•2B3 L57vv> Stoij^"*"' ■< 1 50UTHEI ! oo 1 — iH 2 =^ ^M 3NAL LIB OOO 2 — 4 — H Leuba The moral nature of the child in relation to moral education THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ETHICAL ?rf:.. l^^ ADDRESSES Vol. XIV. No. lo AND ETHICAL RECORD The Moral Nature of the Child in Relation to Moral Education James H. Leu p. a Moral Instruction in the Public Schools Alice L. Seugsberg Ethical Construction as Prepara- tion for Ethical Instruction Robert A. Woods Constitution of American Ethical Union Published Monthly: ETHICAL ADDRESSES 1415 LOCUST STREET, PHILADELPHIA YEARLY, $1.00 SINGLE COPY, 10 CTS, ) (Entered at Philadelphia as second-clas* matter) AN ETHICAL YEAR BOOK A SENTIMENT IN VERSE FOR EVERY DAY IN* THE YEAR. Compiled by Walter L. Sheldon. "The collection is designed for those who would like to have Scriptures in verse The art of poetry, like that of music, speaks for the sentiments natural to the hu- man soul." — From Prefatory Note. "For thirty years Mr. Sheldon has gleaned from the great poets their noblest expression of the ethical life, and has embodied the result of this long labor of love In this volume. He has used rare discrimina- tion in selecting passages that ring strong and true with brave, cheerful, elevating thought. There If an uplifting sentiment offered for each day In the year. Apart from the enjoyment of the literary excellence of the quotations, no thoughtful, aspiring person could absorb the thousand- souled message of this assemblage of authors without gaining strength and fortitude of spirit for the battle of life." — ^W. H. S. in The Public. Half Cloth, 50 cents ; five copies to one address $2.00. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHICS FOR JULY CONTENTS: The Relation of Theological Dogma to Religion. 0. A. Shrub- sole. Reading', England. Some Facts of the Practical Life and Their Satisfaction. Marlow Alexander Shaw, University of Missouri. Ethical Aspects of Economics. III. W. R. Sorley, Univer- sity of Cambridge. Has Sociology a Moral Basis? F. Carrel, London. The Ought and Reality. Jolin E. Boodin, Univei-sity of Kan- sas. Some Essentials of Moral Education. Harrokl .Tohnson, Lon- don. Self-Realization as the Moral End. Herbert L. Stewart, Canicklcrgns, Ircdand. The Psychology of Prejudice. .losiah Morse, Clark Univer- sity. Book Reviews. ETHICAL ADDRESSES, 1415 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pa. iHr. Salter H. ^fjeltion The death of Mr. Walter L. Sheldon, on June 5th, after an illness of ten months, is a most serious loss, not only to the St. Louis Society but to the whole Ethical Movement. Mr. Sheldon founded the Society in St. Louis twenty-one years ago, and his great ability, in- tense earnestness and whole-souled devotion as its leader and lecturer, have made it one of the largest and strong- est of all the Ethical Societies. An appreciation of Mr. Sheldon's life and work will be given in a future number. .h.n W\ THE MORAL NATURE OF THE CHILD IN RELATION TO MORAL EDUCATION- By Professor James H. Leuba, Bryn Mawr College. Allow me to remind you that the human being is both physical and psychical — he has a body as well as a mind — and that therefore factors of two orders psychical and physical are to be considered in ethical education. I shall not dwell long upon the relation existing between the physical and the moral. The time when consigning the body to Hell was thought to be a way of saving the soul is past. It is now recognized and acknowledged that in a very intimate sense body and mind are one, and are damned or saved together. But, we have only begun to realize the extent to which our conduct is rooted in quali- ties and propensities of our bodily organism. We have not even made a start toward learning how to modify un- desirable qualities and propensities by physical means; yet, there can be no doubt that, did we only know how, temperament itself could be modified by the right use of the proper kind of foods and drugs taken early and long enough. We are, however, learning the disastrous in- fluence upon mental and moral growth of common de- fects of sight and of hearing, of adenoid growths, of chronic, irritating discharges from mucous membranes, of insufficient nutrition. In a few cities a determined and in- *Address before the Moral Education Conference, held under the auspices of the American Ethical Union, New York, May ii, 1907. 287 883271 2SS THE MORAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. telligent effort is being made to remedy these physical evils, or, where they cannot be cured, to place the children in classes fitted to their condition. If anyone among you is tempted to think that I am giving undue weight to these slight physical disorders, let him take the trouble of informing himself on the mental retardation, and even permanent stupidity, engendered* by the presence of, for instance, adenoid growths. In this city, which by reason of its size, of its wealth, and of its scientific resources, should be in the lead, what is being done as well as the necessity for it may be gathered from the following ab- stract from the report of Superintendent Maxwell: "Up to a comparatively recent date the Health Department of the city, in its examination of school children, confined its energy to the detection of contagious disease, and to the temporary ex- clusion of pupils suffering from such disease. Except in Man- hattan, the work of the Health Department in the schools is still so limited. When Dr. E. J. Lederle was commissioner of health a beginning was made in the examination of children in Man- hattan to discover defects which retard physical development and intellectual progress. Under Dr. Thomas Darlington this work has been continued and extended. During the year 1906, 78,401 children were examined; and the following are some of the re- sults : No. of cases of bad nutrition 4,921 No. of cases of enlarged anterior glands 29,177 No. of cases of enlarged posterior glands 8,664 No. of cases of chorea ii38o No. of cases of cardiac disease 1,096 No. of cases of pulmonary disease 757 No. of cases of skin disease i,558 No. of cases of deformed spine 424 No. of cases of deformed chest 261 No. of cases of deformed extremities 550 No. of cases of defective vision 17,928 No. of cases of defective hearing 869 No. of cases of defective nasal breathing 11,314 No. of cases of defective teeth 39,597 No. of cases of deformed palate 831 No. of cases of hypertrophied tonsils 18,306 No. of cases of posterior nasal growtlis 9,438 No. of cases of defective mentality 1,857 THE MORAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. 