Southern Branch of the University of California Form L 1 Los Angeles Education library UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 1*0 , UBJECT TO FINE IF MOT EDUCATION RETURNED TO LIBRARY Form L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444 BY ELMER BURRITT BRYAN, LL. D. President of Colgate University Author of " The Basis of Practical Teaching " -2. 33 4 4 SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO COPTRIGHT, 1911, BY SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY Education PREFACE SINCE the publication of " The Basis of Practical Teaching," there has been a wide-spread demand for a second book which should follow the lines of character building or moral training. "Fundamental Facts for the Teacher" has been written with the view of meeting this demand. Very briefly I have tried to develop the thought that the end of all human activities is life, and that this end can be attained through no hook or crook or by-process, but only in the processes of real living. We are made or unmade in the activities of life. I have the hope that this book will appeal not only to teachers and students, but to the general public as well. CONTENTS BR PAGE I. THE DISTINCTIVE WORK OF THE SCHOOL . 7 II. THE MOTIVES OF THE SCHOOL . III. ATTENTION AND CONDUCT .... IV. SUGGESTION AND CONDUCT . V. BELIEF AND CONDUCT VI. FEAR AND CONDUCT VII. SELF-RESPECT AND CONDUCT VIII. IDEALS AND CONDUCT IX. MODELS AND IDEALS X. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AN ABIDING IDEAL XI. THE SCHOOL AND IDEALS . XII. THE ROOTS OF CHARACTER XIII. WILL, THE CENTER OF CHARACTER . XIV. WORK AND CHARACTER XV. PLAY AND CHARACTER XVI. PERSISTENCE AND CHARACTER XVII. CHOICE AND CHARACTER .... XVIII. THE SCHOOL AND CHARACTER CHAPTER I THE DISTINCTIVE WORK OF THE SCHOOL 2.334-4 THERE is no other institution in which the Ameri- can people are so universally and keenly interested as they are in the school, and there is no subject so widely and intelligently discussed by the masses as is the subject of education. This is not surpris- ing for in addition to the benefits which are derived directly from the schools by all classes of people who attend or patronize them, and indirectly even by those who do neither, there are many things which contribute to this general interest. From the homes of the rich and the poor, the native born and the foreign born, the professional classes and the tradesmen, go the children into the schools, and there they have their victories and their defeats, their glad hours and their sad hours. They mingle with the bright and the dull. They come under the discipline and instruction of strangers whom they often come to revere, sometimes to dislike. It is a new world to the young child, and remains a distinctive world through- out his student years. The school is the topic of conversation in the home; and parents, older brothers and sisters, and even brothers and sisters too young to be in school, have an interest in it. Furthermore, 7 8 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER all our people support the school regardless of per- sonal benefits directly derived therefrom. There is perhaps no interest so vital as a vested interest. Even if people are not directly participating in an enterprise or an institution, if their money is used in its support they are apt to have an interest in it. The special days in our schools flag day, arbor day, anniversary days, commencement all offer the pub- lic opportunities for recreation, entertainment and instruction which the mass of the people are not slow to accept. As a result of all this there is very wide and deep interest in the schools notwithstanding the apparent apathy and unconcern. So much is the school a part of our lives and our daily living that we take it for granted; we accept the school, as we do the mountains and the valleys about us. Before we were, it was; and as with all social inheritances we look upon it almost as a law of nature. But in this unquestioning acceptance of the school, which is at once the great force for higher levels in life and the great leveler, too many of our people forget that it is but one of five great organized social agencies whose function is to help the people, each of course in its own distinctive way. In practi- cally every community, while perhaps not too much is demanded of the school, . wrong things are de- manded, and the school is not free to do its own work well. It is always a mistake to ask the school to assume the responsibilities and bear the burdens of other institutions, and not infrequently is this done. The home, the church, business and even the state THE DISTINCTIVE WORK OF THE SCHOOL 9 are offenders here. Delinquent parents demand of the school work which constitutes the legitimate reason for the home. The church, whose function is the increase of righteousness in the world, makes illegitimate demands upon the school. Business de- mands a degree of skill and a power of adjustment which it is never the function of the school to confer or develop. The state demands of the school that it shall turn out law-abiding, public-spirited citizens. No one questions that the school has an obligation here, but it is too much to demand such results of the school in the face of dishonest practices in the home, questionable business methods in the markets, and graft and misrule in the state. These institu- tions must mutually reenforce one another. The work of the school will tell in all the others, but it will tell most fully when it is no longer burdened with their work and is free to do its own work in the most effective way. We must realize that the benefits derived from the school will be large in proportion as it does its own work; and because the school holds so important a place in our lives we must not therefore demand of it service which it is not its province to render, and so handicap it in rendering the much higher service which is its function. The one distinctive function of the school is de- velopment of the entire child. The child enters the school undeveloped in mind and body. He is young, inexperienced, weak and comparatively helpless men- tally and physically. The function of the school is to train so that the child will develop a degree of 10 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER mental and physical mastery; to teach so that the child will gradually come out of the bondage of ignorance into the freedom of knowledge; to give ample and varied opportunities for mental and physical exercise so that the child will come out of weakness into strength; and to cultivate the habit of application and independence of movement so that the child will become able to exercise his own initiative and to plan his own programs of life. Such is the legitimate work of the school. There will of course be many by-products, as there are in all life's pro- cesses, but the one thing for which the school should aim is development. For this all things else exist. Whatever does not contribute directly or remotely to development as the final fruitage can be no legitimate factor or process of the school. This is the final test. Does the superintendent of