THE WiE>RRERANj>WORK SERIES iMMiM##M«WM«iiiri^**##MM«Miriwp 2.^.28: LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. PRESENTED BY Jjcn. cA Llnris-ric^n Lcn. BV 1547 .H3 1922 cTl^ Harris, Hugh Henry. Leaders of youth THE WORKER AND WORK SERIES THE BEGINNERS' WORKER AND WORK. Frederica Beard THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK. Marion Thomas THE JUNIOR WORKER AND WORK. Josephine L. Baldwin LEADERS OF YOUTH (Intermediates and Seniors). Hugh H.Harris LEADERS OF YOUNG PEOPLE. Frank Wade Smith THE ADULT WORKER AND WORK. Wade Crawford Barclay THE SUPERINTENDENT. Frank L. Brown THE WORKER AND HIS CHURCH. Eric M. North THE WORKER AND HIS BIBLE. Frederick C. Eiselen and Wade Crawford Barclay The Worker and Work Series HENRY H. MEYER, Editor Leaders of Youth The Intermediate-Senior Worker and By HUGH HENRy^HARBSl^ FEB 9 - THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1922, by HUGH HENRY HARRIS Priuted in the United States of America First Edition Printed February, 1922 Reprinted June, 1923; March, 1925; February, 1927 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE The Religious Education of Youth 7 Foreword : 9 PART I A STUDY OF THE INTERMEDIATE- SENIOR I. The Intermediate and His World 13 II. The Senior and His World 23 III. The Significance of Sex Development 34 IV. Individual Differences 46 V. Group Differences 53 VI. God in the Life of Youth 62 VII. Youth and the Church 72 PART II MEANS FOR DEVELOPING THE INTER- MEDIATE-SENIOR VIII. The Worker's Task 85 IX. Departmental Organization 95 X. Outfitting the Department 104 XL Character through Worship 113 XII. Building Programs of Worship 124 XIIL Story-Telling 133 XIV. Character through Recreation 141 XV. Character through Service 154 XVI. In Quest of Friends 166 XVII. The Lure of Books 174 5 6 CONTENTS PART III INSTRUCTING THE INTERMEDIATE-SENIOR CHAPTER PAGE XVIII. Lesson Materials for Intermediates 187 XIX. Lesson Materials for Seniors 196 XX. Getting Expression from the Class 204 XXI. How TO Get the Pupils to Study 213 XXII. Adolescent Doubts and Questions 220 XXIII. Helping Pupils Decide Their Future 227 XXIV. Developing and Training Leadership 233 THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF YOUTH Efficiency in religious education through the Sunday school has developed upward from the lower grades. Most of our early American Sunday schools were "Infant Schools," so called. That is, their membership was com- posed principally of the younger children. The evan- gelical churches have been seriously engaged for a longer time at the task of religious education of children than of older boys and girls. As a result more real progress has been made and a higher degree of efficiency attained. Progress in secular education, also, during the past century has been most marked in the elementary grades. The whole development of the kindergarten in America has taken place within the past seventy-five years, and its influ- ence upon elementary education has been revolutionary. This development has deeply influenced both the ideals and the practice of religious nurture in religious schools. Recent years have witnessed a marked awakening to the importance of the period of youth in religious education. The scientific study of adolescence has contributed to this interest. Accompanying the increased appreciation of the significance of adolescence for religion has come the real- ization of how slight a measure of success has accom- panied the work of the Sunday school with boys and girls. The realization of the terrific losses in membership during the early teens has come as an accusing conscience, causing religious workers everywhere to inquire the explanation, to question prevailing methods of administration and of instruction, and to seek the better way. One of the first results of this inquiry has been the de- velopment of specialized method. Formerly all Sunday schools included all members of the school above the ele- mentary grades in one mass assembly. Within a few years 7 8 THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF YOUTH the realization has become almost universal among progres- sive Sunday-school workers that just as elementary teachers recognize clearly defined groups within the field of child- hood, with corresponding Beginners', Primary, and Junior Departments, so in dealing with adolescents it is necessary to differentiate between the interests and needs of boys and girls in early youth, those in middle youth, and those in later youth. This has led in our larger and better equipped schools to separate departments for Intermediates (12, 13, 14 years). Seniors (15, 16, 17 years), and Young People (18-24 years). The majority of our Protestant Sunday schools have a comparatively small membership; a large number enroll- ing less than two hundred pupils; more than one half, in all probability, less than one hundred. For these smaller schools, most of them with inadequate equipment, a com- pletely departmentalized school is an impossibility. They must combine certain groups of pupils. For many, one such combination is represented by bringing together the pupils of early and middle youth into an Intermediate- Senior (or Teen-Age) Department. It is for the officers and teachers in such schools that Leaders of Youth has been written. The writer, Dr. Hugh Henry Harris, is professor of reli- gious education in Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. For years as student, pastor, director of religious educa- tion, and professor he has both studied boys and girls and worked with them. This book therefore comes out of thor- ough investigation and ripe experience. We are confident that both as a manual for reading and as a textbook for study it will be found to be an effective means of increas- ing efficiency in this most important task of religious edu- cation of boys and girls in the trying, crucial years of early youth. — The Editors. FOREWORD The reader will discover that this handbook is divided into three parts. It is intended that Part I should furnish a sufficient foundation in the psychology of adolescence to enable the worker with intermediates or with seniors to understand the inner life of the pupils of his department. A thorough mastery at this point will give intelligent direc- tion to his future thought and work. For the one, however, who wishes to plunge at once into plans and programs, Part II forms a satisfactory beginning. He will here find a discussion of the organization and equipment of the department and directions for worship, recreation, and service which will guide him in the actual conduct of his class or department. If, instead, the reader's greatest immediate need is to know how to handle the lesson material in the class, it is suggested that he turn at once to Part III. Here will be found no tricks but a careful study of the graded lessons for these students, together with explanations of how to get the most out of the lesson period. As efficient practice is based on sound theory it is urged upon all who would master the technique of intermediate- senior work to read carefully Part I before perusing the remainder of the book. Hugh Henry Harris. Emory University, Georgia. January, 1922. PART I A STUDY OF THE INTERMEDIATE-SENIOR CHAPTER I THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD Have you ever asked yourself what the boys and girls of the Intermediate Department of the Sunday school do with their time, how they spend the twenty-four hours of the day? Have you ever taken thought to watch their pur- suits in the hope of gaining some better knowledge of their lives? Without such knowledge one's ideas of these pupils are likely to be hazy, and the real life of the boy or the girl to be looked upon as trivial and unimportant or clothed with affectation and fantasy, giving a sense of unreality. But be assured, the lives of these our young friends are very real — quite as real and vital to them as are ours to us. To know and to aid them we must ascertain what they do, what they like, how they change as the years advance, and we must see life as they see it. 1. The intermediate and the school. A considerable part of the life of youth up to the fifteenth year is lived in public or private schools. Five to six hours of each day are spent in the seventh or eighth grade or in the first or second year of high school. Studying books, reciting lessons, working in the laboratory, doing manual work, learning languages, engage their time. This life under dis- cipline they accept with every degree of interest from posi- tive revolt and compulsion through unemotional but ac- cepted tradition and custom up to eager, joyous, and enthusiastic endeavor. The major part, likely, falls into the middle class just mentioned, accepting school with its tasks and its fellowship quite as a matter of fact. During these years some begin to take a forward look either toward high school or toward release from irksome school duties. Certainly we can say that entrance into 13 14 LEADERS OF YOUTH high school marks a new turn in the lives of the young quite as truly as leaving school for business or for home tasks. As the average age for entering high school lies between fourteen and one-half and fifteen years, it is seen that this new life is entered upon during the very years under discussion. School is central in the lives of these pupils, first, because of its large time demand, and, secondly, because of its insistence upon certain well-defined dis- ciplines. For, after all — or, perhaps, we should say best of all — the school is not simply an Institution of instruction; it is a social colony, with well-organized life, with its customs and conventions, with the give-and-take that social living always means. Habits are being formed, and the experi- ences of later life are being given a background; ideals are being createa and attitudes established. The school is not a knowledge factory, i3ut democracy's plan for creating citi- zens, equipped to live in Llie social complex of a self-govern- ing people. In so far as the school fulfills this, its chief function, the world of the school is the pupil's chief world. 2. The leisure time of the intermediates. If we turn from the school hours and inquire what is done with the remaining time of each day, we soon discover some of the vital interests of these pupils. For, after all, the occupa- tions we follow in our leisure time indicate quite truly our real desires and our true purposes. From a consider- able list of reports upon the use of time among boys anr« girls of this age group the following typical cases present some concrete facts: Boy, fifteen. — Playing ball, riding his bicycle, and helping in a grocery store; delivers newspapers each afternoon; works most of Saturday. Boy, thirteen. — Spare hours spent playing games, going to the Young Men's Christian Association, taking walks, swimming; goes to "movies" occasionally; is building a clubhouse; likes to read some. Girl, thirteen. — "Helping mother," with many little house- THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 15 hold duties and learning to cook; working with her father in the garden, where she has a small plot; plays volleyball, roller skates, rides bicycle, plays house, and sews for a family of dolls of which she is still fond; often reads books with her girl friends; takes piano lessons and spends a portion of her time in practice; loves to read stories, espe- cially about rich little girls, but occasionally likes thrilling boy's stories. Girl, thirteen. — Music lesson one hour a day ; uses extra hours studying, visiting, doing some fancy work, reading; goes to "movies" once or twice a month. Boy, thirteen. — This boy in his spare time plays, does chores in the home, and sometimes attends "movies." His chief interests are athletics, especially football, manual work, hunting and fishing, and the "movies." He is very fond of reading short wild-west stories or stories that have plenty of action, adventure, and daring. His delight knows no bounds when he has a gun on his shoulder and goes looking for rabbits or birds to shoot. Boy, twelve. — Most of the hours out of school are spent playing games with associates. He joined the Scouts re- cently and for a time was perfectly carried away with the idea of being a Scout, especially during the time the Scout- master took time for week-end outings and hikes. He is much interested in athletics and likes to wrestle and box. He is also fond of reading Boy Scout stories and of motion pictures along the same line. He is beginning to resent too close watch over what he does and where he goes and is much more susceptible to persuasion than to direct command. Girl, fifteen. — Hours out of school are spent in reading current fiction and the classics, studying (she wants to become a college professor), playing tennis, visiting, at- tending "movies," dancing. Girl, fifteen. — Averages two hours study each night, cro- chets and embroiders just before the fair and Christmas, takes care of her room, makes cakes, and occasionally helps 16 LEADERS OF YOUTH her mother a little. Her play life consists in making candy, playing the piano, playing cards, dancing, skating, swim- ming, tennis, hikes, "movies," in which she is greatly inter- ested; reading, very little. Girl, twelve and one half. — Rises somewhere between six thirty and seven o'clock; after breakfast runs an errand; puts her room in order or studies until school time. After school hours she goes out for a romp or skates, plays football or does anything that is like a tomboy — runs, climbs, or races around the house like a boy. Then she studies a while or helps do up the work. She will read if the weather is bad. Doesn't like to be alone but is satis- fied if only a baby or cat is with her for company. She likes to cook better than anything else; cares very little for the "movies" and goes seldom; is apt to criticize things seen or heard; likes picnics and socials. She is never idle if there is anything she can do. Boy, thirteen. — Spare time spent playing games, espe- cially team play, going walking through the woods in an exploring and adventurous frame of mind, reading stories of adventure, experimenting in chemistry and mechanics and preparing school assignments. His chief interest is in chemistry since he has a chemical set. His older brother is interested in chemistry at high school and assists him in his experiments. He seems to admire his older brother very much; is very fond of reading and of the "movies." These reports are from boys and girls living in a city of thirty-one thousand population, and all are in Sunday schools. They are fairly typical reports in that the city is small enough to permit real approach to nature in the near-by woods and fields, yet has the city flavor in the organized life of the school. Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, Boys' and Girls' Departments. It should be noted, however, that the rural or farm boy and girl are not here; nor are the Catholic or Jewish ele- ments of the population represented. Th^ cases are suf- THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 17 ficient, nevertheless, to suggest what are the interests of those with whom we deal in our Sunday schools and indi- cate with clearness how the spare hours are passed.^ It is obvious that the unused time is spent by boy and girl alike in seeking fun, in extending knowledge, in gain- ing expertness and skill, or in finding emotional satisfac- tion. Nerves, muscles, and brain are never idle during the waking hoars, but are working incessantly to satisfy the craving for life and more of life. Undirected by home ideals or group organization, these hours are open for all kinds of unfortunate experiments. On the contrary, under the stimulation of sympathetic home environment or of group leadership, they become some of the richest because some of the most original experiences of life. In the give-and-take of group play, in the experiment of chemis- try or of construction, in the widening knowledge and prac- tice of woodcraft, in voluntary reading — sought because it satisfies some particular desire of the hour — the boys and the girls are building up bone and muscle, gaining coordina- tion of brain and hand, and learning to live a self-directed, self-controlled life. 3. The many-sided interests. For the worker with intermediates this information as to his pupil's world should discover the highly complex forces that are at work making the moral and religious character that is develop- ing under his very eyes. It indicates that we are, in our Sunday-school classes, touching at a single point only or, at most, at a few points the stream of impressions, the many-motived life forces that are contributing to the emergence of a personality. Does it not indicate that our task is a larger one than we are accustomed to think? Must we not in some fashion get into the whole current of this boy's, this girl's life so as to permeate the whole with religious significance? Can we capture the youth's ideals, stimulate his emotions, and help him wisely to 1 A still wider inquiry is found in the Cleveland survey, which will supply some of the elements lacking in the above records. 