289 "The total number found to require medical or surgical treat- ment was 56,259, out of 78,401 examined. The great majority requiring treatment were among those backward in studies, from one to five years behind the grade to which, on account of age, they would naturally belong. Experience has amply demonstrated that when a child is intractable or deficient, and is at the same time suffering from a removable physical cause, the removal of that cause almost immediately works a wonderful change, both in deportment and ability. If any way could be devised by which all children suffering from the maladies reported by the Health Department could have proper medical and surgical treatment, not only would such children be enormously benefited, but the present school facilities could be utilized to much better advan- tage." I pass on to the consideration of moral education deal- ing directly with the psychic nature of man, and I begin with a truism. From the point of view of conduct nothing more can be desired for a man than that he should know at any par- ticular moment what he ought to do and how to do it, and, that he should have the physical and moral energy to make a start and continue to the end. Ethical training is to strive, then, toward two more or less distinct, and yet never to be isolated, ends: (i) The enlightenment of the will. In itself the will is blind. Knowledge is required in order that we may judge aright. Power without knowledge is a curse. (2) The creation or the stimulation of appreciation of the good, the bemtti- ful and the true — an appreciation so clear and so zngorons that contacting tendencies zvill be overpoza^ered. For the knowledge of the right is not sufficient for its perform- ance. To this insufficiency every day of our lives testi- fies. To knowledge must be added the enthusiastic tem- per, the devotion, the love, which dissipate opposition whether it comes from within or from without. "No heart is pure that is not passionate ; no virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic," says the author of "Ecce Homo." 290 THE MORAL XATURE OF THE CHILD. Knowledge and pozver, or, if I may be allowed to use devotion as a synonym — knowledge and devotion is, as I understand it, the double aim of moral education. Knowledge of what is right is obviously the first re- quirement of good conduct. It is therefore natural that the intellectual, or, if you please, the formal side of edu- cation should have been the first to occupy the attention of ethical philosophers. From the time of the Greeks to our own days they have searched for what they termed the siumnum bonum. In their pre-occupation about this they have forgotten, meanwhile, the dynamic problem. As a matter of fact, one whole school of ethics practically denies the dynamic problem. It affirms that clear knowledge of the right is all that is wanted. In opposition to this in- tellectualistic point of view, Christianity declared that salvation is not by knowledge but by Faith ; and, it found in Love the principle of perfect life. Knowledge, said the Greeks ; faith, love, devotion, says Christianity, hold the key to the ideal life. The task before us to-day in the education of the young is to unite these two meanings. And since our knowledge of what is right is far in advance of our practice, the more urgent problem is to find ways and means of generating a spirit of positive and ardent devotion to moral ideals. It is the more pressing problem for two reasons : Our actual moral ideals, however defective they may be, will thereby be sooner realized and the more effective way to increase our knowledge — or to lead to its increase — is the prac- tice of that which at the present moment seems best. The greatest defect of our ethical training is not so much its failure to teach what righteousness is, and to point out that which is righteous, as it is its failure to aim at the production of moral power. In intellectual education we THE MORAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. 29I have until recently failed in a corresponding manner. The end pursued was to impart information, knowledge ; while it is now generally admitted that the primary pur- pose should be to create interest and develop mental powers. The more important improvements which have lately taken place in our schools, have proceeded from the change of mind just indicated. The aim of all instruction, not essentially technical or industrial in its purpose, should be, with regard to intellectual culture, to create interest, and develop mental powers, and with regard to moral courage, to stimulate a sense of ethical values and to in- duce devotion to ideals of life. It is often said that the task of the teacher, in so far as he is concerned with conduct, is the formation of good habits. Yes, good habits should be formed. Habits make a second nature. We want children to have good moral habits. But to set up the establishment of habits as the end of moral education involves a lamentable contraction, limitation, restriction, of the energies of life. Make of someone a bundle of habits and you rob him of the most precious possessions of man. You convert a spontaneous being into an automaton : you drive out the spirit to make the machine : you do away with reflective morality. Moral habits as the end of ethical education would lead to a state of society like that of classical China. The Christian religion in its various branches has tried, in its own way, to provide for the development of ethical power. It has appealed to the impulses, aspirations, af- fections, and emotions. The lay school, on its side, took up as its task the imparting of knowledge by arid intellec- tual methods. The two aims must be united — I do not say the two methods. How can this be done? How can the school education be made to develop mental power and 292 THE MORAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. moral vigor? That is the problem before our people, and more directly before our boards of education. Having reached this point, I have practically finished my task, since it was intended by the makers of the program that I should open the discussions of the day, and that the other speakers should tell us how the several branches of the school curriculum should be used in order tO' serve the true purpose of education. Before closing, however, I wish to make a general remark concerning one of the principles which, it seems to me, should guide us in this task. Man is an ethical being because he is a social be- ing. If every individual lived in isolation there would be no morality, at least not the morality of which we are now speaking. If morality is a social product, if the moral sense is the outcome of social life, then moral aspiration and moral enthusiasm, and also moral knowledge, arise in community life out of the social relations. There is no other school of morality than life. From the point of view of ethics, the school should consist of devices for bringing to the children a greater variety, and a larger number of effective experiences than would otherwise fall to his lot. It should further seek to provide these experi- ences in such a way, and under such circumstances, that the child should understand their meaning and feel their potency. At this point, I shall let Professor John Dewey continue and conclude the remarks I wish to make : *Tn the schoolroom," says this philosopher and educa- tor, "the mortise and the cement of social organization are alike wanting. Upon the ethical side, the tragic weak- ness of the present school is that it endeavors to prepare future members of the social order in a medium in which the conditions of the social spirit are eminently wanting." "We must conceive of work in wood and metal, of THE MORAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. 