schools make his contribution to the development of the children? Is this contribution a large and generous one ? Then the superintendent has justified his existence as such. The same test applies to teachers, janitors, the money expended in laboratories, libraries, gymnasia, play- grounds, etc. Whatever makes for the enlarged life of the child pictures, music, .Greek, Delsarte, physi- cal appliances has a place and should be admitted as an important factor. Tradition and custom notwith- standing, whatever does not make for the enlarged life of the child should be eliminated as having no place in the school. It is not the function of the school to prepare the children for particular work in the world. Even in THE DISTINCTIVE WORK OF THE SCHOOL 11 our largest cities, where life is differentiated and the division of labor carried to the extreme, neither parent, teacher nor child can predict what the child may be doing in a comparatively short time after leaving the school. The rapid invention of machinery, the change of work due to accident and unforeseen de- velopments, make any such prediction hazardous. If the child is developed, and this is the work we have a right to expect the school to undertake, he will find it comparatively easy to make the adjustments necessary to meet the varying vicissitudes of life; but if he is fitted for one thing, even well fitted, he is hopelessly lost in the event of displacement. The work of adjustment, of special preparation for special things, should never be expected of the school; such work is beyond its province, and comes later in life, when the child is no longer in the school and is out making his adjustments to life as he finds it, as it exists for no other being in the world, and as it can not be idealized in any school. This is even true in the professional schools. How much truer then in the common schools? A young man learns medicine and the allied lines of science in the Medical College. He learns to be a physician in the actual practice of his profession. The same thing is just as true of the lawyer, the minister and the engineer. Power of adjustment to the actual things comes only through exercise in adjusting to actual things. The greatest service the school can render the professions and specialized labor of all kinds is to turn over to them well-developed men and women. 12 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER Now the school must know that this is its work and it must be faithful to its task. The superintendent or teacher who does not have a clear conception of the real work of the school has not learned the most important lesson of his profession. The school should not allow itself to be stampeded into false positions and impossible undertakings by the clamors of even a sincere though a more or less thoughtless public. In these days, when every conceivable subject is knock- ing at the door of the school and asking or demanding admittance, it is more important than ever to have a restatement of the function of the school and a very clear conception of the work which it should do. We shall lose ground and do weak work if we have but a vague conception of what we are about. We shall gain ground and render an unprecedented service if we have a clearly defined conception of our work, and the courage to follow it. CHAPTER II THE MOTIVES OF THE SCHOOL IN the preceding chapter the purpose was to set forth in brief but clear and concise form the work which the school may legitimately undertake. The plans, devices and methods employed will be numer- ous, and as varied as the conditions under which the work is done. Such things must be left to the ingenuity and good judgment of the teacher. Never- theless all teachers, if they understand well the organ- izing idea or the function of the school, will have the same ultimate aim. This aim is capable of definition, and its importance is primary and fundamental. There is, however, another factor so subtle as almost to evade discussion, yet so important in determining the character of all work that we must not fail to give it thought in connection with our consideration of the function of the school. It is the question of the motives of the school. There are four legitimate motives: (1) the individual motive of the student; (2) the individual motive of the teacher; (3) the social motive of the student; (4) the social motive of the teacher. The individual motive of the student is the accom- plishment of the tasks set. Occasionally it is well to 13 14 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER hold before young children, as far as it is possible to do so, the ultimate results of the work they are about. But this should seldom be done, and whenever we do so we take the risk of developing a habit of life some- what similar to the habit of turning to the close of a book to see how it is going to come out, thus robbing ourselves of the thrill and the joy of following the development step by step. It is not desirable that children should be dwelling upon the great things that are ahead. The normal mental attitude of the child is that of application to the task before him, a desire to accomplish it, and a joy in its accom- plishment. The student thinks that his work is the solution of the problem, the demonstration of the proposition, the translation of a chapter, the analysis of a compound or a plant, or the recital of a campaign. It would be indicative of abnormal self-centering for the child, or even for the more mature student in the public schools, to say, "Now I shall spend an hour in developing my mind by working in mathematics or science or language." The individual motive of the student is the accomplishment of the task. The great benefits to be derived from such accomplish- ment in the form of strength of character and prepa- ration for larger things ahead are only in a small and vague way motives in his work. The individual motive of the teacher is different. He insists upon complete and accurate work, upon correct results. In the solution of the problem in whatever subject it may arise, the correct method must be pursued, fallacies avoided and correct re- THE MOTIVES OF THE SCHOOL 15 suits obtained. He is even more profoundly inter- ested in the student's accomplishment of the task than is the student himself, yet this is not the ultimate motive of the teacher. The student looks upon the assignment as the thing to be accomplished. The teacher looks upon the student's development as the thing to be accomplished. The student is interested in mathematics, geography or chemical results. The teacher is interested in human results. The student is set on mastering this book on arithmetic. The teacher knows that by the use of another arithmetic he could accomplish his purpose equally well. The study in which the student is interested is the means whereby the teacher realizes his professional end, which is the development of the student. The individual motive of the student is the accomplishment of the work. The individual motive of the teacher is the accomplishment of the student through his work. Later in his student life the student comes to have more far-reaching and comprehensive motives; he be- comes less centered on the thing in hand as the one ulti- mately worth while; he becomes socialized, his school activities come to have less final value in themselves, and seek a larger meaning outside themselves; and finally they come to be regarded not as ends in themselves but merely as means to higher ends. The accomplish- ments of the schoolroom come to have a social signifi- cance, and the student discovers that he is actuated by a social motive. He becomes desirous of having his schoolroom tasks and performances of such a character as to relate themselves to the busy world outside. 