LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
The Point of View of 
 Modern Education 
 
 By Harriet A. Marsh, LL.B. 
 
 Principal of Hancock School, Detroit, Mich., and 
 Author of "How Shall Language be Taught?" 
 "Are We Becoming Un- American?'' etc., etc., 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS 
 
 1905 
 

 COPYRIGHT 1905 
 PUBLIC SCHOOL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS 
 
 10- 
 
To my dear father, my frst and noblest teacher, this book 
 is affectionately dedicated by the author. 
 
 
Preface 
 
 / T V HIS little book is the substance of lec- 
 tures before Mothers' clubs delivered 
 from month to month through a series of 
 years. It is an effort to make application of 
 some of the recent discoveries in science to 
 the training of children. 
 
 The now generally accepted theory of the 
 growth of the human race through the ages, 
 and of each individual born into the world in 
 modern times, is that known as evolution. 
 The old education was founded upon a radi- 
 cally different view of the world and of man. 
 Educational practice, especially in later gener- 
 ations, has not been consistent with its theory, 
 in many important respects, and progressive 
 teachers have felt handicapped by a doctrine 
 which was opposed to their methods. 
 
 Every institution of the social world is 
 now adjusting itself to the theory of evolution. 
 The church, the home, and the school have 
 
been more tardy than science and industrial 
 society in obeying its call, but the school is 
 now seeking to conform, in its methods, to 
 this new movement as rapidly as conditions 
 will permit. 
 
 This little volume is merely a series of 
 suggestions, which the thoughtful teacher may 
 find helpful in her study of children and of 
 the relations of the school to the home. It 
 is addressed quite as much to parents as to 
 teachers and the author hopes it may help to 
 bring the school and the home into a close 
 and more sympathetic union. 
 
Table of Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE GROWTH OF THE AFFECTIONS . . I 
 
 II THE THREE NERVE CENTERS . . 13 
 
 III THE CHILD AND His TEACHERS . .24 
 
 IV WHAT THE CHILD SHOULD LEARN . 41 
 V WHAT THE CHILD SHOULD LEARN . . 60 
 
 ( Continued] 
 
 VI WHAT THE CHILD SHOULD LEARN . 72 
 
 ( Continued) 
 
 VII INFLUENCES . . . . .96 
 
 VIII INFLUENCES (Continued) . . . 116 
 
 IX CONCLUSION . . . . .138 
 
 LIST OF REFERENCE BOOKS . . 146 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW OF 
 MODERN EDUCATION. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 '"TpHE HOME is the cradle of the human af- 
 * fections, and since these have most to do 
 with our happiness, it seems profitable to con- 
 sider their laws of growth, so that the child 
 may be placed under conditions most favorable 
 to their proper development. 
 
 The child enters the world a little animal and 
 though his advent is attended with all the help- 
 lessness indicative of greater brain power, nev- 
 ertheless his marks of superiority are, at this 
 time, completely hidden, and his needs are 
 largely those of his brothers in the animal king- 
 dom. The young of any species find great com- 
 fort and enjoyment in warmth animal 
 warmth instinctively "snuggling" up to any 
 living object near them, particularly at night; 
 and every naturalist can tell of the various "ar- 
 
2 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 tificial mothers" in the form of bunches of hair 
 or rolls of fur that have been devised to meet 
 the need so piteously emphasized by little or- 
 phans of every form and color. The human 
 baby is no exception to this rule; he learns to 
 know his mother through the sense of touch, 
 and, perhaps, of smell. Himself an animal, his 
 budding affections must have a material or 
 sense basis upon which the higher love is 
 builded as he rises to a higher plane. The little 
 cot bed and the artificial means of nourish- 
 ment, so often employed from the moment of 
 birth, may, therefore, become a hindrance to 
 this development, even though they are fre- 
 quently a hygienic necessity. 
 
 Again, the child, like the adult, instinctively 
 seeks companionship suited to his own degree 
 of intelligence. He cannot, at first, understand 
 or appreciate the society of grown people, but 
 his dawning interest is aroused by the pres- 
 ence of animals ; a pet of some kind, as a dog 
 or a cat, something which he can fondle and 
 play with, is an absolutely necessary condition 
 of his early growth toward a loving and affec- 
 tionate manhood. Later on comes the desire 
 for the society of other children ; but the child 
 
GROWTH OF THE AFFECTIONS. 3 
 
 is well on toward youth before he really loves 
 parents and friends. We should not, therefore, 
 expect too much of dawning capabilities lest 
 we weaken them by too early or too vigorous 
 exercise. 
 
 Propinquity has also much to do with this 
 matter. The child becomes attached only to 
 those with whom he is brought in contact; 
 hence it follows that he should spend his early 
 years in the bosom of his family, where all in- 
 terest centers in the home. Attachments and 
 habits, the strongest known to man, are now 
 forming for life, and any affection or occupa- 
 tion which seriously diverts attention from the 
 home must prove prejudicial to them, no mat- 
 ter how valuable it may be for other things. 
 For this reason, the custom of sending chil- 
 dren early to school, except when it is the least 
 of two evils, should be abandoned. The estab- 
 lishment of a wrong relation is most harmful 
 because of the fact that it makes more difficult 
 the establishment of a right one later. If, dur- 
 ing the years that should be devoted to the 
 formation of family ties, other absorbing re- 
 lationships are allowed to share the child's 
 mind, we must not complain, when later on it is 
 
4 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 found that his strongest attachments and great- 
 est interests are sought outside of the home. 
 Statistics show that children entering school 
 under seven years of age suffer a distinct loss 
 in weight and nerve power, yet how often we 
 see mothers in comfortable circumstances 
 eager to place babies of four in the kindergar- 
 ten. The fact that the treatment there is often 
 more humane and scientific than that of the 
 home does not remove the evils just stated. 
 The mere nervous excitement attendant upon 
 getting ready for school at a certain hour not 
 infrequently deprives the child of all appetite 
 for breakfast, and he then rushes off to engage 
 for several hours in directed play, while all 
 other animals of the same age, relatively, are 
 allowed to frisk at will in the fields, or to doze 
 unmolested when tired. Why is the child with 
 his millions of nerve cells denied the fresh air 
 and the freedom so necessary to the develop- 
 ment of all other animals ? What farmer would 
 subject young calves, or lambs, or colts, or any- 
 thing that breathes and has money value, to 
 the same treatment? No directed "play," how- 
 ever pleasant in itself, is pure play, for the rea- 
 son that the child's mind is on the stretch to 
 
GROWTH OF THE AFFECTIONS. 5 
 
 observe and follow the teacher's motions and 
 directions ; hence the three or four hours in the 
 kindergarten are as great a drain upon the 
 child's nerve power as our morning in the office 
 or the school-room is upon us. What he needs is 
 more undirected play, more rest, more repose, 
 more fresh air. 
 
 But there is another phase of this import- 
 ant subject. The child becomes more and more 
 interested in his school, just at the time when 
 uninterrupted family life should lay the foun- 
 dation of the holiest and most sacred relation- 
 ships. No human being can serve two masters, 
 and the home life suffers in consequence. Ten 
 or twelve years later he may leave home with 
 comparative safety, but now, in infancy, he 
 receives impressions, cultivates affections, and 
 forms habits which cannot be gained in later 
 years. Failure to understand this principle is 
 the one cause of the present decline in home 
 influence and parental authority. During the 
 first seven or eight years of life every effort 
 should be made to center the child's enjoyment 
 and interest in the family circle. An entertain- 
 ing story after supper, a rosy cheeked apple at 
 bed time, some domestic animal to pet and fon- 
 
6 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 die as one's own, a flower bed to dig and culti- 
 vate, keeps many a boy and girl from perdition. 
 Curtains and carpets are sometimes preserved 
 at the price of human souls. 
 
 Some family duty is, also, of great value in 
 promoting affection, for we generally learn 
 to love those dependent upon us. But these 
 duties must, at first, be very simple and very 
 few. Putting father's slippers ready every 
 evening, placing baby's spoon by his plate at 
 meal time, are quite sufficient for beginners, 
 and the child is delighted to find himself of use ; 
 while if no one but he is allowed to perform 
 these little services, a sense of responsibility 
 and helpfulness is gradually developed an ac- 
 quisition of great value in after life. Little gifts 
 at Christmas and upon birthdays also tend to 
 strengthen affection, if they are the product of 
 the child's oivn effort. A single flower seed 
 sown and tended by little hands to place on 
 mother's stand in recognition of some anniver- 
 sary, brings a joy to both recipient and giver 
 which no expensive purchase could bestow; 
 while, all the time, loving memories are taking 
 root, simple habits forming which will follow 
 one to his grave. Perhaps no single device is so 
 
GROWTH OF THE AFFECTIONS. 7 
 
 valuable in promoting these qualities as is a 
 Christmas tree prepared by the children them- 
 selves. There is the saving of the pennies ; the 
 chains to be made ; the popcorn to be strung ; 
 the delighted and important consultations in 
 corners ; the wonderful secrets to be kept ; the 
 happy dreams and the presents ; a bit of card- 
 board stitched in colored wool to grace father's 
 new book as a marker; a bead chain for the 
 young lady of the family ; a spool box made by 
 the son for mother, and regarded by all the 
 children as a marvelous work of art; and 
 grand-mother's needle book Heaven help us! 
 One lies before me now made in my own child- 
 hood for one of these occasions a poor faded 
 thing fit only for the rag-bag ! The fingers that 
 fashioned and the hands that received it are 
 resting together in the dust ? but the memory 
 of that far off Christmas morning and its at- 
 tendant associations are among the strongest 
 influences that bind me to home and family. 
 These early memories are always the most last- 
 ing, and children united in a loving partnership 
 during infancy are apt to continue the rela- 
 tionship through life. 
 
 Aside from these considerations it is well 
 
8 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 to learn, early in life, the enjoyment that may 
 be gotten from simple things. Wealth may be 
 a great blessing, and often is, but one is apt to 
 forget that the truest pleasures are not bought 
 with money. The child who starts upon a ca- 
 reer of indiscriminate spending is always dis- 
 contented and unhappy. No purse is long 
 enough to supply every want, and life is robbed 
 of all real happiness by the constant desire for 
 some new possession or some new experience. 
 This mental attitude is, of course, fatal to all 
 spiritual growth, and explains why children 
 possessing all the advantages of wealth and 
 opportunity sometimes appear less intelligent 
 and less resourceful than those in poorer cir- 
 cumstances. Necessity is the mother of inven- 
 tion and uneducated human beings seldom 
 make an effort unless impelled by want or de- 
 sire. Fill the home, especially during the early 
 years, with pleasant and tender experiences, 
 with co-operative occupations and amusements. 
 We begin life as animals, our affections are 
 born in the mere animal or physical sensations 
 of warmth and comfort; later comes the at- 
 tachment to pets the kitten or the pony ; then 
 the desire for the companionship of other chil- 
 
GROWTH OF THE AFFECTIONS. 9 
 
 dren. These in time lay the foundation for love 
 of parents and of other adult relatives. The 
 ties of home cannot be made too strong or too 
 lasting; they are the steps by which the hu- 
 man soul climbs to love of his fellows, to altru- 
 ism, nay more, to the love of God himself. The 
 child born in a home destitute of affection sel- 
 dom emerges with a large love for the race, 
 because he carries with him the loveless rela- 
 tions formed in the family and, of course, it 
 follows that one who has not learned to love his 
 fellow whom he hath seen cannot reach the cul- 
 minating point of human affection, the love of 
 God. Home cannot be too peaceful, too happy, 
 too attractive. It is when development is ar- 
 rested in one or the other of these stages that 
 man remains a materialist and fails to attain 
 his highest possibilities. 
 
 Another great aid to the cultivation of affec- 
 tion is an early acquaintance with nature, such 
 an acquaintance from infancy as can come only 
 from a free, untrammeled companionship with 
 all her various forms. There are many reasons 
 why this should be. Man enters the world with 
 about one hundred fifty rudimentary organs; 
 organs which are now of no use except as a 
 
io THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 sort of scaffolding upon which other organs are 
 built ; for nature does not seem willing to dis- 
 card anything once made, preferring rather to 
 change it gradually into something else as the 
 needs of the organism become different. Take, 
 for example, the tadpole ; as he gains in growth 
 his tail is slowly absorbed. If, for any reason, 
 he should be deprived of his tail he would have 
 no hind legs when he develops into a frog. 
 Ages ago, in another form, man lived in the 
 water and required a breathing apparatus like 
 that of other aquatic animals. Traces of the gill 
 slits, are even now discernible in the sides of the 
 head of the embryo child where they form the 
 basis of the ear passages, organs of the throat, 
 etc. Now as the human body travels upward 
 through all its various stages to reach its pres- 
 ent, development, so it is claimed that the mind 
 in like manner repeats the experiences of the 
 race, each stage forming the foundation upon 
 which the next is based. 
 
 Experiences, reaching through ages, may be 
 lived in a few weeks by us, and some even 
 come to us before birth. It is interesting to 
 watch the child as he passes through some of 
 the more easily discerned of these steps. At one 
 
GROWTH OF THE AFFECTIONS. 1 1 
 
 time he is a robber and pounces down upon his 
 playmates pretending to rob them. He is now 
 in the stage of development represented by the 
 race as it roamed the ancient plains in quest of 
 plunder. Again he is a tramp and lives the mi- 
 gratory life of remote ancestry. So he passes 
 through the numberless experiences of the past 
 and under proper conditions emerges into 
 healthy mental maturity. But if, for any cause, 
 he is arrested in one of these stages, the effect 
 is deplorable. Arrest in the predatory state 
 may mean to be a robber in one form or an- 
 other all one's life; in the migratory stage 
 to be a tramp; and so of the others. A crimi- 
 nal is an example of arrested development. 
 
 The early race lived with nature. Primitive 
 man worshiped the sun and moon. God dwelt 
 in the fountains and the trees; stones became 
 charms and superstition peopled the earth with 
 spirits. Out of all this, man, as he grows intel- 
 ligent, progresses steadily toward a pure and 
 elevating faith. Thus it is with the child; he, 
 too, must pass through these experiences. Let 
 him pray to the moon, if he will ; let him talk to 
 the flowers and fill his dirty little pocket with 
 stones which he fondly believes in as charms. 
 
12 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Let him pet and fondle his older brothers, the 
 dog and the horse ; let him learn to love all 
 forms of nature. His faith as a Christian will 
 be stronger for these experiences. It is only 
 when man's development is arrested that he re- 
 mains a pagan, a worshiper of nature instead 
 of nature's God.* 
 
 *See Drummond's "Ascent of Man," Chapter 2; also "Peda- 
 gogical Seminary," October, 1901; "Some Fundamental Princi- 
 ples in Snnday School and Bible Teaching." 
 
THE THREE NERVE CENTERS. 13 
 
 II. 
 THE THREE NERVE CENTERS. 
 
 There are, in the human body, three nerve 
 centers whose well being is of commanding im- 
 portance to health and happiness. The first 
 of these is situated below and back of the heart, 
 and its condition through life depends very 
 largely upon the child's condition and training 
 during the first ten years. Of course man's 
 crowning glory is his soul, his spiritual nature, 
 but as all the manifestations of his spirit must 
 be made through and by means of the body, it 
 follows that this body should be properly de- 
 veloped and kept in the best possible condition, 
 if for no other reason than that it may do its 
 work well. 
 
 I. The nerve center just referred to has much 
 to do with the stomach and is largely the cause 
 of what is called the "blues." Its unhealthy 
 state has caused many a man to give himself up 
 for lost, and is the prime cause of more than 
 half the misery and despair in the world. It is 
 
14 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 impossible for any human being to take a hope- 
 less view of life when this nerve center is 
 strong and well. How important, then, that 
 the child have a good start in this respect. Dur- 
 ing the first ten or twelve years he is, or should 
 be, a healthy animal; plenty of simple food, 
 plenty of sleep and much living in the open air 
 are his essential requirements. If he is in normal 
 health he does not care for nor understand 
 the sermons we so persistently preach to 
 him; all our ethical lessons, with their 
 sugar-coated moral tucked in at the end, slip 
 from him as easily as water from a duck's back. 
 We should be thankful that it is so. It is the 
 child's only protection from later indifference, 
 hypocrisy, or morbid introspection. When 
 older he may learn by these means, perhaps, 
 but not now. Nature has provided other teach- 
 ers for these early years, but his chief business 
 now is to gain perfect health, a strong, vigor- 
 ous body, and the needed sense training which 
 cannot be acquired later, which are all so 
 necessary to the well-being of this important 
 nerve center. No social elevation or wealth 
 acquired in later life can compensate for neg- 
 lect of these requirements. How many capi- 
 
THE THREE NERVE CENTERS. 15 
 
 talists and scholars would cheerfully yield half 
 their kingdom could they gain sweet, refresh- 
 ing sleep and be able to enjoy a good dinner! 
 We must see to it, therefore, that children store 
 up in early life nerve force for later years. 
 
 2. As he emerges from infancy it is notice- 
 able that he becomes more active ; the tasting, 
 touching, and smelling of every object that he 
 encounters gradually abate as he gains sense 
 experience, and new activities come into play. 
 Heretofore his motions have been largely such 
 as were controlled by the muscles of the trunk 
 or body, but he now begins to use those of the 
 arms and legs. Hitherto the large head has 
 made rapid locomotion somewhat difficult, but 
 when the different members assume juster pro- 
 portions he becomes more and more active 
 running, jumping, and climbing. It is the busi- 
 ness of these years to cultivate the muscles of 
 the arms and legs, not only on account of the 
 mere physical growth stimulated by this means, 
 but also because the will depends upon this sort 
 of exercise for healthy, normal development. 
 
 This nerve center supposed to be the special 
 organ of the will is situated in the lower and 
 back part of the skull above the spine. Through 
 
1 6 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 this lesser brain the will controls the muscular 
 system and the highest authority in America 
 has told us that it is well nigh impossible for a 
 strong, healthy will to exist without the cultiva- 
 tion of these muscles. Schools which recognize 
 this necessity provide for games such as ball 
 playing, leap frog, battledoor and shuttlecock, 
 and a host of others which give the activity so 
 much craved by the young, growing limbs. It 
 is, therefore, an unfortunate error to keep little 
 girls shut up in the house and to dress them in 
 such manner that free play of the limbs is pre- 
 vented. A tomboy usually develops into a 
 healthy, womanly woman; a pale, delicate girl 
 becomes what? 
 
 3. The higher nerve centers, those which 
 have to do with thought and the higher emo- 
 tions, are the last to develop and are dependent 
 upon the muscles of the fingers. It is this fact 
 that furnishes the argument for manual training 
 in the schools, and renders wood carving, fancy 
 \vork and weaving, when not too fine or intri- 
 cate, of immense importance to the growing 
 boy or girl. The period when this work is most 
 beneficial to the child is from the tenth to the 
 fifteenth year, though there may be variations 
 
THE THREE NERVE CENTERS. 17 
 
 according to development or treatment. Chil- 
 dren begin to show interest in these occupa- 
 tions about the ninth year, and may do the 
 coarser kinds of sewing, etc., with great profit. 
 The only objection to this time is the general 
 tendency to give too much and too intricate 
 work, so that it assumes somewhat the char- 
 acter of drudgery, whereas the tasks should be 
 very simple, admitting of very large stitches 
 and employing plenty of pure color. The great 
 importance of these facts is, as yet, not well 
 understood by women generally. They are apt 
 to think that any exercise which brings the 
 muscles into play is good and this is true in a 
 general sense but the truth which needs 
 strongest emphasis is that certain nerve cen- 
 ters are developed along with certain muscles, 
 and that this development is accomplished best 
 at certain quite well defined periods of the 
 child's life. 
 
 Moreover, the exercise mjust be of a kind 
 adapted to the muscles we wish to train. Young 
 men enter our Normal colleges every semester 
 confident that years spent in felling trees, or 
 following the plow, have given them superior 
 muscle training, but a very few weeks' ex- 
 
1 8 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 perience teaches that such development is, in 
 many instances, but little better than none so 
 difficult is it to cure bad habits, to bring stiff- 
 ened muscles into play, or to enlarge nerve cells 
 that are dependent for healthy growth upon the 
 proper exercise of certain sets of muscles at 
 earlier periods of life. 
 
 The higher nerve centers (as has been said) 
 have to do with the higher emotions; feelings 
 of benevolence, the desire to help the race, to be 
 of use to one's fellows, love of God all have 
 their seat in these brain cells that are developed 
 through the muscles of the hands and fingers. 
 There is, perhaps, no single truth that has so 
 much to do with the welfare of the race as 
 this. A small, undeveloped hand is not a mark 
 of beauty, as some think, but of weakness; a 
 sure indication of certain neglected, unedu- 
 cated muscles, and a consequent lack of will 
 and of emotional strength. 
 
 This is often the source of wrong conclu- 
 sions. For instance, an individual who has not 
 attained this cultivation of the fingers may, per- 
 haps, possess a stronger emotional nature than 
 one who has received this training; but this 
 is not a right comparison. What one is should 
 
THE THREE NERVE CENTERS. 19 
 
 be compared with what he might have been. 
 How much richer would this man of deep emo- 
 tions have been had he received this training? 
 The wealthy and the very poor are alike handi- 
 capped in the application of this principle; one 
 by the hard, daily grind of poverty which con- 
 verts them into mere machines, and the other 
 by a failure to understand its significance and a 
 consequent disinclination to all labor, particu- 
 larly manual labor. This is only natural. 
 Few, if any, are inclined to work, or to 
 make any kind of effort unless some benefit 
 is to be gained thereby. When once it is 
 generally understood that the development 
 of the higher nerve centers and the higher 
 emotions depends upon the cultivation of the 
 fingers, and that the time for this cultivation is 
 from the ninth to the fifteenth year, there will 
 be a marked change in public sentiment. Not 
 only will the rich feel that their children's wel- 
 fare depends upon a recognition of and con- 
 formity to this truth, but the mutual attitude 
 of capital and labor must change because expert 
 skill in hand work will give the employer a re- 
 spect for the strength and patience necessary to 
 success in this kind of occupation. Nothing so 
 
20 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 tends to sympathy as a common experience. 
 Some one has said that to help an ant one must 
 be an ant; so, to understand and appreciate 
 the dignity of labor one must labor. Knowl- 
 edge in this field cannot be gained by proxy. 
 
 An organ is ready for work at the time it at- 
 tains its growth, and this readiness is generally 
 indicated by an interest in the kind of work 
 the organ is intended to do. So, in general, it 
 is a good thing to consult the child's inclina- 
 tions when planning his occupations. Of course 
 this, like every other rule, can be carried to ex- 
 tremes. Any one can recall children who are 
 never required to do anything against their 
 wishes, and who flit from one fancy to another 
 in a manner suggestive of very injurious hab- 
 its. A sharp, clean cut distinction should al- 
 ways be drawn between this sort of dissipation 
 and a genuine interest. Necessarily the child 
 must have a great deal of latitude in early 
 years. His object just now is to gain many new 
 interests ; something which cannot be done un- 
 less he is allowed numberless experiences, and 
 large freedom. System and thoroughness are 
 a drawback to this kind of growth ; their time 
 comes later. Nevertheless this does not mean 
 
THE THREE NERVE CENTERS. 21 
 
 that during the first ten or twelve years the 
 child should flit from one object to another 
 until it is impossible for him to concentrate his 
 mind upon anything for more than a moment 
 at a time. As he nears his teens, all the tastes 
 and fancies that have sprouted during infancy 
 and childhood should begin to arrange them- 
 selves. Some will drop out of existence alto- 
 gether, and some will gradually expand with 
 his mental growth into instruments of good 
 or evil, for he now begins to show the results 
 of earlier training. While it is important that 
 the child should have large opportunities for 
 observation and day dreaming, yet at the same 
 time, certain habits of application should have 
 begun to shape themselves in his mind and a 
 certain sense of responsibility should be aroused 
 if he is to become useful and efficient later on. 
 
 Every phase of education has its own par- 
 ticular period, and nothing is more fascinating 
 than the study which is to enable us to know 
 not only what is to be done but when to do it. 
 Perhaps an illustration will make this point 
 clearer. Children are interested in the phenom- 
 ena of nature at a very tender age. In fact 
 their attention is attracted to these as soon as 
 
22 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 they begin to notice. It follows that they should 
 live much of the time with nature from birth. 
 Delay in this companionship is often disastrous 
 to this interest. The child of six or eight is de- 
 lighted to work in a garden, to sow seeds or 
 rake the soil, and when you gain his confidence 
 he will entertain you for hours with tales of the 
 robin that lost its leg, or the bobolink that an- 
 swered his call. But let this dawning interest 
 be starved or stifled and we have indifference in 
 later years. Last spring some older pupils, 
 about three hundred, were given flower seeds 
 with instructions concerning the planting and 
 care of the plants. At the same time seeds and 
 instructions were given to an equal number of 
 primary children. In the early autumn these 
 gardens were examined with the result that just 
 twenty times as many neat, flourishing flower 
 beds were found in the gardens of the smaller 
 children as in those of the grammar grades. The 
 reason is not far to seek ; the time for the best 
 and fullest cultivation of this interest had gone 
 by. Then, too, the older children had a greater 
 number of interests. Their attention has be- 
 come dissipated by the numberless attractions 
 of the bicycle and the rowing party, the foot 
 
THE THREE NERVE CENTERS. 23 
 
 ball game and the hunt, until growing flowers 
 seemed very tame, and one recognizes the grim 
 humor of the B 7th composition which stated 
 gravely that the only real use of the flower 
 bed was to provide blossoms for the button- 
 hole "when a boy went out of an evenin.' ' 
 
 The purpose of this chapter is to suggest the 
 following truths : 
 
 Each nerve center has its own appropriate 
 set of muscles upon which it depends for devel- 
 opment. 
 
