John L. Alexander

“ Shun the spectacular and remember it is the morality of the boy and girl that is in question. Keep away from muck-raking, be constructive and pure and business-like in the whole matter.
The need is great, for the sources of our life must be kept clean if we desire social health among our boys and girls. The land is full of the plague, of open moral sewers and unholy cesspools. The street reeks with the smut and filth of wrong sex knowledge, and our boys and girls are getting experience in the laboratory of the immoral. ”

“ There is a real reason why the later adolescent boy should give no attention to the "thou shalt not," and so fall into the snare of the negative; for it is the law of his being to "prove all things." It is far better to lay emphasis on the legitimate purposes of the boy's sex life, the glory it gives him and the beauty of the self-sacrifice it begets, than to say a single word on the other side. ”

“ Too long has the church looked upon the boy as a mere field of operation. Too long has she considered the boy as a dual personality and regarded life as both secular and spiritual. Today she is beginning to understand that all boyhood life is spiritual; that there are no secular activities in boyhood, but that every activity that a boy enters into has tremendous spiritual value, either for good or for bad. ”

“ When they act wrongly it is so often from lack of knowledge or because of wrong knowledge. If I were to teach a boy my business I should tell him everything that would make the business better, and say nothing of how to put it "to the bad." Now what would we all do if our business was to help boys to live clean lives, speak truth, bless the community with unimpaired manhood and honor God with their united physical powers? ”

“ You cannot afford to lie, even to keep the boy from the drink habit. Show concretely—better yet through the investigation of the boy himself—the economic and moral waste of the liquor habit, but, in everything, let the hard, cold facts speak for themselves. Let the boy discover for himself that liquor not only would rob him of his best development, if he should become a victim of the habit, but is lowering the tone of his community and country now. ”

“ The Teacher's task in his case is to somehow or other strike the cord of independence, teach him to do things by himself, think for himself and stand on his own feet. Along the coasts of the North Sea, they teach boys to swim by throwing them out beyond their depth. It may be necessary to awaken manhood and independence in the echo by swamping him when he is alone. ”

“ Nature has greater appeal to him now than ever. The woods and streams and outdoor life get a new significance, and the question of livelihood, whether rural and agricultural, or in the line of the various industries, takes a firm hold upon his imagination, and gives him a life-compelling purpose. He begins to feel the mating call and at its first impression is attracted to the other sex, with the result that by and by he also becomes a husband and father and a full-fledged citizen among his fellows. Up to the age of adolescence, however, none of these emotions stir the boy. ”

“ Let it be repeated that sex instruction should be undertaken with great tact and thoughtfulness. The one who gives the instruction—whether parent or teacher—should post himself thoroughly and he should be practical, go slow, not forcing the lad's development by unnecessary knowledge, avoiding gush and sentiment. He should not seek confession or allow the boy to confess to him, for confession will raise a barrier between the two later on; he should help the boy without invading the lad's innermost life, his soul ”

“ Every rural school has its quota of workers who are, perhaps unconsciously, limiting their own usefulness, as well as retarding the progress of the school, by meeting every new plan of work proposed with the statement that, 'That plan is all right for the city, but it won't work here because we have so few members and our people live so far apart.' With the exception of the man who constantly reminds us that 'we did not do it this way thirty years ago,' and who, in some cases, is really a menace to the work, there is no greater obstacle confronting workers in rural schools. ”

“ A real leader never stalks in front, nor gives orders openly. The generals of today fight their battles and win them twenty-five miles in the rear of the firing line. So it is with the Teacher. He must be the power behind the throne, rather than the throne itself. He must be as a conscience—to hold the boys back just a little when they go too fast and to push just a little when they are going too slow. The Teacher must recognize himself to be the impetus, not the goal. ”

“ Every lesson the school gives the boy socially, every chance it affords him to learn by contact with his fellows of either sex, means just one more effort for the Kingdom. Moreover, the Kingdom is a community of saved bodies, saved minds, saved social relations and saved spirits, or a place or group where the best dominates—the will of God rules over all lesser things, changing and making them over into the best. Thus the Kingdom is where life appreciates, enjoys, respects, and honors all of God's gifts, whether it be body, mind, social relations, or material or spiritual things. ”

“ Leadership is inseparable from organization, and organization is useless without leadership. The leadership which is necessary for a group of adolescent boys is that of a man, and the problem which is presented to a leader with a group of boys in the adolescent years is not that of teaching, but of awakening virile ideas and purposes in the boy life. The leader must be able to enter into sympathy with and in at least a partial way into participation with all the activities of the group. Everything that a boy does is just the thing that the man used to do. ”

“ The work of the public school must continue to go on without a break if the ideals of our American citizenship are to be maintained, and it is the business of the Teacher to give his support, encouragement and cooperation for the carrying out of the idea for which the school stands. The public school seeks to give the boy the necessary education toward his earning a livelihood, and the business of the Sunday school Teacher is to give him the right impulses for his moral and religious life—to inspire him to seek the best in everything. ”

“ Temperance embraces the abstaining from everything that challenges self-control. The two deadliest foes of young life today are admittedly alcoholic drinks and the cigarette, and any crusade against these for the conservation of the boy in his teens should be welcomed. It is well, however, to keep in mind that profane language, the suggestive story, undue sex familiarity, athletic overindulgence, excessive attendance at the moving picture shows, or entertainment places, the public dance, and other things of like ilk in the community, exert a doubtful influence on boy life. ”

“ The investigator into the life of boyhood has revealed to us the fact that a boy's life is not only fourfold—physical, social, mental and spiritual—but is also unified in its process of development. If this be so, there must be a common center for the boy's life, and neither the home nor the school can, because of social or economic or political conditions, become this center. The only remaining place where the boy's life can be unified is the church. ”

“ The second is part of the first, as supervision is the genius of organization. The third is fundamental, for all expression—true education—depends on the teacher or leader, whose innate idea of the fitness of things keeps him from doing, on the one hand, that which is just customary, or, on the other hand, that which may appear to be just scientific. The science of yesterday should be the tradition of today; that is, if we are making progress in educational processes. Today's science also should be fighting yesterday's for supremacy. ”

“ Missionary enthusiasts, here and there, have doubtless had success in interesting numbers of boys, but, in spite of this, the average, red-blooded, everyday, wide-awake fellow that inhabits our homes, fills our streets, and honors our Sunday schools, has little or no conception of missions, or even cares enough to make any effort to discover what missions really signify. To the average boy missions spell heathen and a collection and little more. There is no real life interest, or even contact enough to develop an interest in the subject. ”

“ Boys of very wealthy parents and boys from homes of poverty are usually sinned against by their parents. The parents of both are either so busy making money and spending it in the social whirl, or so pushed by the pangs of hunger and the fight for life, that the children who are brought into the world are left either very much to themselves or to underlings who have very little interest in the boy's welfare. ”

“ When departmental organization, however, is mentioned, the genius of the individual leader and teacher must come into play. The form of organization that may be successful with one leader may be a failure with another. This chance does not lie or inhere in the organization, but in the leader; for the gifts, talents, equipment and adaptability of leaders vary just as much in Sunday school organization as in the so-called secular forms of activity. The best form of organization, then, as well as the most successful form for the local school, is the "kind that works." ”

“ In fact, we have discovered for ourselves that this is the very element that constitutes the real problem of boyhood; for until the idea of sex enters into the boy's consciousness we are only dealing with an infant. It is the gift and power of self-reproduction that changes the selfish, individual existence into the larger, altruistic life. It is this that compels gangs and team-work and the instinctive desire to negate self in service for others. It is this that forms the basis for the tribal or community desire ”

“ To offset this increasing social danger sex instruction is an insistent necessity. Boys and girls must be taught to see themselves as members of society with all that that implies. To do so means a knowledge of self and sex and their functions and responsibilities. The sources and processes of life must be intelligently understood and thus respected. Ignorance of life does not beget purity, respect and honor. A boy's regard for a girl cannot proceed from lack of knowledge, although this lack may be termed innocence. ”

“ In the home of today few fathers and mothers seem to realize the claim that the boy has upon them in the matter of comradeship. The parent looks upon himself very largely in the light of the provider, and but very little attention is paid to the companionship call that is coming from the life of his boy. After a strenuous day's work the father is often physically incapacitated for such comradeship and only the strongest effort of will on his part can force him to recognize this fundamental need of his boy's life. ”

“ This is the end of all Sunday school principle and method.
Further, Jesus Christ, as Saviour of Life, is not an idea, a theory, a belief, but a practical, everyday, every-minute influence. "For me to live is Christ." From this time forth everything in life is done in the Christ-spirit. The boy does not cease to be a boy in the acceptance. He is now a Christian boy, not a mature, Christian man. He still loves play, but play is not marred now by the tricks that minister to self. Play ministers now both to self and others. It does not nor cannot leave out self, however. It saves self. ”

“ Great harm may be done by piling the mind of the child with facts that cannot but be misunderstood. In the enthusiasm for doing things right, there must be a guard against going too far.
The second stage of a boy's physical development, the early adolescent stage—twelve to fifteen years—is the physiological. Puberty marks its advent, although the exact sign of its arrival is hard to determine. It has been easy to discover it in a girl's life, but it still remains a matter of some guessing in a boy. ”

“ Graduation from these orders very often means graduation from the Sunday school and church; for no single organization can be conceived, that with ritual and form can bind together the activities of twelve to fifteen, fifteen to twenty, and twenty to thirty. However, there can be no graduation from the Organized Bible Class, flesh of the church's flesh, blood of her blood, muscle of her muscle; and the Organized Bible Class is flexible enough for an adjustment to every stage of boy development, and to all its physical, social, mental and spiritual needs. ”

“ The older man has every advantage, for he is looked up to and beloved. It is not so much the 'don'ts' as the 'do's' that constitute his power. He can inspire with high resolve. He can narrate his own victories over sore trials and fiery tests of his integrity. He can draw the sting of poisonous suggestions, moral disheartenings and malice which his child has been cherishing in his young heart. But this means time, and time may be money. Yet no money can buy this sort of instruction, nor put a price on it. ”

“ A boy between sixteen and twenty years is essentially social in his interests. It is then that the call of the community, business life, vocation, etc., to say nothing of the sex and the home voice—make their big appeal. It is his own personal relation to these that makes them real, and the closer his relation the deeper is his interest. The social appeal stirs his thought and leads him to investigation. The similarity of problems at home and abroad gives him contact with other lands, and makes for him "all the world akin." The best approach to China's need is the need of the homeland. ”

“ Ignorance multiplied by forty or one hundred does not mean wisdom. It is still ignorance. Keep yourself out of the crank army. Do not be so intemperate yourself in thought, speech, and action as to lessen your influence. Temporizing will not do the work, but let us be wise in our approach to the subject before boys, whose viewpoint cannot be expected to be that of adults.
Liquor and the cigarette are national perils, and both of them, for the sake of the teen age boy, must be banished from the land. ”

“ He needs but three things to attain his best: proper sustenance, unlimited activity, and careful guidance. Given these three rightly and at the proper time, the quality of his manhood will go beyond our fondest hope. The sustenance must be in keeping with his years, the activity in line with his strength, and the guidance adapted to the needs of his spirit—firm, compelling, but not irksome. In it all the boy is to be encouraged in self-expression, resourcefulness, and independent manhood. ”

“ Furthermore, the boy is maturing, traversing the path from boyhood to manhood, is unstable, not only in his growth, but also in his thought, is restless because of his natural instability, and sometimes suffers from headiness and independence. Between boyhood and manhood he travels swiftly, the scenery changes quickly as he travels—but he is traveling to manhood. No railway train or vehicle can keep pace with his speed. ”

“ Maybe we shall never get boys to understand the word Missions. Perhaps it is hopelessly confused with heathen—a poor, unfortunate, know-nothing, worth-little crowd of black or yellow people—who can never amount to anything, unless money be given to put grit enough into them to get them to try to live right—a pretty doubtful investment, after all. Yes, this is the logic of the average boy, due to the information of the non-christian's degradation, lack of initiative, low ideals, and poor morals, as set forth by the returned missionary. ”

“ If the scoutmaster is an out-of-door man and has a point of contact with the boy, the Boy Scouts will be the solution of all our difficulties. Here lies the crux of the whole matter. If boys are added to the church through any organization, it is not because of the method, but because of the worker of the method. The method counts because it is part of the worker—is in his blood. ”