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MOOSEHEART MAGAZINE
With Superintendent Adams at Mooseheart
as their actions go. I do not mean that they are especially bad, but they are savages by their actions in that they cannot think straight about what they do. A four, five, or six year old child usually does not think clearly and correctly. When he gets older he has more sense and when he becomes fourteen or eighteen he has pretty good judgment and thinks very differently about things.
Use “Sorrows” as Stepping Stones to Happiness.
In the case of boys or girls of High School age, there are certain things that seem big to them. When they look back a year from the time they thought this thing big, it does not seem big at all. in fact they laugh at it. Things near, seem big. A pun-inshment, a sorrow or something that you want very badly seems very important. Unfortunately ,boys and girls from fourteen to eighteen sometimes put too much feeling into things. They feel that if they do not get something they want the world will simply come to an end. When they do anything that they are very much interested in, they put their whole strength into it, and sometimes when thingg do not turn out as they want them to, they are apt to say. “I don’t care,” but just the same they do care and they do grieve— sometimes too much. This is more true of girls than boys, but it is true of both at this age. In five years they will have completely forgotten about it, or at least laugh at their former feeling of sadness and downheartedness.
Conceit—Braggers.
There are many different kinds of conceit. We often speak of boys and girls being “stuck on themselves.” This happens when they think they are superior mentally, good looking or well dressed. This attitude is exhibited by them in their bearing and thé way they talk about themselves. We usually dislike them. They harm themselves greatly by being so conceited.
Seekers of Praise.
There is a type of conceit that cannot be put in the same class as the above. I refer to the boy or girl who is conceited about either clothes, appearance or brains and is continually seeking praise. The person mentioned in the first class, who brags continually, is usually so self satisfied that he doesn’t care much whether any one praises him or not. In this second type, they are not so sure of their superiority and are always hunting for praise. They are apt to talk about their exploits and what people say about them just ־ to get people to praise them. They are the type of boy or girl who never seem to get enough praise. You will notice the first type are the loud mouthed type that are always talking about how superior they are and that the second type also talk about themselves, but in an entirely different way, they seek the praise of other boys and girls.
Conceit in Manner.
The third type of conceit is one that talks little and seeks little praise from others, but who exhibit their conceit in the way they walk and the way they carry their heads. They sneer when anyone dbes anything that does not exactly suit them. They have an air of superiority. We understand this type and size them up more easily than the first two.
Conceit in Action.
The fourth type is also one that talks little and does not show their conceit readily. It is shown in their reaction after some one in charge corrects them or offers a
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High School Boys and Girls and Their Problems
(Superintendent Adams appoints daily one of the Senior class to be acting chairman of the Assembly. He has also started to make ten- minute talks to the Senior boys and girls on their own everyday life problems,—not the problems they are to those in charge. Here are samples of some of the talks. The stenographic and typewriting work on these was done by a Mooseheart girl who took verbatim what he said.)
are dying all the time. The minute a person is born they begin to die. It may be ten, twenty or seventy years before you die, but we are all dying slowly.
Are You Always the Same?
I want to startle you once again. Have you ever stopped to think that today you are a certain person and tomorrow morning you will be a different person. Today you are a certain John Smith and tomorrow you will be a different John Smith. We do not notice this change in ourselves because we change so little from day to day, but if you have not seen a boy or girl for a year you would say they were greatly changed. In this way• we grow away from ourselves. In a year from now we will all be dif-
athletics he just trains himself intensively.
Some Problems.
I want to take up with you some of the problems you face every day. You have thousands of them. Among them are:	Choosing your studies,
choosing your vocation, leisure hours, conceit, teasing, bullying, “getting people’s goats,” stubbornness, feeling hurt, revenge, “hard boiled,” forwardness, being a servant, taking orders, stealing, habits, lying, smoking, taking a mean advantage, consideration for younger, economy, hard work, saving, manliness, womanliness, politeness and courtesy, duty, service, wholesomeness, cleanliness, etc.
The athletic fellow who wants to play base ball and foot ball and go
WARREN G. HARDING
U. S. Senator and Republican Candidate for President. Member Marion, Ohio, Lodge No. 889.
ferent people. The only thing that stays with us and is just the same through life is our name. This never changes. Everything else in us grows and changes.
The “Culture Epoch Theory.”
At different ages boys and girls think differently about things, they are not interested in the same things. We all have to learn as we grow. This goes back to the fact that we were all savages at one time and as time went on we grew more and more civilized until now we consider ourselves quite civilized, in fact we call this the cultural age in the history of the world.
Every human being passes through these stages of civilization. Little children are only little savages as far
swimming has to decide which of these he can do best and wants to do most. He must sacrifice something. We all make sacrifices. The boy must decide about his reading; whether he wants to read Zane Grey’s books or some other kind of books; whether he wants to be a walker up and down the cement side walk for his exercise or whether he wants to attend the dances and to walk home from the Assembly meeting with a girl. These are problems that every boy must decide. Some boys spend a great deal of time on them, others not so much.
Are You Dying?
I want to startle you. Did you ever stop to think that you are dying ? Every minute of your life you are dying, It is true that it will take you a long time, but just the same you
Ten Minute Talks.
Now that I have a substitute as chairman of the Assembly, I do not have the opportunity to talk to you as I would like to. I am going to take up ten minutes of each afternoon talking about things that are of interest to all of us, but more especially to the high school boys and girls.
Longer Talks.
If I asked any of you how I spent the day I presume that you would say I sat in my office dictating letters and talking, to anyone who happened to drop in. A few of you would know how I spent it. This is what I have done today. I talked to several who happened to drop in and I also talked to some whom I asked to “drop in,” because I wanted to talk to them. I spent two hours with one group, a brother and sister, I spent an hour with another boy, forty-five minutes with another and two hours this afternoon with another boy. I began to think then about how terribly inefficient the whole method was. I had to repeat the same idea over and over again to each one and I thought how much better it would be if I should talk to all of you at once.
When a person is talking in a serious way to another person, ideas will come as a sort of an inspiration. These will make the person look at everything in a new light. There is one thing about the Mooseheart boys and girls, they can talk back and forth and try to get the right and wrong of the matter. They usually work out the right.
Boys and Girls Have Problems.
Usually people would say in talking of problems and high school students, “The problem of the High School Boy and Girl.” I am going to call these talks “The High School Boys and Girls and Their Problems.” You all know you have problems—very important ones—daily that you must think about and solve. Yours are real life problems. I want to think back and at these talks feel a high school boy so that I may suggest how, perhaps, you can solve some of these -problems.
High school boys and girls get into trouble and get bewildered. I do the same thing. A great many times I do not know what to do. You all have problems. You had problems when you were babies; when you go away to college you will have others and when you grow up you will still have problems. When you get into the world and establish your own . home your problems will seem to stop for awhile until you have a family of your own, then they will begin all over again, for your own boys and girls will always be problems.
“Training.”
The boys and girls at Mooseheart are being trained to go out into the world and face problems which will come to them. Sometimes boys and girls resent the use of the word “training.’' Do not resent this, it is the best thing that could happen to you. If a boy wishes to become an engineer he must submit himself to “training,” or if he wishes to become a dentist or anything else, he must submit to “training.” Men who go to Harvard or Yale speak of the “training” they received there. If a boy wishes to accomplish anything in