18 LEADERS OF YOUTH choose his standards unless we become, not merely his instructor, but genuinely his comrade, his confederate in all the enterprises of his life — his school and studies, his work and play, his building and experimenting, his reading and his "movie" craze? Only as we learn to know his inner needs and desires and participate in his victories, his defeats, his problems, and his longings can we become in any true sense his spiritual leaders. 4. Physical growth. Look now at the boy and the girl themselves, at their bodies and their minds, as, at about the twelfth year, they pass from childhood into ado- lescence. In so far as the child is still a school child, his life appears little different in its outward manifestations from that of the boys and girls whose places have been made vacant by promotion. Yet is life just the same? Is he the same boy, is she the same girl who only a few days ago sat in the lower grades? Is the outlook upon life affected by the twelfth birthday and by the subsequent development in bodily growth, in intellectual quickening, in social expansion, and in inner emotional upheaval? Despite individual differences certain clearly marked changes are taking place which we must observe. For twelve years nature has been busy maturing a boy or a girl. With decreasing rapidity the body has gone on en- larging itself by multiplication of cells. At first, with astonishing quickness, the baby has grown into the stature of the child. Then a pause has come when, slowly but surely, the child has gone on building up bone and muscle, until at twelve the boy has reached a height of about fifty-five inches, while his sister at the same age has attained a height of about fifty-six inches. But now these children, to play their part in the larger drama of life, begin to grow with amazing rapidity, to shoot up and to thicken out so as to approximate the proportions nec- essary to adult life. By fifteen the boys have attained 92 per cent of their adult height and 72 per cent of their THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 19 weight; at the same age the girls have reached 97 per cent of their height and 90 per cent of their mature weight. This means that bone and muscle have expanded suffi- ciently to give the youth new and hitherto unknown pro- portions. When we recall that between nine and twelve both boys and girls have reached a comparatively stabilized condition — a condition in which balance and poise pre- dominate, when eye and ear, hand and foot, work together harmoniously because during twelve years they have slowly acquired coordination — and then think how the newly attained and entirely unpracticed physical expansion throws coordination out of balance, we need not be surprised that awkwardness, lack of grace, and self-consciousness manifest themselves. But bodily expansion is, after all, not the whole of the story. Early, in the middle, or late in this period the gen- erative organs begin to grow toward adult size and get ready to function. Pubic hair appears, indicative of adult- hood, and restiveness becomes manifest. All the bodily growth just described, as truly as sex development, has been part of nature's program to bring the child to full maturity. Shoulders broaden, hips expand, lungs increase in capacity, and the heart, to supply all this enlarged mechanism with abundance of blood, works overtime, enlarging itself by its own exertions. With boys the larynx grows, and the vocal cords thicken, changing the voice pitch to deep masculine tones. In the intervening stage of change chaos appears in the vocal range, adding to the self-consciousness of the lad. The body-building process is not complete by fifteen, but, like a new house, the framework is pushed up rapidly, and the outlines of the new structure are soon acquired. In the three years we are considering the boy leaves behind for- ever his boyhood, and the girl her girlhood. They have been furnished with a new body, with a hitherto unknown instinct, and must learn again to coordinate the new bodily 20 LEADERS OF YOUTH mechanism. If we adults in the next three years should add from six to twelve inches to our stature, if we should suddenly find ourselves possessed of an entirely new in- stinct seeking expression, if we should find our voices sliding about in spite of our noblest efforts, and if we dis- covered that these new experiences had thrown us out of balance, giving us the task of gaining a fresh mastery over our bodies and our minds, perchance we should better appreciate the position of the intermediates. We should be quite as awkward, quite as self-conscious, and, by those who had gone so far past the experience as to forget it, not less difficult to understand. 5. Mental and social development. We have not yet fully analyzed the situation. We have been thinking largely in terms of bodily growth and of the consequent reaction of the child to these new bodily experiences. But some- thing has been going on within — something besides rapid cell development. Keeping pace with this physical expan- sion are a mental and a social development no less impor- tant. The enlarged curriculum of the schools is possible only because of the new mental powers. The days of the limited intellectual capacity are superseded by an era of mental awakening. Association of ideas with each other is more rapidly made, and logical processes can be car- ried out more readily. Imagination takes new direction. The quest for truth becomes a passion, because the new mental grasp makes possible the exact steps in the rea- soning process. Self-consciousness becomes social con- sciousness; and before this age is passed, the authority of the group is final for one's conduct. "We all do that," or "Everybody does this," or "No one does it in that way" are the phrases that indicate the almost slavish devotion of youth to the social group in which his lot is cast. The craving for social life expresses itself in two gen- eral directions: First, in seeking the companionship of those of their own years. Boys find their chums or pals, while girls likewise adopt the same title for their friends. THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 21 This distinction exists between the sexes, however — that the boys bind themselves together in groups or gangs, while their sisters are content with the intimacies of a single comrade. The gang is a group of chums held together by group loyalty. The leader of the group is one of the group. Where girls combine in numbers, the ties holding the group together seem to radiate from the leader to each of the number rather than, as in the case of boys, from mem- ber to member. Having now arrived at an age permitting greater freedom of action, these youths seek companion- ships wider than the home circle or the immediate contacts of school life. By a process of social gravitation these groups are formed, cemented together by common activity and common feelings of independence and secrecy. Not to be one of a gang means to be cut off from the com- monly accepted form of social living. As we have seen, many of the out-of-school hours of these years are spent in the gang or with the chum, talking, working, playing, building, or roaming the fields and woods if geographical proximity permits. W^e shall never be able to understand the interests and life of the young until we unravel the mystery of the gang. A second direction which the social spirit takes is to seek recognition of adult life. To be independent like adults, to participate in the plans of the family, the church, the neighborhood, is the ambition of every wholesome boy or girl. Youth thrusts itself into adult life. No wonder that its inexperience is conspicuous. But only by such sharing can the social nature properly mature, and only so can experience be gained. If, in the midst of such endeavor, the natural timidity of the child is occasionally reflected, no one need wonder. It is a new world into which youth is venturing, seeking to find its way, yet ever aware of its own limitations. 6. The call to leadership. In their perplexity and long- ing the boy and the girl fasten upon their hero, endowing him with every conceivable grace and charm, hoping 22 LEADERS OP YOUTH against hope that this hero will deign to look upon them and to reward their fidelity by some token of esteem. In the home and out of it the young during these years covet consideration and recognition from those older, ask- ing that their own expanding powers of self-direction and of serious reflection shall count in the plans of the mature world of which they already feel themselves almost a part. Here lies straight within his grasp the opportunity of the intermediate worker. The call of youth to share his life with adult life, the demand for a hero, a confidant — the one who shall help unravel the mysteries of life and help him understand himself in his new being and his new relations — is the call of God for intermediate leader- ship. Questions 1. How many hours do the pupils of your community spend in the public schools? Get exact information. Ob- serve carefully how they spend the remainder of their time. 2. What physical characteristics mark the intermediates? 3. How does the mental life develop in these years? 4. What differences in social development between boys and girls are to be found? 5. Why must the worker with intermediates be a real leader? Observation Consider for three or four days the activities of some boy or girl of twelve to fifteen years of age. Note (1) what he does, (2) his chief interests, (3) his attitude toward home, school, and work. Keep notes upon your observa- tion and compare them with the statements found in this chapter. CHAPTER II THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD Students from fifteen to seventeen years of age consti- tute two quite distinct groups: first are those who, continu- ing their education, are attendants upon some high school or academy; the second and larger group is made up of those who have left school for work and those who are living at home, dependents upon the family for support. Despite the widespread influence and distribution of free public high schools in our country it is unfortunately true that relatively few American children avail themselves of their benefits. Economic necessity, ignorance, lack of acces- sibility, result in these opportunities being passed by. On the other hand, the multiplication of night schools in our cities and the development in the business world of the realization that trained workers are more valuable than untrained have tended to supplement the meager edu- cational training of those who have for one reason or another left the grades. Notwithstanding this, it is safe to assume that the far larger proportion of our youth of the years under discussion are working boys and girls who, having left behind the days of formal education, are now embarked upon some business career. The insistent demand of our factory age is for the services, during the prime of life, of both sexes; and the spirit of independence drives these young workers forth to seek their fortunes in the channels of trade and industry. 1. "Workers and high-scliool students in the depart- ment. It is a startling fact, however, that the senior ranks in the Sunday schools are made up predominantly from the smaller group — from those who are still in school. This is in part accounted for by the fact that the foreign-born child or the child of foreign-born parents is more likely 23 24 LEADERS OF YOUTH to be a Jew or a Catholic than to belong to a family reached by the Protestant faith. It is also possible that American young people, who have broken with the traditions of edu- cational discipline and so have too meager training to enjoy reading or study, find little in the Sunday school to attract them. Still further, we should not forget the temp- tation that a free day in the week has for those housed in factory or store for the other six days. Again, it is doubtful if we, who are most interested in making the Sunday school minister to all, have yet discovered the inter- ests of these w^orkers sufllciently to plan our worship, our lessons, and our activities so as to fit their needs. At any rate, for one reason or another, we find that our Sunday- school constituency in the Senior Department is for the most part made up of high-school boys and girls, conspic- uous exceptions being found chiefly in our rural churches. Any discussion of the senior pupil, therefore, will have to divide itself into two distinct parts: first, a discussion of the high-school group; and, second, a discussion of the remaining members. It is well at the outset to bear in mind that these two groups are not by nature different. They are animated by the same natural desires, they are passing through the same physiological development and the consequent psychological and social process. The dif- ferences are due entirely to their environment. One group is as good as the other. Both are of equal importance in the eyes of their Creator and in the hearts of their Sunday- school teachers and friends. It is with no attempt to estab- lish superiority or inferiority between them or in esti- mates of them that one proceeds on this dual basis; rather it is that one may more certainly understand each group and, in consequence, the better minister to it, 2. The high-school senior. What do the high-school boy and girl do? How is their life spent? What are their interests and how do they attempt to satisfy those interests? These are questions of first importance to one who would be the leader of such a group. THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 25 Approximately five and one half hours each week day, Saturday excepted, are spent in school. The number of hours does not differ greatly from the time thus consumed in the grades; but the nature of the high-school curriculum and the methods employed are so different that entrance into high school marks a decided turning point. The median age of entrance in one Iowa school was found to be fourteen and nine tenths, which makes the Senior Depart- ment in our Sunday schools coincide quite closely with the period spent in this branch of the public school.^ King writes: To many a pupil the high school opens as a new world of mysterious possibilities. This attitude of eager anticipa- tion is well expressed by one student who writes: "I still feel the thrill of expectancy with which, for example, I en- tered upon the study of Latin. The teacher was the guide. She knew Latin land, and we were eager to follow her through that delightful country. My English work was not a gray monotony of themes. It was colored with the pur- ple of imagination." "It was the greatest event of my life when I entered the academy as a freshman." And yet the transition is often effected with great difficulty. Another says: "It was with a great deal of pleasure that I looked forward to my entrance into the high school. Why I was going I never seriously considered; I just took it for granted as did my parents that I should go through. But my real entrance was far from what I had pictured it to be in my mind. In the grades there had always been a con- genial, homelike atmosphere which completely dominated everything; but in the high school I came face to face with an absolutely different environment, and many a time dur- ing my first year's work I wished I were back in that dear old grammar school which I had learned to love and to respect!" Another writes: "After having been the important A Class of the last grade of grammar school it seemed strange to find ourselves submerged in a larger group in high school. One especial difficulty was the getting accustomed to having different teachers for every subject, the getting acquainted with the teachers, and the fear that they might not like us. 1 From The High-School Age, p. 187, by Irving King, copyright, 1914. Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. 26 LEADERS OF YOUTH "I looked upon everything at that time as being Mg. The teachers seemed to me as being very noted and know- ing very much, and for these reasons I stood in awe of them. Then, I felt that there was not that close relation- ship between pupil and teacher there had been in the lower grades. Sometimes I thought the teachers were not very religious because they scolded when I thought they ought to be kind and helpful. "But when I came to my sophomore year, I looked upon things differently and partly overcame this feeling of awe and timidity. I had more confidence in myself and no longer felt my schoolmates were any bigger than myself. Moreover, I realized that the instructors were not so distant after all; for on several occasions, both in lessons and in programs, were we thrown together, and each time the instructors put forth great effort to show their personal interest in us. . . . "In spite of difficulty of adjustment when entering the high school I felt a renewed interest in school work. The increased field of work together with the less close super- vision made me feel more independence, more responsibility, in regard to that work. ..." Another says: "One thing that stands uppermost in my mind was the lack of interest on the part of the teachers in helping the pupil in selecting his course of study.'" These reports, from some who have experienced the transition from grammar to high-school grades, clearly indi- cate the turning point which this experience becomes. Sun- day-school workers with seniors should recognize the fact that school now becomes something more, something new and different. It becomes a testing time, bringing to the fore certain mental and moral traits and becoming the environment, mental and social, in which character is being wrought out. The richness of the high-school curricu- lum, as has already been noted, is made possible by the widening scope of the mental life, while, in turn, the enlarged range of studies tends further and further to widen this scope. The larger freedom of high-school life is possible only because life is achieving freedom; but, likewise, this increased freedom of action is in itself tending See The High-School Age, Irving King, The Bobbs-Mcrrill Company. THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 27 further and further to the achievement of freedom in the individuals. School is a world in which the enlarging personality finds a sympathetic and well-articulated social and mental complex wherein it may pursue still further its own unfold- ing. To those who become happily adjusted to its studies, to its close work, to its self-directed clubs and social groups, and to its voluntary friendships and confidences between student and student, and between student and teacher, school life furnishes a fortunate world in which youth learns to live by living. Obviously the religious teacher of high-school students should know this life — its studies, its social activities, its athletic strivings, its viewpoint. To dismiss the world of the school as merely preparatory to life itself is far from appreciating what is going on, for high-school life has become not preparation for life but life itself, lived in a most intense manner and subject to the pressure of the same emotions and to similar motives and judgments as the world outside the school. For the student must no longer think of school life as filled with books and lessons alone. Rightly or wrongly the day has for the student not alone lessons to learn and to recite but friendships to renew, social adjustments to make; and perhaps the more vital present interest of the school is found in these by- products of school experiences. Says a Sunday-school teacher: Every morning as I go into town to my office I know at a certain corner I will be joined on the car by a fourteen- and-a-half year old, tall, bob-haired girl, starting on her way to school. School for her is a kind of duty life has imposed upon her, where, for five and one-half hours each day, not to mention the extras for music, she suffers a restraint not altogether desirable and yet not wholly with- out some attractions; because it is a meeting place for all her associates — boys and girls — and, more especially, the boys are particularly interesting to her. . . . Each day she has some wonderful and new experiences to relate about one [boy] seemingly quite vital from her viewpoint. 28 LEADERS OF YOUTH Here we find, not at all uncommonly, the interest in the opposite sex becoming dominant in the school life, vastly- more absorbing than book or other interests, athletics excepted, of which this young lady is very fond. Athletics, capable of efficient organization, often become the chief interest in the lives of students, the day's school work taking flavor from the gymnasium or the baseball or football field. Debates, literary contests, school publica- tions, class elections, and social functions, all enter into what we term "high-school life," each contributing some- thing to experience and character. It is the world for those who have entered in. The life outside of school is a reflection and an extension of the school experience. The world of nature lures to further exploration, undertaken voluntarily but colored in the process by the knowledge built up in the laboratory or the classroom. If we should list the spare-time activities of these boys and girls, we should find that hunting, fish- ing, swimming, trap setting, football, baseball, basketball, tennis, building canoes, working with chemicals, making fly- ing machines, cooking, candy making, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and tatting, together with such slight duties as the home demands, are the absorbing occupations. The sense of independence demands money, as does also the desire to possess what only money can purchase. Hence we shall flnd that many spend some of their spare time in earning money by means of paper routes, working in stores and offices, collecting accounts, and in various other ways. We must never forget that the demand for romanticism at this age leads to much reading or to the modern sub- stitute for reading, the enjoyment of the "movie." These two activities must be added to the above before we can get a comprehensive view of the world in which the high- school boy and girl live. 3. The senior in the business world. Quite in con- trast to the program already discovered is the life of those THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 29 who have left school to enter the business world. It may be that because we too are in that world we think we know quite fully what their lives are like. May it not be possible that our very proximity has spoiled our perspective, and that we need to examine afresh what the experiences of these, our juniors, are? Those who at this early age have entered the doors of commerce and trade have brought with them meager equipment for their tasks. Their schooling has been trun- cated at twelve or fourteen, leaving them with a scattered accumulation of information not well organized nor well mastered. This is not the fault of the school system, as many would believe, but the necessary consequence of immaturity. Let the system bear all the blame that is due it, still we must recall that the child in the few years that have passed since it entered school has had to accom- plish prodigious things. It is a marvel that so much is done. And if a narrowing of studies be sought in the hopes of greater expertness in each branch, we must bal- ance that advantage against the too meager background of experience obvious in the lives of these pupils. Be that as it may, here they are, these boys and girls of fifteen to seventeen, seeking admission to business, blessed with bodies expanding into full maturity, brains active and ready for new ideas, and hands unskilled but eager to become skillful. That is, the foregoing is true if they have had good heritage and sufficient food and careful rearing. Unfortunately, too many come from the ranks of those who know not how to feed and rear aright, or, knowing, are too poor to put their knowledge into practice. These latter bring with them bodies needing good food, fresh air, and play, none of which is the business world likely to supply them with in abundance. School has given no expertness which the business world can use, for penmanship has not developed to a satisfactory stage, spelling is still wretchedly mastered, and the hands are untrained to any specific endeavor. 30 LEADERS OF YOUTH It is obvious that industry, at its own expense, must train these workers to become efficient — a long and costly process. Yet certain advantages accrue both to the busi- ness man and to the youth. The mind is plastic and easily lends itself to training, such training in particular as busi- ness demands. Short-cut methods in accounting, business forms in the office, machine technique in the factory, store routine behind the counter or in the wrapping room, are all possible upon the basis of youth's teachableness. More than that, the future is before the boy and the girl, a future full of possibilities of promotion, of appreciation, and of success. The four high-school years mean for the business youth four years of preparation in the fundamentals of his life's future work. When we come to examine the day's work in detail we are confronted with a round of duties, which in time tend to become quite as monotonous and humdrum as the round of school tasks. It is well to remember that enthusiastic participation in each day's undertaking is the best prepara- tion for promotion; but when the relation between the present task and its final completion is far removed; when the sewing of a glove, the knitting of a stocking, the tending of a loom, the wrapping of a package, the collection of a bill, the sweeping of a store, the pushing of a truck, and the final profits of the establishment which mean the suc- cess or failure of the enterprise are too far removed to see or to feel the correlation, shall we wonder that the interest flags, enthusiasm wanes, and that the business task becomes a routine from which the young seek release at the earliest possible moment? It is safe to say that, even more than with those in the high school, the day is spent as the necessary drudgery of living while the vital interests of life are found elsewhere. Yet the business hours, because of their very bulk, constitute the major portion of the life of these youths. How far business shall develop the noblest and best within one is determined by how large self-direction is THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 31 possible under the system. For these boys and girls are achieving freedom as well as are their friends in school. In such positions as the merest handworker in a mill or factory little is done to stimulate initiative or to arouse latent possibilities. It is little wonder that many of these workers learn to lead a treadmill existence futured by no promise of large success. On the other hand, many industries are stimulating originality by bonuses for new ideas and giving immediate recognition to those betraying anything that looks like real ability. Fortunately, on the whole, the business world prefers that its young shall do well, grow in ability and in charac- ter, and become in the years before them capable citizens. And it is increasingly apparent that more and more busi- ness concerns are taking a watchful and active interest in the lives of their employees, young and old. Here, then, amid these surroundings, in contact with fel- low employees of their own age and older, of their own sex or both sexes, these boys and girls must learn to adjust themselves to social living, to discover the inherent capaci- ties within them, and to gain self-mastery. Their own scant preparation for the task is their greatest handicap. The want of a sympathetic and an understanding leader is their greatest misfortune. Out of business hours what do they do? For those who wish to go on with their educational preparation there are lessons which consume several evenings of the week; for others home duties take a portion of their time. The remaining hours are theirs to spend as they please; for with going to work comes freedom to go about; and many are for the first time away from home. In the places of employment are congenial companions who are ready to join in utilizing the unused portions of the day. Lacking initiative to provide their own entertainment, many seek relief from weariness and idleness in the '"movie," the dance hall, in reading, or in the society of their kind. The gang spirit, as active among the workers as among the 32 LEADERS OF YOUTH school constituency, displays itself in groups who seek some convenient rendezvous. Athletics come in for a part of the spare hours. Perhaps nowhere does the working boy or girl display a greater paucity of initiative than in his recreations. Commercialized forms of amusement, ready made, prove most attractive and stimulating. The settle- ment worker and the school teacher who attempt social service of this sort alone know how difficult it is to organize the play life of these young people. "Beaus and clothes" take a large place in the minds of the girls, and it is fair to believe that boys have corresponding interests. 4. The physical and psychological development of seniors. In the preceding chapter it was pointed out that nature had about completed her body-building processes by fifteen. It is necessary to consider what the years before us further accomplish for the young. And here we may consider both classes — worker and high-school student — alike. Foremost is the emotional unrest due to the pres- ence of new powers and the life adjustments that are taking place. This emotional unrest manifests itself in nervous behavior, in giggles and laughter, in boisterous display of self, at times in hysterical tears, in sex consciousness in the presence of those to whom nature is attracting, in tempestuous outbursts of passion, in melancholy brooding, in unbounded enthusiasm of greater or less duration. No one person exhibits all these characteristics, but all are shown by some and more than one by many. Intellectually the life seeks knowledge, certifies itself of the truthfulness of accepted ideas by experiment, attempts to discover new and different avenues of adventure, tries out various tastes, sights, and sounds just to see what they are like, admires expertness in any line, and seeks to attain such expertness for itself, finds the actual accomplishment of its object a tiresome process, so frequently shifts its activity in consequence, allows its imagination wide range — building its air castles and seeking its knights-errant. This is the romanticizing period of life, just entered upon THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 33 and destined to continue through much of the succeeding department. The range of interest in the opposite sex varies all the way from a diffused interest in boys in gen- eral to passionate devotion to the object of its desire. Juliet and Viola, Olivia and Rosalind, were of this age, as well as Romeo and Hamlet. 5. The religious development of seniors. Morally and religiously this is the time of testing conventions, of trying for oneself what the inner meaning of morals and religion may be. It is, too, the time of greatest reverence for con- ventions, paradoxical as that may sound, when the ritual and the solemn service find a responsive chord in the heart of youth. Now is the time of high resolve with little practice or strength gained by practice to sustain the aspirations. Truly this is the trying time of life, "when a little good goes further for good, and a little evil goes further for evil than at any other period of life." It is the time when the steadying hand of a friend who is older and who knows, who expects the best, yet is willing to trust the inexperience of youth, whose sympathies are broad yet deep, and whose confidence is unshaken though always sensitive to moods and impulses, is most needed and valued. The leader of seniors may become that friend. Questions 1. Are the larger proportion of the senior members of your Sunday school in school or in business life? 2. In addition to teaching lessons what has the high school of your community done for its students? 