Question

se the passage from Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives to answer the question."With no steady hand to guide him, the boy takes naturally to idle ways. Caught in the street by the truant officer, or by the agents of the Children’s Societies, peddling, perhaps, or begging, to help out the family resources, he runs the risk of being sent to a reformatory, where contact with vicious boys older than himself soon develop the latent possibilities for evil that lie hidden in him. The city has no Truant Home in which to keep him, and all efforts of the children’s friends to enforce school attendance are paralyzed by this want. The risk of the reformatory is too great." – Jacob RiisIn a paragraph of 3–5 sentences, interpret the passage in your own words.

Answer 1

Riis is saying that without steady adult supervision, a neglected boy drifts into idleness and petty work or begging to help his family. When authorities pick him up for truancy, he often ends up in reformatories where older, hardened delinquents teach him worse behavior, turning a small risk into a greater one. The city’s lack of a safe truant home makes it impossible to keep such boys in school and protect them, so the only available option — the reformatory — is harmful rather than corrective.