Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and HygieneHall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Science
Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene
Hall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Adolescence; Children -- Health and hygiene; Educational psychology
On a basis of 1,400 papers answering the question whom, of anyone ever
heard or read of, they would like to resemble, Barnes[8] found that
girls' ideals were far more often found in the immediate circle of
their acquaintance than boys, and that those within that circle were
more often in their own family, but that the tendency to go outside
their personal knowledge and choose historical and public characters
was greatly augmented at puberty, when also the heroes of philanthropy
showed marked gain in prominence. Boys rarely chose women as their
ideals; but in America, half the girls at eight and two-thirds at
eighteen chose male characters. The range of important women ideals
among the girls was surprisingly small. Barnes fears that if from the
choice of relative as ideals, the expansion to remote or world heroes
is too fast, it may "lead to disintegration of character and reckless
living." "If, on the other hand, it is expanded too slowly we shall
have that arrested development which makes good ground in which to
grow stupidity, brutality, and drunkenness--the first fruits of a
sluggish and self-contained mind." "No one can consider the regularity
with which local ideals die out and are replaced by world ideals
without feeling that he is in the presence of law-abiding forces," and
this emphasizes the fact that the teacher or parent does not work in a
world governed by caprice.
The compositions written by thousands of children in New York on what
they wanted to do when they were grown up were collated by Dr.
Thurber.[9] The replies were serious, and showed that poor children
looked forward willingly to severe labor and the increased earnestness
of adolescent years, and the better answers to the question _why_ were
noteworthy. All anticipated giving up the elastic joyousness of
childhood and felt the need of patience. Up to ten, there was an
increase in the number of those who had two or more desires. This
number declined rapidly at eleven, rose as rapidly at twelve, and
slowly fell later. Preferences for a teacher's life exceeded in girls
up to nine, fell rapidly at eleven, increased slightly the next year,
and declined thereafter. The ideal of becoming a dressmaker and
milliner increased till ten, fell at eleven, rose rapidly to a maximum
at thirteen, when it eclipsed teaching, and then fell permanently
again. The professions of clerk and stenographer showed a marked rise
from eleven and a half. The number of boys who chose the father's
occupation attained its maximum at nine and its minimum at twelve,
with a slight rise to fourteen, when the survey ended. The ideal of
tradesman culminated at eight, with a second rise at thirteen. The
reason "to earn money" reached its high maximum of fifty per cent at
twelve, and fell very rapidly. The reason "because I like it"
culminated at ten and fell steadily thereafter. The motive that
influenced the choice of a profession and which was altruistic toward
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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