THE JUNIOR AGE—NINE TO TWELVE

The years we are now to consider are among the most interesting in all the period of development, and among the most exacting, as well, in the problems they present. These problems are related, in the main, to the "new invoice of energy" which has come into the life, the social feelings, habit formation and hero worship, and knowledge and patience are almost exhausted in their solution.

A general survey of the period reveals much that we are already familiar with, together with certain new conditions. We find that some of the winsomeness and much of the demonstrativeness and dependency of earlier childhood are gone. The sense of approaching manhood or womanhood is beginning to stir in the soul and, coincident with it, a growing independence is manifest. While the child must still be under authority, the wisest nurture will consult his feelings and wishes as far as possible, for just beyond this period lies life's crisis, and every bond of sympathy and confidence must unite the helper to the one to be helped as the stormy passage is entered upon.

With all this growing independence, however, life is very far from possessing the marks of maturity. It is careless and care free, irresponsible in general, yet proud to carry definite responsibilities. There is delight in anything which suggests pre-eminence over others, such as badges, buttons and regalia of any kind, or public recognition and reward. Frankness almost to the point of brutality is a frequent trait, particularly of boys of this age, for they do not lend themselves as easily as the girls to the polite usages and subterfuges of society. This characteristic must have its counterbalance in genuineness and freedom from any affectation, especially a pious one, on the part of those dealing with the children, in order to win their love and respect.

A marked literalism is also apparent, and instead of the delicately imaginative child of earlier years a matter of fact young person stands out with a desire for exact statement and, if need be, under such oath as, "Upon your word," or "Cross your heart and hope to die." There is a strong sense of honor connected with such asseverations, and woe betide the one who swears falsely or tinkers with the truth.

There are certain conspicuous characteristics which demand a more detailed consideration, and the first to be noted is the energy.

ENERGY

The very sound of the word is indicative of the nervous force that dominates the life during these years. It is well nigh impossible for action to be noiseless or measured in this period, especially during the latter part. The energy continues to be more vigorous in the physical realm, and active sports of all kinds are attractive. One of the greatest problems of nurture at this time, as has already been suggested, centers around the wise use of this energy in the home, the day school, the Sunday School and, most important of all, in the hours unoccupied with definite tasks, for habits are forming through its outgoing.

THE SOCIAL FEELINGS

Another striking characteristic of this period appears in the rapid development of the social feelings. No longer is the child content with one or two playmates, but he craves the companionship of several of the same age and sex. This desire finds expression in the coterie of bosom friends, the gang and the club so prevalent between the ages of ten and fourteen. The bonfire with its circle of kindred spirits, the cave with its password and dark plottings, the street corner and recruiting whistle have almost irresistible fascination. What one boy does not dare, the gang will attempt, and the composite conscience may fall far below that of the individual. The sense of honor already mentioned is very strong among the members, and in absolute loyalty to one another they stand or fall.

These organizations exist among the girls as well as boys, but differ in the purpose for which they are formed, the girls organizing more as adults, while the boys' clubs are overwhelmingly to expend energy, lawfully or otherwise.

The dangers and opportunities growing out of this strong tendency toward segregation can not be overestimated. A walk along a city street in the evening reveals the fact that the nurture of the sidewalk and the ice cream parlor has largely supplanted the nurture of the home on the social side. The table with the evening lamp—"the home's lighthouse"—and the family circle complete about it, are an almost unknown experience in the life of the average American child. In a recent convention a speaker, who is in charge of a great penal institution filled with human derelicts, said he believed it to be as much a duty of the church to preserve at least one evening a week sacred to the home, as to designate another for the prayer meeting or preaching service.

The home ought to be the center of the child's social life. Why can not the lights and music and companionship there be made as attractive as the lights of the corner store, or billiard hall, or the sound of the street piano, which pave the way to the saloon and the dance hall later? That boys and girls will congregate during this period and the next is a law unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. Nurture asks whether the home does not furnish a better environment during this energetic, habit forming and irresponsible period than the corner store or the "gang?" It asks whether the society of those invited within its doors for a good time, under the sympathetic and watchful eye of the father and mother, is not apt to be more conducive to true character building than the society of the chance acquaintance with no credentials save his skill in story telling and initiation into fascinating mysteries? It asks still further, in this age of hero worship, whether the home should not erect the ideals of manhood and womanhood through example, through books, through honored guests who have achieved true distinction instead of delegating this privilege to the group around the bonfire or the man who gathers the admiring circle to listen to the salacious tale? The home which provides for this social craving within its sheltering walls, blending the faces of father and mother with those of companions in the most joyous of good times, and, after the evening altar, when the lights are darkened, knows that each pillow is pressed by its own pure face, that home is a bulwark of the nation and the ante chamber to one of God's many mansions.