16 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER At this point in the development of the student he finds himself trying to decide what he is going to be and what he is going to do. He is sometimes pathetically ill at ease because he has not chosen his profession or business. He desires now to work toward some definite end. He is not yet the friend of " general culture." He feels that the great discovery ahead of him is his life's work. He does not yet real- ize that the great discovery ahead of him is himself. He does not yet fully realize that many of the misfits in life may be due to the fact that men and women have not discovered themselves, that they have stopped just short of the physical laboratory, the art studio, or the classics, and that their kingdom re- mains undiscovered. In high school and college the longing to be somebody and to do something, to get out into the world and help along, is very pronounced. Such a longing is legitimate and beautiful; in it there are hope and encouragement. The danger here is that be- fore discovering himself and finding his own work the student may go out to accomplish before his character has acquired proper development. Working thus, the results must always be partial and unsatisfactory. To the realization of this social motive of the student nothing contributes so largely as do the individual motives of the student and the teacher. When the student has accomplished his tasks faithfully and fully and the teacher has accomplished the student's develop- ment through this full and faithful performance of his tasks, the student is ready to follow the social motive. THE MOTIVES OF THE SCHOOL 17 The social motive of the teacher is closely akin to the social motive of the student, although more com- prehensive and general. The student is actuated by the motive to do his own work; his motive is special- ized service. The teacher's individual motive the development of the child has its fruitage in the teacher's social motive of service. It is of small concern to him in what particular channel the student's life shall run and what particular service he shall render. The teacher simply desires that the stu- dent shall be of large account in the world. For his student as an individual the teacher covets the larger life, human wealth; for his student as a social factor he covets service. The four legitimate motives then of the school are : (1) the individual motive of the student doing the work assigned ; (2) the social motive of the student doing his own work in the world; (3) the individual motive of the teacher the enlargement of the student's life; (4) the social motive of the teacher through the enlarged life of the student, a large service to society. CHAPTER III ATTENTION AND CONDUCT IF the function of the school is the development of the entire child, then the teacher must not attempt to educate any one set of faculties at the expense of any other. He must not try to train the mind without at the same time training the body. For physical well-being is not only an end in itself, but it is the basis for the development of all other ends. Few persons realize how close the relationship is between good health and consistent, effective atten- tion. While the relationship is not one of cause and effect, it is certainly one as close as that of condition and resultant, because attention being a most fatiguing process, it follows that without an abundance of vitality upon which to draw, long-continued atten- tion is impossible. The close relationship between good health, or the abundant life, and conduct is proverbial. Every one knows how nearly impossible it is for a nervous child in the home or in the school to behave itself, to order its conduct consistently, and every wise parent or teacher takes into account the health conditions of the child under his direction and makes due allow- ance for delinquencies in conduct which have their 18 ATTENTION AND CONDUCT 19 origin in deficient nervous supply and control. We all recognize the close relationship and parallelism be- tween mental states and physical states, and from this close relationship has arisen the pedagogical maxim or ideal of "a sound mind in a sound body," thus recog- nizing the impossibility of the one without the other. It is a well established and accepted fact that there is no psychosis without neurosis, but it is not generally known that there is a psychosis peculiar to physical conditions and to physical and neural states. The consumptive is proverbially hopeful and cheerful, and although cognizant of the fact that the last days are not far distant, he lives in the mental frame of one who has an eternity in which to accomplish his temporal plans. Suspicion, irritability, stubbornness are generally observed on the part of people who have been overtaken by deafness. A high degree of sen- sitiveness, physical and mental, characterizes the individual who has early in life been deprived of the sense of sight. The otherwise healthy young person who has been crippled so that he cannot enter into the sports, games and contests of his associates, is apt to become morose, envious and uncharitable. So that in this most general and by no means scientifically demonstrated way we see for our purpose here the very close relationship between physical states and mental attitudes, and the very close relationship be- tween complete physical life and wholesome, sym- metrical conduct. This close relationship has in it largely the intermediary factor of attention, the abundant physical life determining the direction and 20 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER the power of the attention, which in its turn gives birth to the style of conduct. It is true that as a man " thinketh in his heart," so is he, but this means supreme attention, the focusing of one's life upon a thing. The thinking in his heart means that he has become absorbed in the thing and lost to himself and to the world. The necessary re- sult of such thinking and such attention is conduct in direct harmony with the object of attention. No one ever puts forth effort to secure a thing or to avoid it unless he has some knowledge of that thing, and no one has knowledge of a thing who has not attended to it. Attention is a prerequisite to knowledge, and knowledge is a prerequisite to behavior or conduct. So that the world of attention determines more largely than anything else, through knowledge, the manner of conduct or behavior of the individual thus attend- ing. The modern psychologists are recognizing this close