fact that it is the primary one, is the home. The home is the basis of
the community, the community merely being the aggregation of a large
number of well-organized or ill-organized homes. The first impressions
the boy receives are through his home life, and the bent of his whole
career is often determined by the home relationships.

The large majority of homes today are merely places in which a boy may
eat and sleep. The original prerogatives of the father and mother, so
far as they pertain to the physical, social, mental and moral
development of boyhood, have been farmed out to other organizations in
the community. The home life of today greatly differs from that of
previous generations. This is very largely due to social and economic
conditions. Our social and economic revolution has made vast inroads
upon our normal home life, with the result that the home has been
seriously weakened and the boy has been deprived of his normal home
heritage.

To give the home at least some of the old power that it used to have
over the boy life, there must needs be recognized the very definite
place a boy must have in the family councils. The general tendency
today, as far as the boy is concerned, is an utter disregard on the part
of the father and mother of the importance of the boy as a partner in
the family. He is merely the son of his father and mother, and their
obligations to him seemingly end in providing him with wholesome food,
warm clothing, a place to sleep and a room in which to study and play in
common with other members of the household. Very little thought is given
on the part of the father and mother to the real part the boy should
play in the direction of the family life. Family matters are never
determined with the help of his judgment. They are even rarely discussed
in his presence. Instead of being a partner in the family life, doing