3. With how many of your pupils is reading a craze just now? the "movie"? wireless? woodcraft? 4. Do your pupils who are engaged in business show greater enthusiasm for their work than do the high-school students for their task? How do you know? Observation Using a boy or girl between fifteen and eighteen, follow the observation suggestions found in Chapter I. CHAPTER III THE SIGNIFICANCE OP SEX DEVELOPMENT As the source of many of the changes that are taking place in the transition from childhood to youth lies in the fact of sex development, it is necessary to come to a thor- ough understanding of this significant physiological phe- nomenon, for here is found the key that shall unlock the mystery of all these strange, anomalous contradictions and amazing outbursts so frequently found in the growing boy or girl. It is a physiological fact, primarily, but its influ- ence radiates to every department of life; to the ideas and ideals quite as much as to the bodily habits and emotional reactions. One is hardly prepared to consider the spiritual and moral welfare of youth who is not familiar with the mechanism of nature for producing a man out of the boy or a woman out of the girl. 1. Sex development and bodily growth. The first and most easily observed fact is the close correlation between sex development and bodily growth. The two are so intimately related that we are safe in assuming that sudden increase in growth of the body is evidence of ac- companying sex development. Delayed bodily growth is likewise a fair indication of delayed physiological pro- gress. One must keep in mind, of course, that heredity plays a part in the amount of physical growth, and one should reckon the relative bodily expansion rather than the absolute increase in height or weight. It is safe, then, to conclude that sex development is a cause, an effect, or a concomitant of general physical growth. Either the former produces the latter, or the latter produces the former, or both are affected by a common cause. The two go hand in hand, so that whatever affects the one is certain to affect the other. Normal, healthy bodily devel- 34 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 35 opment is the best preparation for the normal, healthy beginning of sex life. Physical or mental stimulants, nar- cotics, unwholesome diet, insufficient nourishment, lack of exercise, damaging fatigue, or any other factor that devi- talizes or stunts the physical organism is certain to react deleteriously upon the ripening of sex functioning. 2 External and internal manifestations of sex de- velopment. The second most obvious fact regarding sex maturing is the growth of pubic hair and the increase in size of the external generative organs. These are nature's announcement to youth of a change that is going on within his physical being. The relative suddenness of the appear- ance of these signs and the rapidity of their development are frequent causes of curiosity in the boy or girl, leading sometimes to morbid and unwholesome speculation, some- times to unfortunate practices. These external manifestations of change are followed at a short interval by functioning of the internal sex mechan- ism startlingly announced to the girl by her menstrual periods, and to the boy, not infrequently, by nightly emissions. What has really taken place is that nature has at last arrived at the time when the body must be perfected to carry on the life processes of the race; to which end the ovaries of the girl begin to exude germ ova, and the testicles of the boy to produce spermatozoa for their fer- tilizations. These internal glands have lain dormant until now. But with their growth and functioning has come a new day in the life of the child. 3. Sex instruction and training. Such has been the ignorance in the past that this momentous change has come upon our pupils unawares, and, uninstructed by father and mother, the youth is compelled to face the grave experi- ences unwarned and uninstructed. From such culpable parental neglect comes untold injury to the growing boy and girl. Often not only physical injury ensues but still more serious mental and moral damage. Obviously sex instruction is needed. The natural per- 36 LEADERS OF YOUTH sons to give such instruction are the parents. But, unfor- tunately, they are often ignorant or, when wise, are not always brave for the task. Long training in false modesty has sealed their lips, and, in consequence, children are left to suffer physical and mental degradation. Some have sub- stituted books for the more practical and efficient personal helpfulness. Such books, however, while furnishing the requisite information, leave the imagination to roam unin- terrupted over the emotional excitation of sex imagery. Far better is it to learn of these matters directly by word of mouth from those whose conversation is least stimu- lating to unwholesome ideas. Until parents have been trained to do their duty by their children, it will remain the task of the public-school teacher and of the Sunday- school teacher to furnish such information as is essential to the health and morals of the rising generation. We begin to see, then, what sex development really is. It is nature's method for continuing the life of the race. It is physiological development, neither moral nor im- moral in itself. It cannot be ignored, nor should its acquire- ment submit youth to needless anxiety nor to morbid speculation. It is a fact of our physical being, comparable to the function of eating and drinking, with this differ- ence — that the latter is far more a personal and individual matter, while the former is not a personal matter alone but primarily a social matter. But reproductive development is more than a physio- logical process. With the dawning of these physical powers comes the awakening of a new instinct. As many studies of child life have conclusively proved, it is not true that interest in sex begins only at the beginning of puberty. But it is at this time the new instinct makes itself com- mandingly felt. It cannot be put off. And an instinct is more than a physical matter. It involves mental processes as well. Sex enters consciously into our waking and sleep- ing life and its force is felt in many divergent channels. New sensations are discovered, and new emotions begin THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 37 to force their attentions upon one. Though the youth may not be aware of their source, these sensations and emo- tions pervade the very tissue of his life. 4. Differences between boys and girls. But we must return to the physiological fact of sex and note certain variations. First of all is the difference between boys and girls. In general, girls mature from a year and a half to two years earlier than boys. As general maturity follows coincidently with sex maturity, it follows that girls are in general a year or more ahead of boys of their own ages. "Boys are so silly," one girl put it; and undoubtedly there is on the part of most girls a feeling of superiority of view- point. On the other hand, one must remember that the boys overtake the girls in the middle teens, the equality of the sexes being thus resumed. These differences in the progress of development reflect themselves in the points at which social interests are widely divergent and also at the points at which they again draw together. No worker with these years can ignore the natural differences thus accentuated. In programs of recreation and fellowship it is necessary to utilize natural likes and dislikes as they appear. No one can force real cooperation between boys and girls where such cooperation is against the natural propensities of their being. But later it will be necessary with as great precision to reckon with the common interests of both sexes. But the difference between the Sexes does not end with variation as to the age of maturity. Nature has set out to differentiate the sexes, and increasingly we must expect to see the peculiarities of each group make themselves apparent. Says Miss Moxcey: Up to this time most sex differences in activity between boys and girls are artificial. The average ten-year-old girl who has had a free chance and proper clothing can climb a tree, "skin a cat" as neatly, "chin" a bar as many times — yes, and bat a ball as far— -as a boy of the same age. It is not certain that she can throw the ball as far but she can skate as well. Indeed, the fact that they do 38 LEADERS OF YOUTH not settle questions of superiority in quite as primitive a fashion as their brothers was due, if the testimony of many older girls is not to be barred as unreliable memory, not to any difference in the fighting instinct but to adult authority. There may, however, have been a greater Instinctive submission to that authority.' But with the dawning of the new life the characteristics of the sex appear in each group. The boys become more masculine and the girls more feminine. We need not inquire in how far this transition of ideals is determined by nature and how much by environment. It is safe to assert that consciousness of sex tends to draw the two grouQS apart, and in their separation each is building up those qualities that determine his future outlook. Likely we have in the past overstressed the inherent differences. But when due consideration is given to the influence of Mrs. Grundy, we have to admit that during these years a change, slow or sudden, is going on, the end of which is the larger life of the race. 5. The social grouping of each sex. The contrast of importance to the worker with intermediates and seniors is the divergent ways in which the social groupings are wrought within each group. The boy has his chum and his hero — the former, of his own age; the latter, his confidant, older than himself, embodying all that he idealizes. The girl too has her chum of her own age and also someone whom she adores — a young woman who possesses all the charms and graces that the girl would attain. It is inter- esting to note that these older personages embody for each sex the peculiar qualities toward which nature is pushing on each person. If it is insisted that the boy previously worships his father as his hero, and the girl her mother as her heroine, it is well to remember that the boy equally admires his mother's qualities and finds in her a confidante more satisfactory to his childish needs than is found in the paternal parent; while, conversely, the girl as fre- ^ Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, page 68. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 39 quently seeks her hero and ideal not in the feminine per- sonality of her mother but in the masculine parent. At this age each sex seeks its ideal in personality endowed with the peculiar ideals of the group. Further: Before the boy finds life not worth living without the girl, and before he discusses the universe with his one com- pletely understanding chum, during all the vital formative period of early adolescence, first and foremost, the law of the boy's life is loyalty to the gang. Does anything in the girl's life correspond to the boy's gang? ... A boy forms a gang with other boys, because they want to do some- thing, and this takes cooperation. We are beginning to see that from time immemorial the little girl's education has made her lose some stages from her development. The taboo on active physical play has thrown her back on intro- spection. . . . She thus becomes engrossed in her own self, her own thoughts, ambitions, and feelings. With these as her primary interests companionship is sought for the pur- pose of expressing these inner attitudes, and for this one companion at a time is enough; more are embarrassing. . . . But the raw social impulse of this stage of development is too strong to be entirely submerged. She must have people about her and, at times, plenty of them. Then it is that cliques are formed among several pairs of chums. Under the conditions of its formation the group must needs be small. Habit quickly makes it an exclusive thing, and its pettiness becomes the despair of mother and teacher.^ Whether or not Miss Moxcey's explanation of the absence of girls' gangs is altogether satisfactory, one cannot deny the accuracy of the description of the differences manifest between the social life of the teen-age boys and that of the girls of the same age. Unlike the junior boys and girls, whose social experiences parallel each other at every point, the intermediate and senior organizations stand in striking contrast to each other, and all social effort on behalf of this group will need to be articulated according to these differences. When groups of girls, commensurate to the size of the boys' gangs, are formed under the initiation of a strong Girlhood and Character, Moxrey, pages 109-10. 40 LEADERS OF YOUTH leader, they are held together, as Miss Moxcey has so well shown, by the adhesive power that exists between each girl and the leader; whereas in the gangs of boys the cohesion is found to hold the boys together regardless of the leader. Should the girls' leader disappear, the group will dissolve; while with the disappearance of the leader of the boys a new leader is found, and the spirit of the gang survives such interruptions to its life. The Gang's Hold on the Boy Leader From every boy to the leader, via every other boy. If the leader drops out the solidarity of the gang pushes another leader to the front. The Girls' Grolt»ing I^^ The Leaders Interest From every girl direct to the leader. The dotted lines indicate the weaker, reflected bond of interest of all the other girls ic each individual because of her devotion to the common ador^e. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 41 For the Sunday-school classes and for the life of the department this all means that the leader or teacher finds among his boys a fairly well-defined social spirit into which he must fit and in which he will find his best opportunities. His class or his department as a whole is a gang, the spirit of which he must learn direct by becoming a member of it, sharing its life, enjoying its fellowship, and creating, for it and through it, its ideals. The teacher or leader of girls of these years will find, on the contrary, that she is called to make a group by the force of her own personality, nor need she be surprised to discover that the esprit de corps of the class or of a group of girls in the department is of her own making and depends on her for its very life. She is central as the male teacher is not. He must win his place in the gang; she must make a gang into which to inject her own personality and ideals. 