relationship between knowledge, the result of attention, and action. In his " Outlines of Psychol- ogy," Royce says there is no perception without action. In fact perception, seeing the thing face to face through the attentive act, and action, that is, conduct, behavior, appropriate response to adjust- ment, are one and the same thing. So that we know the thing only in terms of what we can do with it. The piano is an instrument on which certain musical effects can be produced, certain musical programs can be carried out. A desk is not a piece of furniture with certain standard measurements, but it is a piece of furniture that can be used in the attainment of ATTENTION AND CONDUCT 21 certain ends, in the accomplishment of desirable work. And so we know an object of knowledge, the thing as it is called, not as a thing in itself, but through the use to which it can be put. Its effective behavior, the value of the thing as it now exists, is accounted for because it fulfills certain requirements of use. Furthermore, this close relationship of attention and conduct is shown in every activity of life, in the accomplishment of every task, in the attainment of every end, in the schoolroom, in the workaday affairs of life. We must know through attention, in general terms at least, the road before we can travel it. This is true of the student, the teacher, the car- penter, the farmer, the lawyer, any one who gets anything worth while done. The getting it done can be accomplished only by attentive knowledge, how- ever partial, fragmentary, temporal and unsatis- factory for the long run, this knowledge may be at the outset. One's conduct is shaped and determined by his objects of attention; one's conduct is an abso- lute slave to his attention; it is affected, bound down by, and stands absolutely helpless before its tyrant, attention. However anxious the bicyclist may be that he reach his journey's end without a mishap, observation shows that he always inclines toward the destructive object when it first claims his attention, and only by sheer physical and mental strength, turns aside. Every one knows the force of an insist- ent idea which will not down. My roommate in- sisted that he was strong enough to break his watch chain. This idea to which he gave attention seemed 22 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER to prey upon him, and the result of attention to this entirely unnecessary feat of strength was that in a comparatively short time the work had been done. The unworthy or the worthy deed is the legitimate result of the unworthy or the worthy object of atten- tion. Whoever thinks on higher things will advance toward them; whoever thinks on lower things, will go toward them. Here we see the significance of worthy ideals, high standards, character models, in the schoolroom and elsewhere, and we get a hint, but only a partial hint, of the disaster and ruin that follow in the wake of low ideals, bad conduct, and small ac- complishments as they are kept before the student. As the child thinketh in his heart, the man in after years thinketh in his heart and acts out in his life. Nothing short of the power that made him can save him from such a fate. It is not too much here to say that we attain salvation through attention and that we debase and debauch ourselves into damna- tion through attention. So the only hope of a cleaner and better life, of a more appropriate response, of efficient conduct, comes not primarily nor mainly through lamentations, but it comes through the power of attention. Fortunate is the man who, in the presence of objects or situations which are calculated to blast his life, can turn his mind and heart away, and fix them upon things that are calculated to order his conduct on the higher planes. But the multitude is not strong enough to win in this way; and so I have said to my students again and again that under such conditions the thing to do is simply ATTENTION AND CONDUCT 23 to remember that there are better things and better ways; to remember that feet have been given us in order that we may run away, and that we must run until we have before our eyes and before our ears objects of attention that will turn our feet into wholesome and life-giving paths. The only hope for many a man and many a woman is that he or she stay away or go away. The most fortunate thing that any person can do who wishes to live an effective life, who wishes to deliver a blow for God and humanity that will be felt for all time, is to determine, in the formative, plastic years of his life, upon systems of attentive objects, philosophy, literature, science, the com- panionship of the best men and women, that these may be the stars to which he will hitch the slow- rolling wagon of his life. Only by following this or a similar program can one be sure that he will reach high levels in his conduct and that he will not travel the muddy roads on the low levels which lead to the swamps of immorality, disease and death. If we long for fine conduct, for well-ordered behavior, if we wish to live toward higher things and be strong, rather than to live toward lower things and be weak, this wish can be realized only as we meditate upon, think over, attend to the best that has been realized and the best that can be idealized. CHAPTER IV SUGGESTION AND CONDUCT WE all recognize, to a degree at least, what an im- portant factor imitation is in the development of the child. I wish in this chapter to invite the attention of the reader to the importance of suggestion as the obverse of imitation. The child imitates what is suggested to it consciously or unconsciously by those with whom it lives. This is shown in all social fields. The child of English-speaking parents does not in- herit the English language nor even the specific skill to use the English language. It merely inherits the language tendency and in the course of time will ex- press itself by the use of some language. The prob- ability is that, being the child of English-speaking parents, it will speak the English language. This specific skill that it will in the course of time have attained is due to the English language suggestions received from its parents and other associates from infancy up. Had the child at the time of its birth or a few months afterward, though born of English- speaking parents, been placed in a German family in a German community, it would just as easily and effectively have used the German language instead of the English language, because it was subjected to the 24 SUGGESTION AND CONDUCT 25 German language suggestions. Had it been placed in a French family it would for the same reason have developed the general language tendency into the particular French language skill. If a child is born and reared in a family in which only good language forms are used, it will, through the force of sugges- tion, imitate and use such language forms only. Vice versa, if the child is born and reared in a family that uses bad language forms, it will just as naturally come into the use, through suggestion, of these bad language forms. Its language conduct, so to speak, is therefore determined almost entirely by the sugges- tions that come