y his own tendencies, as they appear during youth, can tell what
that parcel really contains.

Allow these traits to unfold naturally, normally and freely. Don't
complicate your own problem by trying to advise him too soon. Don't
praise certain professions. Children are intensely suggestible. The
knowledge that father and mother consider a certain profession
especially desirable oftentimes influences a child to waste time working
toward it when he has no real ability for it. Every hour of youth is
precious and this wastage is unspeakably expensive.

On the other hand, do not attempt to prejudice your child _against_ any
profession. Don't let him think, for instance, that you consider
overalls a badge of inferiority, or a white collar the mark of
superiority. Many a man in blue denim today could buy and sell the
collar-and-cuff friends of his earlier years. The size of a man's
laundry bill is no criterion of his income.

Popular Misconceptions

Other parents make the equally foolish mistake of showing their
dislike of certain professions. Not long ago we heard a father say in
the presence of his large family, "I don't want any of my boys to be
lawyers. Lawyers are all liars. Ministers are worse; they're all a bunch
of Sissies. Doctors are all fakes. Actors are all bad eggs; and business
is one big game of cheat or be cheated. I'm going to see that every boy
I've got becomes a farmer."

Misdirected Mothering

A very unfortunate case came to our attention several years ago. In
Chicago a mother brought her eighteen-year-old son to us for vocational
counsel. "I am determined that James shall be a minister," she said. "My
whole happiness depends upon it. I have worked, slaved and sacrificed
ever since his father died that he might have the education for it. Now
I want you to tell James to be a minister."

We refused to take the case, explaining that our analyses didn't come to
order but had to fit the facts as we found them. She still insisted upon
the analysis. It revealed the fact that James was deficient mentally,
save in one thing. His capacity for observing was lightning-like in its
swiftness and microscopic in its completeness. And his capacity for
judging remote motives from immediate actions was uncannily accurate.

He was a human ferret, as had been proven many times during his boyhood.
At one time the jewelry store in which he worked as a shipping clerk
lost a valuable necklace, and after the police of