Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/booklesslessonsfOOIyncricli BOOKLESS LESSONS FOR THE TEACHER-MOTHER fs^' THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NBW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA. Lm TORONTO Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother BY ELLA FRANCES LYNCH Founder of the National League of Teacher- Mothers; Founder of the School of Individual In- struction; Author of "Educating the Child at Home." THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 All rights reserved. X<7 Copyright, 1922, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and dectrotyped. Published October, 1922. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA {" PREFACE "I want to teach my children, but am I really clever enough to be a teacher?" It is not the cleverest teacher, but the best teacher, that the home needs. A great linguist may be totally unable to make others learn the elements of a language, a great musician may lack every single qualification as a teacher of beginners. It is not merely cleverness or a knack of arousing enthusiasm that marks the good teacher, not high scholarship nor commanding intellect, but patience and perseverance in making children do the same things day after day, exactly so. It is this making that is the backbone of education. The child who is sent to school before learning to obey, to pay attention, to apply himself, is for the time being unteachable. No school can entirely repair the damage wrought by wrong training or neglect during the first seven years of life. Here is a test of the mother's ability to conduct her own kindergarten : Can you teach your children the Lord^s Prayer? Can you teach them to sew on buttons? to tie a knot? to set the table? to use a broom? to draw a straight line? Can you teach them the names of the birds that visit your yard? the trees and flowers growing near yout home? the common garden vegetables? the six basic colors? Can you teach them Mother Goose rhymes? V 504i;47 vi PREFACE Can you fnake them think of the question asked be- fore attempting to answer it? Can you make them see things as they are and describe exactly what they see? If you can do these things, or can learn to do them, you can also learn to do the other things that will be required of the Teacher-Mother. Thanks are due to the editors of the Country Gentle- man, American Motherhood, America, Holland's Maga- zine, Munsey's, McCalVs, Normal Instructor and Pri- mary Plans, Journal of Education, the Child (London), New York Times, Philadelphia Ledger, and numerous other newspapers and periodicals in which parts of this book have appeared. Their help has done much to make productive the effort to reestablish the home as the greatest educational institution in the world. From the "bush" of western Canada to the mining camps of the Andes, from the dry lands of Rhodesia to the in- land missions of the Chinese Empire, from New York to San Francisco, these methods are being used by busy mothers who must make teaching link arms with house- work. To these good mothers and to the many more who are daily enrolling in the League of Teacher-Mothers, this book is affectionately dedicated. Ella Frances Lynch. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Teacher-Mother's Opportunity . i II. Education or Heredity 12 III. Psychology and Pedagogy 22 IV. Discipline • • 35 V. Discipline: Habits 58 VI. Training Children to Observe ... 84 VII. Opening the Mind's Gateways . . . 104 VIII. Play 131 IX. Work 163 X. Religious Education 185 XI. Morals and Manners 204 XII. Language Culture in the Home . . .231 Index 261 BOOKLESS LESSONS FOR THE TEACHER-MOTHER CHAPTER I THE teacher-mother's OPPORTUNITY For Qvtry child born into the world his work is waiting, humble, perhaps, but a part of the great plan ; with each is born his special gift, to be developed by education into that lifework. This guidebook is writ- ten in the belief that within each child's environment lies the means of educating him, and that with the parents, whether rich or poor, learned or simple, rest the privilege and responsibility of so ordering the home that it becomes for their children the greatest educa- tional institution in the world. To do this it is necessary for the parents to under- stand something of the laws of human nature, just as it is a lawyer's business to know the civil law and a physician's to know Nature's laws with regard to the proper functioning of the human body. A man of sense does not undertake even the making of a garden, the building of a house, or the running of an engine until he understands at least the elements of the project and has studied the practices of others, in order to ascertain the most common causes of success and fail- ure, for only a wastrel would experiment unnecessarily with materials that could not be duplicated. Especially '2y''''Booktrss Lessons for the Teacher-Mother must we be on our guard in the field of child culture, where the materials are too delicate and costly and the eflFects too far-reaching for rash or unguided experi- mentation. A false blow of the sculptor's chisel means merely the spoiling of a block of marble, whereas the result of the parents' error or incompetence may mean the spoiling of an immortal soul. Men and women are what they are because the home either trained them in the right way or failed in that responsibility. The school cannot remodel the child who has been given a wrong start at home. This book is a calendar of certain things that can and should be done in training children before it is time to put a book into their hands. It does not pro- fess to include everything of this nature, the mother's intelligence being taken for granted. The list of ques- tions which mothers most frequently ask me has served as my guide as to the points emphasized. No attempt is made to be novel or highly original, but only to keep the road open in the right direction, so that it may be easier for parents to go right than wrong. One of the most pernicious blunders of modern times is putting a book into the child's hands before he is ready for the lessons it contains. Children who have been carefully trained .at home can do easily in two years the school work that other children can scarcely accomplish in three or four. Such lessons as are out- lined here make the children so eager to learn that thereafter method is of little consequence. Hence we shall deal briefly and informally with some of the things parents need to know about child nature, and with simple, unpretentious ways of tilling, planting, and cultivating these little gardens of Eden. Throughout, The Teacher 'Mother's Opportunity 3 we shall base instruction on the theory that after birth education, and not heredity, is the controlling factor, that during the years of early childhood individual instruction and sane discipline are the best and indeed the only guarantee of lasting success. We shall not seek to turn normal children into abnor- mal ones by preparing them for college at the age of ten, but instead try to show how the best things gained in a college course, such as the ability to persist in hard work until the assignment is mastered, can and should be acquired before the age of ten. I have no advice to offer on the turning of children into prodi- gies. Personally, I do not want to live with a prodigy. It is best to keep close to Mother Earth, and pray that you may never raise a prodigy of anything but hon- esty, faithfulness, truth, industry, sober-mindedness, sympathetic fellow-feeling towards fellow men. I do not want mothers to take as their ideal the advertisement of a certain university: "This is where we take a bootblack and turn him into a doctor.'* In the universal scheme, a good bootblack, if that be his calling, or a good ditch-digger, comes as near to ful- filling the divine intent as a good ambassador, and much nearer than a poor one. As Jeanie Carlyle asked her- self : ''After all, in the sight of the Upper Powers, what is the mighty difference between a statue of Per- seus and a loaf of bread, so that each be the thing one's hand has found to do?" Much that I am saying is said from the angle of a teacher who has struggled with "failures," and tried to find out why bright children do so often fail. This is one generalization I shall venture to make : the small- est percentage of school failures comes from old- 4 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother fashioned homes where old-fashioned discipUne and training prevail, that same old and time-honored disci- pline and training to which humanity owes the greater portion of its progress, civilization, and culture. Some of the facts that I wish to bring to the atten- tion of parents are these : There is no such thing as a born criminal; parents cannot escape responsibility by blaming badness on a remote ancestor ; all children are naughty, but no child is bad; all children will be good children when mothers train them in good habits from early infancy; failure in making a living or making life worth while are mainly traceable to parental igno- rance or negligence; knowledge alone is not a safe- guard against wrongdoing; backwardness among school children as well as stupidity among grown peo- ple are often the result of wrong home training or the lack of any sort of home training; a large proportion of feeble-mindedness is the result of neglect or mis- directed training between the ages of three and seven ; genius is native intelligence supported by a disciplined body and controlled by a disciplined mind; the ill- guided home is responsible for most of the existing depravity, criminality, and feeble-mindedness, so that the child is denied an approach to noble self-control and threatened with an utter absence of will power in the exact degree to which his home life is disordered. It is as unnatural to deny careful instruction to chil- dren, however young, as it would be to withhold from them their necessary food, and this care of the child's mind is just as much the duty of parents as is the care of his soul and body. Unfortunately, the term educa- tion is confused with schooling, instruction, and book knowledge, and is used more often in a wrong than in The Teacher-Mother's Opportunity 5 the right sense, a confusion for which schoolmen are probably chiefly to blame. Note the present general use of the word ''educator'' instead of instructor, pro- fessor, superintendent, teacher. We have commission- ers of education, boards of education, departments of education, when the correct term is "public instruc- tion." I venture to assert that this misuse of the word has a wider influence for evil than any similar verbal blunder of the age. The school never was and never can be the chief factor in human education, and to rely upon it as such is one of the most far-reaching errors of the modern social system, for schooling, or any other form of instruction outside the home, is only one part of education. One might as well confuse grafting with orchardry, potato-peeling with cooking a dinner. Many of our great men and women were either educated without schooling, or else were school fail- ures. Most of the present generation are being over- schooled and undereducated. Now the parents are the true educators, whereas the teachers are the teachers. The home is the only institution that is in itself strictly an educational institution. The church and the school can each help, but the home and the home only can educate. It is likely that mothers would approach the task of child-training with more confidence if schoolmen would only express themselves in plain language, such as the great poets and philosophers used when they talked of lovely things, like childhood, and sunsets, and storms at sea. Socrates, the father of logic, could use words that were simple enough for a young child to read and spell, even when he was setting traps for the vain- 6 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother glorious wise ones of Athens, but peep into a modern book on the training of children and you meet a bristling array of Greek derivatives that seem to say: "Thus far, and no farther. Confine your motherly activities to child- feeding and neck- washing. Leave psychology to the pedagogues.'' One of our psychologists, in the desire to let the public know what the inside of a child's head is like, had constructed a whole book out of phrases only a tiegree less obscure and forbidding than the sacred writings on an Egyptian obelisk. At the family dinner table he expressed his gratification that his work was now being translated into Chinese, whereupon his son asked : "Say, dad, why don't you get some one to trans- late it into English?" Strip from psychology its deter- ring mask by calling it knowledge of human nature and ask yourself how much the mother of a growing family is likely to learn about this subject from a psychologist who studies children as he would study grasshoppers, scientifically analyzing, introspecting, hunting reflexes, but who never ministers to them at feeding and neck- washing time, or hears them say their little prayers, or catches them lying to him innocently, clumsily, scien- tifically, according to the degree of preparedness. What mother, even of the brute creation, would not know better than to test the effect of fear on a young child by holding her baby out of a second-story window, as did one of our psychologists? It is noteworthy that the experiment was a success, for the child died of fright. But to translate the word psychology by the phrase "knowledge of human nature" is to exalt the subject overmuch, for it deals with only a part of human The Teacher-Mother's Opportunity 7 nature, the mind, while education is a battle for the soul of the child. In our public schools we assume that the pupil consists only of mind and body, made in the image and likeness of a grade model, souls being popularly ignored, probably because the schoolmen have not succeeded in reducing them to a common denominator. So much for modern psychology in its negative aspect. On the positive side matters are even worse, for the sound, sane teachings of earlier days have been so misconstrued, distorted, or altogether rejected, that we now have a body of literature that is ostensibly based on the study of childhood, yet fits no race of beings, at least human beings, that inhabit the earth at the present time. Its strange, wild theories seem to have originated from the process of imagining what children like best to do and writing these things out, averring them to be the science of exactly what ought to be done. "Find out what they want to do and then let them do it," has taken the place of, "Find out what they can do and then make them do it.*' Children do not like to work, therefore they should be taught through play. Children take an interest in things that interest them, therefore never require chil- dren to do anything that does not interest them, because if they are interested they will do it anyhow. Ameri- can children will not be coerced, they show their native independence by demanding their own way; therefore never say "Don't" or "Must" to an American child. Divert him; if he bites or kicks his mother, she should offer him instead a ball to kick or a raisin to bite, explaining to him that mother will not love him if he bites or kicks. Does it require a pedagogue to under- 8 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother stand that following his natural inclinations reduces man to the level of the brute? It is generally admitted that the right education of children is the most important business in the world, yet the word education has never even been satisfac- torily defined. All good parents, however, are agreed that they would like their children trained to be upright, faithful, prompt, precise, orderly, obedient, self -con- trolled ; ready to acknowledge their mistakes, to respect the rights and property of their neighbor, to adapt themselves to actual conditions, to work without waste of time and effort. They would set a high valuation on reverence and humility. They would like to see labor and duty become the habit of life, setting so easily on the wearer that there is no newness nor harshness in physical exertion, mental effort, or moral obligation. Picture to yourself the man or woman imbued with these old-fashioned virtues and you visualize the say- ing: "There were giants In those days." Who would be so rash as to apply the adjectives *' ignorant," "uned- ucated," to one of these, even though he were un- schooled? Who would have the audacity to assert that schools ever gave or can give this homespun training ? Now, if we add to the foregoing qualifications the instruction that opens the various gates of the mind, sharpens the desire for knowledge, and leads to the love of good books, it would scarcely be necessary to instruct the young learner even in the elements of reading or spelling or writing or arithmetic, so well- equipped is he to complete his education for himself and by his own efforts. Such a boy or girl is educated in the fullest, finest sense of the word, and such educa- The Teacher-Mo therms Opportunity g tion and instruction can be carried on by any earnest, conscientious mother who is able to read this book. The gospels were not set beyond the understanding of the people of plain speech, and there is nothing in true teaching or sound method that cannot be stated in language equally plain and direct. To accomplish these things, the teacher-mother's opportunities for self-cultivation need not have been abundant; indeed her book-instruction need not have taken her beyond the primary grades. A little learning judiciously used drives home more surely than does great learning which is unsupported by sympathetic understanding of the child's needs. The mother need not be familiar with the customs and conventionalities of the fashionable world in order to make her children well-mannered and thoughtful of others. She need be neither artist nor scientist in order to awaken in her children a love of art and science. She need be neither grammarian nor logician in order to lay the foundations for her children's mastery of English and logic. A whetstone will not cut the grass, but it will put an edge on the scythe that will cut the grass. The mother's chief strength lies in her moral nature. Her very presence and example must exercise a con- stantly stimulating and elevating influence. Such a mother, even if no great aid to her children in the acquisition of school subjects, is the ideal mother. Give us such mothers, and our nation will indeed be the leading nation of the world. I wonder whether teacher- mothers fully realize the sublimity of this, their exalted destiny. Is there a single one among my readers who can rightly claim that her children are shut out by indi- JO Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother gence, unfavorable location, or similar disadvantage from all that is for their spiritual, physical, and mental welfare? From the humblest homes go forth the heroes; from keeping his father's sheep, David was called to rule over Israel. Often it is the "unconsidered trifles," the things we overlook because they are so deadly commonplace, that play the most important part in early education. An artist who had completed a magnificent stained-glass window for a famous cathe- dral was chagrined to find that his apprentice had fash- ioned one still more beautiful from the shards rejected by his master. Child-training is an art, and the good mother is the greatest of earthly artists. In each well- ordered home her materials, her models, her inspiration are at hand, ready for use. Surely it was for her that Longfellow intended the lines : "That is best which lieth nearest ; Shape from that thy work of art." Alfalfa is a difficult crop to establish, as it needs a special kind of fertilizer to enable the roots to draw their nourishment from the ground and air, but once it gets a start and finds itself at home in the new soil, it thrives and becomes not only a most valuable and abundant crop but also a permanent one, and moreover the soil becomes fourfold richer for its having grown therein. What this fertilizing principle does to alfalfa, faith and courage do for the mother. If she will take the lesson of this phenomenon to heart and instead of pleading lack of time, knowledge, patience, culture, energy, self-confidence, servants, experience, inventive- ness, just leave undone some of the things she now The Teacher-Mother's Opportunity ii thinks so important and take that time to teach her children, she will find that instead of being stupid, naughty, lazy, disobedient, or "nervous," they are really very bright and sweet and lovable, and that her efforts in this direction bring their daily and hourly reward. This it is which makes so fascinating the work of the real educators, the parents — the realization that teaching young children is the most interesting of all intellectual pursuits, being one of the compensations for their many sacrifices. Some prefer gardening or lab- oratory experimentation or sailing unfamiliar seas, or the reading, writing, or translating of books, but in child-training are to be found united the bewitchments of all these occupations, the surprises of unlooked-for reactions, the glimpses of Utmost Isles, the frankness and freshness that your mere grown-up author strives vainly to regain. But if at times your patience in teaching your chil- dren should seem completely exhausted and the pros- pects of ultimate success none too bright, the thought of how really noble and indispensable your task is ought to brace you up. Many a great man is extolled in history's pages whose deeds brought to mankind more unhappiness than good. Not to Alexander, nor Caesar, nor Napoleon could be attributed a service as great as to the home that sends into the world a family of well-trained children to fight and overcome evil. CHAPTER II EDUCATION OR HEREDITY Every normal child has a full set of faculties; in each are the same fundamental nature, the same reason and will, the same endowment for his destined work. This does not in the least mean a sameness or equality of mind or soul such as permits each to become a St. Francis or a Shakespeare, which would be no more possible than desirable. But it does mean that all normal human beings are in one way or another equally gifted for useful, honorable, and successful careers, whether the work for which they were called to earth be with head or hand, and that it is our most sacred duty to find out what each child can do and then to educate him accordingly. The child comes into the world with dormant possibilities for every conceivable degree of good and bad, without being himself either virtuous or vicious. Whether he is to become a mes- senger of light or of darkness depends very largely upon his environment — that is, his education, for every- thing that influences body, mind, or soul, becomes by that very fact an element in education. Mere brains are relatively common possessions, Na- ture being here as elsewhere often recklessly profuse. She does not grow discouraged, even though, as is likely, not one brain in ten millions is developed to its full capacity, but paradoxically and shrewdly enough, she is most lavish where she seems most niggardly, 12 ^ Education or Heredity 13 most sparing where she seems most generous. In this seeming contradiction may be recognized the divine "equality of opportunity," for as each has the advan- tage of his special gift, so he has the positive drawbacks of that advantage — ^and the advantages of what are carelessly regarded as drawbacks, a fact which is illus- trated in every schoolroom. In the case of the infant prodigy there is danger that the overdeveloped brain will cheat the body, that book-greediness will displace healthy interest in his fellow beings, practical affairs, and the world of living nature. He needs steady guid- ance and wise control to make him an educated man and not a mere unbalanced scholar. Conversely, the child of slow development, whose school career is a daily mortification of the spirit, because he is out- stripped and derided by his classmates, needs steadying encouragement to save him from falling a victim to the notion of foredoomed failure. Every psychologist knows that this child's gifts may be of the slow- growing, long-lived, mighty kind, that thrive in a forest and wither in a flower-pot, and that he may be no more adjustable to the insignificant, brain-padding performances of the classroom than the elephant is to supremacy in cross-stitch. He naturally and properly leaves kindergarten stunts for little minds. Other schoolroom varieties are the child who memo- rizes with great readiness and therefore easily suc- cumbs to the fallacy that knowledge is education and that his way through life will consequently be smooth; the child with splendid physical endowments, who needs wise instruction and unremitting discipline to save him from contentment with mere animal f rolicsomeness ; and the child in whom only the unadorned, com- 14 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother mon-sense-heel-and-toe qualities are discernible, who, whether we like it or not, is harmed least by our school- men's efforts to standardize the goose and the eagle. This last is least likely to mismanage his life. In every generation society is burdened with a vast army of derelicts whose number could undoubtedly have been appreciably reduced by education. The great majority of these unfortunates could have been trained into becoming safe and useful, even though not bril- liant, members of society. If their torrential energies had been safely directed, a few might well have become literary geniuses, pioneers of scientific investigation, or leaders of men. We have all met many backward, subnormal, atypical, or literally feeble-minded children, in whom the trouble could be traced to lack of early discipline. In a study of normal and retarded children recently made in public schools, the following explanations of certain retarded cases were given by the investigator: (i) Child has nose and throat trouble, hindering ad- vancement; (2) child is nervous and excitable; (3) child is allowed to go to moving pictures at night; (4) child is sneaking, sullen, and selfish. A compar- ison of the reports showed that the normal and success- ful pupils came from good homes and had parents who were actively interested in their progress at school and their education at home. It is usual and most convenient to speak of "mental defectives" as of poor human beings who are handi- capped from birth by an organic deficiency of brains, but many authorities on the subject do not so regard them, declaring that in many cases mental deficiency is due to parental neglect during the early formative Education or Heredity 15 period of the afflicted individual. Moreover, the indi- vidual's value to the community cannot be standardized by intelligence alone, for the ability to acquire infor- mation and knowledge and to understand is only one of the qualities of the mind, although the most impor- tant single mental faculty, being partly inherited, and partly acquired through education, experience, and schooling. Still, considered by itself, it does not ren- der its possessor of any great worth to the community, but must be accompanied, supported, and controlled by certain humbler but intrinsic and normally cultivable characteristics. Lack of development of the will and the emotions results in a lack of balance that cannot be remedied by the individual's capacity for acquiring and storing mere formal and worldly knowledge. For that matter, the merely intelligently groomed man who lacks moral or mental stability is wrong-minded, and should be regarded as a social menace and a fit object for segregation. On the other hand, it is a commonplace that there are many individuals who could not pass an ordinary intelligence test because of lack of vocabulary, slow- ness of comprehension, or poverty of information, who yet possess common sense, the shrewdness to learn through their own experience, and the working ability that enables them to be self-supporting. Discipline of one kind or another, either deliberate or involuntary, has drilled them in control of their emotions, the exer- cise of will power, stability, and trustworthiness, all of which combined have produced law-abiding citizens who are useful followers, subordinates, and helpers in the community. I asked a woman of wide experience in the examina- i6 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher -Mother tion of mental defectives, whether there is a greater proportion of feeble-mindedness among the rich or the poor, and her reply was that they are in about the same proportion, but that owing to the difference in treatment, the rich seem to be the more heavily afflicted. "These unfortunate children," she said, "are tended hand and foot. Though their only salvation is being made to help themselves, everything is done for them, so that their incapacity becomes more and more pro- nounced, while among the poor such unfortunates have the advantage of the discipline of circumstances. Being obliged to do things for themselves, their abnormal- ity becomes less and less, in reality as well as in appearance." The fact that a child appears hopelessly dull or lack- ing in intelligence is all too often the pretext for par- ents neglecting his training. A child may have a discoverable handicap, like weak sight or hearing or an obstruction to breathing or some other physical difficulty, which retards advancement along accus- tomed lines, but it is too late to give the most essential training before any living expert can pronounce him irremediably defective or feeble-minded. Many chil- dren who appear mentally deficient are in reality highly gifted in ways that we fail to recognize or rightly ap- praise. We could list in this class many notable men and women who were considered impenetrably stupid or hopelessly backward, when subjected to school meas- urements wherein the examiners forgot, or more likely had never learned, that it takes longer to sprout an acorn than a pumpkin seed. Children who come into the world with underdevel- oped bodies are often cared for in such a way that they Education or Heredity ij gain health and strength. It is certainly a reasonable argument that mental qualities, which in early child- hood are at best embryonic, should continue so for a longer or shorter time. A case of retarded develop- ment will become permanent unless special attention is paid to it. Just as the physically weak infant lacks the force to develop without special care and nurture, so the mentally weak lacks the force to develop without special care and training. It is, of course, more pleasurable to teach children who respond quickly and showily to our efforts, but they who labor patiently, intelligently, and persistently to awaken the soul and mind of the little slow-witted backward child will be rewarded in due season with an unfolding of that soul and intellect as marvelous as the blossoming of the fragrant water-lily out of the dull brown bud that grew up from the slime. But if, after judicious and long-continued training, we are forced to accept hopeless subnormality as a fact, we should submit to the conditions imposed and seek to develop whatever minor abilities the child does pos- sess, thus fitting him for a useful, busy, and therefore moderately happy life, even with limited intellectual resources. The parents may well find their solace in the indisputable argument that at the worst misfortune is relative and that unintelligence is less deplorable and dangerous than keenness of mind with badness of heart, for as Macaulay says, "Nine-tenths of the calami- ties which have befallen the human race have had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires." Let us accept as preferable the imion of low intelligence with high desires. Here we recall a tale of the Middle Ages, about the i8 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher -Mother poor natural who sorrowed bitterly because he alone could find no way to adore his Lord. The monks who housed him could pray, or preach, or copy the Bible, or make the garden, but he, as fervent in his piety as the best of them, could do none of these things, nor could he even remember from day to day the shortest prayer. He could not learn to distinguish weed from pulse. Out of his yearnings came light : how to trans- late his one poor talent into prayer. When next the prior came into the church, he was astonished at sight of the poor simpleton turning somersaults before the high altar. "I can pray, I can pray," was his joyful cry. And the wise monks did not interfere with his devotion. Contrast this with the picture of a high school senior in white flannels, upholding himself by a rustic gate one fine summer morning, exchanging chit-chat with a group of girls. Their father came out and said : "I see your grandmother over on the hillside hoeing her potatoes. Why don't you do that for her and then come back and take supper with us?" The cub lifted his chin like the hero of a collar advertisement and drawled the deathless phrase : '*Me hoe potatoes ? No, never !" Conscientious parents sometimes let sickly children run wild in the mistaken belief that strict discipline would hinder recovery. Now humoring children is as destructive to the body as to the mind. A doctor who examined one thousand children from homes where there was but one child, and one thousand from homes with four or more children, found that of the former, eleven per cent and of the latter sixty-nine per cent were physically normal. The ills of the former were Education or Heredity 19 chiefly due to pampering and generally took the form of "nervousness" and disturbances of the digestive tract. In the interdependence of mind and body, mind is the stronger element, and a well-ordered mind is not necessarily excluded from a feeble body, as can be proved by numerous examples in history, such as Julius Caesar, William of Orange, Frederick the Great, Pope, Scott, and many others. Criminals are not born, but made, and neither morals nor manners are hereditary. What appears like evil inheritance is usually habit acquired through bad exam- ple or parental negligence at so early an age that it has all the outward signs of congenital depravity. We are never too young to learn. A mother apologizes for her seven-year-old's tobacco-chewing by saying that he inherited the taste. When that child was two years old he would say: "See daddy," stick his tongue into his cheek in imitation of his father's quid, then trot to the door and vigorously expectorate. Another seven-year-old, who harnesses and drives the horses, is known as a born horseman. When he was scarcely a year old his father would take him on his knee when driving and let him hold the reins. From the time when he began to walk the child's favorite "make- believe" was to get hold of a rope, a strap, or his moth- er's apron-strings and "drive horsey." Does anyone believe that this boy would be a "born horseman" if he had never ridden on anything but a street-car? Parents cannot escape responsibility by blaming a child's naughtiness on some ancestor, unless that ances- tor has lived recently enough to corrupt the child by living example. Right and wrong are not matters of instinct, but have to be learned. Righteousness does 20 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other not come by nature any more than reading or writing. The blame for the boy who goes wrong rests largely with the parents who, through ignorance or negligence, have failed to train him aright during the habit- form- ing days of early childhood. Perhaps the foregoing free dissertation may be summed up in this wise: Fitness of the individual to hold his place in society depends only in a degree upon native intelligence. Where intelligence is counterbal- anced by lack of good moral fiber and of right habits, the result should properly be called feeble-mindedness, intelligence having then only a negligible value. Army examinations showed that many who tested "feeble- minded" were functioning normally in society; and that, on the other hand, many who ranked well in tests of educational capacity were valueless to the community because of temperamental unfitness. The causes of failure in life are nearly all more or less the outcome of a domestic system that failed the child during the early and most impressionable years, before schooling should begin. These causes are idle- ness, carelessness, impulsiveness, mental confusion, and inability to sustain attention, to prolong effort, to profit by past mistakes of self or others. These causes of failure are the result of habits formed and set before the age of seven. Forethought, prudence, readiness to meet an emergency are of no less value than capacity for learning. It is, therefore, a justifiable conclusion that lack of discipline leaves the individual lacking in those qualities without which intelligence is not only worthless but a menace and that, after all, "brains" are not such a valuable possession as are temperamental balance, self-control, trustworthiness, purposiveness, Education or Heredity 21 and perseverance — characteristics which are primarily the resultants of early and regular training. As one of the main purposes of education is to fit the individual to adapt himself to circumstances and adjust himself to whatever station in life he may be called to occupy, it follows that from the earliest years he needs practice in doing these things. Otherwise when the call comes he will be like an awkward tyro, not drilled for the crucial test. The catastrophic violence of the eternal fight between the powers of darkness and of light, between despotic anarchy and well-ordered government, between Hell and Heaven, which we witness in our time, can be successfully met and counteracted by the mothers of our country, through the unfailing means of a good home education. Each orderly, well-disci- plined home is a bulwark against civic disorder. If you train your children carefully until they are seven years old, so that they quickly carry out your behests, instantly refrain from doing the forbidden thing, make no attempt to rebel, to question your authority, to demand your reasons for a command ; do not whine, sulk, have tantrums ; are helpful, respectful, loving, and thoughtful, you will not need to worry about the future. Your children are already three- quarters educated, and you need only continue as you have begun. If in addition to these things you teach them to use their five senses and help them to acquire a vocabulary and general information in such simple, thorough ways as I shall point out, without a book in their hands, your children will be educated, even though they should never enter a schoolroom, for they will be able and eager to continue their education without a teacher. CHAPTER III PSYCHOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY There are five things, all more or less the outcome of a domestic system, which will determine whether or not your children are to be successful in school and life: ( 1 ) The habit of ready and prompt obedience. This habit is implanted and grows sturdily through daily lessons, which have for their main purpose the training of children to respond instantly, almost automatically, to their parents^ summons and commands. (2) Reverence towards God, which the child must learn through careful teaching, for it is not born with him. He must acquire a deep sense of humility and dependence upon the kind and loving Father of all, who is in Heaven. (3) The work-habit. Many children fail in school because their natural and lovely playfulness has been allowed to deteriorate into the play-habit. They have been taught only through 'interest," a convenient but dangerous substitute for endeavor. In our early child- hood we must learn to work and how to work, for in later life the world will not trouble to entertain us so that we may be coaxed into doing things. Habits of idle amusement mean failure in school and in life. (4) The habit of observation. The five senses must be trained by daily simple lessons at home. Even if all the teachers were willing and competent, this is a task 22 Psychology and Pedagogy 23 which cannot be accomplished in the school, but only continued and supplemented there. Moreover, by the time a child is old enough to enter school he is past the age when some of the most important and fundamental parts of this training should have been given. (5) -^ good vocabulary. Many children fail in school because they do not know the meaning of indis- pensable words with which to express and create ideas, nor can they grasp the language of the textbooks. The home, which has the child during the most impression- able period of its life, can and should give this vocab- ulary. To accomplish its aim, education must be religious, moral, physical, mental. Religious. All education should be founded on a firm faith in and dutiful obedience to God. The child must learn and realize that everything with which he comes in touch is the work of an all-kind, all- wise, all- powerful Creator, Whose ways we cannot always un- derstand, but to Whom we can pray. Moral. When the child has got hold of this idea of its duty to God, it is easy to teach the difference between good and bad; to quicken the conscience; to make wickedness hateful. Physical. Education should show that the body is the temple of the immortal soul, to be kept strong, clean, and fit for the work the Creator designed it to do. Take account, then, of the influence that even correct- ness of bodily attitude has on the whole mentality. Realize that the knowledge how to stand, sit, and breathe properly is a part of mental as well as physical training. Mental. The mind has untold possibilities for good 24 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother or for evil, which will be developed partly by schooling, but mainly by religious, physical, and moral training. Far from being the most important part of education, schooling should be a secondary, though an essential consideration. Let us regard the first ten years of childhood as being divided into three periods, each of which requires its own method and its own kind of instruction. During the first three years the animal nature predominates. The child is learning mainly to direct and control his voluntary muscles, and teaching should strive towards making him form correct bodily habits, leading to increased self-control. Simple lessons, such as are out- lined in the chapters on Discipline, Play, and Observa- tion, should be given in order to prepare the unfolding senses for the next stage in normal development. From three to seven is a period of rapid physical growth. Next to the care of the awakening soul, muscle and nerve-training are our chief considerations. This is the most important time for gathering first- hand knowledge through the five senses, as well as for laying the religious foundation by establishing faith and trust in divine power and goodness. Between seven and ten comes the intellectual awaken- ing. From dealing with material realities, that is, with knowledge of things seen, heard, felt, tasted, smelt, the child proceeds to related ideas. From dealing with separate facts, he begins to realize connected facts. Where hitherto he has dealt only with things, he is now concerned about the reasons for things, and begins to reason from cause to effect, from effect to cause. In pedagogical language, he passes from the concrete to the abstract; from the particular to the general; Psychology and Pedagogy 25 from the known to the related unknown. Far from discontinuing the muscle training and sense training of the earlier periods, we should now supplement them with explicit mind training. We should give direct moral instruction, based on religious instruction. Dur- ing this period the child should learn to read. This classification by years is only relative and ap- proximate. We must consider mental as well as phys- ical age. Not merely reading about children, but a careful study of the individual child will guide the parents in determining for what instruction this par- ticular child is ready. Since no two children are in exactly the same sense beginners at the same age, it is not possible to start teaching two children of the same age in exactly the same way and meet with successful results. God made us one by one and to emphasize this individuality. He made no two exactly alike in body, mind, or spirit. The passion for standardization which has such an all-embracing influence in America, ranging from bath- tub stoppers and typewriter keyboards to the mind- processes of children, has been so far successful that the schools are nearly all graded, divided, and coordi- nated on the same principles and in the same manner. The watchword is ^'quantity production and inter- changeable parts." One of the frightful possibilities suggested by schoolmen is that intelligence standards will soon do for education what standardized measure- ments have done in practical fields. Very possibly this end could be attained with the lower animals, for they exhibit a more simple and regulated constitution than ours, the lion, for instance, being invariably bold and ferocious, the lamb feeble and inoffensive, but God in 26 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother His wisdom has not seen fit to make human minds adaptable to this perfection of itemizing. This system of educational measurements is fundamentally weak- ened by the fact that the classifications depend upon the child's answers to questions, and these answers indi- cate the kind of teaching he has had, not the kind or degree of intelligence he possesses. The fact that Mon- tessori trained idiot children so that they successfully passed the examinations drawn up for normal pupils substantiates this objection. The safe guide to the child's intelligence and to the kind of lessons he is ready to learn, is not his answers but his questions. Testing a six-year-old girl's intelligence according to the graded list of questions, a school principal asked her: **What would you do if a fire started in your house?" When she answered, 'T do not know," she was marked below standard intelligence, whereupon I asked the examiner what he would do if a fire started in his house, and found that he did not know either. Before determining his course of action he wanted to know the nature, extent, location, and disposition of the conflagration. In this book the age of three means the time when the child's questions show that he is investigating his surroundings with interest other than that connected with feeding, walking, sleeping; when he wants to know the names of things and seems ready to learn. It is then time to teach him. One can recognize the child's emergence from the second or kindergarten period into that third stage referred to as intellectual by his asking the reasons for things, such as, Why is the rose red? Why can't I fly like the birds? The word what belongs to the second period, why to the third period. Let me say here to Psychology and Pedagogy 27 the mothers, as I shall say again and again, that what- ever may be the temptation and whatever the incite- ments, do not undertake to hasten the transition from one stage to the next, for to do so is to thwart and defeat your own dearest hopes. Would you hasten incubation by cracking the shell before the chick was ready to make its way out? Just keep this homely maxim in mind: When you do not know whether to teach a thing or not, do not teach it. We need not discuss at length the training of the infant. Few mothers would confess their inability to learn how to care for and to train the babe, yet the first few years dominate his future and require the highest instinctive and acquired wisdom. For example, self-control is said to be the triumph of education, yet the cornerstone of self-control is regularity in the hours of feeding and sleeping. The main thing we need to insist upon for the child of two or thereabouts is that he should be a healthy little animal, trained to obey and be docile. Discipline, play, or occupation, and the phy- sician's instructions, all administered with good sense, constitute the safe curriculum for the first three years. Next comes the home kindergarten period, which usually determines whether the child is to become a use- ful citizen or a loafer. He is learning in every waking moment, indeed he almost seems to learn while he sleeps. He is becoming conscious of his surroundings and is dealing with concrete experiences. At this time correct physical habits should be well established and correct mental habits developed. The age between three and seven is more important educationally than the entire school course. There is a more striking differ- ence between children at this age than at any subse- 28 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother quent time, and watchful care and regular instruction are more important now than they will ever be again. Ignorance or neglect on the part of parents leave inef- faceable scars, yet this is the period which is more neglected than any other. Let mothers ask themselves, Why? To begin with, sense training is a necessary part of the foundation on which to build a strong mentality, for with proper training of the senses at the time of their natural unfolding, it would be possible to increase fourfold the mental power of the generation so taught. Indeed, if it were possible to enforce such a law, the state should make sense training, compulsory at home and in school. The attention of the beginner is turned particularly towards external objects. The little child is "all eyes and ears." This is a manifestation of Nature's way of taking the first steps in the child's education, since it is through this inquisitiveness that he becomes acquainted with the outside world. The gates of the mind are opening. At the age of three and earlier the five senses should receive proper and adequate attention, and this training should continue until physical growth is attained; otherwise there will be a lack that cannot be supplied in adult life. During this period language should be established. The child should learn to enunciate distinctly and cor- rectly all the vowel and consonant sounds. He should learn the names of common things, their perceptible qualities, and their observable uses. Lessons should deal mainly with single objects, the mind not being ready for relationships. The rising of steam and the falling of raindrops are two separate lessons and the child of this age is not ready to connect steam or vapor Psychology and Pedagogy 29 with rain. He does not want reasons for things, for as yet he reasons only in the most limited way. Neither does he want generalities. He must learn the same thing about a great many separate things before he can combine this knowledge into generalities. When Esther brings in a weed, teach her from it the different parts — root, leaf, etc., and its name, and note whether it is in flower or bearing seed. When next day she brings in another weed, go over the same lessons without comment. By and by, maybe a year or three years hence, the child will realize that all the plants she found had root, stalk, leaf, flower, seed, and she will have made one of the great discoveries of her life, an abstraction. But do not hasten this process. Let her arrive at this conclusion herself. In this simple way you lay the foundations for accurate human rea- soning. Proceeding thus, in various directions, and little by little, she will learn the fundamental laws of Nature and comprehend the great fundamental truths of the Book of Genesis. Together with training in observation and language, should come training in obedience, self-control, and industry. The very best means of instilling these les- sons is through little tasks about the house, carefully chosen to fit the child's age and strength, which he should be trained to perform regularly and punctually. "Helping mother" is the most profitable kind of train- ing. The kindergarten period is the mother's great opportunity. The home permits full individual devel- opment, the necessity for which will be readily under- stood. Every faculty has its proper period of develop- ment as well as its peculiar mode of growth; hence the education belonging to a certain period must be given 30 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother at that period, else there is an impediment or a defect that will be a life-handicap. During this wonderful early epoch the instruction should be personal, and so planned as tenderly to guard the unfolding mind, as well as at times to let it unfold by itself. The importance of this * 'letting cilone" is best told by the poet Lowell : "They knew not how he learned at all, For idly, hour by hour, He sat and watched the dead leaves fall. Or mused upon a common flower. "It seemed the loveliness of things Did teach him all their use, For, in mere weeds, and stones, and springs. He found a healing power profuse. "Yet after he was dead and gone, And e'en his memory dim, Earth seemed more sweet to live upon. More full of love, because of him." Let the mother go again and again to Nature for stimulus, suggestion, encouragement, correction. The question, "Little flower, what can you teach me?" will not go unanswered. Still more fully will the forest answer her questioning. This is not empty phrasing, for the child develops as the tree develops, the definite order of growth being controlled in each instance by a great natural law. At my feet lies a large spruce, showing a cross-section fresh from the ax, and in the exact center of the circumference is a dark spot about as large as the pupil of the human eye. Surrounding Psychology and Pedagogy 31 this is a distinct circle, one half -inch across, which marks the growth attained by the sapling in the first year. Outside of this is a second concentric circle, one inch across, showing the second year's growth. There are fifty of these circles, telling the finished history of that tree as plainly as could the typesetter. Date of birth, the good growing seasons, the cold and backward summer — each has its chapter. The tree adjusted itself to circumstances and made, on the whole, a normal growth; a little more this year, a little less the next. A half -century of rain and sun, storm and calm work- ing together, had fulfilled the law. Beside my spruce lies another spruce. It, too, started life in 1871, with everything needful