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Show WHAT TO DO WITH THE BOY. The problem of "what to do with the boy" is one that nearly every father of a boy must face. Sooner or later the boy must go out into the world to make his own way. What is he to do? Is he to be ! a lawyer, doctor, merchant, thief? How many parents have studied their boys to see if they could find special aptitude for a certain line of work to meet only with discouragement dis-couragement ! "If my boy would indicate his preference for some ! line, I could do something for him. But why try to make a lawyer out of him, when he doesn't know himself whether he wants to be a lawyer or a railroad brakeman," the father may say in explaining his embarrassment. Yet youthful preference is of little value. Rare, in deed, must be the man that cannot look back to his boyhood boy-hood days and find that at various times he had ambition to ,be a circus cir-cus rider, a railway engineer, a champion prize fighter, a criminal lawyer, a pirate, an Indian fighter and a Jesse James! The unreliability of the preference of youth as a guide to the future is shown by C. W. Bardeen in an article in The School Bulletin, Bulle-tin, based on his experience as a school teacher. He says: Eleven years ago in a Massachusetts town where I was superintendent superin-tendent of schooh, I sent a questionnaire to 467 children between 12 and 16. One question was: "What vocation do you expect to follow?" fol-low?" The purpose of the questionnaire was to get material for a talk to the young people of that community. Less than a year ago I found that questionnaire among my "dead j wood." I rescued it and succeeded in getting authentic information I of 406 of the original 467. Of the 406 five were following the vocations voca-tions they had selected eleven years ago. I presume that throughout this country not over 1 per cent of children in the elementary grades j will follow the vocations they might choose today. However, there really is no occasion for the father of the boy to take too much at heart his boy's future. Give the boy the best advantages that can be afforded not necessarily expensive advantages advant-ages in the way of an elevating environment of books and associates. associ-ates. Water reaches its level and in the end the most of us reach about the level for which we are fitted. Genius can not be suppress- I ed. Like murder, it will out. |