Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/216

 202 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

In sending out the blank for the classification of conduct I had called attention to the fact that the indications of conduct should extend to all the various factors of it : discipline, appli- cation to studies, bearing with companions, and morality. I must observe that not all the directors gave to the various grada- tions of conduct the same value, and hence they proceeded from different criteria in their classification. The reports may be divided in this regard into two categories. To the first belongs that of Dr. Prevesio, director of the national academy of Turin, who wrote : " In determining the conduct, account is taken of the will and diligence in scholastic duties, as well as of the bearing and discipline in class and out, besides morality. If we consid- ered only morality and deportment, the praiseworthy would be in larger number. The imputation of bad conduct does not imply immorality or perversity through malice or precocity in doing evil, but especially neglect of duties and slowness of improvement."

The reports of the second category, on the contrary, gave to the qualification bad a more serious meaning. Thus Professor Tosi, head of the academy of Prato, wrote me: "I have not marked any student bad, because, either by good luck or from my way of looking at it, it has seemed to me that I had none such. I call bad those who are refractory to education. And if ever in other years I have had one or two, I have hastened to send them back home. I have classified as medium those char- acterized by uncertain morality, by less goodness of sentiment, by incorrect bearing, by lack of docility."

The directors who indicated a greater number of bad con- ducts among their pupils generally inclined to the first point of view, while those directors seemed to give the second interpreta- tion to the word "bad" who included under this head a smaller number. The pupils indicated by the latter usually count as so many cases, more or less evident, of moral insanity, congenital usually, which is often susceptible of being more or less cor- rected by the profound modifications of character which take place during puberty, while in other cases it lasts the whole life, receiving from the puberal revolution an impulse to more