293 weaving, sewing, and cooking as methods of life, not as distinct studies. We must conceive of them in their social significance, as types of the processes by which society keeps itself going, as agencies for bringing home to the child some of the primal necessities of community life, and as ways in which these needs have been met by the grow- ing insight and ingenuity of man." — "The School and Society," John Dewey, University of Chicago Press, pp. 27 and 28. MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS* By Alice L. Seligsberg. According to the curriculum prescribed by the Board of Education for the elementary schools of this city, eth- ics is to be included in the work of every grade. More- over, the Board has gone so far as to provide a syllabus in ethics, for the use of teachers. But although the syllabus has marked merits, it is held by the teachers to be inade- quate, for, in the first place, it does not tell them how to carry out the advice it offers ; and in the second place, it does not take into account the fact that virtuous and in- telligent men and women, are not by virtue and intelli- gence alone fitly equipped to teach ethics. Because the syllabus gives but vague instead of clear and detailed suggestions, and because the Board has not considered the need for special preparation on the part of teachers of ethics; therefore we find that ethics appears as a rule only on zvritten programs, that seldom if ever are courses in the subject planned and followed in the public schools. In order to make clear from the start just what is the thesis I wish to elaborate in the following paper, let me say, that owing to the lack of a specially prepared body of instructors, I am opposed to the immediate introduction of a systematic course of ethics into the schools ; but that in- asmuch as direct ethical communications must needs and *Paper read before the Moral Education Conference, under the auspices of the American Ethical Union, at New York, May ii, 1907. 294 MORAL INSTRUCTION' IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 295 do take place in every class-room, between teacher and pupils individually or en masse, on such subjects as disor- der, the punishment of culprits, promotions, lack of con- centration, indolence, etc., therefore I think it is well, for the time being to utilize and develop what already exists in a rudimentary state. I think it advisable for us to move forward slowly, until we have prepared the special teach- ers without whom it is vain to attempt to give a syste- matic course. In conclusion I wish to suggest means for preparing these special teachers. To begin with, then, let me state my objection to the immediate introduction of an elaborate course of ethics into the public schools, even granted that such a course has been carefully planned in detail for the help of teach- ers. As one of the speakers at the first convention of the Religious Education Association said in 1903 : "Moral or ethical knowledge no more comes naturally of itself to the teacher than to any one else ; and especially if it is to be presented to others must it be learned in some orderly and systematic way. The possession of personal morality no more qualifies for teaching morality, than does the fact that I personally (as far as anybody knows) possess a perfect outfit of bones, muscles, arteries, veins, lungs, etc., qualify me to be demonstrator in anatomy in a university medical school." Moreover, the sort of teaching that is based on syllabi or textbooks in the teacher's hands can- not be effective. To be effective, the lessons must be the outcome of the teacher's own experiences of life. There- fore we must try to get the teacher to follow a course of reasoning and self-searching and observation that will bring him to the conviction of the truth and the import- ance of the lessons he is to impart. Any less personal preparation will result in flat lessons, that will in the long 296 MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. run create contempt among the children and weary dis- taste for whatever goes by the name ethics. It seems to me that the evils which result from poor teach- ing are in proportion to the closeness of the re- lation between the study taught and the life of the student; and that inasmuch as ethics is a partial revelation of the ways of life, the winding ways that lead from causes to their effects in the inner and outer worlds, therefore this particular study bears a most intimate relation to life; and therefore a poor ethics teacher is likely to do more harm than a poor teacher of physics, mathematics, geography, history, etc. Hence we ought not to permit anyone and everyone, prepared or unprepared, to try his hand at teaching ethics; and we ought not, by introducing ethics into the schools on an extensive scale before teachers are prepared for the pur- pose, to set in motion a force whose course it will be hard to control. But, let us ask ourselves, is the thing we wish eventu- ally to introduce already present in a rudimentary state? And can we build up on what we have at hand? In other words, are there any questions of conduct, which, by the very circumstances of school life, teachers are compelled to discuss with their pupils, and on which they already, often unconsciously, give more or less well-con- ducted lessons? If so, is it not a comparatively simple matter to train teachers to give those ethics lessons well which so many now give poorly? Instead of at once im- posing a fully planned ethics course from without, can we not find the nucleus of such a course already in the schools? Let me illustrate my meaning. There is prob- ably no teacher who has not at some time found it nec- essary to explain to the children just why they are held MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 297 to silence and order during- the school session. Since this is the case, why not see to it then that the teacher her- self understands the subjective as well as the practical value of discipline, and is provided with a series of les- sons through whose aid she can in the first place make her conclusions clear to the children, and in the second place can win the children over emotionally, so that they will be eager to test their own powers of self-control. It seems to me that this kind of help might be given to the teachers who desired it, in classes or conferences es- tablished for the purpose. It is not enough to say, as do so many of the syllabi that I have seen : Give lessons on obedience, order, etc. We must show the teacher how to go to work. A two-fold responsibility rests upon those who urge the introduction of even a transitional course of ethics into the schools; they must first deal with the teacher as a student to whom the principles underlying given situations must be made clear; and then, d-.aling with the teacher as a teacher, they must supply him or her with material for ethical lessons. But whence is this material to be drawn ? Perhaps the first thought that comes to most of us in reply is that our material must consist largely of stories — historical, bio- graphical, or purely imaginative — in prose or in verse. Indeed many persons think that the successful teaching of eth'-cs to