of arbitrary
restraint or punishment. There is a super-sensitiveness and a keen
self-consciousness which cannot brook harshness and coercion. Sympathy and
reasonableness must take the place of censure and punishment. Years ago I
remember seeing a father start to whip his boy who was just emerging into
the adolescent stage, a heavy stick was raised to strike, but the boy
looked his father in the eye without flinching and quietly remarked: "You
may whip one devil out, Father, but I promise you that you'll whip seven
devils in." The stick dropped from the astonished parent's hand; the boy
was never again punished by whipping.

The runaway curve for boys reaches its highest point at this time, and the
girl is likely to be insolent and unmanageable probably for the first and
only time in her life. The greatest crises of life arise at this time
because of the almost criminal ignorance of parents respecting these
revolutionary changes and also because children who may never before have
caused the parents the least trouble or heartache are now as unruly and
unmanageable as a volcano in eruption. This is the time when the youth is
driven from home by the irate father, the time when the rebellious daughter
is condemned without mercy, the critical period when most vices are begun
and most juvenile crimes committed. The parent is apt to exclaim here: "In
Heaven's name, what can be done?" Not even the wisdom of a Solomon could
answer completely; a few suggestions, however, may be offered which will
help to bridge over this critical period.

If the child has had positive training up to this time, the period of
"storm and stress" will be briefer and less severe than it would be
otherwise; but if the negative training has prevailed, there is less hope
that the storm will be weathered. The youth may be caught in the stream of
dissipation and whirled to destruction. At the very least, the parent must
expect fitful and obstinate behavior, and unreasonable action. In boys, the
beginning of the use of tobacco and liquor usually comes at this time. This
is the time, too, of sexual temptation, if not actual indulgence. The
temptation to do something startling is almost irresistible; robberies will
be planned, hold-ups thought of, abductions contemplated; the life of a
desperado entertained. The moral character seems to be in a state of
eruption.

On the other hand, his sympathies and affections may be appealed to as
never before. The paren