Adolescence, the Crucial Age. - Do not expect too much of the boy or girl during this period of rapid growth. This is usually found from twelve to fourteen years in girls and from fourteen to sixteen in boys. The weight of body increases as much as in the six years previous to that time, while the brain loses weight, as a portion of the blood usually supplied to the brain is sent" to nourish the "organs undergoing rapid revolutional changes during this period.
Parents and teachers who guide wisely and tenderly through these crucial years are deserving of our highest respect and gratitude. Happy the boy or girl who enters the portal of manhood or womanhood guarded by a knowledge of self and with truly ennobling conceptions of the laws of being.
Of recent years there has been a wide and worthy movement to establish a loving sense of comradeship between father and son: and also to reach with the same spirit the fatherless lad by the instrumentality of the "Big Brother" idea. Such an awakening of the possibilities for friendly association between grown men and growing men, admirable though it is, is not yet general; and many a busy father needs to be reminded of this golden opportunity for fastening to him with bonds that nothing can sever the little boy whom he all too often sees with abstracted eyes and understands not at all..
How lonely is the little lad, emerging from petted and guarded babyhood into rough and tumble boyhood! Perhaps there is a pretty baby sister to absorb the attention of mother and admiring lady callers-attention that once was his. Then, too, his inquiring mind and active little body are constantly provoking the disapproval of his elders or bringing him into open conflict with their wills. These same elders-including his parents-find it easier to forbid and repress, than with loving patience to explain, and smooth the way for the sorely tried little pilgrim.
One such little lad was taken by his father on a week's auto trip. Many a man would have felt that the short vacation must not be marred by the sole care of a seven-year-old boy; but he was richly rewarded for the sacrifice. In speaking of his experience he said to me, "I was becoming a hit worried because of the trial he seemed to be to his mother; he was always in disgrace from one cause or another, so I took him along to give his mother a rest; and with a self-righteous sense of sacrifice, I'm ashamed to say. He amazed me by his intelligent and ready helpfulness on that camping trip; took to trout fishing with more skill than most grownups, besides displaying a courage, ingenuity and practical judgment that convinced his dad that he would make a fine, upstanding member of society if he is started right. In fact, I became better acquainted with my son in that one outing week than in all the seven years before."
Daughters, too, need the father's companionship. His influence and especially his point of view will prove a broadening factor in their education and character.