the young depends on the variety and beauty of the illustrative incidents at the teacher's disposal. With- out a large supply of stories they fear they could not teach, for not only is the story the centre from which they work, but it is also often the circumference of their work. But, I should like to ask, do stories really influence our conduct? Sometimes, but not often, at any rate not so often as we incline to think they do. Of course they do 298 MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. influence us in so far as they acquaint us with the stan- dards of the best men of all times, and thus become part of our environment. But it seems to me that at crucial moments, stories influence us only when we find parallels in our own lives to the experiences narrated. This is so with adults, and it is so with children. A man may be emotionally affected by the tragedy of King Lear, and having an analytic mind, may see that one cause of the tragedy was the old King's love of flattery ; yet that very reader may never discern that he himself, in his re- lations with employes or pupils or friends, betrays the same defect, and that it is bound to influence his fate dis- advantageously, perhaps tragically too. Or a boy may read Tom Brown's Schooldays twenty times, and wish he might have gone to Rugby, and have been under a head- master like Arnold, without ever being inwardly affected by his admiration. For just as though he had never read the book, he may continue to take part in brutal haz- ing, may continue to believe that teachers and pupils must be natural enemies. So it is with many of the stories children hear at school. These fail to have a moral effect, because no transition has been made from the stor)' to the life of the hearer. Pray do not misunderstand me. I do not mean that the moral of the story is to- be pointed out. I mean only that the story is to be regarded as a bit of life, to which we can find parallels in our own experience. Take the story of the brothers who quarreled and whose father sent them a bundle of fagots to break, first tied together in a bunch, and later unbound, in order to prove to them that in unity lies strength. I wonder whether this much used tale has ever led any other than the first hearers to over- come dissensions? The way to use that story, it seems to me, is to refer definitely to some work — say the MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 299 presentation of a play, or the management of a school paper — where a group in which private differences are ig- nored, can resist dissolution better than a group divided into self-assertive individuals. In fact we must get most of the material for ethical lessons from life, especially from the child's experiences of life; and must rather use the story as an illustration or a summing up of these experiences. To take a few ex- amples from the many questions that arise at school and need illuminating, let me cite the following: I. — ^^^^at is the use of uncongenial studies? (Lesson on self-reliance.) 2. — What are the avoidable obstacles to punctuality? 3. — Unequal talents and the award of medals and prizes. 4. — The giving of presents to teachers. 5. — Boys' fights. 6. — Shall Ave appoint monitors? 7. — What can the teacher learn about her pupils when they are off-guard — e. g., during study hours, recess, be- fore and after school? (This is to show that manners may be an expression of qualities of character.) 8. — Asking for help. 9. — Prompting, or giving the wrong sort of help. These and many more are the subjects of immediate and common interest to teacher and class, that can be and in fact frequently are used as starting points of serious communications. As has been said before, if the lessons are to be given with spirit, the teacher ought first to be convinced of the correctness and importance of the conclusions she is about to teach and ought, moreover, to have a wader view of the subject and -deeper insight into the very heart of the matter than can be re- 300 MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. vealed to children. For instance, before outlining for the teachers a series of lessons on tale bearing (snitching or tattling,) adapted to use in their classes, we must first try to dispel the fog that fills most minds as soon as we put the question as to the wisdom or folly of permitting or requesting children to report offenders. And we must also point out, if we can, that the problem arising at school whenever there is a conflict between loyalty to a teacher to whom a report seems to be due, and loyalty to com- rades, is not a unique and isolated question, but one that comes up again and again in adult life with only a change of setting. To show how hazy are our views on some of the matters with which we must deal, whether we will or not, let me tell of a discussion that took place some time ago among a group of teachers, on the question above mentioned, to-wit: Is it ever wise to allow or to induce children to tell tales on one another? The opinions at first voiced were almost unanimously against reporting, for the reason that it encouraged a critical, malicious or hypocritical spirit. Nearly all the teachers asserted that they had told their classes that they would not pay any at- tention to tales. One teacher, however declared that it was sometimes necessary to listen to complaints ; she had found that she could not always ignore them ; on the other hand, realizing the wrong motives that frequently lead to tale bearing, she had notified her pupils that where- soever she found it necessary to punish a culprit against whom a comrade had informed, she would also punish the tale bearer. By making tattling a punishable offense she hoped to prevent tattling, and yet at the same time, in case there were any tattling, to preserve her liberty to punish the misdemeanors complained of. There was one teacher, indeed, who believed it was sometimes wise to MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 3OI induce children to report one of their number. When asked to be more expHcit, she said : "When any serious evil has arisen." But on probing deeper it became evi- dent to all that they could not invariably distinguish be- tween serious and less serious evils ; in school, as in the world outside, under certain conditions it was wiser not to report grave offenses. Moreover, they agreed that it would be unwise to leave the discriminating between weights to children. Taking into account these varieties of opinion, this confusion of thought in regard to an im- portant subject, must we not admit that after all, before we speak to our classes, it is necessary for us to discover the principles on which our conclusions are or ought to be based? It is for this reason that I suggest the holding of conferences with teachers, in which questions of school ethics can be discussed, and in which, after conclusions have been reached, methods of presenting the conclusions to children will be worked out. The fact that particular occurrences have been used as the bases or starting points of talks to the class, must not be taken to imply that the lessons are to be occasional or incidental. On the contrary, I think it is often, though not