Educational Guidance Leading to a Better Social Adjustment
Joseph Miller, Counsellor, Wilkes-Barre High School Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,
On October 31 of last year the Wilkes-Barre papers brought the following story: P. an eighteen-year-old high school senior arrested. Admits series of robberies committed during the months ?f July and August.
He broke into a sporting goods store through an open cellar window and took $288 in cash, six revolvers and several boxes ?f cartridges. From another sporting goods store which he entered over a fire-escape and through a broken third-story window, he took pistols, rifles, telescopes, search lights, hunting knives and other articles of this kind. The third time he entered a photographic supplies store and took two motion picture projecting machines, several cameras and fountain pens. This store, he entered through a cellar, where he lay in wait until the owner had left the store close to midnight. He further robbed in a similar manner an art store and a jewelry store. In the latter, he took wristWatches. The last robbery was committed in a motion picture theatre where he took one reel of film.
P. was arrested in school after a friend of his tried to pawn a gun he had borrowed from P., in the store from which it was taken. All of the loot was found untouched in the attic of the boy’s home, which was reserved for his exclusive use. The only thing he used was the money with which he bought a motorcycle to visit his and his mother’s birthplace in Virginia.
The Educational Guidance Bureau of the city schools of Wilkes-Barre became busy on the case. A thorough investigation was started. When the boy was first seen in the police jail, his Parents were present. The boy, who appeared to be normally developed physically and mentally, seemed to have been severely shaken by his arrest. He was trembling, his head was shaking and he was unable to give any reasons for his acts. His only answer was: ‘’ I don’t know.’’ Most of the time he held on to his Mother’s hand.
The investigation gave what seemed a clear picture of the case. The following report was made out and presented to the court. Family Background: P. is the oldest of a family of four children. His father is a domineering man who has a great admiration for himself. He thinks a great deal of his own abilities not only in his own work but in many other fields. He feels that he is not being properly appreciated and that he is misplaced in his work as welter. In regard to his children he feels that no misdemeanor is so serious as the insubordination to the least of his commands. When P. was about ten years old, the father deserted his family for about a year. Since that time, the relation between father and son has been particularly strained. The boy resented greatly the father’s treatment of the mother. The father reciprocated by being stricter with P. than with the rest of the children. He gave the boy but little freedom. He even objected to his participation in school athletics. If P. was only half an hour late coming home, his father would give him a severe beating with his fist. P. often would tell his art instructor whom he frequently visited in the latter’s studio, that he did not feel like going home to supper, because his father was always grouchy, and was constantly nagging him. At home, P. would always find excuses if his father asked him to help him with some work, although he was always ready to help his mother.
The mother seems to have had a much better family background than the father. She is altogether a different person. She is quiet, rather weak and delicate physically. She has a fine understanding of the boy and made a friend of him. She would even ask his advice and help in matters with which she could not go to her husband. In defiance of her husband, she was inclined to be overindulgent. There are three younger sisters. They do well in school, but are never willing to help at home and are inclined toward the flapper type.
There is considerable friction between the parents. The mother feels that the father’s standards even in small matters are not as high as hers. Both parents are respected in the community, but the father is known to be hard. They belong to a very strict Protestant church and are the organizers of this church’s young people’s movement. Personality: P. was liked by most of his teachers and fellow students. He was considered a model boy, a good student, reliable and fine. He never smoked and had no other vices. He did not even dance, as he was a strict church member. For four years, he has not been absent from Sunday School. He objected to his friends’ smoking and to silly jokes. Mental test shows superior adult mentality.
