en a great change in the status of children, a
change that makes their care far more difficult than in the past. They
have risen from subordinate figures in the household, schooled in
absolute obedience, "to be seen and not heard," to the central figures
in the household. One of the strangest of revolutions has taken place in
America, taken place in almost every household, and without the notice
of historians or sociologists. That is because these professional
students of humanity have their attention focused on little groups of
figures called the leaders, and not nearly enough on that mass which
gives the leaders their direction and power.

The age of the child! His development parallels that of women, in that
an individualization has taken place. In the past education and training
took notice of the child-group, not of the individual child. But
child-culture has taken on new aspects, punishment has been largely
superseded, individual study and treatment are the thing. Personality is
the aim of education, especial aptitudes are recognized in the various
types of schools that have arisen: commercial, industrial, classical;
yes, and even schools for the feeble-minded.

All this is admirable, and in another century will bring remarkable
results. Even to-day some good has come, but this is largely vitiated by
other influences.

Aside from the fact that the attention paid the child often increases
his self-importance and makes his wishes more capricious, there are
factors that tend to rob him of his naivete.

These factors are the movies, the newspapers, and the spread of
luxurious habits amongst children.

The movies are marvelous agents for the spread of information and
misinformation. Because of the natural settings they give to the most
absurd and unnatural stories, their essential falsity and unreality is
often made the more pernicious. Their possibilities for good are
enormous, their actual performance is conspicuously to lower the public
taste, to create a habit which discourages earnest reading or
intelligent entertainment. For children they act as a stimulant of an
unwholesome kind, acquainting them with realistic crime, vice, and
vulgarity, giving them a distaste for childlike enjoyment. One sees
nowadays altogether too often the satiated child who seeks excitement,
the cynical, overwise child filled with the lore of the movies.

In similar fashion the "comic" cartoons of the newspapers have an
extraordinar