The Boy and the Sunday School / A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys

by John L. Alexander

THE HYBRID BOY IS A PROBLEM

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