The Renaissance of Bob
- Author:
Ciiaeles Keen Tayloe,
Philadelphia, Pa.
When I first noticed Bob, be was seated at a desk in a far corner of a class-room. Though bis dark bead was bent over a book, I was aware that a lively pair of eyes were keeping a sly look-out. ISTow and then something scandalous would happen in that corner, but the keenest observation would show nothing more suspicious than a boy, with an expression of cherubic innocence, bending over a book. Naturally I was attracted toward that boy, and before long we became very good friends. As the friendship developed, it became evident that the lad had many characteristics, which were not visible to the average observer, and perhaps not even to his own parents.
First, he seemed unable to concentrate his attention for any reasonable length of time upon whatever work he had on hand. Then, though his age was about the average of the class, he held a position quite below the middle, and there can be little doubt that he would have ranked perilously near the foot of the class, had be been denied the surreptitious assistance of his companions. In other words, he “cribbed” extensively. So, you see, the boy was somewhat backward in his work, with a strong tendency to become still more so, and his ideals were not very high as to the value of honest endeavor.
Secondly, he seemed to lack self-control. No one wants to say that a boy is afflicted with “nerves,” and yet Bob’s restlessness, fidgeting, and momentary outbreaks could be attributed to no other cause.
Thirdly, when he shook hands with you, you noticed that his hand had no grip, and that it was cold and moist. And this seemed to be in keeping with the fact that he rarely joined with his companions in their sports?neither football nor baseball appealed to him. In fact, he had little physical or mental stamina, and did not “last” long under sustained effort of any kind. Fourthly, he did not seem to have any real chums among the boys of his class, and what boys he did go with were distinctly of a low order.
Had he no good points ? Surely. He was very affectionate, very gentle with his younger brothers and sisters, and very fond of reading good books. At times he was most attractive, and certain fine qualities he revealed made it evident that though he was far from the straight path of normal and healthy boyhood, there was something anyway upon which one could build.
His condition was the result of several causes. The nervous symptoms, the restlesssness, and the “short wind,” along with the mediocre scholarship, are frequently the signs of a boy’s using tobacco. A little questioning proved this fact,?he had been smoking steadily for two years. Of course, his parents had no idea of any such extensive indulgence. The whole physical and mental lassitude, however, pointed to something still more serious than smoking. One day we took a walk in the country, and in the course of the walk he came to tell of many things. I believe he would rather have died than have told his father concerning them. Need one detail what he said ? It is an old, old story, and a sad one, for those who work with boys. Briefly, then, he had been in the grip of unspeakably bad habits since his twelfth year? he was now fourteen and a half?and in that time no one had extended a hand to him to lift him out of his troubles. If you who are reading this happen to be a parent, you are perhaps becoming restive. You wonder, first of all, why the writer should expect any general interest in such an exceptional case, and you feel sure that, at any rate, your boy … You need not continue, madam. Your boy, of course, be he ten or fifteen years old, knows nothing of such evils, so of course you have never warned him against them, lie has naturally avoided all unclean things “instinctively,” and is as pure and as sweet as a snow-white lamb! Well, perhaps he is. I hope so most devoutly. But it so happens that Bob’s parents thought the very same thing of Bob.
First of all, are you quite certain that your boy does not smoke? It is estimated that thirty-eight per cent of all fourteenyear-old boys smoko, so your boy has some leeway here, it is true. No unclean habits ? Are you so sure ? Perhaps you are not aware that at fifteen years, nine out of ten boys have become unpleasantly acquainted with such tilings. Judging you by the average parent, I am pretty sure that you have never talked to your son on such subjects, and you have not done so either because you have simply neglected the matter, or more probably because you were cursed with a false modesty that would be ridiculous were it not criminally serious. I know what I am talking about, for of the dozens of boys, fallen boys, whose condition has been made known to me, only one in ten ever received any sensible warning.
This is not a pleasant subject, is it? It is not nice to talk about such things, even though the majority of the youth of the nation is cursed in consequence! You, sir, are willing enough to declaim upon the immorality of the times,?the business, the civic, and the private immorality, but of warnings to your own son concerning such things, not one word! So your boy takes all the tremendous curiosity of adolescence to the boy around the corner, and instead of gaining such pure and high conceptions of the complexities of life as you should give him, he learns dangerous and terrible distortions and perversions, which eat in and damage the very inner life of his soul. And all the while you may be blissfully ignorant of his condition, though you may wonder why the lad does poorly at school, avoids manly sports, fidgets, scolds, and finds life a burden.