to it through its language environ- ment. The effect of suggestion on conduct is as plainly shown in the field of religion and politics as any- where. Every child is born with the tendency to identify himself with social forms of one kind or another, political, religious and so on. But he is not born with the tendency to be a Democrat, a Republican, a Prohibitionist or a Socialist. From his earliest childhood, however, he has been subjected to political suggestion, especially from his father. If these suggestions come from a Democrat, the strong probability is that the son will become a Democrat. If the suggestions come from a Republican, he will likewise be a Republican, and so on. This by no means implies that he will not later in life think for himself, invite new systems of suggestions through his reading and associations, and so probably change his political affiliation. But it does mean that, as a 26 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER rule, the young son of a Democrat will be a Demo- crat and the young son of a Republican will be a Republican, due in no way to inheritance but entirely to the system of political suggestions to which each has been subjected. In religious life, during the earlier and less thought- ful years, the sons and daughters of Methodists are Methodists; of Catholics are Catholics, and so on with all the church organizations. This again does not mean that the individual may not later invite new systems of religious suggestions and that he may not then change his church affiliations. The great problem of the King Clothiers is to sug- gest by way of new fashions what the world shall wear. The result is that the world no longer wears out its clothes but discards them, being unable to resist the force of suggestion as it comes in the form of new styles and new fashions. Our young men and young women think that they might as well be dead as to wear headgear that is a season out of date. I use these simple illustrations, which must appeal to every one as being true, with the view of impress- ing upon the mind of the reader the very intimate relationships in all of life's organizations, in one's sum total of conduct, and suggestion. This is just as plainly seen in the narrower fields of behavior, so called. The young man of self-respect, worthy ideals and a pretty well defined plan of life, finds that his behavior, although it may never sink to the level of dissipation and debauchery and may never rise to the white table-land of consistent efficiency, is neverthe- SUGGESTION AND CONDUCT 27 less varied, in harmony with the suggestions that come to him from the people among whom he may, at one time or another, be living. When he is among high-minded, efficient, virile people, without any pre- tense whatever and without any false front, he will react upon a high plane. His conduct will be the finest. He will be a prince among men. When he dwells among the commonplace; when his associates are those of narrow vision; when his companions are those whose dominating idea for the most part is selfishness; when his community is such as to admit of a degree of coarseness and vulgarity; without any in- tentional compromise on his part and all uncon- sciously to himself, through the force of the multitude of suggestions that come to him from these lower levels, he finds himself living the commonplace life, far beneath the altitudes at which he might be living. The effect of suggestion upon conduct is shown nowhere to better advantage than it is in the life of the young person who has not yet chosen his life's task. The vigorous, hungry-minded, clean, young farmer boy with small experience and narrow horizon will be carried away by the brilliant attorney when he hears him plead a case in court; he will decide in his mind and in his heart to be a lawyer. And when he sees a man that has fallen a victim of disease, snatched from the jaws of death by a well trained physician, he thrills with enthusiasm for the pro- fession of medicine and dedicates his life to the science of physic. In their turn a dozen callings appeal to him before he finally discovers himself, gets 28 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER on his feet, has his bearings and hears the definite call to service. / It is doubtful if anything gets such a hold, so in- sidiously and permanently, upon an individual early in life as do ideals of conduct. Through suggestion these ideals are very early ground into the child all unconsciously to himself. The farmer boy by his hard labor has saved a few dollars. On the Fourth of July his father gives him a holiday and grants him permission to take from his hard-earned savings, money for the day. The boy counts over his money again and again, takes a dime or a quarter, goes to town, has a good time and comes home at night with a sense of guilt, feeling that he is developing into a veritable spendthrift. In all probability neither his father nor his mother had told him that it was wrong for a child to spend a little money on such occasions. But during the first years of his life he has seen his father earning his money a dollar at a time and has observed economy on the part of his father in every movement; and without any teaching or discipline upon this point, the subtle suggestion has done its work, and the lesson of economy has gotten into the blood. On the other hand, the spoiled town child will destroy ten dollars' worth of fireworks on the Fourth of July and go to bed in the evening disgusted that he has had no chance to have a good time. He has fallen victim to the force of suggestion as it has come to him from neighbor children, and through the reckless spending of money as he has observed it in the city. SUGGESTION AND CONDUCT 29 The effect of suggestion upon the conduct of an individual is probably nowhere more plainly seen than in the effect of the mob or the crowd upon an otherwise deliberate, well-behaved, law-abiding citizen. The best athletes in our colleges are results of the wise suggestions on the part of the coach or some other friend. Nothing buoys the athlete up so quickly, and causes him to live up to something more than himself, as does the incidental suggestion on the part of a friend that all eyes are upon him and that the fine thing is that they are not going to be dis- appointed. Nothing so brings the student to his feet as the remark casually made by the teacher that he always expects, as a matter of course, fine work from this student. Assume that your young friend has high ideals. If you know better, assume it anyhow! Talk to him as if you knew he had, and before you are aware these high ideals will be his and he will be worshipping and attaining them/ The story of the wholesome effect of a clean community upon a young life remains to be told, and the story of the dis- astrous effect of the suggestion of a community of low ideals cannot be told. The largest problems of the teacher are not the ones that arise in mathematics or chemistry nor even the very large one that so often confronts him of meeting his financial obligations. The largest problem of the teacher is that of deciding the objects of sug- gestion that shall