 Each set of muscles has a definite time or age 
 for development. 
 
 The higher emotional nature depends upon 
 the development of the fingers and hand. 
 
 If we accept the division of time suggested 
 by Dr. Sherman Davis, we may say : 
 
 Period of first teeth sense training related 
 to groups of ganglia or nerve center back of 
 and below the heart. 
 
 Period of second teeth muscle training of 
 arm and leg related to development of the will. 
 
 Period of wisdom teeth development of the 
 higher emotional nature.* 
 
 *Read Scott's Organic Education, Chapter 1; A Study in Youth- 
 ful Degeneracy, Pedagogical Seminary, page 221; The Study of 
 Motor Ability of Children, Annual Report of U. S. Commission- 
 er of Education, year 1897-8, Vol. II, Pag-e 1291; Influence of Exercise 
 on Growth, Journal Exper. Med. 1896, Vol. I, Page 516; Relation 
 Betvjeen Growth and Disease. American Medical Association 
 1891; Significance of Palatal Deformities in Idiots, Journal of 
 Medical Science, Condon, Jan 1897, Vol. 43, Page 72. 
 
24 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 
 
 TV/T UCH has been said in the former chapters 
 * to show that the chief function of edu- 
 
 cation in the first ten or twelve years is 
 the cultivation of a strong, healthy body, and 
 that neglect of this is sure to entail suffering or 
 weakness in after life. But, while bearing 
 this in mindj it must not be forgotten that this 
 period is also most important to mental and 
 moral development, and that whether we so 
 intend or not, nearly all the fundamental pro- 
 cesses of education have been established or ar- 
 rested long before the child reaches his teens. 
 Now, of course, if the child has intelligent, 
 capable parents and an ideal home it would be 
 far better for him not to enter a school room 
 during his first decade, but since many intelli- 
 gent people have not the opportunity to devote 
 themselves to their children's education, and 
 since many more are not able to do this work 
 even when leisure permits, it follows that the 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 25 
 
 primary school is a most valuable and necessary 
 institution, a sort of auxiliary home, in which 
 the true teacher becomes a kind of foster parent 
 to carry on the training which must be given 
 during this period ; but as the rare attempts at 
 foster parenthood among the lower animals are 
 generally rendered unsuccessful through lack 
 of experience and knowledge of conditions, so 
 in the school room much havoc is wrought by 
 its assumption of responsibilities which do not 
 belong to it. 
 
 Nothing is more fatal to either an individual 
 or an institution than an attempt to relieve it of 
 duties peculiarly its own. As the poor are pau- 
 perized and debased by any assistance which 
 does not render them self-dependent, so is the 
 home shorn of its greatest strength when its 
 sacred obligations are relegated to another in- 
 stitution. The home must continue to be the 
 educational institution par excellence, while the 
 church, the school, and the state must rally to 
 its aid, if only for their own self preservation ; 
 but their support must be of such a character as 
 shall recognize its needful supremacy, and rein- 
 force its dignity and its power to maintain it. 
 
 Many people seem to assume that education 
 
26 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 begins with the child's entrance into the school 
 room, but, in point of fact, it commences in the 
 cradle, and children learn many rudimentary 
 principles long before they can talk. During 
 childhood the young have a multitude of teach- 
 ers whose methods are of the best, and whose 
 success is always assured. Their ends, whether 
 good or bad, are invariably attained. They 
 work unceasingly during every waking mo- 
 ment, and all we can do is to secure the condi- 
 tions under which these influences act favorably 
 to the child's best development; like a mirror, 
 he reflects his surroundings most truthfully. 
 Chief among these teachers are Observation, 
 Imitation, and Habit. 
 
 OBSERVATION. 
 
 If it were possible for us to remember and 
 relate first impressions, we would be much 
 astonished to learn how early observation be- 
 gins to act its part. Shortly after birth the 
 child notices light, then color red or yellow 
 being the first to attract attention. So import- 
 ant and lasting are these first sense experiences 
 that the kindergarten suspends a red or yellow 
 ball over the cradle as the preliminary step in 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 27 
 
 that color training of which they are so justly 
 proud. Statistics show that children thus 
 trained are rarely if ever color blind. Of 
 course other sense impressions, notably that of 
 touch, are equally permanent and vivid that 
 of sight being prominently mentioned because 
 it is a familiar illustration of this principle. 
 
 IMITATION. 
 
 As the child grows older the power of obser- 
 vation grows. Appearance and actions are 
 noted and distinguished and at a very early age 
 he begins to imitate what he observes. It is 
 impossible to over-estimate the power acquired 
 from this second teacher. Imitation has been 
 the chief agency in making the world what it is 
 to-day, and to it you and I owe our customs, 
 our dress, and our habits of life. Without it the 
 human race would still be merely animals, and 
 our little animal, the child, would be incapable 
 of education. To be sure, he cannot learn in 
 our adult way but only as a child. Things of 
 an abstract nature are unnoticed by him, but he 
 observes and imitates all he sees and hears; 
 nothing objective escapes him. This suggests 
 the keynote of all successful training. The child 
 
28 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 is influenced by what we do; hence the neces- 
 sity of absolute honesty and genuine kindness 
 in the home and in the school room. Do we 
 wish him to be truthful, to respect law, to love 
 his neighbor as himself ? All these things must 
 be seen in his own home and in the school, for 
 the child reflects with unerring accuracy, not 
 what he is told, but what he sees others do. 
 
 Everyone knows of the imitative power of the 
 Chinese, and some will recall the anecedote of 
 the California mistress who, upon the departure 
 of Kate, her Irish cook, installed the second girl, 
 the celestial John, in the kitchen. At the end 
 of the week came the usual supply of groceries 
 which the new cook was directed to put away 
 "just as Kate did," and forthwith commenced a 
 most startling performance. John proceeded to 
 take toll of every article before placing it in its 
 proper receptacle. First a few ounces of butter 
 were taken from a roll, wrapped in paper and 
 placed under one end of a couch ; a handful of 
 tea disappeared as if by magic in a glass jar be- 
 hind the wood box, and in a few minutes all the 
 petty dishonesties of months stood disclosed. 
 John understood a little English but Kate's 
 words had made slight impression on him. It 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 29 
 
 was her actions that were painted indelibly on 
 his mind. 
 
 It is so with the infant child. Words are, 
 comparatively speaking, unnoticed, but what 
 we do, the concrete, is closely observed and imi- 
 tated. These earliest impressions are the deep- 
 est and last the longest. When the mind be- 
 comes enfeebled by age or disease it loses its 
 latest acquisitions first. Very old people recall 
 with accuracy occurrences of early childhood, 
 while the events of later years are entirely for- 
 gotten. It is this fact that makes the good home 
 so important and so sacred. 
 
 If the relationship suggested in the first chap- 
 ter has been faithfully maintained during in- 
 fancy there exists a sympathetic understanding 
 in the home which is unattainable under other 
 conditions. As all the manifestations of spirit 
 must be made by and through our physical 
 bodies, so all our affections must have a sense 
 basis from which, under proper care, they de- 
 velop healthily and normally. It is generally 
 when the affections are arrested in this early 
 stage that a human being becomes a materialist 
 in doctrine and a sensualist in practice. 
 
 As has been said, the best teacher for the lit- 
 
30 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 tie child is a good mother. The world, it is 
 true, is full of noble foster parents but every 
 fiber in the child's body yearns for sympathy, a 
 mother's love, and long before he is able to ex- 
 press himself in words he knows by instinct 
 whether the arms that encircle him are his 
 mother's. Nothing can take the place of this 
 sympathy, and no human being can become a 
 complete substitute for the mother. A weak, 
 careless mother may be better for the child 
 than a good teacher or family relative. 
 
 It is generally supposed that the child who 
 loses its mother at birth and falls into the hands 
 of a good step-mother never knows the differ- 
 ence, and it is often asserted that the young 
 step-mother feels the same affection for the lit- 
 tle orphan as for her own offspring. Such 
 a condition seldom exists. Nature never in- 
 tended that a relationship so sacred should be 
 counterfeited. In an orphan asylum the chil- 
 dren are generally better fed, better clothed, 
 and better cared for than they ever were in 
 their own homes. The nurses love and caress 
 them, but upon every face, even of the babies, 
 is a certain pathetic expression which shows the 
 unconscious craving for mother's love. As well 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 31 
 
 might one say that the hapless chick hatched in 
 an incubator is as happy and comfortable as 
 one born under more natural conditions, as to 
 say that human babyhood perfectly fulfills its 
 destiny save in its mother's arms. 
 
 Some time ago six little children attended a 
 certain school. The father was a drunkard, 
 the mother washed for their daily bread, and 
 the children were ragged and dirty (before 
 they entered and had received clothing from 
 the teachers.) The matron of a benevolent in- 
 stitution undertook to place them in a better 
 environment, and called upon the teachers for 
 their help in making the transfer. To her as- 
 tonishment they declined, giving as their rea- 
 son that the children loved their mother dearly 
 and were happy in their attachment to one an- 
 other. True, they would have had better 
 clothes, better food, and a cleaner home, but 
 after all, parental love "is the fulfilling of the 
 law" during the child's period of nurture. 
 
 We are often much amused at the child's 
 power of imitation, and nowhere is this more 
 strikingly shown than in his play. We are 
 coming to realize that play is the child's best 
 teacher. Watch the baby girl as she washes 
 
32 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 and dresses her doll, prepares its imaginary 
 meal, takes it out for a walk. Every act is a 
 copy of what she sees in the home, and all is 
 a preparation for the duties of later life. 
 
 But play means more than this. 
 
 Every child, in a sense, goes through the men- 
 tal and physical experiences of the race. Proof 
 of this theory is traced in children's games, 
 each of which is supposed to indicate the period 
 of development of the child at that time. For 
 instance, we find our boy at one time \vith an 
 inclination to live in caves; at another he de- 
 lights in pursuit and capture; at another, in 
 deeds of bravery. These are generally thought 
 to be mere games which the child selects by 
 chance or in imitation of other children, with- 
 out regard to their order of development ; but, 
 in point of fact, each of these games is indica- 
 tive of a certain period in the race's history. 
 The child plays at being a robber because he is, 
 at that time, living the experiences of the race 
 at the time when all were robbers. When he 
 plays at being a tramp he is in the stage in 
 which his ancestors were migratory. These 
 phases of civilization show more plainly and 
 last longer with some children than with others, 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 33 
 
 but all have them in greater or less degree. 
 They promote healthy and normal growth. The 
 only possible danger in indulging them is th:.t 
 the mind may be arrested in one or the other of 
 these stages. The child, whose body grows to 
 manhood while his mind remains in the migra- 
 tory period, becomes a tramp; if he does not 
 develop beyond the predatory age he becomes 
 a robber, and so on. A criminal, as said be- 
 fore, is an example of arrested moral develop- 
 ment. In the next chapter we shall consider the 
 means of preventing this arrest; but we will 
 now return to our subject. 
 
 HABIT. 
 
 The child's teachers considered thus far are 
 Observation, Imitation, and Plays. Few ap- 
 preciate the immense importance of these fac- 
 tors in the child's education, and still fewer 
 understand that he learns far more from his 
 games and other associations with children, 
 than from any school yet organized. 
 
 The ease with which the child forms habits 
 is another peculiarity which renders the first 
 ten years so important. Perhaps no one has 
 ever given the physiological basis of habit bet- 
 
34 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ter than Dr. James, of Harvard University. 
 He says, in effect, that all sensations enter 
 through the senses such as the sense of touch, 
 or sight, or hearing. That which enters the 
 brain must come out again. Now the pathway 
 traversed by these discharged sensations be- 
 comes a habit if used often enough. 
 
 To explain more fully Suppose a child sees 
 or hears something which angers him. In- 
 stantly a message is flashed from a nerve center 
 to the appropriate muscles telling the hand to 
 strike, or the foot to kick. If this message is 
 obeyed, a faint pathway through the brain is 
 traced. The next similar 'feeling of anger 
 transmits a similar message and the obedient 
 muscles again strike or kick. The same path 
 is traversed by this second discharge, and the 
 channel is worn a little deeper. Suppose this 
 line of action is followed day after day. Is it 
 not clear that after a time the child will kick or 
 strike automatically whenever he is angered? 
 This automatic impulse is a habit. 
 
 The reason habits are so easily formed in 
 childhood lies in the fact that more blood is 
 supplied to the brain during this period, and the 
 brain is softer and more plastic. For this rea- 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 35 
 
 son, too, the habits and impressions of infancy 
 and youth are the strongest, those which come 
 to us last being the first to leave. 
 
 These physiological facts are of great mo- 
 ment, and suggest that moral teaching is made 
 most effective by personal example. The child 
 is interested in the object, the concrete, and imi- 
 tates what he sees. Let him observe our gen- 
 tleness or truthfulness and he will follow that, 
 if it is not beyond his power to appreciate. 
 
 Every good impulse should find outlet in an 
 appropriate action,, else it is lost and the capa- 
 bility for future good impulses is weakened. 
 So if the child reads a touching story, sees a pa- 
 thetic play, or is touched by some scene of suf- 
 fering, the feeling of pity thus aroused should 
 find an outlet in some kind action, even though 
 trivial. In this way the habit of alleviating 
 suffering is formed, which will grow with the 
 child's growth, unless we drain his sympathies 
 by too early and too active stimulation. 
 
 There is great danger of this latter, especi- 
 ally when the child is particularly susceptible 
 to feeling keenly the sufferings of others. Pre- 
 cocity in any direction should not be encour- 
 aged, for the child pays dearly for it in later 
 
36 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 life. Remember that it is the business of the 
 first twelve years to cultivate a healthy, happy 
 body as the foundation of later muscular 
 strength and nerve force. But let us remember 
 to cultivate this healthy body by exercising it 
 in giving utterance to good impulses through 
 appropriate action. 
 
 The dawn of the higher emotional nature 
 comes with the dawn of the period of adoles- 
 cense, and the child should enter this period of 
 his life with emotions fresh, and with fancy 
 free. Undue excitement, undue stimulation 
 of any sort is largely responsible for the jaded, 
 blase little men and women one so often meets. 
 
 Some times the children are so overworked 
 that they have no nerve force left for the duties 
 or enjoyments of later years. What is taken 
 for indifference or cynicism is really fatigue. 
 Often a baby of three or four^years is enrolled 
 in a kindergarten ; he loves the teacher, and the 
 games and the community life appeal to him. 
 His naturally bright mind becomes still brighter 
 under this stimulation. At six he enters the 
 primary school and continues to delight both 
 mother and teacher until he reaches the third 
 or fourth grade, and then our prodigy begins 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 37 
 
 to show an alarming change. The lessons once 
 so easy are dull and difficult. The teacher 
 whose room he has just entered does not "un- 
 derstand him." She fails "to explain" suffi- 
 ciently, and school becomes hateful to him. 
 
 The difficulty lies in the fact that the child is 
 simply worn out. All the strength and nerve 
 force which should have been stored up for the 
 wear and tear of later years has been exhausted 
 by his too early application to work. He is not 
 able to go on any more than a locomotive is 
 able to move after the supply of coal and water 
 is exhausted. Everyone is familiar with exam- 
 ples of this kind, and many know, also, that 
 statistics show that the child entering school 
 under seven loses in weight and is retarded in 
 growth during the first year. Who will make 
 the application ? Is it not possible that the con- 
 ditions for "race suicide" begin right here? 
 
 LAW OF ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The fourth and last teacher to be mentioned 
 is the law of association, which means that if 
 two things are once associated together in the 
 mind the later appearance of one will recall the 
 other. This principle is wonderfully useful in 
 
38 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 many ways by helping to fix or recall that 
 which we wish to remember, but, like every 
 other good thing, it is capable of working mis- 
 chief under unfavorable conditions. We let 
 the child play in a certain room some morning. 
 Our return to the room a week after recalls 
 the play to the child's mind even though it may 
 not have occurred to him in the meantime. And 
 it is surprising how soon these associations are 
 formed. A romp with the pillows at bedtime 
 brings a request for a romp the next night. 
 
 Good or bad, happy or sad, these connected 
 pictures are constantly forming the child's 
 mind and it is for us to see to it that, so far as 
 possible, they are happy and good. Even very 
 young animals show the influence of this law. 
 Their tricks are learned by means of certain as- 
 sociations, and many have heard of the horse 
 (not young) which was loaned to a clergyman 
 who wished to take his friend for a drive. The 
 road chosen happened to be one often traversed 
 by the horse's owner, and the clergyman's cha- 
 grin may be imagined as the faithful animal, 
 of its own accord, would draw up to every pub- 
 lic house on the road. So if children are al- 
 lowed to play in a certain street, or garden, or 
 
THE CHILD AND HIS TEACHERS. 39 
 
 building, a later return to this place will recall 
 the occupations associated with it, and render 
 a different train of thought difficult to follow. 
 
 Human intelligence presents many strange 
 inconsistencies. This law of association, 
 though often disregarded in training children, 
 is well understood and keenly followed in its 
 relation to other interests. This is particularly 
 true in an army. Visit a fort at sundown when 
 the flag is being lowered. Observe the order 
 and precision in every movement, the martial 
 music, the bared head, the respectful silence as 
 the sacred emblem flutters to the ground. All 
 this ceremony and parade are not for appear- 
 ance only; they have a far deeper meaning. 
 Everything pertaining to the flag is treated 
 with the greatest respect and formality. Why ? 
 So that in every phase of the soldier's life the 
 presence of the flag shall recall the feelings with 
 which it has been associated. This is absolutely 
 necessary to the unity and strength of the army. 
 How long would any people remain united if 
 their flag was treated with disrespect? 
 
 So too with the religious emotions. Better 
 a thousand times that no prayer be offered, no 
 hymn sung, than to conduct any religious exer- 
 
40 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 cise with children who are laughing and chat- 
 tering. They should never believe that prayer 
 or praise to God can be offered under such con- 
 ditions. When once the child makes this irrev- 
 erent association in his mind he has taken a 
 long step in the direction of irreligion and un- 
 belief. 
 
 RESUME. 
 
 1. The child's education commences as soon 
 as he begins to take notice, and his character is 
 largely formed before he enters school. 
 
 2. The child is interested in the concrete, the 
 objective; he therefore, pays more attention 
 to actions than to words. 
 
 3. The chief factors in his education are ob- 
 servation, association, habit, and games and 
 plays.* 
 
 *Consult the following- for further suggestions : Study of 
 Imitation Annual Report Commissioner of Education. Vol. I, 
 1896-97, chapter 13; Industrial Education, same, page 443: College 
 Athletics, same, page 705; Physical Training, Annual Reports of 
 Commissioner of Education, 1898, Vol. I, page 487; Babies and 
 Monkeys Popular Science Monthly, Jan., 1895, Vol. 46, page 371; 
 The Boyhood of Great Men, Annual Report of Education, 1898, Vol. 
 2, page 1294; The Sorrows of Childhood, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9. 
 
WHAT THE CHILD SHOULD LEARN. 41 
 
 IV. 
 WHAT THE CHILD SHOULD LEARN. 
 
 "A little natural philosophy and the first entrance into it doth 
 dispose the opinion to atheism; but on the other side, much natu- 
 ral philosophy and the wading deep into it will bring- men's 
 minds to religion." Bacon. 
 
 TT IS generally admitted that the first nine 
 ** years of life are the most important from 
 an educational point of view, but compara- 
 tively few are equally clear as to the time when 
 the child's education really begins. Fewer still 
 have decided convictions as to where he should 
 begin. Many suppose his entrance into the kind- 
 ergarten or the primary school marks the be- 
 ginning of this important work, while others 
 place it at a still later period. 
 
 The child enters the world in a perfectly 
 helpless condition. Practically he is blind, deaf 
 and dumb; unconscious of any object even of 
 himself. Gradually the outer world is revealed 
 to him through the sense of touch. This awak- 
 ens desire or inclination. His education com- 
 mences the moment this inclination or desire 
 encounters opposition, and its trend is deter- 
 
42 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 mined by the manner in which the obstacle is 
 surmounted. 
 
 Thus a very young babe is rocked to sleep, 
 or carried to and fro. A few experiences of this 
 nature teach him the pleasurable sensation of 
 motion and he refuses to be lulled to sleep by 
 other means. Whether it is physiologically 
 harmful to rock a child to sleep or to walk about 
 with him is not now the question. Do his de- 
 sires conflict with the parent's will? Here his 
 education begins. It is his first lesson in obedi- 
 ence, and according to its method he takes his 
 first step downward toward self-indulgence and 
 ruin, or upward toward self-control. Whether 
 we will it or not, we find ourselves confronted, 
 from birth to old age, by obstacles which we 
 must surmount or to which we must yield. The 
 decision as to which ones shall be overcome, and 
 which shall be permitted to prevail against us, 
 constitute the chief problem of life. The abil- 
 ity to overcome or to yield as judgment may 
 direct, can only be gained through self-control, 
 and self-control comes only through practice in 
 obedience to law. Law must come to the child, 
 at first, from without. Later he finds it within ; 
 he becomes a law unto himself. But until the 
 
OBEDIENCE. 43 
 
 knowledge of the truth has made him free he 
 must obey external law. 
 
 Now it would be the height of folly to as- 
 sume that all children learn the lessons of obed- 
 ience with equal ease or in the same time. Her- 
 edity and environment each exerts its influence 
 and very much depends upon the wisdom of 
 those who enforce the obedience. The require- 
 ments at first should be few and simple, so as 
 not to perplex or distress the little ones need- 
 lessly; but when once the decision has been 
 made obedience should be secured. Under such 
 conditions it is cruelly wrong to issue unneces- 
 sary prohibitions. The best and wisest of us 
 often err in this respect because our childhood is 
 so far behind us that we have only a misty rec- 
 ollection of the sharp struggles and the keen 
 disappointments of infancy. It is the only safe 
 rule never to say "No" or "Yes" to a child un- 
 less we have a good reason for doing so. Of 
 course conflict is inevitable here. Perfect 
 agreement between the parent's will and the 
 child's would show the inability of the child to 
 choose, a condition bordering on imbecility 
 or else the governing power would need to be 
 omniscient, while the governed would need the 
 
44 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ability to recognize this omniscience under all 
 conditions, coupled with a self-control so mar- 
 velous that he could at all times subjugate his 
 desire to his judgment conditions impossible 
 alike to the adult and the- child. But the neces- 
 sity for this struggle should cause us no anxiety ; 
 it should be welcomed rather as nature's method 
 of growth. No opposition, no combat ; no com- 
 bat, no growth. Every square foot of earth pro- 
 claims this universal law of nature; every 
 plant, every animal, every insect living upon 
 the earth is living because of its ability to 
 maintain this conflict. Man is no exception to 
 this law. Every muscle, every nerve and brain 
 cell in his body is subject to this law of growth 
 manifest in all other forms of life, while our 
 moral and spiritual development are alike de- 
 pendent upon the same all embracing principle. 
 "To the stars through difficulties." 
 
 USE AND ABUSE OF PUNISHMENT. 
 
 Since the fundamental principle of growth, 
 physical and spiritual, is obedience to law, it 
 follows that the first lesson for those who know 
 not the law, must be that of obedience to 
 some force or power outside of themselves and 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 45 
 
 quite other than their will or desire. Of course 
 at a later period the element of choice enters 
 into this conformity, but now they are receiving 
 their first lesson in obedience to the will of an- 
 other. Judgment has not yet become active. 
 The child is incapable of any real choice; so 
 the first page of life's primer demands obedience 
 per se, and it must be mastered thoroughly if 
 he would read the succeeding chapters under- 
 standingly. The child may not wish to obey. 
 Inclination is strong and he feels no need of 
 disregarding it. Compulsion may become nec- 
 essary, and this brings us face to face with the 
 question of punishments. 
 