May God have pity on the thousands of children who live in houses, but are homeless.

HERO WORSHIP

In this new interest in his fellows, all figures do not stand out in equal proportion against the child's horizon. Some loom very high, and in the inner chamber of the soul, incense is burning at their shrine. Out of the earlier interest in people, and desire to imitate their actions, there begins to emerge the great passion of hero worship with all its power in shaping ideals and determining character. If it be true, indeed, that life grows like what it gazes fixedly upon, then nurture has here an important work.

The hero of any period must inevitably embody that which the life most admires at the time, hence physical strength and skill, courage and daring will be prominent factors in a boy's hero in this period. This hero may be, perchance, the physical director of the Y.M.C.A., the champion baseball or football player, an explorer or adventurer, a desperado, or—happy case—a father who has not forgotten how to swim and fish and hunt and play ball. A boy always longs to place his father on the throne of his heart, if he is given a chance, but the fathers who covet that place enough to pay the price for it are too few.

A hard working mechanic said to a friend, "I made up my mind I would rather have a backache when my boys were little than a heartache later on," and so no day's task was so heavy, up toil so exhausting that when he came home at night his two boys could not claim him. The cramped muscles would unlimber behind the bat, the tired limbs would forget their weariness in the jaunt that had been planned with father, and during the hours of freedom the three were chums in sports, in interests, in confidence. They say there is no more beautiful sight in that town today than two stalwart, manly fellows arm in arm with the father, who counts it the joy and pride of his life to have mounted the hero's throne in the hearts of his sons.

While boys always choose a man as their hero, girls may choose either the masculine or feminine character. They are still near enough Nature's heart to glory in wildness and abandon, and the subtle delicacy of true womanhood has not the charm for them now it will have later. Yet it is part of the priceless dower of motherhood to so share in the daughter's life through sympathy and understanding that, to "be like mother" will embody all the aspirations of a girlish heart.

"THE READING CRAZE"

The flame of hero worship is fed from two sources—the life of some one near to the child and the passionate delight in reading which characterizes the years from about ten to fifteen and is especially marked from twelve to fourteen. The choice of books will naturally be governed by the strongest interests. We are not surprised, therefore, that every page must teem with life and chronicle some achievement, preferably in the physical realm, for in the thought of the junior, "Greater is he that taketh a city than he who ruleth his own spirit."

Toward the latter part of this period the sentimental novel, with all of its froth and perverted ideals of life, appeals to the girl, and it is an open question which is more pernicious, "Deadwood Dick and the Indians" or "Love at Sight."

When it is remembered that during these years the desire for reading is so great that it will be satisfied, surreptitiously if not openly, that the heroes and heroines strengthen ideals of their own type in the soul of the child, that these are the years in which taste is being formed, not only in reading but in living, nurture again has a great task outlined. "What is the best way to keep a boy from eating green apples?" a prominent Sunday School worker often asks in a convention. The answer never varies: "Give him ripe ones to eat." The child who has plenty of well-selected, wholesome literature will have no appetite for the baneful. Biography of the heroic type, exploration, adventure and charming romances like the "Waverley Novels" will help to lay sane and pure foundations of character. The missionary boards are now putting out books as thrilling and stirring in their situations as any yellow-backed novel. These the children devour and the spiritual heroism makes its silent appeal along with the physical.

This delight in reading makes comparatively easy the formation of the habit of daily Bible reading. If the life is more than meat, then the time taken by the father or mother to select fascinating Bible biographies and stories, and tactfully to supervise the reading, is at least as wisely expended as that used in training a grape vine or sewing a lace edge on a ruffle. Is it not strange that there is such distorted perspective and false balance of values in regard to what is worth while? The cares of this world crowd out so many supreme things. Many a temptation in later life would have its antidote if the Holy Spirit could bring the needed Scripture to mind, but because some one substituted the lesser for the greater, solicitude for external appearance instead of inner furnishing, the Word is not there to be recalled.

