it is only when a lad with self-a.s.sertion comes along that the sparks will fly. Then the bully will have to back down or take his medicine. A fight between boys is usually not a good thing, but when it comes to putting the bully in his place it is one of the greatest inst.i.tutions that the savage man has invented.

Once a bully has lost his place, he may bl.u.s.ter, but his bluff is over.

THE QUIET OR RETICENT BOY

The quiet or reticent fellow is like the mighty sweeping river. He has depths which have been unsounded, and his life has promise of great possibilities. Just the opposite of the bully, he never bl.u.s.ters but thinks out everything as it comes to him. Every impression is stored away and out of the countless impressions which are made upon him there emerges a man of real and wide interests. The task of the Teacher in his case will be to discover his interests and help him to discover himself.

THE GIRL-STRUCK BOY

The girl-struck fellow somewhat discourages the worker with boys, and yet it is natural that the boy should look with favorable eyes upon the girl, just as the robin hears and answers to the call of his mate. Let no Teacher or any worker with boys of any organization that has ever been founded dream for one moment that either he or his inst.i.tutions can ever block out the lure of the girl. The girl-struck boy will have numerous cases of puppy love, and it will be the task of the Teacher to lead the boy into the kind of social relations that will enable him to be a real value to those of the opposite s.e.x whom he may meet. The boy will prove a much better husband and father because of his experience.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS BOY

The self-conscious and the unconscious boys are merely victims of their surroundings. The self-conscious fellow has no confidence in himself. He is continuously measuring himself by others and is possibly the victim of parental teaching. The constant injunction to act like ”Little Willie” next door may have gotten on the boy's nerves, and if the lad has a chance without undue embarra.s.sment he will soon reach the normal stage, and be always a little more courteous and respectful and thoughtful than the fellow without this experience. The unconscious fellow on the other hand will plug along doing all sorts of absurd things, because of his lack of knowledge of the fitness of things. He is generally the boy who grows up without any sense of consistency, and who has had very much his own way of doing things. He will need to be helped to adjust himself to his environment and to the way that other fellows live. He also will develop as a good man if the Teacher is a good worker.

THE FORGETFUL BOY

The same may be said about the forgetful boy and, in fact, about all boys. The forgetful boy has merely not been interested enough to give his attention to the things that the Teacher wants him to do. Once a boy has his interest aroused, the Teacher will have no need of complaint of forgetfulness or of any lack of interest in the boy.

THE UNFORTUNATE BOYS

The types which have been discussed will generally work out all right and find their places in the various social strata in the community in which they live. The unfortunate boys, however, are handicapped tremendously by their environment and surroundings, and it will often become a part of the Teacher's work to help secure a change in these environments. Boys of very wealthy parents and boys from homes of poverty are usually sinned against by their parents. The parents of both are either so busy making money and spending it in the social whirl, or so pushed by the pangs of hunger and the fight for life, that the children who are brought into the world are left either very much to themselves or to underlings who have very little interest in the boy's welfare. It is these neglected boys that oftenest produce our great criminals. All boys of this type somehow or other are tied together. The neglected boy generally becomes the delinquent and the delinquent boy the criminal, so that what might be said about one might also be said about all. This cla.s.s const.i.tutes our national deficit when we come to consider our a.s.sets in manhood, and the Teacher can do a tremendous thing here by helping to form the undeveloped wills of these unfortunate fellows.

THE DEFICIENT AND THE DEPENDENT

The deficient boy and the dependent are really out of the scope of the Teacher. The dependent cla.s.s will have to be taken care of by the charitable inst.i.tutions of the State, and the deficient boy because of his lack of mental development will always be a ward of the community.

THE WAGE-EARNER AND THE OVERAMBITIOUS BOYS

The wage-earning boys and the boys of overambitious parents or those who are overambitious themselves need all the help and sympathy that they can get from a Teacher. The father who is pus.h.i.+ng his boy because of his own ambition will very often need to be talked to by the Teacher or his friends, and given an understanding of the crime he is committing against his own child. The overambitious fellow who is pus.h.i.+ng everything aside for a definite thing in life will often have to be talked to in the plainest language by the Teacher to get him to see his other responsibilities and duties in life. The wage-earning boy who works from early in the morning until late at night to keep bread in his mouth and breath in his body will compel the Teacher, if he is really thoughtful, to give up some of the things which he has already held dearest and possibly lead his wage-earning boy into outdoor activities, even on the half holidays which he would naturally spend in the circle of his own family.

THE STREET, FOREIGN-BORN AND NEGRO BOYS

The street, foreign-born and negro boys will furnish very much the same kind of problem; because of a general rule, they may be all grouped under the wage-earning cla.s.s. Some may be more s.h.i.+ftless than others and may need more attention, while others may be merely awaiting the touch of sympathy and the helping hand to make strong men out of them. A goodly percentage of our greatest Americans have been foreign-born boys, and, if there is any cla.s.s that the Teacher should be more patient with than others, it is the immigrant and the son of the immigrant.

=Grouping Standards=

The Teacher will find it greatly to his advantage to group his boys according to some standard. Unfortunately, all standards, so far, are more or less artificial, but approximate success may be secured by using the experience of boy workers in various parts of the country. The standard which is most generally used is that of age. It is also the most unsatisfactory. Boys mature physically rather than chronologically.

This makes the age standard a poor guess, because a boy may be physically fourteen when he is chronologically eleven, and vice versa.

If the age standard be used, it would be preferable to group all the boys of twelve years together, then the thirteen-year-old boys in another group, and the same with the fourteen, the fifteen, the sixteen, and the seventeen-year-old boys. This would be rather hard to do in small places, although perfectly feasible in a larger town or city.