 Punishments are generally of two classes: 
 ( i ) the deprivation of certain privileges, as the 
 forfeiting of a coveted outing, or the omission 
 of the bed-time story. (2) In the second class 
 are included all attempts to "make the punish- 
 ment fit the crime." The floor littered with bits 
 of paper must be restored to its former condi- 
 tion; injury to property must be repaired to 
 the extent of the offender's ability the object 
 being to awaken the child's mind to a recogni- 
 tion of the rights of others, and at the same 
 time teach him to feel that wrong-doing always 
 
46 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 brings with it the need of reparation. This lat- 
 ter class of punishment is in all respects most 
 logical and salutary, but there are cases but 
 not many where neither of these methods 
 seems efficacious, and appeal is made to physi- 
 cal pain or discomfort. 
 
 Of Corporal Punishment so much has been 
 said in recent years, and the matter is so im- 
 portant, that it behooves us to look into the sub- 
 ject with some care. The objections made to 
 this mode of correction are as follows : 
 
 First The sensation of physical pain is 
 evanescent ; it passes off more quickly than any 
 other of equal intensity. 
 
 Second Physical pain causes a great de- 
 struction of nerve tissue, and is, therefore, from 
 an economic standpoint, a most expensive and 
 unwarranted method of correction. 
 
 Third It is merely an appeal to our animal 
 nature, and, for this reason, it is degrading 
 and brutalizing. 
 
 Fourth Real obedience, that of the heart, is 
 never gained through corporal punishment. 
 
 Fifth The highest and noblest efforts possi- 
 ble to man are obtained through interest i. e., 
 our best is attained only under pleasurable con- 
 ditions. 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 47 
 
 Sixth Corporal punishment attacks and 
 dulls the child's sense of honor. 
 
 Let us consider these objections for a mo- 
 ment, at the same time bearing two cautions in 
 mind : First, that nothing is so false, so decep- 
 tive, as a half truth ; second, that blind adher- 
 ence to any principle, especially when accom- 
 panied, as it often is, by a disregard of co-oper- 
 ating or adjusting laws, must necessarily result 
 in injury if not in the total subversion of the 
 principle. 
 
 As to the first objection, that physical pain is 
 the most fleeting of all sensations, little need be 
 said since the argument is in favor of rather 
 than opposed to its use. No one would wish to 
 inflict any sort of punishment that could last an 
 instant longer than the purpose of it rendered 
 necessary. 
 
 The alleged destruction of nerve tissue, so far 
 as it is true, is a far more serious charge against 
 this means of coercion, but it should be under- 
 stood, clearly and unmistakably, that the brutal 
 and unmerited whippings of a former genera- 
 tion are not considered, and therefore not reck- 
 oned with in these pages; for them no excuse 
 can be offered save ignorance and that mysteri- 
 
48 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ous and all pervading influence generally known 
 as "the spirit of the times." 
 
 History teaches that severity is not neces- 
 sary to the efficacy of punishment rather the 
 contrary its chief requirements being just- 
 ness, certainty, and, above all, a perfect adapta- 
 tion to the physical and mental status of the 
 culprit. Now if we admit that the human child 
 is in the beginning merely an animal and that 
 his spiritual nature is a potentiality to become a 
 reality through a process of growth, there must 
 be a mixture of physical and spiritual influences 
 used in his correction. This evolution may be 
 rapid or comparatively slow, being dependent 
 upon heredity and environment. Some unfor- 
 tunate beings seem to be arrested in this animal 
 stage, and to remain in it all their lives (as is 
 true of many criminals), while others born un- 
 der happier conditions appear to grow out of it 
 very early. Now while the animal nature pre- 
 dominates appeal may be made through physical 
 pain and discomfort, but it should give place to 
 other means as rapidly as the higher nature is 
 awakened and the child becomes amenable to 
 higher motives for right conduct. The infant 
 has no idea of moral duty, and a few light slaps 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 49 
 
 of the hand with a reproving countenance are 
 often the only argument the very young child 
 can understand. Such admonition best fits the 
 conditions. 
 
 A kind-hearted and able physician once stated 
 that when the little body was stiffened with an- 
 ger, the limbs rigid and the face red with con- 
 gested blood, a few light slaps upon the lower 
 part of the body, acting as a counter irritant, 
 gave the best possible relief to the overcharged 
 blood vessels, producing a similar effect to that 
 produced by the mustard plaster. With the 
 average child the necessity for this mode of 
 punishment ought to disappear gradually, and 
 should seldom be necessary after the ninth or 
 tenth year. 
 
 Many, of course, will not need it at all ; but 
 it is to be feared their number is smaller than 
 maternal affection or sentiment leads some to 
 think. Our chief difficulty in child training 
 seems to lie in the inability to see that the child 
 grows in a regular and well defined order. 
 Stage follows stage in an appointed suc- 
 cession, and each stage should receive the treat- 
 ment adapted to it. While it may be possible, 
 by judicious care, to make this progression from 
 
50 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 stage to stage more rapid, it is also possible that 
 under certain other conditions this natural ad- 
 vancement may be retarded or even checked 
 altogether by injudicious treatment 
 
 Be this as it may, nothing can be gained by 
 urging ethical motives for conduct before 
 the ethical nature has budded, for we know 
 that any hot-house forcing of spiritual growth 
 is fatal to later development. All danger sig- 
 nals must be regarded, and so far as human 
 wisdom can discern, the proper remedy for each 
 stage should be provided- The immature na- 
 ture capable of appreciating only physical sen- 
 sations, must be appealed to through his physi- 
 cal sensations, and neither affection nor vanity 
 should lead us to suppose that the child we love 
 so tenderly is to develop under different laws 
 from those which govern and always have gov- 
 erned the race. 
 
 All this may sound despotic to advanced no- 
 tions of child education, and more applicable 
 to a primitive age, or to a military form of gov- 
 ernment than to a free republic, but if evolution 
 is the law of the universe, does it not suggest 
 ihat the child, passing through the different ex- 
 periences of the race, can be restrained best 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 51 
 
 in each stage of development by the means 
 that have been adopted by the best and most in- 
 telligent of the race at each corresponding step 
 in human history ? Despotic appeals to physical 
 pain seem to have been the earliest means of 
 control employed by any people. Though ad- 
 vancement has greatly modified these elemen- 
 tary practices, is it not probable that the young 
 child passes through enough of this early ex- 
 perience of the race to render a touch of them 
 salutary ? 
 
 Does it seem irrational to conclude that a be- 
 ing in whom the animal nature is so prominent 
 as in the young child can be best controlled, 
 sometimes, through his physical sensations? 
 Will not his adherence to law, in future years, 
 be stronger and more enduring because it has 
 grown, step by step, from this physical basis in 
 accord with what seems to be a law of both our 
 physical and spiritual development? 
 
 It is useless for parent or teacher to ignore 
 the fact that children must grow according to 
 natural laws. As well might the frog refuse to 
 pass its childhood as a tadpole, or the butterfly 
 to crawl before it flies, as for man to refuse to 
 recognize that he begins life as an animal, and 
 
52 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 that his transformation into a spiritual being is 
 by a slow process of growth out of the animal 
 into the spiritual. 
 
 The most serious defect in our system at 
 present seems to lie in the very general effort 
 to present ethical motives for conduct before 
 the ethical nature is sufficiently developed to 
 appreciate them. History reveals the fact that 
 no race of people has exhibited the highest 
 standard of virtue in its childhood. It has 
 grown slowly, step by step. What reason have 
 we to suppose that our embryo man can spring 
 full-fledged into a virtuous manhood ? And can 
 it be brutalizing to use the means of correction 
 which best answer to his stage of growth? It 
 would be brutal to retain this mode of punish- 
 ment after the child is capable of responding 
 to higher motives, and the higher motive should 
 be employed as soon as it can be appreciated 
 and it should be presented to him repeatedly 
 before he can appreciate it. 
 
 It is true, to be sure, that genuine obedience, 
 obedience that springs from the heart, is not 
 the direct result of coercion. But the child does 
 not rise to this plane of duty at a bound. This 
 moral excellence is a superstructure whose 
 
MORAL STRENGTH. 5 3 
 
 foundation is obedience to external authority 
 which has become habit in childhood. To ig- 
 nore this order of growth is an error too pre- 
 valent in the education of the young. 
 
 Then, too, we are prone to lay great stress 
 upon the pleasure of work, the value of interest, 
 its effect upon effort, etc. While all this em- 
 phasis cannot be laid too early, and too much 
 cannot be said in favor of it, there is another 
 truth equally important which the present gen- 
 eration is in danger of forgetting the import- 
 ant part which struggle plays in the child's de- 
 velopment. 
 
 One thinker has said that the child gains his 
 moral strength through the conflict of his own 
 will with that of his parents ; and he adds "that 
 as the child progresses toward manhood he 
 should gradually gain his freedom, lest he know 
 not how to use his liberty upon reaching matur- 
 ity, and how to govern others having never 
 governed himself." He declares that "self-gov- 
 ernment is first dependent upon that implicit 
 obedience in childhood to a higher will which 
 leads to self-control; and second, to judicious 
 freedom in thought and conduct which, being 
 gained slowly and by degrees, gives scope to 
 
54 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 the judgment. Success in life, great or small, 
 is determined by the degree of self-control that 
 has been acquired. 
 
 The assertion that corporal punishment dulls 
 the child's sense of honor implies that the sense 
 of honor has awakened in the child. When 
 this sense has become active, corporal punish- 
 ment is never the remedy. But the humiliation 
 that attends the violation of one's sense of per- 
 sonal dignity or honor is not possible to a child 
 who has no such sense. When it is once awak- 
 ened the child can be better controlled by other 
 influences. 
 
 Much has been said about the decline of par- 
 ental authority during the past quarter of the 
 century. There are grounds for this charge. 
 Not least among these is the fact that parents 
 of the generation now reaching maturity re- 
 ceived a training in which one of the elements 
 of leadership was lacking; that of freedom. 
 Fifty years ago a child in a well ordered home 
 was "seen but not heard." But when that gener- 
 ation neared the age when self-assertion is ben- 
 eficial, pedagogy took a turn: the little child 
 came to the front and has remained there ever 
 since as leader of the procession. As a natural 
 
MORAL STRENGTH. 55 
 
 consequence the mothers of the present day 
 have remained in the background. They re- 
 ceived the necessary training in obedience, but 
 the freedom which should have come later was 
 denied them. They never "came out" until 
 called to assume the leadership of their own 
 home. Is it any wonder that judgment was 
 sometimes lacking ? The men of this age found 
 a partial corrective in their earlier and more 
 active contact with the outer world, but the 
 error has affected with full force the more se- 
 cluded girl just budding into womanhood. 
 
 This lack, however, will not be felt by many 
 of the children now nearing maturity. In a 
 majority of cases they have enjoyed unlimited 
 freedom from babyhood, the preliminary train- 
 ing in obedience having been eliminated from 
 their education. Modern sentiment is prone to 
 revolt from suppression of any kind. It would 
 be wrong to deny that many advantages have 
 accrued to children under this freer dispensa- 
 tion, but the evidence is cumulative that free- 
 dom without obedience will always prove as 
 great an evil as obedience without freedom. 
 Life is a partial failure everywhere without 
 both. 
 
56 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 The leading objectors to corporal punish- 
 ment are not always our ablest thinkers. With 
 honorable exceptions they are persons engaged 
 in occupations offering little opportunity for 
 intelligent personal investigation of the subject. 
 This retards true progress for the reason that 
 there is always a large number of people who are 
 easily swayed by what seems to them to be pub- 
 lic opinion because it happens to be the only 
 opinion publicly expressed at the time. We 
 should be slow to abolish by law this mode of 
 correction from the school where children of all 
 stages of development are grouped together un- 
 der teachers who, in their efforts to maintain 
 the required discipline, are often led to the 
 adoption of means far less honorable and effica- 
 cious; such as pinching, jerking, shaking, hold- 
 ing up to ridicule, shutting in the dark, and 
 "nagging;" practices too often the recourse of 
 those whose poor health, lack of pedagogical 
 training, or overcrowded school room, make 
 coercion necessary to secure order. 
 
 But, it must be borne in mind that corporal 
 punishment loses its efficacy as the child gains 
 in appreciation of higher motives for conduct. 
 Punishment, to be effective, should be : 
 
MORAL STRENGTH. 57 
 
 First, certain. The element of uncertainty 
 often seems to awaken in the child a desire to 
 see how far and how long he can disobey with 
 impunity. The same impulse which induces an 
 older person to bet on the board of trade, or 
 to frequent the gaming tables at Monte Carlo, 
 will lead the boy to take chances on his teacher's 
 patience or powers of endurance. Punishment 
 should be certain for many reasons. 
 
 Second, it should be just. History shows no 
 bloodier page than that which records the race's 
 struggle for fair treatment; and no effort at 
 restraint which lacks this element is effective 
 for long. Though our ethical standard is 
 higher than his, the child's moral sense is often 
 keener than ours. His horizon is narrow and, 
 therefore, he should be encouraged to state his 
 view of the matter and punishment should not 
 be administered until there is sufficient evidence 
 that the child believes it to be just. 
 
 Third, it should be adapted to the child's de- 
 velopment. It is the height of cruelty to force 
 upon the child motives he cannot understand. 
 It is brutal to continue a mode of punishment 
 that he has outgrown. Sound judgment and a 
 kind heart should determine both the rewards 
 
58 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 and the punishments of the school, and they 
 should be the sound judgment and kind heart 
 of the teacher in charge. Farming out children 
 for punishment to the principal or superintend- 
 ent does not strengthen the teacher and is gen- 
 erally harmful to the child. 
 
 OTHER PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 The same general principles apply to all 
 forms of punishment, inasmuch as all are for 
 the same purpose; and it need hardly be said 
 that the mildest means that will accomplish the 
 desired end are always the best. Few realize the 
 suffering of a nervous child put to bed in the 
 dark or shut up in closet. Tantalizing, taunt- 
 ing and exposing to ridicule are especially rep- 
 rehensible. 
 
 Whatever the means of correction used it 
 must be remembered that its efficacy will de- 
 pend not only upon the spirit and manner of it, 
 but also upon its infrequency. 
 
 When the French Revolution was at its 
 height, once sensitive ladies attended public 
 executions, calmly sipping coffee as they wit- 
 nessed the most revolting acts of cruelty. We 
 express horror at the brutality of our ancestors, 
 
INFREQUENCY OF PUNISHMENTS. 59 
 
 but we should soon find ourselves doing the 
 same thing under similar conditions, simply be- 
 cause any experience, pleasurable or painful, 
 will affect us less the second time when it did 
 the first ; every repetition lessens the effect un- 
 til we become in a measure indifferent to what 
 were once intense feelings. 
 
 This law must be taken into the account in 
 the child's training, since we are apt, other- 
 wise, to render him callous to all the means we 
 employ for his improvement. Wisdom and 
 self-control are never more necessary than 
 when we attempt to correct the fault of another. 
 It is also well to remember that the immature 
 mind is not always the inferior mind. Superi- 
 ority in age, the relation to parent or teacher, 
 or any other exterior condition will not give us 
 governing power unless we have learned to 
 govern ourselves. 
 
 "Punishments as seen by Children'' Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 
 3, P. 235; "Educative Value of Children's Questioning-" Popular 
 Science Monthly, XLIV, P. 799; "Child Study & Religious Educa- 
 tion" Child Study Monthly, Oct. 1896, Vol. 2, P. 289; "Fatig-ue in 
 School Children" Educational Review, Jan. 1898, P. 34; the Public 
 School and the Public Library" Annual Report Commissioner of 
 Education 1898, Vol. 1, P. 487; "The History of Sunday Schools" 
 Annual report Com. of Education 1896-97, Vol. 1, P. 351. 
 
6o THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 WHAT THE CHILD SHOULD LEARN. 
 
 Continued. 
 F WE believe that among the first lessons 
 
 i 
 
 the child must learn, is obedience, pure and 
 simple, the next matter for our consideration is 
 the direction this obedience shall take. The 
 child advances from the general to the specific 
 application of this law and learns by degrees 
 that while he is expected to follow the actual 
 guidance of those around him, there are certain 
 acts which are always forbidden because of 
 some inherent quality in themselves. This 
 would cover such infringements of the moral 
 law, as stealing, lying, and the like. 
 
 STEALING. 
 
 Of course, the little child at first knows no 
 distinction between his property and another's. 
 He learns this chiefly from the way in which 
 his belongings are considered. His treatment 
 of his neighbor in adult life depends very 
 
FORBIDDEN ACTS. 61 
 
 much upon these first experiences in the home. 
 Why should we expect him to grow in re- 
 spect for the property of others when his 
 treasures are kicked about, or thrown away, or 
 given to younger brothers or sisters without 
 reference to his wishes ? He learns by what he 
 sees more than by what we tell him, and if his 
 property is respected, he gradually grows into 
 a respect for the property of others. By degrees 
 this distinction may become sharp and clear; 
 then the chances are that in manhood he will 
 have regard for the Golden Rule. 
 
 Nearly all the confusion between capital and 
 labor has had its counterpart in the child's ex- 
 periences during the first ten years of his life. 
 If his rights are ignored, why should he not 
 show the same disregard for the rights of oth- 
 ers? At first it shows itself in appropriating 
 the things belonging to others, which grows 
 into a general disrespect for others 5 rights, and 
 an inability to appreciate what is due to them. 
 It has been observed that children whose fam- 
 ilies have been pauperized by the injudicious 
 charity of churches and benevolent societies 
 are generally not regardful of property rights. 
 This does not necessarily arise from any inher- 
 
62 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ent dishonesty ; it simply means that false kind- 
 ness has prevented any sharp distinction be- 
 tween mine and thine from getting a lodgment 
 in their convictions, and they feel at liberty to 
 appropriate whatever seems desirable without 
 any very great consideration of the owners' 
 wishes. Children who are not paupers fre- 
 quently show this lack of training in other 
 ways: fences are marked, lawns trampled, 
 and we look on with good natured indifference, 
 failing to recognize that this small and appar- 
 ently unimportant disregard of property rights 
 is the nucleus of future oppression and strife. 
 Later experience may lead him to a recognition 
 of such of these principles as are necessary to 
 success in business, but a real, genuine consid- 
 eration for others must be taught in babyhood 
 and preserved as a possession of inestimable 
 value throughout the years of growth, if it shall 
 become an ingredient of the character. 
 
 Dr. G. Stanley Hall in his suggestive paper 
 on "Children's Lies" gives an insight into this 
 subject not realized before, and which every 
 teacher of children should carefully study. It 
 is true of all animals that they lie, so far as 
 their intelligence permits, and man inherits his 
 
CHILDREN'S LIES. 63 
 
 full share of this propensity, without the ani- 
 mal's excuse that it is now necessary to his sur- 
 vival. The instinct can be suppressed most 
 easily in early childhood. 
 
 In the animal world are seen many evidences 
 of this instinct to deceive. Spiders feign 
 death in times of danger, a habit followed by 
 many small animals and insects. Birds resort 
 to all sorts of tricks to divert an enemy's atten- 
 tion from their nests; while the fox, the dog, 
 and many others do their part in maintain- 
 ing this characteristic whenever self-preserva- 
 tion or interest renders it desirable or necessary. 
 The little child, at first, lies as innocently as 
 other animals, which of course is no lie in the 
 moral sense of the word. 
 
 Then the time comes when the imagination 
 begins to bud, and some children find it hard to 
 distinguish between what actually occurred and 
 what he imagines occurred. And, too, there 
 is that inability to relate occurrences accurately 
 which is, in some degree, the effect of deficient 
 sense training, and memory. A short time 
 ago a daily paper gave an abstract of a lecture 
 on lying in which the speaker deplored the "fa- 
 tal tendency" of children to imitate and spoke 
 
64 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 at length of all their little games, such as keep- 
 ing house, playing school, tending baby and the 
 like, as the beginning of this sinful habit. De- 
 luded soul, he failed to see that the whole race 
 learns by imitation. The ability to imitate in- 
 telligently has brought Japan to the front, while 
 the inability to imitate keeps the barbarian bar- 
 barous. 
 
 If the hypothesis that man inherits a ten- 
 dency to lie in common with other animals is 
 excepted, then he must pass through this 
 stage of race experience, as he does through his 
 nomadic and robber stages. No danger need be 
 felt for the normal child with proper training. 
 It is the child who is arrested in this stage that 
 becomes and remains a liar. Of course we all 
 see the preventive. The child must live in an 
 atmosphere of truthfulness. His gift of imita- 
 tion enables him to follow what he sees, and 
 this gradually crystallizes into habit, forming 
 a good foundation for the ethical training of la- 
 ter years. It is easy to preach to or nag a young 
 child until he becomes either a hypocrite or a 
 coward, or to punish so severely as to make him 
 an accomplished liar. But few, if any, can with- 
 stand the warm, sunny influence of a kind and 
 
SELFISHNESS. 65 
 
 truthful home or school. There are times when 
 it becomes necessary to punish falsehood; but 
 it is well to know first what is in the child's 
 mind before doing it. A kind, sympathetic talk 
 with him will often reveal ideas or deductions 
 unsuspected by the adult mind, which show a 
 conscience void of offense. Surely it is worth 
 the trouble. 
 
 On the other hand, many a young schemer 
 is most artful in his attempts to deceive. It is 
 most important that this type of child should 
 not be allowed to escape the teachers' or the 
 parents' vigilance. It is he that swells the 
 mournful army of swindlers and defaulters 
 found in the various avenues of business. 
 
 We place many obstacles in the child's way. 
 The deceptions of social and business life, 
 the daily insincerities which the average person 
 practices almost unconsciously, all these puzzle 
 and bewilder the immature mind. Surely we 
 who provide these conditions should be fair, 
 and act as truthfully as we would have him do. 
 
 SELFISHNESS. 
 
 Selfishness in the young child is merely the 
 instinct of self-preservation which he shares in 
 
66 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 common with other animals. At first it is per- 
 fectly right and natural; he grows out of it 
 gradually as the altruistic attributes of his na- 
 ture and feelings of sympathy begin to assert 
 themselves. Too strenuous and too early ef- 
 forts to teach him generosity, self-denial, and 
 the like, react dangerously later on. His at- 
 tempts in this direction should be few and sim- 
 ple, at first, and of such a nature as to give him 
 pleasure. To illustrate: A short time ago a 
 neighbor's little son reached his fifth birthday. 
 An aunt sent him a small, heart-shaped box of 
 bon-bons. In the afternoon a few friends 
 called. "Pass your pretty candies to the ladies," 
 said his mother, with the result that only two 
 poor little gum drops were left in the box. Now 
 don't you think this was a hard lesson for the 
 average boy? His mother wished him to grow 
 up a noble, unselfish man. What do you think 
 of her methods ? Is she likely to succeed in her 
 effort? 
 
 The Christian religion sometimes requires us 
 to give up all we hold dear ; but we rarely meet 
 this demand cheerfully at five. The average 
 child loves to share his possessions occasion- 
 ally ; let him begin by doing so in small meas- 
 
FIGHTING. 67 
 
 ure, at first so small that his sense of loss or 
 deprivation is counterbalanced by the sympa- 
 thetic pleasure he feels until the altruistic na- 
 ture begins to assert itself. 
 
 FIGHTING. 
 
 Reference has been made to the instinct of 
 self-preservation. This shows itself in various 
 ways. At a very early age the child tries to 
 defend himself, to protect his property, or to 
 acquire something which instinct teaches him is 
 desirable, and he does it by means of the only 
 weapons known to him his teeth, hands, and 
 feet he fights. Remember, he is yet only a 
 little animal and seeks to preserve himself as 
 other animals do. This is, therefore, a per- 
 fectly normal effort in line with all the instincts 
 which preserve animal life from extinction. The 
 child must pass through this stage. Nations 
 have not yet passed beyond it. If he is arrested 
 in it he will go through life a brute. Repugnant 
 as it may be to our feelings the child must be 
 allowed this experience. It is necessary to his 
 moral growth; it is the natural and healthy 
 foundation of the mental and moral struggle 
 
68 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 which every man maintains if he prove suc- 
 cessful in the battle of life. This period is 
 passed more quickly by some temperaments 
 than by others, but evidences of its existence 
 are most noticeable in the third or fourth year 
 of school life. 
 
 Perhaps most of the nations do, or have 
 done, their bitterest fighting at the time when 
 the great majority of the people are or were in 
 the same stage of intelligence as our aver- 
 age boy of ten or twelve. The child at this 
 age has a keen and somewhat poetic sense 
 of justice. Loss must be compensated and 
 wrong punished without delay. He is in the 
 period of muscle training also, and at once pro- 
 ceeds to set matters right in the only way that 
 appeals to him. One reason that he appreciates 
 Buffalo Bill stories and others of their kind so 
 keenly is found in the swift and summary pun- 
 ishment meted out to all offenders. The crude 
 sense of justice depicted in this class of litera- 
 ture coincides exactly with his own half-devel- 
 oped ideas, and the lurid scenes of bravery and 
 bloodshed do not seem exaggerated or impos- 
 sible to his childish fancy because he lives in a 
 world of imagination where the marvelous is 
 always commonplace. 
 