bound up in that little center like the pupil of the eye, but here, instead of symmetry, is one-sidedness. The heart of the tree is far from the center, the bounding lines of annual growth are irregular, the first ten years' increase on the north side being equal to only one year's increase on the south side. Because of the lack in one part, the tree is defective in every part. The soul, the mind, the body, do not grow separately, and attempts to make them do so must end disastrously. When the higher faculties remain imdeveloped, man falls lower in the scale of creation than the brute beasts of the field, whereas mind developed at the expense of the body will be weighted to the earth instead of being nourished by it. Here are a few reminders for the teacher-mother : Be forehanded. Plan a day ahead. Do not try to live more than one day at a time. From sunrise to sunrise is the perfect circle. Make that day as com- plete as you can. Glance over the day's record at 32 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other , nightfall, take stock of blunders and omissions, and during the coming day set them as nearly right as you can. Do not fret lest you may not accomplish this or that in a year or in a season. "Continue adding a little to what was originally a little, and you will form a great heap." Do not look for great and immediate showy results. You know that you must give a seed time to sprout, and a plant time to form sound roots, and you would not dig it up now and then to see how it is coming along. Therefore do not ask the child to give forth informa- tion or to produce results, and do not be disappointed if something is completely forgotten which you thought you had taught for all time. Never get impatient because the child learns slowly. Bee-keepers will tell you that new honey sometimes has a rank, disagreeable taste and odor unless left in the hive to ripen after the bees have sealed it over. So long as your children are obeying willingly, are learning to be polite, thoughtful of others, self -controlled, help- ful, to make and do things with their hands, to observe, learning new words through these and other lessons, do not worry nor try to hurry them. Make things simple rather than easy for children, who as a rule are not afraid of "hard" things. Find out what the child can do and then make him do it. The right kind of teaching and learning involves effort but not distress. The environment must not be too evenly tempered. Do not attach value to secondhand knowledge of facts, or crowd the mind with information, even the best of information, any more than you would crowd the stomach with food. There is far more danger in Psychology and Pedagogy 33 teaching too much than too little. The temptation to stuff a child with disconnected odds and ends of infor- mation, to show how much he can hold, is almost too much for the most experienced of us. Now the brain cannot constantly grasp a succession of facts, and to cram it beyond its capacity for assimilation is merely unculture. It is like sowing four bushels of wheat where two are required — there will be no yield. Not the knowledge a man has, but what he can do with it, is the test of his education ; not how much the mother knows, but whether she can make the child do the work that is good for him, is the test of her fitness to teach. There is far less danger of overcrowding from a good mother, who is busy with her family, requiring a nor- mal amount of help from each, than from a mother who has less to do or where, unfortunately, the child is left to a nurse or governess or kindergarten. Continuing to apply to education the terms of for- estry, let us rememEer that the good forester has an eye to the direction and shape which the young tree should take. He uses prop and pruning-knife where needed, trusts much to soil and rain and sunshine, bears in mind that sturdy trees demand time and room to grow, and does not try to grow oaks in flower-pots. Method is merely a way to an end, and the good teacher uses the plain and simple methods, acquired by observ- ing the operations of Nature and by her knowledge of human nature. Preconceived notions of education do not fit when it comes to dealing with the individual child. How often does one hear the wife of a school- man say : ''Since we have had children of our own, my husband has entirely revised his ideas of education." The teacher must follow the lead of the child, teaching 34 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother him what he is ready to learn as shown by his questions. The earlier good instructions are given, the more lasting will be their impression. Let goodness, not greatness, be the teacher-mother's goal. "Be good, my child, and let who will be clever." Let who will do the dreaming of future greatness — do you stick to the plain old-fashioned doctrine of bringing up a child to be industrious, respectful, observant. How to do this cannot be told in a day, nor can it be attained in a sea- son nor in a year. It means line upon line, precept upon precept. "No day without a line," was the motto cred- ited by the Elder Pliny to the great Greek painter Apelles. CHAPTER IV DISCIPLINE Wherever and whenever human beings have been living and toiling together, a set of rules and measures to ensure peace, progress, and prosperity has been found necessary. Stern necessity engenders and develops dis- cipline. Many mothers regard and use discipline as punishment, but according to Webster, it means the treatment suited to a disciple or learner; education; development of the faculties by instruction and exer- cise; training, whether physical, mental, or moral. Discipline originally meant a training or educating to obedience, the submission of the natural animal will to a law which is the expression of a human will. It meant control, with the definite purpose of establishing a reasoning self-control. Teacher-mothers must bear in mind that when I speak of discipline I adhere to this original and humane meaning. Military discipline, a term so often misused and misunderstood, is a totally different thing and quite out of place in child-training. Education, therefore, implies discipline. Discipline is the root and stem of collective and individual good; without it we cannot have system, and without system there can be no real progress: no school could effec- tively instruct ; no great business undertakings could be carried on ; democracy could not survive. Good parents facilitate life for their children by giving them the kind of training that makes an orderly mind and body 35 36 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother and trains every fiber to respond to rightful commands. It is a good thing to learn when young that life sets before us a certain number of things to be done, from which there is no escape. The children have to face a stern world in which duty will not be made pleasant for them. Day after day they will have to do the things that have to be done, not because it is nice to do them, but because they have to, or go down as failures. Every day of childhood should be a preparatory drill for this great battle of life. It is not enough that children are well-disposed, affectionate, obliging, but it is extremely necessary that they have regular practice in doing as they are told, without stopping to consider whether it suits their convenience. It takes a long, long time to learn to respond to a command with mind and body. Now discipline must be based on a knowledge of human nature, so take time for child study. Watch the growth of the human plant. Sometimes it will unfold leaf by leaf with pleasing symmetry, and if it should dismay us by a seemingly long period of dor- mancy, it is sure to burst out again into ravishing bloom. Books on the subject help us sometimes, but by suggestions rather than by information. Take time also for parent study. A good child is far more a matter of parent training than of child training, for what we would have children become, it behooves us to be, in mind and deed. An old philoso- pher reminds us that *'not the cry but the rising of the wild drake impels the flock to follow him in upward flight." In like manner good words without the exam- ple carry little weight with children, who are the keen- est, sharpest-witted, longest-memoried, most unsparing, and most honest of critics. Therefore ask yourself Discipline 37 three times a day: Do I practice what I preach? Do I chastise the children for mirroring my shortcomings? Is my policy one of *'Do as I say, not as I do?" Am I dispensing rewards and inflicting punishment according to mood or inclination or expedient, rather than accord- ing to justice ? Begin early! A normal, healthy baby is disciplin- able, but parental neglect may make it undisciplinable and spoil it, and an undisciplined child is not likely to become a desirable citizen. Therefore, at seed-time, when you can still protect and train the tender sapling, begin to cultivate your child's character. Will-power follows self-control, which depends primarily on phys- ical care and habit. An infant is not well reared if it has not some measure of self-control before it can speak. We cannot begin too early to teach the meaning and force of authority, and until the child has learned to do promptly and willy-nilly the thing that has to be done, its education cannot progress. Much of the trouble and worry over children is really due to faulty domestic arrangements. Now regu- larity is the keynote of success, therefore be method- ical. Systematize your household plans. Draw up a regular daily schedule, and not only keep to it but make your children do so as well, so that all day long they know "what comes next," whether mealtime, bedtime, playtime, playing with baby, or helping mother in some other way. This does away with a certain amount of questioning and eventual protesting, which are excus- able in ^ child if regularity is not observed. Be just ! Do not, in the fear of alienating the child's love, condone faults and withhold punishment, for when kindly, strict discipline does not kill love. Chil- 38 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother ) dren worship justice, and even when it entails pain and inconvenience to themselves, they demand an eye for an eye. They may protest against deserved pun- ishment, yet they lose respect — nay, even feel contempt — for the parent or teacher who weakly yields. He who rules children firmly and justly gains not only their respect but their lasting affection, while those who seek favor by truckling usually overreach themselves. How often children are heard to say : *'I do not like the new teacher; she lets us do as we please," or, a still worse indictment : "She pretended we knew our lessons when we didn't." Punishment for neglect or refusal to obey is what shows that commands are to be obeyed, there- fore the good mother enforces hers by a spanking if necessary. Be consistent! Correct a fault not only the first time but every time it appears. It is not the severity of punishment but its certainty that deters. First faults are most to be guarded against. A mere pecca- dillo, overlooked or condoned the first time, will soon grow into a habitual fault and then become a bad habit, whose correction will entail many and severe punish- ments. Indulgence on one occasion makes correction the next time unjust and doubly hard to bear, and, therefore, less effective. If the same fault is again repeated and again condoned, the child naturally won- ders, when punishment finally comes, why a thing should be wrong one day and not so another. More- over, curiosity and the inherent love of gambling will often lead a child to trespass, in the desire to find out "what will happen next time." Be honest! Do not close your eyes to the child's defects, or call naughtiness "nervousness" and bad Discipline 39 temper "sensitiveness." How many mothers insist that theirs is an exceptional child, easily governed with a word, with love, with reasoning, but unable to endure a command, and that any attempt to enforce obedience upsets his central nervous system ! Do not treat the child like a plaything! Parents sometimes say: "I want my children to have things easier than I had them. My parents were too strict." It is a fact, however, that the happiest homes are those in which helpfulness, promptness, and courtesy are required of each member, and where there is no escape from individual responsibility. We decry the harsh discipline of earlier days, yet if you would picture to yourself the most miserable child, think of one accus- tomed to having his own way. He it is who will hate and despise his mistaken parents. Happiness is, indeed, a vital consideration, but let us insure happiness of the true and lasting kind. In a world of resistance nothing but unhappiness confronts those who enter it unschooled to resistance, unused to self-denial, incapa- ble of self-control. Take care that the household does not fall into the habit of revolving about the child, who should be made to conform and adapt himself to the convenience of others. Do not let him grow up with the notion that the world revolves around any individual. The indi- vidual should seek his happiness in the good and hap- piness of the whole. Teach children to take a becoming back seat. Do not countenance a single demand for attention to their wants. It may be that those little sacrifices of self that you now oblige them to make will work out their salvation at a future time. Self-denial must be practiced early or never. 40 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Make the child do regular work. The having to do a set thing at a set time every day strengthens the char- acter of a child and gives it a certain determination in its whole bearing. In this way you bring order into life, body, and mind. There must be a certain amount of hard, serious work connected with education, and the earlier this is accomplished before the age of twelve, the more easily will new orderly habits be established. At about twelve, the character begins to form, and although the child may be as far as ever from being able to form correct judgments, it becomes increasingly difficult to use compulsion. Unless he be well accus- tomed to them, regular tasks are then drudgery. Of course discretion must be used by the teacher-mother, who must never become a taskmaster and slave driver. There must be "moderation in all things," even in our noblest aspirations, but make the youngest child con- scious of his duty to save you steps, to conform to your plans, to take unobtrusively his turn at the daily grindstone. Give children a free hand except in those things injurious or detrimental to them, of which parents, not the children, are to judge. Let them make mistakes and suffer the consequences. Watch them at all times without their knowing they are watched. Let them play together without interference in their innocent mischievousness, or without knowing that your eye is upon them. Be sparing in your commands; never give any that are merely arbitrary, but make certain that the child understands and is perfectly able to carry out any that you give. Commands must be few and clear and neces- sary, but see to it that the child carries them out. Be- Discipline 41 fore you speak, reassure yourself that he is quite able to carry out the order. Your word will then carry weight. Make a habit of quietly telling him what to do, and tolerate no appeals from your decision. Quiet submission to authority strengthens character, there- fore accustom the child to take a plain *'no" with cheer- ful resignation. Give him what is good for him to have, not what he fancies, but do not talk about it. A simple "No" is far more effective than any kind of explanation, and at the same time more acceptable to the child. You need not emphasize it; it is emphatic in itself and readily so received. The merest baby wants her own way, and to a certain extent she is getting it when she perceives that she annoys you and disturbs your calm. She may not get the particular thing she is demanding, and you may enforce a rule she is endeavoring to evade, but if she has forced you to talk much about it, or to appear nervous or worried, she has attained a very considerable end, namely, made herself the evident center of gravi- tation. Often the whole question of discipline rests upon the form in which the command is given, that is, whether it sounds to the child like a supplication or an order. If you simply and naturally tell her what to do, the child will settle down to be happier, more cheerful, less disposed to the obnoxious American malady, "nerves." Individual discipline, the habit of obedience, should be established long before collective discipline is at- tempted, or we do violence to human nature. A fine orchestra conveys to the unthinking an impression of concerted training only, yet before ever the master 42 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother attempted concert movements he taught and drilled the players one by one. Children need control; they need to feel a strong will directing, restraining, confining, limiting, and steadying them, for only in this way can they acquire real strength of will and character as opposed to stubbornness, wrong-headedness, and the lowest degree of desire. Disobedience is too often con- doned on the ground that the children must develop their "individuality," or their "initiative," parental lax- ity being excused on the plea that correction or suppres- sion makes children weak-spirited. The very mention of corporal punishment causes our self-styled educators to wring their hands in horror at the injustice and cruelty of laying hands on a little child. Now there can be neither safety nor happiness for a child imless it be based on willing submission to parental authority, which brings to the child self-con- trol and teaches it to bow the head to wisdom. In this and in no other way will it learn to kiss the rod that God holds out to us all. The child who has been taught to obey is already half -educated. Well-disci- plined children are not weak-spirited, sullen, or tyran- nical, and parental laxity is not love but hate. The fear of disobeying his parents is the first step in teach- ing a child to fear breaking the laws of the land and the laws of God. The habit of obedience can be estab- lished without resort to harshness, although not with- out punishment, but if not established in early child- hood it is doubtful whether it can be done without the harshest kind of harshness. A child must neither question nor criticize the man- dates of his parents. You need not fear being too stem in this respect, for if you give a child an inch he Discipline 43 takes an ell. When you allow such a criticism to go unchecked, the child promptly assumes that he is en- tirely within his rights in pointing out the error of your ways, and will constantly seek for blunders of yours to point out. Yet nothing of this kind comes suddenly ; we are only forced to see suddenly something to which we have blinded ourselves. Make the children feel that they are only little children, and for this very reason must not undertake to tell any grown person what to do. They must not pass judgment on what is given them to do, or be allowed to discuss what is good and bad. They can know nothing about it, and yet through inadvertent talk they get the notion that they do know. The fewer words you use in giving a com- mand, the better. "Because mother tells you to," is plain, simple, kind, and all-sufficient for a reason. The children will be more contented ; you will be happier and will be warding off the danger of that period which may otherwise arrive all too soon, when your boy gets the bit between his own little teeth and tells you that he does not agree with your point of view. There is not a day to waste in the matter of check- ing a disposition to question parental authority or judgment, or to seek a convincing presentation of the case before obeying a command. These faults never wear away of their own accord. Picture to yourself the difficulties and humiliations that confront the mother of a twelve-year-old who is not halter-broken. Personally, I do not believe that a boy who is normal and healthy and worth bringing up can be properly trained without the use of a good switch. The minute you let a child feel that he has a choice in the matter of obedience, all the Old Nick in him 44 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother seems to be stirred up and the natural thing is for him to say, "I won't." It is painful to me to watch a certain three-year-old child who is under my observa- tion but not my authority. His mother will say: "Doesn't Jimmy want this?" Jimmy does not. It may be the bread that he should eat with his dinner. "But it is good for Jimmy. Jimmy will be hungry before supper if he doesn't eat this." Supper is far distant, and Jimmy is not impressed. "Jimmy won't grow into a big man if he doesn't eat what mother gives him." Manhood is still farther off than supper, so Jimmy is still less impressed. After so many object lessons in how to get his own way, the child will naturally resist when later it becomes necessary to use compulsion. And he does resist. One day Jimmy decided to crawl under the fence into the pasture to look for the spotted calf. Father and mother explained that an ill-tempered bull held sway there, but to no purpose. The bull was not in sight, so each time the father released him Jimmy made for the fence. At last, in order to save the child's life, the father beat him and beat him brutally, not once but again and again, yet instead of submitting, the child would race for the fence each time he escaped the father's grasp, scream- ing out his defiance. While the performance was going on the bull came into view, pawing the earth and adding his hoarse bellow to the uproar. Only then, when thoroughly frightened, did the boy desist from his struggles, having in reality conquered his parents on this as on all previous occasions. Such was the sickening culmination of three years' effort on the part of scholarly, "progressive" parents to rear an Discipline 45 active boy on the soul-destroying principle of "Never say don't to a child; never say must to a child; never, oh, never, spank a helpless child." The father should take a hand in the disciplining of boys, which should not be left entirely to the mother. It is pitiable but true that an intelligent boy very early learns to be a bit cynical about a woman's discernment. The mother is naturally soft-hearted ; her very makeup increases the difficulty of her being effectively strict and just, but no matter how intelligent, earnest, capa- ble, and strong-willed she may be, the boy will never have the same regard for her wisdom and authority as for the father's. It is the same with women teach- ers. Every boy, from the age of ten onward, should be taught by men, but there is little use in discussing men teachers at a time when real men look askance at the profession because they do not fancy the task of Sisyphus. Unfortunately, a good many fathers leave the work of bringing up the boys entirely to the mother, because, as they say, they do not like to be bothered when they come home tired from business. Therefore, their most important duty is shelved, naughtiness is hidden or glossed over, and soon the lad is beyond all control and bounds. It is very nice on the mother's part not to bother the father about the children's doings during the day, but, after all, he should be cognizant of that which is going to have such a potent influence on the children's future good. No sacrifice is too great when this is considered. How fortunate is the boy who grows up under his father's vigilant eye! Should obedience be required only when the child understands why a command is given? No. This is 46 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother contrary to the laws of mind-growth. Obedience is an acquired habit and should be fairly established long before the mind is ready for explanations connecting facts. Mere exhortations to be good and obedient are ineffective. You cannot produce understanding by words alone. The child needs the support of authority. Authority, the cause, and obedience, the effect, demon- strate the law and principle of causality in all our doings, our happiness, our sufferings. Docility and willing recognition of authority are the substructure of successful learning. If his pupils lack these, the best teacher will fail. Many an intelligent child, although willing and eager to learn, fails in school because he has not been taught to do exactly as he is told. He may be quite willing to do the thing as far as the mind is concerned, but if the body be undisciplined it will obstruct the best intentions. Unconsciously he resists instruction. Good intentions, according to Dante, are the paving stones on the way to Hell. Training compels the sluggish and resisting body to answer the rulings of the willing spirit. A child can understand explanations and draw con- clusions concerning only those things which come within the scope of experience, which is a compara- tively limited area, but it cannot reason about all the facts within this area. Reasoning power is the result- ant of experience and training, and calls for the ability to measure and connect facts, to estimate and compare values, and to draw conclusions. How, then, can a child reason soundly when, to begin with, it is uncon- scious of facts? In the infant's world everything is magnified and exaggerated. Tables are higher than Discipline 47 its head; days are longer than years will be later on; grown-ups are a separate race and twenty is hopelessly old ; deeds are good or bad according to the effect pro- duced; wrong consists in being found out. The child has its own way of understanding, for which we can- not successfully substitute our own. "Teddy, did you throw that poor kitten into the cistern?'* Teddy looks up with a speculative eye. "Aunt Sally, (if) you saw me done it, me done it; (if) you didn't see me done it, me didn't." It is a serious thing to put upon a young child the responsibility of making decisions, which is a burden for a grown person, and which often results in down- right illness 1 Yet a little child is put to it to make twenty decisions a day. Shall he do this, or that? And when he has finally decided, it is not after all what he wanted, and he must have twenty more strug- gles to get his own way about it. A child is never so happy and contented as when he finds himself relieved from the necessity of deciding whether or not he will obey, by having it decided for him, even through the instrumentality of a switch or birch. This ex- plains why a delicate child is often set on the road to health through the setting up of the simple process of rigid discipline. The majority of children are intelligent. They even have a healthy recognition of their own immaturity and lack of understanding. "I do not know ; I am only a little girl." But this intelligence, valuable as it is, must not be mistaken for the ability to reason soundly about right and wrong, truth and duty. The little child knows right from wrong only by the way his elders judge of it; the parents' examples and precepts 48 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother are his guide. "When I was a child, I thought as a child," and this is as it should be. Children should not be treated as grown people, for it is unfair as well as foolish to place an old head on young shoulders. Were we indeed able to substitute our words for individual experience, we would circumvent a kindly Providence in thus letting the child grow old by leaps and bounds. Autumn fruits do not belong to the springtime, and even when the child is physically strong, we should not expect of him skill or tasks beyond his years. "But when the same ends can be attained by per- suasion," someone asks, "why insist upon old-fash- ioned submission to authority?" The same ends can- not be attained by persuasion. Persuasion is often deceptively effective for the moment, but when it fails, it fails disastrously. The child obeys because his intel- ligence shows him that obedience is advantageous, and he pretends to be convinced when he has only been out- talked. With each passing year a little more explana- tion and persuasion become a necessary preface to each request. Even at twelve or sixteen a child cannot fully understand why a certain companionship or recreation is forbidden; yet for the safety of soul and body he must submit to parental authority and be content to do so. Wordy explanations confuse even adults, and the child grasps only one tenth of our exhortations and distorts even that, drawing conclu- sions which are all too often the reverse of what we intend. One little girl wept before the painting of the Christian martyrs, because "one poor little lion didn't have any martyr." A teacher felt flattered by a young culprit's breathless attention to her prolonged plea for reform, until at the first pause she was asked : Discipline 49 "Say, when you talk, is it your upper or your lower jaw that moves?" So much for reasoning things out with children. Naturally, one should not give a command without having a reason therefore, but to have a reason and to obtain compliance from one's child through explana- tions, are two very different things. "Because mother knows best," should settle the matter. To rely upon the child's judgment to choose obedience is dangerous, for if, after all your reasoning, the child's opposition is not overcome, nothing is left but to assert your authority. How much better that authority should be taken for granted! The old-fashioned method of treating disobedience with a spanking or a switching has undoubtedly a cer- tain aspect of brutality, but if you want to view it in that light every single example of punishment has in it something unjust. The thing to do is to weigh such objections against the outcome of failure to pun- ish adequately and effectively. For Jimmy, that meant being gored by the bull, and prisons and madhouses are often the destination of the poor wretches whose parents thought spanking brutal. Perhaps my reader is one of the countless mothers who are eating their hearts out in trying to train an unruly boy without resort to the rod. You may as well give up. It can be done with witless, inactive, and sluggish children, but not with children who are alive from head to toe. For delinquencies between the ages of two and four, use a small birch switch or a limber corset steel. Attempts at "reasoning" are not only futile; they tend to make the child nervous and de- pressed, whereas as a curative and preventive a switch- 50 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother ing is instantly effective, for it excludes the probability of tantrums that follow in the wake of solitary punish- ment, scolding, sitting on a chair, and such enfeebling makeshifts. It is the best remedy for "No, I won't." The physical sting is a counter-irritant for naughti- ness and leaves the child wonderfully sweetened, docile, and serene. Tying in a chair, shutting up in a dark room, and such irritating teasings are much more likely to breed resentment than is a smart little switching or spanking, which the child understands perfectly, and which is a help to memory as much as a punishment. No one likes to inflict pain on a child, but a judicious switch- ing causes no real pain, though to produce a lasting impression it must momentarily sting or smart. How often have children of six or thereabouts confided to their chums that they would rather have a spanking than be scolded all the time, often adding that a spank- ing is over in a minute, but you don't forget it. An objection to any form of prolonged or cruelly elongated punishment is that it almost amounts to try- ing titles for strength or endurance with the child. Some parents will tie up a child to the table-leg, stipu- lating that it must stay there until it is sorry, or until it is sure it will not forget, etc. The child feels and acts defiant. It screams and fights and plans what it will do when it is old enough to retaliate, whereas a switching, thoroughly administered, humbles the child to a proper state of docility without leaving rancor. I write at this length because so much is being preached about the cruelty of corporal punishment at home and in school, with the result that our courts and jails are crowded with young criminals, bred through laxity Discipline 51 of discipline, coaxed where they should have been com- manded, "interested" instead of being made to work. Be sure of yourself, never act until you know you are in the right, but when you punish, punish thor- oughly. If the child is stubborn or resentful, it is because you have given him a mere tickling; he has not felt the sting. Make the child do as he is told. A second refusal must be instantly followed by a second switching. You must not allow the child to conquer you. Pay no attention to the insidious nonsense that the child is "educating himself* when he is struggling to get his own way. Do your duty. As the children get older, we should have got them to understand that pimishment naturally follows wrongdoing. The, child who dawdles over dressing should find that he is too late for the expected walk or other coveted pleasure; he who leaves toys about is too young to have them ; he who is bad-mannered at table should be instantly re- moved so that others shall not be annoyed; the selfish child must play alone ; the child who is fretful or who cries without cause needs rest in a quiet room. As a guide in deciding when a young child should be corrected for something done or omitted, and when it is best to ignore it, let us ask ourselves : Would such an incident or such a trait be objectionable five years from to-day? And if we feel sure that it would be objectionable, it calls for correction and suppression and we must make up our minds that the opportune time to act is now. We must always be on the alert so to measure, and decide when to act and when to ignore. Give only such commands as must be given and then enforce them. Punishment, however, is only one phase of child 52 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother management. It will be readily seen how much the physical well-being of a young child has to do with its disposition and behavior. Health and bodily comfort, good physical habits, exercise, food, drink, properly fitting garments, occupation — any one of these will make the difference between a good and a ^*bad" child. When baby gets tired, hungry, thirsty, or sleepy, it gets "cross" and naughty, and it is upset by unusual excitement or too much attention. Do not let a young child go too long without food, for even with a grown person that weak feeling in the stomach loosens self- control. If breakfast is early and dinner at noon, there should be a snack between ten and eleven, otherwise the child becomes ravenous and naturally naughty. One slice of bread and butter, an apple, or a glass of milk, will do. Let there be no sweets, for too much sugar is one of the deadly destroyers of a child's nerves and discipline. In the afternoon, a nap almost takes the place of a lunch. Do your teaching and your disciplining in the morn- ing, when the child is most impressionable, rather than at the wane of day. A little child works hard, harder than we. He gets charged wtih a skinful of poisons, his nerves are tingling, and towards nightfall he is irritable and primed for trouble. I have known moth- ers who would start late in the afternoon to wrangle with a child and keep it up until both were exhausted. If ever naughtiness or fretfulness is to be overlooked, it should be late in the day, but this overlooking must not be done if the child is conscious of it. Change the whole milieu by a little fun, a game, a story, a drink of water (be sure the children get water often), a little petting and cuddling, or even by a tepid bath and by Discipline S3 calling on the sandman for help. But in the morning, do not stand any nonsense. The first thing to make sure of is that the child has plenty to do. Think ahead and in the trouble-brewing period provide employment of some kind. See that he has toys, sticks with which to build a log house, or any kind of make-believe. Before you tell a child to do a thing, carefully con- sider whether he is able to do it, then say simply, do that thing and see that it is done without any remon- strance on his part. If anybody is present at such lessons, brook no inter- ference of any kind. Put your child's welfare before any considerations of so-called politeness. Whoever in the child's presence criticizes the mother's or the father's instructions or doings is consciously or uncon- sciously an emissary of the Evil One. "Jack, come to mother." "Now, go to the door." "Now, come to mother." "Now, lay this newspaper on the table." Such are the simple lessons that will engender ready and unquestioning obedience, if thoughtfully and simply given and patiently and firmly enforced. Do not give two commands in one, but just one, simple and plain. The child's first resistance to authority is playful; he pretends he is going to do a forbidden thing. But do not allow even a young child to run from you when called. It is not a wise way to play with a child, and later you must punish for the very trait you have inculcated. Give training in order and regularity. Let each child have a special nail or hook within reach for coat and cap, and make him hang these up when he comes in, seeing that he does do it every time, not occa- 54 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other sionally. This hanging up their things is a very good lesson to start with. When they have learned that this must be done every time, they will be ready to do other things as bidden, and their education will have made some progress in the right direction. The first lesson that a baby should be taught is "Stop!'* "Don't touch!" Whatever you tell a child not to do is negative education, which directs the child's natural and instructive activation. This is followed by human and humane activity, the outcome of posi- tive education, which instructs the child what to do. In teaching "Don't touch," it is necessary, in order to make clear your meaning, to smack the little hands when they seize upon or do the thing forbidden. When thus taught from babyhood the child will have learned to obey when he reaches the age of four. To make a child do what it is bidden to do is more difficult. Refraining from what is forbidden, which is an act of self-control, is difficult enough at first, but it is a simple process, whereas the doing of what it is told is complex and the teaching takes a world of patience. Just as it is natural for a healthy, normal child to do what it is forbidden to do, so is it for the same child to refuse doing what it is bidden to do. It is the exacting, and sometimes painful duty of the parents to make the child control itself in these direc- tions through being controlled. Guard against giving a command until you have with sincere satisfaction to yourself answered the following questions: Is it necessary? Am I going to make the child obey? If he refuses, what shall I do? Discipline 55 Does this command conflict with any other com- mand or injunction? Give your commands in clear, unmistakable words and make the child understand what you mean. If he refuses to obey, act at once, without threatening or promising. The less you talk about disobedience and the less you threaten the better. While parental author- ity is right and natural, it is the loser by being talked about. Do not discuss spankings or other forms of punishment. Simply be everlastingly alive to the need of patience and persistence on your part, until the very last vestige of procrastination is broken up. Do not tell Jean to go to bed until you mean that she shall go, but do not then allow an instant's temporizing. She should put Teddy down at once, without a single attempt at evasion, and trot off. Otherwise picture to yourself the unseemly clash of wills that must take place ten years hence. Now, concerning matters other than obedience, the why and wherefore of things in Nature and of many doings, explain as carefully as is consistent with the child's understanding. Make him realize that there is a good reason for all good things, and for many things which we cannot regard as good. Make him see by your example that grown-up people have to do their work whether it is pleasurable or not, that you may not always feel like getting dinner, but that it must be done. Do not do this explaining on any occasion when the child wants to know why he is to do a certain thing, or when he protests, for the fewer the words then, the better, but when he is working around with you, these things may be told, letting him draw his own conclusions and apply them to himself. 56 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother don'ts to be observed by teacher-mothers Don't scold. Don't nag. Don't explain too much. Don't talk too much. Don't say Don't except when necessary. Don't give too many commands. Don't depend upon reasoning as a means of disciplin- ing young children. Don't beg where you should command. Don't place on a child the burden of making decisions in matters which surpass his understanding. Don't lead the child to dogmatize about what is good or what is bad. Don't give the child a free rein because "he can be yotmg only once." Don't leave it to the school to correct faults of char- acter. Don't take short-cuts. Don't interfere too much in the child's play. Don't make liars and hypocrites of the children by enforcing apologies as evidence of repentance. Don't make profuse apologies to children when you find yourself in the wrong. Simply say: "I am sorry; I made a mistake." This should be a suf- ficient acknowledgment. Don't let the child think, "Oh, that is good enough," when a thing is not done as well as he can do it, but use reason and measure in all things. Don't expect a good habit to take hold instantly. Don't remind a child of past punishments as a warning against misconduct. Face each new day anew. Don't carry the matter of discipline too far. There Discipline 57 must be some elasticity. But between two ex- tremes, choose that it shall be too hard rather than too soft. DO*S Make the child adapt himself to actual conditions. Make him practice self-denial. Make him work without loss of time. Make him think before he speaks. Make him answer the question he is asked, not the one he had hoped would be asked. Lay down the law to your children, but do not mor- alize. They love you and will readily obey you if your commands are simple and just. If each home were the center of law and order, we would have a happy, orderly state. There would be neither prisons nor poorhouses, and less need for schoolhouses or insane asylums. If every child were taught at home to be orderly, punctual, obedient, help- ful, he would know how to work, to mind, to attend, to listen. If he were then further taught to read and write, and to like helpful reading, this would be almost sufficient in most cases; in the remaining cases, the individual would seek for himself such learning as his predilections and inheritance make desirable for him. Each would be permitted to develop to his full height instead of being sent into a schoolroom where his speed may be restricted to that of the slowest members. CHAPTER V DISCIPLINE : HABITS Habit means an ease in exercising those powers and aptitudes which we possess the day we are born. What one does often one is led to do easily and nat- urally, with growing skill and certainty, and there is thus developed our characteristic behavior, in which it is scarcely possible to distinguish what is natural from what is habitual. Habit is second nature and in time overmasters nature. The source of habit is deep down in the very foundations of the understanding. It involves all the faculties: the memory, the power of thinking, the will, and the emotions. Its growth pro- duces a uniform and steadfast alteration in the nerv- ous system which is shown in two ways, increased power of performance and increased power of resist- ance. The process of education may be defined as the growth of new powers, in other words, the formation of habits. To understand the nature and laws of habit is to understand the principles of successful teaching; hence, to be successful, all education must be conducted in conformity with the maxims that govern the formation of habits, which has been called ''the power of retentiveness." For some habits a greater amount of practice is necessary than for oth- ers, for example, piano-playing compared with type- writing. In order to acquire new powers, much more 58 Discipline: Habits 59 repetition is necessary for some persons than for oth- ers, a fact which is illustrated in every family. Other points quite as important for the mother to bear in mind are, first, that the individual is much more sus- ceptible to habit- formation during early childhood than in any later period, and second, that exercises to pro- mote habit-growth are productive only when right bodily conditions prevail. There is nothing in human makeup more striking than the young child's adaptability to habit-making. With every atom of bodily or mental effort, each glance of the eye, each movement of a muscle, he is making or immaking a habit, which emphasizes our twofold responsibility in equipping him so that his soul may reach the greatest heights it can attain. This two- fold responsibility involves training him so that in his efforts to rise he shall not be weighted down by bad habits, and so drilling him that ordinary matters may be relegated to the lower nerve centers, leaving the intellect free for pioneering. The teacher-mother's first concern should be what acts to check before they become habitual and what habits to cultivate. The school cannot make habits in children, for the habits of school children are already made. The time to establish fundamental habits is during that period when child nature hungers for repetition and regu- larity, however irksome it may be for the mother to insure such regularity. On the basis of correct habits ingrained during the first seven years of life should be built moral habits: reverence, truthfulness, honest dealing, contentment, passive and active courage, which will be discussed elsewhere. Our present concern is with that early plastic period when parental authority 6o Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother is most easily and naturally exerted, since it is the main factor in habit-making. **0f course I want my child to form correct habits," says a mother, "but if I compel him to do even these necessary things, am I not weakening his will by thus going constantly against his inclinations?" No, for inclination is not properly a part of willing. Com- pared with habit, the human will, and even human reasoning, are pitifully weak. Besides, a strong will, as opposed to mere stubbornness and wrong-headed- ness, is based on the ability to reason about right and wrong, and this ability does not develop until after our characteristic habits are already formed. A child's wilfulness is not will at all, but lack of restraint. Every time, you make a child do the right thing you are strengthening the habit of doing that thing. This holds true whether the initial doing is pleasurable or the reverse. As soon as the act becomes habitual, it thereby becomes agreeable and the reverse correspond- ingly disagreeable. Look where you please, you will find evidence of this amazing adaptability of the human system to a compulsory mode of life, typified by Chil- lon's prisoner, who learned to love his chains. Chil- dren can get accustomed to anything. You can teach them to love a life of order and cleanliness only by compelling them to do the things that contribute to such a life. Compulsion is a proper and necessary part of habit-training, but the more good sense is used the less force is necessary. If punishment has to be fre- quently or systematically resorted to, there is some- thing wrong with either the child or with the environ- ment. To have a regular daily schedule and abide by it Discipline: Habits 6i makes the work of child training simple and compara- tively easy. Order is heaven's first law. The whole universe moves on schedule time. The birds come back to us on time in the spring ; the sun and moon and stars rise and set on time. Indeed, so orderly and prompt are the heavenly bodies in their movements that wise men can calculate for thousands of years ahead the date and the exact time of day when the earth's face will be darkened by the shadow of the moon. The same natural law that keeps the stars in their places ought to regulate the daily life of the household in its larger aspects. Child nature is very sensitive to changes; even the infant demands regularity and unconsciously rebels against a broken schedule. "Gadding about," idleness, and the proneness to disobedience resulting therefrom very often spring from a lack of carefully planned occupation, from not knowing "what comes next," from not having a regular program strictly enforced. From the age of three every child should have some little daily responsibilities of which he should be re- minded at the proper time, for a child's time-sense is weak and he often confuses morning and afternoon, especially after a nap. Children are healthier and hap- pier when usefully employed, and need carefully planned physical tasks. There must be regular work, from the regular performance of which there is no escape, and such tasks as must be done every day should be done at the same hour every day and in the same order. There can be no successful teaching from books until the child has been trained by the daily round of tasks and duties to know that "do it" means exertion to the point of accomplishment. 