Interests: The boy’s main interest is painting and art in general. He is considered exceptionally good in this subject by his teachers who even hoped that he might become famous. He is also very good in writing stories and poems. He has a very good command of language and his plots are quite ingenious. A few deal with gang wars and robberies which P. apparently found quite romantic. He is also very much interested in physics and was working on a special camera for enlarging pictures which was considered quite clever by his teacher of physics. He was prominent in athletic events of the school, principally on the track. Circumstances leading to delinquencies: (1) As P. has been kept at home very strictly and never played around with other hoys, he was constantly yearning for adventure and freedom from restraint. He would read, often until late in the night, stories of adventure. In all of his stories, themes and poems, he shows the desire to explore strange places. It is rather illuminating that in all the robberies described in his stories, loot plays a very secondary Part. Romance and mystery are of primary interest. One can observe the same in P. ‘s own robberies. He never used any violence to get into any of the places he robbed. If loot were the primary motive, he would simply break into the places where he could get most. Instead, he has chosen places where he had to climb to second or third story windows, go through corridors or steal through cellars.
(2) P. had only one intimate friend who was interested in Painting. P. does not make intimate friends easily as he is very serious for his age. He can find but few friends of his age to whom he can talk of his interests. His one friend left school some time ago and P. missed him considerably. Last spring, this boy received from his mother a watch as a present. He sold it with his mother’s consent and started on this money on a tramp to California. From there, he sent P. postal cards full of enthusiasm about his adventures. P. yearned to experience something similar. Where most boys and girls gratify their desire for new experiences and adventures in a more or less normal way?perhaps at parties, dances and other good times?P. was too serious and reserved for this kind of gratification. Besides P. thinks of himself as an artist and he reads and sees in the moving pictures that an artist is supposed to lead an adventurous life. Therefore he is likely to take a more extreme course in order to get an adventure than the average boy.
(3) P. was also very much distressed and at times nearly desperate because he has been told by his father that he could not continue his education after high school graduation, as he would be expected to help support his family. He has been told by everyone that he has a good future ahead of him if he will continue his education and he could not face the possibility of being deprived of it.
(4) A young instructor who made a friend of P. rented a cottage last summer in a nearby summer resort and asked P. over for the week-end. After that P. would tell his family he was going for a visit to this friend and instead would stay in town and commit the robberies. Conclusion: The depression, dissatisfaction and lack of hope of ever attaining the education and adventures for which he longed and his constant living in his own imagination instead of real life were probably the main causes for his delinquencies. The sudden guilty escape from his father’s constant supervision at least for a few nights probably contributed to the tension which brought his escapades about.
Treatment Indicated: The arrest seems to have been a severe shock to P. He is at an entire loss in regard to the motives for his acts. He is extremely nervous and ashamed of himself. If he would be sent to the penitentiary or an ordinary reform school he would probably become accustomed to it quickly and be again the hero and the favorite there because of his fine personality traits and his abilities. He would feel superior to the rest of the inmates and discover that his own crimes were small in comparison with those of others. The restraint would not be much of a punishment as he is used to it at home. He would be taking with him wherever he went his only recreation?his imagination. P. needs a good occupation for his mind and the possibility of further education. He should not go back, however, to his old environment. At home, he would get into the old conflict with his father, and in school, he would possibly be made a hero by his schoolmates. Besides, he ought to be made to see the seriousness of his acts. Therefore, it seems that the best place for him would be the George Junior Republic, Freeville, New York, where he could finish his high school course and learn to take more interest in group activities, citizenship, and real life in general. The above report convinced the court and the boy received a suspended sentence and was paroled into the custody of the director of guidance to be placed in the George Junior Republic. It was the first time that the Luzerne County Court tried this kind of treatment for a boy over juvenile court age and with so serious and numerous offenses. The Educational Guidance Bureau was able to interest the community in the case insofar as to raise the money necessary for the tuition for two years in the above institution. After an exceptionally fine talk by the presiding judge in which the boy was urged to take advantage of the opportunity offered to him, P. was taken in the George Junior Republic. He seems to have made a very good adjustment. The superintendent ?f the institution is very pleased with his progress and the boy is quite enthusiastic about his new environment.
Let us hope that P. will be returned to society as a well adjusted citizen, and that his case and other cases like his will prove the importance of a scientific study of each delinquent as a basis for judgment.
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