FIGHTING. 69 
 
 Fairy tales are absorbed eagerly at this age 
 and earlier. Red Riding Hood is a great 
 favorite with the child of six or eight, and 
 his sigh of relief when the wicked wolf is 
 dispatched is an unfailing indication of his 
 sense of justice satisfied. Jack the Giant 
 Killer answers the same need. It seems only 
 logical to meet this craving with the best sto- 
 ries of the races' great battles. Carthage and 
 Rome will fascinate him, and the Old Testa- 
 ment wars will appeal to him more strongly 
 now than a few years later, for the reason that 
 he is in about the same stage of spiritual devel- 
 opment as the people of whom he is reading 
 and is, therefore, ready to sympathize with 
 them most keenly. 
 
 Later on he will, of course, appreciate the 
 grandeur and sublimity of the Old Testament, 
 its lofty ideals, and noble purposes, in a man- 
 ner and degree now impossible; but just now 
 he takes this initial and most important step 
 in his study of the Bible. He is learning to 
 live it, to sympathize with it, to see the har- 
 mony between its narrative and his own ex- 
 perience. For this reason the child should read 
 the Old Testament first, reserving the altru- 
 
70 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 istic teaching of the New Testament for the 
 period of adolescence when the altruistic quali- 
 ties become active. 
 
 Reference to literature is made in this con- 
 nection merely to show why the child prefers 
 stories of conflict at this age. If this craving 
 is indulged judiciously, and he is allowed to 
 fight, when he believes he is fighting for jus- 
 tice and right, he passes through this stage of 
 development safely, and is stronger and more 
 wholesome for the experience. It is well, per- 
 haps, that nature asserts herself so vigorously 
 in this matter that the average boy follows her 
 promptings in spite of the maternal dictum that 
 "no matter what happens, little son mustn't 
 fight." 
 
 After many years spent in the school room, 
 the writer can recall but one instance in which 
 a mother succeeded in enforcing this command 
 literally and absolutely, and is thankful that 
 she can recall no more. The victim, when 
 she first met him, was a boy of fourteen, 
 very tall, well proportioned, with excellent fea- 
 tures and good coloring, gentlemanly in man- 
 ner, the pleasing effect of which was somewhat 
 marred by a general limpness, both mental and 
 
FIGHTING. 71 
 
 physical, which was at once explained when, 
 after some indignity offered by smaller boys, 
 the mother explained, "My son is preparing 
 for the ministry; no matter what the boys do 
 to him, he cannot fight, he has never struck any- 
 one in his life." In vain the teacher pleaded 
 for a saner and more logical treatment. The 
 result may be imagined. As the others 
 learned the situation, George became the butt 
 of the school. Every indignity was offered 
 which ingenuity could invent, and at the close 
 of each session he generally ran across thvi 
 fields followed by a crowd of nimble tormen- 
 ters. Years have passed and (George is now a 
 man, probably in the ministry, and it would 
 be interesting to know how well the dignity of 
 the church militant is maintained by one who 
 was never allowed to assert and defend his 
 own. 
 
 Then, too, it must be remembered that boys 
 do very much of their fighting simply to deter- 
 mine which is the better man; they are living 
 in the period of conquest. The principal of the 
 Grand Rapids Ungraded School reports an al- 
 most total cessation of street fights since the 
 boys are allowed to box during the last fifteen 
 to thirty minutes on Friday afternoon. 
 
72 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 VI. 
 
 WHAT THE CHILD SHOULD LEARN. 
 (Continued.) 
 
 It has already been suggested that for the 
 good of the nation, as well as the individ- 
 ual, children ought not to enter the school 
 room before completing the eleventh year. It 
 seems absurd to most readers to make a 
 statement so directly opposed to the prevail- 
 ing opinion. Emigration brings to our shores 
 thousands of children whose first and only 
 lessons in good citizenship are gained in 
 the public schools during infancy or early child- 
 hood ; then, there are other thousands of native 
 born parents whose indifference, lack of prep- 
 aration, of opportunity, or of money, renders 
 them unfit or unable to assume the elementary 
 education of their children. There is also the 
 youthful army of bread-winners, whom stern 
 necessity forces into our industrial life so 
 early that they must attend school during 
 childhood, if at all; and there, too, is the un- 
 fortunate only child whose early experience 
 
EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 73 
 
 in community life is gained almost entirely 
 from the same source. Earnest and fair-minded 
 parents entertain a wholesome fear of defects 
 in education which may handicap their children 
 in the "competitive examinations" which await 
 them in every corner of the business world. 
 It may be, therefore, that the contents of this 
 chapter will be taken with many misgivings 
 as to their common sense. Its suggestions 
 must be modified and adapted to the environ- 
 ment of each individual child, if they shall 
 prove of any value. 
 
 Ideal conditions surround the child when it 
 feels the blessed influences of an intelligent and 
 loving home. But these conditions are too sel- 
 dom realized ; so it comes to pass that the pub- 
 lic school with all its imperfections becomes the 
 chief instrumentality in the moulding and 
 leavening process which converts the embryo 
 anarchist into a loyal citizen, and imparts hope 
 and intelligence to that great mass of human- 
 ity which, deprived of its influences, must live 
 as the beast liveth. Most that can be done for 
 the following generation is to come from con- 
 sidering all the conditions. We must estimate 
 even the defects at their true value, and then 
 
 -6 
 
74 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 choose the best that each one's own peculiar 
 circumstances render possible; remembering 
 always that a blind adherence to any princi- 
 ple, however good, often defeats the end 
 sought. 
 
 Since present public opinion requires chil- 
 dren to attend school in their infancy, and since 
 the average parent is not in a position to ignore 
 this requirement without placing his children 
 at great disadvantage, it follows that all de- 
 sired change in the process of educating the 
 young must be brought about by degrees. 
 
 Under present conditions the child is almost 
 exclusively dominated by the feminine mind, 
 and as this state of things will, in all probabil- 
 ity, continue for some years, it becomes 
 woman's duty to fit herself for the task. Moth- 
 erhood will take on a higher anda'holier signifi- 
 cance as women learn better how to study 
 their children from the standpoint of science 
 as well as of sentiment. Sentiment is, of course, 
 a most important factor in child training, but 
 he who trusts to it entirely may be likened to a 
 builder who fashions his structure without 
 foundation or scaffolding. 
 
EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 75 
 
 An accurate knowledge of conditions and a 
 true estimate of educational values are the 
 greatest needs of the average woman. Without 
 them we fail to recognize the relations of the 
 part to the whole, and thus many a fundamental 
 principle is ignored, many a defect disregarded, 
 because its importance to the perfection of the 
 structure is never suspected. 
 
 Take for illustration the universal in- 
 stinct of children to destroy a disposition 
 prominently active at a certain stage of growth. 
 It has its place and value, but must in a short 
 time give place to another impulse. Failure to 
 understand that this is a mere animal impulse 
 is the cause of the unrestrained destruction of 
 trees and shrubs, the mutilation of fences and 
 buildings, long after this natural instinct 
 should have been arrested. The American is a 
 good natured soul, and sometimes too good- 
 natured. The damage may be trifling. "Boys 
 will be boys" parents say. They are indiffer- 
 ent, or ashamed to complain since popular sen- 
 timent is with the offender; so the child goes 
 on his way, and no one seems to connect the ut- 
 ter disregard of life and property in later 
 life with the pernicious, unchecked habit of 
 child life. 
 
76 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Take another illustration. At five o'clock 
 all street cars are crowded. A mother enters 
 with a child for whom no fare will be paid, 
 St being under age; the car becomes filled 
 to overflowing, but the child retains its seat 
 while some old person, perhaps, paying full 
 fare is obliged to stand. Who can say that this 
 may not be the first lesson in a long course of 
 training which eventually produces the bank 
 defaulter, or the cool, merciless speculator in 
 the necessities of life? Would this mother so 
 manifest her selfishness were she trained to see 
 the connection between the numberless petty 
 dishonesties of daily life, and the keen, system- 
 atic dishonesty which is practiced later? "It 
 is the little foxes that spoil the vines." 
 
 We send the child to the kindergarten at 
 four or five, and make the usual transition to 
 the primary room later. What the active young 
 body suffers from this "promotion" the adult 
 does not appreciate. Seated before a desk, de- 
 prived of natural unrestrained freedom, he is 
 suddenly put to the study of objects much 
 smaller than anything previously considered by 
 him. Letters, figures, alphabet cards, and the 
 type of the ordinary reader are a severe tax 
 
NUMBER WORK. 77 
 
 upon the strength and nervous energy of the 
 little fellow whose eyes, unaccustomed through 
 thousands of years of ancestral life to such ex- 
 ercise are now adapting their lenses slowly 
 (few realize how slowly) to the requirements 
 of civilized man. The great prevalence of 
 diseases of the eyes among school children in 
 later generations has a close connection with 
 the too rapid adaptation of the "muscles of 
 accommodation" to the work of the school. 
 
 Some of the present generation escape much 
 of the senseless thralldom of our last two or 
 three generations, for we are slowly growing 
 in knowledge. 
 
 The educational value placed upon the study 
 of numbers by the average school is out of all 
 proportion to its real worth. True the "devel- 
 opment" of the number two in the "baby 
 class" was no longer continued after the fact 
 was discovered that a canary bird knows the 
 difference between one lump of sugar and two, 
 and that the same remarkable perspicuity was 
 observed in the case of young puppies. Some 
 reckless individual, unknown to fame, hazarded 
 the opinion tha the number two is known to 
 the child before he enters school. This settled 
 
78 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 it. Hereafter school work might begin with 
 "three." We are still giving the child much 
 that would come to him naturally if he were 
 allowed to wait until his mind was ready for it. 
 Aye, there's the rub, "when the mind is 
 ready." Children must be kept off the street 
 five or six hours out of twenty- four. To do this 
 we must keep them busy. 
 
 The educational possibilities of manual 
 work and of gardening are known to but few 
 even of the educators. Their equipment costs 
 some money it is true, but not so much is 
 needed as some localities expend. The study 
 of arithmetic has a commercial value in the 
 eyes of the father who earns two dol- 
 lars a day and has six children who must 
 early learn the secret of "getting on in the 
 world" which surpasses that of manual train- 
 ing. Will money-making always compel us 
 to tear the bud open before it is ready to 
 bloom ? What the little learner needs is to see 
 the relations between things before he deals 
 with ideas. Let him play (or work) with 
 blocks until he knows beyond all possibility of 
 doubt how one-third or one-fifth of a thing 
 compares in size with the whole thing. Let 
 
NUMBER WORK. 79 
 
 him learn this through the experiences of sight 
 and touch, and a little later his mind will grasp 
 the various combinations of numbers with a 
 freedom and power unknown to the child who 
 has juggled with figures until he is already a 
 mental dyspeptic. 
 
 But we are forgetting that "seventy-five per 
 cent of our pupils leave school at the comple- 
 tion of the fourth grade." Not so many as 
 that, but many. Yet the gamin, or the beggar 
 understands number to the extent of his neces- 
 sity, which is often far beyond the attainments 
 of the school-boy. What the child really needs 
 is to feel that number, though abstract in itself, 
 is connected with all the material things of 
 life. So too of language; the sentence, or 
 clause, or connective, whose dead form he sees 
 laid out, as if for burial, on the pages of his 
 grammar, lives and moves and has its being in 
 the thought and feeling of the warm, pulsing 
 myriads of human beings around him. These 
 studies seem dry and hard because we give 
 them to the child before they enter into his ex- 
 perience. We may sugar-coat them with at- 
 tractive devices and colored chalk but, nine 
 times out of ten, he is interested more in the 
 
8o THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 novelty or play of colors, than in the mathe- 
 matical or grammatical facts they teach. 
 Sometimes the child spends his time in class 
 not in the search for truth so much as in trying 
 to discover what his teacher would have him 
 say. That is, he learns to follow the workings 
 of her mind rather than to develop the power 
 of independent thought. This is not the best 
 occupation for a human soul. It is, however, 
 an excellent training for a puppet who is to 
 spend its life either in the treadmill of fashion- 
 able society, or imprisoned in the shop or the 
 factory. It is not expected that a machine 
 shall think. 
 
 Parents often complain that their children 
 are "so dreamy" in school. We never get 
 nearer to heaven than in our day-dreams. 
 They lift us from the material to the real ; they 
 perfume the lump of clay ; they imbue the clod 
 with life ; they transform the cell into a palace ; 
 they expand the powers of the soul. In prepar- 
 ing the child for future bondage, if we must, 
 let us spare him the one gift that testifies to his 
 immortal lineage. 
 
 We are told that the public school does what 
 it is created to do when it trains the masses 
 
EXPRESSION. 8 1 
 
 for useful and honorable citizenship by teach- 
 ing them reading, writing, and arithmetic. It 
 works for uniformity and exactness; it turns 
 out good book-keepers, alert tradesmen, care- 
 ful workmen. It is for the average child, not 
 the genius. (How would Shakespeare have 
 come through the treadmill of a public school ? 
 Probably he would have run away. Truancy 
 is not always crime.) 
 
 The private school is often sought as a relief 
 from this too severe training, and it is apt to 
 fall into the other extreme. School training, like 
 every other predetermined course of procedure, 
 has its Scylla and Charybdis. It is the fate of 
 nearly every virtue that it has its corresponding 
 vice, into which it may degenerate when the 
 part is mistaken for the whole. Formerly it 
 was thought that the commanding function of 
 the school was the gaining of information. To 
 know the mechanics of knowledge, the pro- 
 cesses in arithmetic, the use of script letters in 
 writing, the ready pronunciation of the words 
 in reading was the first thing to be taught, 
 and these were then to be used during the re- 
 mainder of the child's school days in gaining 
 the knowledge embodied in the text-books. 
 
82 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Fill up the mind in school, as you would fill a 
 store-house with grain, to be used later as the 
 exigencies of life shall require. Nor has this 
 primitive notion gone out of the convictions of 
 men. 
 
 But modern education is declaring that the 
 first and last purpose of systematic instruction 
 in school is expression. 
 
 Since, then, expression is the business of life, 
 cultivation of the means of expression becomes 
 imperative. The artisan who best expresses 
 his thought in a bit of wood or metal is the 
 most successful. This is true of the artist with 
 his brush or of the writer with his pen ; in fact it 
 holds good in any of the seven modes of expres- 
 sion employed by man. The highest mode is 
 language, spoken or written. The ability to 
 communicate with one's fellow, is, perhaps, 
 man's greatest gift, and when it is considered 
 that, at first, a few sounds expressive of hun- 
 ger, cold, satisfaction, and the like, comprised 
 his entire vocabulary, that no word was ever 
 formed or used by him until some need or 
 emotion forced its utterance, we will begin to 
 understand that language grows as the soul 
 grows, and that no one is prompted to speak or 
 
EXPRESSION. 83 
 
 write until he has something to say. If this be 
 true it would follow logically that no child 
 should be expected to talk or write except un- 
 der the impulse of interest. 
 
 If language is the expression of thought, 
 then one cannot exist without the other, and 
 each must, in turn, react upon and develop its 
 complement; so the child must be given sub- 
 jects of interest to him in his life rather than 
 ours, and he will then express himself readily 
 enough. 
 
 We must remember that man talked a long 
 time before he began to write. The child fol- 
 lows to some degree the order of development 
 of the race. The average city child or, at 
 least, the average city boy, possesses three lan- 
 guages that of the home, of the street, and a 
 third, a restricted and stilted tongue by which 
 he tries to give utterance to what he thinks the 
 teacher wishes him to say, and from which he 
 seldom lapses in her presence save when some 
 emotion surprises him into naturalness. It is 
 generally conceded that the structure of the 
 child's language is fixed during his earliest 
 years; some going so far as to say that his 
 forms of speech are fixed before he is five years 
 
84 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 old. Of course, in doing this he imitates 
 the language he hears. No other course is 
 possible to him. Perhaps this is the reason 
 why people of wealth and refinement place 
 their children in the care of nurse maids who, 
 generally speaking, are unable to construct an 
 English sentence correctly! We are fond of 
 saying that the age of fetish worship is long 
 past, but the fetish is still with us. This must 
 be so, else we could not permit the child to 
 form the most careless habits of speech, and 
 then place him in the charmed atmosphere of 
 the school room, resting in the belief that the 
 teacher with her educational sponge can wipe 
 off all the indelible impressions that habit 
 and environment have graven with a pen of 
 iron upon the infant mind. 
 
 Alcott says "Man does only what he 
 chooses." It is equally true that man always 
 lives up to what he really believes. It is a 
 question whether he can ever lie to himself, 
 however much he may try to do so. If, for in- 
 stance, you and I really believed that certain 
 early influences made or marred the child's fu- 
 ture usefulness to such a degree that all later 
 effort could only modify, never entirely eradi- 
 
IMITATION. 85 
 
 cate the evil, that the wounds when healed left 
 a most ugly scar, would we dream of submit- 
 ting the child to conditions we now regard 
 with indifference simply because we entertain 
 the erroneous idea that the young mind is a 
 slate from which all habits may be washed at 
 will? 
 
 It has been already suggested that imitation 
 is a powerful factor in education. Few per- 
 sons, if any, learn to speak correctly through 
 a study of grammatical rules. They are valu- 
 able as a preliminary exercise in logic, as an 
 aid to acquiring a foreign language, or in set- 
 tling knotty questions in the construction of 
 one's own ; but the child speaks what he hears. 
 If he is surrounded by cultivated people their 
 speech is his by imitation, and this is equally 
 true when the conditions are reversed. People 
 who have read and studied very little will speak 
 and write with habitual correctness and ele- 
 gance if they have always enjoyed the society 
 of good models, and it is only when some un- 
 usual and rare construction comes up that their 
 ignorance of syntax becomes apparent. Of 
 course, any young child is apt at first to say 
 "I done," or "It is broke," or "I seen," etc., 
 
86 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 but if pains are taken to make him use the cor- 
 rect forms a few times each day, he will soon 
 employ them habitually ; not because he knows 
 any reason for doing so, but simply because 
 his memory will remind his tongue and by and 
 by he learns to speak correctly as he would 
 learn a tune. Imitation, training, habit these 
 seem to be the whole secret of early language 
 training, and many teachers make note of the 
 most objectionable errors of their pupils and 
 give frequent practice in the correct forms. 
 
 This is particularly effective in treating the 
 mistakes peculiar to the locality. Suppose, for 
 example, that the children in a district are ac- 
 customed to say "trun" for thrown; the sim- 
 ple devices of leading the pupils to make up lit- 
 tle stories, employing the correct forms of these 
 words, using only the odd moments when one 
 is waiting for the recess, or the class gong, has 
 an educational value that cannot be estimated. 
 In time the exercises may be so varied and so 
 skillfully conducted as to modify the speech of 
 an entire neighborhood. 
 
 Then, too, there is the influence of good liter- 
 ature which awakens a lively interest. A child 
 can read and appreciate a book, which one 
 
READING. 87 
 
 would think far beyond his attainments, pro- 
 vided the matter interests him. The fact that 
 he does not know many of the words does not 
 seem to deaden the interest nor to mar the ef- 
 fect upon his language, and as he grows older 
 these words return to him with their true 
 meaning, particularly if he is allowed to read 
 the same book many times. Without doubt 
 many children do too much desultory reading 
 at too early an age. There is a time when this 
 is necessary, but until he is well on toward his 
 teens it would seem better to read and re-read 
 a few books thoroughly than to swallow like a 
 cormorant many books, though they may be 
 good literature. It is well to give him early a 
 few good models with which to lay the founda- 
 tion of his language. Later he reads omniv- 
 orously, not for structure, but for information. 
 The two processes should never be confounded 
 or one mistaken for the other. (This opinion, 
 however, is controverted by many excellent 
 teachers. ) 
 
 It is a common error to explain every word 
 the child reads. If assistance is given, it 
 should only be that which will bring the child 
 into sympathetic touch with what he is read- 
 
88 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ing. Suppose, for instance, he has Whittier's 
 Snowbound any narrative or incident show- 
 ing the severity of a New England winter, the 
 depth of a fall of snow in that locality, the 
 simple comfort and family joys of old-fash- 
 ioned country life, would be in order. It is of 
 no consequence whether he can or cannot spell 
 and define all the words in the poem or draw a 
 correct copy of the andirons, or produce a sil- 
 houette of the cat generally found in the illus- 
 tration on a certain page. What shall it profit 
 a child if he learns the whole poem by heart un- 
 less he understands and is in harmony with the 
 environment of the scene; unless the beauty 
 of its picture pervades and enlarges his mental 
 vision and arouses his sympathy? 
 
 The mission of good literature is just this, 
 and if, by any means, he fails to catch its real 
 lesson, then he may gain an abundance of 
 ideas and facts but miss the growth and expan- 
 sion of soul which is the real object of all good 
 literature. So let the child brood over a few 
 good books if he will, never meddling or help- 
 ing except in the way indicated, and not doing 
 this unnecessarily. He will be stronger and 
 better for this silent uninterrupted communion 
 
COMPOSITION. 89 
 
 with his book or, rather, with the people he 
 comes to know there. There is an old adage : 
 "Beware of the man of one book." Oliver 
 Cromwell was one of these men of one book. 
 His was the Bible, and he gave liberty of con- 
 science to England. 
 
 The root of a plant grows in the darkness; 
 the process of development is not carried on be- 
 fore the curious eye. What would happen if 
 the plant were dug up occasionally that we 
 might note the increasing length of the fibres, 
 or, better still^ that we might watch them 
 grow ? We seem to understand plant life better 
 than our own. 
 
 The child must write, the school says, write 
 unceasingly, whether he has anything to write 
 about or not. But a wiser injunction is, "First 
 the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn 
 in the ear." "First the ear," the school says; 
 no wonder that the full corn is lacking. 
 
 Man took ages to develop oral speech. The 
 little child should do an immense amount of 
 talking before he begins to express himself in 
 writing. This is the time in which the ear should 
 be cultivated something almost forgotten in 
 the school. The young writer cannot give 
 
 _7 
 
90 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 attention to form at the same moment that he 
 is supposed to be writing from impulse. He 
 cannot kindle the celestial fire and while it 
 burns write to margin with ink and pen and 
 dot his i's and cross his t's and slant all his let- 
 ters according to rule. Look at the manu- 
 scripts of our famous authors; not all were 
 able to attain excellence in mechanical form 
 while burning with great thoughts. But some 
 seem to think the child must do all this from 
 the start, when both form and substance are 
 new to him. 
 
 This idea is hoary with age, but modern 
 methods are better. They recognize that di- 
 vided attention by young children is fatal to 
 progress. From the child's experience in learn- 
 ing to talk, we should direct his experience in 
 learning to write. He learns to talk by practice 
 in talking; he must learn to write by practice 
 in writing. In writing by which is meant 
 graphic expression of thought the child's at- 
 tention must be held to what he wishes to say 
 and the hand must obey the impulse of the 
 mind, as the tongue obeys the impulse of the 
 mind in learning to talk. The child would 
 never learn to talk by first making a phonic 
 
COMPOSITION. 91 
 
 synthesis of each word. In writing he simply 
 draws the form of the word that is in his mind. 
 It may lack some letters and other things, but 
 the muscles of his fingers draw it as the muscles 
 of his vocal organs formed his first words by 
 imitation. Drill in perfecting this form is a 
 separate school exercise, not to be confused with 
 writing, any more than a phonic drill is to be 
 confused with talking. Soft, unsized paper, a 
 lead pencil not too short, nor too hard, and well 
 sharpened, are needed to lure the youthful tyro 
 into this avenue of expression. Later the rocks 
 and sharp stones will not appear so formidable ; 
 but at first he should see only the smooth, in- 
 viting sand. Oddly enough this figure carries 
 one back to primitive times when children 
 in many a dame's school took their first 
 writing lesson in large boxes of fine sand. The 
 characters they made were large and did not 
 strain the eye, but cultivated the necessary free- 
 dom of the arm. "How crude," we say, yet we 
 have nothing today that satisfactorily takes the 
 place of that obsolete box of sand. Children 
 love to write in this way. Perhaps our early 
 ancestors did the same in the first stages of this 
 art, and the child thus repeats the experiences 
 of the race. 
 
92 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Time was, also, when our forefathers gained 
 from myths their first noions of justice, truth, 
 and honor. Vague, imaginative, living close 
 to nature, their dawning emotions could find 
 utterance in no other channel. All that the race 
 felt of love and virtue was transmitted in 
 this way. The little child must travel the same 
 road. Why not allow him to ride in the same 
 easy, comfortable conveyance that the young of 
 all ages have been carried in? Later he must 
 walk, of course, but he will be stronger because 
 of the myth and fairy tale. His crude ideas of 
 justice are satisfied when the wicked giant or 
 the cruel witch is punished, when the good king 
 is rewarded, or the fair maiden restored to her 
 friends. 
 