always, far more efficacious to have the class and the teacher exchange views frankly on a subject when no par- ticular occasion has arisen that calls them forth. For if the teacher brings up a matter just when it is associated in the minds of the pupils with some fault or shortcoming of a suspected group or individual, his ulterior purpose is scented, the class becomes reserved and suspicious, the teacher self-conscious. Although at the present time it would be worse than useless for us to introduce into the schools more than a transitional course in ethics, nevertheless we may look for- 302 MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. ward to the day when this rather fragmentary course may become an entering wedge for the completer more sys- tematic course which is contingent upon our having a trained body of instructors. Before I close, I should like to ask : Are there any steps which we can take toward the creation of such a teaching force? Two means of prepar- ing teachers occur to me, the first indirect, the second di- rect. In the first place, we must gradually provide a great mass of published material for ethical lessons, from which each teacher can choose whatever makes a strong or convincing appeal to him or her. An attempt has al- ready been made in that direction in England, by the Moral Instruction League. Such a league should be formed in this country, first for the purpose of collecting old and publishing new material, and translating whatever of value along these lines has appeared in foreign lan- guages; and secondly, for the purpose of establishing normal courses for teachers, the direct means of prepar- ing teachers to which I referred a moment ago. Given a mass of printed material, syllabi and the like, without teachers qualified to use them, and the books will be stones instead of bread. We need a normal course that will pre- pare special teachers to use the books in the right way, a course of more than short duration, conducted by men who have devoted themselves to this kind of work. Such a course should include, among other things : — the study of the great religious and moral teachers of the past, the study of juvenile literature, the study of the moral prin- ciples on which rest the economic and social issues of the day, besides psychology, methods of teaching and prac- tice in planning and giving lessons ; perhaps even the study of the various conditions of home, school, social, business and practical life in the various classes of so- MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 303 ciety — for different points must be emphasized in teaching the different nationaUties represented in our schools — and still other very serious matters need special emphasis in the schools attended by the children of the rich. Now the preparation of books and syllabi, and the train- ing of teachers will take time ; but if the work is worth do- ing at all, it is worth doing in the right way, and this is the patient way. Is not our task too great for haste? Can we be too careful in ac- cumulating our materials? Too deliberate in laying foun- dations? Oh that the people of our country could once learn the lesson — "Of labor that in lasting fruit outgrows, Far noisier scliemes, accomplished in repose, Too great for haste, too high for rivalry." Let us, in undertaking the new task, not to be too eager for immediate results, let us not presume to teach the children that which we have not even tried to learn how to teach ; let us not as we have done so often hitherto, build an in- verted pyramid fore-ordained to ruin ; let us slowly lay a sure foundation, in order that the future will not need to tear down what we have raised. ETHICAL CONSTRUCTION AS PREP- ARATION FOR ETHICAL INSTRUCTION* By Robert A. Woods. The mind has its being in the fulfillment of relation- ships. Mental action, we learn, is never complete without a process of the will confirming the interests which, when carried into action, make the person what he is. Person- ality is never properly revealed to itself until it is lost in action in the midst of the unexpected contretemps of nature or of human affairs. Nothing is fully learned until it is conceived affirma- tively and as an object of pursuit. The mind is but little shaped and guided except when it is molten and in flux. It is in the field of things craved and striven for instinc- tively and spontaneously that the educator's best oppor- tunity lies. Hence the rising belief in the distinctly cul- tural value of vocational studies, a precise reversal of the older theory that little such result could be gained out of studies that called for action. It is a mistake to endeavor both to arouse and to shape human impulse at the same time and in a single effort. The newly elicited impulse is not sufficiently assertive to bear the pressure of being shaped. It dies down under such an eflfort. The aversion to ethical instruction is often based on sound natural instinct. The discerning educator will be satisfied for a time to bring to the surface healthy *Read before the Conference on Moral Education held under the auspices of the American Ethical Union, New York, May ii, 1907. ETHICAL CONSTKUCTIOX AND INSTRUCTIOX. 3O5 human impulses, and will bide his time about the most ef- fective directing of them. He will apply his efforts for more largely ethical results to those motives in which per- sonality is most alive and alert. He will seek to find hu- man nature out in the open and under full cry before un- dertaking to lead the way to the quarry. Such ethical leadership cannot be accomplished at arm's length. It can come about only through participation, and in a real sense absorption, in the momentum of the personality which is to be influenced. Working with peo- ple rather than for them is psychological as well as demo- cratic. The currents of their lives must be conceived dynamically and must be actually swung out into. The people must lay hold on truth with power in order to learn at all. Those who would teach the people must know and be in and of that power. A common dynamic basis for personal interests and strivings is essential to that in- sight and influence which can come at the heart of things. There is, of course, in every person a large, impene- trable element of temperament, understood often least of all by the person himself, the resultant of age-long her- edity; yet a considerable proportion of what usually goes for temperament in every life is found to be not unintelli- gible to the dynamic participant in that life. When the whole range of personal ties, interests, hopes, achieve- ments, defections is known and felt, a great part of the mystery is dissipated. If the ethical motive is present in the participant, concrete and easily possible steps begin instantly to indicate themselves, and what to the outside and superficial observer is merely the alteration of en- vironment is seen by the participant to be effectual growth of character and spirit. There is thus an essential difference between the two 306 ETHICAL CONSTRUCTION AND INSTRUCTION. types of social refonners who may seem to be dealing with much the same facts. One is engaged in creating a better framework and scaffolding for a more