62 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Draw up a good daily program and keep it up with- out too much in the way of diversion. Make your children conform to it. Get the cooperation of your family and start in at once; not too radically at first, for you would not be able to keep that up. Be reso- lute; do not attempt too many new things at a time; do not undertake to cure all the family faults at once; do not discuss with the children the change that is to take place, but carry out your plans and make them abide by them; establish one new habit or practice before introducing another. Have certain hours for those unavoidable activities of every day, such as rising, meals, cleaning, going to bed. A great time-saver for every member of the household, children included, is the certain knowledge that meals will always be on time, and to have them so is less troublesome than not. Do not struggle with details at first, but put all your energy into planning systematic work and play, lessons, and recreation. Get the schedule running smoothly, so that each individual member of the family has a time for each thing and begins forming or perfecting the habit of doing things on time. When that is accom- plished, it will be easy to work out details. On the other hand, it is possible to go too far in systematizing life, to become punctilious. I have known people who would even plan every moment of time for a guest down to the quarter-hours. When a schedule is once running with perfect smoothness, I would not hesitate to disturb it if a bigger thing is involved. If, for instance, I had to choose between making my beds on time or having a conversation with an unexpected old friend, the beds should wait, but I would squeeze in the time for making the beds with- Discipline: Habits 63 out disturbing the rest of the household. Good man- agement easily overcomes such welcome interruptions. When children awake, they should not lie in bed but get up, dress, and busy themselves at whatever is suit- able. Never allow them to read or to play in bed, for the practice of allowing a healthy child to lie in bed until it pleases him to get up may mar his whole after life and create serious difficulties for him and others. As soon as children are able to use their arms and fingers, they should become accustomed to dress them- selves, and sickness alone should excuse them from this. Insist that dressing and undressing be done in good order and that propriety is indispensable. Can your children put on their shoes and stockings while standing, first on one foot and then on the other? Have them take pride in doing this, just as they would in any form of athletics. This one little daily perform- ance is powerful, for its size, in offsetting slothful tendencies and in arousing sluggish dispositions. Cor- rect slovenly practices, such as allowing a child to remain in the bathtub for half an hour or so, which leads to other slovenly and naughty habits of body and mind. Break up the practice of dawdling at dressing. When the boy, after being duly warned, does not get dressed on time, surprise him with a switch on the bare skin. If he knows that this may be expected every morning, you will see a modern miracle worked. The child's nap should be carefully regulated by the mother and should on no account be left to his caprices. He should be sent to bed at a certain time and made to lie there quietly for a stated period, and if he refuses to do this, punish him promptly, without lengthy explanation. Simply tell him that he must 64 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother do as he is told. He understands very well when he is disobeying in such a matter. Make the child finish each and every suitable task given, in spite of any difficulties he may encounter. Do not call him from one task to another, nor allow him to leave a task unfinished in order to play. Make him do even the simplest tasks in the right way. Such tasks are : closing doors and drawers gently ; straight- ening things in disorder, as a rug, books on a shelf, and so on, picking up things carelessly thrown about, as matches on the floor, and the like, hanging cap and coat each on its individual hook, scraping shoes on the mat or scraper before coming indoors, eating without mussing about the food, washing hands and face if necessary, and combing hair before meals and before going to bed. All this must be done in a simple, unpre- tentious, unaffected way, so as not to engender fastidi- ousness, for all extremes are objectionable. It is too much to expect a boy of eight to worry about patches of Mother Earth on neck or ears, undue concern about such trifles being an indication that he is not a real boy. Make him wash, of course, but do not bewail his lack of interest in aesthetics at this age. One never sees a child with a single bad habit, for the reason that one fault uncorrected leads to so many others that before long all good traits seem to be hope- lessly smothered in a wild growth. If we can keep down the weeds until the good seed gets a chance to take root and establish itself, the work of the teacher- mother daily becomes easier. Do not overlook a fault on one occasion in the hope that it will not occur again, for either it or its twin sister will. When children get naughty, intervene with rigor. Little by little sup- Discipline: Habits 65 press all those things which they must not do. We shall have something now to say on bad habits and their correction between the ages of two or three and about seven. These are mainly physical, yet so closely are they interwoven with the moral and mental habits treated in later chapters that the separate classification is more apparent than real. Do not allow children to develop an aversion to any kind of wholesome food, but make them eat at least a small portion of everything that in your judgment is good and fit for them to have. They should eat what- ever mother gives them to eat, simply because she has chosen and provided it, and every healthy and well- reared child will do so. If matters have gone so far that children actually cannot eat wholesome food some- body has spoiled them and is responsible for it. If a whim concerning food is not checked, it develops into a self -suggested digestive defect. The happiness of many has been frustrated in this way by indulgence which has led to incurable invalidism. Without plain, wholesome food the internal organs refuse to work and the system gets clogged, so, dispensing with any preliminary talking or cajoling, give the child a tea- spoonful of the vegetable on the table which you con- sider necessary and which, as you know from previous experience, he is going to refuse, and make him eat it. Repeat this on every similar occasion and after a little while the dislike will have worn off and the quantity can be gradually increased. If the child betrays dislike of a certain food, do not talk about it, or coax, but sim- ply put a teaspoon ful on his plate and tell him that he must eat it before he gets anything else. What to do to enforce this order will depend somewhat on the 66 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother way he acts, for it will not be easy, but the situation must be faced, and the earlier the better. You will probably find it much harder to discipline him if even one other person is at the table, for a child generally learns that there is safety in numbers. If in the presence of a third person he refuses to eat such a small portion, you should then remove him and the plate of food to another room, take him on your lap and make him eat it, just as you would give him neces- sary medicine. The one mouthful or two will not be hard to deal with, but if he is out-and-out stubborn, I recommend the switch. If he merely protests, "I can't," your determination to make him eat will suf- fice. The first struggle will be the hard one. Do not bring up a child on the so-many-ounces-a- day method, or the three-meals-a-day regime. Who would feed little chicks on the same plan as pullets and cockerels? Use your own judgment and discretion, taking actual conditions into consideration. On the other hand, it is just as imwise to let a child run to the bread-basket or cake-box whenever he likes. Try to keep the happy medium between irregularity in any shape or form and pedantic punctiliousness. Sometimes a mother is distressed by the discovery that a young child is eating whatever he happens to pick up, and is forming a habit. One mother writes of a three-year-old child: "He eats lint and fuzz off blankets or wool of any kind, even eating the sleeves out of his nightgown. I have tried to break him, but it seems impossible." Now a child is likely to form any kind of habit and the chewing of lint, etc., is simply one of those habits that children form if you let them. A child of three will naturally crawl about the Discipline: Habits 67 floor picking up anything to chew, but every time you see him do it smack his hands sharply. Thumb-sucking. An extremely bad habit that appears at an early age \ is thumb-sucking. If a child develops it, make him sleep in coarse thumbless mittens fastened to the sleeves so that they cannot be pulled off, and if necessary, try this also during the day. If no good results after a reasonable time, make a paste of bitter aloes and a little water and put some of it under his nails. The deterrent taste lasts for days and this corrective rarely fails. Repeat when necessary, but if, after patient and sufficiently long application, the outcome seems doubt- ful mix some Cayenne pepper or a few drops of tabasco sauce with the bitter aloes. If, after all, thumb- sucking has become a habit, it is not the child's fault so much as that of somebody who ought to have de- tected it in its earliest stages, when it could have been stopped with comparative ease. Nail-biting. Nail-biting is a cause of nervousness, not an effect, and begins usually at a later age than thumb-sucking. It saps the child's energy and diverts his attention, is unbecoming and unmannerly, and encourages naughti- t,/' ness in many other directions. It should be broken up before it gets to be a habit. This and the allied habit of nail-picking, regarded from a purely materialistic point of view, involve unshapely fingers, unhealthy nails, a slobbering mouth, and an altogether unkissable child. Bitter aloes may be used in this case as a re- minder. To deprive the child of something very much coveted whenever the nails are broken usually works, and is a more suitable means of disciplining him than 68 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother offering a reward for overcoming the habit. Nature does not hold out rewards for obediences, but she makes us forego pleasures for disobediences. Left'handedness. When a left-handed child comes to my school, I correct the objectionable habit by making him take chalk, pencil, scissors, hammer, stick, etc., in his right hand every time, without much or any discussion, sim- ply the direction, "Use your right hand." Sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes months, but there is no real difficulty if you keep at it, and the highly desirable result makes it worth while. It is a good thing for children to learn early that they can do practically any- thing within reason that they set out to do. How many accidentally disabled grown persons have learned to substitute the use of the left hand for that of the right ! It is true that left-handedness is caused by an abnormal condition in the right hemisphere of the cere- brum, but by early and patient practice the defect can be overcome. This is one of the many cases where the exertion of will power can overcome physical defects or abnormalities, while the non-exertion of will power may develop them. Temper. How often do we find instances of a little child flying into a passion and attempting to strike its mother when corrected. It seems almost too terrible for belief that a mother should find herself helpless in such a situ- ation and wonder if possibly she herself is not wrong in attempting to "coerce" a child of five. Let a mother who awakens to such a situation ask herself what she will have to face when her daughter is ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and wants her own way about com- Discipline: Habits 69 panionship that is dangerous or recreations that are sinful. The mother who allows her child to strike her or to strike at her is unfit to have the care of dumb brutes, not to speak of human souls. Punish a child for the very first exhibition of temper towards father or mother, and it will quickly learn to control itself. Contradicting. A child is prone to contradict; the tendency is as natural as teething, but it can and should be broken up in time. Any child who is old enough to contradict is old enough not to contradict. Punish instantly and unfailingly when the child breaks into the conversa- tion of grown persons to set them right. A child who cannot listen respectfully and quietly while his elders speak should not have the privilege of remaining where they are; hence the natural and most suitable punish- ment is to send him at once out of the room. If this is done calmly and firmly every time it will be effective. Fear in the Dark. A child that has been frightened in the dark, or who for any reason fears the dark, is not "making believe," and cannot be cured by heroic measures, but must be reassured by words and actions. It will be difficult to reestablish right habits after such a deplorable thing has happened, but there is no help for that; she has had the fright, and it will wear off only very gradually. Do not try to drive out the Devil with Beelzebub. Someone should stay with the child until she is sound asleep, but do this in a way that will prevent her from realizing your sympathy with her fright to be the motive. Put her to sleep where she can hear you talk- ing, or make an excuse to do your sewing or reading within reach, until this suggested or auto-suggested yo Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother fear wears off. A little talking in a natural way may do a little good, but you cannot reason with so young a child, and you cannot reason fear of the dark out of any child under ten. You can only calm her by your own unconcern. Go yourself very frequently on an errand into a dark room, purposely taking no light. Do not comment on not being afraid, for that in itself suggests fear. Decline taking a light on the ground that you know where to find what you want in the dark. Protect a child by all means from getting a fright. Never permit fun or games that involve frightening anyone, for death or insanity might result, or at the least, a lifelong timidity. Whining. After making certain that a child who whines is physically well, deal with this fault as with other naughtiness discussed in this and the preceding chap- ter. Discipline is the cure. It is with you, mothers, that the main struggle will lie — to be on your guard against making the slightest concession to cajoling and sulking, to importunities, teasings, tears, demands, sub- terfuges. Your word must mean something definite. Only when you can so get hold of yourself is it fair or helpful to punish the child for overstepping the bounds. How often have I had in my school, pupils who never attempted to gain anything from me by whining or teasing, who always spoke to me in a natural tone of voice, yet whose voices took on that abominable whine the very minute they crossed the home threshold ; even long after their mothers had ceased to yield to their whinings. The physical habit persisted, without Discipline: Habits yi the child's volition or knowledge, just as a scar betrays a wound long healed. When a child whines or cries easily, it may be that his stomach is out of order. Many children are "bad" because their stomachs are soured with sweets, for a surfeit of sugar works havoc in the system, where a small, well-balanced quantity would be helpful and salutary. Correct this, see that the child's crying gets him nothing, and have him realize that you will not and cannot hear him when he whines, but that as soon as he stops whining and is pleasant and sensible, you are ready to listen to him. If the child cries when disappointed, remove him instantly, without threat or discussion, to a room by himself. You will soon find that crying rarely occurs. Surprise him by taking quick action, without previous warning or threat, and by simply removing him to a safe place where he can annoy no one. This effectual tit-for-tat will quickly help him to regain self-control. Pouting. Do not specifically watch to catch a child pouting, but on the other hand, do not pretend not to see it when he knows very well that you have done so. Make him understand clearly that he must submit quietly and uncomplainingly to your correction. If he goes from pouting to defiance or attempted disobedience, have your switch ready and use it around his legs tmtil he is a thoroughly subdued young man. Stubbornness. Give only commands that the child can carry out, give them in a way that cannot be misunderstood, and if the child then refuses to obey, take down the switch ^2 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other and use it around the little legs until he does obey. After you have succeeded with this first severe lesson, make a point at least once a day of calling the child to you from play. Make him stand in front of you as a soldier stands at attention and look you in the eye while you give him a simple direction: "Go to the kitchen, find the broom and bring it to me," or some similar order. Require him to say, "Yes, mother," or "Very well, mother," and comply instantly. Always choose for these lessons something that you can un- questionably make the child do, for constant practice in executing simple commands makes him docile and teachable, and when he has learned to obey readily in minute matters, he will not oppose his will to yours in more important ones. Give a series of simple directions, as : Walk to the end of the path; stand still; turn to the right; turn again to the right; run back to mother. Invent such instructions, never involving more than one command. These things are simple, but not easy. Five minutes a day of such training may well be given, insisting upon proper positions in standing and always insisting upon correct breathing. Teasing. Never allow older people to tease a child, or in any way to get amusement or entertainment at the child's expense, for it is ruinous to the child's disposition and unfair. If the child has any rights, one of them is to be exempt from heartless teasing. As for the teasing of younger children by older brothers and sisters, you must abstain from too conspicuous interfering, for the younger must naturally submit to some teasing, which will do them good. However, any attempt of the older Discipline: Habits 73 to be cruel or really unkind must be sternly suppressed. Do this tactfully and avoid even the semblance of par- tiality. It is very hard indeed to know just when to interfere among children, but while the fun is innocent and not too hard on the victims, it is well sometimes not to see too much, for it is thus that children learn to take their own part. Nervousness. Nervousness is lack of self-control. If we think of it in this light, it becomes an easier matter to trace the cause and find the remedy. Children who are permit- ted to sit up late or to go frequently to parties and moving pictures are nervous. They cannot stand the vividness and variety of the impressions received. Showing off children, or treating them like grown-ups instead of like children, is bound to react to their hurt. Nervousness is entirely too often the fault of delin- quent parents. To overcome nervousness, keep in mind the old edu- cational principle: Stability takes precedence over change. Do not allow stability to be counteracted by faddish changes and freakish alterations. Aim at regu- larity in your daily program. Keep out frivolity and diversion. Do not listen to such insidious devices for gaining applause as: "The poor children get tired of the same thing over and over. They ought to learn through play. Interest them. Do not make them work. Their lives will be hard enough when they grow up." Do not listen to such counsel unless you want to bring up a generation of sans-culottes, compared with whom Marat would appear as a gentle angel, but if you want to rear a generation of strong, sturdy, courageous men and women, make your children get satisfaction 74 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother from stability, not delight from change. No one reme- dial agent will do so much to overcome nervousness as the regular daily program to which the child must conform, in the large outlines of which he is in no way consulted. Not idleness but a combination of play and work is remedial. Strict discipline develops will power, which in turn overcomes nervousness. A great many mothers make the mistake of humoring a delicate child, whereas the opposite treatment is more needed in such cases than with a healthy child. Keep the child from hearing himself discussed or from being conspicuously talked to, avoid singling him out from the group, and if possible prevent others from doing so. Protect him from well-meant blandish- ments that make for self-consciousness. Reciting be- fore others lays the foundation for inordinate self- esteem, impertinence, nervousness, and unnaturalness, unless most tactful discretion is observed. Public reci- tations by a child may become a potent factor for bad as well as for good. When a child is nervous and wriggles continually, make this your point of attack. Suppress the naughty wriggling and you may find that what you call nerv- ousness has been nothing but naughtiness of the com- mon or garden variety. Wriggling is plainly a bad habit, to be met almost universally in school children. Their fingers are twitching, they want to handle a pen or pencil or other object, they twist their clothing. Until this habit has been overcome the child^s mind will always be diverted and wandering, it will not be receptive to the best and most expert teaching, because the pupil lacks the indispensable mental stamina. A good teacher will not begin or continue a lesson until Discipline: Habits 75 each pupil is sitting quietly and composedly at atten- tion, yet American children, even from the very best of homes, are so badly trained in this respect that a conscientious teacher uses fully as much effort and voice to secure intelligent attention as she does in giv- ing the purely mental training. How often have I said to the mothers of my pupils: "If you would only discipline your children to sit properly and stand qui- etly for even two minutes at a time before starting them for school, I could teach them twice as much there as they now learn." Train children to walk, stand, and sit properly, with body erect, shoulders back, and head up; when they sit their feet should rest squarely on the floor (hence they should have seats of the right height), their hands should be quiet, the entire body composed. Time the child in this posture for one minute, later increasing it to two, and when he reaches the age of seven or thereabouts, three minutes. Do not read to him or tell him a story until he is thus in control of himself. Do this every day, making it an important part of his present training, in fact, as the first exercise of his daily lesson, until he has formed the habit of controlling himself. A simple and effective help in this lesson is to make him first sit or stand, then walk with a shal- low vessel of water on his head, twice a day for a few minutes at a time, in order to gain control and poise. Habits in Illness. When a child is ill its whims and fancies should in no way influence any decisions concerning its treat- ment, but it should be ruled by an intelligent, inflexible, patient will. Every good physician who takes charge of a case gives his orders and insists that they be car- y6 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother ried out, no matter how great, how wise, how scholarly his patient be. Certain practical lessons, such as those concerned with orderliness, should not be omitted during sickness. Do not excuse leaving toys about, for example, or because he does not feel well refrain from making the child put them properly away. The effect of such indulgence would be bad for the health, instead of bene- ficial. Use judgment at all times about lessons, and if you see a child getting peevish or tired, drop them for the time being, for there is more danger of over- teaching than underteaching. At the same time, guard against conscious or unconscious shamming, few things being more puzzling than to meet and treat the child's instinctive recourse to shamming in order to gain his desired end. The child's state of health has an important bearing on the kind and measure of instruction fitted for him. He should not be asked to memorize or to repeat les- sons on days when he is ill nor on the following day if you have reason to believe that exhaustion remains. At such a time he should not give, but he should be given to. Lessons consume a certain amount of nerve force which under such conditions is necessary for bodily growth and health. When the child is not well do not even ask him to recite poetry, for even though he have it perfectly memorized, the mental effort to reproduce it may then be too great, but if he wants to recite, well and good. Do not repeat poems or stories to him unless he asks for them, and then have something ready that does not tend to make him gloomy, for it is hard to foresee the construction that a child may put on the plainest and simplest verses. Discipline: Habits 77 Tell the kind of stories he likes, repeating familiar rather than new ones, in order to spare him the effort of constructing new mind-pictures. Let him have his dog in the room for amusement, or get a kitten so that he can play with it or watch it play with spools or balls of yarn. Get plasticene and let him model dogs, cats, anything that strikes his fancy. It does not matter whether it resembles any- thing or not so long as he is pleased with it. Wax crayons and large sheets of drawing paper will give him material for drawing pine trees, wigwams, children running or walking or lying down. Harmless non- sense is best for a sick child. Self -consciousness. The sources of self -consciousness are self-compla- cency and self-importance, which are fed by the praises of overfond parents, doting relatives, and irresponsi- ble admirers of the poor child. Self -consciousness, once firmly rooted and established, cannot but be de- structive to the defenseless young soul, mind, and body, for it may grow into that crass egotism which wants to make the whole universe subservient to the poor and puny self. It is the bounden duty of parents to guard the child against thoughtless adulation. Do not discuss the child in her presence, even with her father, still less with others. Do such talking privately and keep jealously from her the fact that any discussion has taken place. Egotism. The child so afflicted has been encouraged to fancy that the world revolves around her, which is not to be wondered at, for none of us is praise-proof. We swallow the clumsiest bait of flattery as greedily as the 78 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother dumb gudgeon takes the slimy worm on **Huckle- berry Finn's" bent and twisted pin. Now, I have not a word to say against giving well-deserved praise to a little child, as long as it be given moderately and spar- ingly, but on the other hand, in every morsel of exces- sive praise which she receives are lurking the germs of egotism. Precocity, If a child seems old for her years, it can only be due to circumstances which are either unfriendly or antago- nistic to natural mental development. Being much in the company of her elders would further this trait, as would also talking much to her on matters incongruous with her age, reasoning, explaining, and moralizing too much. Parents, and still more outsiders, are habit- ually careless in their discussions and conversations in the presence of the little ones. Because a child seems absorbed in play, they fancy that she is not paying attention, but it may safely be taken for granted that she is always doing so. Counteract her precocity by speaking less to her, by confining your talk to childish matters, that is, matters rightfully within her com- prehension; tell or read to her the stories and fairy tales that develop her fancy and imagination, animal stories being suitable for this, especially tales in which the animals talk. Leave her to play by herself if she be so inclined, but if not, persuade or compel her to do it. Find suitable playmates for her, younger compan- ions being better for her than older ones. Clipping Words. The practice of clipping words should be stopped at once. Insist that the child take time to speak clearly and distinctly, and to enunciate very plainly and cor- Discipline: Habits 79 rectly. This acts like the curb on a spirited young horse. The main objection to hurried, incorrect, slovenly, and jerky speech is not so much the destruc- tive effect upon language, but the effect upon the whole mentality, which is indissolubly connected with lan- guage. So often it is said that a child stutters or stam- mers because he is nervous, whereas the fact is that he is nervous because he stutters or stammers. If you will take note of persons who speak with too great volubility, you will find that the fault is due to a quick, petulant character. If you train the manner of speaking, you improve the character. Make the child use chest-tones, the way to do so being to use them yourself and have the child imitate you. When she screws up her voice to a high pitch, correct her, making her speak softly and clearly, with full tones. Make her breathe deeply before talking, and you can play games with her in which you lower your own voice into your chest, leading her to imitate your chest-tones. If a child has a weak throat, it is espe- cially important that she learn to do this. Stammering and Other Speech Defects. Most speech defects can be overcome if taken in time and persistently treated. The cure rests on keep- ing the child in good physical condition, on establish- ing self-control through firm discipline, on an elemen- tary knowledge of the way speech is produced, on pa- tience and persistence in making the child practice care- ful and correct utterance. Stammering is due to lack of control over the organs of speech, and very seldom arises from organic defect. It may be aggravated by depression of spirits, digestive disturbances, or physi- cal debility, but these influences have nothing to do 8o Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother with the cause. The remedy is to acquire control over the act of breathing and the use of the vocal organs. The early years of a child's life are those in which a cure is most easily effected. Parents should not defer effort in the hope that impediments or defects of speech will disappear when the child realizes their objection- ableness. This result does not follow, and even if it did the child has in the mean time suffered mortifica- tion and acquired nervousness. There are a few easily understood suggestions that the parents can apply: 1. Study the processes of speech, the relation of the breath to vocal sounds, the position of the tongue in shaping the outward stream of air; and practice sep- arately making the different vowel and consonant sounds, noting in each the position of the tongue. 2. Keep in mind that speech is breath — that all sounds originate in the throat, that the passage of the throat must be kept open. 3. Teach the pupil before beginning to speak to get control of himself, his thoughts, his breath, his voice. Practice deep breathing with the child. When one is threatened with loss of self-control through fear, anger, or any other cause, instant help comes from taking a deep breath. 4. Make the child think before he speaks, so that he knows exactly what he is going to say. This adds to his self-confidence. 5. Do not allow him to continue talking when he begins in the wrong way. Make him stop at once, think what he wants to say, take a deep breath, and speak slowly. Bear in mind that harshness, impatience, scolding, Discipline: Habits 8 1 irritability, punishment, ridicule, are as much out of place in dealing with such defects as in dealing with a broken leg. If the child could help it, be sure that he would. If he is still too young to be sensitive about his impediment, this is so much the more reason that infinite patience should be shown in helping him to overcome the unfortunate habit. A firm, kindly voice and manner help the child to control himself and to make effective effort. Avoid too much talking, criti- cizing, or suggesting, simply instruct him "Do this," taking compliance for granted. Success and failure should alike be met with a smile and a word of encour- agement and if the parents do their part failure will cease after a while. Stuttering differs somewhat from stammering, the source of this difficulty lying mainly in the lower jaw. When this is brought under control and the effort to speak transferred from the mouth to the throat, where it belongs, speech comes fluently enough. Use the same means as advised to overcome stammering. Many forms of defective speech, such as inability to pronounce certain vowel or consonant sounds, owe their origin simply to want of proper direction and training when the child is learning to talk. One of the elementary sounds most liable to mispronunciation is S, which gives rise to lisping. This consists in apply- ing the tongue to the teeth or gum so as to force the breath over the sides instead of over the center of the tongue. The sound of L is likewise often defective, common substitutes of one sound for another are T for K, D for G, N for Ng, S or Z for Th, S for Sh, etc. Defects in pronunciation and enunciation should be dealt with one at a time, until each is overcome. Study 82 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother how each sound is made, practicing it before a mirror so that you discern the position of the tongue, teeth, and lips. When giving a lesson, make the child sit or stand directly in front of you, watching your mouth and imitating you in making the sound. Prolong and exaggerate the sounds, having the child make them with you. If, for instance, he says "tat'* for "cat," put your finger on the tip of his tongue and keep it down, so as to prevent his placing it against the roof of his mouth while making the K sound. He thus learns where to place his tongue to say Kuh. Practice only one new sound in a lesson, and practice this same lesson for a week or a month, if need be, until the child makes the sound correctly. Have short lessons, perhaps five or ten minutes in duration, once or twice a day, regularly and punctually. Do not nag the child between times about the sounds. This differs from the plan to correct stammering, which should be dealt with every time he speaks incorrectly. In order to put the child at his ease, make him forget self, and leave the mind free to attend to the lessons; it is a good plan to have fun in practicing these lessons. Thus without nervous tension, the vocal organs more readily assume the natural position, the glottis remains open, and the child easily imitates you. Vary the les- son with a young child by having him run away and repeat the newly mastered sound to the dog, the cat, the geranium, then come back and tell you just how he said it. Even though no apparent progress has been made in a week, keep right on, not as if you were instructing, but as if this were an enjoyable game, and only when the child succeeds in mastering a single difficult sound Discipline: Habits 83 begin with another sound. Mothers who follow this plan with young pupils nearly always succeed in over- coming these defects and impediments in a single year. Let me add that not only are the results unquestionably desirable, but the effect of this careful training has the same good influence on mind and body that results from any careful, methodical instruction which is suited to the child's age and needs. CHAPTER VI TRAINING CHILDREN TO OBSERVE When the great naturalist, Agassiz, was asked what he considered the most importaint work of his life, he answered, "I have helped men to observe." By ob- servation we do not mean simply seeing, for we may observe through taste, touch, smell, and hearing, as well as sight. The sense of touch, for instance, is more primitive than even that of hearing or sight, and is certainly not less important than the other senses. The child gets the idea of form through the fingers rather than through the eye, and trusts more to the sense of touch than to that of sight, not being satisfied, for instance, that no more cakes remain in the dish until he has explored it with his hands. At three months the baby will grasp with the hand and this tendency to rely upon muscular sensations develops rapidly, yet if this sense is not properly cultivated it begins to lose its keenness when the child is about six. The sense of smell is not only a wonderful safe- guard, but serves beyond any other sense to bring quickly and distinctly to the mind scenes and memories of long ago that otherwise would be lost. Neither sight nor sound is so potent as odor in stirring deep- lying recollections. Fifty years hence the odor of nar- cissus will recall to Barbara the beautiful gift she received when the world was young to her — and its giver. The sense of smell is weak in young children, 84 Training Children to Observe 85 but by training and practice one of the most useful roads to the mind may become so extended and the field of perception so enormously enlarged that, as in Luther Burbank's case, the man's usefulness to the world becomes intensified beyond measurement. Bur- bank made himself famous by smelling in a field of unscented blossoming verbena a single plant with an arbutus-like odor. This he discovered by crawling on all- fours through the field, and from it he raised the sweet-scented verbena. Long practice had enabled him to extend his smelling-range beyond the usual area. The ear demands employment and training, the importance of which may be judged from the fact that congenitally deaf persons are usually also dumb, for they cannot reproduce sounds which they have never heard. The notion of rhythm as an essential part of language foundation may be explained to my readers at another time; it suffices to say here that the child himself shows us that this foundation should be laid during babyhood. At three or earlier he responds to strongly accented poetry and keeps perfect time in dancing, which is natural enough, considering that so much of life — for instance, heartbeats, walking, breathing, physical labor — is rhythmical. Rhythm awakens the emotions so that they respond to sugges- tion, and the power of many biblical passages is prob- ably due to their rhythm. Think of what ten years* training in hearing and reproducing sounds would do in the way of sharpening the mind! Looking at things does not always signify seeing them. Many people go through life without a clear idea of the simplest subjects, unable to reason clearly because they lack the definite knowledge of particular 86 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother things in the concrete on which reasoning must be based. Knowledge is based on something that precedes knowledge and depends upon the clearness and com- pleteness of our impressions. Since the mind obtains its information solely through the gateways of the senses, it is obvious that understanding and judgment will be in direct ratio to the perceptions received, just as the fairness of a court's judgment depends upon the faithful presentation of the evidence. On the other hand, no one is ignorant, even though unschooled, whose senses are trained to gather exact impressions from his surroundings. The reader has doubtless learned through agreeable experience that the company of an observant person is an education in itself. In most cases stupidity in grown people, like back- wardness in children, is merely the outcome of failure to observe intelligently. A story is told of a pearl- merchant who spent his life in travel, yet never saw anything of interest, who, when asked something about Australia, where he had spent six months, ex- claimed: "Guess, now, what potatoes cost in Mel- bourne!" Every day furnishes proof that dullness, stupidity, "thick-headedness" — terms so often used to explain failure in making a living or planning a life — are rarely due to any lack of natural gifts, but are simply the penalty paid by the mind for the cheating of the senses. Sense training opens the gates of the mind, sharpens the desire for knowledge, and leads to the love of good books. If this were accomplished it would scarcely be necessary to instruct the young learner even in the elements of reading, so well-equipped would he be to continue his education by his own efforts. No one will Training Children to Observe 87 question that observation lessons are the solid and safe foundation for all scientific study, stepping-stones to success in nearly every human pursuit. High intel- lectual development is useless in such a profession as medicine or surgery or teaching if the senses have not been adequately developed. Not only the poet, the naturalist, the artist, depend upon observation for suc- cess, but so also do the farmer, the preacher, the mathe- matician, while Shakespeare's fidelity to Nature has made him immortal. Two years ago Paul, who lives in Minneapolis, and is not yet seven years old, wanted "lessons," so his parents led him to observe the birds that visited their yard, and after a time he began to draw them. He would come in and draw on the board in colored chalk the bird as he saw it, so that someone might recognize it and tell him its name. From week to week he became more proficient, and when I showed his recent drawing of a blue jay to an artist, she exclaimed in wonder and expressed the conviction that this boy has every prospect of becoming the great interpreter of bird life who has yet to make his appearance in America. "His outline is a truly remarkable piece of work," she said. "The Japanese insist that to control the outline is the severest test of the artist." Now he may never become an artist, but his practice in making hand and eye work together has already opened up for him the prospect of a wide field from which to choose his life-work. Circumstances formerly compelled men to observe, for their very lives, not to mention their success in life, depended on the keenness of their senses. Clocks now take the place of sundial and noonmark, weather- 88 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother bureau forecasts are relied upon instead of noting wind, clouds, and temperature, while brick walls and paving stones still further contract our horizon. The man from the city had this brought home to him when he heard his hostess say to her son : "Go out and kill a hen for to-morrow's dinner, and be sure to get one that isn't laying." "But how can I tell that in the dark, when I can't see their combs?" queried the boy. "Take one that is perched farthest from the rooster," replied the mother. "He always keeps the laying hens near himself." As mere information the foregoing is worth little, but as an indication of an observant mind it gives us food for thought. Even if our visible needs seem less dependent now than formerly on the keenness of our perceptions, the difference is only in the seeming. Every single phase of living, of thinking, of social relationships, of civic and national welfare, depends upon our powers of accurate observation. One pri- mary purpose of sense training should be to cultivate keen interest in things of real importance. There never was a time when people did less think- ing than now. The head of the literary department in one of our great universities said not long ago that if the present craze for reading cheap, trivial stuff was not halted, there would soon be no one left in this country who could do real thinking. He added that this generation does more reading than any other in the world's history, and has more trivial interests than any other of which we have any record. With Americans the power of the imagination is distinctly on the wane, which means, unhappily, not Training Children to Observe 89 only the loss of the power to construct or to enjoy a work of art, but the loss of our former ingenuity and dexterity in adapting things of the natural world to our own uses. This deterioration began, I should say, about the time that the careful grading of our schools made itself generally felt, for with the introduction of exact grading there naturally came a still greater em- phasis on knowledge of the kind that can be readily measured and marked in percentages. Therefore, what is called the best school, on account of its con- formity to a standardized system, is often the worst. Visit a carefully graded school and hear the recita- tions go with pell-mell rush. The quantity of informa- tion is torrential, but the quality is apparently a matter of no moment, while the only object seems to be to fit the pupil to the Procrustean bed of a prescribed program. The results are fatty degeneration of brain- cells, sclerosis of understanding, strangulation of in- terest, and a certifying diploma. I went one morning by invitation of the superinten- dent to a wonderfully graded school in the finest building of the city, in order to watch his prize teacher at work in a sixth grade. The first period, called geography, took the class through Ireland, from Cork due northwest. No facts, great or near-great or totally immaterial, were omitted that the writer of a popular supplementary textbook had seen fit to record at a time when print-paper was more abundant than now. "Over hill, over dale, Over park, over pale. Through flood, through fire." But no mischievous fairy led the children this dance. 90 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother The teacher had never seen fairies. A single glance told you that she came from that part of New Eng- land whence Cotton Mather had exorcised all such unsubstantial beings, but that, if fairies had been pre- scribed in the curriculum, she would have made an honest effort to summon them forth for qualitative analysis. At any rate, it was not Puck or the Pied Piper who led these children over the hills and by the lakes and through the bogs of the green isle, it was a tired, unimaginative woman, determined to show her visitor an efficient method of reviewing and drill- ing, and who took Ireland not from choice but because Ireland happened to be on the face of the earth and "came next" in the syllabus. How the dry bones of the old earth rattled for forty minutes! The skeleton of a lesson was there, indeed, but divested as it was of all human qualities, there was neither truth nor nature. True, the city of Cork is situated on a harbor, the harbor affords dock- age for vessels pausing on their trip between America and England, the population is so many thousands, the industries are such and such, peat is a popular fuel there and thereabouts, peat is cut out of the ground and dried. But if you dry that peat. Miss Simpson, for a thousand years, it can never be as dry as that les- son of yours on drying peat. The lesson finally ended, and it had been so exactly timed that the end of the period, the end of the review, and the arrival at Done- gal were simultaneous. Its perfection reminded one of a jubilant typesetter who rushed into the editorial office, proof sheets of a magazine story in hand, ex- claiming: "This is the best article we have had this year. There was exactly the right number of words Training Children to Observe 91 to make it end exactly at the bottom of the page." Forty-odd pupils now put away their geographies and plainly resigned themselves to a review of history. On went the teacher, almost as if no change of thought had occurred, chanting her chronological litany in a high nasal monotone, fearfully rasping to human nerves. Walking, talking, wielding a five- foot wooden pointer, she passed with ungainly strides from desk to map and from map to chart. At first she marshaled facts into the young minds as Noah filled his house- boat, in ordered ranks, by two and two, but soon the pace was accelerated and facts came trooping by tens and dozens. For forty-odd minutes that woman went careering through time and space, steadily emitting the most bewildering array of facts, unrelated, as far as her pupils could see, as to time or place or sequence or dependence. The earth was hers and the fullness thereof. From Father Abraham to Papa Joffre, from Beersheba to Verdun, from Mephistopheles to the Kaiser, she swept that helpless group of children. To be exact, she reviewed them from page seven tp the mathematical center of the book, with an occasional side-glance at current events and some profound oracu- lar dicta concerning the League of Nations. When a pause finally came I said to her somewhat as follows : "What are you doing to cultivate an apprecia- tion of the wonders of Creation? How are you using that appreciation to develop in these boys and girls a strong individuality, an individuality that has the strength to subordinate its interests to those of the family, the nation, and mankind, and to submit humbly to the will of God?" • She told me that there was nothing like that in the 92 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother course of study and asked me if I would mind telling her just what I meant. I answered her question by asking the class how many of them knew that the stars rise and set. None of them had ever heard of such a thing. Then, in language as simple as possible, I undertook to give them some conception of the mar- velous works of the Creator ; of the thousands of suns ranged all around us at immense distances from each other; attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid motion, yet calm, regular and harmonious, invariably keeping the paths prescribed to them; and these worlds possibly peopled with millions of beings, formed for endless progression towards perfection and happiness. Of course the children were not prepared to grasp more than a tiny fraction of what these words would convey to hearers differently trained, but they did gather enough of my meaning to ask the question I had hoped for : "What keeps the suns and worlds from falling?" In my answer I sought to lure them on to further inquiry by telling them that their teacher would explain about the force which deter- mines the fall of a stone, and that this same force is the ruling principle in the heavenly motions and is the means by which these vast bodies are suspended in the immensity of space. When the superintendent asked me what I thought of Miss Simpson, I remarked feebly that she seemed to be a frightful worker. "She is, indeed," he ex- claimed with warmth, not heeding the equivocal phrase in which I had shamelessly taken refuge. "If we had more teachers like her, what couldn't we do with the children!" Training Children to Observe 93 "What couldn't you do, indeed?" I mused. It made me think of a friend of mine who owns a beau- tiful estate on which a king's ransom has been lav- ished in tree-planting and landscape gardening, but who is forever pining for a brook. "If I only had a brook, just think what I could do with it!" And she says every word in capital letters. Many times I tried to think what anyone would do with a brook, except let it run, and at last I said to her cousin: "If Mrs. Beauregard-Smith had a brook, what would she do with it?" "If Mrs. Beauregard- Smith had a brook," came the energetic reply, "she would get cement and make a canal of it." In this world of sorrowful blundering perhaps parents and school teachers should not be too harshly criticized for acting on the assumption that the educa- tional process consists mainly in charging the young mind with neat little, dry little, clean little missiles of information and rattling them round at stated inter- vals, to make certain they are still in place and ready for the popgun, but does it not seem to you, mothers, that the "men higher up" might do something to abolish such teaching in favor of a system of mind training? That observation, comparison, discrimina- tion are indispensable steps towards sound learning is not a recent discovery. That overlaying the mind with thicknesses of secondrate facts impedes its working and stunts its growth was probably recog- nized as long ago as the time of Rameses II. Yet, while awaiting still another "wonderful new method," the greater part of our school curriculum continues to be merely informational. It is so easy to impart information, easy for the 94 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother teacher to say, learn so many pages, easy to have showy recitations of facts that pass for learning, easy to examine pupils on the quantity remaining sus- pended in the memory, easy to grade answers. For modern youngsters there is no tedious climbing of the hill of knowledge, for an escalator takes them from kindergarten to high school graduation with- out their ever knowing the joy of honest, sustained effort, and when the fair girl graduate stands on the platform reading her essay, "The Diary of Dido," the high school principal says confidentially to his little group of auditors: "Just see what we have done for that girl. We took her, a simple farmer*s daughter, and now see what she is !" Again we see with painful clearness. She is a girl who has cribbed a jumble of immoral details from library books, interspersed them with high school slang, and then, though quite old enough to know better, has the shamelessness to read this mess aloud to a mixed audience. However, if the home does its part, there is little need for worry over the neglect of observational training in the schools, for no home is so poorly cir- cumstanced that it cannot give the groundwork for scientific instruction. Its very imperfections and apparent drawbacks can be made to do their part in developing mental activity, reflection, dexterity, and inventiveness. There is no such laboratory in any school as the home kitchen, cellar, or yard. Must a boy wait for high school to see and learn that a piece of iron left exposed to damp air is after awhile con- verted to a reddish brittle substance? How much research on the parents' part will it take to explain that rust comes from the union of iron with the oxy- Training Children to Observe 95 gen from the air? Must children wait for school clays to observe falling raindrops, rising steam, to learn that one is heavier, one lighter, than air, that the water in the bathtub is hotter on the surface than at the bottom, that like heated water, heated air rises, and cold air rushes in to take its place, and so be led from this knowledge to understand the causes of winds on the earth's surface? In no school can the children get the training for the study of mathematics that the everyday home affords. The child who gets his first arithmetic les- sons in the kitchen, seeing for himself, through eye and hand, that one plate and one plate are two plates, that a quart is more than a pint and a pint less than a quart, that the cat has more feet than he, and that he has fewer feet than the cat, is learning arithmetic in the correct way. School lessons in number, unler,s based on long and careful training in observation, not only do not implant mathematical ability, but by con- fusing the child mind, destroy what would be other- wise, in a greater or lesser degree, a natural aptitude for numbers. Must the children of my teacher-mothers go to school to learn the seasons, the points of the compass, the rising and setting of sun, moon, and stars, the three great kingdoms of the physical world? To learn to read thermometer, barometer, weather-vane, the sky and its portents? To learn that nothing in the natural world is too simple, too lowly, too ugly, too common to be a part of education? When it comes to giving the child healthy interests, which are so much more potent against evil than bare instruction can ever be — for knowledge alone is a 96 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother mighty poor safeguard against wrongdoing — what part of the school equipment can develop the mind and heart like a pet at home, whether it be a cat, a dog, a calf, a bird, or, most wonderful in all the world, a baby? That is a great moment in the small girl's life when she first finds a nestful of warm white eggs in the hay- mow. How did they come there? She has seen eggs before, and has been told that the hen laid eggs, but never did this explanation mean anything until the wonderful nest lay before the young eyes. Then the questions: Did the hen lay them all at once? Why are they warm? Why did she come back here every day? Does she have more than one nest? All the nature study in the finest school could not bring home to this child the wonder, thrill, and delight of this dis- covery in the hay. "How can I teach my child to reason soundly?" By making him observant as a preliminary to explana- tion and reasoning. The only causes and reasons the young child can understand are those discernible to the senses, the abstract being beyond his comprehen- sion. All your finest explanations and illustrations will not make a child of seven or eight really under- stand the cause of day and night or of the change of seasons, but a little questioning will lead him to draw reasonable conclusions concerning things within his scope. For instance, the noisy Anglo-American spar- row stays with us who live in the cold north, while most other birds go south. Why? Because this bird can stand the cold better than the migratory birds that leave us in the winter. He can also find food, espe- cially in the towns and wherever there is grain to be Training Children to Observe 97 found in winter, for he must have the grain. Other hardy birds that perhaps might manage with grain are not bold enough to make raids for it and take it away from the barnyard fowl or pick it up in the road- way, so tliat the sparrow's tough little skin, his eating habits, and his daring, all account for his outstaying birds that are better-liked. One of the many good reasons for insisting upon regular work from children is that only through the hands can the child obtain the lessons most suitable to develop mentality, by learning through experience and experiment to reason from cause to effect and from effect back to cause. When he is made to perform intelligently various household tasks the child amasses, through the senses and sensations, an amazing quantity of knowledge which is indispensable to mental balance and judgment, knowledge that under modern condi- tions could not otherwise be gained naturally. The child who is too much absorbed in books slights the practical things of life. The mother must try to adjust this discordance and emphasize in every way the importance of the world which lies about him ; she must train him to do and make things, to use hands and eyes. The