 Suppose the child could start in life from 
 our commercial point of view, what would he 
 be when a man ? Hard and dry as a nut, with- 
 out imagination, enthusiasm or ideals. Heaven 
 preserve the child's soul from an exclusive diet 
 of facts. He needs facts to be sure, but he 
 needs ideals and images of beauty to direct the 
 use of his facts. One cannot tie the mind to a 
 little circuit of facts, as he would tether a cow, 
 and escape Gradgrind's disaster. Such treat- 
 
LITERATURE. 93 
 
 ment is proper for the cow, but not for a 
 growing, aspiring human soul. Then give him 
 the beautiful myths he loves; let him love 
 Santa Claus. His childish heart will respond 
 to all these pictures of nobleness and sacrifice. 
 Later they fade away and are relegated to the 
 background as pretty fancies, perhaps, but 
 their impressions remain. He has grown out 
 of them, cast them aside, but, like the rudiment- 
 ary organs of the body, they form the founda- 
 tions upon which his present ideas of justice 
 and virtue are built. As the tadpole, deprived 
 of its tail, fails as a frog to develop the hind 
 legs, so surely does a human soul deprived of 
 the nourishment proper to each period, fail in 
 realizing his own native possibilities. 
 
 One does not feed a babe on meat. The 
 Old Testament teachers understood this fact. 
 It is probable that their pupils did not cavil 
 about the size of the whale's throat, or ques- 
 tion whether or not the sun could stand still. 
 The thought of God's love was brought home 
 in a way that would best appeal to them in 
 their stage of development. Perhaps they un- 
 derstood the figurative language of the East 
 better than we, but the lesson was taught, the 
 
94 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 truth implanted. We in a more advanced age 
 may criticise as we will the means used; but 
 the impression was made, its vehicle has per- 
 formed its task as no other could in that time 
 and age. All along the road the child gives 
 outward and visible signs of this repetition of 
 his race's experience, in his occupations; his 
 games ; his reading ; his interest in bead work, 
 weaving, basketry, and pottery; and his desire 
 to learn of primitive peoples. 
 
 Later in the fifth to seventh grades, there are 
 reasons why he does not like to sing. There is, 
 of course, change of voice in boys with its ac- 
 companying self-consciousness; but greater 
 than all is the fact that he does not get the right 
 kind of songs. He is in the soldier stage and 
 craves martial music. Try a boy with chang- 
 ing voice on whistling popular airs. Cultivate 
 rhythm, by the use of the bones, drum, clappers 
 to accompany the piano. This craving for 
 rhythm sends our boy to clog dances. 
 
 After change of voice the boy who sang air 
 is suddenly dropped to the harmony and, at the 
 same time, to the adjustment of a strange 
 voice. Songs in unison should therefore be 
 alternated with harmonized melodies. There 
 
MUSIC. 95 
 
 is right here a comparatively untried field for 
 composers in the setting of songs that will 
 give the boy-tenors and basses the melody, 
 while the soprano and alto voices take the har- 
 mony. 
 
96 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 VII. 
 
 INFLUENCES. 
 
 THE fundamental aim in all education is 
 the realization of true family life. The civ- 
 ilization of every people is measured by 
 this standard. Human greatness has its rise in 
 the home. No man has ever attained distinc- 
 tion in any field of thought or industry whose 
 early years have not been blessed with some 
 enjoyment of home life. He may have been an 
 orphan or been born in poverty, but some ex- 
 perience of home has crept into his lonely life. 
 If man sprang into existence full grown, ready 
 for all the emergencies and experiences of life, 
 there would be no family ties; the joys and 
 griefs and discipline of parenthood and child- 
 hood would be unknown. All the loving care, 
 the self -sacrifice, the forbearance, which have 
 been slowly evolved through the long, long 
 evolution of the race, would be unknown, and 
 we would have no more sense of kindred than 
 
INFLUENCES. 97 
 
 a chicken or a cat. The intelligence of animals 
 is in proportion to the length of their infancy. 
 Man, the highest type of animal, is the most 
 helpless of all creatures at birth. The ever in- 
 creasing experiences of each generation send 
 each succeeding man into the world with a 
 larger number of brain cells. The greater the 
 number of these, the longer he remains an in- 
 fant. If it were possible for man to materially 
 shorten his period of infancy the result would 
 not be so beneficial as he sometimes imagines. 
 The two great necessities of the home are 
 love and a certain degree of seclusion or ex- 
 clusiveness. A too public life dissipates the 
 affections. To love God and one's neighbor 
 requires frequent and close communion. Man 
 is not prepared for either until he has learned 
 the alphabet of love in the home, where he mas- 
 ters it a few letters at a time. A may be a little 
 poodle, B a ragged doll ; each succeeding letter 
 will mark a higher experience. Formerly man's 
 safety depended upon the seclusion of his 
 home, and now that he has passed beyond the 
 need of mere physical protection the growing 
 soul demands a similar seclusion. The young 
 child suffers from too early exposure. The 
 
98 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 boarding house and the restaurant work seri- 
 ous injury to him. The removal of the front 
 fence, insignificant as it seems, is performing 
 its part in destroying the home feeling, for 
 now a seat upon the front porch means partici- 
 pation in the life of the street. The flat, the 
 hotel, and the restaurant are blessings to those 
 for whom they were originally intended; but 
 the little child does not gain there that sense of 
 personal responsibility and of loving sympathy, 
 nor experience the thousand little homely joys 
 and privileges which may be his in the humblest 
 cottage. These public houses have an expan- 
 siveness, a sense of publicity, to which the 
 young child should not be compelled to adapt 
 himself. Even the adult needs repeated with- 
 drawal into the privacy of the home. 
 
 Everything that tends to multiply the simple 
 joys of family life is distinctively educative 
 and helpful. The Christmas Tree and the birth- 
 day cake do more than the spelling book to 
 make the child a useful, happy man; not that 
 we love the speller less, but the child more. 
 The whole subject resolves itself into a ques- 
 tion of values. Education means the ability to 
 estimate truly the great and small things of 
 
INFLUENCES. 99 
 
 life, to note the connection of each to the whole 
 and to place each in its proper relations. 
 
 The good, hot, Sunday dinner eaten by the 
 poor laborer in his own kitchen, in the society 
 of wife and children, is distinctively educative. 
 Perhaps this is a materialistic view, but we 
 must pass through the lower into the higher, 
 for this is the law of growth. "If man love 
 not his brother whom he hath seen, how can 
 he love God whom he hath not seen ?" 
 
 It follows, then, that the home should be a 
 place of rest, of repose, of love. Handsome 
 rooms are not needed, in fact, walls covered 
 with pictures, and shelves with bric-a-brac are 
 often a distinctive drawback to spiritual and 
 mental growth, the general impression being 
 that of confusion. Simple, homely comfort 
 seems to be the better influence; a pretty bed- 
 room to which friends may be invited may keep 
 the boy from wandering, while an open grate 
 fire and a comfortable arm chair often have the 
 same influence upon the father. Some years 
 ago a certain old theatre in New York was es- 
 pecially popular with business and professional 
 men. Neither the plays nor the settings were 
 better than those of other houses, yet men could 
 
ioo THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 attend there when too tired or too dull to go 
 elsewhere. At length the house was remodeled 
 and then the charm was gone. A certain 
 length of seat had afforded a peculiarly com- 
 fortable rest for the long thigh bone ; this had 
 proved the irresistible attraction. Perhaps 
 builders of churches would do well to heed the 
 suggestion. 
 
 Fox terriers are prone to seek different 
 homes; it is a characteristic of the breed. A 
 friend of mine remarked that hers had never 
 done so and probably never would. "How do 
 you manage?" asked one. "It's easy," she re- 
 plied, "I try to make him very welcome when 
 he comes back from an outing." The kindly 
 pat on the head, and "Good old doggie" from 
 each member of the family always awaited 
 him, and he knew it. Human animals are 
 amenable to the same influences. 
 
 One can never estimate fully the effect of 
 environment. For example, how would 
 "Snowbound" have gotten itself written in a 
 modern flat with all the appliances of steam 
 and electricity? And this leads me to repeat 
 what I have said before that we are not al- 
 ways mindful of the difficulties young people 
 
INFLUENCES. 101 
 
 sometimes encounter in their study of litera- 
 ture. Many a boy in the eighth grade to-day 
 has never seen a shepherd, or a genuine old 
 fire-place; many more are growing up who 
 have never seen a lamp. Can mere verbal ref- 
 erence to these things recall to them the same 
 picture that comes to you and to me? This is 
 a world of change. In another century the 
 child may find similar difficulty in understand- 
 ing an allusion to the horse and buggy. 
 
 Fun is essential to a happy home or a good 
 school. Few situations exist in the ordinary 
 routine of daily life that do not present some 
 element of humor, and the child should be en- 
 couraged to look for this. Muddy coffee and 
 tough steak for breakfast are not especially 
 appetizing or agreeable, but it is not always 
 possible to avoid them; while a good hearty 
 laugh may render their assimilation easier. 
 Habitual cheerfulness is spontaneous only in 
 perfect health, but the confirmed invalid may 
 attain unto it, for it is contagious. The most 
 dejected and wretched of human beings are 
 made less wretched by the effort to be cheerful. 
 It is often wise to assume a gentle courtesy 
 and good nature that are not spontaneous. The 
 
102 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 form stimulates the growth of the virtue, ex- 
 cept in hypocrites. Every well-meaning effort 
 to be cheerful promotes the growth of cheer- 
 fulness. The virtue grows by what it feeds 
 upon. 
 
 Christian philosophy differs fundamentally 
 from that of Herbert Spencer, but the church 
 owes him a debt of gratitude, in that he has 
 helped to show that man cannot be educated in 
 sections. Nor are the three R's deemed suffi- 
 cient for the most meager preparation for liv- 
 ing; the school is now interested in the three 
 H's head, heart, and hand. The visible re- 
 sult is the present strong trend toward all 
 kind of training for the hand, and toward 
 music, literature, and good behavior for the 
 heart. This is the most notable mark of mod- 
 ern education. 
 
 UNION OF SCHOOL AND HOME. 
 
 When once this co-operation fairly sets in 
 there will be an improvement in the education 
 of children beyond the realization of our fond- 
 est dreams. Mothers will then regard their 
 children from the standpoint of science as well 
 as from that of sentiment. It will then be seen 
 
INFLUENCES. 103 
 
 that the suffering children are not found exclu- 
 sively among the very poor. The power of 
 self-control now sadly lacking in the present 
 generation, will be regained when we begin to 
 realize that concentration must begin in the 
 home in early childhood. It cannot exist in an 
 atmosphere of excitement and unrest. The 
 child who has a superabundance of toys and 
 books, who goes everywhere and is constantly 
 on the alert for some new pleasure, cannot 
 learn it. This power comes slowly, a certain 
 degree of repose being necessary to its growth. 
 The present facilities for rapid transit, the tele- 
 phone and many other inventions so conducive 
 to our comfort and convenience, encourage a 
 diversity of activity and experience not favor- 
 able to repose. We cannot get away from 
 them, but their influence may be greatly modi- 
 fied when parent and teacher shall study such 
 problems together. The young child is incapa- 
 ble of concentrating its attention for long, 
 but that ability increases with judicious exer- 
 cise. The simple life and daily recurring duties 
 of the homes of the first half of the last century 
 were more favorable to this needed repose. 
 
io 4 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Intelligent experiment in the nursery will do 
 much to aid the primary teacher in determin- 
 ing the length and character of her various exer- 
 cises, and will emphasize the necessity for more 
 frequent rest periods; while the mother who 
 now complains that her eight-year-old daughter 
 "lacks concentration" will know that this power 
 must be nurtured in the home before the child 
 enters school, and that even under the most 
 favorable conditions not much can be expected. 
 Few of us see the child as he really is. This is 
 particularly true of the boy whom one mother 
 regards as a sort of athletic girl, while the 
 mother of high ideals and sensitive tempera- 
 ment often does him incalculable injury by her 
 analytic, anxious study of his physical and 
 moral symptoms. The boy is bathed, washed, 
 dosed, read to, dissected, lectured and prayed 
 with until he becomes a canting little hypocrite, 
 a callous young sinner, or a morbid, shrinking, 
 over-conscientious creature with small realiza- 
 tion of his birthright of a happy wholesome 
 childhood. No one needs Divine guidance more 
 than the teacher, but we ought to study God's 
 plan as set forth in his works. We might im- 
 prove our definition of prayer. Emerson would 
 help us. 
 
INFLUENCES. 105 
 
 The school is apt to expend its energy in 
 teaching abstract knowledge. What the child 
 thus acquires, he sees through a glass darkly. 
 His great, perhaps greatest, school need is 
 wholesome, interesting occupation for hours 
 out of school. A few flower seeds, some bits of 
 wood and a set of carving tools, a chest of car- 
 penters' tools may save him from perdition, if 
 they come at the right time. We wait too long 
 until after he has formed other tastes. A 
 child in the second or third grade is interested 
 in growing flowers, in carrying soil in his cart, 
 in gathering bits of paper on the lawn with his 
 broom handle, into the end of which he has 
 driven a long nail for a spike anything, in 
 fact, which will employ his restless muscles in 
 useful ways, and these interests continue with- 
 out flagging through the fourth grade ; but in 
 the fifth grade there is a change. Pupils here 
 show little interest in these occupations unless 
 they have already learned to love them, and in 
 the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades they look 
 with a sort of elevated toleration upon those 
 who seem to like this sort of thing. They have 
 acquired other tastes. 
 
 -8 
 
106 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 The inability to employ leisure moments to 
 advantage pervades all classes of society. It 
 impels the rich to all manner of excesses, while 
 the poor take to the saloon or the street corner. 
 Both classes are suffering the punishment of 
 empty-mindedness. Some years ago a prosper- 
 ous Australian city became able to pay its work- 
 ing men better wages. Certain business firms 
 made it easy for their employes to support their 
 families comfortably by working but little more 
 than half a day. The released laborer took to 
 drink, became idle, quarrelsome, and obnox- 
 ious ; the women, too, grew discontented. They 
 neglected their homes, complained of their large 
 families, and tried to imitate the selfish idleness 
 of the wealthier classes. They followed the 
 only course open to them. It is probable that 
 this experience would be repeated in every city 
 in many individual cases. 
 
 Every child loves to do something; let us 
 make that something educative. Some will 
 collect insects or gather fossils and beautiful 
 stones, while others are interested in the habits 
 of fish or birds. Noted naturalists have been 
 created in this way, and a man whom we all 
 know has become eminent through a collection 
 
INFLUENCES. 107 
 
 of weeds which he commenced in early boy- 
 hood. No outlay of money is needed for this 
 sort of work; in fact, interest generally de- 
 clines in the ratio that expensive outfits are pro- 
 vided. The chief requirement is a wise and 
 sympathetic mother and teacher, not afraid of 
 toads and snakes; one who says little but 
 helps much ; one who does not show displeas- 
 ure at a little dirt and can, if necessary, assist 
 the boy in his various undertakings. Agas- 
 siz's mother helped him dig the receptacles for 
 the fish he so loved, and this community of in- 
 terest in his early childhood formed a tie which 
 lasted during life. Who can say how much of 
 future greatness has had its rise in this whole- 
 some companionship and direction of early 
 childhood ? 
 
 It is suggested above that a simple outfit, 
 that meets all requirements, is better than a 
 more elaborate one. A boy likes something 
 that he has made or provided for himself, some- 
 thing he is not afraid of spoiling. A common 
 glass fruit jar makes a fine aquarium, and 
 much is gained if he is invited to bring his 
 treasure to school as an adornment for the win- 
 dow sill. It is here that the home and the 
 
i o8 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 school have much in common; a judicious 
 hint from the mother may be followed by en- 
 couragement of some particular taste which 
 needed only this influence to develop and 
 strengthen it, while the teacher, in her turn, 
 may be able to make many valuable suggestions 
 from her point of view. The child at school is 
 generally a far different being from the child 
 at home often better, sometimes worse but 
 he is rarely the same in both places. This dual 
 existence is a distressing fact, seldom under- 
 stood, but it suggests a fruitful field of study. 
 Another advantage of this co-operation is 
 the change of views and opinions that is sure 
 to result on both sides. Children often evince 
 interests and tendencies which seem evidences 
 of unusual talent to the eyes of maternal affec- 
 tion, but when the child works daily with 
 thirty or forty others of the same age, in the 
 same environment, many an intelligent mother 
 has been surprised to find that the darling who 
 appeared so brilliant at home is not the star of 
 his class but is merely a good average. Nothing 
 is so helpful in correcting false impressions of 
 this kind as comparison, and a kind-hearted 
 teacher can offer many helpful suggestions. 
 
INFLUENCES. 109 
 
 This is particularly true when she is asked (as 
 she often is) to name the child's leading ten- 
 dency or interest, or to state what she thinks 
 the child will be best fitted for when a man. 
 This is always a hard question for the conscien- 
 tious teacher. Only tact and perfect truthful- 
 ness will keep her in the right path. Few 
 children show strongly marked and continuous 
 tastes in early childhood. They generally 
 evince a variety of tendencies, a desire to flit 
 from one interest to another. This is perfectly 
 normal as this is the period of budding inter- 
 ests, and only a strong and constantly recurring 
 interest should be taken seriously. 
 
 Then there is the period of puberty when 
 lassitude makes physical exertion painful. The 
 boy may find in books the path of least resist- 
 ance. His physical condition is mistaken for 
 an awakened love of study. We think our hero 
 entering upon a professional career, when, in 
 fact, his body is developing so fast that he has 
 no energy for the voluntary muscles. 
 
 Parents who have grown weary with toil 
 look up to professional life as an opportunity 
 for elegant leisure, and they insist upon thrust- 
 ing their children into it without regard to 
 
no THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 their fitness or choice. This sort of thing 
 will continue until all classes of society form 
 truer ideals. It is vain to talk of the dignity 
 of menial toil, so long as wealth continues in- 
 solent and overbearing toward the toiler. No 
 one is so quick to see the real estimate placed 
 upon labor as the laborer himself. If he is 
 ignorant he accepts the standard which money 
 sets up. If intelligent, he protests and is un- 
 happy. His family strives to follow the lead 
 of wealth in its expenditures, with the result 
 that his expenses exceed his income, thus ren- 
 dering life false to its very core. 
 
 There is a wide difference between drudgery 
 and intelligent labor labor with brains behind 
 it. Many people whose lives are spent in a 
 nerve-wrecking struggle to appear what they 
 are not, would be glad to live plainly and simply 
 within their incomes if they could only know 
 that inexpensive raiment, and an unfashionable 
 domicile did not consign their children and 
 themselves to social oblivion ; that culture and 
 intelligence do not count. Many a young 
 woman would exchange the comfortless factory 
 or merchant's counter for a cosy kitchen, if she 
 could feel that the brain power put into scien- 
 
INFLUENCES. m 
 
 tific house-work was respected equally with 
 that which writes books or conducts a busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Co-operative study of parents and teachers 
 will emphasize the necessity of independent 
 effort on the part of the child, and of drill to 
 secure facility. 
 
 By a wrong use of this developing method 
 of teaching, the inductive method has been 
 misapplied, until the average child waits to 
 have his work done for him; I mean the 
 work that he should do for himself. The 
 joy of conquest is rarely his. This is a great 
 wrong, for the normally developed child loves 
 to wrestle, mentally as well as physically, and 
 one of the keenest and most wholesome pleas- 
 ures he can ever know is the satisfaction that 
 always follows a conflict in which he has come 
 off victor. Two-thirds of the fighting in which 
 boys indulge is for the purpose of deciding 
 superiority in courage, or strength, or skill. 
 Tact can turn this desire for conquest into the 
 field of mental effort, and the boy will gain 
 pleasure in fighting the problems he meets in 
 his daily work. How can he better learn to 
 fight his own besetting sins than by the persist- 
 
ii2 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ent exercise of a self-initiative in mastering his 
 tasks? 
 
 Then, too, we love to do that which we can 
 do well. It may be that no one engages in 
 work of any kind merely for the pleasure of 
 the work, but as skill comes his joy in the exe- 
 cution increases. Skill comes only with repeti- 
 tion. We find in ourselves aptitudes for some 
 particular kinds of work, but even these must 
 be trained. He must have practice, repetition; 
 and the experience that comes from this will 
 make our enjoyment complete. The young per- 
 son of to-day is a comparative stranger to this 
 enjoyment. He has a restless sort of interest 
 when he has any, but persistent concentration 
 upon one thing until it is well done is rare. As 
 the time draws near for him to leave school he 
 ought to be familiar with the joy of conquest 
 which comes from independent and sustained 
 conflict. 
 
 The artisan of to-day has lost a great incen- 
 tive and pleasure in that he seldom sees his work 
 grow under his hands to a complete whole. 
 The tailor of old found a joy in the completed 
 coat. That is unknown to the workman in the 
 factory engaged, day after day, in working to 
 
INFLUENCES. 113 
 
 the finish some particular part of the garment 
 only. The former system had an educational 
 value, while the other is merely a mechanical, 
 soul-killing grind. No wonder that the victim 
 of these unhappy conditions flies to the billiard 
 table, the saloon, the theatre, as soon as the 
 evening comes. Every cell of his body is cry- 
 ing out for a change, and dissipation is the only 
 relief which society has provided from the dead- 
 ening monotony of the day's work. Is the 
 fault his or ours? In what degree are we pre- 
 paring the children to resist such a fate? We 
 condemn intemperance, and assail high heaven 
 with our prayers, while we ignore the effects of 
 food, the forming of intemperate habits of feel- 
 ing and conduct, the evils of social dissipation, 
 and when the mischief is done, we run about 
 seeking to reform our victims. Surely we, the 
 parents and teachers, are to blame for the bend- 
 ing of the twig that makes the crooked tree. 
 The fullest answer that can come from prayer 
 is the impulse to supply an environment for the 
 child that will lead him toward a good stand- 
 ard of life at every step. God gives every bird 
 its food, but does not drop it into the bird's 
 mouth. We sometimes look to the clouds for 
 help when the aid we seek is within us. 
 
ii4 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Another matter for co-operative study is that 
 of amusements. How much and how little may 
 the growing child have? What amusements 
 are suited to each age ? their relative value ? 
 their use and abuse? Temperament, health, 
 and social conditions all have their bearing on 
 this important topic. What someone calls the 
 "principle of innoculation" can be often ap- 
 plied to advantage. It is impossible to vacci- 
 nate the child w r ith certain amusements and 
 pastimes innocent in themselves but made in- 
 struments of evil by some in later life at the 
 age he craves them, in such a way that, al- 
 though he may take to them violently for a 
 time, he will recover and become indifferent to 
 them before he is grown. 
 
 Another subject for co-operative considera- 
 tion is that of promotions. Complaint is often 
 heard that the teacher "crowds the pupil," 
 "crams him," "pushes him on before he is 
 ready." But the parent is often to blame in 
 this matter. When the child has not done the 
 work who is it that begs and implores the 
 teacher to give him a condition, even when 
 the child is in poor health and absolutely unfit 
 for any great mental effort? And the reasons 
 
INFLUENCES. 1 1 5 
 
 given for the request "John feels so bad!" 
 "All his playmates have gone into a higher 
 room;" "He is the tallest boy in his class;" 
 "His father promised him a gold watch if he 
 went up at the end of the term." Frequent 
 meetings of mothers and teachers would show 
 up this matter in its true light. The class spirit 
 is a valuable asset in the school, and chagrin 
 and mortification are serious drawbacks which 
 should be eliminated from the child's life as 
 much as possible ; but a little study of the con- 
 ditions and work will provide the parent with 
 higher and more humane reasons for desiring 
 promotion, while the teacher may gain a more 
 sympathetic insight into the mental and physi- 
 cal conditions of the home. Inflexible courses 
 of study and the same promotion tests for all 
 classes of pupils have many sins recorded 
 against them. 
 
ii6 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 VIII 
 
 INFLUENCES. 
 
 Continued. 
 
 THE question of athletics for girls de- 
 mands serious consideration. Twenty - 
 five years of its study and practice 
 have transformed the once delicate American 
 girl into a Diana. Her mental and physical 
 improvement is admitted, but in view of 
 woman's maternal functions, may not muscu- 
 lar development be carried too far? It is not 
 best that all muscles should be like iron. Ob- 
 serve the physical exercises given to girls in 
 their teens the kneeling, bending, posing, 
 and many others. To put a group of thirty or 
 forty girls and boys through this every day 
 without the slightest reference to individual 
 conditions or sex is unwise. The spiritual con- 
 trol of the physical body resulting in grace of 
 movement and instant response to the will is 
 education ; but girls have no call to be athletes. 
 
