The Tom Sawyer Phenomenon Some Comments on Why Kids Put Jam on the Cat

Abstract

For a long time it was fashionable to blame a child's parents for his school failures, delinquency or, for that matter, any deviation from society's norms. We know now that each individual child has separate “unto-himself” genetics, constitutional and social factors which affect behavior and performance. Reverend von Hilsheimer is General Superintendent of Humanitas, a religious order specializing in community engineering, and which operates Green Valley, a residential center for “children in trouble”.—C.C.E.