6. Variation ivithin each sex. Let us turn from these differences between the sexes to note certain variations in the developing sex life in individuals. Causes of variation in the time of the beginning of adolescence may be found in three quarters: first, in heredity; secondly, in the physi- cal background of childhood; and, thirdly, in the imme- diate environment of the youth. Differences due to heredity — that is, to family, to nation- ality or race, or to climatic conditions — are totally beyond human control; their interest lies only in the fact that one must reckon with them in directing the lives of the young. Social workers in the foreign quarters have come to recognize these national differences and have learned to throw protective measures about the children of some foreigners much earlier than would be necessary for our own American youths. The physical background of childhood is a determining factor in timing the developmental processes. A childhood that has been vigorous and healthful, that has been fur- nished with nutritious food, abundance of water and of fresh air, absence of undue nervous strain, and plenty ot 42 LEADERS OF YOUTH sleep as its daily lot has fortified itself against many of the misfortunes attendant upon changes at this period. Fur- thermore, such childhood is the best forerunner of normal development out of childhood's estate. Unfortified thus, the body, heavily loaded with the strain of building new tissue, developing new organs, and making new adjust- ments, finds its resources of nerve strength too severely taxed; and, instead of passing naturally through this expe- rience and rapidly getting the new life established, the physical organism yields a nervous, irritable, and capri- cious personality. When one finds such conditions existing among one's pupils one may suspect the cause as lying back in child- hood. At least that may be the cause. The corrective is to counteract such bad early living by encouraging nor- mal living, exercise, correct diet, and rest, and by getting the right bodily ideals established. One may find that for such persons the most religious service that can be ren- dered is in the nature of corrective physical living. For, strange as it may seem, the relation between irritability, nervousness, and caprice, on the one hand, and true. Christ- like living, on the other, is physical, and the method of self-control and of spiritual progress is in a large part through the physical substratum. If the relation between health and happiness is so inti- mate, what can one say of the foolish excesses permitted those who are in the process of making these physical changes? Throughout our land the high schools lay a heavy tax upon the vitality of youth, yet not too heavy if otherwise the life is wholesome. But in very many cases there is added to or permitted to be added to this tax the drain of music lessons, of dancing, of parties and socials, or of the highly stimulating "movies," until nature rebels. If the crisis is to be passed successfully, if the individual is to be given a fair chance to mature into a sound, healthy person, if his natural enthusiasms are not to be allowed to undermine his vitality, he must be safe- THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 43 guarded during just these years. The opportunities for vigorous outdoor living must be multiplied, the risks of overstimulation of the emotions and of the nerve fatigue must be reduced to a minimum, the diet must be whole- some, and rest abundant. Particularly must the physical processes of elimination function freely, lest the poisons tax too severely the already overstrained organism. Least of all should youth be expected spontaneously to care for itself. It feels the thrill of a new life and of superabundant energy. The parent, by wise counsel and restraint, and the teacher, by class comradeship and counsel, must be will and brains for growing youth. For, after all, normality and health are the desirable objectives during these years. Early maturing has the dis- advantage of throwing the maturing body into risks before mind and will have had time to fortify themselves; while a greatly delayed maturing of the body embarrasses its subject by leaving him childish when others of his years have passed on. These changes cannot be willed to suit one's prejudices, but there can be provided a wholesome life that will predispose the individual to normality both as to time of the inception of puberty and as to the development of the body during these trying years. 7. Irradiations of sex. There is a growing conviction that changes of a physical nature have influences far beyond the usual belief. For instance, the high emotionalism ensuing upon adolescence is undoubtedly due directly to this cause. With this and coupled with the wider social horizon comes the romanticizing of youth. The world is made anew. Adolescence is a rebirth of the individual, and in this rebirth the prosaic life of the past takes on new and beautiful coloring. Not only is the opposite sex endowed with qualities never before discovered, but nature not infre- quently is seen through new eyes. There is a beauty in the world not seen before. The quickening of the senses and the expansion of intellectual powers likewise arise from the newly developed life. A meaningfulness is found 44 LEADERS OF YOUTH such as was absent in the objective life of childhood, and self becomes introspective. Moral judgments are sharpened*. Religion, already discovered, finds new depths and heights. The age of conversion, or, better, the times of religious awakening, come just in these years, making adolescence the fruitful period for the religious leader. And the com- mingling of the various ideals and emotions is so intricate that many a youth is at a loss to know just where beauty or truth or religion or love separate themselves from one another. Besides keeping the body strong and well, the great end to be sought by every lover of youth should be to keep the emotions ana the mind clean through a variety of whole- some objective interests. Athletics, well-organized and wholesome fun, activities of service, all come in for a share in the program. Right ideas and right ideals toward self, toward others, and toward God fortify against many temptations and point the way toward noble living. But these ideals, backed by good health and abundance of whole- some mental, social, and physical interests, are doubly potential. At this age the worst foes to clean living and to religion are bad mental imagery, a devitalized body, and an introspective or self-centered life. Questions 1. Why is a thorough knowledge of sex necessary to the leader of youth? 2. Why are stimulants, narcotics, or general unhealthy conditions especially disadvantageous just as adolescence is entered upon? 3. What characteristic changes take place at the dawn of puberty? How does sex development differ with boys and girls? 4. Why do girls have fewer gangs than boys? 5. Is good health an objective toward which a Sunday- school teacher should guide his class? Give some good reasons for your answers. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 45 6. How do irradiations of sex manifest themselves at this age? Observation Note the relations of boys and girls of intermediate age; also of senior age. Which group is shy and embarrassed in the presence of the opposite sex? In which group do the sexes mix best? Are groups or individuals of the opposite sex sought? CHAPTER IV INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES A TEACHER of pupils of the teen years complained that although he knew the characteristics of the adolescent boy he did not know the characteristics of any member of his class. They were all so different from each other that no generalization, he contended, fitted any of them. This is the truth that all are sooner or later to discover. One who possesses a knowledge of the life and peculiarities of these years is thereby better fitted to deal with youth than one who, unacquainted with these facts, goes blindly at the task. But ere long he will find that, in addition to his general knowledge, he will have to master a knowledge of the peculiarities of each boy or each girl. Generalizations as to characteristics fit the individual much as a suit of clothes made to the dimensions of the "average" boy of fourteen fits the particular fourteen-year-old in your home or in your neighbor's. It is too big in spots, too small in others, and altogether out of harmony with the figure that you are trying to clothe. It is well, therefore, to take time to note in what some of these individual differences consist and to anticipate, so far as possible, the experiences one must meet as he faces the six to ten pupils who will make up his class. 1. Varieties in growtli. The first marked difference among pupils is the variation in growth. Somewhere be- tween the eleventh and fifteenth years each normal boy goes through a period of rapid physical development. This well-knov/ii fact may be looked for in the life of every adolescent. Frequently it is overlooked that the precise age at which the boy or girl will "shoot up like a bean pole" varies much with different individuals. Here is a boy 46 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 47 who begins his rapid growth at eleven, pauses at twelve, then takes a new start and keeps on growing, attaining his mature height at sixteen. Another in the same class does not begin his phenomenal "sky-rocketing" until his thir- teenth year, then, by gigantic effort, overtakes his fellow member at fifteen, continuing his upward towering until his eighteenth or nineteenth year. All sorts of variations as to bodily growth are found in these years. The result is that a group of thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boys or girls standing in a row form a very irregular "sky-line." One consequence of the variations under consideration is to put the individual in an anomalous light before his elders. One is "grown up" by appearance, yet may be only a boy in age and in his own estimate of himself. Another, delayed in bodily development, is by his experience a man. Those who are older can quickly realize the status of the members of their classes so as not to be deceived by mere size alone; but it is another matter to help the individual to adjust himself to these trying years of bodily expan- sion. His companions see something "awfully funny" in his elongated frame, in his awkward hands and feet. He be- comes "Skinny" or "Bones" or "Spike" and, while attempt- ing to accept the verdict of the group good-naturedly, inwardly wonders why he is not like other boys of his years. The quick rounding out of the figures of the girls con- ceals some of these discrepancies, but they are no more alike in bodily growth than are their brothers. Here too we must watch against hasty judgment based upon size. The biggest girl in the class may not be the most mature nor the most womanly. She may be the dullest, the most childish, the least experienced. She may need more cau- tious handling, more sympathy, than her slowly growing neighbor who has experienced no sudden transition from childhood to adult proportions. 2. Variations in maturity. Of deeper significance, however, than mere bodily growth is the amount of ma- 48 LEADERS OF YOUTH turity, of sex development, encountered among pupils. One matures early, another late, a difference of as much as four to five years being noticed in the inception of the process. As a physiological fact alone this difference is significant. As one recalls the amount of curiosity aroused by the change from childhood to youth, the temptations to satisfy the curiosity in doubtful ways, and to seek informa- tion from questionable sources, it becomes apparent that it does matter tremendously whether maturity comes early, in the middle period, or late. But, aside from the mere physical fact of maturity, this process affects the whole range of mental life. Physical maturing is the basis of mental maturing, and we may expect the two to go hand in hand. Is it not possible that one overlooks an important mental difference when one ignores progress in the physical maturity of one's pupils? How can one escape the conviction that the little boy among those who have matured is out of place or, at any rate, must receive different treatment from the more advanced? Certainly, as these physical causes of difference among our pupils are discovered, one is less inclined to expect the same results from each, readier to be charitable toward those whose variations are not of their own choosing. Perhaps as one learns to know the inner life of one's pupils one will be able the better to fit his teaching and leadership to their individual needs, to discover the developing personality, and to think less in "mass" terms of the class. 3. Variations in native capacity. No one can be long with growing youths without becoming conscious of native differences in capacity. Supposing all to be advanced enough to be considered normal in their mental attain- ments, still wide variations occur. Of the subnormal and mentally deficient it need only be said that they require special consideration and such grouping with others of their kind as to prevent their acting as a drag upon the class, on the one hand, and, on the other, to give them every INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 49 possible attention and advantage. But normal pupils are bright, mediocre, or dull, and the teacher must take recog- nition of these differences. The brighter and more for- ward are apt to monopolize attention and time. They are attractive and respond so quickly to teaching as to flatter conceit. On the other hand, the dull are so slow as to tax most severely his patience. Yet the dull may be, after all, only slow methodical minds, who do not "flash" but who by slow degrees attain such perfection as may be desired. Regardless of the causes of dullness, unless they are remov- able through better nourishment or physical treatment, these persons deserve one's best skill, lest an injustice be done them. The difficulty of the situation arises and becomes acute as one tries to hold the attention of the brighter minds while waiting and encouraging the mental processes of those who are slow. To recognize these dif- ferences and to attempt intelligently to meet the needs of each are the beginnings of real success in teaching. 4. The timid pupil. Nearly akin to what has just been discussed is the art of drawing out the timid pupil; for, as everyone has discovered, some pupils are timid. They may be bright or they may be dull, they may be the older members of the class, or they may be the younger. Their timidity may be constitutional or it may have been in- duced by too great repression at home or in school. What- ever the cause, there they are to be taught; and as good teaching demands expression from the pupil, these are often neglected for those more ready to answer questions or to take up the discussion and carry it forward. Here, again, is demanded the greatest skill, coupled with pro- found sympathy. The knowing teacher will discover ways of opening the closed lips, stimulating the mind to self- expression, and, by a look or a smile, by a word of encour- agement or a tactful question, will overcome self-conscious- ness and make easy the difficult process of social living and speaking. 5. Discovering and utilizing capacity. The alert 50 LEADERS OF YOUTH teacher will also discover latent talents among his pupils which exhibit inner differences of the mind. Aside from the lesson of Sunday the pupils will seek outlet for their energies in social, athletic, and other forms of activity and cooperation. Leaders will be in demand, though all cannot lead. Soon from among the number will be found "some who follow and some who command, though all be made of clay." This indicates differences in initiative in the group, and it may be discovered that those who are less glib in the recitation are the sturdier in executive ability, while the timid in the presence of others may show real initiative in carrying out the plans of the class. The midweek activities — the hikes, the games, the "club meetings," the socials, — become the opportunities for the teacher not alone to discover differences but to utilize the varying abilities displayed. Those who are suggestible may work under di- rection, while those who are original in their thinking processes may plan better than they can execute. Those who can execute may be poor leaders and deficient in initia- tive but able to "put things across" with speed and accuracy. During these very years, when no boy or girl truly knows himself, when the new life forces are surging up, unused and untamed, unrecognized by their possessor least of all, it is the glorious opportunity of the Sunday-school leader to discover the youth to himself, to strengthen the weak spots in his make-up, to draw out the best within him, and to be in such close sympathy that the teacher becomes the youth's second self. All this is delightful but possible only when he studies these individual peculiarities, learns to appreciate them and to discover the means of setting the new personality right in its own eyes and in the eyes of the class. 