do their work on the children. I The largest problem confronting a parent is not the problem of his professional or business calling, important as 30 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER that may be. His largest problem is that of deciding on the things that his son and daughter shall see and hear. It is of comparatively small importance whether I live near my place of business or far away from it. If I live far away from it, the cars at small expense will carry me there; but the question of suprem- est importance is the community in which my chil- dren shall live, what, during their plastic years, they shall see and hear the children with whom they shall play, and the ideals of the parents of the children with whom they play. For in this particular the price demanded to redeem the children from the deadly effects of having attended to the small and the mean and the commonplace is a price so large that no man can pay it. CHAPTER V BELIEF AND CONDUCT THERE is a maxim which says that all the world loves a lover. This is true. It is just as true that all the world hates a hater, that the world disbelieves in a person who believes in nothing; that the world be- lieves in a believer, and that people take a positive attitude toward a positive character. All this is but saying that every mental attitude is catching and that to a very large degree each person creates the atmos- phere in which he lives. Not only does his own attitude determine his interpretation of the attitudes of others toward himself, but it determines what these attitudes shall be. Thus one becomes socially con- firmed in his own mental position or life attitudes. To the lover all things are lovely, to the hater all things are hateful; and he who has great practical faith in men and affairs will find everything contributing to the accomplishment of his ends. There is certainly nothing that one needs more than social confirmation. When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elias appeared to confirm the principle that He had been insisting upon when He said, " Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" namely, the principle 31 32 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER that death does not end all, that in the sense of extinction there is no death. Every worker in the world needs social confirmation, and he goes down from the Mount on which this social confirmation comes to him and takes up the workaday affairs of life renewed in vigor, reconsecrated in purpose. Not only is it true that he who believes has the social confirmation of the belief of others in him and in his work, but it is also true that nothing contributes more completely to personal enlargement, to being actually equal to an undertaking, than does the belief that one possesses of being equal to it. Next to actual inability, nothing is so great a handicap as to believe that you cannot accomplish certain things. The student who does not have the ability to master certain tasks is doubtless the most powerless of all students, but his near neighbor is the student who believes that he is not able to do the tasks and who behaves accordingly. The mother said to her child who was trying to push the table about the room, "You cannot move the table; it is as large as you are." The child replied, "I can move the table; I am as large as it is." Half of the people in the world fail to accomplish their best because the task set is as large as they are. The other half outdo themselves because they believe that they are as large as the task set before them. We all appreciate what a wonderful force worthy ideals have in one's life. We all know that there is but one method whereby these ideals may be realized, and that there is certainly no greater dissipation than BELIEF AND CONDUCT 33 worshiping ideals and yet not putting into practical use the one method whereby they may be realized, namely, the method of persistent, consistent applica- tion in their attainment. It is not, however, always recognized that aside from the force of interest but one thing is powerful enough to keep an individual at the task of realization, year in and year out, decade in and decade out, and that is the belief that the thing set is tremendously worth while and the belief in one's self as equal to the accomplishment of it. ^ The great workers and the great pieces of work which they have accomplished can be explained in one way. It is true in politics, it is true in business, it is true in the church. My friend, as a boy, had the abiding feeling that the thing most worth while was public life, statesman- ship or politics, if you .please. Without any definite reason for it, he had the abiding belief that this was the field in which he could realize himself most fully and render the largest service. He found his way to a literary degree at Harvard, to a legal degree at Columbia, and then to a very humble position in public official life. Promotion followed quickly upon promotion. Belief in the importance of the thing and of his being equal to accomplish it grew with his preparation and his performance. He has filled with credit to himself and with great benefit to our country numerous positions of responsibility and trust, and to-day is one of the largest and most potent factors in our public life. He lives at the capital of our nation, a monument of practical faith, or belief, in statesman- 34 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER ship or politics as a mission, and in himself as the political missionary. A boy on account of delicate health was obliged to give up his work as a student in his middle teens, a thing in itself unfortunate. But he said that he was not made for nothing, that if he could not live his life indoors, he would live it out of doors, and that out in the open he would deliver a blow that would count. He was interested in all of the institutions of civilization, but he was instinctively a business man; every fiber of his being tingled at the call of large en- terprises. He started in the humble position of clerk with an Iowa land firm. Promotion here followed rapidly upon promotion. It is a rare treat to hear this man enthuse over a business proposition or a business principle. He is no miser, he is a generous man. There is no good cause which does not elicit his sympathy, and many such causes have his good sup- port. He likes the game of business. To him there is probably nothing in all the world so fascinating as the material development and prosperity of the country. This man, standing upon a sane basis of practical faith, believing tremendously in the objective work of the world and in himself as one equal to do his share of it, has passed rapidly from one responsibility to another, via the President's cabinet to the presidency of one of the largest business enterprises in the world. He is a living monument to practical faith or belief in the business world. A certain young clergyman was ordained a bishop and sent to the Orient to organize and develop the BELIEF AND CONDUCT 35 interests of one of our great religious denominations. In person and by letter his friends throughout the country commiserated