INFLUENCES. 117 
 
 Few of us realize as we ought the value of 
 short and frequent rest periods. Every girl 
 should be trained in this art from early child- 
 hood. The ability to lie prone upon the back 
 for a few minutes, and to sleep at will for a 
 quarter of an hour, would save many a school 
 girl from collapse. These habits are not so 
 much a matter of leisure and opportunity as of 
 self-control. Napoleon so trained himself that 
 he could fall asleep whenever he willed even 
 in the saddle. Though not physically robust, 
 he had more endurance than any of his com- 
 rades. He knew the value of minutes. Noth- 
 ing is more beneficial to health than self-con- 
 trol. Training of this kind often prevents in- 
 sanity, and a noted prison official declares 
 there would be fewer murderers if the children 
 in the public schools acquired the power to sit 
 perfectly still for five minutes each day. The 
 self-control thus gained would arrest the fatal 
 blow until the passion that prompted it had 
 subsided. Why not make the rest habit second 
 nature from early childhood? 
 
 Sleep and fresh air are wonderful remedies 
 for tired nerves. Throw open the window 
 when the child goes to bed and he will awaken 
 
n8 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 refreshed, if he is properly protected from a 
 draft. Perhaps earlier generations owed some 
 of their sturdiness to the fact that their houses 
 were more open to the weather, and air-tight 
 windows were a thing unknown. 
 
 Certain kinds of piano practice requiring 
 monotonous repetition, with no thought back 
 of it, are excessively wearing, and should never 
 be tolerated. In the last chapter, something 
 was said favorable to drill, but the drill there 
 referred to was educative, because its partici- 
 pants are interested in it and employ it as a 
 means of acquiring some desired facility or 
 skill. The conditions are different when the 
 child is allowed to strum on the piano wearily 
 and drearily, intent only upon filling a certain 
 number of minutes. This pernicious custom is 
 doing much to discourage piano teaching, and 
 perhaps the time is near when parents will re- 
 alize that the young piano pupil should never 
 practice without supervision. Better thirty 
 minutes of work under the teacher's eye than 
 hours spent in fumbling the key board with 
 eyes furtively watching the clock and the mind 
 wandering off to the anticipated release from 
 drudgery. 
 
INFLUENCES. 119 
 
 Not only are the educational advantages of 
 such a course apparent, but the saving in time 
 and money as well as the economy of effort 
 must also appeal to us. A large number of our 
 children have lost much of their spontaneity 
 and healthful enthusiasm in life, and deadening 
 piano-practice is one of the causes. Surely 
 mother and teacher will eventually come to- 
 gether on this subject and evolve something 
 better than our present method. There is a 
 growing number of instructors in music that 
 are working for a reform. The entire field 
 offers abundant opportunity to any who will 
 work patiently and honestly, while the rewards 
 are as great and as certain as any found in 
 other paths of original research. 
 
 If the mothers and teachers in each commu- 
 nity would agree upon one or two simple prob- 
 lems within the experience of the average 
 woman, and study them together until some 
 reasonable solution had been discovered, the 
 results would be far more helpful and valuable 
 than anything attained thus far. We seem to 
 Tear that we will not be considered learned un- 
 less we busy ourselves with some abstruse sub- 
 ject, and write papers upon it, which are as lit- 
 
120 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 tie understood by the listeners as they are by 
 the writers forgetting that simplicity is the 
 mark of wisdom. The educational doctrines 
 of Plato and Aristotle are interesting to be 
 sure, but why not study modern American 
 methods instead? They ought to be more 
 helpful. 
 
 As to the subject of foods, in view of mod- 
 ern research, scarcely any one topic is so uni- 
 versally important. In some instances it is pos- 
 sible to change the sex of an organism through 
 its food, as in the case of the bee and tadpole. 
 Criminology has shown that moral degeneracy 
 attends enfeebled physical conditions which 
 have their rise in poorly nourished and 
 poorly warmed bodies. Indeed the three agen- 
 cies are food, temperance, and social influences.^ 
 Everyone realizes the importance of the last, 
 but what association of women in the country 
 have studied the subject of foods persistently 
 and intelligently until some definite conclusion 
 has been reached in reference to the relative 
 values of certain articles of diet? They know 
 more of the conquest of Peru. We flit like 
 butterflies over vast fields of literature and 
 history without any definite aim or purpose be- 
 
INFLUENCES. 121 
 
 yond a vague desire for improvement or show. 
 What is the matter ? Are we afraid of appear- 
 ing ignorant or common? How can the study 
 of anything great or useful belittle us? How 
 can we help shining a little in its reflected light ? 
 
 Foods are mentioned only as an illustration. 
 There are many other topics of study exceed- 
 ingly important and quite as common. 
 
 The average club woman seems to pass 
 through three distinct stages of evolution. 
 First comes the essay stage, in which the young 
 matron writes "lovely papers" whose weak- 
 ness is their total failure to touch life at any 
 point. To be sure, the blue satin bow that 
 adorned the graduation theme a few years be- 
 fore is now conspicuously absent, but this is 
 the only difference between the two produc- 
 tions. Marriage and motherhood have not yet 
 greatly widened her horizon, but there is a 
 freshness, a keenness of interest, a rosy opti- 
 mism that is certainly very promising. In the 
 second stage, our fledgling is now full fledged, 
 disporting herself in the shadowy vale of mys- 
 ticism. The religions of Asia and the philos- 
 ophy of the Nile are her delight. The meta- 
 physical and esoteric she revels in. She daz- 
 
122 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 zles her club on an afternoon with her own 
 bewilderment. 
 
 The growth of many a club woman is ar- 
 rested at this stage. My near neighbor, a sin- 
 cere and lovable woman, goes every Wednes- 
 day afternoon to discuss the needs, physical 
 and spiritual of the babes in Booraboolaga, 
 and returns much uplifted and refreshed; her 
 own infant in the meantime spends hours in 
 the care of a nurse maid who places its nursing 
 bottle on the stone parapet, while she, herself 
 a child, joins in the play of the group intrusted 
 to her care. As I write, the scorching sun is 
 shining full upon the bottle from which the 
 innocent babe slakes its thirst from time to 
 time. Tomorrow we shall hear of a "trouble- 
 some night," "the child's inherited delicacy of 
 stomach," etc. Yet before bedtime, I, myself, 
 may be guilty of as glaring an inconsistency 
 and lay my head upon my pillow with a similar 
 sense of superiority that sustains the little 
 mother in the next square. And so we go on 
 until, perchance, some reach the third stage in 
 which sincere, wholesome, helpful, sane club 
 work is done. The frivolous and the immature 
 dropped by the wayside, but the work done by 
 
INFLUENCES. 123 
 
 those who remain, is effective because they 
 have learned to form true estimates of values 
 and live up to the rules they lay down for 
 others. 
 
 This latter is the secret of success in all pre- 
 ventive and reformatory work whether in the 
 school or the home. Nothing so tests one's sin- 
 cerity as an honest attempt to live up to his 
 own theories. It is easy to exhort a poor 
 woman, who earns her bread by scrubbing, to 
 keep the Sabbath holy, and to make her home 
 attractive and fit for the abode of angels, bu'i 
 let us suppose that we are deprived of our own 
 Sunday drive, and shut up six days in the week 
 in a hot, steamy kitchen with a fretful babe. 
 "I could not reform an ant unless I became 
 one," says Tolstoi. He lived under the same 
 conditions, and carried the same burdens, as the 
 peasant he was trying to help. Did we but fol- 
 low the advice we give to others so freely, the 
 slums had long ago repented in sackcloth and 
 ashes. The slums are as keen as children in not- 
 ing the discrepancy between our theory and our 
 practice. They know that we do not believe 
 what we say, or we would do it ourselves. This 
 feeling of unreality is pernicious not alone in 
 
i2 4 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 club life; it vitiates the home life, and is re- 
 flected in greater or less degree by every mem- 
 ber of the family circle. Everyone is influenced 
 by the unseen, unspoken, but not unfelt, atti- 
 tude of those with whom he lives, and this is 
 especially true of the very young. The dis- 
 honest parent or teacher will unconsciously 
 lead his children in the direction of dishonesty, 
 even though he tries to appear upright before 
 them. Perhaps this is what is meant by "visit- 
 ing the sins of the fathers upon the children." 
 
 Few realize the immense importance of their 
 mental attitude upon a subject in its influence up- 
 on others, especially upon those who are younger 
 or dependent in any way upon them. It is not 
 easy to be wholly honest. Indeed relative hon- 
 esty is all that weak human nature has been 
 able to attain thus far, but we shall have pro- 
 gressed far, both in intelligence and virtue, 
 when we are content to appear as we really are, 
 instead of straining every nerve to seem what 
 we are not. Club work has a great opportunity 
 right here. 
 
 "Why all this fuss about children," re- 
 marked an old woman at a mothers' meeting a 
 short time ago; "In my days we were taught 
 
INFLUENCES. 125 
 
 to keep the commandments and were spanked 
 when we did wrong." "Yes," said another, 
 "But what do you mean by keeping the com- 
 mandments?" This seems to be the kernel of 
 the whole subject. The commandments are 
 interpreted by each generation anew, and by 
 each individual according to his ability to keep 
 abreast of, or rise above the generally accepted 
 views of the time. The simple savage keeps 
 the decalogue when he refrains from the 
 grosser crimes of murder, robbery, and the 
 like. The more subtle violations of the law, 
 such as slander, the trickeries of the commer- 
 cial world, and the unreality of domestic life 
 are beyond his comprehension. To him, sin 
 is the commission of certain acts, while with us 
 it is the intentional failure to choose the highest 
 good. To him, religion is the acceptance of a 
 certain creed, to us it is a condition of heart. 
 One evidence of the divine origin of the Christ- 
 ian religion is that no one can live up to it. 
 All that human nature can do is to approximate 
 it. When man reaches his ideal it is no 
 longer his ideal. When we are able to under- 
 stand all truth and to bring science and reve- 
 lation into perfect accord, then we shall be as 
 
126 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 gods, and growth will cease. As the invention 
 of the tool marked the arrest of the develop- 
 ment of the body, so would the possession of all 
 knowledge bring about the arrest of the growth 
 of the mind. The power to think, is the very 
 breath of man's nostrils, and marks the differ- 
 ence between a joyless, automatic, deadening 
 adherence to rules, and a warm, glad growth, 
 pulsating with life and happiness. Each year 
 finds us a little nearer death, or a little more 
 alive. 
 
 This is, in part, the reason why some mothers 
 and teachers wear out so much more quickly 
 than others. The letter kills but he spirit 
 makes alive. No one knew this better than the 
 great Froebel ? and no one has labored more 
 earnestly and intelligently than he to restore 
 to the child the conditions for perpetual growth. 
 His principles are applicable to every age or 
 form of government, but their application must 
 differ according to the grade of civilization. 
 His system originated under a despotic form of 
 government, and was intended to counteract, 
 in a degree, the evils of a military regime, 
 which regarded the individual merely as a unit 
 to be trained for state purposes. Under these 
 
INFLUENCES. 127 
 
 conditions it is quite in order to pursue certain 
 methods, which, in our own country may work 
 harm when used by the unskillful. 
 
 Mothers should beware lest the teacher as- 
 sume her prerogatives. The public school oc- 
 cupies a peculiar position. Emigration brings 
 to its doors many totally unacquainted with 
 the language and customs of their adopted 
 country. Add to these the poor, whose parents 
 work early and late, and it can be readily seen 
 that the public school is the only institution by 
 which certain evils can be remedied. Under 
 these conditions it has easily, almost impercep- 
 tibly, advanced far beyond its original function, 
 while the home has gradually retreated. Now 
 the disadvantage of a wrong relation lies in 
 the fact that it prevents the establishment of a 
 right one. Foster parenthood is not strikingly 
 prominent in biology; its adoption by man is 
 comparatively recent, and, like other new 
 things, apt to be put to uses for which it is not 
 intended, to the serious injury of all concerned. 
 
 One striking defect in our attempts at educa- 
 tion is the failure to provide interests and oc- 
 cupations for old age. So much thought is 
 spent upon the beginning of life, so little upon 
 
128 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 the end. Infancy is, of course, the time for 
 building the foundation; childhood and youth 
 are our chief solicitude and must always be; 
 middle age receives some attention; but the 
 declining years are often unlovely and as 
 naked as a leafless tree. 
 
 The early part of life is spent in preparation 
 and pleasure ; then come family cares, business 
 anxieties, the struggle for a competence; and 
 when, at last, declining strength indicates that 
 the period of active warfare is over, the worker 
 sinks out of public view, thankful indeed if his 
 labors have provided a stage for the closing 
 scene in his little drama. 
 
 Science is seeking to discover how to pro- 
 long life, but what benefit is the mere lengthen- 
 ing of years if the time thus added is empty 
 and uninteresting. Old age should be a period 
 of usefulness and rational enjoyment, and both 
 parent and teacher should work definitely to- 
 ward this end. No educational system is ade- 
 quate that does not build for old age. Having 
 health it does not require great material wealth. 
 The appetite diminishes as physical activity de- 
 clines; warmth, cleanliness, and a small 
 amount of food make up the sum of its daily 
 
129 
 
 necessities ; but what it chiefly craves is recog- 
 nition; its secret grief lies in its consciousness 
 of waning power, in the knowledge of a lost 
 usefulness. Ths should never be, and need not 
 be. "Old men for counsel, young men for 
 strength" is the vital and active principle of 
 the best civilization. Growing knowledge 
 brings better modes of living which tend, to- 
 ward a steadily increasing length of life. 
 
 This calls for a re-adjustment of educational 
 methods to meet the demand of this longer pe- 
 riod of repose. Man's education should lay 
 the foundation for employment in old age. We 
 remain young only so long as the mind is ac- 
 tive. Age is not determined by years; many 
 die of old age in their youth. Some are never 
 alive, while others remind one of a kernel 
 which is full of germinal activity. The serious 
 evil in luxurious living is the distaste it gives 
 for persistent effort and the constantly grow- 
 ing desire for something new. Both are fatal 
 to happiness at any time of life. The properly 
 educated mind never loses its delight in a beau- 
 tiful sunset, in a clear sky, or in the tint of a 
 flower, but the ability to feel and enjoy the 
 companionship with nature must be cultivated 
 
130 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 as well as the art of money getting or money 
 spending. Books are the chief resource for the 
 energies of old age, and they are always with 
 us. Teach the child to love good reading, and 
 he will have the great minds of the world for 
 his friends when he is old and they will never 
 fail him. Neither financial adversity nor a 
 body shorn of its strength can separate them 
 from him. 
 
 No one is ever older than he feels. Hospi- 
 tality to new ideas is the fountain of perpetual 
 youth. Every child should learn how to use 
 the public library and the museum before he 
 completes the eighth grade. A stiff formal 
 visit under supervision once or twice a year is 
 not enough. He should know the officials as 
 tried and trusted friends. This relationship 
 should grow with his years. Thank God there 
 are many men and women in the world today 
 who are doing untold good by winning the 
 confidence of their youthful friends and guid- 
 ing their tastes in the right direction. 
 
 The boy or girl who learns to use these two 
 institutions properly is educated for all time. 
 When once the child has acquired the habit of 
 dawdling, gossiping, or lounging on the street 
 
INFLUENCES. 131 
 
 corner, it is exceedingly hard to create interest 
 in better things. There is a deadening influ- 
 ence in these and kindred indulgences that is 
 not easily explained. They affect all classes 
 of society, and when once they become a part 
 of the child's life, his sensibilities seem to be 
 seared as with a hot iron. 
 
 Music is a never failing source of enjoy- 
 ment. Every one should learn to play some in- 
 strument. It may not always be possible nor 
 profitable to continue this accomplishment 
 through life, but the study of a musical instru- 
 ment, even if one acquires but little skill in us- 
 ing it, will lead to a musical knowledge and a 
 discriminating taste that enlarges one's hori- 
 zon and adds much to the happiness of declin- 
 ing years. This pleasure is not dependent on 
 the exhaustive study of elaborate compositions. 
 Very many intelligent people do not respond to 
 classical music, but the appreciation grows if 
 we continue in a receptive attitude. The sim- 
 ple old-fashioned melodies, endeared to us by 
 association as well as by their intrinsic 
 beauty, ought never be left out of the home. 
 Every boy and girl should learn to play and 
 sing them. Good music has kept many a 
 
132 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 hearthstone sweet and pure and the old tunes 
 have followed the wanderer to the uttermost 
 parts of the earth, awakening memories of 
 home. 
 
 The picture of an old father or mother spend- 
 ing a twilight existence beside a barely tolerant 
 fireside is a disgrace to humanity, a blot upon 
 civilization ; and the home which tolerates such 
 an exposition of hypocrisy and selfishness well 
 deserves all the discontent and unrest from 
 which it suffers. It does suffer, for every act 
 brings its inevitable consequence, whether of 
 joy or pain, and the hearth that is guilty of so 
 flagrant an act of cruelty is a stranger to peace 
 and contentment. Teach the child to reverence 
 the aged if you would make his own life happy. 
 Above all, lead him to feel the joy of loving 
 service. An act enobles or dwarfs according 
 to the motive behind it. The "servant girl" 
 problem would be solved if this principle per- 
 vaded the home. One child washes dishes with 
 a feeling of discontent and repugnance. The 
 work to her is miserable drudgery. Another 
 performs the service with a glad, joyful heart ; 
 she is helping to make the loved ones comfort- 
 able. Which, think you, will be the better able 
 
INFLUENCES. 133 
 
 to train and appreciate servants when she has 
 attained to womanhood? Each is performing 
 the same service but one is becoming hard and 
 sordid, while the other is growing in beauty 
 of soul, in a joy of living which the other will 
 never know even though the wealth of the In- 
 dies were poured into her lap. Which will you 
 have ? There is no neutral ground. We must 
 choose one or the other. The same question 
 comes to each one, though in a different form ; 
 rich and poor alike must meet and answer it- 
 shall it be the service prompted by love, or the 
 service that is mere drudgery? Slave or free, 
 which are we? Heaven is within us if we will 
 have it so. 
 
 The old German tale of the little girl whose 
 loaf of bread was sour because she wore a sour 
 look while kneading it is as true as history. Let 
 the little ones learn it. The child who com- 
 plains of being ill after indulging in a fit of 
 anger is probably telling the truth. He is suf- 
 fering from poison. The fluids coursing 
 through his body are changed, and the repair 
 of the tissues is arrested, in a measure. If joy 
 and love bring health, why should not anger 
 and hate bring sickness? 
 
134 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Suggestion is a wonderful power but little 
 understood, and like every other influence it is 
 capable of producing good or evil results. As 
 some years in the child's life are considered 
 more critical than others with reference to 
 physical and spiritual well-being, so too, some 
 months of each year may be more critical than 
 others with reference to the formation of 
 tastes and habits. 
 
 The parent is apt to say that his child's bad 
 habits have been acquired in school. Such a 
 parent would be surprised if he discovered how 
 accurately, yet unconsciously, the child portrays 
 his home life in the school. The average 
 teacher cannot fail to form a tolerably correct 
 picture of each pupil's environment out of 
 school by his conduct within it. 
 
 The public school is the most truly demo- 
 cratic institution in the country; without it, a 
 caste system would prevail as well defined as in 
 any old time monarchy. Within the school- 
 room are found representatives of all classes 
 of society who there learn to estimate one an- 
 other at their true worth regardless of wealth 
 or social position. 
 
INFLUENCES. 135 
 
 A friend who has just returned from a visit 
 to her native city asks, "What makes the work 
 so bad in the schools?" Primarily it is be- 
 cause school officers elected by popular vote 
 seek to meet the wishes of their constituents, 
 except when they have some personal interest 
 of their own to advance. If the people's 
 ideals are low, their representatives have 
 low ideals, and the work of the board is 
 poorly done. The teaching force is under the 
 control of officers who have their finger on the 
 pulse of public opinion. If that is indifferent, 
 the schools are apt to be farmed out for the 
 advancement of private interests. As are the 
 people, so are the schools. 
 
 The present intensely commercial spirit that 
 pervades all departments of educational work 
 is the chief obstacle to progress. At the close 
 of the Civil War conditions gave opportunities 
 for the acquirement of wealth hitherto un- 
 known. Many who were poor suddenly be- 
 came rich, while the wealthy multiplied their 
 possessions by thousands. The present fren- 
 zied pursuit of wealth is the result. The at- 
 mosphere has become saturated with this 
 desire, and every school inspector, lawyer, or 
 
136 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 politician who mounts the platform preaches 
 the doctrine of "getting on." Commercial 
 prosperity is the fetish of the nation, and greed 
 and corruption are rampant everywhere. For- 
 merly those who had done most for their fellow 
 men were the standards set up for the young. 
 But these ideals have vanished like hoar frost 
 on a May morning. Men are now looked upon 
 and admired as heroes, not for the service they 
 have done, but for the great wealth they have 
 acquired, and the boys who listened to their 
 eloquence clothed in faulty syntax conclude 
 that correct speech and decent consideration 
 for others are not necessary to success. 
 
 We are nearing the dawn of a better day, be- 
 cause the homes and the school are uniting in 
 planting the conviction in the hearts of the 
 rising generation that it is "Righteousness that 
 exalteth a nation." The generation now at the 
 helm are irrevocably committed to the ideals so 
 indelibly impressed upon them in their youth, 
 that they cannot change materially, and the 
 hope of the country is in the children who are 
 to follow us. So deep seated is this convic- 
 tion in the minds of little children that wealth 
 is the chief purpose of life, that they write in 
 
INFLUENCES. 137 
 
 their exercise books : "My reason for attending 
 school is, I must get on in my lessons, for I 
 want to get money." 
 
138 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 T 
 
 IX. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 HE trend of thought has altered much dur- 
 ing the past fifty or sixty years, and no- 
 where is this more apparent than in the 
 treatment of children. The term "New Edu- 
 cation" is not altogether a misnomer, though 
 it is not really an attempt to introduce something 
 new. It is rather an endeavor to discover what 
 has been in man for centuries, and is funda- 
 mental and lasting. Influences which have 
 tended to stimulate this study are classified as 
 follows : 
 
 First The scientific discoveries of Darwin 
 and others. 
 
 Second The application of these discover- 
 ies by Herbert Spencer and his colleagues. 
 
 Third The so-called Higher Criticism of 
 the Bible and Religion. 
 
 Fourth The many inventions which, by 
 rapid transit and facilitating various industries, 
 have rapidly changed our national life. 
 
CONCLUSION. 139 
 
 The first and second classes of influences have 
 been already considered in this book. Of the 
 third class it is only needful to say that the 
 accepted modern definition of the word ever- 
 lasting as not necessarily meaning endless or 
 eternal, in the sense popularly understood, has 
 modified our theories of the world to come. 
 The good and evil effects of the comparatively 
 sudden change in what have heretofore been 
 considered the fundamental propositions of the 
 Christian religion, have been many and import- 
 ant. A large and more hopeful view of the 
 future has been accompanied by a growing dis- 
 regard of present duty. The two conflicting 
 influences are resulting in a confusion of mind 
 which is dangerous to the rising generation, and 
 is changing the character of the home as well 
 as the sense of moral obligation among the 
 people in general. This seems to be the imme- 
 diate results of every shifting of ground from 
 one fundamental view to another in the growth 
 of public opinion. But there are other reasons 
 for the present prevailing disregard of justice 
 and of duty. 
 
 Prior to 1848 we were a small people living 
 on the Atlantic coast; little was known of the 
 
140 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 country west of the Mississippi, and the vast 
 resources of the area beyond were as yet not 
 even dreamed of. The prevalence of hand la- 
 bor, and the difficulties of travel tended to keep 
 the people near together in little communities 
 where all, coming under the same influences 
 and possessing the same interests, necessarily 
 shared in the same views and opinions. At this 
 time the school and the home were closely con- 
 nected. The teacher knew the members of each 
 family in the district, and respect for law and 
 authority was felt even when obedience did not 
 follow. 
 
 But there came a change. The tide of emi- 
 gration set in, bringing people to our shores 
 from every nation. Facilities for travel grew 
 apace; the use of machinery in place of hand 
 labor transformed society in every center. Then 
 same the great influx of domestic inventions; 
 later the telephone, the gas stove, and the vari- 
 ous applications of electricity, after these the 
 electric car, the bicycle, and the automobile. 
 The general result has been the bringing to- 
 gether in constantly changing combinations, 
 people of every creed and degree of intelligence 
 and morality. The home, the school, the 
 
CONCLUSION. 141 
 
 church, the neighborhood, and the state felt 
 the influence. The home, from its secluded 
 character, was the last to show the effects of 
 this change, and it may be the last to re-adjust 
 itself to the new conditions. 
 
 The multiplication of amusements and the 
 diminution of household requirements have 
 produced restlessness in the home life fatal to 
 that repose so necessary to the best home 
 training. 
 
 The school-child of today is more intelligent 
 and less reliable than the child of earlier gener- 
 ations. How can we bring back this sterling trait 
 without losing what is gained by better school 
 instruction? If the country is to hold together, 
 if the five institutions of our civilization are to 
 survive and improve, childhood must be taught 
 a higher respect for law and law-givers. The 
 minor influences tending in an opposite direc- 
 tion must be checked, no matter how unim- 
 portant they may seem. The important things 
 are the small things. The youth who speaks of 
 the chief executive as "Teddy," and uses a 
 pocket handkerchief bordered with small 
 American flags, has received his first lesson in 
 disregard of law and disrespect of country. 
 
