Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/355

Rh and football, etc., and a splendid swimming tank; all under expert instruction. The one element of industrial training impresses me as the most important of all. The boys make all their shoes, clothes and many other essential articles for home consumption; all furniture needed or desired. They decorate in highly artistic fashion all walls for esthetic and sanitary reasons and add to buildings, as the two new wings of the schoolhouse built last year show. Agricultural instruction is not only the best form of physical training, but a constant source of object lessons, the wholesome means of correction and moral stimulation. The week's work is divided judiciously between these various industries, and always, daily, certain portions of scholastic instruction, military routine, drills, etc. The scholars live and sleep and eat in houses presided over by the teachers and their families, securing the paternal influences.

In conclusion let me urge all those who are charged with the care of a difficult boy to be openminded at all times; to be prepared to modify the original concept, the earlier estimate; to read him in the lights revealed along the way. Above all things exercise toward him companionability; encourage confidences, especially as to hopes, ambitions, views on life. Be quick to see the good, the forceful, qualities and help the spontaneous exercise of these. Above all never be betrayed into forcing on such a boy plans of action contrary to his bent, his tendencies. Let him evolve a course of action, help him to perfect it, be it large or small. The small may become elaborated, the large may need modification. When the course is chosen, emphasize, praise, encourage spontaneity. Always leave the door open to a return to you for renewals of stimulus; encourage the appeal to you for judgment, for wisdom.