HABIT FORMATION

The discussion of these marked characteristics of the life is given added import when we realize that these years are in the height of the habit forming period. All through Early Childhood and Childhood every act has left its faint tracing upon the plastic cells of the brain, and some of the markings are deep ere now. Just as water will follow its channel rather than cut a new course, so activity will expend itself in the well-traced pathways unless prevented from so doing, and the same thought or stimulus will always tend to go out in the same action. No thinking is necessary upon these habitual acts which constitute "nine tenths of life"—they have become mechanical. Not only in the body does life acquire fixed habits, but also in the soul, in thinking, feeling and choosing.

The seriousness as well as the value of a habit lies in its tenacity. No harder task ever confronts a life than to break up one habit and substitute another after the brain cells grow hard. The process requires not only that activity be directed away from the pathway that irresistibly draws it, but at the same time a new groove be traced upon the hard, unyielding cells. The task is difficult beyond expression. This is why reformed men always have a hidden fear of lapsing into the former life. It is the call of the old pathway, traced so deeply in the brain.

A mature woman, brought up to the strictest Sabbath observance, came to believe that "the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath," and therefore essayed to act on that day according to her reason and judgment. The attempt was soon abandoned. "There is no pleasure in it," she said. "I am constantly fighting the old habits of my girlhood life, and they will not cease their call to me." This is what the wise king meant when he said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The whole tendency is to "ask for the old paths," that there "may be rest to the soul." A part of the miracle of conversion in later life appears in God's power to trace new pathways when the brain is hardened, and to keep life in them, moment by moment, against the tug of the old.

Three statements will crystallize the discussion.

Since the importance of these years is clearly evident, the method of habit formation may be briefly stated. First, secure the desired action; second, secure its successive repetition without a lapse, as far as possible.

We have already learned that action is the natural result of an aroused feeling; therefore, nurture will endeavor to make the act attractive and appealing where it can be done, that the cordial co-operation of the child may be had. Hero worship may aid here, the example in the home is imperative and future considerations begin to carry weight. Encouragement, recognition, new interest and new motives will all contribute toward securing repetition, until unconsciously the action carries its own constraint and outer influence is unnecessary.

THE "GOLDEN MEMORY PERIOD"

During the years from about nine to fifteen memory is in its most glorious period for storing away. In early life a fact is retained chiefly through its impress on the soft brain cells, for the power of association is little developed. In later life a fact is retained almost wholly through association with other facts, for the cells grow hard and an imprint therefore is faint. In the "Golden Memory Period" the fact has the double hold of impress and association, for the cells are still plastic and associative powers are developed. The task and its haste are evident, for this dual condition never recurs.

The brain will now receive everything, the abstract, that which is not understood, the uninteresting, as well as that which is pleasing. This is the drill period, when mechanical repetition will fix anything, regardless of the child's desire to learn, and full comprehension is unnecessary. It is also the period of verbal memory, and that which ought to be memorized exactly should be given now.

RELIGIOUS LIFE

If nurture has cared for the spiritual life of the child, he will probably desire during this period to publicly confess his love for Jesus Christ. Even if he has not been so nurtured, every condition in his life makes it easier now than it ever will be later to lead him to acceptance of Christ. Though there comes a great spiritual awakening in adolescence, there is at the same time more in the life to oppose the decision for Christ than in childhood. The Christian life has not the meaning for him that it will have later on, spiritual vision is not broad nor deep, but if the child genuinely loves the Savior and wants to use his energy for Him, he is laying at the Master's feet all he has now to give, and if Christ accepts the gift, the church ought to accept the giver. There is no greater crime against childhood than to bar the doors to these babes in Christ, nor, assuredly, can any act bring keener pain to the Passionate Lover of little children, who said, "Let them come unto me, and forbid them not."

APPLICATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK

Perhaps a resume of the conditions which the Sunday School must meet in this period will make the situation more definite.

The child is increasingly independent and outspoken, but easily won by love and confidence. He responds to responsibility, craves recognition, glories in show and regalia, wants to know the truth about things. He is a hero worshipper, abounds with energy and considers it his inalienable right to have fun with his chums. He devours books and magazines, retains what he reads and memorizes as never before. He is forming habits of life. He ought to be a sincere child Christian before he leaves the Junior department.

