THE student of high school years is sure that there is nothing he cannot achieve if he will but put his mind to it. Undue cautiousness, which seems to come with adultism or experience, has not dampened his ardor for adventurous living. A useful and happy career is expected, and no insurmountable obstacles are anticipated. He is not hampered by a supine acceptance of the presumable inviolability of natural and physical laws. To him wood and stream are full of wonder, not of danger. Airways and sea lanes beckon him.
This sense of freedom is noticeable in young people brought up in Christian Science homes, as those of us can testify who have observed them in classroom, gymnasium, and on the athletic field. At his finest, the young Scientist is a dauntless player, a conscientious student. He would rather lose a game than win it by doubtful means. He would rather fail a course than borrow oil from his brother's lamp. Such conduct seems natural to the parent and teacher who have long borne witness with the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, that "right thinking, right feeling, and right acting— honesty, purity, unselfishness—in youth tend to success, intellectuality, and happiness in manhood" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 274).
But sometimes this sense of freedom is diverted or misguided. Apathy claims to produce a slackening of interest and endeavor. Self-reliance and right thinking are not always fostered and encouraged at home. Liberty, misunderstood, becomes license. Love, too personally conceived, leads to indulgence. And indulgence is at the bottom of delinquency. Delinquency among teen-agers has in some sections become a problem which Christian Scientists of all ages should help to solve.