or less ab- stract humanity. The other is penetrating at least into the outer intrenchments of personality. Among these outer intrenchments of the man's person- ality, often leading far in toward the citadel of his life, are his home, his neighborhood, his vocation, his recrea- tion, his race, his religion, his citizenship. To shape the issues of his life in these different bearings is to settle al- most inevitably how he shall morally confront the world, and is in great part to fix his moral destiny. The building up through vital participation step by step of moralized experience must be the beginning and end of social ser- vice, and must more and more be seen to be the larger ele- ment in conscious and determinate moral education. The fundamental consequence of a moral order in the elementary structure of the home life, as well as the fact that this moral order comes by experience rather than pre- cept, is perhaps sufficiently suggested by the reflection that the religions of the world presuppose it and take it for granted. The great figures of speech in which the principles of Christianity are expressed are taken out of the normal relations of family and neighborhood, and its principles cannot be grasped except as one has been wrought into the fabric of these intense human groups. The conception of God, and the moral values which go with that conception, can hardly be except as one has the conception of fatherhood, and the family sense comes only through experience. Recently at one of the settlement houses a very bright little girl with keen dramatic sense could not be induced to act affectionately toward the lik- able young man who was playing the part of the father. ETHICAL CONSTRUCTION AND INSTRUCTION. 307 The explanation came out afterward. The Httle girl's father was a brute, abusing- the child and her mother. It would require some unusual circumlocution to arouse in this little girl's mind the thought of the All-Father. The moral effect of want and congested conditions in weakening the ties of mutual respect and consideration in the family are very great. Francis Place, a man who came to have important political influence in England in the days of the Reform Bill movement, but in his earlier years had been afflicted with extreme poverty, wrote : "Nothing conduces so much to the degradation of a man and a woman in the opinion of each other, and of them- selves in all respects — but most especially of the woman — than her having to eat and drink, and cook and wash and iron, and transact all her domestic concerns, in the room in which her husband works and in which they sleep." The moral support and stimulus of neighborhood ac- quaintance is realized by every one as he goes away to an entirely strange place. The first sense of loneliness out- lines itself a little later in the consciousness that some of the most important props to the moral life have been re- moved, and one's feeling of moral strength is for the time distinctly lowered. This moral situation is one in which many thousands of our city people must exist for long periods, and while thus weakened and exposed many of them inevitably make moral shipwreck of their lives. In these respects the immigrants, set in families, are usually not so much in peril as that large population, pre- dominantly native, in all our cities which lives in lodgings, where almost the last vestige of home tie and of neigh- borhood restraint and incentive has disappeared. The moral problem of the thousands of young men and young 3o8 ETHICAL CONSTRUCTION AND INSTRUCTION. women engaged in commercial pursuits who lead this dreary lodging-house existence is one of constantly in- creasing seriousness. The home and the neighborhood is the moral menstruum in which the young life is immersed, and from which it takes its character. When they are seriously disintegrat- ed, whether in outward fact or in sentiment, we are face to face with the most fundamental ethical problem with re- gard to that young life. The setting the child in rightly ordered currents of family and neighborhood intercourse will provide in innumerable instances the substantial correction of tendencies which, let alone, make develop- ment in character an impossibility. I am not referring now to such outward hygienic conditions as are a mini- mum essential to his growth into normal physical adult life, but to the accumulated experience of homely affec- tion and virtue as a part of the very atmosphere of the little social group of which he is a part; experience of personal cleanliness, of thrift, of system and order, of good humor, of good fellowship, of care for the weak and admiration for the strong, of industry and skill, of whole- some and whole-hearted recreation, of loyalty and adora- tion. Most of these things are learned by the child, and laid hold upon deeply by the man, not as the result of spe- cific instruction but through the endless ways of concrete suggestion, imitation, and trying out in action intimations that rise out of the subconscious being. The whole scheme of work for neighborhood improve- ment in our cities where the neighborhood social struc- ture has to a greater or less extent broken down has to do with establishing a democratic method for reconstituting the web of local ethical relationships. This is done largely, it is true, by the creation of certain new and artificial ties, ETHICAL CONSTRUCTION AND INSTRUCTION. 3O9 under the initiative of resourceful new comers into the neighborhood, and through the organization of forms of social life before unknown ; but all such work has its vital meaning in the endeavor to secure by direct contact or by reaction a revival of moral and moralizing reciprocity be- tween husband and wife, between parents and children, among brothers and sisters, among neighbors and friends. Every man's personal economic problem for him is in- separable from his problem of duty. His calling in life, his productive labor, his earnings, his capacity, his power as a consumer are matters which not only in their outcome but in their process decisively and consciously must de- termine much of his moral character. Every turning point in the course of the workman's life, particularly in these days of highly associated industry, involves critical problems of personal duty; in the break-down of the old leaders to the master workman, the confusion as to the possibility of zeal for good work, the maintenance and advancement of the standard of wages and of life, the association of workmen to protect and advance their inter- ests in an industrial system where association is the domi- nant force, the pervading scepticism as to the justice of the existing economic order and the claim of a great ill-de- fined but well-nigh universal outreaching toward a higher type of industrial civilization. These issues, which seem to some of us to have to do only with the superficial en- vironment of human life, for vast numbers of men and women are penetrating into the very bones and marrow of their personal being. Another great element of our people, not so important perhaps from the point of view of their influence but quite as great in number, spend much of the spontaneous, insis- tent energy of their lives in the