H2 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 The country is greatly agitated just now on 
 the subject of divorce. The seat of the evil 
 cannot be reached by legislation. The prepa- 
 ration for marriage should begin in the cradle. 
 The child who is indulged from babyhood, who 
 knows no will but its own, who cares for no 
 one but itself, is not apt to make in after years 
 an ideal husband or wife. Strange that women 
 so often excuse in their sons those traits of 
 character that, in their husbands, have caused 
 them suffering. 
 
 One great evil that confronts the home today 
 is the withdrawal of the father from family 
 life. The causes are many. Among the chief, 
 is the rise of commercial spirit and the increas- 
 ing competition in all branches of industry. 
 Many a father is compelled to strain every 
 nerve to keep abreast of his competitors, and 
 when night comes he is fit for nothing but the 
 easy chair, or some light entertainment that 
 will make no demand upon brain or body. This 
 is the chief reason why our theaters are filled 
 with light plays that appeal only to the eye; 
 the reason why the son steals out of the door 
 to go where he can "enjoy himself;" the rea- 
 son why the wife fails to talk over with her 
 
CONCLUSION. i43 
 
 husband the growing faults in their boy, and 
 seek for the counsel which only a father can 
 give. Meanwhile the mad pace goes on ; how 
 much or how little each parent is to blame for 
 the iliad of woes experienced and threatened, 
 the parent only knows. 
 
 But one thing is certain; few men are able 
 to give their children both moral stamina and 
 large wealth. To raise truly intelligent chil- 
 dren requires a blending of both feminine and 
 masculine ideals. There must be close daily 
 personal contact with both parents. Schools 
 and masters however clever can not give the 
 effective touch it must be warm, close, intelli- 
 gent family life. The man who makes a for- 
 tune rarely has energy to enjoy it afterward. 
 The effort has been too great, and he generally 
 regrets when too late that he spent so much to 
 gain so little. 
 
 It is all merely a question of ideals and in 
 this, as in everything else, each one must make 
 his choice. One gets what he works for, for 
 the most part, especially in the life that is 
 worth living. 
 
 Two men were digging under my window 
 a few months ago, when one dropped his 
 
144 THE POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 spade. "I've found another nickel," he cried. 
 "Pshaw," said the other, "I never find any- 
 thing but buttons." "You never look for any- 
 thing but buttons," retorted his companion; 
 "You find buttons because you look for 'em ;" 
 and so it is. We get what we seek in this world 
 and must not grumble if it proves to be but- 
 tons. The saddest feature is that the innocent, 
 helpless children must suffer for our mistakes. 
 But all is not lost if the home holds together. 
 We must return to a simpler life. We must 
 take off the leaden cloak of seeming to be what 
 we are not. We must eat, dress, and entertain 
 according to our income, without considering 
 what our neighbors think. We can never be 
 truly ourselves while dominated by others' 
 ideals. To be other than one's self is to be 
 nothing. The world today is full of copies, 
 often of bad originals. Every one is capable of 
 being an original and there is some one thing 
 he can do better than anyone else. Something 
 for which the world is waiting. Teach the 
 child in home and in school to find and do this 
 one thing, and he is no longer a slave, but free. 
 A foolish imitation of others has no tempta- 
 tions for him because his source of joy is in 
 
CONCLUSION. 145 
 
 himself. It is only the empty mind that seeks 
 to fill itself with cheap imitations. And family 
 life is the place to bring out the real thing ; to 
 encourage, to burnish, to love the best of which 
 each member is capable. 
 
 But in spite of all that has been said of our 
 shortcomings, we are approaching the dawn of 
 a day more glorious than any that have gone 
 before. Greater opportunities bring greater 
 success to him who can improve them. The 
 child today is being cared for more intelli- 
 gently than ever before. The light of recent 
 discovery has come upon us so suddenly that 
 our eyes are blinded for the moment; but as 
 time passes our mental vision will grow clearer, 
 the judgment truer. Much that is now retained 
 will be cast aside as useless, while some things 
 temporarily discarded will be brought back in 
 a larger and better way. The home will regain 
 its former influence and power, and the glory 
 of coming generations will center around that 
 most sacred of all human institutions. The 
 American Hearthstone. 
 
 THE END. 
 
146 POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 List of Valuable Books of Reference to be 
 found in most small Public Libraries. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Babies and Monkeys. Popular Science Monthly, Jan 
 uary, 1895, Vol. 46, p. 371. 
 
 The Tree Dwellers. The Age of Fear. Katherine 
 E. Dopp. Rand, McNally & Company, Chicago. 
 
 The Primitive Family. Thwing. 
 
 The Evolution of The Family. Popular Science 
 Monthly, Vol. 40, p. 257. 
 
 The Story of Ab. Stanley Waterloo. 
 
 The Story of Primitive Man. Cladd. Appleton& 
 Company. 
 
 Early Man in Britain. Dawkins. McMillan Co. 
 How to Make Baskets. Mary White. 
 Indian Basketry. George W. Jones. 
 Drummond's Ascent of Man. 
 
 Some Fundamental Principles of Sunday School and 
 Bible Teaching. Pedagogical Seminary, Decem- 
 ber, 1901. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Motor Ability of Children. Annual Report, 
 Commissioner of Education, 1898, Vol. 2, p. 1291. 
 
BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 147 
 
 Influence of Exercise on Growth. Journal Exper. 
 Med., 1896, Vol. 1, p. 516. 
 
 Relation Between Growth and Disease. Am. Medi- 
 cal Association, 1891. 
 
 Influences of Palatal Deformities in Idiots. Journal 
 of Medical Science, Jan. 1897, Vol. 43, p. 72. 
 
 A Study in Youthful Degeneracy. Pedagogical Semi- 
 nary, p. 221, Dec. 1906. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Fatigue in School Children. Educational Review 
 Jan. 1898, p. 34. 
 
 Study of Imitation. Annual Report, Commissioner 
 of Education, Vol. 1, 1896-97, Chapter 13. 
 
 Physical Training. Same, 1898, Vol. 1, p. 487. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Child Study and Religious Education. Child Study 
 Monthly, Oct. 1896, Vol. 2, p. 289. 
 
 The Early Cave Men. The Age of Combat. Kather- 
 ine E. Dopp. 
 
 The Later Cave Men. The Age of the Chase. 
 Katherine E. Dopp. 
 
 The Tent Dwellers. The Early Fishing Man. 
 Katherine E. Dopp. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Place of Industries in Elementary Education 
 Katherine E. Dopp. 
 
1 48 POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 Some Steps in the Evolution of Social Occupations. 
 
 Katherine E. Dopp. 
 The Elementary School Teacher, March and April, 1903. 
 
 Origin of Inventions. Mason. 
 
 Punishments as Seen by Children. Pedagogical Semi- 
 nary, Vol. 3, p. 235. 
 
 Educative Value of Children's Questioning. Popular 
 Science Monthly, Vol. 44, p. 799. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Industrial Education. Annual Report, Commis- 
 sioner of Education, 1896, Vol. 1, p. 443. 
 
 The Sorrows of Childhood. Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9. 
 
 The Boyhood of Great Men. Annual Report, Com- 
 missioner of Education, 1898, Vol. 2, p. 1294. 
 
 Increase in Volume of Heart at Puberty. Annual 
 Report, Commissioner of Education, Vol. 1, 1898 
 p. 995. 
 
 Growth of First Born Children. Same, p. 1100. 
 
 Children Larger Born in Summer. Same, p. 994. 
 
 Only Children. Same, 1898, Vol. 2, p. 1349. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS . 
 A Mornings Observation of a Baby. Fletcher B. 
 
 Dresslar. 
 
 The First Modern Schoolmaster. Wm. H. Burnham. 
 Children's Ideals. Adelaide E. Wyckoff. 
 All may be found in Pedagogical Seminaiy, Vol. 8, 
 
 No. 4, Dec. 1901. 
 School Breakdown. Medical News, 1900, Vol. 77, 
 
 p. 208. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 LESSON PAPERS SUGGESTING STUDIES FOR 
 CLUBS OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
LESSON PAPERS. 
 
 The following 1 Study Papers have been used by a number of 
 clubs of teachers and parents. They cover a wide rang-e of 
 topics, all of which have a direct bearing" on the proper care of 
 children in their physical, intellectual, and moral growth. 
 
 Study Paper No. i. 
 
 FATIGUE. 
 
 Fatigue is caused by a sort of toxin or poison which 
 is brought about in this way: The muscles are made 
 up of little bundles of tubes filled with a substance 
 called albuminoid. The nerves carry messages from the 
 brain to the muscles. When a muscle is required to 
 work it receives a message like a tiny electric shock; 
 this causes the albuminoid to contract, and the muscle 
 is shortened. 
 
 As the muscles work they throw off tiny particles of 
 waste matter and other impurities ; these are burned by 
 the oxygen in the blood, destroyed by the liver, or 
 thrown off by the kidneys. When this waste matter col- 
 lects more rapidly than it can be destroyed or carried 
 off, it gradually checks the contraction of the fluid in the 
 muscles and they move more and more slowly. Then 
 too, the blood becomes poisoned by the waste matter 
 and this causes fatigue. 
 
 Muscle fatigue is the only kind known. Brain work 
 fatigues the whole body because (it is supposed) the 
 waste thrown off by its activity is carried into the mus- 
 cles by the blood; it is also possible that the brain 
 robs the muscles of useful substances to supply its own 
 needs ; for thought work requires an immense supply 
 of energy, and the brain is found well nourished even 
 when death has resulted from starvation. 
 
 A muscle not fatigued may contract one-third of its 
 length. It has an alkaline taste; when fatigued it has 
 an acid taste. (Read Mosso's New Book on "Fatigue.") 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 REMEDIES BATHING, FRESH AIR, SLEEP. 
 
 Bathing From one to two and one-half pints of 
 waste matter passes out through the skin every twenty- 
 four hours, so we can easily see how necessary it is to 
 keep all the pores open. Every child should have one or 
 two baths a week, but he should never bathe after eat- 
 ing or when very tired. No two children are alike, but 
 a little experience will teach you how often your chil- 
 dren should bathe, the best time of day, and whether 
 the bath should be cold, warm, or tepid. Plunge baths 
 are often very dangerous. 
 
 It is supposed that there is no such thing as brain- 
 fag. About eighty per cent of the fatigue and "Nervous- 
 ness" experienced by school children and adults is 
 caused by eye-strain, straining the muscles of the eye. 
 
 A very large proportion of pupils who are restless, 
 inattentive and mischievous, are suffering from defective 
 sight or hearing of which they or their parents are en- 
 tirely unconscious. This condition adds immensely to 
 the ordinary fatigue of school work. 
 
 Children are required to write too much during the 
 first eight years of school life. Three fourths of the 
 copying, keeping of note books, etc., etc., is an absolute 
 hindrance to the training of the ear, the modulation of 
 the voice, and the exercise of thought. The eyes are 
 strained and worn before the child reaches manhood. 
 This barbarous custom is kept alive by tradition, and is 
 an easy method of keeping children quiet. Its extreme 
 cruelty, as well as its stultifying effect upon the mind, 
 is not suspected by the average parent or teacher. 
 
 The custom of correcting papers in the evening has 
 a similar effect upon the teacher. To avoid this kind of 
 work entirely is barely possible under present condi- 
 tions ; but it must be remembered that the average 
 teacher loses in elasticity, in the power to interest and 
 to control, in exact proportion to her adherence to this 
 custom. 
 
 From early childhood the pupil should be taught to 
 rest the eyes when tired ; to avoid a highly colored 
 lamp shade or table cover (particularly if red), and to 
 avoid a light falling upon the face or book. 
 
 Of course the best arranged program is one which 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 places studies making the greatest demand upon nerve 
 force, as language, etc., etc., at times when pupils are 
 least fatigued and provides, also, for a moment's rest or 
 relaxation between each recitation. Of course the ideal 
 rest is free play in the open air ; when this is impossible 
 anything giving freedom of movement, even a whisper- 
 ing recess, is helpful. 
 
 Physical exercises are really very hard work, as the 
 attention is strained to follow directions. Rest means 
 free, gentle, undirected movement, such as comes, for 
 instance, from tossing a bean bag, etc. 
 
 Too much cannot be said against children being al- 
 lowed to march while singing or with the arms in a 
 constrained position. Free play in the fresh air is the 
 best possible rest for children after school, or indeed at 
 any time when fatigued, as the larger supply of oxygen 
 in the air burns the waste matter in the muscles and 
 blood more rapidly. The cheerful enjoyment of the 
 play is also exceedingly beneficial. The child who habit- 
 ually sits down to a story-book upon his return from 
 school needs watching. 
 
 Sleep Table, from "Physical Nature of Child," by 
 Rowe: The child needs from 6 to 8 years of age, 
 eleven or twelve hours of sleep; from 9 to II years of 
 age, ten or eleven hours; from 12 to 14 years of age, 
 nine or ten hours. 
 
 Does your child get this amount? 
 
 Does he breathe fresh air while sleeping? 
 
 The study of music is a great educator; but what 
 do you think of the senseless, monotonous piano prac- 
 tice so often heard? 
 
 At what hour does your child practice best? How 
 many minutes at a time does she practice? Does her 
 piano-stool have a back to it? Do her feet touch the 
 floor? 
 
 How long could you practice under her conditions 
 before exhaustion? 
 
 What do you think of the parent who allows the child 
 to practice at noon or immediately upon her return 
 from school in the afternoon? 
 
 Why is it wrong to do any hard work immediately 
 after a meal? 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 Eye-strain and deafness cause an immense amount 
 of fatigue, even when their existence is not suspected 
 by the parent. 
 
 Are your children all right in these respects, or do 
 you merely suppose so? 
 
 What means have you taken to make sure? 
 
 We have had children in school so deaf that they 
 could not hear the teacher speak, others have been so 
 blind they could scarcely read in large print, yet in 
 nearly every instance the parents have told us that noth- 
 inpr was the matter. Why? 
 
 Study Paper No. 2. 
 
 SLEEP. 
 
 1. How many hours sleep a day should be taken by 
 a very young child? The child of seven? of ten? of 
 fourteen? the young person? the adult? 
 
 2. Does the child of nervous temperament need 
 more or less sleep than a phlegmatic child? 
 
 3. Why is sleep taken before midnight worth so much 
 more than that taken after midnight or in the day-time? 
 
 4. Does this give any reason for an early bed hour? 
 
 5. Is it true that the waste tissues of the body are re- 
 paired only during sleep? 
 
 6. Then what is the result of insufficient sleep? 
 
 7. Why is it wrong to rock children to sleep? to 
 dandle them? to put them to sleep in a lighted room? 
 to allow them to sleep with much older people? 
 
 8. Have you noticed the injurious effect of electric 
 light upon the sleep of plants, animals or human beings ? 
 
 9. How may a very careful attention to these prin- 
 ciples be of very great help to persons who inherit ten- 
 dencies to nervous disease or insanity? 
 
 10. How may care in these respects help the child in 
 his school work. In preparing for life? 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 Study Paper No. 3. 
 
 FOODS. 
 
 What foods are most useful in producing warmth? 
 In producing fat? In producing bone? etc. Name 
 some foods that are most easily digested. 
 
 Why should all housekeepers study these facts? 
 
 Are the most expensive foods always the best foods ? 
 
 Is not the contrary very often true? 
 
 Should not every woman (rich and poor alike) 
 learn to cook good, plain, nutritious dishes? 
 
 What connection do you see between poorly cooked, 
 innutritious food and poor lessons in school? 
 
 Between poor, badly cooked food and an intemperate 
 husband ? 
 
 Which, in your opinion, is the better way to check 
 intemperance: (a) By giving the child good, well 
 cooked food from infancy, and teaching him self-con- 
 trol and obedience in all things ; or (b) By passing 
 laws in regard to drunkenness after he is grown up? 
 Are we not, as a people, intemperate in eating, in 
 work, in pleasure? 
 
 Do not these forms of intemperance lead to drunken- 
 ness, or, at least, make it easier? 
 
 Are the seeds of drunkenness sown in the child be- 
 fore he is eighteen, even though he has never tasted 
 liquor? How do you explain this saying, if true? 
 
 Read Scientific American of November 12, 1898; 
 November 19, 1898; also Scientific American Supple- 
 ment for Jaunary 15, 1897. 
 
 Manual of Foods, issued by the Battle Creek Sani- 
 tarium. 
 
 Ralston's Model Meals, published by Ralston Health 
 Club, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Orr's Circle of Sciences. 
 
 Johnson's Encyclopedia. 
 
 Popular Lectures on Food. Dr. Lancaster. 
 
 Food and Feeding, Chapter 4, Sir Henry Thompson. 
 
 Food Materials and Their Adulteration. Ellen M. 
 Richards. 
 
 Dietetic Value of Bread. John Goodfellow. 
 
 NOTE. --Many of these books and articles may be found in the 
 public librarv. 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 Study Paper No. 4. 
 
 SANITATION IN THE HOME. 
 
 1. Name some of the different avenues by which ty- 
 phoid fever, diphtheria, etc., may enter the home. 
 
 2. Care of sinks and drains: 
 
 (a) The kitchen sink; why should it be scalded 
 
 daily? 
 
 Use of concentrated lye to remove grease 
 from pipes; use of sulphate of iron 
 (copperas) to destroy ammonia ; danger 
 of decaying woodwork around sink. 
 
 (b) Necessity of proper traps in plumbing. 
 Can sewer gas always be detected by its 
 odor? If not, why should this fact lead to 
 greater care? 
 
 (c) Flushing and deodorizing all sinks and 
 drains. 
 
 3. Care of utensils in preparation of food : 
 
 (a) Necessity of scalding tins and pans used 
 for milk. 
 
 (b) Care of infants' nursing bottles. Why 
 should a rubber nipple be used in preference 
 to the long tube? Why is the dark rubber 
 much better for this purpose than the light ? 
 
 (c) Is it safe to use a brass kettle in making 
 
 Sickles? To use leaden shot in cleansing 
 ottles. 
 
 (d) Is an unclean dishcloth conducive to 
 germs ? 
 
 (e) Care in washing dishes. 
 
 4. The pantry and ice-box: 
 
 (a) How can roaches be destroyed? 
 
 (b) Danger in bits of food left to sour and 
 mold. 
 
 (c) Regular cleansing of pantry and box. 
 
 5. The back yard : 
 
 (a) Danger in throwing dishwater, soap suds, 
 scraps of food, etc., on the ground. 
 
 (b) Of keeping ducks, geese, etc., in small 
 quarters. 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 6. The bed room: 
 
 (a) Daily opening of windows; airing of bed- 
 ding; use of heat with unused bedding. 
 
 (b) Should feather pillows be exposed to the 
 sun? Are feather beds healthful? 
 
 (c) Why should all toilet utensils be washed 
 in hot water daily? 
 
 (d) Why should a tin or wooden slop pail 
 never be used? 
 
 Study Paper No. 5. 
 
 CARE AND DECORATION OF SCHOOL BUILD- 
 ING AND GROUNDS. 
 
 1. What effect does an ill-kept, untidy home have 
 
 upon a child? 
 
 (a) Does it exert any influence upon his 
 habits? 
 
 (b) May an untidy, unsystematic home be con- 
 ducive to slovenly, unsystematic habits of 
 thought or study? If so, may it affect the 
 child's usefulness in later life? His suc- 
 cess in business? 
 
 (c) Do you think untidy, badly kept gardens 
 and out-buildings have the same effect in 
 degree ? 
 
 2. What effect do neat curtains, pretty pictures, 
 
 flowers, etc., have upon the mind. 
 
 (a) Wanamaker's great stores in New York 
 are fitted out with every possible considera- 
 tion for the comfort of those employed 
 therein ; apart from this, much money has 
 been spent in making the rooms devoted to 
 the employees cheerful and attractive. 
 Other large firms pursuing the same plan, 
 say that workmen and workwomen are 
 more healthy and do better work in bright, 
 pleasant stores than can be accomplished 
 amid different surroundings. If this is 
 true, what lesson does it teach us in regard 
 to our children? 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 3. The school is the child's home. 
 
 (a) What is the condition of your child's 
 school ? Are the rooms neat and attractive ? 
 Is the yard or garden nicely kept? and, 
 above all, are the out-buildings clean, well- 
 painted and free from obscene writings? 
 
 (b) If not, who is to blame? The teacher is 
 generally more than willing to do her share, 
 but she must be aided by the parents ; and, 
 remember, you are not helping her, you 
 are working to make your own children 
 clean, wholesome, useful men and women. 
 
 (c) Suppose every woman in the country did a 
 little toward supplying her school with the 
 needed books, curtains, pictures, etc., and 
 insisted that the garden, out-buildings, etc., 
 be kept clean. What would be the effect 
 upon the state? 
 
 (d) What plans have you in reference to this 
 matter? How far are you influencing pub- 
 lic sentiment on this subject? Does your 
 club intend to hold any meetings at which 
 public-minded citizens will speak on the 
 needs of your district? Have you planned 
 any entertainment by which money may be 
 raised for these purposes? 
 
 Send to Hon. Jason Hammond, Lansing, Michigan, 
 for a copy of his report on the school buildings of the 
 state. 
 
 Study Paper No. 6. 
 
 CARE OF THE BODY. 
 
 I. Children are often considered idle or stupid, and 
 are sometimes put back in their classes simply because 
 they cannot hear or see well. What should a parent do 
 under such circumstances? In what part of the school 
 room should such children be placed? 
 
 As the ear and eye are extremely delicate, is it not 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 exceedingly dangerous to attempt to treat at home de- 
 fects in these organs as disease ? Would it not be a good 
 plan for your club to have a plain, sensible talk each 
 year from some good doctor or specialist on the care 
 of these organs? 
 
 2. Are diseases of the stomach or lungs ever affected 
 by decaying teeth? 
 
 What kinds of food are best calculated to produce 
 strong teeth? 
 
 When is this diet most effective, early or late in life ? 
 
 Does the parents' diet affect this matter in any way? 
 
 Why is it necessary that the child should learn early 
 in life to keep the mouth clean? Should you think 
 habitual cleanliness in this respect helpful to the preven- 
 tion of disease? Why? 
 
 Why is the occasional use of a little soap exceed- 
 ingly beneficial in cleansing the mouth and throat? 
 
 3. The Hair and the Nails. Why should each child be 
 taught to brush the hair carefully each day? Is the 
 excessive use of the brush harmful? 
 
 Why should care be taken to cut the nails smoothly 
 and evenly? 
 
 Why is it injurious to scrape them with a sharp in- 
 strument, as a knife ? 
 
 Some time ago an examination was made in a cer- 
 tain city of the dirt found under children's nails, which 
 resulted in the discovery of fourteen different kinds of 
 germs. What do you think of this subject? 
 
 4. The Skin. The skin contains thousands upon 
 thousands of tiny pores through which much waste and 
 impure matter escapes from the body. If these little 
 pores are clogged up, what is likely to happen ? 
 
 Some children are benefited by a daily bath ; others 
 should not bathe so frequently. Some find the cold 
 bath more helpful, while others need warm or tepid 
 water. What is your child's habit? 
 
 What can you say of the dry bath (rubbing the 
 body briskly with a dry towel) when the use of water is 
 not prudent? 
 
 Often, when the child is peevish and fretful, a gentle 
 sponge bath, followed by a brisk rubbing with a towel, 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 induces sound sleep at night, while the lessons in school 
 seem pleasanter and easier. How do you account for 
 this? 
 
 5. Clothing. How many little children suffer untold 
 pain from wearing shoes which they have outgrown, 
 but which are still "too good" to be laid aside? 
 
 What have you to say of stockings too short in the 
 foot? Of tight stiffly starched under-clothing? Of 
 bands too tight ? Of garments too short in the body ? 
 
 Is it true that little boys are made to suffer in this 
 way as much as little girls? 
 
 What is the strain upon the nerves, temper and 
 health of children thus tortured? 
 
 6. Moral Effect. What effect will perfect cleanliness, 
 as suggested above, have upon the child's moral nature? 
 
 Will it be helpful in teaching that reverence for the 
 body, as the home for the soul, is conducive to purity in 
 thought and deed? 
 
 What effect will it have upon his work, his future 
 usefulness and citizenship? 
 
 Study Paper No. 7. 
 
 DANGEROUS COMMUNICABLE DISEASES. 
 
