Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/104

92 so far as she has come in school. I would like to be like Miss Sullivan becuse she helps other people and I would like to help someone. I know I can not do so much but I try my best."

Very responsive are the younger children to the wonder-workers of myth and legend and Scripture: "Apollo, because he rides a golden chariot all the time"; "Hercules, because he held the earth on his shoulders"; "Quicksilver, because he can fly through the air and not get very tired" are attractive ideals. In very much the same spirit they desire to be like God, "His wonders to perform"

Of the total number of children, five per cent, most of whom are below twelve years of age, mention God and Christ as ideals. The moral attributes found in these Divine Beings are very similar to those found in George Washington or other human heroes. The majority of the children give a composite of characteristics which impress them in the Deity, into which enter the marvelous, the directly personal, and the moral. The Deity appealing to them must be anthropomorphic, human and yet superhuman, ministering directly to their personal needs. "He is onest" "He never tells a lie" "He is so kind and good" "He can do every thing" "He can turn something into enything" "He sends rain and snow for us to sled and skate" "When we go into the woods he will help us through" A boy of eleven writes: "If it was not only for Him, what would become of us. Maybe we would be stones which lay beneth the guter."

It is pleasant to find that to few of the older children do possessions make a character ideal. While ten per cent of the sevenyear -olds are attracted by the commercial side of life, at fifteen only two per cent consider that paramount, at least in an ideal life.

Typical papers are:

Boy of seven: "I like two be a king of a graet kasle. Why. A king has a graet kasle"

Boy of ten: "I would like to be like Doctor About. Because it is a nice Occupation, and is a smart business"

Boy of ten: "I want to be a preacher. He is a very good man and they have a very good position"

Girl of twelve: "My teacher. Because she is a teacher and receives a large salary a month, and teaching is a good occupation"

Boy of fourteen: "Mr. Levy. Because he has not very hard work, and he has a Good time and plenty of money and he can get any amount of money because he owns plenty of land and mortgages on peoples land, he has everything he wants."