INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATION

Boys and girls often choose their careers because some popular friend or
associate exerts an undue influence upon them. George is going to be a
doctor. Therefore Joseph decides he, too, will be a doctor. Mary looks
forward to being a teacher. Mary is the very intimate chum of Josephine.
Then Josephine decides, also, that she is going to be a teacher. We knew
one earnest and popular young man in college who persuaded about three
dozen of his associates to join him in preparation for the foreign mission
field. In one class in college a fad caused several young men to lose good
opportunities because they decided to take up the practice of medicine. In
one high school class, several young men became railroad employees because
the most popular of their number yearned to drive a locomotive. And this
enterprising youth, with parental guidance and assistance, became a
lawyer.


POOR JUDGMENT OF PARENTS

Parental bad judgment is one of the most frequent causes of misfits. Even
when parents are sincere and try to be wise, choice of a child's life work
is very difficult for them. In the first place, they either underestimate
or overestimate their children. What parent, worthy of the high privilege,
can be absolutely impartial in judging the talents of his child? Arthur
Brisbane says that Nature makes every baby look like a genius in his
mother's eyes, so that she will gladly sacrifice her life, if necessary,
for her child. It may be a wise provision, but it does not tend to make
parents reliable guides to vocations for their offspring.

Then, many parents do not know work. They do not understand the demands of