with him, but his reply soon taught them that they had not understood his motive. This young man in his inner vision saw an opportunity hidden from the eyes of others, and he believed in himself as divinely called to meet the opportunity. His seven years as bishop in the isles beyond the sea have become almost common history in the minds of the people, and there probably has never been since the days of our Master a soul surrendered more fully to the will of his Father. I know of no finer illustra- tion of self-forgetfulness, and of complete surrender to the call of the divine mission, than has been shown by this man in twice declining the invitation to one of the most dignified, honorable and responsible ecclesias- tical positions in America; preferring rather a life of toil, hardship and sacrifice, where every movement of his life would be an act of service, than a life of comparative ease, dignity and quiet, where his time necessarily would be given over more to routine and ceremonial. And so to-day, as a comparatively young man, Bishop Brent lives in the Philippine Islands, a living monument of practical faith or belief in the world of religious forces; and even he who runs may read enough of this life to inspire him to larger tasks and larger faithfulness in the performance of them. These are illustrations of the principle from only three fields; the behavior, the conduct of life in each instance, has been determined by the belief that the individual has had in the thing and in himself. 36 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER Furthermore, it is true that he who believes is the only one who can speak with authority. He only risks; therefore, he alone experiences and knows. He only who believes in an enterprise will invest in it and thereby gain knowledge of it. He only who be- lieves in goodness will be good, and therefore he alone can speak with authority on goodness. He only who believes in God will experience God. He who believes not in goodness is ineligible to speak upon goodness. He who believes not in God speaks with no degree of authority whatever upon things that pertain to the kingdom of God. Waiving handicaps, accidents and so forth, one's work is large and valuable in propor- tion to his practical faith; and one's practical conduct, his life of application, is directly determined by such belief and is proportionate to it. CHAPTER VI FEAR AND CONDUCT IN this chapter I wish to show the sinfulness of being afraid. It is a sin to be less than one may be. The man who is not as good and as strong as he might be is a sinner, even if he has never committed any positive offense. There is probably nothing that leads more quickly to weakness, to the destruction of power, than does fear. The healthy person ought to be ashamed to be afraid of anything. The evil effects of fear are plainly shown in the physical life, in the pallor of the cheek, in the trembling of every muscular fiber in the body, in the parched mouth, in the disturbance of the vital processes, in the temporary powerlessness of one or more of the sense organs, and in the actual poison- ing of the blood. The more superficial and objective of these signs are known to all, but it is not generally known that as a result of intense fear the sense of hearing has been multiplied a hundred or even a thousand fold, but such is the case. And it is not generally known that an excessively frightened animal or human being during the process of digestion will secrete an amount of poison which when extracted will kill small animals. In intense fear the body is to a 37 38 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER degree paralyzed and poisoned, and it is doubtful if one is ever so sound physically after the experience of intense fear as he otherwise would have been. The discoloration of one's hair in a comparatively short time, due, the physiologists tell us, to fear, is com- monly known, and is illustrative of the ruinous effects of fear upon the organism. The disastrously weakening effect of fear is seen in the mental life as well as in the physical life. It is nothing less than temporary insanity, and whoever is in a position of authority and discipline should know this. The havoc that is wrought in the school and in the home through fear is too great to be credible. I am not here suggesting a program of soft pedagogy. On the contrary, I would exercise the ordinance of the laying on of hands in the home or in the school when it seems wise to do so, but I should be careful never to subject the child to intense fear. For the child who is frightened is always subnormal, and his per- formances while in this state are always partial and unsatisfactory. He may rally and do better in the future than he did in the past because, though the disciplinarian cannot realize the baneful effects of fear, the child does not care for the re-experience, and so improves his conduct. But the improvement is not the direct result of the fear which the child has experi- enced. His improved performances are possible in spite of the depletion of physical vigor and mental energy and not because of them. We have this same point of weakness through fear, or the sinfulness of being afraid, illustrated in the FEAR AND CONDUCT 39 spiritual life. Through the centuries conscientious people have professed to believe that first things are first, have been willing to put first things first and have been correct in their views as to what things are first, yet probably the least progress in any phase of human life has been in the spiritual life. The people forget that they are the children of a King; they for- get that, inefficient as they are, they are nevertheless the best the world has. They falter, they fear, they go forward to the performance of their duty as if they were afraid of God and man rather than as if they were performing a labor of love. The brightest day that could dawn for religion would be the day in which our sons and our daughters would love the best, worship it, believe in it, and with swift feet would run gladly on missions of mercy and service. The darkest day in the religious life has been the day when the people betook themselves from the world, cowered, were faint-hearted and worshiped God as a terrible God and not as a Heavenly Father. The successful business man is the one who sees his way more or less clearly, who believes in the thing he is about to undertake, and who believes him- self equal to the undertaking. He is a man who enters the business arena with firm and elastic step, with a high head, with assurance and thoughtfulness written on his brow. It is the business man who is willing to risk who endures. The business world stands aside for such a man, and his road to success is broad and straight. No coach can win games with a team that is afraid 40 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER that it will be defeated. And the team has never been found good enough to win games when the coach is afraid that it is going to be defeated. This is true of all competition debating, oratory. As well close the doors of the educational institution, much better do so, than to put at the head of the institution