The Use of Biography in the Guidance of Secondary School Students

Abstract

Deep in the heart of every adolescent boy or girl is the apparent tendency to hero-worship. It is a fact not to be disregarded that youth of high school age whose lives are undergoing a process of character formation will meet those people whom they will hold as ideals for imitation. Whether those contacts are in the actual physical acquaintance, or are through the printed page, circumstance will decide. The problems of youth, the ever increasing influence of one life upon another, the strong desire for hero-worship bring demands for a leader, a cause, a proof that great things have been done and still greater deeds remain to be done. As McMahon points out:|"Modern education offers to youth the rich inheritance of ages when it brings forth for his study the lives of the athletes of Christ, the Saints, whose untiring energy has left everywhere practical proof of that observance of the Master’s words, "He that loseth his life for Me shall find it."|The youth of today, engrossed with material things and over-stimulated by the restless and misleading environment of the age, needs definite direction and encouragement if he is to choose ideals that are challenging to his mental, moral, and spiritual potentialities. Since guidance has always been the essence of Catholic education, it is well defined as the "collaboration of the teacher with the student toward the finding and developing of his best potencies.”