Manifestly, in dealing with this period, the problem of nurture must find a large part of its solution in the teacher himself. Three things must be vitally true of the one holding this responsible office: first, an abiding touch with God that shall mean Divine wisdom, moment by moment, for the exegencies of Junior work far outnumber the tread mill experiences; second, an understanding of and genuine sympathy with the life of the children; third, a personality that shall meet the conditions of hero worship. Some day the church will give to every boys' class, in this and succeeding periods, a trained Christian man to be hero first, and then teacher, for no boy aspires to be like a woman, no matter how much he may love her. But, though a woman may not reach up to a boy's ideals along physical lines, nor should she attempt it, there is abundant opportunity through outings, tramps, picnics and genuine interest in their sports to touch even that side of the life of both boys and girls.

The social needs must be met through frequent class and department gatherings, preferably in the homes, for the habit of reverence in God's house will receive almost fatal counteraction in the average social gathering of this age held in the church. Organizations like the "Knights of King Arthur," for boys, and the "Sunshine Club," for girls, are to be highly commended because of their social features, their appeal to the love of uniform, password and secrets, to hero worship and to activity through the ideals of life and service they make concrete and alluring.

Discipline of these independent, outspoken boys and girls is easy if the teacher will only lay hold of the heart instead of the coat collar, but, alas, the latter method takes less time. The world holds nothing truer and sweeter than the love of a child at this age, free as it is from all affectation and policy, and it is there in every heart, awaiting the touch of the teacher who can find the hidden spring. The contact on Sunday is not sufficient, however, to reveal it. The child must know through the letter, the call, the invitation to the teacher's home, the loving sympathy in his life and interests that the teacher wants him, not his Golden Text and offering, and in this knowledge the magic spring is found.

Besides the social life, the teacher should feel a responsibility in regard to what the children are reading. Papers like the Youth's Companion circulated among the members, suggestions as to books in the Sunday School or public library, books loaned to the children and questions as to their reading may save many a soul from the slimy trail of the serpent coiled in the dime novel.

A few suggestions may be added relative to the work in the School itself.

PLACE

The Juniors should have a separate department and place, for their work is distinct in character and methods from the Primary and Intermediate departments. Maps and charts should be added to the equipment, individual and personally owned Bibles, and where they can be had, tables for each class.

ORGANIZATION

For two important reasons the department should be divided into classes and the teaching done by the teachers, presupposing they have risen to their privilege and are trained. First, the week-day shepherding becomes an increasingly serious matter as the child is broadening in his relationships, and no superintendent can give it alone. Second, the recitation must give large opportunity for individual work on the part of the pupil during the lesson, and this is impossible in a department taught as a whole.

PROGRAM

The program should give prominence to supplemental work taught largely through drills, including—during the Golden Memory Period—the Books of the Bible, passages, chapters, facts concerning the Bible and training in its use, geography of the Holy Land, the catechism where used and the hymns of the church. Public recognition in badges, certificates and roll of honor will aid in securing the desired work along this and other lines.

Systematic and careful training in habits of Christian service ranks with the lesson in importance. Responsibilities in various committees through the week may be used to strengthen habits and utilize energy. Missionary heroes should be made as familiar to the children as their own personal friends, and there should be regular contributions to definite objects, not abstractions like "Missions" or "Benevolences."

Music of a martial type is greatly enjoyed by the children, also that suggesting action, but never the meditative, introspective sort. Great care should be taken to guard the voices from overstrain in loud singing, as irreparable damage may be done for all time to come.

THE LESSON

The Junior lesson should be prepared to meet the children's interest in facts and love of a hero. They are not ready yet for truth in the abstract—it must be seen in a person. Instead of the story, as in the Primary class, there must be a mingling of vivid word pictures by the teacher and question and answer. The children should not be told to "study the lesson," for they do not know how, but rather have assigned to them one definite thing to prepare for the recitation. Make use of their love of reading in this connection. Use energy and hold attention by means of pad and pencil, written answers in the books they are making on the current lessons, map drawing, looking up references and a stereoscope if possible. Time before the session and in the social gatherings of the class can be most fascinatingly and profitably used in making pulp and sand maps and models of Oriental objects.

Toward the latter part of this period, a questioning in regard to Divine things may come, but a questioning unmixed with the doubt of later years. "And when He was twelve years old, ... they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions." With this desire to know reasons for belief comes the teacher's golden opportunity for strengthening the foundations of faith through history and the testimony of ancient monuments, where it can be adduced, through experience and through God's Word itself.

May nurture be so true to God and the life that the child shall leave his childhood and face the dawn of manhood as that One of old with the eager heart and heavenly vision, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"