"SOFT JOB" YOUTHS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1856, 16 September 1913, Page 3

"SOFT JOB" YOUTHS.

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BRILLIANT RAD ROY. Where is the bad boy pf twenty years ago? Where are the heroes of the old school fiction, the Tom Browns and the Jack Harkaways, the brilliant, wayr ward lads who were at once the despair and pride of their masters? Mr. A. 11. Cook, speaking from his thirtythree years' «xnerience as a master at St. Paul's School, London, has declared that the. boy of to-day in hischoico of a profession chooses "the way of safety and rmitino instead of more uncertain hut most individual paths." Mr. Lewis H. Pearson, who has been 'headmaster of Market Uosworth Grammar School for twenty-five yeairs, told a "Daily v Mail" "reporter: "In the early days headmasters had a free hand. Th'oro was less interference on the part of Governmental and other Departs ments. Now tho boy is not so much to ; be treated as an individual, but as one of a. flock."

' ''The boys of to-day lack initiative v tlmy do not 'find' for themselves as did tho boys of twenty years ago. They rrl.v on others to make arrangements for thorn in thei'r games and in their subjects for debate. Everything nrast bo served up to them in an interesting, pleasant maimer. It does not eonduco to t-lio sturdy determination which at school will master the subjcct, and later will ■ sub jugate the world." Mr. Pearson . concludes that the reason why modern boys are spoilt is because "never before did only sons seem so plentiful." When there is only one son he is apt to be "molly-coddled," and lie has to liavo school punishment which should have been administered at home. "In large families the spoilt boy is much rarer." Mr. G. H. Wade, headmaster of Windsor County School, speaking at the annual priirc-giving, said there •was a tendency to do too much for boys and not let them face difficulties f?r themselves. It was evep contended that boys ought not to do anything to which they did not feel drawn. What a preparation for life 1 The ' greater portion of one's work in life was doing things the average, man would rather avoid. '