And so we come back to Bob, whose father was the average parent. First of all, he did not see any real necessity for talking with his son upon such subjects, and secondly he did not “like” the idea of talking upon them. Yet for two years dangerous habits had been undermining all the boy’s mental, moral, and physical stamina, and he was in a fair way to destroy such chances as remained of ever becoming clean and mentally normal again. Remember, too, that in a short time a boy may make himself quite clean, but it means a long, weary struggle before the physical and mental stamina return to their desecrated temples! A boy can do little to help himself unless he has a desire to improve. If Bob had had no such desire, the first step would have been to encourage the formation of one. But fortunately Bob did desire very much to be clean, to be strong, and to stand well in class, only he lacked the stamina necessary to break off from his old ways, and to resume newer and, for the time, harder ones. Physical strength, by a kind of “reflex,” is a prominent factor in mental or moral strength. So Bob’s desire for strength was developed by giving him, first, a strong interest in his own bodily defects and the methods for overcoming them. As is common with boys in his condition, Bob had really no lungs worth mentioning, also his shoulders were bent, his head drooped, and he had no physical endurance. The whole ground was gone over with the boy, much as one would plan a campaign against a dangerous enemy. Simple exercises were given him to develop the lungs, and the muscles most in need of improvement. Meanwhile, continual interest in him, and strongly expressed encouragement, enabled him to throw off his dangerous habits. Ilis rapidly developed breathing capacity, muscular strength and new interests gave liim the foundations of self-control, and though it is now three years since the struggle began, there has been no backsliding, and the danger may be considered over.
This work began in February. By the end of May, Bob was so much improved that he went into the school athletics, taking up “track” work. lie was not yet a good runner, of course, but what he did accomplish was so much better than what he could have done a little time before that he was greatly encouraged, and took up his fight with irresistible enthusiasm, though he did miserably enough in the school examinations for that spring. A deadened mentality is not so soon awakened!
That summer Bob was sent, for ten weeks, to a small camp, where he had a great amount of tramping, rowing, swimming, and the like. Also while there he was given an opportunity to make up his school-work, which he did with unexpected success. He returned home, at the end of the summer, a different boy, in character, in attitude toward his work, and in his very thought. That fall saw him playing football. The year before he would not have dreamed of doing such a thing. He played basket-ball that winter, and, in the spring, taking up track work again, he went into the “mile,” and won it against the school, running his only dangerous competitors quite off their feet. I might add that his chest-expansion was double that of the previous spring! This whole school term saw a gradual improvement in his schoolwork, and particularly in his reading. A list of good books was put in his hands at the commencement of the school-year, and that was the beginning. Starting with such books as Stevenson’s “Kidnapped,” he ended with “David Copperfield” and “Les Miserables”!
Then came another summer at camp, with its increase of physical strength,?and I might add right here that camping is the salvation of many a boy. The great outdoors is a real boy’s natural habitat, and in it such expression is given to his physical energy, that all of it goes into direct bodily and spiritual benefit. I never knew a real, strong, open-air, out-door boy who was not also a fine clean one!
By this time the boy’s moral stamina had become equal to any strain that micrht be put upon it, and at last his mental powers had regained their normal strength. That winter he actually, once or twice, pushed the brighest boy in the school for first place! As to his physique?this is best seen from a few photographs. Number one shows Bob a short time after he began his real work of improvement. Number two shows him at exactly one year later, and number three at one year later still. It is a marvellous transformation, is it not? Can there be any comparison between the under-developed, weak-looking boy of number one, and the great, powerful physique of number three! In figures, we can say that he increased six inches in height and eight inches around the shoulders. From two inches of chest expansion he went to six and one-half, and from ninety-seven pounds in weight to one hundred and forty. Perhaps you think I emphasize the physical too much. But you must remember that very frequently the physical is a picture of the mental and moral. And Bob’s mental and moral increase of strength was no less than his physical.
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In this story of the experience of one boy, I have merely attempted to show the terrible general need for open, moral training in the home itself. If it is not given in the home, it is given nowhere else, be sure of that! You cannot rely upon instinct to keep a boy morally clean. Instincts make for the reverse, if anything. It is your bounden duty as a parent to warn your boy of the pitfalls and morasses that border his pathway. Sending him along blind-fold?the usual method?shows neither civilized parenthood nor common sense. Do not confuse the words innocence and ignorance. What the average parent terms “innocence” is ignorance, neither more nor less, and a highly dangerous ignorance at that!
The foregoing gives one the impression that a very radical system of moral training for children should be begun forthwith. This is doubtless true, only it should be a radicalism of a most conservative kind. If anything is to be done, it should be done only after long planning, slowly, carefully, and without ostentation. To include, without due warning, a practical course in moral education in the high school curriculum, would be to give the signal for a popular outcry which might compel a banishment of the whole matter for a dozen years.
Though there should be a very definite and clear system of moral education in the higher schools, it should be built upon a foundation laid in the lower schools, a foundation elemental in nature, but quite necessary for the orderly and natural development of the so-called “moral” side of a child’s nature. But even before this foundation is begun, a great effort should be made to give the public in general a clear understanding of the necessity of instituting such a system; endeavoring to obtain the popular approval and the parental co-operation necessary for the success of the movement.
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