 Consumption Form 175 
 
 Diphtheria Form 107 
 
 Typhoid Form 124 
 
 Scarlet Fever Form no 
 
 Measles Form 176 
 
 Whooping Cough Form 229 
 
 Smallpox Form 
 
 Above is printed a list of the most dangerous com- 
 municable diseases in the order of the communicability, 
 the most dangerous being given first; opposite of each 
 name is placed the number of the form or pamphlet 
 giving instructions on the prevention of such disease. 
 Any or all of these pamphlets may be obtained free 
 upon application to Dr. H. B. Baker, Secretary Board 
 of Health, Lansing, Michigan. 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 From this list it will be seen that consumption 
 causes most deaths, and that smallpox (of which every- 
 one is so much afraid) causes very few. Consumption 
 is spread very much by the carelessness of consumptive 
 patients in spitting on the street, in public buildings, on 
 the car, at home, etc. (See Form 175.) What can you 
 say of this habit? What should children be taught in 
 regard to this habit? If they are allowed to follow 
 dirty, untidy practices when well, will it not be difficult 
 for them to show self-restraint when sick? Mention 
 other evils arising from this habit. 
 
 Diphtheria. How far are patients and teachers re- 
 sponsible for the spread of diphtheria? How far may 
 they be responsible for the growth of any disease? 
 
 Can the teacher do very much in this direction with- 
 out help from the parents? 
 
 What, then, is your duty? The duty of your club? 
 If any epidemic breaks out in your district this winter 
 shall you feel that strict vigilance on the part of every- 
 one might have prevented it? 
 
 Is it true that in trying to prevent disease in other 
 people's homes we keep it from our own? Are the 
 drainage, sanitary arrangements, etc., in your neighbor- 
 hood good? Are you responsible for them in any way? 
 If they are not? How? 
 
 Study Paper No. 8. 
 
 The five institutions of civilization are the home, the 
 church, the school, the neighborhood, and the state. 
 Any influence which disturbs one of them must, in time, 
 affect the other four. Papers 9, 10, and n continue 
 this discussion. 
 
 HOW SHALL MORALS BE TAUGHT? 
 
 1. Every human being is a teacher of morals and the 
 character of our work is decided by what we are, rather 
 than what we say. What then, is our duty? 
 
 2. The mother is to the little child as God; that is, 
 the little child gets its first ideas of God's love, truth 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 and justice from what it sees her do, and it is exceed- 
 ingly hard to alter these ideas afterward. What, then, 
 should the mother be? 
 
 3. Moral instruction should be given very sparingly, 
 as a too great use of these means will make the child, 
 according to its temperament indifferent, hypocritical or 
 morbidly conscientious. How, then, can we accomplish 
 this work? 
 
 4. What did Emerson mean when he told his daughter 
 that he cared more to know who her teachers were than 
 to learn what studies she had chosen? 
 
 5. We are apt to forget that the child's moral char- 
 acter is largely determined before he enters school, and 
 that the unkind word at the table, the unseemly joke 
 and improper picture in the newspaper are among his 
 most powerful teachers. What is your duty and mine? 
 
 The teacher stands next, in influence, to the parent. 
 As the child's moral character is determined very early 
 and it is very hard to change afterward, do you not 
 think that every parent and teacher ought to work to- 
 gether in this field? Is not your child apt to suffer if 
 you do not? What, then, do you intend to do? Will 
 not your club discuss these topics? 
 
 Our own attitude toward truth determines always 
 the worth of our teaching; the lesson (no matter 
 whether it be a page in arithmetic or a portion of the 
 Bible) is only a tool used in the building of character. 
 
 For the latest and most advanced thought on this 
 subject read: 
 
 1. The Bible. 
 
 2. Can Moral Conduct be Taught in the Schools? 
 Forum, January, 1893. 
 
 3. The Moral and Religious Training of Children 
 and Adolescents. Pedagogical Seminary, June, 1891. 
 
 4. Froebel's Education of Man. 
 
 NOTE. Consult public library. 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 Study Paper No. 9. 
 
 THE CHILD'S PLACE IN THE FAMILY. 
 
 During the first months of a child's life he needs 
 absolute repose; in fact, all his wants are expressed by 
 the words warmth, cleanliness, food and sleep. What 
 do you think of this point? Are very young children 
 ever rocked, dandled or played with until their nerves 
 are unduly stimulated or excited? Do you think this 
 habit frequently lays a foundation for the nervous dis- 
 orders of later life ? What, then, would you advise ? 
 
 As the child grows older he needs short periods of 
 activity. These periods gradually grow longer, but 
 whether long or short, they should be followed by pe- 
 riods of absolute repose, for in this way only does the 
 mind grow. 
 
 All over the country our little ones suffer from the 
 lack of repose; not only do they have too little sleep, 
 but their tender minds are stimulated too constantly. 
 Too many toys, too many amusements, too many books 
 are among the influences which tend to keep them in a 
 state of nervous excitement during the great part of 
 their waking hours. Is it surprising that they break 
 down, or that much of the fatigue which is supposed to 
 arise from over-study is really due to these causes? 
 
 Then, too, the position the child frequently occupies 
 in the family is quite wearing. He rules when he should 
 be ruled, and the tired little feet seen so often in the 
 school room or street car tell only too plainly the weari- 
 ness of the task. 
 
 Above all, he should learn the meaning of the word 
 must, for perfect self-control and cheerful obedience to 
 authority, even though the reason for the command is 
 not always known, are absolutely necessary to his peace 
 of mind. What is your opinion on this point? 
 
 Suppose our children had fewer and simpler amuse- 
 ments, were taught a more perfect obedience, ate sim- 
 pler food and retired earlier, what, do you think, the 
 result would be? Do you think their school work 
 would seem so difficult? 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 Study Paper No. 10. 
 
 THE PLACE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE 
 COMMUNITY. 
 
 1. What are the chief duties of the individual as a 
 member of the community? What sort of knowledge 
 will best fit him for performing them? 
 
 2. Why is self-control so necessary? How can it be 
 acquired, and when is the best time for acquiring it? 
 Many parents believe that this quality will be gained 
 by allowing the child to have its own way from earliest 
 infancy. What do you think of this proposition ? 
 
 It is sometimes thought, that, owing to our great 
 freedom (speaking relatively) our degree of self-control 
 should be even greater than that of other nations. Do 
 you think this true? If so, how far does it influence you 
 in the training of your children? 
 
 How far do you think the line of thought contained 
 in lesson papers No. 7, 8, and 9 (as given above) will 
 apply to the suggestions laid down in this outline? 
 
 Suppose you were obliged to choose for your child 
 between the acquirement of mere knowledge, as out- 
 lined in the studies contained in the average school cur- 
 riculum, or a thorough understanding of, and sympathy 
 with, his fellow men, which would you prefer, and why? 
 
 Study Paper No. n. 
 
 A STREET CLEANING DEPARTMENT BY 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 It is, perhaps, doubtful how far the ideas suggested 
 in this article may be literally carried out in those cities 
 whose municipal regulations provide for the care and 
 cleanliness of its streets; but as this paper is designed 
 for use in all corners of the state, and as, moreover, the 
 actual work it outlines is not, by any means, the great- 
 est and most important result it seeks to obtain, the fol- 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 lowing suggestions are published in the hope that they 
 may possibly prove helpful to all the clubs using this 
 series. 
 
 In many parts of the state our streets are made un- 
 tidy by the pieces of paper that are allowed to blow 
 about ; then, too, apple, banana and other fruit skins are 
 thrown upon the pavement, causing a general appearance 
 of dirt and disorder, and sometimes giving rise to seri- 
 ous accidents. Do you think we have any duty to the 
 children in this matter, and, if so, how can it be ful- 
 filled 
 
 In many localities the Mothers' Clubs have taken 
 up this work; baskets have been placed upon street 
 corners as receptacles for paper and other substances; 
 efforts have been made to keep the lawns cut, the trees 
 trimmed; in short, all available means have been used 
 to insure an appearance of thrift and neatness. What 
 effect has all this had upon the children? Would the 
 effort be more valuable if the children were encouraged 
 to take part in this work themselves? Why? 
 
 Children, generally, are exceedingly careless and un- 
 tidy; papers are dropped upon the pavement, fruit and 
 flowers are sometimes destroyed; fences and houses 
 are marked, and lawns and flower beds are trampled 
 upon apart from the annoyance and loss to citizens; 
 all this is exceedingly injurious to the child himself. 
 Why? 
 
 Do you think indulgence in these habits will affect 
 his honesty or usefulness later on? 
 
 Will it have a tendency to make him selfish or care- 
 less of the rights of others? 
 
 In what way will it affect his patriotism and citi- 
 zenship? 
 
 What then, is your duty and mine? 
 
 Would encouragement to work on these lines sug- 
 gested tend to make him public spirited later on? That 
 he is capable of organized and sustained effort in many 
 directions has been frequently proved. For illustration 
 of this truth read "A Successful Boys' Republic," De- 
 troit Free Press, May 16, 1899; and also "The Boys' 
 Republic," New York Journal, July 3-14, 1896. 
 
 A German visiting this country once said, "America 
 is a place where everyone throws down and no one 
 picks up." What do you think of this criticism? 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 Study Paper No. 12. 
 
 CARE AND CHOICE OF CLOTHING. 
 
 COMPILED BY ALICE MARSH. 
 
 How many garments should a child wear in warm 
 weather? In cold weather? Where should the weight 
 be sustained, from the shoulders or hips? Is wool 
 next the skin advisable for all children? 
 
 What grade of stockings wear best for boys? Does 
 it pay to make stockings over? Do you know of any 
 good way to make the heels and knees of stockings 
 wear longer? Have you any good patterns of children's 
 garments to lend? 
 
 Should boys, as well as girls, be taught to sew on 
 buttons, patch, etc.? Will it be of advantage to them 
 as they grow older to know how to sew? How much 
 systematic instruction do children receive in sewing? 
 
 Should children be allowed any voice in the selection 
 of garments or as to the manner in which they shall 
 be made ? Would a reasonable amount of liberty in this 
 regard lead to independence of character and individual 
 taste ? 
 
 Should children know the cost of clothing for one 
 year? Will they learn to save when older if they do 
 not establish the habit when young? What do you 
 think of children having an allowance? Having bank 
 books? 
 
 "The mother wi' her needle an' her shears, 
 Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new." 
 
 Burns. 
 
 Study Paper No. 13. 
 
 FOODS. 
 
 Our health, happiness, and ability to work well de- 
 pends so much upon the food we eat that it becomes an 
 important matter in every home. Many a man owes 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 his success or failure in life to the food eaten before his 
 birth; many more to the food given them during the 
 early years of childhood, so that a people's intelligence 
 may be fairly judged by the care shown in the selection 
 and preparation of its food. 
 
 The body needs food to build it up and to repair or 
 mend it; food also supplies the body with heat and 
 muscular power, so it becomes a necessity to know 
 which foods are best able to build up, which to supply 
 heat or power. It is also necessary to know how to 
 cook food so as not to waste or destroy those properties. 
 Ignorance on this subject keeps many families poor. 
 
 The most important compounds found in the body 
 and in food are : 
 
 1. Protein. This compound builds up the bone mus- 
 cle and tissues of the body. It is found in lean meat, 
 in the white of eggs, and in the extracts of meats and 
 certain vegetables. 
 
 2. Fats, as found in meats, butter, etc., also in olives 
 nuts, etc. These supply the body with fat and also with 
 heat or caloric. 
 
 3. Carbohydrates. These contain different kinds of 
 sugar, starch and the fibre of plants or cellulose. These 
 are found in many kinds of grains, in potatoes ; and in 
 milk is found milk sugar. Starch and sugar supply the 
 body with energy and also with fat. 
 
 The relative value of different kinds of food in ref- 
 erence to heat, fat, energy, etc., may be learned by study 
 of Food Bulletins sent out by the government. 
 Ten minutes a day given to their study will save many 
 a family many dollars. It is said that no one whose in- 
 come is $1600 or less should spend more than 19 cents 
 per day for food. A careful study will show that the 
 most exepensive foods are often the least valuable. If 
 more bulletins are needed they will be sent postpaid 
 and free of charge (for educational purposes) to any 
 address. Write to Experiment Station, Department of 
 Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Below are given a few in most common use : 
 
 1. Bread, the Principles of Bread Making, No. 1 12. 
 
 2. Eggs, and their uses as food, No 128. 
 
 3. Sugar, as food, No. 93. 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 4. Fish as Food, No. 85. 
 
 5. Milk as Food, No. 74. 
 
 6. Meats, Composition and Cooking, No. 34. 
 
 7. Principles of Nutrition and Nutritive Value of 
 Food, No. 142. 
 
 Study Paper No. 14. 
 
 CHILDREN'S GARDENS. 
 
 Man in his progress toward civilization has passed 
 through many stages of development. At one time he 
 is a wanderer with no fixed home; at another he be- 
 comes one of a predatory horde ; and it is interesting to 
 watch the child, as in greater or less degree, he re- 
 peats the various experiences of the race. Some seem 
 content with merely playing being a robber or a wan- 
 derer, but with many these instincts grow into strong 
 burning desires to leave home, to become predatory, 
 etc. 
 
 1. If these instincts are not judiciously treated, what 
 may the result be? 
 
 2. It is believed that a "tramp" or a robber is sim- 
 ply a man whose mind has not kept pace with his years, 
 a man whose mind has remained in one or the other of 
 these stages of development, while his body has attained 
 its full growth. What have you to say upon this 
 theory? Will it lessen responsibility for wrong doing 
 or will it place that responsibility more nearly upon 
 those to whom it belongs ? Upon parents and teachers ? 
 
 3. Some tendencies should be eliminated, others 
 may be developed into noble, helpful impulses; to which 
 class does each of these belong? 
 
 4. In what way will permanent possessions as pets, 
 gardens, etc., help the child through these inevitable 
 stages of development? 
 
 5. How will the ownership and care of a little gar- 
 den lead him to love his home, to be neat, thrifty and 
 cheerful? How may it influence his health? How 
 may it indirectly promote the growth of patriotism later 
 on? 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 6. Why do not toys have the same effect? 
 
 7. How far may his gardening be "supervised"? 
 How far should it be the development of himself? 
 
 8. Every child must have something to love and care 
 for in his home. Something of his \ery own, even 
 though it may be nothing more than a plum pit or a 
 peach stone planted in the back yard. 
 
 9. Educators all over the country recognize this 
 necessity and many schools are considering the sub- 
 ject as one of national importance. 
 
 What can you do in your district? 
 
 A few seeds from your garden, a request to your 
 Congressman for more, a word of encouragement to 
 the teacher, may produce great results. 
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 As an educational factor no school can equal a good 
 home; and if it were possible for all parents to train 
 and instruct their children properly it would be far 
 better (both for the state and the individual) if chil- 
 dren were kept out of school until ten or twelve years 
 old. This is particularly true at present when so many 
 influences tend to distract or separate the young people 
 from the interests and occupations of the family. The 
 artificial means of nourishment and the little cot bed, 
 employed from the moment of birth, though a hygienic 
 necessity in many instances, play each their part in 
 preventing the development of the family affections ; 
 while the kindergarten (a noble institution in itself) 
 provides the child with strong outside interests at an 
 age when his thought should center chiefly in the 
 home. Add to this the "no breakfast fad," which does 
 away with the family reunion after the night's separa- 
 tion; give him the amusements and distractions com- 
 mon to the average child and it is not strange if he 
 learns to regard the home merely as a place in which 
 to eat and sleep. Under these conditions it becomes 
 necessary to reinhabit the home with interests and 
 occupations of such a nature as will lead the child 
 to love it and bring him into more constant interde- 
 pendent companionship with his family. Among the 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 many devices employed for this purpose perhaps none 
 are so simple so generally helpful, as the little 
 flower or vegetable garden . This subject is attract- 
 ing attention throughout the country. Believing that 
 it will interest many parents and teachers we append 
 the addresses of some of the most successful workers 
 in this educational field: 
 
 Dr. Sherman Davis, University of Indiana. 
 
 Mrs. Emma Shafter Howard, 1206 Alice St., Oak- 
 land, Cal. 
 
 Professor Bailey, Cornell University, N. Y. 
 
 Mrs. Comstock, Cornell University. 
 
 Emeline Hardy, Committee on Co-operation of Hyde 
 Park Improvement Association, Chicago. 
 
 Lizzie Wild Charles, Chairman Department of Home 
 and Education Austin Woman's Club, Austin Station, 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 Jessie M. Good, National League of Improvement 
 Association, Springfield, Ohio. 
 
 Mrs. E. B. Routzahn, Sec'y The American League 
 of Improvement Association, Springfield, O. 
 
 The Evening News, Detroit, Mich. 
 
 The Civic Club of Philadelphia have Leagues of 
 Good Citizenship among the school children. 
 
 Study Paper No. 15. 
 
 THE RECAPITULATION THEORY. 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 As every one knows, recapitulation means the art 
 of repeating; so the recapitulation theory teaches that 
 every human being repeats or lives through the entire 
 experiences of the race, in body as well as in mind. 
 Many of these experiences come to the child before 
 birth and some which spread over many ages in the 
 race's history will be lived through in a few days or 
 hours by the child. 
 
 The educational value of this theory is that it 
 shows that the human mind learns in a certain order 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 and that this order must correspond to the history ^ or 
 experience of the race. The proofs of recapitulation 
 in our bodies and in those of other animals are nu- 
 merous. Take, for instance, the gill slits. When man, 
 in the form of an aquatic animal, lived in the water, 
 he breathed through gills like a fish, but as he grad- 
 ually learned to stay more and more on land these gill 
 slits slowly changed and, after many ages, some of 
 them became the foundations of the ear and nose pas- 
 sages, while traces of the other slits may occasionally 
 be found as little seams on the side of the neck. 
 
 A rudimentary organ is one which has no perma- 
 nent use except as the foundation or scaffolding of 
 some organ now needed. The human body has, at 
 birth, about one hundred fifty of these organs. If we 
 could be created without them it is very probable that 
 be would also lack the organs of which they are the 
 foundation. For instance, the tadpole has a tail which 
 gradually becomes absorbed. If he had no tail he 
 would have no hind legs as a frog. The tail is a rudi- 
 mentary organ but we see that it is very necessary to 
 the frog. 
 
 Now it is believed that the human mind also repeats 
 the experiences of the race. As our ancient, early an- 
 cestors loved and worshiped the various manifestations 
 of nature, so the child must be allowed to do the same 
 if he is to develop into a healthy Christian. The love 
 of one pet or flower has a tremendous educational 
 value; plays and games are also among his greatest 
 teachers he learns more from them than from any 
 school. Notice, at one time he lives in a cave ; at 
 another is a robber; at another he delights in deeds 
 of bravery, and so on each of those plays represents 
 a certain stage of race experience through which he 
 passes. When he plays at being a robber he is in 
 the same stage of development as the race when it was 
 predatory or robbing, etc. But the normal child passes 
 through these stages up to our present stage of civiliza- 
 tion. It is only when the mind is stopped or arrested 
 in one of these periods that he becomes a "tramp," 
 or a robber. A criminal is an instance of arrested 
 development. 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Some tendencies should be gotten rid of and 
 some may be kept and developed into something val- 
 uable. Suppose your boy shows signs of becoming a 
 wanderer or a tramp. How would you treat him? 
 
 2. The best way to get rid of a harmful tendency 
 it to put something of an opposite nature in its place. 
 What effect would permanent possessions as a pet, a 
 flower garden, or a pretty bed-room have upon a child 
 inclined to wander away from home? 
 
 3. How would you apply this principle to a child 
 inclined to steal? To be idle? 
 
 Read Drummond's "Ascent of Man," Chapter 2. 
 
 Scott's "Organic Education," Chapter i. 
 
 "A Study in Youthful Degeneracy," Pedagogical 
 Seminary for 1896-97, page 221. 
 
 "The Play Instinct," Current Literature, November, 
 1903, page 554- 
 
 "Some Fundamental Principles in Sunday School 
 Teaching, Etc.," Pedagogical Seminary, December, 1901, 
 page 437. 
 
 Study Paper No. 16. 
 
 THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 
 
 It is in the power of science, without proving recre- 
 ant to its own methods, to maintain every one of the 
 fundamental truths which give to Religion its perma- 
 nent value Fiske's Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. 2, P. 467. 
 
 The survival of the fittest is a law which governs 
 every plant and animal that lives or has lived on earth. 
 Example A single codfish will lay six million eggs 
 a year; if all lived and multiplied, in a few years the 
 ocean would be full, yet the supply of cod is always the 
 same, or nearly the same. What does this show? 
 
 Many plants produce at least 100 seeds each ; in ten 
 years (if all lived and produced the same number) this 
 would give 100,000,000,000,000 plants, yet plant life re- 
 mains about the same. What does this show? 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 Protective coloration of animals; animals living in 
 deserts, as camels, snakes, etc., etc., are the same color 
 as the gravel upon which they lie. In warm countries, 
 where flowers and plants are brilliant, the birds have 
 very brilliant plumage. These are only a few chosen 
 from hundreds of examples, but all go to show that 
 the most conspicuous animals would be noticed more 
 than those which resemble their surroundings, and 
 thus would be more apt to be sought by their enemies, 
 or killed for food, etc. This, in time, would tend to 
 the extermination of those organisms which do not 
 follow this law, and we have the theory of Protective 
 Coloration. Of course, in plant life, it is easy to see 
 how the plants that can best adapt themselves to their 
 conditions of soil, moisture, etc., would be most apt to 
 survive. Now let us apply this principle to the human 
 race and see what place it holds in our physical, men- 
 tal, and spiritual growth. 
 
 Of course, the underlying principle is adaptation 
 to conditions. Every square inch of ground occupied 
 by plant or animal life is a battlefield upon which the 
 struggle goes unceasingly. Indeed this struggle is so 
 keen that many adopt entirely new habits gradually; 
 as for instance, the sheep in Northwestern Europe 
 which subsist upon fish in winter. Of course, the or- 
 ganism most successful in its struggle to adapt itself 
 to conditions survives. The rest die. Is this true of 
 man? If so, what are the principles governing his 
 growth and development? 
 
 1. In our discussion last month we learned that 
 "conditions conducive to well being are conducive to 
 growth." 
 
 2. That the conditions conducive to mental, moral 
 and physiological growth are (a) warmth, (b) proper 
 food and good sociological conditions; each of which 
 will be considered in its proper order. 
 
 Read Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 5, Page 381. 
 
 3. The brain may be developed in two ways, (a) by 
 stimulation of the senses by intellectual work; (b) by 
 muscular exercises. Which is the more natural? What 
 is the danger of too early or too much intellectual 
 work ? 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 Some scholars think that children should not learn 
 to read or to write until the tenth year, and that in 
 earlier years there should be no intellectual work at all. 
 What do you think of this theory? 
 
 Read Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 13, page 71. 
 
 Of course the child best prepared for this struggle 
 is the one that survives. How shall you apply the de- 
 ductions given above? 
 
 Read Darwin's "Origin of Species." 
 
 Read Drummond's "Ascent of Man." 
 
 Read Fiske's "Cosmic Philosophy," Vol. 2. 
 
 And for another view of this subject take 0016/8 
 "Human Nature and the Social Order." 
 
 Study Paper No. 17. 
 
 "SOME REASONS WHY PUPILS ARE NOT AL- 
 WAYS PROMOTED AT THE END OF 
 THE TERM." 
 
 The great lack hi pupils to-day is the power to 
 study, to control themselves, to concentrate their mind 
 upon any given subject Causes: 
 
 (a) The spirit of unrest at home. 
 
 (b) Too many books, toys and amusements. 
 
 (c) Pupils are allowed too much liberty evenings. 
 
 (d) The decline of parental authority and the con- 
 sequent lack of obedience and self-control on the part 
 of the pupil. 
 
 (e) A lack of responsibility, caused, in many in- 
 stances, by having no set task or duty to perform for 
 the family. 
 
 Notes : 
 
 No child in the Hancock School ought to study 
 more than one and one-half hours at home, and in the 
 lower rooms pupils can easily prepare all their lessons 
 in school. If any child does differently one of four 
 things is probably true: 
 
 (a) The pupil is in too high a class. 
 
 (b) The lessons are unnecessarily long. 
 
APPENDIX. 177 
 
 (c) Some physical disability exists. 
 
 (d) The child does hot know how to study. 
 
 Often a pupil sits in a room with the family, join- 
 ing from time to time in the conversation. When bed- 
 time comes he says (and believes) that he has studied 
 three or four hours, when, in point of fact, his mind 
 has not been on his books for twenty consecutive min- 
 utes. He should have a quiet corner by himself, if 
 possible, though here the trouble will be just as great 
 if he allows his mind to wander to some unexpected 
 treat, amusement, or pleasant occupation. 
 
 Kindly remember that the school is the reflection 
 of the home; that our great need, from the primary 
 grade to the high school, is the power to do a little 
 work well, in other words, the ability to study and keep 
 the mind from wandering. Pupils cannot get this 
 power without the help of home. As a rule the les- 
 sons are not too long or too difficult, but many students 
 cannot master them simply because they have never 
 learned the beginnings of self-control or self-mastery. 
 
 Parents generally give this help cheerfully when 
 once the necessity for it is understood, and, in such 
 instances, children rarely fail. 
 
 Please keep this paper for reference, and if your 
 child is not promoted at the end of the term, try to 
 determine which of these causes were instrumental to 
 this condition. 
 
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