IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 50, 28 February 1931, Page 8

IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

"BOYS WILL BE BOYS." PROTEST AGAINST "RAGGING." s (To the Editor.) Surely there are few sayings, more useless than that of '"Boys will be boys" unless followed by "Until they have been trained to be gentlemen, or at least human beings." j r most decent families the elder children a «* taught to be gentle and self-sacrilidn. win"! the .young ones. But as soon as a bo T °ent r a school, no matter of what class, ;, e fin J! tJ'e rule of the strongest applied at once Ana not only that, but the force of numbS in inflicting cruelty. Tlic newcomer i s *1! upon by all the atliem and subjected t„ humiliations which embitter the sensitive Who among us is strong enough to resUf numbers? There is and should be no objection to boys fighting; it seems a sort of .law to young animals, but they should fight fairly should fight those of their own". size and strength, and the bigger boys should be the ones to enforce fairness instead of But too often the bigger boys are the b.West busies. It makes cowards and "time-servers" and so perhaps is good training for the woild, but in that case such training should be begun in the home—and what a home it would be! I have little doubt that w e owe our gangs of young "hoodlums" to the noble .system that teaches lads the law of "four one," and I do not wonder. Jf I had been knocked about in youth I would have "taken it out" on somebody or other when I grew up T.C.M.