What are you going to do with such a child? Send him to a reform school,
and ruin his life? Beat him until all the buoyancy has gone out of his
nature? Keep him in after school until he becomes irritable and nervous?
No, indeed! The best thing to do with a lively and unrestrained child is
to set his energies in a safe and sane channel. Teach him field sports,
open up for him the delights of the manual training room. Give him a
hammer, a few nails, a bit of lumber, a paste pot, some cardboard. Boys
love to work with their hands, so let your boy make things. He will like
to build stools and coat racks, boxes, broom-holders, anything that is
useful. That is one of the great secrets of bringing up a boy, make him
useful. He likes the little sense of power, the natural feeling of pride
that comes from a knowledge that he is of some consequence, that his
work counts. The boy who is taught to do something well, will not long
be unmanageable.