One of the characteristics of this age is the tendency to hero
worship. It is so difficult to know in advance what types of heroes
our children are going to select that we are inclined to feel quite
helpless in the matter. But it is safe to say that earlier training
is sure to have its effects, although we cannot always measure the
effect. A boy in whom a keen sense of honor shows itself before
adolescence is not likely to adopt a hero in whom there is a
suspicion of anything sneaky. The new flood of emotions brings with
it a host of new aspirations and new ideals; and some of these are
likely enough to conflict with the older childish ideals. It is
therefore of the utmost importance that the reading--which is
perhaps the chief source of model heroes for most children--should
be of a wholesome kind. This does not mean that the stories must be
about paragons of virtue; the villains of fiction and history have
their value in teaching life and character, and we need not fear
that they will contaminate the minds of the young, for in most
children the instincts may be relied upon to reject the allurement
of the base character. But fiction that is false in its sentiment,
that does not present truthful pictures of life, is likely to give
perverted ideas of human relations and false standards of value.
City children who have access to the theatre often get their heroes
from the stage; and the same thing may be said about the drama as
about fiction. It is only the too highly colored and exaggerated
melodrama that is likely to be objectionable for the impressionable
youth. The moving-picture shows, which are coming to supply so many
of the children with their chief opportunity to learn life, have
been, on the whole, fairly wholesome; and the movement to secure
more adequate censorship of the films will probably leave these
sources of instruction perfectly safe, from a moral point of view,