simplest thing he is trained to make with his hands is worth more than any subsequent school lesson requiring equal time and teaching. Even when quite young he should learn to use tools, hoe, rake, spade, thereby acquiring the idea of via inertice, of the resist- ance of objects and materials to their use, of the resist- ance of matter to mind, and developing muscular sensa- tion. Helping you in the kitchen and watching you in the preparation of food will afford many fine lessons. When you are making cake, let the child try to tell you 98 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother what comes next, and how much; he can count the eggs, learn pint, quart, etc., but do not expect him to count beyond a number which he actually uses, and the counting should follow the measuring, not precede it. The child is not the only one to benefit by home lessons in observation, for the teacher-mother grows in wisdom from day to day, the whetting of mind on mind, even though it be the mind of a child, being an unsurpassed intellectual stimulus. It increases the ability to judge soundly and to deal wisely with facts, especially as they relate to the conduct of life, and cultivates common sense, and "common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom." The child learns much from his mother, but the mother learns still more from her child, for by the time she has finished showing him an object from ten different angles she will realize that the only way to know a subject thoroughly is to teach it. She will also know more about her child than if she had left his instruc- tion to strangers. If my insistence on mind training fills the teacher- mother with foreboding, lest she lack the requisite skill and learning to accomplish such an assignment, let me show how simple the task is. For its effectiveness mind training depends primarily on sense training, and sense training deals particularly with what we may call the physical or animal aspects of development. Most fortunately, this training should begin in earliest in- fancy, else we neglect an entire psychological period, which is the period of greatest plasticity, of greatest response to suitable stimulus. For every observation lesson the mother teaches the child, the child teaches himself, and her, a score of lessons. The simple, joy- Training Children to Observe 99 ful truth is that to develop and train the senses is to develop and train the mind. Now, where is the bug- bear ? For the senses are simple and elemental. How to train them is within the learning of anyone able to read, and this done, our stupendous "mind training" will practically take care of itself. As for the requisite knowledge, the mother is fully equipped for all the teaching that should be given in the early years. Arouse a living interest in one flower, one star, one tree, one bird, one little wild beast, and Nature almost unaided will attend to the rest. The education of the senses should be based more on instinct, as it is done all through Nature, than on a systematic training. By this is meant that the good teacher is guided by Nature's plan of letting the child attain a clear perception of external objects by experi- mentation, the mother of invention. Give ample time for the new idea to grow, tell the child of seven or eight that the moon travels around the earth, answer his questions, but otherwise leave him alone to puzzle this great new idea out, to follow the moon on its journey over sea and land, to wonder if it really can be true! Do not mention unnecessarily any other heavenly or earthly body until his questions show that for the time being his mind has freed itself from the moon. Foster inquisitiveness, and you will then have little cause to complain of idle curiosity. Teach your child to take an interest in things worth noticing, not in inconsequential things. A true artist admires the trees that he paints, more than his painting of them, however artistic it may be; therefore let things natural take precedence over things artificial. He cannot wholly 100 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother learn this lesson in childhood, but he can begin to learn it. Do not take for granted his understanding of any point. A child does not know a straight line until he is taught what it is. He will call a slanting straight line crooked, and a perfect circle he will call straight, meaning regular. Object lessons should be direct. Lessons about a tree should be learned from a tree, not from a book on trees; they can then be expanded and amplified by verbal explanations and reading. The first lessons should be as plain and simple as possible, and expanded gradually, the same object furnishing material for many lessons. A child cannot possibly learn all about any one object in one lesson and to gain a clear con- ception of it may take years. Systematic, progressive training in the use of the senses should continue from day to day, and from year to year, embracing many kinds of objects. If you want your children to be interested in nature, you must be interested yourself; therefore when Paul brings in a beetle do not squeak and shriek at him to take the nasty thing away, but proceed to get a lesson out of it. I do not insist that you are to fondle the insect, for, confidentially, I would not do so myself, but there is a better way. Instead of postponing until high school his lesson on the June bug, say to Paul: **Let us see how much we can find out about this beetle. How many legs has it? Is the body in one or two parts? What kind of eyes has it? Has it jaws, feel- ers, feet, tail, and sting, or none? How many wings has it? What is their color and shape; how are the wings folded when resting? Where is it found, and what is its food?" These are only suggestions which Training Children to Obsenfi^^n I :;! .ijogl.. you can expand, so that the child uses his senses and brain before he is given the result of someone else's observations. For sense-training material use natural and artificial objects, animate and inanimate, taking them in an order that conforms to the child's age and surroundings. In the morning ask yourself what part of the imi verse you will bring to his attention that day. Beginning with the baby, how much better it is to have his nap outdoors, weather permitting, so that his waking mo- ments may be filled with the sight of swaying trees or fleeting clouds, than to leave him to stare at dull walls. Protect his eyes from strong light and give him the environment of Nature whenever you can. Material for lessons should be found and supplied, as far as possible, by the pupil himself. During the early years objects manufactured for this purpose should be avoided as harmful. We must learn to use our senses rather than father's pocketbook in getting the best from our surroundings, therefore substitute outdoor natural material for pseudo-educational gim- cracks. Do not, if you can help it, use anything that costs money during the kindergarten period except the blackboard and chalk, and perhaps a writing or draw- ing book for each child for rainy days. This is not for economy's sake, though indirectly it teaches the habit of economy, but to make the most of homely and familiar surroundings and to follow as nearly as we can the path trodden by worth-while men and women, whose noble and helpful lives have proved that it was the right path. "The old ways are best." For example, the value of wooden alphabet blocks is not great. Of course you can make use of them in invented tQ2 'Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother lessons, teaching the child something about compara- tive sizes, edges, rough and smooth, light and heavy, and so on, but these lessons can be taught far better with materials collected at will, such as sticks and stones, earth, plants, a pail of water, an tgg, dishes, hose, pets, whatever happens to lie at hand. The very best objects are those which are so familiar to us grown-ups that they are deadly commonplace and therefore often overlooked. Nothing is too simple, too lowly, too common to be worth while from this viewpoint of helping the child to find his rightful place in relation to his surround- ings. Let us not ignore even the chickens' tracks in the mud, or whether the cow's two horns are exactly alike. Your back yard is so full of nature study that I am only carrying owls to Athens in mentioning more. Set your boy to notice things and, as you will see, he will soon teach himself. Make use of natural play- things. Especially during the first three years, and as far as is practicable and reasonable during the first seven years, supply as playthings suitable objects in their natural state from the three great kingdoms. In this way, through the medium of the senses, rather than through words, and at the right period, the child comes into close contact with his natural surroundings. Baby intelligence is safely developed. An ordinary round stone is a better plaything than a china door- knob; a potato is better than a rubber ball; a stick of kindling or hardwood has advantages as building ma- terial over the nicely planed block. Each of the natural objects has distinctive characteristics which, apart from their value as observational material, does not lessen their value as playthings, which is now really Training Children to Observe 103 the first consideration. Water, sand, mud, pebbles, stones, sticks, nuts, walnut shells for boats, beans, peas, soaked grains of corn or allspice for beads; potatoes, apples, pumpkin, gourd, large leaves for lunch cloth, small leaves for napkins and doilies, cat, dog. These and various combinations of them, with others that lie at hand everywhere, will keep a young child happy and good and busily learning. CHAPTER VII OPENING THE MIND's GATEWAYS Some kind of object lesson, not necessarily a set one, should be given every day. A croaking frog, a smok- ing stove, a broken dish, a decayed apple, the cat's toes, anything and everything noticeable by the senses should be seized upon when it presents itself. I am sure that not one of my teacher-mothers will take the stand of the over-methodical kinder gar tner, to whom I presented some cocoons from which the tenants were about to emerge, and who protested that since it was January she could not allow her little charges to wit- ness the approaching miracle because, according to her set of four kindergarten books, grubs are not supposed to matriculate into butterfly citizenship in that month. Too full for words, I carried my caterpillars back to their terrarium, sought out another kindergarten teacher and demanded her sympathy in my pain of mind. She gave it, but added that the kindergartner was right, because there is a little butterfly song that goes with seeing the butterflies come out, and as this is to be sung in April, it would hardly do to sing it in January. The time to teach an object lesson is when a suitable object presents itself, and the choice of it should by no means be limited to such lessons as may be suggested in this book, which is an unsystematized talk on things just off the beaten highway of familiar instruction. I 104 opening the Mind's Gateways 105 purposely omit the type of lessons that get themselves taught somehow, the kind suggested by kindergarten courses. Certain old aristocratic families were proud of their sensitive and discriminatory noses. Besides educating an important sense, smell training should be given every day for its practical use, for a fastidious nose is a better safeguard than a fastidious palate. It is rea- sonable to suppose that a well-developed sense of smell has protected many people from the danger of catching certain infectious diseases or partaking of poisonous food. The indiscriminate use of perfumes spoils the sense of smell. Smelling experiments involve not the slightest risk of overtaxing the nervous system. Teach your children to know by smell everything on your premises that is smellable. Soap, oil, butter, vinegar, molasses, pepper; ink, vegetables, fruit, flowers, weeds, turpentine, camphor, axle-grease; the odor of cows, of horses, of sheep — all will help to train the sense of smell. Even the baby should be taught to smell flow- ers and other objects, so that he soon learns to ask for the privilege. His " 'mell, 'mell," should not be ignored. Teach the child through his hands and through all the senses, to know the common elemental things. For the three-year-old, plan lessons to train the sense of feeling. For instance, place on the table a number of familiar objects, such as balls, buttons, nuts ; blindfold Robert, let him pick them up one by one and identify them by fingering them, naming each and describing it as well as he can. Teach him to detect blindfold the differences between cloths, leaves, papers, coins, seeds. For lessons in "rough and smooth," use all available io6 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother appropriate objects, such as rasp, nail-file, potato, apple, walnut, hazelnut, rough and smooth paper, etc. Teach hot, cold, hard, soft, dry, moist, through the fingertips. Muscular sensation is one of the divisions of the sense of feeling, and to be able to estimate the weight of an object to a pound, or even an ounce, is not a use- less accomplishment, but helps in developing the ability to judge of practical matters. With practice and per- severance it can be acquired by anybody. Plan lessons that train your children to judge of differences in weight. Let the small boy collect a pile of stones ; tell him to put the heavy ones in one pile and the light ones in another. After a time, a year or so, have him make three piles, the third for intermediate weights. For these lessons take flatirons, sticks of wood, etc., anything the children can handle. Take a brick as a standard of weight. Let them tell which is the heavier, which the lighter ; thus you teach them the correct use of such words. At first there should be a great differ- ence in weight, but as the weeks go by the contrast should be lessened. After a while, introduce three objects for comparison of weights, teaching lighter and lightest, heavier and heaviest. You can expand such lessons indefinitely. For a child of five it is a good plan to take an object weighing just a pound — a. box of baking soda is con- venient, or fill a bag with sand to the weight of one pound. A year or so later, use a half-pound weight. Make him use this as a standard of comparison, hav- ing him **heft" other objects and estimate whether they weigh more or less than one pound. By laying the object afterwards on the pan of the scales, he can pelting the Mind's Gateways 107 find out for himself whether he estimated correctly or not. An old-fashioned balance with two pans will serve better for this purpose, as its construction and operation are so very simple that very little explana- tion is required. If you have not got one, try with Paul's help to make one. All you need is a strip of wood with a hole in the midpoint for beam, paper plates for scale pans, a piece of string, and a piece of wire for handle and for suspending balance. You can easily adjust it so as to balance fairly correctly, and what a rich mine of physical information you have opened up for your children ! These are fine games to play with father or mother on winter evenings, one contestant after another giving the estimate, the win- ner being finally determined by the corrections. At first the children will not be very close in their esti- mates, but practice should make them little experts. Ear-training by piano or other musical instrument, the human voice, animal calls and cries, bird-notes, should be practiced every day. Get Eloise to imitate the noises of little pigs, big pigs, chickens, mother hen, rooster, other farm creatures, wild creatures, spar- row, robin, jay, crow, brook, engine. Whether she succeeds very well does not matter; it is the attempt and continued effort that count. But make certain that the practice of mimicking does not transgress the bounds of good breeding. It is unwise to encourage any mimicry of human beings, the habit being too easily acquired. Children between four and seven should make the acquaintance of angleworms, spiders, grasshoppers, fireflies. Look for a flat stone on the ground, turn it up and show Charles the little live things scampering io8 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother away into the friendly darkness. Disturb an ant-hill and watch the nurses running away to new quarters with their precious babies. Find eggs of toads and frogs in the pools, if you have such. Bring in polli- wogs, keep them in a glass jar and change the water frequently for fresh pond water, so that they can get food from its slimy little plants. Watch the legs appear, the tail drop off, and other changes. Teach the meaning of pond, brook, stream and bridge if you can, by artificial ponds, brooks, streams, bridges, de- vised with the child's help. It is not alone the accumu- lation of interesting and valuable facts that makes such lessons important, but the acquiring of a permanent interest that may easily be a safeguard throughout tem- pestuous years, during which the mind tends to become centered on self. An excellent little chapter in a course of observation lessons for Eleanor may center about her pet lamb, or any other pet. She should count its eyes, ears, tail, the toes on one foot. She should learn the names and meanings of wool, fur, hoof, paw, toe, nail, claw. In like manner teach the names of the more important parts of a dog's body, as legs, toes, foot, ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, tongue, nose, muzzle, hair, tail, back, ribs, side, flank. Let her find out for herself how many toes the dog has on each foot. How few of us are aware that there are commonly only four toes on each of the hind feet. On the fore feet, she will find the fifth toe apart from the others and a little higher up. Examine the nails. What color are they ? What color is the inside of the dog's mouth? Teach the names of the various parts of the body of chickens, as leg, toe, feathers, wings, tail, beak, eye, comb, back, neck, crop. opening the Mind's Gateways 109 gizzard — not only as names but with correct meanings as far as the child can understand them. One form of observation that may be practiced season after season and year after year is the examination and comparison of tracks of chicken, cow, pig, and child, and of the feet that made them. Send her to look at the foot of cow, horse, dog, or cat and then come and describe it to you. Especially from the age of five onward, birds are good and suitable objects for lessons in observation and general knowledge, ranking, perhaps, before flow- ers, for as they exhibit life more strikingly than do flowers, they attract the child more and rouse his imag- ination more directly and naturally. What birds are now visiting your yard? What food is the sparrow after? Describe it with your eyes shut. Compare and contrast other birds with the sparrow as to size, color, shape, flight, gait on ground, habits, food, friends, numbers. What bird hops, runs, walks in a stately manner? Try to find a robin's nest with the young birds stretching out their wide yellow beaks for a nice fat worm as the old birds bring food. Coax the birds to stay through the winter by putting out food for them — crumbs, seed, grain, popcorn. Try tacking suet to the trees, with the inverted rim of an old pan underneath or with some other contrivance to prevent the cats from getting the coveted suet. The sparrows probably will not attack it, but other birds will in all likelihood come to the feast. Now, if the birds accept your invitation to stay with you in winter, be sure not to cut off their food supply during the bad weather. In winter plant a few peas or beans in a can of soil, no Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother or better, make Helen do it, and make her weed and water the Lilliputian garden, watching the sprouts from day to day, so that she will get an idea of how things grow. Plant a few seeds of some quickly sprouting plant, later a slow sprouting plant, that she should watch for changes. This will prepare her for the summer lessons. Have you bulbs for winter bloom- ing? Tulips and narcissuses are such a joy. Plant them each fall according to directions in earth in the cellar, bringing up one or more from time to time, after they have rooted, and gradually introducing them to sunshine and warmth. The children can water them under direction, measure growth, watch development, smell and admire to their heart's content. Bring in bud-covered branches of fruit-trees in earliest spring so that the child can observe them bloom and leave. Do likewise with pussy-willow, and after they have done blooming set them out in the ground, where they usually thrive and grow. Make snow the subject of a lesson. Melt it on the stove, to show that it becomes water, then pour the water through a strainer to show that the water can also become rain. If the holes of the strainer are too large, put blotting paper on the bottom so that the water will run slowly through, drop by drop. Children of five or six should learn to know the various vegetables, observing and comparing leaves, stems, roots, etc. Teach them also to recognize and name each of the trees on or near your premises, but do not expect such young children to notice very much of their differences. This must come gradually. Make them notice first the common characteristics and thus get a correct mental picture of a tree. Teach them to opening the Mind*s Gateways 1 1 1 know the flowers by blossom, odor, leaf. Play games, such as showing the child a leaf from a certain plant and sending him to find that plant. By pulling oflF a branch or twig, show Margaret the horseshoe-shaped scar whence the horsechestnut is said to get its name. Quicken the mind of a five-year-old by such exer- cises as this : "Eddie, let us pretend that I do not know a radish when I see it.' Tell me where to find a bed of them and describe the radish to me so that I shall know it is a radish." Then, using the proper terms, such as right or left, etc., he will tell you the way to take through the house and direct you to the right place in the garden, explain to you what the leaves look like, how close the plants grow to each other, etc. Fre- quent practice of this kind makes him think before he speaks, and obliges him to use accurate language. The child of six or thereabouts should measure with units which are not standardized; for instance, find how many pencil-lengths this table is, in length and width; how many cubits (elbow to tip of middle finger) ; how many book-lengths. Do not explain that such measuring is valueless because the chosen unit is not generally accepted, until the child indicates that he is ready for the necessary explanation ; that is, until he realizes that something more suitable is needed. It does not matter if it be two years hence before he wakes up to this thought; if given too soon it is a mere fact and of no educational value, but given at the right time it is a necessary and important step forward in education. Another way of training the eye is by taking a yardstick as a standard, and estimating com- parative lengths and heights. Is the yardstick longer or shorter than the table, rug, dog, width of door or 112 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother window, stove, etc. ? Several children can take part in these lessons. Considerably later use the foot as a unit, and later still, the inch. Give lessons that combine training of hand and eye. Make the child fill a pail or other vessel with water or sand by the cupful, teach her to estimate whether the vessel will hold another cupful, make her empty the contents by cupfuls, taking out a full cup each tiiTie, watching how the contents get less and approach the bottom of the vessel, and judging whether there is another cupful left. These are important tasks, pre- liminary to arithmetic lessons. The measuring steadies the mind and trains it in judgment. Such lessons are not for one year only, but are to be repeated year after year with such variations, extensions, and amplifica- tions as you can devise. Teach the child the name of the thermometer, the scale, the glass tube and bulb, the mercury, the main purpose in this being to familiarize him with his imme- diate surroundings, to habituate him to learn the names of familiar objects. Very little information concerning the thermometer or mercury will be intelli- gible to a child of seven, but show him if possible how quickly it seems to run about on a slightly slanting surface. After he has gained an idea of the weight of mercury as compared with that of other common substances, ask him if he would be likely to go down in a lake of quicksilver or mercury. On clear nights, especially in "the dark of the moon," point out a few of the most conspicuous constellations, as the Great Dipper, Orion, Cassiopeia's Chair, Leo with Regulus, Andromeda. If you have forgotten what you once knew about them, get a book on popu- opening the Mind's Gateways 113 lar astronomy, which contains also the myths referring to these constellations. Watch the same bright star night after night. When it disappears from the eve- ning sky like the sun, it has set, to rise again. Teach the cardinal points of the compass so that the child will know from which window to look to see east, west, north, south. Watch for the new moon. Note the part of the sky in which you first see it, whether it is nearer the hori- zon or the zenith, ask the child which half of the disk, the right or left, is visible, whether her horns point right or left, east or west. From day to day note its apparent change of illumination and position, until the waning moon is seen. Which half of the disk is now visible? Do her horns point right or left, east or west? Show the children the phenomenon desig- nated in Scotland as "the new moon with the old moon in her arms." Lead them to see that the new moon rises about the same time as the sun and sets with him ; that the full moon rises about sunset and sets about sunrise. Make gardening the backbone of the summer's instruction, even if your garden be only a few square feet of earth. If the child works with you each day at weeding and cultivating, asking questions suggested by those operations, and having her attention directed to all natural and artificial things with which she comes in contact, she will get exactly what she needs of nature study, combined with essential habit-training. Watch for each dear little green plant that puts its head above ground; for unfolding leaves and for the insects that visit the plant. Point out and explain to her the dis- tinguishing characteristics of weeds and vegetables. 114 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother When she has learned to discriminate between them, make her pull weeds for a short period each day when- ever this is practicable. Do not leave this to her choice, do not let her pull a weed here and a weed there, but mark off clearly each day a little space which she is to clear of weeds. Interest her in the various creatures that turn up in the garden — ^beetle, cutworm, angleworm, ant, spider, grasshopper, fly, butterfly, moth, toad, mole, newt, snake. Teach her not only to recognize each but to know, as far as possible, where each one lives, whether underground, on the ground, or above her head. Let her find this out as each one scurries for safety after being forced from its tempo- rary hiding place or permanent abode under the weeds. In this way you are combining lessons in observation, regularity, and useful activity. Then, when there is spare time indoors, you could look up pictures or descriptions of these things, so that the child would gain two kinds of information, empiri- cal, through direct practical experience; theoretical, through books and illustrations. I should recommend farming, before any other industry, for the children's instruction. Through it a sound, wholesome, perfect education can be obtained, that beautiful, harmonious, and humane education which does not depend on books and schooling as indispensable essentials, but values highly good books and suitable schooling as powerful and beneficent aids. Now, perhaps, after this rambling talk, we may formulate a few rules for sense-training : ( i ) Observe the object by as many of the five senses as may be practicable. (2) Find its name. (3) Let the child give his own description of the object in answer to opening the Mind's Gateways 115 simple, suitable and carefully-graded questions. (4) Lead the child by questioning to compare the object of the lesson with more familiar objects. (5) Give the child suitable additional information, based on the information gathered. (6) Teach him a suitable proverb, maxim, or a passage from a poem illustrating the thoughts or discoveries of others in relation to the object; read an appropriate story or help the child to find such reading. In the first year of instruction, when the child is about three, he should learn to distinguish a tree from other objects; to see the difference between trunk, branches, and leaves. Ask such questions as: Which is larger, the trunk or the branch ? The branch or the leaf ? "Show me a long branch." "Here is a long branch." "Show me a short branch." "Here is a short branch." Say to the child: "Rub your hand on the bark of that tree (oak or maple or apple-tree). Now, that bark is rough/' "Rub your hand on the skin of mother's face. That is not rough. It is smooth." Let the child pull a leaf through its fingers. "Is one side of the leaf rougher than the other side?" "Which is smoother, the upper or the lower side?" "Which side is shiny?" "Which side is not so bright or shiny?" Ans. "The lower side is not shiny. It is dull." "Has the leaf a stalk?" "Is the stalk shorter or longer than the leaf?" "Find another leaf." "Crum- ple it in your fingers." "Does it feel dry or moist?" Put one leaf on top of another to compare the sizes. "Which leaf is larger?" "Which is smaller?" ii6 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Tell the child to gather leaves, then to put the large ones in one pile and the small ones in another. ''How many piles have you?" "I have two piles." "In which pile are more leaves?" "There are more leaves in this pile." Call the child's attention to the rustling and stirring of the leaves in the wind, and to the dry leaves blown about. "They have left their safe homes. That is why they are blown about." Such lines as the following are suitable for memo- rizing : " 'Come, little leaves,' said the wind one day, 'Come to the meadows with me to play.* " Dress the child so that its dress does not interfere with such outdoor lessons. Repeat day after day such lessons, always varying the point of view. It takes a child a long, long time, for instance, to distinguish between leaf and twig, twig and branch, branch and trunk, and to visualize each in the moment it hears the word. SECOND YEAR Review the lessons of the preceding year, always amplifying and expanding them. Follow the same method. Additional Lessons: Teach the child to measure with eye, hand, and foot. "Can you reach around the tree? Try it. If not, why not?" "Because my arms are not long enough to reach round it." opening the Mind's Gateways 117 "Can mother reach round it?" "Why?" "Because her arms are longer." You can find a thousand variations of such ques- tions. "Can you reach the lowest branches ? Try it. Why not?" "Because I am not tall enough." "Can father reach them?" "Why?" "Because he is taller than I." "How many times taller?" "Twice as tall." "Which is lower, the trunk or the branches?" "Which is higher, the trunk or the branches?" "Stand here. Can you touch the tree with your hand? Try it." "Can you kick the tree? Try it." "Is this leaf as long as your hand? Let us measure and see." "Is it as broad as your hand?" "Which is broader, this leaf or your foot?" "Can you span this branch with your hands?" (Illus- trate.) "Can you put your fingers around father's walking- stick?" "Why?" "Because it is thinner." Show the child the difference between straight and crooked by pointing out the trunks of different trees. "Which one do you like better, the straight one or the crooked one?" THIRD YEAR Review the lessons of the preceding year, always amplifying and expanding them. Follow the same method. Additional Lessons: Until now the lessons have been confined mainly to ii8 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other single visible facts. We shall now begin to compare and combine them. Let the child watch the tree swaying and bending in the wind. It is strong enough to resist. Ask : "What would happen if a much stronger storm should blow?" Show him a branch broken off, or a tree broken, by the wind. Explain and illustrate that without the support of the underground roots which anchor it, the tree could not resist the wind, any more than a broom could stand upside down alone. If possible, show the child a tree uprooted by the wind. Now try to give the child such a notion of the tree (or of any other object in question) that the name calls to his mind not only one part of the tree — ^the part from crown to foot — but the whole tree, from crown to root-tip. He should see the underground stem and branches, which may be considered an in- verted image of the upper tree, that, in certain cases, is normally quite as large as the upper tree. It takes a very long time for a child to understand all this, to connect effect with cause. The capability of spelling and pronouncing a word does not prove understand- ing. Patient and constant repetition and variation are necessary. The teacher-mother should not ask the young child whether he understands a thing, for he does not know whether he does or not. She must find this thing out by suitable and searching questions. Find a pool of water in which a tree is mirrored. Mother : "Look at this picture. What do you see?" Child : "I see a tree growing upside down, and the sky is under it." Explain this to the child. Then explain that, except opening the Mind's Gateways 119 for leaves (and fruit or seeds) this picture shows what the underground part of the tree is like. The main root, which appears in the picture as the trunk, some- times continues straight down for many feet, unless it encounters an obstacle that makes it grow crooked. From this main root extend its branches, called roots, diminishing in size from the surface downward. From these roots grow the rootlets, corresponding to the twigs. A small plant, as a dandelion, which has a tap- root, may be pulled or dug up, and will illustrate this in a small way. Now let the child draw pictures of trees as they appear to him. These drawings will be only crude sketches and should show trunk, branches, roots, and leaves. Correct drawings must not be expected. "When is the tree's shadow longer, in the morning, at noon, or at night?" "Does the shadow always lie on the same side of the tree?" Show the child how to measure the shadow by pac- ing it off. Cut a stick that measures the child's own height and let him find with it how many times his height is the tree's shadow, or find how many broom-handles (or yardsticks) long the shadow is. Tell the child about the sap mounting to the tree- top and nourishing the wood and leaves. Such lines as the following are suitable for memo- rizing : "How do the leaves grow In spring, upon the stem? The sap wells up with a drop for all. And that is life to them." 120 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother FOURTH YEAR Review the lessons of the preceding year, always amplifying and expanding them. Follow the same method. We shall continue to use the tree as an example of such amplification and expansion. Make the child find and bring a large leaf, perfect and complete in all its parts. *' Notice the framework of this leaf. This framework is made up of veins, or tiny hollow tubes, like those which you can trace under your own skin." (Show him.) 'That large central vein is the midrib." (Show him that the midrib ex- tends from the leaf-stalk; thus some leaves have more than one midrib; the maple has five.) 'Is the midrib branched?" **Do these other veins start from the midrib or from the base of the leaf ?" Let the child lay the leaf flat on a piece of paper and following the outline with a pencil, trace it, then draw the framework. This crude sketch should show whether the veins branch from the midrib or extend from the leaf -base. * 'These veins have an important use. You have learned about the sap or juice of a tree. It carries up to the leaves and into their veins the water and food- materials which the roots have sucked up from the earth. All water above the quantity needed is breathed out by the leaves as vapor into the air. The food- materials are, with the help of sunlight, changed into plant- food, much as our food is prepared by the diges- tive organs before it reaches the various parts of our body. Thus the plant- food is carried away by the sap to every part of the tree, from root to crown. opening the Mind's Gateways 121 "What would happen to the tree if more or less of the sap, or all of the sap, were to leak out?" "It would be sickly." "It would die." "This bleeding of the tree can and should be stopped." Mention might be made here of first aid to the injured. "A tree grows from the inside out. Each year it puts on a new layer of wood inside the bark, which stretches the bark, and if the latter is tough, cracks or tears it." "In the autumn the sap ceases to flow into the trunk and feeds the roots only which are kept warm in Mother Earth's lap. The tree goes to sleep for the winter. What changes take place in the tree's appear- ance?" "What colors can you find in the autumn leaves?" "Can you tread silently on the fallen leaves?" "Why not?" "Early next spring the big winds will help to awaken the trees ; the bending and swaying start the sap climb- ing, just as the squeezing of a sponge and the subse- quent relaxing of pressure will make water fill it. This is one of the many useful things which the winds do. Can we wonder that the ancients thought that the winds were gods? Can you name any other useful things that the winds do?" Have the child look for lichen, fungi, moss, mistle- toe, and the like, growing on trees. "How do the storms help the trees to keep free of such a growth?" "If there were no storms the tree might die of their too rank growth." "What God sends is always well, Though why, 'tis often hard to tell." 122 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Show the child the fruit of trees. Make him under- stand that all trees, not only so-called fruit-trees, bear fruit, that the word fruit means the seed and its sur- rounding tissue, not merely something good to eat. "See how the seeds are protected (for instance, in acorn, cone, nut, apple, peach, etc.).'* "Do the seeds need such protection?" Let the child hunt for a baby seedling, examine, re- plant, tend, and watch it. See that the tending is care- fully and regularly done. Hunt for larger seedlings; pull up a few worthless ones to see root- formation. Note the peculiar smell of the fresh earth on the roots. Let the child, where possible, watch the process of tree- transplanting and notice the care taken to lay undam- aged roots out as they grow. "What are roots?" "Roots are the part of the tree that is underground." "Of what use are they?" "They hold the tree firmly and draw food and water for it from the ground." "What is the bark?" "The bark is the skin of the tree." (Explain the colloquialism, "I barked my shins.") "What parts of the tree are bark-covered?" "The trunk and branches are bark-covered." "What causes the cracks or furrows in the bark of this maple (or oak, willow, apple-tree, etc.) ?" "The tree grows from the inside and bursts its bark." "Could the tree live if the bark were removed?" "No, because the sap would leak out." "Are the roots and rootlets bark-covered?" "Yes, they are, just as the trunk and twigs." opening the Mind's Gateways 123 "\^^at is a twig?" "A twig is a small branch." "What is the fruit of this tree called (oak, maple, beech, one of the so-called fruit-trees, one of the coni- fers, etc.)" "Great oaks from little acorns grow." "WTiat is a seed?" "A seed is the part of the fruit from which a new tree can spring." "What is a seedling?" "A seedling is a baby tree." When the child has a notion of what our model tree is, through learning a large number of the character- istics which any one special tree has in common with all other trees, we may pass from one kind of tree to various kinds of trees, to make that notion clear and general. "What kind of tree is nearest the house?" "What kind is nearest the fence?" "What kind of tree has the largest trunk?" "The longest trunk?" "Which one has the largest branches?" "Which one can you climb ?" "Which one is the best home for the birds?" "Why?" Let the child observe many points of difference in trees — size, form, bark, odor, leaf. "Name trees that have rough bark; smooth bark?" "Name a tree that has long, narrow leaves, broad leaves, leaves pointed at the tip, leaves with a sawlike edge." A suitable quotation is : "We all do fade, as a leaf." Tell the story of the barren fig-tree. 124 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother FIFTH YEAR Review the lessons of the preceding year, always amplifying and expanding them. Additional Lessons: Have the child tell you from his own observation which trees, like the maple, shed their leaves in autumn and which trees, like the pine, retain their leaves until new ones are formed. The latter, as well as the former, shed their leaves, but at different seasons. As proof, observe the leaves or needles of conifers on the ground. Observe the bright new leaves and the dull old ones on the tree. Explain the meaning of to grow: "To increase in size and strength by a natural process." Lead the child to see that, while most conifers are "evergreen," all are not evergreen — the tamarack or larch, for example. A true evergreen is the English ivy. "A green old age." (Always look for similar phrases and saws to introduce a figurative and metaphorical meaning of words.) Let the child find in the vegetable and animal king- dom as many examples as possible of periodical shed- ding and renewal as a part of the process of growing; the stag shedding and renewing his antlers; the lob- ster its shell; the snake its skin; the locust its coat; the barnyard fowl its feathers ; the horse and cow their hair ; the fur-bearing animal its fur. Procure, if you can, a cross-section (or its picture) of a tree-trunk and show the rings of annual growth. Make the child understand from this the long, long time it takes for some trees to attain their growth. opening the Mind's Gateways 125 Let him strip from a newly-cut log the tough outer bark and the soft inner bark. Contrast texture and color. Point out that the human skin has two layers, but do not plague the child of seven with such terms as dermis and epidermis. Explain girdling: ^'making a circular cut around the tree through the bark." Illustrate by helping the child girdle a tree-section or stump, not a living tree, as it would be injured. Let him girdle the living tree with white chalk. Apply the following method to make clear that part of Longfellow's poem, ''Hiawatha," which describes removing the bark from a standing birch to make a canoe. "With his knife the tree he girdled." "What did he do?" "He made a cut around the tree with his knife." "But the poem says: 'Just beneath its lowest branches.' Show me on this tree where the cut was made." When the child correctly "girdles" the tree with his chalk, repeat the next verse : "Just above the roots he cut it." Make the child mark this cut also. Then : "Down the trunk, from top to bottom," the child draws the chalk. "Sheer he cleft the bark asunder." "What does cleft mean?" Make clear its meaning as cut. "What does asunder mean?" "What does sheer mean here?" "It means en- tirely." Next: "With a wooden wedge he raised it." Let 126 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother the child find a wedge and indicate the motions by which he would raise the bark. "Stripped it from the trunk unbroken." Make the child hold a large sheet of wrapping paper so as to form a hollow cylinder, to understand better the form of the bark. Make him see that it was still the size and form of the tree-trunk. Ask him how the tree now looked without its wrapper, and tell him how it **shivered in the breeze of morning." This lesson shows how lessons in language must be coordinated with lessons in observation and must be based on them. On several trees let the child find the distance from their lowest branches to their roots by climbing to the first branch, letting down a plumb-line, and then meas- uring its length with a foot-rule. Let him find the length of the tree's circumference by using a tape- measure. Then let him tell you the length and width of the flattened sheet of bark that could be removed from the tree. Do this many times, with many kinds of trees and with trees of different sizes. After that, let the child estimate first, then measure, to see whether his estimate is correct. Explain circumference, "the line that goes around the tree, making a circle." Let him find the circum- ference of many trees, so that the word will always be correctly associated with its meaning. After he has found the circumference of a tree-stump, show him how to find the diameter, "the length of a straight line through the center, from side to side," and have him chalk this line if possible on the upper surface. "Now name each one of the different parts of a tree in order." opening the Mind*s Gateways 127 "Root, trunk, bark, branch, bough or limb, twig, leaf, sap, fruit, seed.** "Is a tree a natural or an artificial object?** When the child once understands that it is natural, ask: "To which of the three great kingdoms does it belong — animal, vegetable, or mineral?" When the child has been made to understand that it belongs to the vegetable kingdom, lead him to see the difference between tree, shrub, and bark. If the child's answer is incorrect, do not give the correct answer, but lead the child to find for himself the correction of his false answer by showing him in what points his answer is wrong. Through mistakes and corrections the child forms for himself a clear notion of the sub- ject. "What are leaves?** "Leaves are the part of the tree by means of which it breathes.** "What is a tree?'* "A tree is a plant ten feet or more in height, which is woody and has one trunk.** (This should be "which has a woody tissue,** but the word tissue is at this time too difficult and should be avoided.) "What are woods?" "Woods are tracts of land covered with underbrush and with trees that are not fruit-trees.** "What is a forest?" "A forest is a large tract of woods.