Page:The High School Boy and His Problems (1920).pdf/20

 any definite stand in religious matters it will take a considerable amount of logic or persuasion later to stir him. This is his time of idealism, of the awakening in him of respect and reverence for God and that which is best in man. Those who teach him may not wisely forget this fact.

He is becoming a hero worshiper, too, and it is the physical hero who receives his devotion. Football stars and clever baseball players and prize fighters attract his attention. If the question of legalizing prize fights were left to the vote of high school boys the affirmative vote would be overwhelming. If he reads the newspapers at all it is the sporting sheet for which he first asks; he soon learns who is high man in sporting circles, it is not long before he can call all the better known ones by their first names, and he follows their performances like a personal friend. Adventure, deeds of heroism, physical prowess of all sorts fill his mind and fire his imagination. It is unfortunate if his teacher at this time is a physical weakling or unsympathetic with physical fitness and athletic sports. Such a man will have little influence, moral or intellectual, with the fourteen-year-old. It is the man who can knock a home run, or break through the interference, or lick anybody who challenges him, who is a hero in the boy's eyes.

I have always been in theory opposed to corporal punishment and a strong advocate of moral suasion. An experience I had soon after I got out of college almost