6. Differences due to home culture. Differences thus far observed have their sources largely, though not entirely. In the natural endowment of the individual. Other varia- tions demand attention — variations that arise from the INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 51 environment in which the pupil's life is cast. The group differences that grow out of social or economic stratifica- tions will be discussed later, but now one should look at certain attitudes and opinions that already are found in pronounced forms in the minds of some. Here, for instance, is a class of six girls, all of about the same age, graded as carefully as at the high school. One comes from a home in which the religious atmosphere is very manifest yet very natural; others come from homes of indifferent religious interest; while the last is from a home totally unfriendly to the church and to religion. These differences manifest themselves at once in the class work. The attitude of the first pupil is sympathetic and full of understanding. Her mind is stored with religious phrases and Biblical imagery. The whole background of her experience predisposes her to faithful, intelligent work and to a ready understanding of the teacher's viewpoint. How different is the last pupil from the one just described! Her whole past contributes little, if anything, to her reli- gious outlook, certainly nothing positive and helpful. Now, such sharp contrasts are not likely to occur in the same class. But one must ever be on the lookout to see what progress the pupils have made in religious growth and appreciation. It is not a question of having at their tongue tips so much Biblical information, good as that may seem; it is, rather, to discover how far their home and school life, their play and social relations have predisposed them favorably and intelligently toward the work we are to do. Of course, the least likely are the very ones to demand sympathy and help, but that is not the question now. First of all, in justice to the class and to himself, the teacher must know his pupils — their inner attitudes, prejudices, and mental imagery. And here are found as great individual divergencies as at any one point in all one's seeking. No wonder there is blundering when it is insisted that the same instruction, measured out in the same fashion, with no recognition of these differences, is 52 LEADERS OF YOUTH ample for the task. To assume knowledge that has never been acquired, emotions that have never been felt, sym- pathies that have not arisen, insight that has been impos- sible, and attitudes toward God and man that have never been cultivated is fatal to good teaching. What we need is to take stock of each pupil, to learn his capacities, discover his peculiarities, awaken his latent talents, arouse his emotions, create for him situations that shall call forth correct moral attitudes, environ him with right stimulations, open to him the channels of knowledge, and create within him noble desires. Too long have these youthful pupils been "just boys and girls." Now one must see that they are differing personali- ties, demanding the keenest understanding one possesses and insisting upon thoroughgoing companionship. Such un- derstanding and such companionship can come only as they are known as individuals. Questions 1. Note differences in size and in appearance of maturity of four or five boys or girls of the same age. Is the largest the most mature? Does size indicate leadership? 2. How would you treat the brightest pupil? Encourage him? Set him to work? Ignore him in order to help the duller ones? 3. Is timidity a sign of dullness? of brightness? of self- consciousness? How may the timid pupil be helped? Observation Observe a teacher with his class to see: (1) how he handles the timid and dull pupil; (2) whether the bright pupils monopolize his attention; (3) if each pupil finds himself a part of the group under instruction. CHAPTER V GROUP DIFFERENCES The old adage "Birds of a feather flock together" fur- nishes a fruitful text for the discussion of certain phases of the lives of the intermediate-senior pupils. It has seemed wise to point out some of the individual differences likely to be met in association with these young people. It is now time to note certain group differences that must be faced if you would endeavor to classify these same pupils. 1. Grouping by ages. To begin with, it may be said that where the size of the school seems to forbid close grading there must be such easy and natural assembling of pupils as will not completely defeat the ends of good teaching. Schools still exist which try the unfortunate practice of gathering all boys between twelve and seven- teen into one class, while girls of the same ages form another. Obviously this range of development is alto- gether too great to promise much comity of interest. Even though division seems to reduce the class to small propor- tions, it is better to put all those from twelve to fourteen into one class, those from fifteen to seventeen into another, making four classes in the place of the two. If the teachers of these smaller groups will study the interests of each class, will attempt to select lessons fitted to the intellectual development of its members, and will devise midweek activities suited to their tastes, a growth in numbers should presently be found, more than com- pensating for the division. For it must ever be kept in mind that during just these years life is going forward with amazing rapidity, and the older group of boys is far beyond those of the younger age. It is not impossible that the large class made up of miscellaneous ages from twelve 53 54 LEADERS OP YOUTH to seventeen is stagnant in its growth for the very reason that the teacher is attempting to do what is obviously Impossible — fit his choice of lesson material and his method of teaching to too wide a range of mental powers. A still further differentiation found most acceptable is to group two years together. Every such step comes closer to the ideal of a thoroughly graded school, which, after all, means only a school that is honestly trying to pro- vide each pupil with what is best fitted to his needs. But, in general, the self-evident fact remains that between these two extreme ages there are at least two separate groups quite distinct from each other. Nor need be repeated again the peculiar characteristics of each group; the contrast most obvious is the wider range of interests and the greater acquirement of self-direction in the older l^oys and girls. For everything that has been said upon this point concerning boys is equally true regarding girls. 2. Sex grouping. A second outstanding group differ- ence is determined by growing sex-consciousness. Without repeating the details of sex differences arising during these years, manifesting themselves in many ways, let it be noted that here there is every reason for keeping boys and girls apart in their class work, and no valid reason for ever putting them together. It is not only to satisfy the natural inclination of the sexes to draw apart that such division is urged but in order that personal problems aris- ing from the new social experiences may be given full, sympathetic, and frank discussion. On the other hand, the commingling of the pupils in wholesome recreative and philanthropic activities is quite as important for their social evolution as is their separa- tion for class instruction. For, after all, as one writer has wisely observed, God has ordered that we live in fami- lies, and not in monasteries. But even here, in their recrea- tive life, we shall find the common interests of boys with other boys and of girls with other girls more prevalent than those which draw the groups together. GROUP DIFFERENCES 55 3. The high-school group. Other groupings that we must observe arise from the nature of our social structure — perhaps we should say, rest in our economic fabric rather than in the pupils themselves. Attention has already been called to the two groups — those who go to school and those who labor, whose native interests are alike but whose acquired interests have diverged widely. It is necessary to look more closely at these two classes. The first distinction noted is the superior ability of the high-school boy or girl in handling the printed page. Con- stant practice in reading and daily familiarity with books make words, printed or written, easily understood symbols of thought. To read aloud in class causes no embarrass- ment; to study the lesson at home is no difficult task, albeit sometimes a reluctant one. To seek outside informa- tion from encyclopaedia or reference books is not impossible, either because of the labor involved in reading or because of ignorance of how to use such helps. Furthermore, the high-school student is accustomed to the routine of class work, is every day called upon to recite and to express his opinion, and has by this means gained confi- dence. Likewise, this practice has given him certain facility of utterance not possessed by his working comrade. All these things put those who are pursuing their educa- tional tasks at an advantage. Is it not likely that school, through its teaching of history and of literature, has given these a wider outlook and increased their stock of knowl- edge, so that references to passing events, to familiar quota- tions, to well-known historical personages, become at once understood and appreciated? In other words, the technique of study and of recitation, together with the results of such practice, lie ready to be utilized by the Sunday-school teacher. It must be still further recalled that these students come in large part from homes of sufficient refinement to value culture and to plan for the educational welfare of their children. No doubt many others would do the same did 56 LEADERS OF YOUTH economic necessity not compel otherwise. The fact is, however, that high-school students are a picked lot who continue their studies because their parents value school- ing. This means that these boys and girls have the advan- tage over the working group in the environment of their homes. And as only a part of the student life is found in our Sunday schools, we may presume that this portion comes from homes above the average in religious culture. It is safe to conclude, then, that the high-school group is made up of those who have the technique of education, know how to study and how to recite, and have the further advantage in the home of a constant environment of cul- tured and probably religiously inclined parents. If the Sunday school is to become a real school, as is so often repeated, then these will find themselves readily adap- table to its ways, while the teachers of these students will find their own work greatly lightened by the preparation of their students. 4. The employed group. The advantages, however, are not all on the side of the students. Business has its dis- ciplines too, and religion is something more than books. First comes the sense of reality which is too frequently absent from high-school work. The boy or girl who has stepped out to earn a living is no longer haunted with the thought that he or she is getting ready to live; life is being lived every day, and the things that are being done and are to be learned are vital things — vital to one's self- support and to one's advancement. Moreover, life is being lived in conjunction with other human beings, in conse- quence of which moral and religious problems possess a power lacking to those whose lives are more or less secluded. Again, life by these youths is being passed in groups, most of whose members are adults, with whose viewpoints they are brought daily into contact, whose standards of moral and personal living are ever vividly before them. No one who has dealt with the street urchin or with those GROUP DIFFERENCES 57 whose lives have been cast where wit is necessary to suc- cess need be told that these boys and girls are old for their years, able to "shift for themselves," before the age of one whose life has been determined for him. What they lack in breadth as compared with their student friends they fre- quently compensate for in quickness of perception and in penetration beyond the artificial and the unreal. 5. Adjusting the department to tliese groups. Keep- ing in mind that all shades of differences exist in the mem- bers of each group, what is the worker with intermediates or seniors to do? How far shall he take recognition of these group differences, wrought out of our economic life? Inasmuch as each group has its own interests and its own kind of life, it would seem but wise to separate the groups for teaching as much as possible. One advantage of such separation is better selection of lesson material to fit the needs of the group. Such selection comes in two directions: first, in the choice of textbooks that are verbally adapted to the group it has been found that the working boy requires a more restricted vocabulary and a narrower range of historical and literary allusions; secondly, in the topics and subjects for study one needs to consider the moral and religious atmosphere of the working group and to seek such material as shall compel interest and stimu- late real thinking. Lessons prepared for high-school stu- dents are not wisely adapted to the needs of those whose days are spent in acquiring not knowledge but primarily wealth. Just as truly as the high schools of our land have discovered that the curriculum must be fitted to the need of groups among their student bodies, so in these depart- ments such lesson material must be found as shall meet the requirements, intellectual and religious, of the students. A second advantage in such segregation of these groups is found in the common interests of those in the same group and the unlike interests of industrial and school pupils. Clothing, speech, free time for recreation, and types 58 LEADERS OF YOUTH of "good times" are likely to vary to an extent that would defeat attempts to coalesce the groups. The objection most often raised to such segregation pro- gram is that it tends to increase still further the social cleavage of our land. It is essentially undemocratic. The better plan, say such critics, is to throw those of diverse social or economic strata together, thus cementing the social body more firmly. Unfortunately, it is necessary here to meet a condition, as one of our Presidents said of states- manship, rather than a theory. What is endeavored in these groupings is to give each group a fair and an equal chance. The Sunday school cannot do the work of the public school, nor is it responsible for the intellectual short- comings of some nor for the social precocity of others. Furthermore, one has still to remember that the depart- ment as a whole is to function as well as are the classes; and in its functioning, in its worship, its recreation, its service for others, is found a common footing of reverence, play, and service, which shall bind all elements into one Christian whole. Here divergent interests and varying capabilities will be brought together, each contributing to the welfare of all. Perhaps hitherto too much attention has been paid to the high-school students in the Sunday school, providing les- sons readily assimilable by them, thus neglecting the very elements for which the foregoing critics most contend. Is it not possible that among other causes of the neglect of Sunday school by working boys and girls one is to be found in the school's negligence to meet their needs, to recog- nize their own problems, and to discover their genuine interests? It is essential, therefore, to study each group as a group, perceive its interests, know its environment, analyze for it its life, and be able to minister to its needs. 