** Now lead the child on to discover for himself and from his own experience the many and varied benefits which we owe to trees. (Avoid as much as possible at this stage the phrase of what use instead of what benefit. It is much too 128 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother early to introduce the idea of commercial value, which leads to materialism. Benefits, on the other hand, engenders the idea of gratitude.) **Trees shelter buildings and cattle from big storms. They protect the ground from damage by heavy rains, the drops striking the leaves and rolling down instead of tearing the ground. They loosen the earth, so that water soaks into it instead of running off the surface and causing disastrous floods, then drouth. They les- sen the danger of fires sweeping large areas. They afford protection and homes for pest-destroying birds. They furnish fuel. Many industries depend wholly or partly on trees — building; furniture-making; ship- building; tanning of hides. Trees add beauty and character to the landscape." Through questioning try to make the child realize on what tree-life, as all life, depends : air, heat, water, light. Let the child experiment with small plants, preferably weeds, to test this. For instance, let him transplant a vigorous weed with plenty of good earth in which it grows, in a flower-pot, water it well, and put it in a dark place. What would be the effect of the absence of light? Now vary the conditions and put another weed, similarly transplanting in a sunny place, but do not water it. What would now be the result? and so on. You cannot expect the child of seven to understand all conditions connected with such an experiment. Use your own judgment. Good judg- ment is more often shown by what you do not say than by what you do. Such lines as the following are suitable for memo- rizing : opening the Mind's Gateways 129 "Sing for the oak-tree, The monarch of the wood ; Sing for the oak-tree, That groweth green and good ; That groweth broad and branching Within the forest's shade ; That groweth now and still shall grow When we are lowly laid." ''Can you find two leaves exactly alike?" The search for them finally leads to the soul-compelling thought that God has designed millions of leaves, each and every one different from the others. Remember, I would not state that there are no two leaves exactly alike. Even a young child should learn better than to state as a fact something of which the contrary has yet to be proved. We are all too ready to jump at conclusions and generalize on a limited amount of evidence. From the particular knowledge gained little by little through the senses, the pupil arrives in due time at general notions, to which there is no safe and sound short-cut. A child must learn the same thing about a great many separate things before he can combine this knowl- edge into generalities. Contrary to the general impres- sion, children learn slowly. You must repeat the sim- plest lessons day after day, always varying the point of view. Do not be misled into assuming that repetition is monotonous to the child. Observation, thus taught, brings fresh wonders with each repetition. One cause for many admitted educational failures is the teacher's 130 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother repugnance to sticking to one thing, going patiently over and over it until understanding comes, and only then encouraging the pupil to make his own deductions. That is why the present usual school course makes it difficult for the pupils so unfortunate as to go step by step through the grades, ever to arrive at independence of thought and opinion on subjects of vital importance. I am not speaking so much of the school as you knew it, or as your parents knew it, but as it is to-day. CHAPTER VIII PLAY In recent years many attempts have been made to write something new on this very old subject of child's play, and with such success that the reader who goes through these volumes is tempted to believe that this phase of child-training was perhaps best understood, or at least best managed, in those good old times when it was least discussed. My immediate criticism is directed towards the cold-blooded analysis of every single game that children ever played and loved, in order that its practical value for strengthening muscles or increasing brain area may be catalogued. Not long ago a man who is distinguished as a class- room vivisectionist of children's minds paid a visit to our schoolyard during recess. The pupils were enjoying themselves in various simple games, not one of which met with the great man's approval, that of seesaw exciting his displeasure particularly, on the ground that it had no practical advantages either phys- ically or intellectually, nor even the recommendation of socially sensitizing the children. In fact, as far as he could see, it was not much good. The idea of "so- cially sensitizing" my pupils completely disarmed me, for neither you nor I would brave discussion with such a walking repository of words. Now that we are at a safe distance, however, let us ask ourselves what we can say in favor of the maligned seesaw. When a 131 132 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher -Mother child has been working steadily, especially at book- lessons, nothing refreshes him so quickly and com- pletely as a holiday of the mind, when he may play whatever game he pleases, and seesaw is very often that game. Further, to mention a practical use for seesaw, when two children balance a board across the sawhorse or through the fence, they are experimenting with a primitive lever, and when experience shows them that, to maintain an equilibrium, the lighter weight must be on the longer arm, they are preparing themselves to bring the light of understanding to the otherwise cryptic laboratory formula that "the power and weight are to each other inversely as their respec- tive arms." There is another class, consisting of those who see in child's play a scientific purposeful effort at self- education, every movement the toddler makes being ticketed with a reason and classified. Even as intelli- gent a writer as Montessori reprobates the nurse who, when evening comes, takes home from the beach the eighteen-months-old child in spite of his cries and struggles to remain in order to continue "educating himself" by digging in the sand. All writers, except the hopelessly old-fashioned ones, now explain everything connected with childhood's activities in terms of simian ancestry. It is natural, we are told, for children to enjoy climbing and swing- ing, for did not our tree-dwelling forefathers progress through the forest by swinging themselves from tree to tree? Children naturally like to play in the sand, for this taste harks back to the dim age in which the earth-born amphibious ancestors of our chattering, tail- swinging ancestors crawled out of the sea and found Play 133 scx)thing warmth on the beach, where they made good their footing and basked and sprawled and dug their claws into the sand, all the while feeling grow within their hard-shelled or soft-shelled bosoms an urge towards the higher life, a tail-swinging life, if you please, among the tree-tops. These offensive parallels are continued to infinity, or at least to the anti-climax that baby's enjoyment of making mud pies and his digging in the earth are manifestations of "a special digging instinct acquired in long centuries of an ances- tral diet of worms." Frankly, mothers, are you not weary to death of such impiety, such blind and insensate folly? Is it necessary to accept the explanation of monkey ancestry in order to recognize and utilize the fact that children are busy, inquisitive little mortals, naturally active in every fiber of their bodies ? May not your baby smile back at you without incurring the risk of having a naturally busy animal psychologist appear around the corner and analyze the smile as a mere anthropoid instinct to imitate the movements of your facial mus- cles? Is the toddler who clings to your fingers, or climbs the stairs or investigates the button box, merely giving expression to the hand-swinging, tree-climbing, general ''monkeying" tendencies inherited from an ugly ape? Every mother knows better. What a pity that so much intelligence should waste itself picking flaws in the divine harmony, in order to prove that we are no more in the eternal plan than the lizard or the flea. What an impulse towards human betterment will be manifested when educators rid their minds of the notion of children as Darwinian speci- mens and, through clear-eyed, sympathetic, firsthand 134 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother observation and reflection, see them once more as young human beings, sent from heaven into this world to get their schooling for eternity. Let us look for human reasons for allowing and encouraging children to play — we shall find them a-plenty. First, which would be all-sufficient, even if no other could be given, play is an absolute necessity to health of mind and body, and those who do not have a chance to play when they are young will play when they are old — to their destruction. Play leads naturally to the serious business of life. It is the duty of parents to see that this is done, but not to substitute work for play or play for work. Merely because the hall gives entrance to other parts of the house does not justify the use of the hall for all domestic purposes. Let every- thing be done decently and in order. Play develops the body much more systematically than can any regu- lar gymnastics. The best recommendation that could be made for any system of bodily exercises is that it closely imitates the spontaneous play of childhood. To the mind play is what the pendulum is to the clock — it keeps the works from going too swiftly. When a child's mind grows faster than the body look out for trouble. Mental over-activity consumes the available nerve- force, and if once the little mind starts working too fast, it will take more wisdom and under- standing than most people possess to offset the habit. The child cannot stop of its own accord, and broken nerves and disarranged reason may follow. The pre- ventive as well as the cure is a great deal of occupation — which means, while the child is growing, busy fingers rather than too busy a brain. A considerable part of each day should be spent in such physical occupation, Play I3S with the child safe from instruction or even being talked to. Through undirected play the imagination is stirred and developed. ''Training the imagination" through formal lessons is a tragic waste of time and effort, for both the image-making and the impulse to it must come from within. In many of the following suggestions for play, occu- pation, activity, or whatever you choose to call the things children do because they like to be busy, you may find only partially concealed the "practical pur- pose" dear to our materialistic propagandists, but we hope and believe that many others of them are entirely incapable of being ticketed as of actual use. As a dreamer has remarked, "Excellence after a certain point is sure to go a-limping," which will be our motto throughout the rest of the chapter. Good children are not born, but made. What we call badness is not the disease but the symptom. A good physician does not aim at removing symptoms, but goes to the root of the ailment in order to cure and heal. Experimenting with symptoms, suppressing or concealing them, shows lack of understanding, wisdom, and sincerity. In child-management as in forestry, the best remedy for crookedness is prevention, and play is the simplest preventive of naughtiness and a most important prop of discipline, for lack of something to do causes more fretting and fussing, more discontent and disobedience than does anything else. It is just as much a part of the mother's responsi- bility to play with the baby and provide it with suitable playthings, as it is to feed and clothe it. When a young child is troublesome and you are sure that neither stomach nor clothing is at fault, then look for the 136 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother trouble in lack of occupation, too few or too many toys, an excess of variety, people, attention, or company. It is a pity that children should ever lack amusement when it can be provided with so little cost and trouble. The child is alert, eager, wanting to know and to do, his very nature demands intense busy-ness, and when no outlet is provided he contrives one, whereupon we call him mischievous or even bad. When one gives the toddler a few playthings he not only instantly becomes ''good," but proceeds to instruct himself far more effectively than could a trained kindergartner. This morning I called at a friend's house and found the three-year-old hugging the fire-shovel. His mother remarked : ''When Benny can have that kitchen shovel to dig with, he is a good boy all day long." "What does his little brother like?" I asked. "Oh, just give him any kind of little box or some spools and he asks for nothing more," she replied. In one corner of my school room a little girl of four attends to her housekeeping. She scrubs her tiny blackboard, bakes sand-cakes, and looks after her dollies without annoyance to teacher or pupils. Here I must digress for a moment. To the casual observer Elizabeth is "the world forgetting, by the world for- got." Rarely do I find her eyes turned on me or on the pupils, but when she goes "home," which is down- stairs, she proceeds to instruct her doll- family or her baby brother according to Miss Lynch's methods. Her "Sit properly!" "Straighten your shoulders!" "Put down your pencil!" are the preliminary to yards and yards of epic poetry, given as faultlessly as if she were twice as old. As I have said before, do not make the mistake of imagining that because the four-year-old Play 137 is extremely busy she is not paying attention, for she is always doing so. A little boy plays frequently in my office and while I am writing we pretend we cannot talk, a plan which works so well that it is usually I who breaks the silence. One day, when he had constructed from bits of raffia a menagerie of ferocious beasts and caged them under the chairs, I asked : **Are the animals enjoying them- selves, Shipley?" "No," he corrected me, "they are enjoying each other." A troublesome form of baby wickedness arises from the fact that children have no clear perception of the difference between what is living and what is lifeless. The child will pull a fly to pieces with the same uncon- cern that he will pull apart a flower. During the first three years, give him only such playthings as he may pull apart if he pleases. Only gradually, during the kindergarten period, can you teach him the general difference between what may properly be investigated and what must be left alone. Sand is perhaps the most natural plaything. A sand pile or sand table for play and instruction is splendid for children of all ages, furnishing as it does material for building, washing, planting, and cooking, while no costly apparatus is so effective in teaching and learning something about measuring, forming, build- ing, etc. Think of Archimedes, who angrily shouted, "Do not disturb my circles!" to the Roman soldiers who found him placidly drawing circles in the sand when they sacked the city. Put the baby in the sand bin. He contents himself with digging, piling the sand Up, pouring it on his head by handfuls. A few months 138 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother later he will grind the dry sand through your old flour sieve, shovel it into his pail with iron spoon or clam shell, pour it through the funnel into a bottle, empty the bottle and fill it again. For a five-year-old sprinkle the sand and he will use it for modeling, building, bread-mixing. A year or so later he will draw in it and outline the drawings with pebbles. If you cannot get the pure white seashore sand, almost any plaster- ing sand will do. Encourage play with toys which the children make themselves, for thus they become inventive, self-reliant, and quickminded. Building a "log" house of sticks teaches them to plan a more pretentious building, to make mental images before the actual execution of the plan. Home-made playthings answer every need, while modern complex toys stunt the imagination, since they leave nothing to be imagined and teach the child to be destructive rather than constructive. The baby busies himself with all sorts of objects, turning the handle of a coffee-mill, shaking a rattle, pulling out drawers, dabbling and splashing in water. It pleases him merely to lay one stick upon another. Paper to rustle and tear, a ball to throw, a ball on a string, something to open and shut, like a box or a purse, a handful of buttons or dried beans in a box, even a flower, a leaf or a stick, will hold a child's atten- tion for a long time. Best of all is a potato. Baby's first attempts at building will be to place the dominoes or blocks in a row upon the floor, his next to pile them up in a tower. A two-year-old will amuse himself by the hour with a small pail of water, a funnel, a bottle or two, and a cup, and will seldom spill the water. Play 139 Few toys furnish a greater variety of entertainment than a dozen old-fashioned clothes-pins. Baby thrusts the split ends together and pulls them apart, piles them up for a house and by and by learns to build house, barn, arbor, pergola, fence. Dear to a baby's heart is ''something with a hole in it." It may be paper, pasteboard, a piece of cigar box, but the hole is the thing. He sticks one finger through and tries to pull it off on the other side. If he ever gets tired of this give him bright scraps of cloth from your piece-bag, or a lock and key to play with, or a tiny solid mirror to throw the sunlight on a dark surface. An empty shoe-box fulfils a manifold destiny. With a string attached it may be drawn about the room as a doll carriage, farm wagon, trolley car, and dump cart. Wagons, cars and trains of cars may be made from empty spool boxes, the wheels being contrived of wpoden button molds fastened on with largeheaded pins. To such a wagon we harness a burly quadruped made from a potato, with safety matches for legs and ears, match-heads or pepper corns for eyes, and a carven grin. How a small boy loves an old watch, or anything with wheels ! He likes little garden tools, and a broom- stick for a horse, while the little girl likes a small broom and duster, old dishes for housekeeping, old clothes to "dress up" in. A basin of water in which to float chips or sticks or walnut shells, each loaded with suitable freight or passengers, is sometimes in order. While we work in the kitchen, a small piece of dough, a paper breadboard and a toy rolling pin, make the child happy and busy turning out biscuits, cookies, bread, and pies. What child does not love a hammer and board and a 140 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother few tacks? Better than a board, a few shingles may be given him, for the delight of tacking the thin ends together — ^and pulling them apart. Teach the baby to play games like peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek, riding a stick, and singing or saying "Ride a gray horse." Teach him to string shoe buttons or kindergarten beads on shoestrings to make chains for mother. The child's sweetest play is imitation of the parents' work, for the things he sees father and mother do every day fascinate and instruct him beyond measure. His curiosity is aroused at seeing something being done, he wonders if he could do it, and instinctively he goes through the motions. Great is the joy at the accom- plishment when he succeeds. It is very easy to under- stand that imitation is the most important single factor in education. While observing a thing being done, the child is really doing it mentally, and when he sets his hand to it, he learns so quickly, from having seen the same thing done over and over, that it almost seems as if the knowledge were born in him. That is one reason why the finest workmen in the world are in those coun- tries where trades are handed down from father to son. A great part of children's play being imitation of work, we should at an early stage direct play towards what is good and useful by introducing work, both to sweeten play and to lead the child from irresponsibility to a serious idea of his place in the universe. A child should not play too much, for when play is pursued to the point of exhaustion we have a naughty child to deal with. Even the child of two should be ''helping mother" part of the day, no matter if the time and trouble it costs are considerable. After all, it takes less time to interest a child in what you are doing and Play 141 keep him safely busy than it does to rush about in the vain effort to keep an idle- child out of mischief. More- over, he will play with greater zest in the afternoon if he has been "working" in the morning, the toys which he has not seen for such a long, long time seeming a greater treat. You can do nothing better for the child than keep him with you and let him do the drippings of your work. Here are some of the things that a baby of two is doing each day to help his mother: Helps make the bed, patting the pillows and carrying them to the chair to air; tries to smooth the sheets and tuck in the blankets; uses dry mop, picks up toys, carries shoes from bathroom to closet, etc. ; when mother is cooking he sits on a stool near by, watching her movements and stirring the mixtures when she can allow it ; when she sweeps she lets him sweep the dirt into the dustpan and carry it to the stove to be emptied ; he carries cups and his own cereal to the table; he goes with his father to the cellar when he is attending the furnace. A boy of three who does most of the foregoing things has in addition the following tasks : to roll the rugs, lay them again after sweeping, carry in the kind- ling and small buckets of coal, feed the dog, help feed and water the chickens, take his little broom and help mother sweep. As his mother says, he is not a real help, but he is learning to help, and is not learning to help one of the finest things in life? A child's natural playmates are his parents. To widen the circle too early or too rapidly is hurtful. During the first three years the child does not need companionship other than the parents and a pet or a 142 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother baby. During the kindergarten period, or until seven, he should have playmates occasionally but not all the time. One playmate at a time is better than several. Teach the child to amuse himself and to play alone, which will later be of inestimable value and influence his whole future in many ways that you will notice as time goes on. Quiet is very important for young chil- dren, and without it they get excited, cross, too tired to be refreshed by sleep. Learning to play alone is a conquest over self. It throws one upon his own re- sources. It is unfair to a child to have someone at all times ready to amuse and entertain him. When he is playing happily with mud or sand, or sticks or stones, a child is learning more than any direct instruc- tion could give. The busy little mind is growing, grop- ing for knowledge. Wanting to know seems more worth while than merely knowing. If you begin with the young baby, you will have no trouble in training him to play alone, but even a young baby given unnecessary attention begins to feel discon- tented unless someone is constantly with him. Make a practice of leaving him alone in the middle of the bed, and as soon as he is able to crawl, leave him on a quilt on the floor to kick and roll and crawl. A baby pen, about four feet square, in which he is safe to tumble, or play with toys, or learn to walk, is a great sedative. When weather permits keep this pen outdoors. It should be high enough for the baby to stand in, with a rug in the bottom so that he cannot pick up fallen leaves, twigs, etc., to eat. Throw over the pen a mosquito netting weighted at the corners with snap clothespins and then leave baby alone with his play- things, so far at attention is concerned. A chair-swing Play 143 just high enough so that baby can swing himself by kicking the ground is a suitable place for him for shorter periods than in the pen, which provides more freedom to exercise. Tie a few playthings to the swing. If you did not begin early, time and tact and patience and fortitude will be needed to break the habit of depending upon others for entertainment. I have in mind a child of two who had become so very restive and dependent upon the attention of others for amusement that he did not allow the nurse to leave him for even five minutes. A level-headed nurse was called in to take charge, and she simply made the baby stay alone in an open porch, safe with playthings, for an hour or so daily. Having learned after a few days that protests were unavailing, he took his medicine quietly. Make up your mind that you will give the child less help, which will mean for you a gain of time and temper. To occupy him and make him entertain him- self instead of having somebody continually at his beck and call, you must give him regular simple lessons in doing things that he can continue to do by himself. Make a start by playing with him for a few minutes, and then leave him alone to continue playing the same game. Your difficulty will arise from his refusing to con- tinue playing unless you stay with him, and this is where you must use your authority. Do not let him make you a slave to his laziness and his instinctive desire for domination, but after you have shown him how to do something such as I shall describe and make certain that he can do it make him do it. Be prepared for an obstinate struggle; you may even have to pun- 144 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother ish him, but he must learn to understand that whatever you tell him to do must be done. It may seem unrea- sonable to punish a child for not playing as you tell him to play, but he knows no difference between frivolous toying and healthful playing, the necessary and the unnecessary, and you must think for him now. The child who learns to play by himself will learn to work by himself. The higher we rise, the more we segregate ourselves in our work, gregarious working being rem- iniscent of slave-driving. Then find time each day, fifteen or twenty minutes at first, during which the child can be left with his playthings in a sunny room or on a porch, safe but quite alone. Leave him reso- lutely in that salutary seclusion, and do not allow him to disturb you during that period. If at first ten- minute periods seem more reasonable, try these, length- ening them a few minutes daily until he has an hour in which he must work out his own amusement. Here is something that a child of two or older can be made to do alone : Give him a pail of apples to be placed, one at a time, or two at a time, into another receptacle. A child of three can be made to put aside all that begin to be spotty or bruised. This is only a suggestion that may help you to think of things that will keep him busy for some time, yet are neither too difficult nor too tedious. You can teach him in this way the good old nursery rhyme : ''The animals went in one by one." Here is a more difficult lesson : Take sticks of any length and show or suggest how to make a log cabin by placing them criss-cross. This house of fancy will be a delight, especially when he finds a use for it, as a pigsty, henhouse, doHhouse, stable, etc., but he will Play 145 be interested in making it only if it is to represent something familiar to him. Put an animal in, per- haps a potato with toothpicks for limbs and shoe but- tons for eyes, and see to it that he cannot get out. There is no gain in breaking up one kind of activity for another without good reason, and if the child is interested and keeps on with this play, do not interrupt it unnecessarily, for some other. Attention to regular physical habits, such as nap or lunch, should be the only excuse for interruption. This play constitutes an unconscious lesson in observation, form, measure, manual training, etc. — everything good for a young child. From the age of three onward, a child needs a play- mate for part of the time, for without such give and take, without being himself a buffer and having some- one for a buffer, there can be no coming out of his own shell. It is not possible for the most devoted mother to be both mother and playmate in full, nor is it either desirable or feasible for her to enter wholly into the necessary give and take. It is possible for her to be too much with the child, and this is where a playmate relieves the situation. In this respect a play- nurse is sometimes advisable for an only child, not so much because she is a good disciplinarian or teacher as because the child can have with her some leeway that would be out of place with the mother, for such freedom would give the child a chance to be naughty and the mother an occasion to correct him. A child who has never had the opportunity to be naughty will never be good, for virtue springs from resistance to vice. Do not be particular about htmting up a child of 146 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother your own social circle as a playmate. Any nice clean boy or girl will do, so long as there is no moral or physical contamination. Bring the child to your house and turn him loose with your child's playthings, allow- ing play at the right time, for the proper length of time, under careful supervision, which, however, must not be noticeable. There should be as little apparent inter- ference as possible. Do not let them play too long at a time, else they will get tired and certainly make trouble. At the first symptom of discord, separate the children, no matter whose the fault, for it is possible to be entirely too judicial in settling children's difficulties and after the trouble has started it is hard to decide who has been in the wrong. Besides, the children are laughing inside themselves at your particularities in this respect, know- ing instinctively that it was a mere chance as to who was the guilty party at that moment. The natural consequence to quarreling is to be separated, and will impress the children as just and fair. No child is too young to learn that he must either control him- self or suffer deprivations. If a child's idea of play- ing is always to take the part that he particularly likes, he should learn to "take turns." Let him learn to fit in, to adapt himself, to take his place among others, to give and take. Avoid insidious moral dangers. Do not allow chil- dren to play together unwatched, be within sight and hearing and watch them without seeming to do so, but at the same time they must not be complacently trusted to their own cunning devices. Head off evil before it comes anywhere near your children. I do not mean to prevent their being exposed to minor temp- Play 147 tations and their getting into mischief and trouble, but I repeat that, if they are ever to become strong in character, they must have reasonable and sufficient leeway to do this and take the consequences. This, however, does not mean allowing them to run together, unwisely trusting to their innate goodness, for bad example appeals to a little child much more than good. When he is older, when wise discipline has checked the animal instincts and imbued him with the love of what is beautiful and right, then indeed the parents can send him out fearlessly to face the world alone and bad example will then only serve as a deterrent and a prevention. Keep children outdoors as much as is reasonable and train them to use their muscles and all their limbs. Children should not be shielded altogether from the rougher side of life, but should get some of its hard- ness, especially in their outdoor play. Little girls need opportunity for the same kind of physical development and activity that boys need, at least during the first seven years. Dress boys and girls in such a way that they need not think about their clothing, whether in climbing trees or turning somersaults. The man of the house should think up simple schemes for helping children to be active, robust, supple, self-reliant, without incurring avoidable danger. He should teach them to guard against breaking their necks. Here is some of the simple apparatus he can rig up at almost no cost : A single rope hanging down, with a knot on the lower end, which children can seize and swing by; a ''trolley," consisting of a single stout rope fastened like a clothes-line, by which the child can swing himself along, hand over hand, or by springing 148 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother can cling to and swing back and forth, which, you know, is a heavenly sensation, almost like flying; a long horizontal bar just high enough so that he can catch it by springing and walk along it hand over hand ; a bar at the proper height for practice in * 'chinning" himself; a securely set horizontal ladder for children of five or older to **walk" across on their hands. All these reaching and hand-swinging exercises are good; not that children will really be able to do them at first, but they should constantly be attempting such safe exercises. Set up a narrow plank horizontally a little above the ground for practice in steady walking. A beam 4x4, supported about eight or ten inches above the ground, answers the same purpose. If you can procure a round spar about three inches thick and twelve to fifteen feet long, set it up horizontally about six inches above the ground, which should be sandy if possible. Let the children walk along from end to end, balancing them- selves; then let them run along it. Let two boys each armed with a bag stuffed with rags, walk towards one another and try to knock one another off the spar with the bags. This is good sport, very amusing to children, and no harm can come of it unless it deterio- rates into horse-play. Such a spar can also be fitted up vertically, planted securely in the ground and fastened at the upper end to a stout branch of a high tree. Let the boys learn to climb it. Children get fun out of any kind of slide, the simplest being a smooth waxed board, down which they can slip. There is nothing that chil- dren like better than a rope swing with a board seat; to them it is not merely hempen rope but wings that take them away from earth. Play 149 "To sail beyond the sunset, and the paths Of all the western stars." If you can possibly manage it, turn a room into a playroom for the children, especially during the winter. It will relieve you greatly and give them a chance to make mistakes, to take the consequences, and to learn many things that only experience can teach. Such a room should be sunny, well-lighted, not over-heated, well-ventilated, and not obstructed by unnecessary fur- niture. The furniture, consisting of a table, chairs, rack for books and toys, and box for blocks, should be plain, solid, and wuth wide bases so that it cannot easily topple over. The floor should be either bare or covered with strong linoleum; there should be no rugs or carpets. Windows should be barred so that a child cannot fall out. The lights, if gas or oil lamps, should be so high that a child cannot touch them. The door should have a small window or peep-hole through which the children can easily be observed without their noticing it. In such a room they will be as safe as you can reasonably wish them to be. The pictures for the walls should be flat chromos of dogs, cats, children, etc., rather than finer pictures that as yet are meaningless to the children. Mother Goose pictures make a delightful border. Choose large rather than small pictures, and hang them on a level with the child's eye. For curtains, box-covers, and so on, get cre- tonne with Mother Goose pictures on it, for samples of which you can write to some large department store. Decorate the rooms with crepe paper at Christmas, Hallowe'en, etc. Wherever and at whatever they play, make the chil- 150 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other dren put away their playthings in the proper places when through with them. Make them feel as early as possible that they are responsible for their own things, and never let them assume that someone will do their picking up for them. They will grow helpful, and per- haps they will infer that they are also responsible for their brother's things. When the little girl is attending to her housekeeping, her patience is often sorely tried by the baby, who wants to help but whose unsteady little legs make him upset stove, dining- table, and even sister. It is very hard to make Baby understand that he must not meddle with sister's things, but do not get discouraged if you do not succeed. Tell sister that Baby is partly her baby and that she must not mind such funny accidents. Show her by example how patient you are when your plans get upset. If Baby pulls off her tablecloth, tell her that doilies are considered more suitable now than the cloth and that they can be cut out of paper. Large leaves will provide fine doilies and also plates. Or sister might set a table specially for Baby, so that the game will be equally interesting to both chil- dren, or she could set one for you, and you could let the baby have it. Teach sister that she must suppress little fits of naughty temper when an accident happens to her playthings. She must learn that Baby needs more attention than she does, and she will then begin to realize what you did for her, be all the more ready to show some kind of indulgence to the younger ones, and be kind and forbearing to everybody. A little girl of four and older should have her own home-made playhouse. Unless you have a better plan, give her a wooden packing box with horizontal parti- Play 151 tion, so that she can have an upstairs and a downstairs, and let her furnish it herself. With just a little dis- creet help she can make furniture out of pasteboard, small boxes can be utilized for cupboards and closets, little hooks can be screwed in for dolls' clothing. She can put in tiny windows, paper the walls, and hang up little pictures. Do not buy any furniture for the playhouse, certainly no expensive furniture. Avoid sowing the seeds of arrogance by the purchase of any- thing costly, anything that smacks of showy preten- tiousness. For a child of six, a set of doll's dishes, a kitchen stove, tin cooking utensils and accessories, will be a joy. Do not give her many of these things at once, but after she gets the stove, let her know what it is to wait and wish for the rest of the kitchen furnishings. That is a taste of real life and adds to the joy of receiving. Teach her to "manage" without things, thus when she gets the china set, she should manage for a time with- out the teaspoons. I do not mean to tantalize the child by withholding these things, but simply not to have the things for her the moment she would like to have them. No poor child of my acquaintance has ever impressed me as so hopelessly the embodiment of misery as a little friend of mine whose wealthy parents make it their first care to see that she never has to wait for anything she desires, still less go without it. Not all young children care for a doll, but they should learn to do so, which, likewise, is a matter of imitation, not of instinct. Unless the little girl sees a baby being loved and petted, she will not love and pet her doll. When cradles went out of fashion for babies, they went out of fashion for dolls as well, 152 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other for the little girl will not rock her doll in the loveliest doll-cradle unless baby is rocked in a cradle. Teach the child to dress a doll, be it done ever so crudely. Never look for fine work in a young child. Odds and ends of muslin, silk, a scrap of fur for a stole or muff, give fine occupations for rainy days. If she has a big doll now, give her a little doll next time. The home-made doll is always the favorite. A hand- kerchief knotted or a piece of gay cloth tied around a clothespin makes a fine baby — the simpler the better. If circumstances permit, by all means let the child have a pet, whether dog, cat, calf, or bird. He should feed it, of course, with the necessary directions and help. Maybe you can recall the joy you felt in first holding the pail for a nice little calf to drink the warm, sweet, odorous milk. If you can find a good-tempered puppy to grow up with the child, it would develop and strengthen a side of character that needs a prop. Whether any caged pet supplies such a want, I am not prepared to say, there are so many pros and cons. On no account should the child be allowed to neglect the pet. Make him realize the responsibility for it, since it belongs to him. Such a feeling will soon become habitual and will be extended to other things and be- come a part of him, so that he will feel discontented and unhappy if he does not live up to it. Mothers sometimes say: "If I had known what a help a blackboard is in keeping children good and happy, I would have had one long ago." Buy a strip of slated cloth three or four feet wide and from one to three yards long, according to your w'all-space. Glue or paste it on a convenient wall — kitchen, nursery, playroom — ^at the right height for the children. You Play 153 have procured a good, inexpensive, and long-wearing device for drawing and writing. Buy a quantity of dustless blackboard chalk and a dustless eraser. You can get a small quantity of colored crayons for special occasions. Get a piece of well-planed lath two or two and a half feet long for a ruler, or use a yardstick. Make yourself a pair of compasses of a piece of string with a loop to hold the chalk at one end and a nail for the center of the circles at the other end, and there is the whole outfit. The blackboard is far better for children than paper and pencil. They should write and draw large, swinging the arm freely. There is no danger of overstraining the mind or injuring the eye- sight by blackboard practice in writing and drawing, and besides, the large, free swing of the arm is held to stimulate mental growth, as the mind follows the hand in widening circles. Modeling-wax can be made at home at little cost. Take a cup of flour, a cup of salt, and a teaspoon ful of powdered alum, add bluing water and work it to the right consistency for molding. From this the child can model mice and rats, cheese and traps. It can be kept a long time by wrapping in a damp cloth and keeping in a cool place, adding a little water each time it is used. Plasticene is also very satisfactory for modeling. Here is sufficient instruction for the child: Look at the dog and make one of wax like him. Count his legs and make the same number of legs with tooth- picks. I do not approve of kindergarten sewing cards be- cause of the eye-strain involved in their use. The younger the child the greater the harm that results from the muscular jerks of the eye, which has not 154 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother reached complete development. Such work has not sufficient value to offset its risk. The girl should have a playhouse, the boy a box or drawer for his own treasures, and each wall-space for pinning their pictures — by the way, the kind they like, not the kind you like. From the age of three to seven is the age of make- believe. That is when things come alive, when chil- dren like what is alive or what they can pretend is alive or what behaves like something alive. Kites that fly, tops that spin, hoops that roll, are the daily bread at that age. Then a little boy puts his hands over his eyes and says, "Now you can't see me." He runs down the garden path at dusk and notices with wonder and awe that the big round moon is keeping up with him, smiling at him, as much as to say: "Little boy, did you think you could run away from me?" And when, overcome with the greatness of his discovery, he wheels about and runs to mother, a glance across his shoulder shows him that the moon has turned around and come back to her, too. Just keep in mind a few things like this when deal- ing with young children, how big and new and wonder- ful the world is to them, how big you are and how little they are, what a long hard road lies ahead of them, rough at the very best. This will help you to be gentle with them, gentle and fair, kind and firm and just. And if you would be fair and just, do not destroy their world of make-believe, but if they tell you that a fairy has built a castle in the front path over night, walk around it, even though it looks to you like nothing in the world but an ant-hillock. Although you may be unable to enter into the spirit of Play 155 their play, you can at least be silent and smile or look serious as the case demands, and refrain from always and ever labeling their mighty discoveries as "nothing buts." The kitchen, woodshed, and attic, with such things as used to be found in these places, make the most wonderful workrooms for children. If you have no such rooms, do the best you can to approximate them and their contents. There should be a big wooden box for blocks and other heavy building material; the blocks should be large rather than small, the size and shape of ordinary bricks, and the box should also contain longer pieces, sections of two-by-fours, any rectangular and cylindrical chunks of wood, bits of boards, shingles, and bricks. The boy will like these things as soon as he can handle them, which may be sooner than you think. Other essentials to the build- ing trade are broken furniture, nails, screws, hammer, tacks, glue, clay, paint, sand-paper, staples, wheels (of typewriter ribbons and others), wire hairpins, paste- board boxes, button molds, large and small, a box of buttons, spools, etc. Dominoes have many advantages when it comes to making walks, fences, barns, trains, and freight. A boy will invent a hundred uses for a rope, a coil of wire, or wire screening. Of course he must have a bow and arrow, a ball and bat. A little forethought for the time when children must be in the house and under one's feet will save trouble. Blunt-ended scissors, costing a few cents, and odds and ends of wallpaper, are a safe combina- tion. Children can cut up souvenir postcards into odd-shaped pieces to be put together again as puzzle pictures. Still better than postcards are large magazine 156 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother pictures, especially colored ones. There is no need to pay a dollar for picture-puzzles when you and the chil- dren can make them. Paste the colored pictures on cardboard and cut out irregularly, and when the chil- dren have finished with them make them put them into an envelope and lay them away for another day. Let them cut the white margins from newspapers into strips of the same width and about five inches long, and with flour paste, paste evenly together the ends of the first strip, through this loop pass another strip and paste the ends as before, making the second link. Continue in this way. Strips of colored paper, such as wrapping paper, may alternate with white, or col- ored magazine covers cut in strips three inches by one inch make a beautiful chain. Cutting out pictures, cutting pieces of paper into any definite form in the way the child pleases, and similar occupations, are excellent and should not be interfered with unneces- sarily as long as he is busily at work. A child of four will enjoy furnishing a kitchen when she has on hand the scissors, paste, and pictures. A pasteboard box, with holes cut for windows, and walls decorated appropriately or inappropriately, with cut- out designs or pictures, will be satisfying. Let her make from other boxes other rooms, such as bathroom, bedroom, etc. At least a week's work is suggested in this paragraph. The rooms when finished may stand side by side or one above the other. A circus cage can be made by pasting strips of paper horizontally across the open face of a pasteboard box of any size or shape. Children from four to six like to play store, pro- viding their own stock by cutting illustrations out of an old mail-order catalogue and pasting them on card- Play 157 board. They thus get a permanent supply of goods, to which they can add from time to time. Let them cut paper money, and hunt up a supply of wrapping paper, paper bags, and string. To make a scrapbook, cut several pieces of old mus- lin or cambric into square of the same size. In this, if you live on a farm, let the children paste pictures of a model farm. On the first page is the house, etc., including children and parents, on the next page the barn, farm-yard and livestock; farther on is a kitchen interior, with utensils and furniture; bedroom; bath- room. This can be extended and amplified by filling it with suitable pictures cut from our indispensable catalogue. If you do not live on a farm, the child will not care for this, but he should instead make scrap- books of animals, birds, flowers, trees, children. For paste use flour and cold water, which a few drops of clove-oil will keep from souring. For children not quite old enough to cut and paste, there is your scrapbag. Pieces of bright cloth please a baby. Let her sort the scraps. Then there are pencil and paper ; a tiny mirror to throw the sunlight about ; a glass prism to make rainbows ; a wet string to lay in geometric shapes. Provide the children with a top by fitting a stick tightly into a spool and whittling spool and stick down to a pointed end on which it will spin. Show them how to make it spin and teach them to spin a tin plate. Let the little girl teach her doll-baby to walk, show- ing her how to move one foot in front of the other, as if it were a baby. When she gets the idea, tell her to make it walk around the rug twice ; not to let it trip and fall ; not to make it walk too fast, etc. This culti- 158 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother vates her imagination in a natural, healthful way. When she tires of the game she will probably tell you that the baby is tired. Take a cake pan with a tube, place it on the floor, give the children rubber rings from fruit jars, have them stand at a given distance from the pan and try to throw the ring over the tube. Blowing soap bubbles is a good, safe game, espe- cially if the children sit in the sunshine, letting the outdoors soak in, blowing bubbles, big and little, and watching them go sailing. There is no need to buy a bubble-set when a new clay pipe will do. Give the child the button box, make him sit in a high chair or other secure place and string the buttons with a large needle, big ones on one string; small ones on another; black on one string; white on another; large white ones ; large black ones ; alternate black and white. When he can understand the number differ- ences, make him string the two-holed buttons on one string and the four-holed on another. Let the child sit at the table and mark around objects with a pencil on paper. To mark around an ink-well, inverted cup or saucer, glass, box, child's hand, and other objects yields endless pleasure in anticipating what the result will look like. Let him cut out these self-made tracings. Such a period of productive occupation is worth more than one of oral instruction, for during it the child is quiet, composed, entertaining himself, teaching himself. The fewer words the teacher needs to use, the more the pupil will learn. However, drawing very small objects is not the best employment. Avoid exercises that are cramping to the fingers as tending to cramp the mind. Give Play 159 the child models as large as are usable, a dinner plate rather than a penny. As has been said, the blackboard is preferable to paper, yet there are times when circum- stances make it necessary that the child employ himself at a table instead of at the blackboard. Just before bedtime, shadow pictures are great fun. It is said that shadows led to the art of drawing. Such simple tales as the Fox and the Grapes can easily be illustrated on the wall, but if you do not know how, ask some old-fashioned friend to show you. Did you ever see boys competing as to who could throw his cap on a boy's head or on a peg? Throwing appeals to boys. Set up a board with a six-inch hole in it and let them try to throw a ball through this. Such games force children to measure with their eyes. There are endless variations of the building game. For material save up your paper boxes, cereal boxes, etc. Begin by placing a good-sized box for your house in the center of the floor and making it correspond to the layout of your house. Have the children designate front door, back door, east, and west. Other boxes will do for barn, woodshed, hen-house, and dog-house. Do not introduce buildings or other features alien to the child's experience, but seek only to have him express in a simple way what is already in his mind, thus sharpening and outlining what have hitherto been vague, more or less blurred, impressions. See how much ingenuity you can get the children to use, always leading them to plan and make, to adapt as well as adopt, to make something else answer when they cannot get what they want. One mother uses corn-cobs in fence-building and for telegraph poles. The interior furnishing always calls for special atten- i6o Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother tion. What a fine couch, for instance, can be made of a domino covered with a piece of gay flannel. Get the children to build a substantial playhouse of firewood or other sticks. In this house may be laid water-pipes, consisting of sheets of newspaper rolled into long cylinders, measuring an inch or so across the end, and kept from unrolling by tying with string or folding the ends in. These may be slipped into each other and as many used as are needed, while larger cylinders will do for waste pipes. If you have the floor space to spare, let the house stand in a corner and grow from day to day; otherwise, when the play- ing is over make the children put the boxes and other material in a designated place until you are ready to let them use it again. This building can be carried on for an indefinite time, alterations being made as fancy strikes the chil- dren. It has endless possibilities, leading the mind outward in widening circles, as the orderly work of their hands sets the pace. It fosters and tests con- structive ability and resourcefulness. You can give the children their first ideas of geography by this crude map on the floor, but do it without saying so to them. Do not make play burdensome by pointing out its les- son or its moral. You ask: ''How shall I implant originality and initiative in my children?" Heaven has implanted these traits in every healthy-minded child. Did you ever see a stupid six-year-old ? Only grown people are stupid, in many instances made so and usually by mis- directed efforts to make them clever. All you need think about is that you do not kill originality and initiative by under- or over-training. You can foster Play i6i them by means of the right kind of playthings and by play which is not too closely supervised. Teach the children to amuse themselves with what lies at hand, with what they can procure and make for themselves, with things that do not cost money. Silence the everlasting *'I want, I want." Make the child take pleasure in making things for himself rather than give him the idea that whatever he wants can be had for money. This one kind of lesson may mean the shaping of his entire future, and helps to create the dividing line between constructiveness and destructive- ness. Organized games which do not lead to spontaneity are not play. Children for whom play is scientifically planned with a purpose in every movement are likely to grow up as unimaginative and uninteresting as those who sponsor such instruction. That is why I object to the much-advertised "teaching children in school how to play." Children need to forget themselves in the absorption of play. They need to plan voyages, dig canals, rear fine structures that tumble down all too quickly when a grown-up attempts to take part in the game. A few grown people — very few, indeed — can go back into the land of make-believe, but most of us bring with us the atmosphere of reality that is destructive to real play. Leave the children to themselves while the guardian is busy with other things near by. Then they will learn! A tea-party is a grand function, even if only cold water is served in the cups, for imagination will do the rest. Direct the play as unostentatiously as possible, leav- ing as much as possible to the child, for if genuine, 1 62 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother the impulse to play comes from within. Do not always be trying to show them a better way, but give them a chance to carry through their undertakings without interference in the guise of help. Let them battle with their difficulties, the pleasure of surmounting obstacles being an essential feature of all play. Do not be misled into assuming that repetition is monotonous to a child, for you have only to use your own eyes and senses to assure yourself that, fortunately for the process of learning, the little child loves it, loves the same toys and games day after day. Before undertaking to teach the child how to do a thing you have not done yourself, do it alone, so that you may better estimate the effort required, as well as be better prepared to show and explain it. If these plans and devices had no more value than that of keeping the little ones safe and quiet and happy, they would be worth while, but in truth they furnish instruction of an indispensable kind, for they train the sense of touch. Think, too, how your sympathetic interest in his play will draw your child nearer to you, how it will tend to make him look to you for help, advice, and direction in more important matters. The tender young plant will grope about for something stronger and sturdier than itself to cling to and steady itself. How many children have been alienated from their home by having to seek such help, advice, and direc- tion from strangers ! CHAPTER IX WORK "In every work that he began, he did it with all his heart, and prospered." At no time prior to perhaps 1850 would it have been considered necessary in our country to include in a book on education a set of reasons for training children to work. Parents heard at church that man is born for labor, and that the light of day comes to summon him to work, they read at home than man shall eat his bread in the sweat of his brow and they reverently, almost unconsciously, gave thanks for the blessing which was worded like a curse. They studied Watts, who could blend in a single quill ful the soundest religious, moral, and practical philosophy, as in the passage : '*For vacant hours move heavily, and drag rust and filth along with them; and 'tis full employment and a close application to business that is the only barrier to keep out the enemy and save the future man.'' For a hundred years "Poor Richard" taught them that "He who by the plow would thrive, Must either hold the plow or drive," and that if they would find treasure in their fields they should dig well, but take care not to dig more than plow-deep. They read history and biography for pleasure and profit, finding on every page ample con- firmation of their own experience and observation, that under personal achievement lies personal struggle. 163 n 164 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Now, with our wonderful progress! veness these hitherto never-failing sources of moral instruction and intellectual stimulus have fallen into disuse. People have grown appallingly indifferent to public worship, the Bible has been supplanted on the reading table by the Sunday newspaper, Watts is read only by those who seek to enrich their own output with dead men's thoughts, while history and biography and philosophy have given place to "Bringing up Father" and the "movies." What, then, have parents to lean upon when confronted with questions as to what is good for their children? No man is sufficient unto himself. Having no directive in their minds, they turn naturally to the proffered doctrines of temporal expediency, which substitute intensity of play for work, animal inclination for a sense of duty. Parents and teachers are being deluded with such prattle as this : "Thorough- ness is an old-fashioned delusion"; "Education is too much like taking medicine; it should be made painless" ; "Do not ask children to do work in which they do not see the practical purpose." In order to be on the safe side popular lecturers say catchy things such as: "Education is freedom. Any pressure that would vio- late this should be abolished. The spirit must not be bound. The test of what is good for children is the joy with which they react to it. Never again let us hear of children working. Abolish farm-chores, housework, etc." It naturally follows that children grow up with the notion that they can play through life, that education can be conducted on the principle of fascination, that the world owes them a living, in- cluding a self -starting automobile, that no man should be compelled to work hard and steadily at anything Work 165 that does not interest him, that the Ten Command- . ments can very well be abridged into the compactness of "We should worry.'* We are now learning through actual experience what it would have been cheaper to learn from the teach- ings of religion and history, that following the natural inclinations reduces man to the level of the beasts of the field. The natural consequences of our trying out substitutes for work in the home and school and busi- ness world is the country's swift approach to a state of degradation unparalleled since the downfall of Rome, unless it be in the equatorial jungles. People have gone mad. Our country is full of insurgents, seething with unrest and dissatisfaction. Everywhere there are strikes, divorces, lynchings, inadequate incomes, dis- jointed traffic, mutual distrust, open and hidden de- fiance of the law, lawlessness parading in the garb of patriotism, indescribable extravagance. The public sense of right and wrong is being perverted by the men and women who, having relapsed into pagan ways, trick out vices in fine phrases on the plea that what is beautiful cannot be harmful. Those who dare to see indecency in any spectacle offered by the stage or screen are sneered at as having evil imaginations. Intelligence is at such a low ebb that, as shown by the War Depart- ment's tests, fifty-five per cent of 3,000,000 men in the prime of life and strength possess only the minds of children, having come to a mental standstill before they left the grammar school. This country will not become once more a good place to live in until men and women realize, and act upon the realization, that they must give an honest day's work in return for a living, for freedom, safety, honor, 1 66 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother home, and education. People have got to work, but grown-up idlers are not going to do it until a period of semi-starvation brings them to their senses. For them must come the horrors of the convict stone-pile, so burdensome and exhausting is work to those who have not been trained from childhood to continuous exertion. None of us would work were we not driven to it by sheer compulsion or the blessed force of early habit. Working under compulsion and without a goal has the ignoble and slavish character of drudgery, but work for which we are fitted, and for which habit has prepared us from childhood, is the simplest natural solution of the problem of human happiness. The very exertion of physical and mental powers to the full of their capabilities in productive work, the conquest of a hard task, fills the soul with a joy far exceeding the delight of self -chosen play. There have always been sacrifices to child-labor, and there always will be until this globe becomes inhabited by a race different from any now upon it. But deplor- able and destructive as are the evils of overwork, they are not to be compared in number and extent with the evils of child-idleness. Because men have died of over- eating, shall we legislate against the use of food? Any good thing in excess becomes evil, whether work or play or food or courage or patriotism. To make a sound mind in a sound body there must be bodily and mental effort in due proportion. If the nervous system is in constant use it wears out, and especially is this true in children, who should be making strenuous physical effort if for no other reason than to let the nerves rest. No formal gymnastics can equal in health-giving value the natural bodily exercises called Work 167 for by house chores, the care of animals and plants, cultivating the ground and such regular work, espe- cially the kind that brings children into contact with Mother Earth. The need of this contact was shown in the well-known experiment of insulating guinea pigs from the influence of the earth's magnetism, which resulted in their developing rickets. No legacy of lands and dollars can make your children as truly independent for life as the facility and willingness to do whatever comes to hand, yet this is a kind of priceless capital within the reach of the low- liest home. According to the wholesome rule among the Jews all children of high and low birth were obliged to learn some trade. Thus Christ was a car- penter, Paul, though versed in the literature and phi- losophy of Greece, became a tent-maker and at this trade labored for his support. Training and practice throughout childhood in ordinary work of house, garden, barn, and field are the most practical founda- tion for all trades and professions, as well as for the beginnings of homekeeping, which is a trade that in this life of uncertainty may very well stand between your children and penury. Even if it had no value whatever except as a kind of old-age insurance, it would be worth all the trouble of its acquisition, since it is no great burden to carry. Statisticians tell us that by sixty-five the majority of men have settled down to final failure and dependence upon others for support, but how many final failures has the reader known among men and women who were perseveringly and intelligently active? In time of stress a smattering of book-knowledge alone will not win an undying welcome at an alien hearth. Effi- 1 68 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother ciency along lines of commonplace activities will pro- vide a ready quid pro quo for one's keep when personal misfortune leaves showier accomplishments at a dis- count. Even if your worldly circumstances are such that you do not need your children's help, you are none the less morally bound to make them give it. Our Heavenly Father does not need our work, yet He sets us our tasks and holds us to account for our steward- ship. In the homes of the extremely poor the children get the discipline of struggle, the drill of hardship, without very much conscious training. This is why one who has risen from a lowly home to dizzy heights said recently, "Hunger and thirst are the wjay to heaven." Wealthy parents should exert themselves to accustom their children to only the necessaries of life and to compel thrift, simplicity, and hard work, else the children are doomed to softness of body and mind. The habit of work is considerably more than the key to material gain, for the ability to make money is after all the lowest of all practical tests of success in life. Things that are of enduring value in this world can- not be bought in the marketplace. A sense of responsi- bility is to the moral life what terrestrial gravitation is in the physical world. The well-trained mind, the well-balanced character, whatever a person really is, are closely associated with the habit of work. With it go muscle-making, resolution, fortitude, a readiness to meet untried tasks. Those parents fail in their bounden duty who send children from under their roof to a school before taking such simple and efficacious means of forming character as is supplied by the habit of Work 169 work. After eighteen centuries the words of Rabbi Judah still keep their substance : ''He who teacheth not his son a trade does as if he taught him to be a thief." A dread of hard work sends more young people into lives of crime than do poverty, low wages, and ignorance combined, yet in the physically fit indi- vidual a dread of hard work springs mainly from the lack of the habit of work. Children are not naturally loafers; they realize not only profit but pleasure in learning and doing, and it is the business of education to train them during the plastic years so that their life- work, whatever it may be, becomes their principal source of pleasure. Education means preparation and training for work. If children are to be prepared for the struggle of life, they must be drilled to earnest, persistent effort which is in no way dependent on momentary impulse or caprice. It is not nearly enough to teach them how to work, for that is comparatively simple. The important thing is to keep them at it until the habit of working becomes formed. Anyone who allows them to shun and avoid doing the thing disliked, or who allows them to do everything playfully, is actually placing difficul- ties in the way of a naturally intelligent child's healthy development. Many a mother lets her children run scot-free and does the work herself, because it is easier than keeping everlastingly after them to make them work, or because she wants them to ''have things easier" than their par- ents had. So when Paul goes to bed without bringing up the coal, mother does it instead of making Paul get out of bed and do it. Such a mother is setting in the child's way obstacles which are not naturally there and 170 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother which are harder to surmount than the natural ones. This is not love, for true love trains the child in such a way that no bad habits clog his attempts to rise. As one wise mother says, "I love my children, and I expect to keep on loving them in spite of anything they may do, even to committing murder. But I owe it to them to train them so that other people can at least tolerate them." One thing that American children need to learn is to attend to their own business and to complete an assigned task before meddling with other things. What a rara avis is the boy or girl of fourteen who can go at a piece of work and ''sweat over it" until it is mastered! How few men and women, even, can apply themselves assiduously for several consecutive hours to the solu- tion of a definite problem. To do two hours' work without loafing or lagging is impossible to them, for they have not learned how. A few, a very few, have learned to sit down for ten consecutive minutes to an assigned mental task without wandering off rainbow- chasing. As proofs that Americans are retrograding, foreigners cite the facts that they will not stick at anything, they will not submit to discipline, they are wonderfully clever at putting on the appearance of work, they are clever at guessing, and they habitually and unconsciously lie to themselves about their attain- ments and their work. If you will train a child of six to work steadily for fifteen minutes at one task, and keep this up day after day, you can lengthen the time the second year to thirty minutes. At this rate the fourteen-year-old can work for two consecutive hours at an assigned task without lagging or loafing. He will then have acquired one of the first essentials of Work 17 r success in life, the habit of diligence, which is a better test of true education than is a college diploma. Among other reasons for the fact that European schoolboys are two years in advance of American schoolboys, Sidney G. Fisher, writing in American Education, has this to offer: "The (European) child is expected to work hard. Little pity is shown the dull or lazy. This severity seems to be enforced without the injury to health, which is the frequent cry in this country. "Human beings, young and old, were made for work ; ^ and when in normal health can stand with perfect im- punity great strains of it, or what seems to some like great strains. If this were not so, civilization would never have advanced to where it is. When in our normal, sound condition, fatigue is a medicine, a benefit, even a pleasure, and contributes enormously to growth and development of both body and mind." In conjunction with sense-training, regular work is the best and safest, if not the only cure for undeveloped mentality. It does not take high intelligence to learn how to work, yet ability to work to good purpose not only atones in no small degree for limited intelligence, but it actually promotes and develops intelligence. Read the life of the philosopher and educational re- former, Friedrich Froebel. In school he passed for a dunce and so was apprenticed to a forester, while his brother was sent to the university, but at work in the grand old Thuringian forest he gained a profound insight into the laws of the universe and came forth at the age of seventeen, possessed not only with the idea of making the world a better place to live in, but 172 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother with the patience and persistence and the powerful mentality to accomplish his purpose. A man died recently in Minnesota who from the time he was nine until he was seventeen was known to his neighbors as the omndhaun, which is Gaelic for dul- lard, blockhead. And he was exactly that. He could not learn to count except on his fingers, he could not spell or read. On the advice of teachers he was taken out of school and set to work on his father's farm, where he did all kinds of work, according to what was suitable at different stages of physical growth. He grew up into a powerfully built, enormously strong young man, and, what is most interesting, slowly awakened to a craving for knowledge and a belief in his own powers of acquiring it. Even at seventeen, however, he did not know the multiplication tables, but he had learned to figure up weights and other measures where hundreds, thousands, and finally millions were involved, doing the examples in his head by simple painful processes of addition or subtraction. As soon as his parents saw that at twenty-one he had actually arrived at a stage where he could learn, they sent him back to school. He now mastered books as he had mastered the horses and farm routine and machinery. He went through the university and became prominent as an educator and lecturer, and in the hope of helping others who might be similarly handicapped, wrote his autobiography, ''Studevan's Omadhaun," in which he lays supreme stress upon the value of learning through the muscles as opposed to mere theoretical instruction. Even if we look upon education from the minor standpoint of scholarship, common sense tells us that Work 173 it is impossible of attainment without long laborious preparation, for while the facts themselves may be acquired by a knack of memory, the ability to deal sagaciously with facts is in practically every case the outcome of the mother's patience and perseverance in making children do the same thing exactly so day after day. It is this making which is the backbone of educa- tion. It supplements schooling or supplies the lack of schooling. Children who are trained to work at the common tasks of life make far more rapid and sound intellectual advancement than pampered children who have only a casual attitude towards responsibility. Time and again the author has undertaken to instruct children of ten or older who had never received any primary schooling but who, owing either to necessity or the good sense of their parents, had been drilled to work and trained to a satisfactory degree of responsi- bility. Without a single exception these pupils learned in months what school children ordinarily dawdle over for years. While one may conclude from this that children are the gainers for deferring book-instruction longer than is done at present it would be unsafe to stop with this deduction, for when children have idled away ten or twelve years at home or elsewhere, it is no longer in the power of the best teacher to teach them anything worth while. What was true in the case of the pupils referred to will be found true in general : children who learn to work with their hands, who can persist in laborious effort until obstacles are overcome, who rejoice in the finished task, have had the best kind of preparation to succeed in books. The mastery of every new bit of manual work, no matter how simple, means an increase 174 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother of mental acuteness as well as of manual cleverness. In the order of Nature, physical work comes before men- tal work, the hand should be trained before the brain is taxed. With the right foundation of training for practical application, the teaching from books becomes unbelievably easy, because when suitable mental tasks are then imposed or self-imposed, their performance is assured by the will power previously acquired. This is one reason why the children of unlettered parents have often risen to great moral and intellectual heights, for the parents, in doing what they knew was good for soul and body, were unknowingly doing the very things that were best for the mind. High scholarship crowned their efforts, but the crown of the crown was strong character and wisdom, which are the sanctified correlatives of the will to overcome obstacles and the ability to keep at a hard assignment to the point of accomplishment. It is a mistake to turn work into an amusement, but for all that, it is the state of mind in which work is done that determines its value to the doer. Work in the right proportion, done in the right spirit, is whole- some and educative, while overwork, unsuitable work, work to which we are not properly trained, work that is slavish or degrading in the mind of the doer, is drudgery, unwholesome and uneducative. Whether the children's daily round of household duties is work or drudgery depends upon circumstances within the con- trol of healthy-minded parents. If parents proceed on the assumption that it is a real misfortune to get up early and work late at some untidy form of manual employment, or if they speak enviously of those who toil not, or pride fully of their acquaintance with the Work 175 idle rich, you may be sure that their children will whine and sulk and shirk and resist to the uttermost the daily necessary grind. How different it is in the well-guided home. The mother knows that in each child is an original power that can become a constructive force only through being exerted, even as the lily of the valley can develop its sweet blossoms only if the roots have been sub- jected to frost. She remembers the poet's words: "Before knowledge the gods have placed sweat." She therefore puts aside weak sentimentality and reso- lutely schools her children for life in a world that is ruled by "You must," not by "I want." Because activity is the law of child nature, it is easy and natural for the mother to teach and enforce phys- ical work. Like a wise engineer she does not seek to check the mountain torrent, but rather guides it within safe limits and utilizes it. Instead of forever nagging children to be good or quiet, she keeps them so busy that they have little time to be naughty. She begins this training in the pretty, easy, natural way of parent birds teaching their nestlings to fly. Watch how the old birds lift the wings of the young ones to try their strength, and to make them exert themselves. A short flight, a rest, another short flight, another rest, encour- aging cries in midflight — thus the little wings grow stronger. The foundation of the work habit is the habit of ready and willing obedience to the parents. Give chil- dren daily drill for the express purpose of enabling them to respond quickly and intelligently to commands and directions. Such drills are to the mind and body what tuning is to the master's violin. Make the little 176 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-M other child come to you, stand quietly in front of you, look you in the eye while you give a single definite instruc- tion such as : *Tlace this book on the dining-room table." "Go to the kitchen, get the dustpan and bring it to me." **Get the dustcloth and wipe the dust off this chair." "Now put the cloth again where it belongs." Use judgment in assigning tasks. Do not give things which are impossible to do, or without sufficient instruc- tion and drill, for you break the child's courage when you allow him to consider himself a failure. Find out what he should be able to do, teach him how to do it, then make him do it regularly, punctually, and exactly. Be sure that the tasks are not too long, but so short and so simple that the child can see to the end of them and by keeping at work can complete them within a reasonable time. Such tasks for a child of four to six are : setting and clearing the table, as far as it can be intrusted to her, carrying fuel in limited amounts, feeding chicks, helping you with dishes, bedmaking, sweeping. A part of every day should be spent in this way, more work being added from season to season. Although the daily schedule should be observed, the child should do special work in special work-seasons, just as older people must. That is what life is like. If you are not doing your own work it is a little more difficult to plan suitably, for the child learns best by helping with the parents' daily labors, doing the drip- pings of grown-up work. Do not allow children to undertake work beyond their powers. This does not mean that they are to be entirely shielded from failure and disappointment, for Work 177 everyone needs the discipline that comes from failure as well as from success. If the boy has a scheme for coaxing water uphill by easy stages, or strapping wings on his shoulders for a short flight around the neigh- borhood, or digging a hole through the back yard into China, or similar enterprises calculated to overcome the force of gravity, let him alone except when serious risk is involved. Let him discover through toilsome experimentation, rather than through words, that cer- tain things are not done in the human world. But if his ambition to help you should stir him to propose weeding the whole garden or transferring a load of coal into the bin or any such task to which the hin- drance is his own weakness and immaturity, forbid it. Weeding four square feet of garden or carrying ten little buckets of coal is work for a six-year-old. Weed- ing forty square feet or carrying one hundred buckets of coal would be drudgery. Limit his undertakings to those whose goal is within his sight and from which he can therefore learn the joy of the finished task. In the choice of work, do not consult the child's whims, but ask yourself : "Is this worth while for the child?" You know what is good for him and he does not know, so assign his tasks and keep him to them. It is all very fine to talk about children doing their best work when they are interested, but no child is enthusi- astic about work after the novelty wears off, and self- chosen tasks become irksome even more quickly than those laid on by authority. Your quest is not to find out what is most agreeable to the child but what will best prepare him for a happy fixture. You should not omit work because it is hard, if it is within the capacity of the child, and you must bring steady pressure to 178 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother bear to compel regular work. The child will acquire sufficient interest as soon and as long as you keep him to a regular schedule, require him to be at all times obedient, polite, and respectful, and give him only tasks that are neither above nor below his strength and understanding. Make each child do each day a set number of set things, such as carrying wood, drying dishes, watering chickens, and the like. Never overdo these things, for virtue carried to excess becomes a vice. The little child should not be burdened, still less overburdened and overtaxed. Such tasks as the above, with a few similar ones added from season to season, are not burdensome but wholesome. A certain number of well-planned, regular tasks are much more educational and disciplinary, than un- planned, erratic help, such as running errands. A child should of course run errands, but beware that this is not carried to extremes and abused. Doing it for father and mother should be about the limit, for others are apt to abuse the privilege of having your children fetch and carry for them. A child should never run an errand for anybody without his parents' express permission. Personally, I should strongly object to the acceptance of money by children as a rec- ompense for occasional errands for neighbors, but if the errands are run for a business, it is an entirely different matter. Plan a full day. When you think how many thou- sand steps a child takes in playing during the day, you will realize that activity does not harm, but benefits him. A considerable part of this activity should be spent in a consciously useful direction. Make children do their work before they are let Work 179 loose to play. A three-minute task postponed from morning until afternoon is more dreaded by a child of eight, and more exhausting to him, than two hours* work the first thing in the morning. The simple daily tasks to be taught first are such as dusting a chair, sweeping the porch or sidewalk, watering the plants, standing the books up on a shelf, and so on. They should be adapted to the surround- ings and home conditions. Show how to do the task, explain it several times if necessary, then make the child follow your example and make him do it right. Teach children to look forward to helping you, not to your helping them. From the age of three every child should have a garden, if only a tomato can or box with quick-growing seeds. He should help any member of the household working in the garden and feel that his help is of some importance to the family. Make the child help himself. Of course it is much more troublesome to teach a child how to do a thing than to do it yourself, and this is the real cause of many a mother's remissness. See that you do not do things for him that he is able to do for himself. When he says, "I can't," show him that he can, unless it be something not suitable for him to do. See him smile when he has to acknowledge that he can do some- thing that seemed hard to him, or that he pretended was beyond his powers. Even a child of four can brush, not blacken, his own boots. By doing this when- ever it has to be done, even if you have to finish the job, he realizes that it has to be done and he will gradually learn to do it right. Such things as laying each garment just where it belongs when it is removed, i8o Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother are suitable and necessary for a young child to do. Demonstrate this each time until he has learned. Make the child an independent worker; accustom him to work without help, by leaving him every day a piece of work to complete by himself. Plan lessons for this particular purpose, not new things so much as enlarging and extending previous lessons. The longer you can keep a child working industriously by himself the better, for it means that he is learning how to learn. If he makes progress along this line with one kind of task be satisfied for the day, even if he seems to learn nothing along other lines. Good work calls for thoroughness, but thoroughness is impossible without long drill in carefulness and should not be expected of young children. It is less important for a young child to do things than it is to keep trying, for the effort is what counts most. Be satisfied with the best they can do, keeping in mind their age, understanding, and practice. You should give only such tasks as you yourself can supervise. Do not tell the child to do something unless you intend to follow it up and see that he has done it properly, for it is the following up that counts. Teach him respect for the finished job and show your pleasure over honest effort. Give certain tasks that the child is able to do as exactly right as a grown person could. Such tasks for a child of five are : Putting out milk bottles in a certain place, placing silver on the table correctly, setting chairs at table, placing a rug, straightening books on a shelf, drying silver and a few dishes, dusting a table or chair, weeding a clearly marked piece of earth a foot or so square. Work i8i Sometimes a mother says : "I make my boy get the coal for me in little buckets, but he does so very reluc- tantly." In such cases, you must drive out the bad habit of resistance to authority with a good habit of yielding to necessity. Getting the fuel is an eminently suitable task for a healthy child, and if he is not healthy, it is one of the best things to improve his health. Make this a part of his daily work, from which he is at no time to be excused except for illness. Do not scold or nag but use compulsion when necessary, and after a while, the inevitableness of it will impress him so that he unconsciously yields to circumstances. The habit becomes second nature and therefore agreeable. Even young children may very well help to destroy house-flies, thus assisting to protect health and pro- mote the comfort of the family. Each member of the family should help to set the good example. A girl of six should be learning how to make a bed properly ; how to do the very simplest household duties. She should be, as she probably is, a very busy child. The child of seven or older should have some care of a younger child. Set aside a certain time each day for this, half an hour or so. Taking care of Baby indefinitely is not suitable for a child, as it is a seem- ingly endless task and is bound to be hated as such, but it is entirely appropriate to require a child of six to play with little brother during the half hour, more or less, when you have something else to do each day. It is a kindergarten lesson of the most valuable kind. When you are sewing or knitting, have the seven- year-old sit down beside you and learn to sew on but- tons, to knit ridges, and to do plain sewing with large stitches. To knit a scarf for her doll in her favorite 1 82 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother shade is suitable occupation. A two-inch scarf, four to six inches long, is best, so that its completion will not be too long delayed. Do not let her knit too long at a time, and call her attention to the fact that "One stitch and then another, and the longest scarf is ended." Do the setting up for her and do not teach her anything but the garter stitch. Do not allow the child to sew steadily at kindergar- ten cards, or to do other close work, of that kind, the danger of eye-strain and its harmful results outweigh- ing the possible good. Sewing buttons on a strip of cloth, or sewing in large stitches with thick thread or yarn and large needles is safer. To learn the simple and safe handling of needle, thimble, and scissors should be the aim at this early age, an aim that is interfered with as soon as the element of showiness enters. Think of the danger to a little child's morality, when she proudly exhibits as the result of her own work a piece of embroidery on a punctured card, whereas, as a rule, not even the purely mechanical part of it is hers. When working in the garden, put living interest into the work. Impress the children with ideas of the enor- mous damage done to crops by such enemies as weeds, insects, and marauding birds. Teach them about the potato-beetle in all stages of development and with the children's help, fight him on his own ground. In doing this, it is safe to rouse the spirit of competition in fighting evil : In half an hour who can gather in an old tomato-can the most beetles for incineration ? Or have each member of the party start at one end of a row and capture each beetle in that row, mother inspecting the results. And who can bring in most carefully- IVork 183 plucked potato-plant leaves, each bearing on its under side an egg-colony? Father and mother must lend encouragement by giv- ing due credit for honest childish efforts. Baby's sat- isfied "There!" when she sees your ceremonious de- struction of the two beetles from her tomato-can will show you the educational value of encouraging honest effort, however crude. Work against time in such undertakings as weeding, bugging, dishwashing, for then the task takes on the features of a lark. Take the alarm clock to the garden and set it to ring in half an hour, and have everyone work to see who will get the most done — to beat the clock. Call attention to the improved appearance of a weedless garden, and stir up pride in having the best weeded garden of your whole neighborhood. If the child of five or older has not been trained in helpfulness make no drastic change, but patiently set about teaching him to perform one simple task. Do not undertake several new things in the same week or month, but only how to do that one thing as well as he can, then make him do it regularly and promptly. After a short but adequate time, perhaps a week or month, add another task. Continue in this way, at the same time keeping up the previous daily require- ments and getting more exacting with these. Here are such tasks as I would suggest for every day when the beginning is being made as well as those previously mentioned for a child of five: Bringing in the milk, dusting down the stairs or dusting the dining- room chairs, sweeping the porch, bringing the vegeta- bles you require for the kitchen. If any of these are not suitable in his case, substitute 184 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher -Mother others that meet the present conditions. Give only necessary tasks that imply real help, no whimsical, in- vented, useless tasks ! Setting the table, using broom, dustcloth, dish-towel, hunting flowers and putting them in water, tidying a room, tidying the yard, feeding and watering chickens, hunting eggs, pulling weeds — there is no end of suitable tasks in each home for children of every age. Even one month of strict adherence to a well-ordered program, with its attendant tasks, its requirement of prompt obedience, will show you a striking improvement in a hitherto troublesome child. CHAPTER X RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Who is to blame for moral crookedness? In olden days, when religion was placed first instead of second, third, or nowhere, in education, the responsibility was placed on the parents. Then came the scientists, who led us to believe that if a child was born with a certain height of brow or length of nose or setting of eyes or ears or periphery of jaw, he was marked as a fore- ordained lawbreaker. Now, to our relief, the experts who in an effort to establish a physical criminal type, for twenty years have been measuring faces in Eng- land, have given up the attempt, declaring that there is no such type and that they find about the same varia- tion of feature among honest men as among rogues. Now and then a psychologist cautiously asserts that there are few born criminals. Let us go farther and say that, among the physically and mentally normal, there is no such thing as a born criminal. We hear of born artists and born poets and born teachers, but which of them ever painted a fine picture or wrote a great poem or taught a good lesson while his qualifica- tions were still limited to the gifts of nature? Neither does one embark on a career of lawlessness without a preparatory course. Parents cannot escape responsi- bility by blaming a child's naughtiness on some remote ancestor. Criminals are not born, but made, neither morals nor manners are hereditary, and right and wrong have both to be learned. i8s 1 86 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother The ill-guided home is mainly responsible for the lowering of moral standards and the decay of the national conscience. As Dean Jones of Yale Univer- sity says: "It is astonishing how much faith many parents have that Divine Providence will bring up their children. We are approaching a moral crisis, nor do I think we can avoid it by educating." If by educating, Dean Jones means schooling, indeed we cannot avoid the crisis, for as our great educational reformer, Froebel, warned us: "All education not founded on religion is unproductive." Our schools are godless, one result of instrusting them with the entire process of education being that we have mul- titudes of grown men and women who have no intelli- gent sense of what is right and wrong. We have entered on an epoch when moral instruction is needed as it never was needed before, not morals based on a vague, man-made code, but on the Ten Command- ments and the precepts of the Gospel. Parents who want to have good children without giving them relig- ious education are trying to build a superstructure without a foundation. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" is the aim of all true education, and if the world is to escape the horrors of a new Dark Ages it must return to the true philosophy based on religious belief. Nothing will carry boys and girls safely through moral perils except faith in God, who punishes the breakers of His law and rewards the observers. Un- less children are taught to regard all their thoughts, words, and actions in the light of an eternity of pain and happiness, they become men and women for whom self-restraint is impossible. Young Americans are undeniably clever, but when Religious Education 187 they are given all the so-called advantages of schooling and have no religion as a directive of their minds, they may justly be regarded as mere educated animals. Their brains are sharpened to the doing of two things, making money and having a good time. Religion originally meant an obligation or restraint imposed upon men by an unseen supreme power, bind- ing them to have a care in all their actions, an idea which is abridged into the old proverb, which tells us that a man without religion is like a horse without a bridle. Even to-day, it is religion that makes man duly submissive to the laws of the land, not simply from the fear of punishment but by the restraint of conscience. The too- famous Voltaire, though a de- stroyer of established law and religion, acknowledged this when he said, "Society without religion would be but a den of ferocious beasts." Religion is essential to a people's very existence, a striking example of which fact is given us by the Hebrews, who faithfully followed this conception for thousands of years. From the very time of their sojourn in the desert, they had the books of Moses, they read them every day, and fathers transmitted to their children the knowledge they contained as the most precious inheritance they could leave them, while the children were required to learn the laws of God and to write them on leaves or on sand. The people were so convinced of the authenticity of the sacred writings that they accepted in all their strictness the laws and punishments therein contained. Far from irreverence or irreligion being an indica- tion of strength of mind or touch of genius, it is quite the reverse, for there is no evidence of reverence among 1 88 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother the feeble-minded, and great poets and painters have ever gone to religion for their inspiration. Strip the religious element from the poetry of Dante, Shake- speare, or even of Homer and Virgil, and nothing remains but the rigidity of the scaffolding. Even Wordsworth's greatest poetic charm lies in his concep- tion of Nature as the garment of the living God. Leave unpainted and unhewn those masterpieces of Raphael, Michael Angelo, da Vinci, Giotto, executed for the glory of God, and what remains is good workmanship but workmanship no longer eloquent of the animating spirit in whose power the workman wrought. The agnostic is not only incapable of creating a work of genius, but he is incapable of appreciating it. What we find in a work of art depends upon what we bring to it, and if a man cannot rise to the contemplation of the unseen in religion, he cannot do so in art. What can the worldling see in Michael Angelo' s kneeling angel beyond the artist's marvelous knowledge of anatomical development and his extraordinary facility of execu- tion? The child comes into the world with many good qualities of mind and body still dormant, and rever- ence, the greatest of them, must be awakened and ten- derly cultivated. That is the alpha and omega of true education in early childhood, the period of tender faith. Later, though the individual may come to realize what he has been denied through early neglect, and though his understanding may assent to the propositions set before it, he nevertheless finds himself unable to feel the unseen as a reality. ''He shall die without instruc- tion, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray." On the other hand, the trusting heart of Religious Education 189 childhood readily lays hold of spiritual truth and is readily disposed to the reception of faith, "the sub- stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith, therefore, should be established early. It does not conflict with reason, but is above and beyond it, for faith has no limits and is strong, whereas reason has limits and is weak. Because God wills it so! makes it easier for us in all ways. If a mother — which God forbid — lacks faith, she must either acquire it or else leave all that pertains to religious teaching to the priest or minister or some other competent and dependable person, and she must rigorously abstain from any adverse criticism, from any disparaging remark that has the least suspicion of scoffing in it, for "whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better that a mill- stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Let the mother whose early religious training was neglected set about overcoming her handicap. In this, her children's needs will be her greatest help. Get a catechism, a good Bible history, a Bible, subscribe for a good church periodical, and place yourself under the guidance of your spiritual adviser. Work and pray for direction, as Monica worked and prayed for her son's salvation, attend church regularly, attend Sunday school and study how to adapt the lessons to your home instruction, and you will succeed. Between the ages of three and seven your children should be grounded in these essentials : Belief that there is a Supreme Being ; that He is a living, personal God ; that He has created everything that exists, and yet is our good Father, who knows us and loves us ; that He 1 90 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother will judge all human beings by the law of love which He taught mankind; that God forgives the sins of repentant souls ; that our souls are immortal souls ; that it is our duty to pray to God as to a loving Father; that if we show devotion and faith, we may hope for God's grace to keep us from sin. It takes years to teach this creed and a lifetime to learn it. Teach these young children also the Lord's Prayer, the Golden Rule, and the Twenty-third Psalm, beginning "The Lord is my Shepherd." This much done, you have laid the foundation for instruction in the particular doctrines of your own church. Real success, that is the consciousness of having lived a helpful, God-fearing life, will not fail your children if you establish early a becoming sense of humility, an understanding of our limitations, a will- ingness to be taught, and the habit of first submitting to discipline and then disciplining yourself. God makes the tree grow as it does, and He makes us grow as we do, only we are much more wonderful than the tree, because we have a soul that will live in another world, and because we have something inside of us, our con- science, that tells us what is right and what is not right. Bring up your children so that they will never disregard the "still, small voice." But without direct instruction they cannot know about conscience, about right and wrong, or rise in the scale of understanding. Do not force or overdo such instruction, but let it come naturally when time and place seem fitting. When the right opportunity offers itself, when your child seems receptive for a deep and lasting impression, then speak of God's care of His children. Such teaching, coming from the mother, will have a much greater Religious Education 191 eflFect than hearing the identical words in Sunday school. Impress on the child by your whole manner that you, yourself, believe what you say, or, rather, that you feel it and have faith in it. How happy is the child whose tasks are lightened, whose temptations are overcome, whose day is bright- ened by daily prayer ! "Prayer is the key of morning and the bolt of night." Not only morally, but mentally and physically, is prayer the portal and the direct way to sanity, goodness, and happiness. At a meeting of the British Medical Association in 1906 a distinguished physician said : "As an alienist and one whose life has been concerned with the sufferings of the mind, I would state that of all hygienic measures known to counteract disturbed sleep, depressed spirits, and all of the miser- able sequels of a distressed mind, the first place should be given to simple, regular prayer. Such a habit does more to calm the spirit and strengthen the soul to over- come emotionalism than any other remedial agent known to me.'* Begin by teaching your child a simple prayer, to be said regularly before going to bed, reverently kneeling, although if the mother herself is not sincere in praying, this should be omitted. Any substitution of so-called moral instruction would be fatal, for morals spring from religion, not religion from morals. A short story from the Bible, told in the mother's own words, should precede the prayer. These stories should be gradually lengthened. They should be told in such a way that the child can draw his own conclusions. Leave moralizing out altogether. If the child asks questions, such as : "Does that story mean such and such a thing?" and if he is right, the mother should not go into rap- 192 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother tures over his brightness and glorify him, but should show her pleasure simply by petting or kissing him. Such encouragement is wholesome. Teach the Lord's Prayer. Say it aloud while the children kneel devoutly. Do not as yet give them explanations and do not countenance questions. Say the prayer from the depths of your heart, as an invoca- tion to God rather than for the purpose of making children memorize. It is true that young children do not understand the whole of this, the prayer of pray- ers, yet from hearing you say it devoutly they will through feeling learn intuitively, which is the right way. For the heart must be cultivated before the head. A child of three is not too young to pray *'Our Father," and to learn that He is the Father of all; "Who art in Heaven," and he will never weary of hearing about Heaven; "Hallowed be Thy Name," and if he asks questions tell him that the name is holy and that when this name is mentioned every knee should bow. With regard to praying, it is difficult to find out what notion a child may have got into his head when he does such a thing as refuse to say a certain prayer; possibly he misunderstands its meaning. I have known children, for example, to refuse to ask for daily bread unless there was butter on it. Do not use compulsion in this matter, but simply say the prayer devoutly aloud, allowing the child to join in. Compulsion must of necessity be used in other directions, where your commands can be enforced; but do not single out this particular as the point on which you will undertake to enforce obedience, for you cannot very well suc- ceed, and besides it is not the subject to choose for a lesson. Do not urge or insist but quietly and earnestly Religious Education 193 say the prayer for him each night ; in this way he will be led to think with you and say it with you. Do not worry about a child's half -saying his pray- ers. He cannot yet feel what the words mean, or know the need or the good of it, but all these things will be learned through intuition, rather than tuition, simply through hearing your own heartfelt appeal to God. You are teaching by example and feeling will be com- municated. Do not talk about saying or not saying prayers with earnestness, for to do so when the feeling is not there would not be genuine. Just keep on ear- nestly yourself and the rest will take care of itself. Before he can know what prayer is he must learn to know and feel God's power through seeing its every- day manifestations on every hand. Make the children understand that **our daily bread" means food, which God sends. For our good He sends the calves and lambs and chickens, the grain which they see grow, the honey that the bees make, the water to the spring, the milk to the cows, all for His children. Talk often about the power and goodness and wisdom of God. Lead the child to observe intimately the beau- tiful outdoors, making him see that God has provided even for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Tell him that God makes the sun rise in the morning to give us light and warmth for our work, and that He makes it go down at night so that we may rest for another day's work; that He makes the garden grow and the flowers blossom and the birds sing for our use and happiness and benefit. When children realize that God paints the heavens in glowing sunset colors, and that man could not do this, they will be ready to accept other equal mysteries. 194 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Constantly point out such things and so lift them up from the grossness which is all too common among those with whom they must soon associate. Such lofty ideas are stimulating to the imagination and will help to keep them away from sordid ways of looking at things and from mean overvaluation of themselves and their powers. One of the best safeguards against temp- tation is to fill the lives of children with the wonders and beauty surrounding them, so that there is no room for mean little thoughts to develop. I would tell the children that the wisest men that ever lived did not know what gave the odor to the rose or the color to the tiniest green leaf. When the Queen of Sheba asked Solomon to tell which was the natural wreath and which the artificial, he lifted the curtain and let in a swarm of bees, wiser than he in this respect, and they went at once to the real flowers. As I told my pupils the other day, we give little thought to the noisy sparrow in the yard — he is common, commonplace — yet the wisest man that ever lived could not make the tiniest feather on that sparrow's wing, or give life to the poor worm thoughtlessly crushed under foot. These stories never grow old, yet as a foundation for success- ful teaching there is nothing so potent as the spirit of reverence and humility engendered by earnest talks on such subjects. That "God made everything" does not reach the child's consciousness until he has been taught this lesson a thousand times about one thing after another, this flower, that flower, the trees, the animals, the children and the grown people, the moon and the sun and the green old earth itself. The child slowly learns to meditate on these things and his mind becomes wonderfully enriched. Religious Education 195 Talk to the older children about time and eternity; try in simple ways to give them an idea of infinity, how more years have come and gone than there are drops of water in the sea, and, whether this world continues to last or not, more years will come than there are grains of sand upon the shore. There remains nothing for us but the humble acknowledgment of our inability to comprehend infinity. Time and space are God's. This a child can understand. Try to answer reasonable questions in a simple and suitable manner, but do not try to explain to a child things that are beyond his understanding. It is a canon of modern pedagogics that everything a child takes it into his head to quiz you about must be explained to him fully and frankly and quite immediately; there are to be no more mysteries to childhood, but every- thing must be naked and open to the eye. Such doc- trine, however, is as unnatural and dangerous as it is unpleasant and foolish. Every intelligent child asks questions every day about things utterly beyond a child's understanding, as well as about things that no- body can account for and things that are none of his rightful business to know. From curiosity and habit, What and Why are on the tip of his tongue from morn- ing to night. Paul says : "Mother, what is electricity?" Of course you do not know, so you conscientiously take down a volume of your new Compendium of Universal Knowl- edge, guaranteed by the book-agent to meet just such questioning emergencies, and begin reading him the discourse on electricity, which opens with a catchy comment on the well-known effect of rubbing the black cat's back. Like a flash Paul is off on the endless sub- 196 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother ject of cats. Back you lead him to the matter in hand, thinking to give him some notion of conductors and nonconductors, but this merely diverts him to the enter- taining subject of trolley crews. Once more you de- tach him and think to fasten in his mind an electrical term or two, like positive and negative, but he inter- rupts your statements this time with a demand for an ice-cream cone. This example will do for a type of children's ques- tions that cannot be answered by definition or detailed discussion without still further obscuring the subject. Both subject and explanation are beyond a child's com- prehension. You cannot resort to the common method of defining, which is to use terms more simple than the thing defined, as in the case of telling the child that a quadruped is a four-footed animal, for what is known of electricity must needs be expressed in terms understandable only to a fairly mature mind. Further- more, language is still so new to the child that whatever familiar terms you do use bulk so large as to deflect his mind from the original subject and send it darting hither and yon. You cannot even compare it with things familiar to him, like comparing the tiger with the house-cat, because the only possible comparison is with things beyond the reach of his intellect and acces- sible to him only by intuition. It is a mystery and must remain so for the present, no matter how faithfully we strive to render it plain. Do not pretend to explain, but take the opportunity to teach him a lesson of great moment. Tell him that it is something that he is too young to understand; that grown people know something about it but not everything; that he must wait until he is older for an Religious Education 197 explanation, and that even then, no matter how wise he may become, he will not know all there is to know about it until he gets to the next world, where all things are made plain. "O daisy mine, what will it be to look From God's side even on such a simple thing." Tell him that this is true of many familiar things about us, like a big tree growing from a little seed, or a little live bird coming out of its shell, or a soap bubble showing rainbow colors in the sun. We observe such things and have names for them and make some use of them, but though wise men have spent their lives in trying to unravel it, the mystery remains. We can only know that these things are part of God's great plan for His children. Supposing that after a lesson on how trees grow, the child asks the perfectly reason- able question: **Do we grow from the inside, like trees?" To this, answer "Yes," and then continue as with the still more abstruse question on electricity, telling him that he is too young to understand how this is. If you impress this lesson on children it will overcome the propensity to contradict and to require a proof for every statement you make. Modern par- ents and up-to-date teachers are all too prone to foster the disputatious tendencies of children by giving an explanation for everything and anything, although they feel in their hearts that it is almost sacrilegious to pretend to be able to do so. No wonder the modern child has no doubt or hesitation about anything, and that there is no department of human knowledge in which he is not better qualified to pronounce judgment than men who have made it their lifelong study. 198 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Far from undertaking to explain everything to chil- dren, you cannot implant too early in their minds the seeds of a consciousness that very narrow and immov- able limitations have ail-wisely been set to all human knowledge and understanding. The great minds who, though well equipped by many years of earnest quest and untiring research, boldly and confidently set out to find the Truth, have finally to say with the great physicist du Bois-Reymond, ''Ignorabimus, we shall not know." The sooner you make a child realize that even grown-up people cannot understand everything, the sooner will he content himself with the thought that most things surpass a child's understanding. And such a feeling of wholesome and invigorating humility will in no way interfere with the striving after Truth. Just so, those who truly strive to live the ideal life are those who all the time realize most clearly their human frailty and shortcomings and the impossibility of reach- ing that goal of perfection. If the greatest scientists can openly confess their inability to explain the most common and apparently simple things, why should not you, teacher-mothers, inspire your children to have faith where they can never in this world know? Christ said to His disci- ples : *T have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." What arrogance there is in our everlasting Why! Who are we with our little minds that we should conquer the mysteries of God Himself? Read in Isaiah: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Mothers often say: ''I always tell my children the exact truth about everything they ask." Now, mothers, Religious Education 199 do not be misled into imagining that you must tell them only the truth, as adults use that word. It would be too strong meat for them, and besides, it is not in your power to tell them the truth, for not the words you may use constitute truth, but the effect of these words on the mind of the hearer. When you are talking with your husband you can estimate fairly closely the effect that certain language, certain statements, will have on him, the way in which his mind will react to your words, the meanings he will deduce. But when you talk to a child or a stranger or a person from an entirely different walk of life and, therefore, different mode of thought, you cannot so well judge of the inferences that will be drawn. By means of language you are trying to convey certain notions, but if the hearer miscomprehend your language. Heaven only knows what you may seem to say. This does not mean that you should discourage the child's asking questions — far from it. His questions are the only dependable guide to what he is ready to be taught and in your answers should be embodied not only the larger features of his present instruction but the outline of his future education; hence the form they take, and not the con- text, is of supreme importance. There are times when it is more instructive to withhold knowledge than to give it. The aim of this entire discussion is to emphasize the necessity for a sane and fixed policy in dealing with the children's questions, in order that they may be put into the frame of mind to accept instruction and profit by it. In the first place, check promptly any tendency of the child to question about things that do not con- cern him, as those relating to grown-up affairs, else 200 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother you will have on your hands that most obnoxious little being, an improperly curious child. In the second place, do not confuse natural curiosity, such as the animals display, with the desire for knowledge. When the child asks questions which are naturally prompted by his observations, ask yourself whether or not the sub- ject is suitable for present instruction. How the water goes through the pipes is a suitable subject, but ques- tions that belong primarily to a course in biology are not suitable. Use your good judgment in deciding this point. I merely allude to it here, in order to urge that you do not allow your judgment to be overridden by the preachments of faddists who have done irremedia- ble harm by recommending matter-of-fact answers to all of childhood's questioning. Do not let children suffer disenchantment. Their unwisdom is adorable. It is the natural and beautiful state of the young mind to be filled with wonder and awe at its surroundings, to see mystery in every leaf and flower and cloud and star. Do not destroy this faith with scientific explanations that do not explain, but try to give answers that lift soul and mind heaven- ward. Talk about the common living forms — worm, grasshopper, spider — in a way that will give children wholesome material to ponder on and question about and lead them to see mystery everywhere. Let us sup- pose, for example, that it is September; the swallows that began to gather and train in August for their long fight south, are leaving us; other migratory birds fol- low ; last of all, the honking wild geese attract our atten- tion in their V-shaped flight- formation as they try to find in milder climes a refuge from the cold northern blasts. How do they know? Who taught them? In- Religious Education 201 stinct, if you please, but what is instinct? If you simply tell your children that the all-kind Creator guides them, through their parents, they will understand that and accept it readily. The fascination that living nature has for the unspoiled child opens a ready road to rev- erence and humility, the ordinary observable happen- ings furnishing the best of texts. The moment of intense interest is the time to impress a lifelong lesson. Best of all subjects is the new baby. Where did he come from ? God sent him here, a new white soul, to learn to be a good child, a good man, to go to school in this world so that he may be ready to serve God in the next world. Then follow many little talks on the heavenly home, the dear little soul and the weak little body that must be so carefully guarded and cherished. When it comes to questions about that road from heaven to earth, answer him as you will have answered him a thousand times before : that he is not old enough to understand, that grown people know something about it but not everything, and that only in the next world shall we have all our questions answered. As for Death, do not speak of it as nothingness, but as life in another sphere or form. Do not injudiciously suggest this subject, since there can be no advantage to a child in hearing mention of birth and death until the mind is sufficiently developed to consider the possi- bility — a huge thought — of any creature as not exist- ing, now existing, and then passing on. Wait until something in the child's own experience, like the pass- ing of a neighbor, moves him to ask questions and he seems ready to be told that we came from a mysterious unknown and shall stay here a little while, until our vyprk is done and God calls us back. All this is so 202 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother wonderful, and every thought in connection with it so full of awful possibilities, that it is all-important to touch on it with the greatest reverence and only at the proper moment. There is no need to dwell on the earthy, physical side of this change ; indeed, every effort should be made to have children think only of the spirit*s departure for its Father's home, accompanied not at all by his wealth or poverty, joys or woes, but only by his works. Do not allow children to grow morbid on the subject of death, but at the same time, in the presence of a soul's departure for the shores of eternity, or even the discussion of it, the very least that common decency demands is a serious and respectful attitude. Teach children to value life. Do not allow them to pick a flower merely to tear it in pieces, but teach them that if they pluck even a daisy it should be put into water and properly cared for, that life is far too beautiful and too sacred for mere destruction. Again and again impress upon them how easy it is to destroy and how impossible to revive. Children are naturally eager to learn the why and wherefore of living phenomena that come to their atten- tion, and when such knowledge is given too soon and too directly in so many words — for words often ob- scure truth — it is not beneficial. There are two principal branches of instruction suited to preparing the child mind for a wholesome knowledge of physical processes. One is nature study, continued throughout the seasons, from year to year, filling the mind with lovely thoughts, notions of God's marvelous power, eagerness for knowledge for its own dear sake. The other is religious teaching, lifting up Religious Education 203 and bearing along all other instruction. A beautiful sunset — God made it ; a fine tree — our Heavenly Father made it grow ; a bird — God made it and taught it how to build its nest and how to sing; a worm in the path- way — God made that worm and gave it life. Jane Elizabeth could crush it with her little foot, and the wisest man that ever lived could not bring it to life again. Now, continuing these two branches of instruction side by side, your children become imbued with a feel- ing of awe and reverence for the power of God, until they see His hand in all things, whether they can under- stand it or not. They will grow in beauty of character, in the love of knowledge, in humility of spirit, in respect for authority. They are then teachable. In their souls are growing those lovely things quite beyond the reach of intellect, things that cannot be gauged according to the measurement of solids. In their minds is developing a standard whereby they will be enabled not only to measure others, but to measure self. That training would be of little worth that did not engender in the child's mind just and fair self-criticism, yet "Know thyself* is out of the question unless one is prepared to make clear-eyed comparisons with what is outside and beyond self. CHAPTER XI MORALS AND MANNERS Thu. closing gong had rung in one of our great department stores, and moving heedlessly in the gen- eral direction of outdoors I walked through an exit marked "Employees Only," to find myself in the polite but determined grasp of uniformed men, who pro- ceeded to examine my possessions with a minuteness more scientific than flattering. When they had satis- fied themselves that my packages had been obtained in the conventional way my captors permitted me to move on, while they subjected to a similar examination the long line of waiting employees behind me. Knowing the manager of the store, I asked him whether they were really compelled to take for granted the dishonesty of a majority of their employees. He replied in the affirmative, adding: "The surprising thing to me is that it is not the boys and girls from the neediest homes who give the most trouble, but those in fairly good circumstances, whose parents have asked us to employ them mainly to give them business training. Of course it all goes back to the way they have been brought up." Let us glance at a too common instance of upbring- ing, such as might rather be called a "jerking up." Two children from the nearby summer hotel stopped in front of our house and began plucking the roses that peeped over the fence. Their mother, though only a few feet away, paid no attention until she realized that they were observed, whereupon she turned on the chil- 204 Morals and Manners 205 dren and reprimanded them sharply, exclaiming, "Naughty little girls, to take flowers that did not be- long to them," and so on, until they passed beyond our hearing. The six-year-old son of a wealthy woman makes a practice of foraging the neighborhood for the posses- sions of other children, bringing home anything port- able that strikes his fancy. Not a day passes but the mother is under the necessity of restoring a stolen wagon or tricycle or toy gun. Once or twice she has tried to make him take back the things he has appro- priated, but he has refused, so she sends a servant or goes herself. In deep mortification she makes apolo- gies and restitution and wonders what is going to become of her boy. Here is a different story: One morning seventy years ago a little girl living among the mountains went with her mother to a neighbor's cabin across the nar- row valley. While the women chatted the child played in the yard, digging wells and making dams with a wonderful tool that seemed to have been made ex- pressly for her needs, a fluting-iron, with which Granny Wilson used to curl the ruffle of her white starched caps. When it was time to go home it was out of the question for the five-year-old to relinquish the won- derful toy, yet her natural intelligence impelled her to keep it under her apron out of her mother's sight. No sooner, however, had the child started engineering operations in the home yard than the misdeed was dis- covered. The mother acted promptly, without any judicial palaver. "Sarah, you have taken what does not belong to you. Get ready and carry that fluting- iron straight back to Granny Wilson." Sarah stub- 2o6 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother bornly refused to go, whereupon her mother broke a flexible twig from the big birch and switched the little legs. Not only that, but she walked behind the child the entire way to Granny Wilson's, still using the switch when the culprit lagged, and there was no rest until the fluting-iron had been placed by the child in the owner's hand. Never again did Sarah need correction on that score, and to-day she has the satisfaction of seeing her own well-trained children occupying high places and re- spected even beyond the boundaries of their native state for their inflexible honesty and well-tried courage. Now, it was not merely a whipping that taught Sarah her great lesson. That alone would not have sufficed, but the needed switching was given to enforce obedience and to convey understanding where words would have failed. The effectiveness of her punishment lay in the fact that she was not permitted to reap pleasure or profit from the misdeed; that there was no misunder- standing in her mind as to why she was punished ; that chastisement was prompt, enabling her to see and real- ize that a certain cause produced a certain effect. Had the mother depended upon reasoning with so young a child, she would have failed utterly, for it is not in the power of language to convey to such an immature mind a clear distinction between right and wrong, ex- cept that to the parents certain things are pleasing and others displeasing. The cleverest kind of sermon on honesty still leaves the child of five or six fairly satis- fied that the main objection to stealing lies in being found out. When Sarah's son was eight years old his mother discovered that he was taking small coins from her Morals and Manners 207 purse to buy chewing gum for his little "gang.'* In- stead of locking up the purse she set about teaching him to resist temptation. She did not whip him or humili- ate him before the family; indeed, she did not even allow the household to know of the peccadillo, but she explained to him the wickedness of stealing, the low regard in which a dishonest person is held, the impos- sibility of continuing such a course without discovery, the difficulty of regaining a good name when once it has been besmirched, the certain punishment awaiting those so unfortunate as to form the habit of theft. Inasmuch as the child's entire home environment was one of uncompromising honesty and open dealing, this talk was enough, and he never again transgressed. The mapping out of the human mind in its relation to right and wrong is no easy task. However, the mother need not concern herself with the lengthier disquisitions of the moralists. She need only establish a certain few relationships of the plainer sort, which are, that the soul is the center from which all education should proceed; that morals are religion in everyday affairs, and that the relation between morals and man- ners is very close. Conscience is that practical judg- ment in our nature by which we recognize the differ- ence between rightness and wrongness. It not only warns us against wrong but is a force to make us do right. We are not born with a fully developed con- science. It follows upon religious instruction and dis- cipline and develops as do the deeper feelings and the power of thinking, strengthening with the habits imparted by steady restraint, exercised first from with- out and later from within. It is the parents' task to control the child's acts and 2o8 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother direct his thoughts until he acquires a measure of self- direction and judgment. He soon learns that no wrong can be committed without bringing its own punish- ment. Thus the habit of avoiding what is forbidden is gradually formed and thereby the sense of law is acquired. The child is ready to be educated on this basis to a sense of moral obligation, for when the reasoning powers reach maturity the individual sees why restrictions have been imposed ; he recognizes that our conduct is the most serious thing we have to attend to; the idea of duty seems natural because habitual; and the older he grows the more ready he is to behave rightly of his free will and apart from the fear of punishment. Morals grounded on compulsion thus become morals grounded on self -approval. Parental control is only a means to engender self-control; if it does not do this, it fails. We must all make our own mistakes, and even children must be given latitude to get into trouble, to find out for themselves by deterring experience many, many things. Temptation is a valuable part of moral training, since virtue is not merely passive goodness, but strength in goodness. However, the temptations permitted to childhood should be only sufficient to strengthen its powers of resistance and not to overcome them. For example, instead of putting everything out of a child's reach, train him not to meddle with forbidden things. Arouse his pride in overcoming temptations such as that to take cake or candy left within reach, showing him that he makes himself stronger each time he chooses good and avoids evil when it is hard to do so, and that in this way he trains his will to overcome desire ; but when the child's will is weakened by hunger, Morals and Manners 209 these temptations are unreasonably great. Instil a wholesome respect for the difference between **mine'* and "thine." Do not allow a child to borrow even a pencil without the owner's permission, but give him a pencil of his own. Do not be overconfident that unde- veloped powers of resistance will be greater tlian a child's restless energy. What is truth? Truth is seeing things as they are and describing exactly what is seen. What is a lie? "A lie," says Webster, *'is an intentional statement of an untruth designed to mislead another." Most moth- ers want their children to be above all things truthful, yet so many of them seem to stumble on all the twenty different ways of making children liars, and so few find the one way to make them truthful, that the suc- cessful ones are indeed to be congratulated. The right way is simple, but not necessarily easy. The first essential is such a knowledge of human nature as one gets by close and loving observation of children, the next, patience and perseverance in applying this knowledge. To the mother who tells me : "I am in despair because my boy of six tells me outrageous lies. I scold him and punish him but it seems to do no good." I reply, "Do not get excited because a young child attempts to lie outrageously. There is more ground for worry when youngsters do not stretch the truth, for only by erring from the way of truth can they learn to keep it. Do not worry, or hope to overcome lying by sermon- izing. Do not imagine you can beat truthfulness into a child, but deal with the fault so that it may be com- pletely overcome during the years of childhood." On the other hand, how often does one hear a young 2IO Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother mother boast: "My child is naturally truthful. Al- though he is only five, I have taught him the wicked- ness of lying and have helped him to harness his imagination so that there is no fear of trouble with him on that score." To such a mother I make answer : "Have patience, your child has not yet learned to lie. The enticing, momentary advantage of lying has not yet dawned on him. Young human beings are prone to be untruthful, and you will yet have to deal with an epidemic of lying, which is as inevitable as teething. As soon as the child reasons farther he will begin to reason out things as he wants them, and if by a mere matter of word-painting he can bring such things to pass, be very sure that he will not shy at the most con- venient way of gaining his ends. Be ready to meet this. Turn it into a phase of moral and mental growth that passes without leaving scars. Never let him think that he has fooled you, or allow him to gain anything by untruthfulness or deceit. Still, you will scarcely effect a radical cure of this habit before he is about ten years old, when he should have found out that lying does not pay, and when the moral sense will also have begun to help." Now do not infer from this that I am one of those materialistic persons who believes that goodness grows out of necessity. Far from it. But truthtelling has two sides, first, the ability to gather impressions cor- rectly and to state clearly and exactly what can be said about them; second, cultivated control of self in stating facts without addition or omission, even though to personal disadvantage. Even before there is actual lying, fight the temptation to lie with several weapons : Religious instruction and discipline; observation les- Morals and Manners 211 sons that enable the child to see things exactly as they are ; language lessons that enable him to describe things exactly as they are seen; moral lessons that show the ugliness as well as the futility of lying, the great value of honesty, the beauty of truth; stories and talks that foster the idea of resisting temptation. Children love to play with words as they do with toys, experimenting, learning their possibilities. Some of their lies are playful; some are told to tease; some are imitative; some day-dreaming; some for expedi- ency. Sometimes the regrettable multitude of untruths that distress the mother are the outgrowth of timidity, or an unconscious acknowledgment of failure, or a symptom of lack of self-control. The child, of course, exaggerates ; he sees the whole world in an exaggerated aspect. He cannot tell things exactly as they are, for he has no exact knowledge to start with, since without careful and prolonged training in close observation and accurate description, it is impossible to see things as they are and to describe what we see. Such training and practice given regularly from the age of three on- ward supply the child with the tools of accuracy, which is the twin brother of honesty. But how make certain that he will use these tools? By religious and moral training for that purpose, given carefully from the age of six or seven onward. The child needs the prop of knowing that we cannot deceive God and that our great enemy is the Father of Lies, who will pay in his own coin those who work for him. These suggestions will be useful only to parents who set their children a good example, whose hearts as well as tongues are above untruth. You cannot fool children in this respect. You cannot be one thing 212 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother and teach another. They will detect you in genteel lying, politic lying, economic lying, much more quickly than does your grown-up neighbor. There is no earthly use in talking to a child about truthtelling if you lie to him or for him or about him. There are even parents who will teach a child to lie for their own con- venience, thus doing him a thousand times the harm that would come through ordinary untaught lying. A child that imagines his mother does not know anything about lying, and who has never detected her in an exaggeration, will probably look on lying as so wicked and abominable that he will keep to the narrow path of truth. Many parents lie to their children in order to secure temporary obedience. "If you don't stop crying the policeman will come and take you," is a not uncommon threat, which after a few repetitions grows thread- bare, whereupon the mother goes still further, even pre- tending to telephone for the police to come and get the naughty five-year-old. I have known strict church- goers to do this very awful thing. If you make threats that you cannot or will not enforce, even the youngest child will soon learn to apply the short and ugly word to your weakness. Your ''must" should invariably mean "must." Many parents make truthtelling difficult for children by condoning misstatements at one time and attempting on another occasion to correct the fault. David assures his mother that he has performed his regular task of sweeping the porch. Investigation shows that he has not removed the rocker or disturbed the rug, but the mother has time to spare and is in a good temper, so she smilingly tells him to do better next time and her- Morals and Manners 213 self finishes up while David goes to play. The next time he tells her that he has swept the porch, she is busy, and company comes and finds the porch is un- swept. Her pride is hurt and she punishes David for an untruth, the fault of which, in this instance, is wholly her own. Too many parents try to differentiate between lying and evasions, between speaking an untruth and keep- ing silence where rightness demands speech. This is fatal. The one question to decide is : Was there intent to deceive? Too many parents countenance trickery among children, cheating each other in trifles, and even look on it as a sign of very promising genius. This will betray the children into thievery as well as lying in their riper years. As soon as children know what lying means, it is highly necessary that they should be made sensible of the scandal of telling a lie, but I would not have a child know a day earlier than necessary that there is such a thing in the world as lying. The less talking about badness and wickedness the better, for while a young child may appear to know the difference, he does not and will only become confused by well-meant explana- tions beyond his understanding. But when he has learned that there is such a thing as untruthfulness, make it abhorrent to him, make truth beautiful, and continue the training in observation. Talk mainly about truth and be wary about men- tioning lying. In undertaking to teach a young child the wickedness of deceit, you give him a lesson in that art and science that might otherwise have been deferred for a year or two. Many a child finds out for the first time that there are lies by being told not to tell them. 214 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Natural inquisitiveness does the rest. A little fellow rushed in one day in terror and told his mother that the devil was sitting on a beam in the barn. Investi- gation showed that the foul fiend of his childish fright was a barn-owl, blinking down on him when he had run to the barn for refuge from the consequences of a naughtiness. If the mother had been so tactless as to accuse him then and there of lying, defining and illustrating lies so that the idea would be really fixed in his mind, arousing sufficient interest in her subject to make any kind of impression, her lecture would have held all the interest of a fairy story for him, and he would forthwith have furnished her with all the neces- sary material for a course of lectures. Avoid as far as possible everything that might tempt a young child to prevaricate. Only when urgent cir- cumstances demand it, ask him whether he has done a thing or not. This in most cases is a useless ques- tion, because it is the natural thing for a young child to say that which in his opinion will please you and exonerate himself. If you ask a pupil whether he understands a thing he will say yes, if you ask your child whether he did a naughty thing he will naturally say no. When you suspect a child of having done something naughty, use your own ingenuity to satisfy yourself as to his culpability, and if you find him guilty, judge him and reprimand or punish him if he deserves it. To a child of four or five, punishment should not be meted out for any transgression except direct diso- bedience to his parents' clearly given and thoroughly understood commands. If, knowing that he has done a thing, you ask him whether he did it or not, you are courting trouble, and in addition to disobedience will Morals and Manners 215 have such difficuhies to face as untruthfulness, dissim- ulation, and hypocrisy. Train the child to recognize and admit his mistakes instead of condoning them. Both in school and at home, one hears such things as this : ''James, you have not spelled that word correctly." "Oh, just a *t' too many," answers James, who has written latter for later. Hs is trying to cloak his mistake with a pre- varication, to avoid admitting that a mistake was made. Do not allow this to pass. To recognize error and acknowledge it is a cornerstone of wisdom. Once the unwillingness to admit oneself in the wrong has taken root it is very difficult to eradicate. A word as to the make-believe of a lively, imagina- tive child mind, the feignings or inventions uttered with no intent to deceive. Imagination is a gift with- out which we were poorer than the dullest clod. Be- ware of destroying or crippling it, calling it lying. Attend to other phases of discipline, but interfere little with harmless imaginings. Meet the wild fanciful tale with a smile of sympathetic understanding, which neither approves nor disapproves. You need not even say: "But Elsie knows that she is just pretending?" and insist upon the child's reassuring you on this point. There is absolutely no relation between this make- believe and lying unless you establish the relationship by talking about it. To return to lying: Instead of calling an exaggera- tion an untruth, lead the child by questioning to see its inaccuracy, just as you would correct any other fault or reprove an ill-done task, just as you would follow him up to indicate the half -swept corner of the porch or the badly dusted chair and make him do it 2i6 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother exactly right. Teach your child to deliver a message exactly as it is given to him. Make him repeat it to you until he does it correctly, for precision even in this small degree will help to offset the natural tendency to exaggeration, boasting, and other distortion of facts. Teach children not to tell as news anything of whose truth they are not sure. Teach them not to embellish the news they relate, not to speak rashly or without a piirpose, and not to retail empty nonsense. Make them keep silence regarding what they do not understand. Make the child tell what he really hears and sees, not what he imagines or fancies; make him repeat things without adding or omitting; make him answer all questions to the point, without prevarication or beating about the bush. If a question is asked in the present tense, insist on the answer being given in the present tense. Awaken the child's conscience by telling him that every lie is known to God and is shunned and detested by all God-fearing men. Make him repeat often the Commandment: *'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," and such maxims as: "Sin has a great many tools, but a lie is a handle that fits them all"; "He who tells one lie must tell nine to cover it up." Let him overhear conversations in which a hor- ror of the lie is expressed. This is more effective when done indirectly, for if grown persons abhor a liar, children absorb the feeling. However, even with the feeling of horror towards a lie, children will be strictly truthful only if they get daily and hourly training to form the habit of truth. Train children not to make rash promises. A child should not make promises, nor has a grown person any Morals and Manners 217 right to extract them from a child. Do not make chil- dren apologize as a punishment, nor promise to be good and not to repeat the oflFense, for pledges of various kinds, whether in the name of religion, patriotism, charity, obedience, or honor, constitute a training in easy lying and should not be countenanced. Children have not the stamina to keep a promise. They break it, and learn how easy it is to break it, and there is thus formed the contemptible habit of breaking his word before the child is old enough to realize its sacredness. Even more objectionable is it to tell things to a child under his promise of secrecy. Such matters as are usually imparted to a child in this way are in any case unsuited to his years and should be strictly kept from his knowledge. The objection is not alone to the unfairness of burdening him with a temptation too great for most grown people, but that the heart of a child should be open to floods of sunshine. There should by right be no dark corners in it. Plant secrecy and you plant an ugly furtiveness that can never be entirely uprooted. Good manners come from well-established, gener- ally-recognized good habits, both of which are impos- sible without habitual self-control. Good manners sit easy and seem natural where mind and body are under self -direction, but without this precious accomplish- ment they seem affected and inharmonious. A well- educated child is always a good-mannered child. As I wrote this my eye fell on a sentence in the evening paper: "The whole world opens its arms to the boy with good manners." Back of good manners is the great rule of humanity, to do to others as we would 2i8 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother have them do to us, which calls for occasional self-sac- rifice for the sake of others. Turned into simple verse, a child of five will learn and love this rule : "I do to others as I would That they should do to me ; *Twill make me honest, kind, and good, As every child should be." Make the child practice this. Teach him to address or to answer questions in a way that shows respectful consideration for others, especially his elders. Make him come to you and speak, but if without any good reason he should attempt to shout to you, ask him half- reprovingly: "Who has hurt you? Who is threaten- ing you?" so that he may realize the impropriety of his conduct. Make the child offer his chair to an older person standing ; knock before entering a room ; answer the question **Who is there?" by giving his name, not saying "Me." From such little things spring good habits which finally develop into virtues. Check what- ever offends or annoys others or tends towards ill- breeding or roughness. Strike out each undesirable characteristic the moment it appears. When children get naughty intervene at once. Little by little you can suppress all those things that they must not do. Sub- duing the manner subdues the fault. Do not allow a child to demand your attention when he sees that it is required elsewhere, but make him wait respectfully until you are ready to give ear to him. When your child is speaking to you make him show a certain respect for you. He must be polite and respectful to you on every single occasion, which Morals and Manners 219 excludes every vestige of flippancy. If he comes into the room improperly and noisily, send him out at once without scolding, and tell him to come in in a proper manner. Do not let a single such act escape your vigilance. Stop loud talking and yelling and make the child subdue his voice to a proper pitch when in the house. Let the house rule him; do not let him rule the house. Do not tolerate any of the children doing things that make older persons uncomfortable. Make the boys especially think of the comfort of others at all times, which they will not learn to do unless they be made to do it. They will respect you if you demand respect from them. Take account of the influence that correctness of bodily attitude has, not only on physical well-being and beauty, but on morals and manners and even the whole mentality. Decency, propriety, health, all require that a child should be accustomed to keep his whole body in a suitable attitude. How to stand, walk, and sit prop- erly is as much a part of moral and intellectual as of physical training. The animal period is by no means past until the body has learned to answer the rulings of a well-ruled mind. Space allows for only a few sug- gestions here : In standing, the feet should be turned out, with the heels a little apart. The child should learn to stand perfectly still, not shifting from one foot to the other, and when he walks it should not be either tiptoe or with dragging feet. When seated, keep the knees not too far apart or too close together. To keep mov- ing the feet or stretching them out is extremely ill- bred. Never allow the child to sit crosslegged, or to slide down in the chair and sit on the end of the spine. 220 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother for either position creates a tension that throws the entire nervous system out of adjustment, interferes with the free circulation of the blood, and may easily lead to deformities of which any good physician will advise you. Make children stand with well-carried shoulders, without hanging the head nor yet holding it up in an impertinent way. Train them to avoid loll- ing, often changing place, swinging the feet, turning and twisting hands or feet, and all such awkward motions. Train them to hold the head erect when speaking, and not to answer a question by a nod or shake of the head. Train children to avoid putting the hand to the head, especially at the table. Teach them to bear inconven- iences without turning, scratching, or using gestures, not simply because these acts may be offensive to others but because every act of self-restraint is a step towards self-control. Make children do things decently and in order long before there is consciousness of the why. The youngest child should be taught to restrain eager- ness about being helped at table, to avoid stirring the plate, beating the table, or other signs of impatience. Children ought not to share in the conversation at table. They should listen and learn, although they nat- urally prefer to give what they imagine to be their opinions. This makes it hard for them to learn in school, where they try to teach their teachers, which, however, is a less serious offense than that of trying to correct their parents. I suppose not one child in a thousand escapes this fault. It simply has to be eliminated by constant watchfulness and stern sup- pression. When one sees the poor returns sometimes made by Morals and Manners 221 children to the parents who have loved them and worked and saved and sacrificed for them, the tempta- tion to moralize on this subject becomes overpowering. After the children have grown up it is of little use for parents to wring their hands and demand of heaven an explanation of their selfishness. From their earliest years children should be taught to realize their bless- ings and be thankful to those who provide them. Gratitude, like religion, patriotism, and other of the fine things of life, is a fair flower of the heart that must be well rooted and tenderly cultivated before we can expect full and fragrant blossoming. The educa- tion which neglects the heart while cultivating the head is no education at all. Begin by teaching children to come to their parents and thank them for each meal. In this way a natural feeling of gratitude is developed, and out of it will grow a feeling of reverence and gratitude towards God for His bountiful gifts. You cannot make a child thankful simply by telling him that he ought to be thankful; he must be shown by example as well as word. I suggest this plan : Each child, as he finishes the meal, should go to the father, kiss him and say: "Thank you, father, for a good dinner," or whatever the meal may be, then to the mother and thank her nicely also. Require the child to speak distinctly and not to mumble, so that this practice may not degenerate into objectionable formalism. Make them do this as many times a day as there are common meals, year in and year out. When they meet father and mother for the first time in the morning, let the children kiss each and say: "I wish you a good morning, papa," or 'T wish you a good morning, mama." Such daily greet- 222 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother ings will grow stilted if not respectfully and lovingly used. But even lip-service, which at heart implies good manners, is preferable to the unmannerly lack of con- sideration and respect that too many children flaunt in the faces of their elders. Put such daily greetings into practice and you will find that they will become a natural expression of loving respect, which will bring into your home a sweet atmosphere of refinement, rev- erence, and love, wherein the roots of goodness grow strong. Children should be taught that they cannot sufficiently prove their respect for their father and mother, to whom under God, they owe everything, and they should be accustomed to bid them good-night before going to bed. Accustom children to say grace at table. This most natural act of gratitude, thanking God for the repast, seems to be regarded as old-fashioned and unworthy of enlightened people, but even the heathens of old Rome did better, for they poured out wine to the only gods they knew. Call the child's attention to the man- ners of various domestic animals. How nice to give the chickens water every day. Does she notice how they lift up their heads to say thank you every time they take a drink? The pigs think only about them- selves and forget to thank anyone. Do not miss the seed-time of this early age for habits of unselfishness, which will take many, many years to establish, for they are more humane than human. Selfishness is as natural to children as breathing, and only motherly love and devotion can change the natural incompleteness of human childhood into the pure gold of humane manhood and womanhood. I tell you this so that you may not be rudely disappointed when you Morals and Manners 223 seem to fail of attaining your end. Your patience must be long-suffering. Mothers sometimes complain of a lack of sympathy on their children's part. Now, sympathy means a feel- ing with suffering and how can this be known by those who, since they have not suffered, have not had the experience out of which sympathy grows? The kin- dergarten age is too early to do much towards arous- ing these feelings. There is indeed a distinct danger in hastening maturity of the emotions, which leads to precocity and perhaps to a state of mind where all feel- ings become uncontrollable and govern the will. The emergence to a higher moral and intellectual state must come by degrees and slowly. It will come naturally and genuinely with experience and right guidance. Develop sentiment very gradually. Do not play on the child's emotions, or appeal to the feelings as a means of getting children to follow your lead. The farther you can put self into the background, and the more you can turn the child's thoughts out- ward rather than self ward, the more securely do you ward off evil. Contrary to a widespread notion, it is the mind, not the body, that originates the first prompt- ings to social misconduct. If this were fully realized, there would be fewer instances of child-depravity directly chargeable to the parents, either through their heedlessness or through well-meant efforts to instruct young children in matters which belong to riper years. The important thing for the child is to live a healthy child life. Never permit jesting with children on such subjects as swains and sweethearts. On the whole, it is better to keep children away from gatherings of grown people, even such as the church 224 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother sewing circle, where in order to make themselves agree- able people take too much notice of a child and spoil him by making him self-conscious and self -centered. Chance remarks, not intended for young ears, are often made, which linger in the child's mind and give him a distorted notion of things. When you must go to such places leave him with his grandmother or some other trustworthy person, but do not indiscriminately unburden yourself of him to anybody. Your duties to your children must unquestionably take precedence over any social duties. Do not allow children to make engagements with other children without first obtaining your consent. When the child takes it upon himself to invite com- pany or to accept an invitation without first getting per- mission from you, simply cancel the engagement. This, as you will find, is by no means an unnecessary pre- caution. If the children in their play are talking about absurd things that seem of an objectionable or harmful trend, tell them to stop talking nonsense. If you think their talk merely unsuitable and out of place, divert the con- versation, but if it is simply innocent, imaginary non- sense, let it go. Such fair, childish nonsense can do no harm, but on the contrary is rather desirable. Let play be play, and work be work, each in its proper place and at the proper time. If this be their principle through life it will keep them steady and make them happy. Expect sensible behavior. Do not countenance fool- ishness and hysteria. The silly squealing and screech- ing of girls at play should be checked, for it is unneces- sary and leads to upset nerves. Flippant trifling is not Morals and Manners 225 play and should not be tolerated. Noise outdoors is not objectionable except when overdone, but wild yell- ing is overdoing it. Suppress immoderate anger and the desire for revenge, otherwise the child becomes headstrong and unruly, good nature turns to ill humor, understanding and judgment are warped into wilfulness and prejudice. Hate has no place in the heart of a child. When it becomes rooted it changes that heart into something entirely different from what the Creator made it or intended it to be. There are right and wrong ways of mixing up religion with the efforts to correct childish naughtiness. I have known a mother to punish a three-year-old by making him pray until he sees and confesses his wrong, and then asks for forgiveness. This is not a safe proceeding. The little child is irresponsible, a fact which we cannot change. He has not done wrong imless he knows that he has done wrong, for without the knowledge there can be no sin. It is the parents' responsibility to enforce right conduct. The child is naughty when he does something forbidden by the par- ents, and bad when he offends God. This principle is healthy, wholesome, and sufficient. But there can be no offense against God without the evil intention, for even the civil law would not pronounce the offender guilty unless evil intention could be brought home to him. The mother is the one to show him in a few words wherein he has done wrong, otherwise you make the child deceive himself and set him on the road to hypocrisy. A young friend of mine who persistently denied helping herself to her sister's choice candy was sent upstairs to ''talk it over with God," and when she 226 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother came down, instead of making the usual confession of wrongdoing, she still maintained innocence. This troubled the mother so that at bedtime she asked the child what God had said to her, whereupon Ruth replied : "He said, *0f course you know, Ruthie, that you took the candy, but let's fool sister a while longer.' " There are many available props that help the child to gain self-control, the best and surest of which is the realization that God is everywhere, that He sees us in the night as in the day, that He reads our inmost thoughts, and that we should be more particular not to displease Him than our companions. By means of symbolical language place before the child in a concrete way the laws of religion and morality. Few children can comprehend a statement to the effect that a good deed will yield rich harvests in eternity, but tell them that our deeds are written down in the Book of Life by the Recording Angel, good deeds in letters of gold, bad deeds in black, good deeds to the right, bad deeds to the left. Every good deed makes the Angel rejoice, but when he has to dip his pen to write in black, he is sad. Perhaps our sin- cere sorrow will help him to blot out the record. Let us strive so that at the close of each day our good deeds may outnumber the others. If we do succeed in this daily, then at the end of life, when good and bad are weighed exactly, our balance will be on the right side. Such illustrations appeal to a child. They are under- standable, and offer something to strive for. They are near, not far, in time and space, and the child mind can grasp them when talk about character would not mean anything. Morals and Manners 227 The voice of conscience could not be better portrayed to the child than by telling him that to know what is right we have only to ask our good angel, who will tell us, and that we have in him a safe guide, who would gladly conduct us in the way that leads to heaven. What a help in temptation to recall that if we yield our good angel must turn away his face and weep, and that if we listen too often to the tempter, and heed not the guardian angel's warning, he must finally leave us alto- gether, for he cannot stay where sin is. Is it not true that the voice of conscience is the safe guide and will remain so throughout a long life unless stilled by our refusal to heed it? It is often possible to transmute self-interest into something nobler, a prop to character. Show children that unless we are invariably to be relied upon, others will not confide in us, that a single act of dishonesty is sufficient to give one the reputation of being a thief or a liar, which cannot be offset by the advantages gained through telling a thousand truths. Children of eight or older will be helped by being told that the human face shows the thoughts within, that it is possible to read anybody's mind in the eye, the window of the soul, that a little child comes from God with a clean white soul and has the face God gives him, but that years later he has the face which he gives himself, that if wicked thoughts occur often, wicked features are the result. This is one way in which we are punished for wrongdoing, just as Cain was marked on the brow. This is plain and simple. It helps the children to con- trol themselves, and they still need outside help in order to conquer their natural aversion to submission to authority. 228 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother How many parents whose children are not in their earhest formative years, are confronted with the pain- ful alternative of ''letting things go," or of using dras- tic measures to overcome the results of their own negligence, a crop of bad habits. When such is the case, I dare not tell you that you will find it easy to check naughty proclivities, or that the child can be set on the right path simply by persuasion. To mend what has been neglected for years requires not only the mother's unlimited patience, but almost superhuman will power. But you need not and must not despair, for to say that bad habits cannot be overcome, and that efforts towards improvement are hopeless, would be to deny the goodness of God. Only when bad habits have persisted for years, it requires the cooperation of the victim to root them out and supplant them with good. Those who succeed in overcoming their bad habits do so, not solely by an effort of will, but by repeatedly sub- stituting a good act for a bad inclination, step by step driving out habit with habit. There must first be some influence strong enough to make a brisk commence- ment and to keep up the new line of conduct for a certain length of time. Resolution, authority, example, any or all, may be the initiative that induces the person to persevere until the power of habit has had time to take effect. The great American, Benjamin Franklin, knew how to get rid of weeds and acted upon his knowledge. Listen ! "I wished to live without committing any fault at any time," he wrote. "As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might Morals and Manners 229 not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found that I had undertaken a task more difficult than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another. Habit was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the bad habits must be broken and the good ones acquired and established." This young man thereupon made out a list of his faults. Instead of attempting to overcome all in a single day, he endeavored to avoid one fault for an entire week. Beginning with the first on the list, he went down the column week by week, through the entire thirteen faults. The first week he fought fault number one, the second week he fought fault number two and also continued to avoid number one ; the third week he took fault number three for his special battle, not neglecting one and two. In this way he stead- fastly continued through all thirteen. Thus he learned to control himself, and because he could control him- self, he became a leader of men, one of the greatest thinkers of his day and one of the wisest among his contemporaries in the world. He proved that "He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city." Let us see how Franklin's plan will work for chil- dren. In his list are four faults, very common indeed, which we may as well take for a month's weeding task, one for each week. Talkativeness. "Say only what may benefit your- self or others. Avoid trifling conversation." DisoRDERLiNESS. "Let all things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time." Wastefulness. "Waste nothing." 