Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/218

 204 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

and May ; the other, that restlessness and indocility seem to become contagious and common both in the schools and in the boarding houses in certain days of atmospheric agitation. But in defense of the scholars I must add that this nervousness does not appear exclusively in them."

This reference to the influence of the physical upon the moral is repeated in other letters. Thus one of the directors considers conduct correlative, not only with the age, but also with the intel- lectual development, and states in confirmation that he was obliged, last year, to expel for bad behavior two fifteen-year-old boys who were on a very low plane of intelligence and instruc- tion, and were still in the elementary classes.

Discordant notes were not lacking, however :

"The results for good or evil," wrote Dr. Avancini, "depend, in my opinion, almost entirely on the way the boys are treated. It is unfortunate if, in reproof or punishment, gentleness, mod- eration, and justice are wanting. With these qualities, the bad become medium and even good ; without them, the good them- selves may become worse than the worst."

" The bad boy is an invalid who needs the tenderest care," wrote to me Professor Paolo Giorgi, of Reggio Calabria.

The results of the double inquiry are sufficiently important and conclusive. In the first inquiry, out of a total of 3,025 pupils, 2,067 (or 68.30 per cent.) were marked good, 773 (25.55 per cent.) medium, and 185 (6.1 1 per cent.) bad.

In the second inquiry the results appear somewhat modified. The total number is 3,012. Among these those of good con- duct number 1,948 (64.67 per cent.), 784 (26.02 per cent.) of medium conduct, and 280 (9.29 per cent.) bad. We find, there- fore, a somewhat larger number of bad conduct, due partly to the different standard adopted by those directors who answered only the second inquiry, and partly to the fact that in the first classification many directors had considered almost exclusively the scholarship of the pupils, while in the second inquiry the other factors of conduct were taken into due consideration.

Coming now to consider the conduct in the various ages of the young students, it will not be difficult for us to meet the