6. The rural boy and girl. A still further group de- manding attention is made up of the youths who remain on the farm. Many farmers' sons and daughters during these years leave the homes to make up the groups already GROUP DIFFERENCES 59 considered. Some come to the city to study, taking advan- tage of the better educational facilities there found. Others seek employment in the industrial centers, in factories, stores, or oflEices. But the larger number are still found on the farms. These vary in their educational progress all the way from the grades up to the students in the county high schools or in the near-by city schools or academies. Once again let it be noted that these boys and girls have the same natural interests as their brothers and sisters in the cities. Differences arise entirely from their environ- ment. On the one hand, as a w^hole they are less advanced in technical education, due to the poverty of educational advantages in the rural sections. Their social horizon is also more restricted. The opportunities for social fellow- ship, for organized play and recreation, are much less frequent. Further, the ever-repeated revival has put a pre- mium upon certain emotional types of religion which dis- count the value of religious education, and these boys and girls are already becoming susceptible to such attitudes. The Sunday school has not taken such deep hold in rural as in urban life. On the other hand, it should be said that rural religion is vital even where its conservatism discourages scholar- ship; and the family is still central in the religious life of the community. The Bible is revered, and the youth is taught respect for things religious. Moreover, social de- mands are less insistent and frequent, giving the Sunday school a peculiar social opportunity. Nor should be over- looked the initiative that farm life demands. Early these youths are taught self-reliance. They must meet Nature and learn to deal with her in a practical way if they woulcr "get on." All these experiences develop that individuality that is so refreshing in the lives of country boys and girls. These considerations indicate that the teachers of inter- mediates and seniors in the rural Sunday schools must meet problems quite peculiar to themselves. Lesson mate- rial must be chosen in view of the educational restrictions 60 LEADERS OF YOUTH of the pupils. Lessons stressing the social rather than the emotional and personal side of religious life are to be desired. In a group in which social organization and living have been little practiced leadership must be sought most carefully and most diligently developed. Plans for recrea- tion must be attempted again and again before group play and group activity show signs of true enjoyment. The brain must be cudgeled to discover forms of social service, that religion may become truly socialized. And, not least, the religious implication of much that is considered com- mon if not useless must be revealed. It is true that all this needs doing for the city boys and girls too. There is no denying that. But in the country far more than in tlie city social religion and expertness in social cooperation are sadly lacking. Before these things can be fully accomplished there is need to go at the task of supplying rural Sunday schools with housing adequate to such a program and of providing lesson material that shall interpret country life to its pupils as fully and as well as does much of the present literature interpret city life to the urban boy and girl. Fortunately, with the rural tele- phones, better roads, the automobile, better schools, wider distribution of books and periodicals, and the general rise of intellectual and social living, the differences between these youths of the country and those of the city are disap- pearing; but as yet this element in our Sunday schools is still a group to itself, demanding special attention and consideration. Questions 1. What reasons can you think of for keeping the sexes apart in the class work? Do the same reasons apply to the social and recreational life of the department? 2. Name some advantages the high-school group possesses for study and recitation. What advantages in the larger experiences of life have those in the working group? GROUP DIFFERENCES 61 3. What demands does the rural boy or girl lay upon the teacher? Observation If possible, visit two classes — one made up of high-school students, and the other of factory or business youth — noting their relative interest, lesson attention, ability to handle the printed page, and to discuss the lesson. CHAPTER VI GOD IN THE LIFE OP YOUTH "So near is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers low 'Thou must!' The youth replies, 'I can!'" Two paradoxes confront workers with youth: First, this is the time of highest moral idealism, of religious conver- sions, and of gathering into church membership; secondly, it is the time of all others when criminal careers are en- tered upon. Such astounding divergencies in character- building, coming as they do at precisely the same time, give one reason to pause and reflect. How is it possible that out of the same fountain of youth come waters bitter and sweet? 1. The crystallization of character toivard the good. To see more clearly the crystallization of character going on during these years let us look at some data gathered by various investigators. Coe' has collected and examined some seventeen hundred experiences of Christian men and women, predominantly men, who have passed the age of adolescence. These individuals are distributed as follows: graduates from Drew Theological Seminary, 776; Young Men's Christian Association officers, 526; conversion cases examined by Professor Starbuck, 51; spontaneous cases, same author, 75; members of the Rock River Conference, 272; Coe's own cases, 84; total, 1,784. Collecting all the ages of conversion or of religious awakening and striking an average, we have sixteen and four-tenths years as the age at which these persons were awakened to a new life which definitely decided their future moral and religious careers. ^ Spiritual Life, Chapter I. 62 GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 63 "Billy" Sunday in his campaigns has repeatedly called for show of hands as to the age of conversion, this call resulting invariably in discovering that the overwhelming proportion of those in his vast audiences began under twenty to mold their lives after their conception of the Christian pattern. Nor must we think that religious awakening is always identified with the revival. Not infrequently it is spontaneous and altogether inde- pendent of revival influences or other pressure from outside. One young lady relates that at the age of fourteen, while she was walking in a neighbor's garden, suddenly the thought came to her that she had passed from death unto life. There were no especial emotional manifestations, yet this event she has always looked upon as a decisive one. In general, at this age the child's ordinary religious customs and beliefs assume some new aspects. They be- come matters of greater moment, more vitally interesting, more full of feeling. The ordinary services of the church or the ordinary acts of devotion may become fraught with the most weighty import.^ These cases clearly indicate that, so far as they are con- cerned, a definite and conscious crystallization of forces making for good character was going on in these years. Have we as clear indication of a parallel precipitation of the evil forces that go toward the making of an antisocial and evil character? 2. The crystallization of character toward the evil. Dr. Healy, who has made a close study of more than a thousand delinquents in order to understand the factors that entered into their delinquent careers, has found that in large part these offenders began their unfortunate prac- tices in their youth.^ They may not have become actual delinquents in the technical sense until after their ma- jority; but as Dr. Healy has set about attempting to unravel the causes of their moral obliquities he has had to go back ^ Coe, Spiritual Life, pagea 49, 50. 2 The Individual Delinquent. 64 LEADERS OF YOUTH and retrace their youthful careers, finding therein, more fre- quently than not, the seeds of later derelictions. After de- ducting all those whose delinquencies root primarily in absolute mental subnormality we find those whose nor- mality should have promised usually good conduct tak- ing their first downward step in the very years under consideration. All that is attempted by the foregoing illustrations either of early and youthful bent toward religion and higher moral attainment or toward immorality and delin- quency is to show that these are pregnant years for the moral and religious future of the race. If it is argued that in either direction extreme cases have been taken — in the one those which have eventuated in specially religious per- sonalities, in the other those which have passed con- siderably from the paths of rectitude, if not entirely beyond the pale of the law, — it may be replied that the choice makes no difference with the point involved. Those are decisive years, whether the decisions are more or less dramatic. Even those who have slipped quietly out of childhood into maturity with no apparent stress or strain in the moral and religious development look back upon these years as the period when characters were in incuba- tion, when they and their youthful companions began to make choices that in the intervening time have determined the varying careers that have ensued. They were years when habits were being fixed, moral viewpoints established, com- panionships determined, ideals discovered. Those whose memories are good are in large numbers able to cite certain turning points, milestones in their development when the forming of a friendship, the reading of a book, the meet- ing of a temptation successfully or unsuccessfully, the change of a residence and the reaction to a new environ- ment, or the seeming accidental situation awakened new moral and religious life or, on the contrary, became the means of deadening one's finer sensibilities or the indul- gence of desire unwholesome to the future moral life. GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 65 3. How character is formed: habit. That these are formative years, morally and religiously, that during this time crises may arise — indeed, are likely to arise — leading to the making or the misshaping of character, all will likely agree. The leader of youth may perceive that this is the time of opportunity, that these days are in a special sense, fraught with spiritual significance and destiny. But is it clear how he may work with God, with nature, and with the personality of the youth himself to the largest and best ends? What is the relation between the orderly pro- cesses of habit formation and the explosive emotional readjustment of life's ideals and life's conduct? Is God as truly in the former process as in the latter, and, if so, where? And has conversion a physical, emotional, and tem- peramental background, or is it "spiritual," transcendent, and unrelated to the rest of the natural life of youth? These are not idle questions, but must be answered in fact if not in words in the kind of efforts put forth on behalf of the spiritual welfare of these early-adolescent boys and girls. First of all one must look squarely at the facts of moral life. In the chaos that follows upon the advent into ado- lescence from childhood one of the first essentials is to get. right habits fixed. These good habits are the bulwark against the many temptations that assail in later days. Without stopping at this time to ask how these good habits, are to be formed let us see what habits are especially desirable. Bodily habits come first. The youth needs to possess himself of such habits of bodily cleanliness, of proper food mastication, of sleep, and of exercise, that the physical organism can withstand the strains, physical and moral, put upon it. Bad physical condition is a large contributing cause to delinquency. Carious teeth send poison through the body; defective eyesight causes nervousness through eye strain; poor elimination causes poisons producing de- pression and melancholy; underexercise promises devital- ^66 LEADERS OF YOUTH ization and listlessness; narcotics and stimulants share in throwing the physical being out of joint/ Good mental habits are as vital as are good bodily habits. "Lack of healthy mental interests"^ and "bad mental im- agery"^ are two large contributing factors in delinquency, as Healy finds. The first means that the mind having no healthy interests to focus itself upon is allowed to catch at the first excitement or what promises excitement, regardless of results. For the mind of youth is ever alert to get some- thing out of life. If left unnourished by healthy interests, it will seize upon whatever offers itself. "Bad mental imagery" consists in the tendency of the mind to hold such pictures before it as lead to thieving, violence, and other forms of criminality or of antisocial conduct. Habits of honesty in property and in speech are likewise essential elements in social living second to none. Failure to acquire those habits militates more than all else against adjusting oneself to the business and social environment in which this age finds itself. Property rights especially are highly respected in our moral thinking, and truth- fulness is constantly increasing as a requirement in our social intercourse. Added to the foregoing are habits of efficiency and self- control. In our present life the* determination to "get things done," to achieve, makes attention, application, and quick adaptability to new situations imperative. Self-con- trol is involved in any real success. For the time one must give up those hair-breadth dis- tinctions between morals and religion. For the world of boys and girls the moral becomes religious, and the reli- gious must become always moral. To help create good moral and bodily habits in youth is not "merely moral" nor "merely physical"; it is true progress in spiritual things. What is sought is a wholesome body as a physical » Healy, The Individual Delinquent, Chapters III, IV, V, Part II. i/bid., Chapter VII. *Ibid., Chapter IX. GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 67 basis for intellectual, moral, and religious living, a mind kept clean and active through healthy mental interests, sincerity in word and deed, and efficiency and self-control. Such habits do not come in a single day; they are built up slowly through the years of childhood, but they become per- sonal in a new way in the days of youth. Before, one has been directed; now, one must choose for himself. Nor need we forget that these habits are the product of a compli- cated set of factors. The home life sets its own moral living before the child, and he soon accepts its standards and forms his habits under its tutelage.' The community has its standards also, and these are more or less insistent upon moral living. But youth must test those standards of childhood for himself, adopt some, reject others, and habituate himself to what finally become truly his. Need it be said that into the final process enter some of the ideals held before him — ideals that have never been attained but are ever striven for? Or, rejecting these, he sinks to the level more easily attained, with greater or less re- luctance. 4. Habits and spiritual living. All this is very com- monplace, very well known. Why, then, repeat? Only because it is so often forgotten that contributing to right habits is just so far contributing to spiritual develop- ment. Let us say it reverently: It is getting God into the lives of these boys and girls. For note that the kind of God we want them to know is a God of order, of clean- liness and nobility, of sincerity and of self-control. He dest knoivs that kind of God who participates in that kind of life. Whatever the Sunday school does to cultivate right relations between the young, to inspire clean thinking and wholesome acting, to set personal and social ideals before these young people which shall inspire to higher endeavor is part of its program of training in religion. Habits come through repeated actions. Actions are repeated which give satisfactions. Now, it is the province of the Sunday school '76id., Chapter VI. 68 LEADERS OF YOUTH to make right actions, right fun, right social living, right athletics, so satisfying that they shall become habitual. This is not something added to the Sunday-school pro- gram to catch boys and girls and hold them in the school; it is part of the plan to work with God in his great enterprise of making Christian men and women. This means obviously that the Sunday school and its leaders will be most zealous supporters of clubs, recrea- tional programs, athletic contests, and of all other means of wholesome interests and earnest living. The spiritual development of youth is wrought out in attention to the duties and pleasures of home, of school, of the "gang," the club, or the clique, in the choice of amusements and reading. Here he is getting his bent. 5. Character formation throiigli awakening. But this unconscious crystallization of character is not the whole story. Surely the records of conversions, awakenings, storm-and-stress experiences, the quickenings of spiritual, intellectual, and moral life, are too abundant to leave one in doubt. Unfortunately these more dramatic climaxes of character building have demanded undue attention. They have, because of their very unusualness, assumed propor- tions altogether too great. Not that they have not been pivotal in the individual, but they have been standardized as the type to which all must come. And, more, they have appeared so mysteriously that they have been chosen as the clear indications of the presence of the divine. Now, what are the facts? First, it should be noted that such awakenings