search for recreation. It 310 ETHICAL CONSTRUCTION AND INSTRUCTION was a wise man of old who said, "If I could but write the songs of a nation I care not who should make its laws." To the realistic ethical insight, the popular print, the drama, the concert-hall, the dance, the cafe, the excursion resort, constitute the great matrix in which the moral life of much of the future American nation is being cast. The fact that the nation has its growth so largely by immigration brings it about that loyalties of race and of religion create among us a variety of special ethical issues whose effect on personal character and moral progress is profound. Bound up with impulses deeply embodied in the different human types, these issues from their very nature must be affected, if affected at all, by the gradual building up of ethical reciprocity upon a basis entirely apart from that on which these sides of life rest. The type of agency for social reconstruction which is wholly neu- tral as to points of conflict between the different races and religions is essential to the building up of such a measure of common national and human consciousness as must lie at the basis of all well proportioned personal moral growth. The training of our people, and particularly of the new generation, in the art of making quickly a large number of human adjustments so as to work in tune with different kinds of people and groups different in motive and ex- tent is a kind of moral discipline which refers more par- ticularly than any other to the precise needs of the pres- ent day and of the immediate future. If morality has to do with what vitally is, if its watchword is not constraint but opportunity, the greatest of all moral sanctions is that which has to do with entering largely and deeply into human association with all its undeveloped, undreamed of potentialities for the enrichment and expansion of hu- man life, for the fulfillment of human destiny. CONSTITUTION OF AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION. 3 II CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION AS AMENDED MAY 11, 1907. Article I. — Name. The name of this organization is "The American Ethical Union," and the same is organized by the Society for Ethical Culture in the City of New York, th|e Society for Ethical Culture in the City of Chi- cago, the Society for Ethical Culture in the City of Philadelphia, the Ethical Society of St. Louis and the Society for Ethical Culture of Brooklyn, and shall be composed of the Societies named and such other Societies for Ethical Culture and similar organizations as may be ad- mitted to the American Ethical Union as hereinafter provided. Article XL — Objects. Section 1. Th'e General Aim of the Union is : To assert the supreme importance of the ethical factor in all the relations of life — personal, social, national and international, apart from any theological and meta- physical considerations. Section 2. The Special Aims are : (a) To bring the organizations in the Union into closier fellowship of thought and action, (b) To pro- mote, and to assist in, the establishment of ethical organizations in all sections of the United States, (c) To organize propaganda and to ar- range ethical lecturing tours, (d) To publish and spread suitable lit- terature. (e) To promote ethical education in general and systematic moral instruction in particular, apart from theological and metaphysical presuppositions, (f) To promote common action, by means of Special Congresfe'es and otherwise, upon public issues which call for ethical clarification, (g) And to further other objects which are in harmony with thie General Aim of the Union. 312 CONSTITUTION OF AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION. Article III. — Membership. Section 1. Every member of a Society for Ethical Culture which Is a constituent part of the American Ethical Union shall be ipso facto a member of the Union. Section 2. The Executive Committee shall have power to elect to honorary membership such persons as it may consider entitled to rec- ognition on account of distinguished services rendered to the cause of ethical progress. Article IV. Government and Organization. Section 1. The government of the American Ethical Union shall be vested in an Annual Assembly, which shall be composed of (a) the offi- cial Leaders and Associate Leaders of the several Societies belonging to the Union ; and (b) delegates chosen by these Societies and duly certified by their respective Secretaries. Section 2. Each Society, whatever the number of its members, shall be entitled to one delegate, and to one additional delegate for every fifty members or fraction thereof. Article V. — Finances. Each constituent Society shall contribute to the funds of the Union a sum not less than three per centum of its annual subscriptions from regular members and such further sums as its governing Board may deem wise. Article VI. — Executive Committee. Section 1. An Executive Committee shall be crieated at each Annual Assembly, which shall manage the affairs of the Union in the interim between Assemblies. This Ex;ecutive Committee shall consist of fif- teen members, five of whom shall be chosen by the vote of a majority of the leaders and associate leaders representing constituent Societies in the Union, and ten of whom shall be elected at the Annual Assembly by the delegates present. Section 2. The Ex;ecutive Committee shall choose its Chairman. Secretary and Treasurer. The order of business at each annual or special meeting shall be provisionally determined by the Executive Com- mittee, and reported on its behalf at the opening of each meeting ; but shall at all timjes be subject to modification and control by the main assembly. Section 3. The Assembly of Delegates shall be called to order by the Chairman of the Executive Committee, or, in his absence, such other person as the Executive Committee shall have appointed, and such Chairman or appointee shall continue to act as provisional presi- CONSTITUTION OF AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION. 313 dent of that Assembly until the Assembly shall have elected a presiding oflBcer. A motion for the election of such President shall always be in ordjer. Article VII. Standing Committee on Fellowship. Section 1. The American Ethical Union shall create annually a Standing Committee on Fellowship. It shall consist of nine persons, five of whom shall be chosen by the Leaders of Societies belonging to the Union and four of whom shall be elected at the Annual Assembly. The duty of this Committee shall be to receive all applications of per- sons seeking official recognition by the Union as Ethical Teachers or Leaders, and of Societies desiring to secure membership in the Union. These applications shall be carefully considered by this Committee of Ftellowship and its judgment respecting the acceptance or rejection of such applications shall be reported at the following Assembly of the Union. In the form of a recommendation for final action by that body. The Standing Committee on Fellowship shall, al.so, on receipt of any complaint against the moral character of an already recognized Ethical Teacher or Leader, or against the action of any Society already belong- ing