230 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Indolence. **Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary action." Every child should attend most carefully to the first of these, since his main business is to learn, to gain knowledge, which "is obtained rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue." Silence, joined to order, saves time. There are people who waste half their waking life through not having orderly homes and orderly minds. Frugality and industry will bring to each of us, as they brought to Franklin, the means of independence. It helps children in overcoming bad habits, to talk about being good a day at a time, which is long enough in any case. When a child of seven or older is trying to overcome a fault, teach him to keep a calendar, marking on it each night the result of the day's efforts — sl plus for success ; a minus for failure ; a question mark for doubtful. CHAPTER XII LANGUAGE CULTURE IN THE HOME The importance of early and adequate training in oral language cannot be overstated, for nothing in the way of book-instruction can atone for its neglect, the English that we speak counting for more as an educa- tional test than the English that we write. We have it on good authority that "Words learned by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse ; As far removed from harmony divine The constant creaking of a country sign." However, in our plea for upbuilding in each young mind the beautiful fabric of civilized human language, we have in view something of higher and deeper import than the mere ability to be entertaining or smooth- tongued or ready of wit, for while these and other embellishments are very nice and no doubt have a decided cultural value, theirs is not first place. The point is that the human mind resembles what it feeds upon, that it functions or does not function in an orderly manner according to whether or not it has been so trained, and that the period which determines men- tal complexion and mental furnishing begins in baby- hood and wanes before the age when wise parents place their children in school. The school cannot give adequate langiuige-training. 231 232 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother Genius will not supply the child with a vocabulary nor will mere feelings teach him to connect words with each other and to apply them with accuracy; far less will bygone literary ancestors insure his preferring Shakespeare to the Sunday supplement. But the mother can do these things. Education, like charity, begins at home. The child is most unusual and unfor- tunate whose mother is not a better teacher than any in the classroom, the period between the ages of three and seven giving greater opportunity for mind devel- opment than does the entire school course. Teacher-mothers, there is nothing especially new or complex or technical in the requirements of your role as teacher of English. If you can read you can give your child such language training as Plato himself would approve of. However unconscious of it you may be, practical lessons in English have already begun in earliest babyhood. You have prepared the child for instruction by teaching him to use a small number of words and to attach a meaning to those words. When talking to a child, when teaching him a little prayer, a little song, a nursery rhyme, you are all the time teach- ing him the English language. You belong to the grand league of teacher-mothers without being aware of it. Now by the use of equally simple methods adapted to a different age, you can so train your children that they will be an example and inspiration to the whole community, showing the neighbors that education does not depend upon wealth, fine surroundings, or costly schools, but upon the patient care and watchfulness of God-fearing parents. The teacher-mother will find it easier to keep up Language Culture in the Home 233 lessons day after day if she keeps clearly before her the aim of language-teaching, which is to develop and train the mind. In detail this means : (i) To develop a gradually increasing vocabulary from the simplest beginnings; (2) to accustom the child to the use of good language; (3) to train him to state as facts only those things that are facts, at the same time not only allowing but encouraging him to indulge in imagination and fancy within certain limits ; (4) to train him to express exactly and unmistakably what he means. There is no surer test of a good edu- cation than the ability to express exactly what one means. The child trained to see things as they are and to describe them exactly as he sees them, is acquiring a store of correct notions and ideas. By training him to think before speaking, we foster truthfulness, and by inculcating caution and exactness in speech we fos- ter habits of caution and exactness in all things. Our first need is a vocabulary, for without words we cannot express human feelings, we cannot acquire or create ideas. Without adequate word-drill school- ing falls flat. For instance, that too-common plaint, *'My child has no mathematical ability," means just this, that the child does not know the meaning of words and has never been taught that the first step towards learning mathematics, or learning anything else, is to find out what the words mean. On this point a judge remarked: "Half the cases that come before me for decision would never arise if the parties understood the exact meaning of the words employed in making agreements." Language exercises a great influence on one's mode of thinking., just as thinking influences language, The 234 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother wrong use of words creates careless and slovenly habits of mind. It is true that, even without conscious instruc- tion, almost everybody would learn to talk, just as it is also true that nearly everybody can get some sort of noise out of a piano, but you cannot expect clearness and conciseness of expression in those who are not drilled to it. Recall what a stumbling-block this is in school — the long-winded explanation a child will offer you when all you want to know is whether a lesson is understood or done. If you ask a child — or for that matter, a college graduate — whether he can tell you promptly how much nine times seven is, his answer will be "sixty-three," whereas it ought to be "Yes." What an advantage it would be if we could be trained to think of testifying before an impatient judge who wants to hear nothing but what is important and essential, and who refuses to listen to anything not to the point, however eloquently it may be expressed. A child so trained will not later attempt to describe earthquakes with motions of the hands, or to hide his lack of intelligent speech behind a few smart slang phrases which are supposed to express all ideas and emotions of the human mind. Here are a few general suggestions which each mother can work over into a method of her own : Teach many songs and poems indirectly, by singing or repeating them to the child, not like a set lesson. Do not urge him to repeat these until he is ready to do so. As one dear little twelve-year-old teacher said of her young brother: "If you try to make Teddy learn poetry he won't listen at all, but when I just say it to myself like, he listens and says it after me." Do not try to teach a poem that the child does not like or under- Language Culture in the Home 235 stand. The fodder must not be flung too high for the calf. Avoid complexity in your plan of instruction and never take a new step before the previous one is clearly understood and thoroughly mastered. It takes a little child a long time to visualize a new notion ; for instance, it may take months for him to distinguish the differ- ence between past, present, and future. Never let him use such words before he thoroughly grasps them. It is too common to assume that a pupil understands a word if he can spell and pronounce it. Do not take for granted that the child knows common objects and the meaning of common words. No poem should be memorized unless preceded by careful word-study, whereby an unbroken series of distinct pictures is set up in the brain. An unusually intelligent little girl of nine who has always lived by the sea, and has had "geography les- sons" for two years in school, was taken out for a sail. When an island two miles out was sighted, she asked if that was "the other side of the ocean." Another child of the same age, on learning that her mother had received in the afternoon a letter from her sister in England, asked: "Did Auntie write that letter this morning?" Such simplicity is natural and by no means undesirable, but we must recognize it and shape our instruction accordingly. Therefore, discourage the practice of memorizing without previously acquiring a clear understanding of the meaning and force of each word. Never teach a child words denoting things which he cannot comprehend, for words are useless lumber unless they symbolize an idea, that is, the pupil must connect the word unmistakably with the object 236 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother or idea which it represents. Do not define in the same lesson two unknown words, or a word unrelated to that lesson. For instance, if you talk about clams while the child is memorizing Jack Horner, the chances are that in later years the name of Jack Horner will bring to his mind clams as well as plums. Do not read much at a time to a child. Imagine yourself in a picture gallery, where your desire is to stay before some one beautiful painting long enough to understand it, to realize its beauty, and enjoy it. You do not want the guide to hustle you recklessly along. While you read or speak to the child, you are flashing a series of pictures before his mind, each one new and wonderful, and you should give him time to ask questions about each of them, to get a true percep- tion or mental image of each. Crowding and cram- ming blunt the stimulus to learn and to know. Give daily training in speaking clearly and correctly and in answering precisely the question asked. Thus if you ask whether he has done so and so, do not allow him to form the habit of giving the explanation before he has answered "y^s" or "no." When asking a ques- tion, first make the child listen to it carefully and try to understand it, then make him answer that particular question, and not some question that he had hoped you might ask. For example: ''Where is your cap?" Wrong answer: ''I left it in the yard. Answer: ''It is in the yard." Allow children to have only such reading or pictures as are elevating in tone, and if the "funny papers" are brought into your home, destroy them before they fall into their hands. Do not trouble children under eight or nine with lives of authors or painters, for as Language Culture in the Home 2^,7 yet they should have no thought for the artist, but should yield themselves to the beautiful object, the poem or the picture. Cultivate first the poetic taste, which belongs to a period earlier than the critical fac- ulty, the two phases of mind being, as a matter of fact, incompatible with one another. First learn from the poet, and later analyze his works and his life. It should be as though the poems wrote themselves, or just were. The language material for the period between the ages of two or three and seven should be mainly poetry. Poetry is the natural language of childhood, since it is the language of faith, of wonder, of high-wrought feeling. Simple, image-making poetry is our most natural available means of bridging the space between lack of knowledge and the beginnings of understand- ing. Whoever knows children is aware of their love of repetition and of exact statement. They want you to tell the same story at least a hundred times without changing it in the slightest. The ant and the grass- hopper must say good morning to each other in pre- cisely the same tone and manner every time; the wolf must use the self -same words each time he meets the little pig and he must never recover from his hoarse- ness. Poetry, being fixed in form, satisfies this hunger for repetition and exactness, and besides, the rhythm makes such a natural appeal that memorizing calls for no more than baby effort. That the memory should be thus exercised in early childhood is evidenced by the fact that it is the first of our mental faculties to be developed and used. It is a faculty which we share in common with the animals. Its continual exercise in laying up the treasures of the 238 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother poets, the precepts of the philosophers, the problems of the mathematicians, gave to the Greek mind a power of retention which nothing could easily escape. In addition to the new words which our little learner is gaining through observation-lessons, let us increase his vocabulary by teaching him simple epic poetry worth remembering for life, for in this way he learns to speak agreeably and correctly. Such memorizing gives abundant practice in the happy choice of words, idioms, phrases, in expressive, energetic language, in harmoni- ous combinations and sequences, thought is stimulated and the imagination is exalted. Teach simple Bible verses dealing with natural things and speaking of God in a simple manner, such as: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good"; "Hast thou seen a man diligent at his work ? He shall stand before kings"; "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise"; "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." Choose animal stories before fairy stories, for they come first in the order of nature, while fairy tales belong to a later age than seven or eight years. Accustom the child to use a sentence rather than a phrase in answering you, but do not forget that this can be done only during the regular lessons, for insist- ence upon such accuracy during ordinary, everyday life would be impossible and irrational. During the regu- lar lessons, however, the child will instinctively and naturally comply with the demand for an accuracy which becomes irksome in ordinary intercourse with others. Here is an outline of model lessons suitable for young children, beginning with the age of three, which Language Culture in the Home 239 the mother should supplement out of her own imagina- tion and inventiveness, which will grow by leaps and bounds when she calls them into play. The main thing that I hope to indicate in this space is the kind of mate- rial and teaching that may be safely given during this early age. SPECIAL METHODS (Natural and Inductive) English 1. Memorizing. 2. General Information. 3. Spelling. 4. Reading. These subjects should be taught in the order indi- cated, and in such a way that from the very beginning the second is taught in conjunction with the first. As the first step in teaching spelling, teach the child to analyze the spoken word into the sounds which compose it, and when this is understood, show by what letters these sounds are represented and teach the names of the letters, on the analogy that the child should know something of numbers before he learns the symbols, or figures. Next show that the same letter does not always represent the same sound, and that the same sound is not always represented by the same letter. Take very simple words of two or three letters, such as No, for instance. Have the child separate this word into the two sounds (not letters), N-o, without as yet giving the names of these letters. After the child has had practice in analyzing other words into the sounds composing them, teach him the names of the letters 240 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother representing these sounds, one at a time and very care- fully, as en, o. The teaching of reading should not be begun until sufficient progress has been made in the other three subjects. In teaching English, the teacher-mother should keep in mind the following aims: to develop and train the mind; to develop a gradually increasing vocabulary from the simplest beginners ; to train the child to think before speaking; to form and develop the faculty of expressing exactly and unmistakably what is meant; to accustom and habituate the child to the use of cor- rect and good language ; through habits of caution and exactness in speech, to foster truthfulness, as well as caution and exactness in all things; to make the child see things as they are and describe them exactly as he sees them, thus acquiring a store of correct notions and ideas; to enable the child to connect the notions and ideas so acquired with logical thoughts, and to express these in correct language ; to train the child to state as facts only those things that are facts, at the same time not only allowing but encouraging him to indulge in imagination and fancy within certain limits. Do not try to teach the child a poem that he does not like or thoroughly understand; do not force on a child the moral of a story, or even suggest it, but leave it to the child to find it by instinct and intuition; do not teach prayers as a part of these lessons. Prayer should be kept apart as something sacred, confined to the intimacy between the child and the mother or fam- ily, and God. How to proceed in teaching English in all four departments : Follow instructions and method as outlined under Language Culture in the Home 241 "How to Proceed" in "Object-Lessons and Observa- tions." Make the child separate his teeth and open his mouth wide when speaking. Make him enunciate each word after you, distinctly and repeatedly, syllable by syllable. The articulation should be so careful that each single sound can be distinctly heard. The general lament over bad spelling is only too just, but such wretched spelling is primarily due to careless articulation and pronunciation in earliest youth. It rests with the teacher-mothers to remedy it by their patience and care, the schools being powerless without their help. Make the child take a breath before he speaks, and a new breath after each sentence; make him speak from the chest and not from the throat and sit or stand erect with chest expanded and shoulders thrown back. If you attend to these things there will be no need for so-called breathing exercises. From the beginning, make the child speak correctly during these lessons. This does not mean to bar all "baby talk" outside the lessons, which would be as unreasonable as to use only baby talk. Make the child give correctly the vowel-sounds — it, not ut; make him sound final consonants — and, not an', eating, not eatin' ; make him separate words — Jack Horner, not Jack- orner, pulled out, not pull dout, and the like. Other- wise, such slight neglects will develop into serious and incorrigible faults and habits. Do not allow the child to escape effort, or hide igno- rance, by vague replies. Where possible, suppress by ridicule all attempts at evasion, elusion, or prevarica- tion. Do not let the child trick you or get the better of you, or imagine that he does, or he will lose his respect 242 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother for you and you will lose your authority. If the child sees that you are weaker than himself in any one point, you might as well give up. If you yourself have made a mistake, acknowledge it at once, without hesitation or further comment, for if the child sees that you are strong enough to acknowledge your mistakes, he will follow your example. MEMORIZING FIRST YEAR For a model lesson we shall take the nursery rhyme : "Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner, Eating a Christmas pie; He put in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, 'What a good boy am I !' " Sing or repeat these lines many times distinctly to the child. Then repeat the first few words and let him supply the next word when you pause, as: "Little Jack "; "Horner." "Sat in a "; "corner," and so on. Then omit two or more words for the child to sup- ply, as: "Little "; "Jack Horner." "Sat "; "in a corner," and so on, until the child learns to recite the lines alone. Teach the child to suit action to the words, as at "Sat in a corner," let him run and sit in a corner. Ask questions, as : "What was the little boy's name?" "His name was Jack Horner." "Where did he sit?" "He sat in a corner." "How many corners in this Language Culture in the Home 243 room?'* "Show me the corner of the table." "How many corners has this table?" "Is this a corner?" (indicating the edge). "No, that is an edge." Make the child answer in complete sentences, teach- ing him to join words to phrases and phrases to sen- tences or clauses. Use words and phrases from the rhyme just men- tioned, in teaching the child to form simple, correct sentences, eliminating as much as possible the /, me, my, and so on. Here follow some examples of such sentences. This chair is little. Sister sat this morning by the table. (It is necessary here to add "this morning," otherwise the child would not understand that sat refers to past time.) Now, mother sits by the able. That chair stands in the corner. Last night. Baby put her thumb into her mouth. Now, Baby puts her spoon into her mouth. Following these examples, innumerable suitable sen- tences adapted to the local circumstances may be formed. Pronounce the word am; make the child repeat it after you. Then separate it into its two sounds (not letters) a-m, as directed earlier in this chapter. Make the child repeat these sounds after you. Let the child find words rhyming with am, as ham, clam, jam, in which way you can test whether he understands what is meant by a sound. Other suitable words are /, a, in. Teach the child that / and a are words of one sound, while am and in are words of two sounds. Be very careful that the child, in rendering these sounds, has the organs of speech in the correct position : for n. 244 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother teeth closed, lips separated, for I, mouth wide open. A noticeable pause should be made between each two succeeding sounds. Take the word in for sound-analysis. Let the child find words rhyming with in (tin, fin, pin, din, etc.) Make clear the meaning of such words and help the child to make little sentences to illustrate the use of each : This is a tin cup. The goldfish has a fin. The pin has a head and a point. Brother is making a din. SECOND YEAR For most children of four, such verses as the eight lines following may be taken as a model. "What does little birdie say. In her nest at peep of day? *Let me fly,' says little birdie, 'Mother, let me fly away.' 'Birdie, rest a little longer, Till the little wings are stronger/ So she rests a little longer. Then she flies away." Before proceeding to teach the second year's lessons on memorizing, teach the observation lessons described in Chapter VII for second year. When the child understands the terms long and longer as used therein, proceed in much the same way to teach him the meaning of a little longer. Have at hand several sticks, pencils, ribbons, towels, or similar objects, of various lengths. Tell the child to give you a certain stick; then to give you a much longer stick; then to give you a little longer stick. When the child Language Culture in the Home 245 understands the meaning of little longer, as applied to concrete things, give him a lesson on a little longer, referring to time. **You may play a little longer," "We shall stay a little longer," etc. Teach the word stronger in a similar way, by making the child break bits of thread or twine, or pieces of wood of different thicknesses, to learn the meaning of stronger. Teach the pupil the meaning of *'peep of day" by awakening him early to see the approaching dawn. When every word and expression in this stanza has thus been made clear to the child, proceed to teach the memorizing of it in the same way as in "Memorizing, First Year." Now, hold with the child a dialogue based on this stanza, the mother being the mother-bird with the pupil the birdie. Child. "Let me fly, mother, let me fly away." Mother. "Birdie, rest a little longer. Till the little wings are stronger." Now change the parts about, the mother being the birdie. After exhausting such dialogues, continue your questioning as follows: "Have you got wings?" "No, mother (or mamma), I have not any wings." "What have you instead of wings?" "I have arms instead of wings." (Or, "Instead of wings I have arms.") Thus the child begins to see that there is a similarity between his body and that of the bird. He will prob- ably ask: "Why can I not fly, too?" to which a fitting answer is that God made the birds to fly, while He made us to walk upright. Make the child analyze the sounds of words as here- 246 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother inbefore directed. Take words of three sounds. Suit- able words in this stanza are let, fly, away, till, peep. Say nothing about silent letters, the child not having as yet learned about the letters. Find words rhyming with these as met, net, pet, wet, yet, bet, get, jet, set. Make sentences using these words. These lessons in sound-analysis need not be given every day, nor with many words, but only occasionally and with such suitable words as those listed. MEMORIZING THIRD YEAR The child of five will rejoice in that vigorous stanza from Browning's "Pied Piper of Hamelin" : "Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats, And bit the babies in their cradles, And ate the cheeses out of the vats, And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles. Split open the kegs of salted sprats, Made nests inside men's Sunday hats. And even spoiled the women's chats. By drowning their speaking With shrieking and squeaking In fifty different sharps and flats." ^lake the child understand that bit means did bite, and so on. While the child will readily understand that killed refers to past time, he will not so readily understand that fought, bit, and ate refer to past time and mean did fight, did bite, did eat. When the child Language Culture in the Home 247 understands every word in the first three lines, ending with "cradles," make him memorize them, as in second year; ask questions, such as: "What did the rats do?" and make the child tell you the three things thus far learned. Then: "Who fought the dogs?" "The rats fought the dogs." "Who killed the cats?" and so on. Before beginning the next line, make certain that the child knows what a vat is. A vat is a large tub. In some countries, Switzerland, for instance, cheeses are made as large as cart-wheels, so they are kept in vats. A visit to the grocer might give the child an idea of the size of the whole cheese. As the rats attacked the cheeses in the vats, that is, before a human being could get a bite of them, they were not only greedy but impudent. Add the memorizing of this line to the previous ones. Continue in this way, explaining word by word the meaning of each line, then adding that line to the part memorized. Show the child a keg. If you have none, explain that it is a small cask. Show him a small herring, to make him understand sprats. Explain and illustrate "split open." "Shrieking and squeaking in fifty different sharps and flats" may be illustrated on the piano or some other musical instrument by dis- cordant notes, or by the human voice in various high and low pitches. Explain that sharp and flat as used here have not their usual meaning; that "sharp" means high and "flat" means low. Let the child try to imitate these noises without getting out of the bounds of pro- priety. Let the memorizing keep pace with the explanations but never go before the understanding. If no live rats can be shown, show the child pictures 248 Bookless Lessons for Teacher-Mother of rats, and help him to make vivid mental pictures, such as the rats ''licking the soup from the cooks' own ladles." Hungry rats will attack cats and dogs and even human beings. Do not give a morbid complexion to the passage, "bit the babies." Make the child analyze the sounds of one word, or more, in each lesson, taking words of four sounds, as : rats, chats, hats, cats, vats, dogs, killed, cooks, open, kegs. Make him find rhyming words for fought, fight, bit, bite, eat, ate, keg, and so on. Make him form simple correct sentences using the words fight, fought; kill, killed; eat, ate; lick, licked; make, made; spoil, spoiled; and so on. MEMORIZING FOURTH YEAR For a model lesson we take the following poem "Twinkle, twinkle, little star ! How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky. "When the glorious sun is set, When the grass with dew is wet. Then you show your little light. Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. "In the dark blue sky you keep. And often through my curtains peep. For you never shut your eye Till the sun is in the sky. Language Culture in the Home 249 "As your bright and tiny spark Guides the traveler in the dark, Though I know not what you are, Twinkle, twinkle, little star." The object-lessons on sun, stars, dew, sky and world should be taught before the memorizing of this poem, and an analogous procedure should be followed with all poems or passages to be memorized. Teach the meaning of all new words in the first stanza. By showing the child a distant light shining with interruptions explain the meaning of "winking" ; in this way friendly greetings could be exchanged in spite of great distances, just as we wave good-by and welcome to one another; show objects sparkling, as raindrops or dewdrops in the bright light, thus explain- ing the meaning of sparkle; then associate the three words wink, sparkle, and twinkle, to show that they have related meanings and that yet each word has its own uses, as : 1. To close and open the eyelids rapidly — wink, (Illustrate.) 2. When a light seems to throw off sparks, as a red hot iron when hammered in the forge, we say it sparkles. 3. When a bright light comes and goes rapidly at intervals, as if winking, we say it twinkles. Find further examples such as a drop of dew or a snow-crystal sparkling in the sunlight. In this way prepare the pupil for the important lessons in syno- nyms that should be given between seven and ten. In the evening, while the child gazes at the starry sky, the mother should seize the opportunity and recite 250 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother aloud the first four lines. Let the pupil single out a conspicuous star, which he should try to find night after night, the mother reciting the lines to him each time. In this way is naturally brought about the con- tact of souls between mother and child, of which so much is spoken and written. Further suitable questions are such as these : "What color is the sky on a clear day?" "It is light blue." "What color is it on a clear night?" "It is dark blue," and so on. When the child knows by heart the first four lines, prepare him in the same way for learning the second stanza. Find synonyms for glorious, such as splendid. Help him to use the words correctly. Point out that these words are used figuratively, not literally, in such phrases as : "A glorious time," "splendid fun." After this stanza has been memorized, ask ques- tions, as : "When do the stars shine?" The answer should be found in the first line, then the second line, of the second stanza. "Where do the stars go when the sun is shining?" (The child's answer will show you whether you have taught successfully the lesson on stars, and will give you the opportunity to clear up miscomprehensions.) "Where does the dew go when the sun is shining?" (Follow hint under preceding question.) Proceed with the third and fourth stanzas, follow- ing directions as given for the first and second. Before giving the fourth stanza for memorizing, make clear the meaning of guides and traveler. To Language Culture in the Home 251 guide means to lead or to direct. Mother guides the child by the hand. The driver guides the horse by means of reins. Someone directs the stranger to the house which he seeks. The words pilot, conductor and the like, might here be taught to the child, associating them with to guide. In similar ways, make clear the words travel and traveler. FIRST LESSONS IN RHYTHM AND RHYME Recite aloud the line, "Twin'kle, twin'kle, lit'tle star'," pausing after each word, pronouncing "twin- kle" almost as "twinkel." (The accent or symbol ' marks the syllable which has the stress or emphasis.) Make the child repeat carefully after you. Then ask : Which word is pronounced with one opening of the mouth ? Ans. "Star." "Star" is a word of only one syllable, which means that it is pronounced by opening the mouth once only or with one effort of the voice. "Little," on the contrary, has two syllables and is pronounced with two efforts of the voice, almost as lit-tel. Now pronounce each word separately and ask how many syllables each contains. Ans. ''Twinkle has two syllables ; little has two syl- lables; star has one syllable." Continue in this way, line by line, through the poem. Do not yield to the prevailing error that repetition is wearisome to the child. On the contrary, and for- tunately, it appeals to him and thus simplifies the teach- ing. Such lessons as these are like a game to him. Note his pleasure on detecting for the first time words 252 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother of three syllables, as di'-a-mond, glo^-ri-ous, trai/- el-cr. Now make the pupil repeat the first verse and scan the syllables, tapping the table with thumb and fingers alternately to keep the count. Give him time to realize the count — four stressed syllables plus three unac- cented. Do likewise with the second line. The pupil will notice that most of the lines have seven syllables. Let him continue thus throughout the poem, counting the syllables of every verse, finding the three exceptions to this uniform number of syllables. When finally reciting the poem, the scanning must be made subordi- nate to the natural pausing and pronouncing, but only in so much that the reciting does not seem to conflict with the colloquial way of speaking. The child will have learned from previous lessons that rhyming words contain similar sounds. Show him that in his poetry, the rhyming words recur at regular intervals. Rhyme is not a mere ornament, but may be compared to harmony in music. Repeat the first two lines of "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." Make the child repeat and name the rhyming words. Make him find other words rhyming with star and are. Re- peat the third and fourth lines and make the child find the rhyming words. Make him find words rhyming with high and sky. Continue in this way throughout the poem. The liking for rhythm is simply and naturally culti- vated in young pupils by teaching them simple songs and poems. Continue the preparatory practice. I. Pronounce distinctly and slowly, in an even tone, the following words, making the child repeat them in Langtiage Culture in the Home 253 the same manner: ma-ple; bran-ches; seed-ling; nest- ling; swal-low; spar-row; rob-in; blue-bird. 2. Repeat, making the pupil repeat one at a time after you, this time accenting the first syllable of each — ma! -pi; bran'-ches, etc. — marking it by clapping the hands sharply. 3. Count aloud twenty times, one-two, one-two; enunciate slowly and evenly, similarly to the ticking of a large clock. 4. Repeat, saying one very loudly and two very softly each time. Speak evenly, steadily, keep time. This means, speak rhythmically, at a slow rate of speed. Repeat at moderate rate. Repeat fast. 5. Repeat 4, clapping hands at one each time. 6. Repeat 4, making a downward motion of the hand for one and an upward motion of the hand for two each time. 7. Repeat the first four lines of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," according to 4. i' 2 i' 2 i' 2 i' Twin kle / twin kle / lit tie / star, i' 2 i' 2 i' 2 i' How I / won der / what you / are ; i' 2 i' 2 i' 2 i' Up a / bove the / world so / high, i' 2 i' 2 i' 2 i' Like a / di amend / in the / sky. 8. Repeat, clapping hands at one each time. 9. Repeat, beating time as directed in 6. This poem, which has two beats to the measure, with accent on first beat, should be thus recited rhyth- 254 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother mically — metrically — throughout, not once but many times. 10. Repeat 7, 8, and 9 with other poems having the same rhythm, as "What Does Little Birdie Say?" Make the child repeat after you, speaking distinctly, slowly and evenly, the following succession of words with two syllables : a-way^ ; re~turn' ; sur -prise' ; a-lone' ; de-ny'; ^t-tack' ; re-porf ; ex-plode'; pro-voke'; con-ceaV ; se-cure' ; con- fess' ; de-fend' ; a-cross'. 1 1 . Again make the pupil repeat this list after you, accenting the second syllable of each word with both voice and hand-claps. 12. Repeat 4, but this time speak one very softly and two very loudly each time, speaking steadily, keep- ing time with hand-claps, slowly, moderately fast, then at a fast rate. 13. Repeat 12, beating time, making an upward motion of the hand for one and a downward motion for two each time. 14. Repeat seven verses of the stanza beginning with: 12 12 12 12 They fought' / the dogs' / and killed' / the cats, clapping hands at 2 each time and laying stress on every second syllable. 15. Repeat, beating time as directed in 13. 16. Drill the pupils on these exercises, using other poems having the same rhythm — two beats to a meas- ure; accent on second beat — as Stevenson's *'My bed is like a little boat," Kingsley's ''Farewell," Coleridge's "He prayeth best who loveth best." Language Culture in the Home 255 ' MEMORIZING FIFTH YEAR For children of seven or older, let us take for a model lesson the first stanza from Browning's "Pied Piper of Hamelin." "Hamelin Town's in Brunswick, By famous Hanover city; The river Weser, deep and wide, Washes its wall on the southern side; A pleasanter spot you never spied; But when begins my ditty. Almost five hundred years ago. To see the townsfolk suffer so From vermin, was a pity." To the mother, the geographical allusions are pic- turesque but not correct, for Hamelin is not in Bruns- wick but in Hanover, the Weser at that point is neither deep nor wide — a man could wade across — nor does it wash the southern wall of Hamelin, for Hamelin is not a walled town. Do not, however, plague the child with such criticisms of poetic license, for at this age, the child takes no thought of the poem's maker. In this and all succeeding lessons of the course, the mother should first study the selection with the aid of a good unabridged dictionary which illustrates with quotations the meanings of words defined. In this way she enriches her own store of learning, keeps her mind open and fresh for exercise, and forestalls the danger of her child's feeling himself more intellectual than she after he enters school. Do not allow the child in speaking to you to use "won't" and "can't," for he 256 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher-Mother should be more particular in talking to his mother than to others. The instructions for memorizing previously given should be applied to these lessons, with suitable enlarge- ments. Make the pupil understand first what each word means, then what each sentence (not each line) means, then what the first four lines mean. Point out that the 's does not go with town, but means '*is." Tozvn, city, and prozince should mean different things to the child. Make the meaning of the stanza clear by sketching a rough plan with chalk on your kitchen door, or with a stick in the center of the yard. Rub the plan out and let the child reproduce it from memory. Always use a horizontal surface for such lessons rather than a wall map, thus avoiding the pos- sibility of lasting confusion in the pupil's mind. Rivers that climb heavenward, oceans standing on edge, the North Pole up and the South Pole down, remain to many troublesome misconceptions throughout life, owing to the use of maps shown in a vertical position. Attend carefully to the vowel sounds, the sounds of the final consonants, and the syllabification. Make the child speak from the chest and not through the nose. The emitted current of air should pass freely and unob- structed through the mouth, which will develop the lungs better than so-called calisthenics or elocution exercises. In the fifth line, what spot is meant? What does spy mean? "When begins my ditty" does not mean that the ditty was begun five hundred years ago, but that the story happened then, or thereabouts. Question about ditty. Have the pupil name ditties he has heard. By means of the seventh line, teach the child to form Language Culture in the Home 257 some idea of long periods of time, for instance, long before the discovery of America. "Five hundred years'* does not mean exactly five hundred years. Quote similar statements, as: **He has hundreds of friends," which does not mean that his friends have been counted. A warning against exaggerations would be timely here. Ask questions that make the child think about the meaning of words and the relations expressed by such simple words as tOy from, away, towards, in, out. Ask the same question in as many different ways as you possibly can, and see that each answer fits the new form of the question. Discourage the practice of memorizing without get- ting a clear understanding of the meaning and force of each word. If you neglect careful word study the child may form the habit of aimless reading, and what he has read will pass through his mind as things pass through a sieve, the coarse things remaining and the finer things escaping. Repeat the first line, pausing after each word, and tell me how many words it contains. What is the first word? the fourth? third? second? Give the child time to find the correct answers ; dis- courage hasty replies. Teach him to say, "I do not know," instead of guessing. The main purpose of this exercise is to drill him to think before he speaks. Do not give too many of these drills in one lesson, but give frequent short lessons of this kind. Rhyming, Make the child find the rhyming words that mark the ends of eight lines. Which verse does not rhyme with another? 258 Bookless Lessons for the Teacher -Mother In connection with this and numerous other lessons the thought will suggest itself to the teacher-mother that such instruction could be given with greater ease and dispatch in connection with reading lessons, the printed page being a ready mechanical aid to locating verse-endings, rhyming words, monosyllables, dissyl- lables, etc. All this is true, but mind-training is simi- lar to muscle-training, and it is not mere instruction, or knowledge, but use that gives strength that endures and power that achieves. Devise lessons that can be taught while the pupil stands, with his eyes on your eyes, instead of glued to a book. Make the lessons never too hard, but hard enough so that the child may experience the joy of attainment. Rhythm. Make the pupil repeat the first line and accent the first of each two beats, as directed in "Twinkle, Twin- kle, Little Star." The other verses, except the fourth and fifth, have the accent on the second beat, as in "They fought the dogs and killed the cats." Teach these also as before directed. Make the child repeat after you, speaking distinctly, slowly and evenly, the following succession of words : Mex^-i-can, car'-pen-ter, hoV-i-day, an^-i-mal, black^- ber-ry, chat^-ter-ing, Dec'-a-logue, sep^-a-rate, his^- to-ry, W-hra-ry, cat'-a-logue, shaf-ter-ing. Repeat, clapping hands on first syllable of each word. Count, evenly and slowly, one-two-three, one-two-three, four times. Repeat, speaking one very loudly and two- three very softly. Do this "in time," or rhythmically. Repeat, clapping hands on one. Beat triple time a number of times; hand motions: down — to the left — Language Culture in the Home 259 up; down — to the left — up; and so on, slowly. Again count one-two-three, with the hand motions or beats, several times. Always beat down for the count one, tapping the table to accent it. Make the child keep time by counting your beats, and make him beat time also. Find verses written in triple measure : "Bird of the / wil'derness, / blithe'some and / cum'ber- less,/ O ! to a / bide' in the / des'ert with / thee/." Grammar. Explain and illustrate to the child that certain words are name-words. Mary is a name word. Village is a name-word. Ask: "What is your name? Your brother's name?" etc. "What is the name of our post office?" "Name some of the things in this room." "Name-words are called nouns. Repeat the first verse of the poem and tell me the name- words, or nouns." "The name- words, or nouns, are Hamelin, town, Brunswick" "Repeat the second verse and name the nouns." Con- tinue thus until the child begins to recognize nouns without difficulty. Then give the definition: A noun is the name of a person, or a place, or other thing. Synonyms. These are words with nearly the same, or a similar meaning ; as : town, city, village. Find synonyms for : famous, river, spot, to begin, etc. INDEX Accuracy, in speech, iii, 216, 233, 235. 238, 240 Age, and development, 24, 29; and education, 27; and habit formation, 59 ; and play, 141 ; and prayer, 192; and religion, 189 ; and sense training, 99 Anger, supression of, 225 Animals, observation of, 107- 109; as pets, 96, 152 Appreciation, cultivation of, 91 Army, mental tests, 20 Astronomy, and sense training, 112 Attention, and play, 136-7 Attitude, and manners, 219 Authority, recognition of, 11-12, 37, 46 Backwardness, mental, 171 -2 Benefit, idea of, 129 Birds, observation of 96-7, 109 Blackboard, and play, 152 Blocks, alphabetical, usefulness, lOI Body, and discipline, 52; educa- tion of, 23 ; and habit forma- tion, 59, 75 ; and manners, 219 ; and play, 134 Books, and education, 2, 97 Borrowing, 209 Brains, 12 Breathing, and speech, 80 Bubbles, 158 Building, as game, 159-60 Bulbs, planting of, no Buttons, as toys, 158 Character, formation of, 40 Circiunference, explanation of term, 126 Commands, 53-4; and discipline, 40-1 ; and stubbornness, 71 Companionship in childhood, 141 -2, and play, 144-5 Comparison, and observation, 115, 118 Compass, and observation, 113 Composure, 75 Compulsion, and education, 7; and habit formation, 60; and moral training, 208; and prayer, 192; and work, 175, 181 Conscience, cultivation of, 190, 227; education of, 23; and morals, 207, 216 Consistency, and discipline, 38 Contradicting, correction of, 69 Criminality, 4, 19, 20, 185 Criticism, by children, 42-3; faculty, 237 Custom, and habit, 60 Dark, fear of. See Fear Deafness, 85 Death, explanation of, 201 Deception, and lying, 213 Decisions, 56; responsibility of, 47 Diameter, explanation of term, 126 Diet, 52, 65 Discipline, 2, 4, 15, 18-20, 35-83; and habit, 58-83 Docility, 46 Dolls, 151-2 Don'ts, list of, 56-7 Drawing, 158 Dress, 116; and play, 147 Drudgery, and work, 177 Dumbness, 85 261 262 Index Duty, 55 ; and discipline, 36 ; and work, 164 Ear, training of, 84-5, 107 Education, and books, 3; and habit, 58; misuse of term, 5, 8 ; and religion, 185 ; and work, 172-3 Effort, and work, 166, 169, 179 Eggs, educational value, 96 Egotism, 77 Emotions, cultivation of, 223; education of, 15 Enunciation, 78-9, 241; defects in, 81 Errands, 178 Evolution, and play, 132 Exaggeration, and lying, 215 Example, 36, 147; influence of, 19; and moral training, 211 Exercise, as play, 147-8 Experience, and reason, 46 Explanations, 56 Faculties, 12 Failure, and habit, 20 Faith, in childhood, 188; and morality, 186 Fastidiousness, avoidance of, 64 Father, and discipline, 45; and play, 147 . Faults, correction of, 64 Fear, 6; of dark, 69 Feeble-mindedness, 4, 16 Feeling, sense of. See Touch Fisher, Sydney G., on work, 171 Food. See Diet Franklin, Benjamin, and moral training, 228-9 Freedom, and discipline, 40 Froebel, Friedrich, 171 ; on re- ligious education, 186 Fruit, and observation, 122 Games, 131-2, 161 Gardening, 181 ; and observation, 113 Genius, 4 Geography, first ideas, 160 Girdling, 125 God, and education, 23 Golden Rule, and manners, 217 Grace, at meals, 222 Grammar, lessons in, 259 Gratitude, cultivation of, 220-2 Gymnastics, and play, 134 Habit, 20 ; and discipline, 58-83 ; and education, 8; and work, 40, 168 Happiness, and discipline, 39 Health, and discipline, 52; and habit formation, 76; and play, 134 Hearing, sense of, 84-5, 107 Heredity, i, 4, 19, 185 Hiawatha, and observation les- sons, 125 Home, and education, 4-5, 10, 20, 94 Honesty, inculcation of, 204-7 Himiility, cultivation of, 190 Ideas, development of, 24 Illness, and habits, 75-7 Imagination, deterioration of, 88; development of, 154, 157- 8; and lying, 215; and play, 135 Imitation, and education, 140 Inclination, and will, 60; and work, 164 Individuality, and discipline, 42; and education, 25 Indolence, 63 ; correction of, 229 Indoor amusements, 155-6 Indulgence, 38; and diet, 65-6 Infancy, and discipline, 37; and training, 27 Influence, moral, 9; and moral training, 228 Information, 32; and language training, 247, 256; and obser- vation, 115 Ingenuity, development of, 160; and play, 138, 159 Initiative, development of, 160 Inquisitiveness, 28; and sensQ training, 99 Index 263 Instinct, of animals, 200-1 Instruction, child's right to, 4 Intelligence, and reasoning, 47; and standardization, 26; sta- tistics, 165; and work, 171 Interest, and education, 7, 22; and sense training, 95; and work, 177 Interference, 53 Irreligion, and education, 187 Jones, Dean, quoted, 186 Justice, and discipline, 37-8 Knowledge, basis of, 86; desire of, 8; and faith, 195; and observation, 86 Language, 28 ; accuracy of, 1 1 1 ; cultivation of, 231-259; and observation, 125-6 ; and thought, 233-4 Leaves, and observation, 120, 127 Left-handedness, correction of, 68 Lever, 132 Life, perception of, 137; valua- tion of, 202 Lisping, correction of, 81 Literature, love of, 8 Lord's Prayer, 192 Lying, 209-17 Manners, cultivation of, 217 Mathematics, home teaching, 95 Meaning, expression of, 233 Measuring, and language train- ing, 244; and observation, 115, 119, 126; and sense training, III Memorizing, and language train- ing, 234-5, 237-9, 242; and observation, 115-6, 119-20, 128; and prayer, 192 Memory, 13 Men, as teachers, 45 Mental defectives, 14 Mercury, and sense training, 112 Method, 31 Mimicry, 107 Mind, and body, 18; develop- ment of, 8, 24; education of, 23 ; and play, 134 ; and senses, 86 ; and sense training, 98-9 Modeling, 153 Montessori, 26 Moon, and observation, 113 Morality, and education, 23 ; and habit, 59; inculcation of, 204; and religion, 185, 191 Morbidity, avoidance of, 202 Morning, advantages of, 52 Mother, as educator, 5, 9 Muscular sensation, cultivation of, 106 Mysteries, belief in, 198; incul- cation of, 194 Nail-biting, correction of, 67 Names, and observation, 114; and sense training, 112 Nap, 63 Nature, observation of, 99; and religious education, 201-2 Nervousness, 73 ; and nail biting, 67 Obedience, 29, 40, 42, 44, 46, 53-5 ; as habit, 22 ; and reason- ing, 47; and work, 175-6 Object lessons, 100, 104 Observation, 28; and education, 84, 103; habit of, 22; and language training, 244, 247; lessons in, 104 ; and play, 140 ; and truth, 210 Order, 53; cultivation of, 229; and habit formation, 60; and play, 149-SO, 155 Originality, development of, 160 Our Father. See Lord's Prayer Parents, as educators, 11 Pedagogy, and psychology, 22- 34 Perfumes, and smell, 105 Persuasion, and discipline, 48 264 Index Pets, 152 ; educational value, 96 ; and sense training, 108 Physical defects, 16 Picture puzzles, 156 Plants, and observation, 109, 1 13-4, 128 Plasticene, 153 Play, and education, 7, 22, 73, 131-62 Playhouse, 160; construction of, 150 Playroom, 149 Pleasure, and habit, 60 Poetry, and language training, 237 Pouting, correction of, 71 Poverty, and underdevelopment, 16 Prayer, 191 -2 Precocity, 78 Prevarication, and lying, 214 Prodigy, education of, 13 Promises, 216 Pronunciation, defects in, 81 Propriety, 63 Providence, Divine, belief in, 193-4 Psychology, and education, 6-7; and pedagogy, 22-34 Punishment, 37, 42, 48-51; and habit formation, 60; and moral training, 205-6, 208 ; and play, 144; and speech defects, 80-1 Quarreling, 146 Questions, method of dealing with, 195 Reading, for children, 235; and language training, 239, 258; teaching of, 25 Reason, development of, 24 ; edu- cation of, 29 Reasoning, 56; and knowledge, 85; and obedience, 46; and observation, 97 Regularity, 53; domestic, 37; and habit formation, 60; and nervousness, 73; and play, 149-50 Religion, and conscience, 207; education in, 22; and educa- tion, 23, 185 ; and moral train- ing, 225-7 Repetition, and language train- ing, 237 ; and observation, 129 ; and play, 162 Respect, 218 Responsibility, and habit for- mation, 61 ; sense of, 152, 168 Retarded development, causes, 14 Reverence, cultivation of, 187, 203; habit of, 22 Rhyme, lessons in, 252, 257 Rhythm, lessons in 251, 258-9; notion of, 85 Righteousness, and heredity, 19 Sand, as plaything, 137 Scale, and observation, 112 Schedule, daily, 62 School, and education, 5; and habit formation, 59 Science, and sense training, 87 Scolding, 56 Scrapbook, 156-7 Secrecy, 217 Seesaw, 13 1-2 Self -consciousness, 77 ; avoid- ance of, 74, 223 Self-control, 29; cultivation of, 226; and discipline, 35, 37; and manners, 220; and nerv- ousness, 75 ; and speech, 80 Self-denial, 39 Senses, education of, 22, 24, 84; training of, 28, 105; training of rules, 114-30 Sewing, 181 -2 Sewing cards, 153, 181 Shadow pictures, 159 Sight, sense of, 85; training, 109 Slovenliness, 63 Smell, sense of , 84-5; training, 105 Index 265 Solitude, advantages of, 142 Soul, and body, 23 Sound, analysis of, 243-6; in speech, 82 Speech, defects, 79-83; educa- tion of, 78; manner of, 79 Spelling, and enunciation, 241 ; and language training, 239 Stammering, correction of, 79 Standardization, 14, 25 ; and edu- cation, 89 Standing, 219 Stars, and observation, 112 Stubbornness, correction of, 71 "Studevan's Omadhaun," 172 Stuttering, correction of, 81 Subnormality, 14-16 Supervision, of play, 146-7; of work, 180 Switching, as punishment, 49, 51 Synonyms, 259 Talkativeness, correction of, 229- 30 Tasks, selection of, 176-8, 183 Teasing, 72 Temper, cure of, 68 Temptation, and moral training, 208 Thermometer, and observation, 112 Thoroughness, 180; habit of, 64 Thought, and language, 233-4; and observation, 88 Threats, and moral training, 212 Throwing, 159 Thumb-sucking, correction of. Timidity, and lying, 211 Tools, use of, 97 Touch, sense of, 84, 105 Toys, 135-40 Trees, growth, 30; and observa- tion, no, 115-29 Truth, definition, 209 Understanding, 55; and disci- pline, 45-6; and observation, 118 Unselfishness, cultivation of, 222 Uprightness, and education, 8 Use, idea of, 129 Vegetables, observation of, no Vocabulary, 28, 233, 240; culti- vation of, 230 ; and education, 23 Voice, use of, 79, 241 Voltaire, on religion, 187 Volubility, 79 Wastefulness, correction of, 229 Wealth, and underdevelopment, 16 Weight, estimation of, 106 Whining, correction of, 70-1 Will, and discipline, 37; educa- tion of, 15; and habit, 60; and nervousness, 74 Word-study, and language train- ing, 235, 239, 256-7 Words, clipping of, 78 Work, 40, 163-84; and educa- tion, 7, 74; habit of, 22; and habit formation, 61 ; and ob- servation, 97; and play, 134, 140 Wriggling, 74 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETTURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. NOV a? 1935 v.^^*^^^ t,W = 3Apr52U m 3'69-UAM LD 21-100?n-7,'c : —\ 5045^/ /" '' ^6.3 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY