The noblest and most important work we have to do is the training and
teaching of the coming generation.
The successful business man has no more difficult problem to solve than
what he will do with his son.
It is a fact that the greatest successes in the business world today
are those men who had to start in the battle early, and fight their way
to the front.
The successful business man usually tries to arrange matters so that
his son will not require to go through the hard working school of
experience he himself attended, and in this the business man rather
goes to the other extreme in that he tries to make things easy for his
boy.
As the twig is bent so the tree is inclined. The young mind is plastic
and capable of receiving impressions, and we know that the impressions
made in our youth are lasting all our days.
The problem in the country is not so difficult, for there are so many
things to do about the home that the young country boy usually has
plenty of chores and duties to perform.
Occupation is a decided blessing and a present benefit to a boy.
People in the cities have all creature comforts about the homes,
transportation facilities are ample, the homes are heated by steam,
stores are in abundance, people buy from day to day, and every little
convenience is at hand to keep the scheme of living going along
smoothly.
Because the city boy is surrounded with schools and the comforts of
home he has much time on his hands. The boy is active, and if his
activity is not turned on useful things, it will be turned on useless
things. The young boy goes to the grammar school, and the daylight
hours, outside of school hours, are devoted to play. This is right and
as it should be, but when the boy gets along to twelve or fourteen
years of age, the parents should arrange for him some little duties,
some regular task to perform. The youngster will get accustomed to
this, and it is decidedly beneficial. As the boy enters the high school
he finds his hours shorter and his leisure hours longer.
The high school period is a most important one in the boy's life, and
the father should see to it that the high school boy is occupied for
several hours each day, either in his own place of business or in some
other establishment.
There is no way of teaching a boy the value of money like having him
work for money.
Arrange to pay your boy so much an hour for the duties he performs.
Have his occupation regular, talk with him about what he has done
during the day, be a companion to the boy, and soon you will notice
that he evinces interest in the things he is doing, and as time passes,
ambition is fired in his breast, and when the time comes for him to
enter the threshold of business he has been prepared for the work.
It is strange that while we parents realize the importance of
education, we pay so little attention to the boy while he is going to
school. We should keep in touch with the boy's teachers and with the
boy himself, taking an interest in his studies. The business man as a
rule drifts apart from his son during his younger years.
There is nothing that will help the boy so much as being a companion to
him, being interested with him in the things he does, whether work or
study. Fathers and sons should be comrades.
A close companionship between father and son is not only a great
satisfaction and source of happiness to each of them, but is decidedly
beneficial to both.
By all means have some regular occupation for your boy while he is
going to school. Keep in close touch with him. Explain to him the
things he does not understand. Show him the great possibilities ahead
of him if he does right, and the impossibility for him to succeed if he
does wrong.