to the Union, investigate the charges, give the accusied person or Society an opportunity for defense, decide upon the casie and present its decision in the form of a recommendation to an Annual Assembly or spe- cial meeting for final action ; notice of such recommendation shall be included In the call of the meeting. Section 2. A three-fourths vote of delegates present shall be re- quired for reversal or important modification of the recommendations of that Committee. Article VIII. Any person officially recognizjed by the Union as an Ethical Teacher or Leader may withdraw from that association with the Union, at any time, upon written notice to the Committee on Fellowship. Any Society belonging to the Union may withdraw from such membership at any time by sending a written statement to the Committee on Fellowship duly attested by at least three officials of the Society and showing that a majority of the members of said Society desire such withdrawal. Article IX. — Meetings. Section 1. There shall be a regular convention of the Union onoe in each year, at such time and place as the Executive Committee may designate, of which meeting at least thirty days previous notice to each Society shall be given. Section 2. Special Aasemblies may be called by the Executive Com- mittee upon like notice, when in their judgment it may be necessary. 314 CONSTITUTION OF AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION. but no busine.5s shall be transacted at such special Assemblies except such as shall be stated in the call for such Assembliies. Section 3. One-third of the whole number of delegates whose cre- dentials have been filed and accepted by the Assembly shall constitute a quorum. Article X. — Amendments. This Constitution may be amended at any regular Assembly by a three-fourths vote of the whole number of delegates, accredited and accepted, present at the Assembly. OFFICERS of the AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION Elected May IIth^ 1907. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Cliairman : Professor E. R. A. Seligman, New York. Secretary : S. Burns Weston, Philadelphia. Treasurer : Mrs. Samuel S. Pels, Philadelphia. New York : Prof. Felix Adler, Prof. E. R. A. Seligman, Mrs. Frances Hellman, Mr. R. B. Hirsch. Philadelphia : Dr. A. P. Brubaker, Mrs. S. S. Fels, Mr. S. Burns Weston. Brooklyn : Dr. H. Delmar French, Mr. Leslie Willis Sprague. St. Loins : W. A. Brandenberger, Mr. Robert Moore, Mr. Walter L. Sheldon. Chicago : Mr. William M. Salter, Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt, Miss Juniata Stafford. FELLOWSHIP COMMITTEE. Prof. Felix Adler, Mr. E. S. Fechheimer, Dr. Albert P. Brubaker, Mr. Robert Moore, Mr. Percival Chubb, Mr. William M. Salter, Dr. John L. Elliott, Prof. E. R. A. Seligman, Mr. S. Burns Weston. ETHICAL ADDRESSES AND ETHICAL RECORD FOURTEENTH SERIES Philadelphia Ethical Addresses, 1415 Locust Street, 1907. Contents PAGE. Adler Felix. Mental Healing as a Religion 117 Aladin, Alexis. The Russian Situation 217 Brumbaugh, Martin G. Moral Training of the Young: Pedagogical Principles and Methods 167 Chubb, Percival. Our Mission and Opportunity 161 Elliott, John Lovejoy. The Young People's Sunday Morn- ing Assembly i. . 135 Leuba, James H. The Moral Nature of the Child in Rela- tion to Moral Education 287 MuzzEY, David Saville. Three Hundred Years of English Settlement in America 227 " " " The Prospects of International Peace 272 Salter, William M. The Conflict of the Catholic Church with the French Republic 199 " " The Elevation of the Laboring Classes 143 " " Socialism in France and Italy 255 Seligsberg, Alice L. Moral Instruction in the Public Schools 294 Sheldon, Walter L. A Sentiment in Verse for Every Day in the Year i " " Index to Authors Quoted 106 Spiller, Gustav. Progress of the Ethical Movement 242 Sprague, Leslie Willis. What an Ethical Culture Society is For 181 TcHAYKOVSKY, NICHOLAS. The Russian Situation 221 Woods, Robert A. Ethical Construction as Preparation for Ethical Instruction 304 Constitution of International Union of Ethical Societies 139 Constitution of the American Ethical Union 311 The Moral Instruction Movement Abroad 196 ETHICAL LECTURES, ETC. Five CentN a Copy nnlenn otherwise Maied By WALTER L. SHELDON True Liberalism. What We Mean by Duty. Worship In the Spirit. The New Woman. Good and Bad Side of Novel Reading. What to Believe : An Ethical Creed. Why Progress Is so Slow. Does Justice Triumph in the End? A Study of Shakespeare's "Lear." Why Prosperity Does Not Always Bring Happiness, A Survey of the Nineteenth Century. The Belief In One God. The Good Side to Adversity. What Makes Life Worth Living? Plan of an Ethical Sunday-School (two parts). 10 cents. A Summary of the More Recent Views Concerning the Bible (two parts). 10 cents. The Wage Earners' Self-Culture Clubs (two parts). 10 cents. The Marriage Problem of To-Day (two parts). 10 cents. A Morning and Evening Wisdom Gem fdr Every Day In the Year (a compilation). 15 cents. The Meaning of the Ethical Movement. How Far is it Right to Make Happiness the Chief Aim of Life? True Heroism and What it Means. Ethics at the Dawn of the Modern World — An Historical Survey. 10 cents. What It Means to Work for a Cause. 10 cents. By PERCIVAL CHUBB The Conservative and Liberal Aspects of Ethical Religion. Tolstoi's "Resurrection." Ruskin's Message to Our Times (two parts). 10 cents. Parsifal and the Quest of the Holy Grail. By DAVID SAVILLE MUZZEY The Ethics of the New Testament. Revelation. The Union of Hebrew and Christian Ideals In the Ethical Culture Movemeqt. The following appear in Ethical Addresses, 10c. a copy : Inspiration and Ethics. Authority and Ethics. Three Hundred Years of English Settlement in America. The Prospects of International Peace. ETHICAL ADDRESSES, 1415 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pa. ETHICAL BOOKS By FELIX ABLER— ~ The Religion of Duty $1.20 The Essentials of Spirituality 1.00 Marriage and Divorce 50 Moral Instruction of Children Cloth 1.50 Paper, .50; (By mail, .58) Life and Destiny Cloth 1.00 Boards .50 Creed and Deed Cloth .90 •• •• " Paper, .50; (By mail, .58) By WILLIAM M. SALTER— Ethical Religion -. 1.00 First Steps in Philosophy 1.00 Anarchy or Government? 75 Moral Aspiration and Song (36 Hymns with Music, etc.), half cloth 35 By WALTER L. SHELDON— An Ethical Movement 1,25 An Ethical Sunday-school 1.25 Old Testament Bible Stories for the Young 1.15 Lessons in the Study of Habits 1.15 Citizenship and the Duties of a Citizen 1.15 Duties in the Home and the Family 1.15 The Story of the Bible 30 Class Readings in the Bible .50 The Life of Jesus for the Young 50 A Study of the Divine Comedy of Dante 50 A Morning and Evening Wisdom Gem for Every Day in the Year, compiled from various au- thors, ancient and modern 35 By STANTON COIT— The Message of Man Leather 1.00 •• " Cloth .75 By NATHANIEL SCHMIDT— . The Prophet of Nazareth 2.50 The above books may be obtained or ordered at the Li- brarian's table at the Sunday morning lectures, of the dif- ferent Ethical Societies, or at the office of ETHICAL ADDRESSES, 1415 Locust St., PhUadelphia, Pa TITB LIBRARY xmjYwtsmY OF califOIiNIA V0» ANGELES UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY