THE WAGE-EARNER AND THE OVERAMBITIOUS BOYS

The wage-earning boys and the boys of overambitious parents or those who are overambitious themselves need all the help and sympathy that they can get from a Teacher.  The father who is pushing his boy because of his own ambition will very often need to be talked to by the Teacher or his friends, and given an understanding of the crime he is committing against his own child.  The overambitious fellow who is pushing everything aside for a definite thing in life will often have to be talked to in the plainest language by the Teacher to get him to see his other responsibilities and duties in life.  The wage-earning boy who works from early in the morning until late at night to keep bread in his mouth and breath in his body will compel the Teacher, if he is really thoughtful, to give up some of the things which he has already held dearest and possibly lead his wage-earning boy into outdoor activities, even on the half holidays which he would naturally spend in the circle of his own family.

THE STREET, FOREIGN-BORN AND NEGRO BOYS

The street, foreign-born and negro boys will furnish very much the same kind of problem; because of a general rule, they may be all grouped under the wage-earning class.  Some may be more shiftless than others and may need more attention, while others may be merely awaiting the touch of sympathy and the helping hand to make strong men out of them.  A goodly percentage of our greatest Americans have been foreign-born boys, and, if there is any class that the Teacher should be more patient with than others, it is the immigrant and the son of the immigrant.

=Grouping Standards=

The Teacher will find it greatly to his advantage to group his boys according to some standard.  Unfortunately, all standards, so far, are more or less artificial, but approximate success may be secured by using the experience of boy workers in various parts of the country.  The standard which is most generally used is that of age.  It is also the most unsatisfactory.  Boys mature physically rather than chronologically.  This makes the age standard a poor guess, because a boy may be physically fourteen when he is chronologically eleven, and vice versa.  If the age standard be used, it would be preferable to group all the boys of twelve years together, then the thirteen-year-old boys in another group, and the same with the fourteen, the fifteen, the sixteen, and the seventeen-year-old boys.  This would be rather hard to do in small places, although perfectly feasible in a larger town or city.  Because of its impossibility, as far as the rural districts are concerned, it might be well to divide the years from twelve to eighteen into three standards—­twelve to fourteen, fourteen to sixteen, and sixteen to eighteen.  The age grouping, however, will never be reliable in achieving results, as the individual physical development varies so much.