The Boy and the Sunday School: A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age BoysAlexander, John L.
Religion
The Boy and the Sunday School: A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys
Alexander, John L.
Sunday schools
The hybrid boy always furnishes a guessing contest--impulsive today, he
has to be repressed; phlegmatic tomorrow, he has to be stimulated; and
he may be sanguine the next day. There never was a pleasanter boy to
work with, but like the chameleon you are never sure of his color.
"Breath of balm and snow,
June and March together,
In an hour or so."
Just because he is so changeable the Teacher should show him his best
thought and work. It is just such fellows who are inclined to be
shiftless and who are generally crowded out in the fight for life.
Somewhere in the boy's nature, if the Teacher is patient, he will find
the rock bottom upon which to build manhood and citizenship. Such
achievement, however, comes only by great patience and hard work.
THE MASTERFUL BOY AND THE WEAK BOY
The masterful and weak boys represent the antipodes of boyhood. The
masterful boy will see things quickly, will be the leader of his gang,
will instinctively dominate and run the class unless the Teacher is on
his job. The weak boy will follow anywhere, be the cause good or bad,
and become either a devil or a saint. The masterful boy may be handled
by appealing to his sense of leadership. Responsibility should be placed
upon him. The Teacher should make him feel that he is leaning heavily on
him. The weak boy on the other hand should be tied up to some steady
phlegmatic fellow, the phlegmatic fellow being given the vision of how
he can be an older brother to the boy not as strong as himself. The
result will be that the weak boy will catch some of the spirit of the
phlegmatic chap, and gradually get some depth for himself.
THE MISCHIEVOUS BOY
Of all the boy types, the mischievous boy furnishes the real pleasure
for the worker with boys. The fellow whose eyes can twinkle and who will
play a practical trick on the friend he most respects is always a
delight. It is he that keeps the crowd in good humor, who is generally
deepest and most abiding in his affection, and who at the drop of the
hat would fight to the last ditch for his friend. To handle him rightly
does not require a six-foot rod, or a half-inch rule. But the Teacher
must keep him so busy doing the things that he likes that he will have
no dull moments in which to vent his inborn sense of humor.
THE BACKWARD BOY
The backward boy will need to be led out of himself. Give him things to
do which will make him forget himself and, by careful utilization of his
time, gradually he will develop into a normal boy.
THE SHY BOY
The shy boy has merely become shy because of lack of association.
Usually he has been brought up with his mother and sisters and merely
lacks the touch of a man and a man's viewpoint. After he comes in
contact with other boys, this will wear away. The problem of the Teacher
is to get the other boys in his class to pilot the boy into the deeper
waters.
"SMARTIE" AND JOKER TYPES
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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