are not confined to the spiritual life, in the narrower sense, nor to the Christian faith, nor to those branches of the Christian Church which demand the conversion experience. They are characteristic of certain types of adolescent and later growth. They cut laterally through all religions among certain individuals during adolescent and later years. They are, however, more common among those commu- nions which specialize in these experiences and, therefore. GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 69 may become products of special propaganda. They are found more often among persons of certain temperament and so should be classed with other phenomena of mental life. And, lastly, it should be noted that they are by no means universal even among those in the denominations in which such experiences are capitalized. Many Methodists, cannot testify to such experiences, although their lives wit- ness to the fact that they attain true Christian living.' Only one whose mind is warped by theological prejudice can read the accumulated evidence and fail to see that conversion conforms to psychological laws and, conse- quently, is no more and no less miraculous than the crystallization of character through slower and less dra- matic channels. Further, as has been discovered, conver- sion experience is not unrelated to the will nor to the normal activities of the mind. The conclusion is obvious, then, that sudden conversion is the normal experience of some adolescent individuals, that its mechanism is according to well-known laws of the .mind; that it is altogether absent among others of the same age who pass on to clearly accepted Christian living, and that its presence or absence is more dependent on the temperament and spiritual surroundings of the individual than on his personal deserts. That God is found in these experiences is not for a moment to be questioned, nor that "spiritual graces" are bestowed through them. That they are pivotal points in the spiritual lives of many cannot be refuted, nor is there a desire to minimize in the least their profound trans- forming power. But God is not to be found because here is a departure from the uniform laws of the Deity; rather he is discovered, as in the less dramatic building of char- acter, in the spiritual product that ensues. In either case it is the power of moral and spiritual ideas and ideals to transform life and to make it conform to the standards iSee Spiritual Life, Coe, Chapters I, III; also The Psychology of Religion, Starbuck, Chapters IV, VII, VIII, XXIV. 70 LEADERS OF YOUTH of Christ, to bring the individual "into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," that is to determine whether God is or is not present. 6. liife decisions. One thing, however, must be kept clearly in mind: this is the time of life decisions. Now, the youth must be led to make his own, personal, positive, and conscious choice of Jesus Christ as his Friend and Saviour. Whether this decision is brought about dra- matically, with great emotional convulsions, or more delib- erately but with an undercurrent of genuine feeling, the decision must be made. For now these boys and girls have reached the age when their natures call them to shape their own lives, to seek ideals, to identify them- selves consciously with the persons and institutions that embody these ideals. The tremendous dynamic in their moral and spiritual progress is to be found in devotion to Christ. To him they must be brought to yield volun- tarily their finest and noblest devotion. Naturally they will want to identify themselves with his church as a means of bringing about his purpose in themselves and in the social life of this world. These are years of vital importance to the moral and spiritual uplift of these pupils. The spiritual leader of youth must help them find interests tremendously compelling while they are wholesome and character-forming, establish- ing thereby good habits of bodily care, or mental activity, and of social enthusiasms. In all this God is in the pro- cess. He must also help youth find Jesus Christ and make him the center of their noblest aspirations and the con- fidant in all their plans. Whether this discovery of the Christ is dramatic, whether the eyes of youth be suddenly opened to see Jesus, or whether he is a growing discovery makes no difference; but it does make a tremendous differ- ence whether or not he is discovered, and whether the life of the boys or girls is made to yield to his leadership. Fur- ther, the discovery to become real and potential must be consciously made and publicly revealed by allying oneself GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 71 with those persons and institutions that stand for his cause. In all this, in the growing consciousness of youth, in his social awakening as well as in his moral and spirit- ual development, God is in the process, revealing himself in the life which is being transformed into the likeness of the Master Jesus Christ. Questions 1. In thinking of your own experience note the age at which each religious awakening occurred. How far do these experiences confirm what is said in the early para- graphs? 2. If you live in a county seat, you may be able to learn the ages at which various criminals were sentenced. How far do these findings indicate that evil character is crystal- lizing during adolescence? 3. Name some desirable habits that should be formed during these years. 4. How do religious awakenings tend to crystallize char- acter? Can God be in a process that is natural? 5. Why should life decisions to follow Christ be made during intermediate-senior years? CHAPTER VII YOUTH AND THE CHURCH So closely is Christianity identified with the organized church that attention must definitely be given to the problem of the relation of youth to its membership, its instruction, its institutions, and its life. How does the church appeal to youth? What natural interests seek satisfaction throughout its ministries? How should the church go about the task of answering the religious and social needs of adolescence? 1. The child and the church. In childhood the church is accepted as a matter of fact. The attitude of the child reflects the attitude of the home. If the home is sym- pathetic toward the church, and the child is reared in the same spirit, the church soon becomes an object of interest. On the other hand, if the family is indifferent or hostile, the church may stand outside the immediate interests of the child. In either case the relation is largely reflected. This does not mean that the relation then existing is indif- ferent as regards later religious development. Quite the contrary, the attitude in childhood of sympathetic interest or of indifference may in later years color all the relations of the individual. But there is nothing as yet of a highly personal kind. 2. Social impulses and church membership. With the dawning of adolescence there awakens the social im- pulse. What has been an accepted relation becomes charged with personal significance. The church comes to typify certain religious ideas. The invitation to fellowship with the members of the church becomes a personal invitation. Not infrequently the contagion of the group adds to the weight of the more intimate desire to identify oneself with 72 YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 73 those who make up its membership. Others join the church, and as they belong to our group, we too are con- fronted with the question "Why not I?" The awakening of the social impulse means that one has arrived at the stage at which uniting his individual self with others in a common endeavor is satisfying. One wants to belong to this and to that largely because the "belonging" yields happiness. There is a certain sense of personal expansion in this identification with the larger group. Now, the church, representing to us religious thought and emotion, is the larger group to which attachment is made for the sake of enlarging one's religious personality. Not that the situation is analyzed; we only know at this age that we "want to belong." Perhaps we should be at a loss to give any valid reasons for our joining. Likely a phrasing of the matter, if one were pressed, would be of the con- ventional sort that has been learned from those older. But the awakening social impulse has swept many into the current of the larger religious group, and this thrill of social contact is what they are content with, at least for a time. It goes without saying that at this age the "church of our choice" is the only church of which one has any intimate knowledge. We are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, or Catholics because in one of the above institutions we have found the best-known social-religious group. 3. Emotions and church membership. Somewhat above the level of social contagion of the simpler sort is found the tide of religious emotionalism that sweeps many into the life of the church. In this case the new reli- gious life, the awakening, or conversion has given religious enthusiasm a new meaning. One is in love with God and with his people; and as naturally as one turns to one's family for understanding and sympathy in time of trouble or of joy so one turns to the family life of the church to secure the sympathetic understanding of what had just happened within and expresses within its family life the 74 LEADERS OF YOUTH new hopes and ideals. This gathering with our fellows in religious enlargement is quite as uncritical as was its predecessor. It is likely to come at a little later period of life, say from thirteen to eighteen, but individual differ- ences are so great that no dates can be fixed. Those who enter into church fellowship in their earlier years, say from ten to eighteen, are most apt to be carried in on this tide of uncritical social feeling. If church mem- bership is delayed, the more critical faculties exercise them- selves, and one may ask himself concerning the mode of entering, discover differences in the form of admission that loom large on the moral horizon, question the form of church life and administration, and stumble at credal requirements. Here the problems confronting the youth may be so insoluble that membership is postponed, perhaps indefinitely. 4. Religious fellowship. It is seen then that the church represents to youth a religious-social fellowship en- tered into because of the rise of the general social demand for fellowship; or because of the more intensely emotional upheaval in the inner life calling for like religious asso- ciations; or, at a later period, because critically this insti- tution is believed best fitted to meet our religious needs, intellectual as well as social. But this word "fellowship" must not be defined too nar- rowly. In the commingling of two in social intercourse there is the combining of two minds, the joint product being discussion. There is also the warmth we call fellow- ship if, as is supposed, we have in this intercourse common interests. This warmth is something more than cold dis- cussion. The quality of the intellectual flow is different by reason of this "something more." When one speaks of Christian fellowship one means likewise something more than mere assembling together. True, the fellowship reaches out to embrace all participants in one common feeling that is enhanced by group contagion; it also reaches out to the object of its fellowship and embraces fellowship YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 75 vlication, F. A. Tal- bot. Boat Building and Boating, D. C. Beard. Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties, D. C. Beard. Wireless Man, F. A. Collins. Airman, F. A. Collins. Harper's Aircraft Book, A, H. Verrill. Book of Wireless, F. A. Collins. Appreciation Books Hoiv to Understand Music, W. Mathews. Stories From the Operas, Davidson. Stories of Hymns and Tunes, Brown-Butterworth. A Child's Guide to Pictures, C. H. CliafRn. Hoiv to Pi'oduce Amateur Plays, Barrett-Clark. Plays of the Pioneers, MacKaye. General Books Manuals of the Scouts (both Boy and Girl), Camp Fire Girls, and Girl Pioneers will be found of great aid. Also Woodcraft 3Ianiial for Girls; Handbook for Girl Scouts, etc. Questions 1. What kind of books besides fiction do pupils of these departments like? 2. Why should many good books be accessible to the young? 3. How may interest in a book be created? 4. What harm is there in innocent but cheap reading? 5. Name five good stories and five books not fiction which you could recommend to a fourteen-year-old boy; to a fourteen-year-old girl. Observation Get five or six boys each to give you a list of ten books that they especially like. This will enlarge your knowledge of the reading interests of your pupils and will furnish you an excellent opportunity to talk over the reading inter- ests with the young. PART III INSTRUCTING THE INTERMEDIATE-SENIOR CHAPTER XVIII LESSON MATERIALS FOR INTERMEDIATES 1. HoxjT lesson material is chosen. The choice of les- son material for any department is no longer the result of arbitrary decree but the product of careful investiga- tion of the capacities and the interests of the pupils, and of the end sought by the teacher. Whatever the end sought, the material must meet the requirements of fitting the in- tellectual development and satisfying the interests of those taught. The end will determine whether the matter fall within the realm of nature study, mathematics, history, science, religion, or what not. The end in the present case is obviously the moral and religious growth of the pupils. This determines somewhat the content of the course of study. What shall be selected to gain that end — whether history, geography, mythology, science, art, or fictional stories — will depend on how far each may enter into the pupil's interests and draw out his awakening sense of religious life and worth. Inasmuch as the English Bible, both in content and in phraseology, is the sourcebook of our Anglo-Saxon religious experience, it is a foregone conclusion that within its covers one shall find much that is best fitted to aid the adolescent in under- standing his own religious nature and in helping him find his place in a world that should be thoroughly Christian. 2. The graded lessons for intermediates. The present International Graded Lessons are the result of just such painstaking study of the life and needs of these pupils, and the content and method of presentation of the lessons are built upon sound and tried principles of religious teaching. A glance at the accompanying chart will furnish a rapid survey of the attempt to meet the needs of each age. 187 188 LEADERS OF YOUTH ORGANIZATION CHART AGE COURSE TITLES OF COURSES DtpirtiMtol Cro«p. Sdiooi Glide* PUfll PUa2 4 5 BEGIN. MERS The Little Child and the Heavenly Father (A Two Year Course for chUdren of Kindergarten age.) BEGIN- NERS BEGIN- NERS KINDER. GARTEN is !! t ? c I 8 L C 2 \ E. 6 I Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home-Year x PRI- MARY PRI- MARY 7 n Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home- Year 2 8 m Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home-Ye«r 3 9 IV Stories from the Olden Time ^"^'="^%f[?^,f) ^ " JUNIOR JUNIOR 10 V Hero Stories (including Special Summer Material) n VI Kingdom Stories (including Special Summer Material) 12 vn Gospel stories (including Special Summer Material) INTES- MEDUTE 13 vm Leaders of Israel fmcluding Special Summer Material) INTCR- MEDUTt 14 IX Christian Leaders (including Special Summer Material) 15 X The Life of Christ (including Special Summer Material) SENIOR i6 XI Christian Living (including Special Summer Material) 17 xn The World a Field for Christian Service SENIOR i8 xm The History and Literature of the Hebrew People YOUNG PEOPLE TO 24 YEARS 12. 20 XIV The History of New Testament Times XV The Bible and Social Living Special Courses for Parents and Elective Courses on Special Topics ADULT THE COURSES BEGIN WITH OCTOBER NOTE Plan 1 : When the Graded Lessons were first issued the yearly courses were grouped to correspond to this well-known classification of pupils, and the text books were marked in accordance with this plan. Plan 2 : The departmental grouping by a series of three years to a department corresponds to the school grading where Junior High Schools have been organized and is now recom- mended by many denominations. Where Sunday schools are organized by this plan care must be taken to select the Graded C