Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/670

 654 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

very apt to be vicious. The saloon, the livery stable, and the railway station in the small town are strongholds of vulgarity and vice. The worst feature of the case is that boys have nothing of consequence to do in the town, and under such circumstances they degenerate rapidly. This suggests the great opportunity and function of the school in the town. It should be the center of the life of the community. It should in every way appeal to the interests of the young, and win them to wholesome occupations and amusements. As the school exists in the majority of towns today, however, it is doing little which appeals to the spontaneous interests of young people, which influence their extra-school activities. The church is even more derelict in its duty. If it realized its opportunity, it would minister in wholesome ways to the natural tendencies of the young, and not stand apart from active life as it now does.