a man or a woman who fears that the young men and the young women will not finally do great things. The stamp of fear is the stamp of death. In the schoolroom nothing contributes so certainly to confusion, misunderstanding, misconduct, and to impossible situations, as does a lack of self-control and an absence of poise on the part of the principal or the teacher. Nothing contributes so certainly to quiet, application, efficiency, obedience, community interest, high ideals, individual and institutional self-respect, as do perfect poise and fearlessness on the part of the one who is called master. Nothing can happen to the institution or to the community of so great value as the coming into it of a few young people whose lives are clean, whose ideals are high, whose attainments are correspondingly large, and who move forward to the attainment of much larger things, perfectly fear- less of any one or anything not the braggart, not the bully, but one who has nothing to fear because he has been his best and done his best. Each one of us started with an inheritance for which we were in no sense responsible. The only thing to fear is that we may not realize upon our in- heritance. Every one who has done markedly great things in the world has been a man or a woman who FEAR AND CONDUCT 41 has feared not. Not only the mean work but the small work has been done by cowards. No coward ever did a thing that was worth while, and no brave- hearted man who has attempted it has failed to do something that is worth while. All literature, all secular and sacred history, all contemporary observa- tion confirm the principle that fear depletes human energy, physical, mental and spiritual, and that it is a mark of physical or mental weakness to be afraid. CHAPTER VII SELF-RESPECT AND CONDUCT THE belief that one is equal to great things is one of the prerequisites of the accomplishment of them. Whoever regards himself as possessing positive, effi- cient characteristics has a legitimate basis for a degree of self-respect. Whoever regards himself as inefficient, whose self-respect is low, undertakes small things or nothing, and the performance is conse- quently of small value. One of the greatest stimulations that comes to a human being is, as I have suggested in a former chapter, that which comes by way of social confirma- tion. The uplift that comes to the student because his teacher or his mates believe in him is invaluable. Many a worker has done less than he is capable of doing because he lacked this social confirmation; and many a one has outdone himself because just at the right time the appropriate social confirmation was given. No one becomes so weak that his power may not be increased by such confirmation, and no one becomes so powerful that he does not need it. Former successes also make for added increment of power. The knowledge that one has done well is a stimulation of greatest value. To know that one has 42 SELF-RESPECT AND CONDUCT 43 not done illy, that one has not taken certain mis- steps, that one is free from certain habits, success along all these lines means power on the part of the individual in the future. The bare knowledge even of one's opportunity to prepare for great things is an increment of power to one who has taken advantage of these opportunities. Not only the power that has been developed in the preparation, but a -man's mere knowledge that he is college bred, aside from the facts that he may have gained while pursuing his college course, this bare fact means much to the individual. All of these things social confirmation, former successes, the mere knowledge of the opportunities to get ready contribute to success because they have in them, in some subtle, indescribable, appreciative way, the increments of power, and whoever possesses them has a much larger prospect than the one who does not. But none of these things are of first impor- tance. Why is it that one man succeeds and another does not? The people believe in both; both are re- spectable; both have had the best opportunities for preparation. People say they do not know why the one goes forward and the other does not. I should like to make a suggestion, if not indeed an explanation, which, it seems to me, strikes a vital point. It is this: a fine self-respect, the knowledge of one's own high motives, of one's unselfish purposes and the consciousness of one's clean life, a perfect willingness for the X-ray to be turned on, perfect indifference as to who knows, perfect frankness, open- 44 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER ness and completeness of action these things make for power in their possessor as no amount of culture, re- finement, education or experience can do, and these are some of the elements of self-respect. Those who do not possess fine self-respect eliminate the founda- tion upon which every one must stand when he de- livers his blow, and with the foundation tottering and gone the blow is ineffective. The power that human beings have exercised in this world is power through their self-respect. Many a man, for example, has fallen short of com- plete self-respect because he has fallen short of com- plete truthfulness. It is a hard but nevertheless true saying that but few people live and speak the plain truth at all times. They quibble in their speech and in their conduct. Such a deficiency may be known only to him who is thus deficient, but he moves in a winding path and not in a straight line. Many men of good repute fall short of complete self-respect because they fall short of complete chastity and purity. And there is nothing in all the world that tends, all unconsciously to the individual, to throw the weakness of indigo blue instead of the strength of iron red into the blood so much as does this shortage. Without knowing it such a one will go forward with a faltering step. Many men fall short of complete self-respect be- cause they fall short of complete application. They know that the opportunity is theirs, they have heard the call and accepted it, but in retrospect they find that they have shirked their work, and the fine power SELF-RESPECT AND CONDUCT 45 that emanates from the consciousness of having met from hour to hour every task squarely and fully is gone. Many men fall short of complete self-respect because they have fallen short of complete poise. What is more calculated to bring disgust, shame, dis- couragement and the consciousness of inefficiency than the knowledge that one has been stampeded or excited or frightened into conduct that is unbecoming a man? And what is so conducive to a high degree of self-respect as is the consciousness that under all conditions of life one has had his balance, that he has maintained his poise, that he has been master of his own thoughts and of his own movements? In every situation of life, passion is ruinous to the individual and makes great work impossible, while on the other hand nothing contributes more completely to fullness of life and largeness of work than does the personal power which one realizes in himself through poise. If one wishes to be a power in the world, standing out in the open at midday, doing the work of a grown man, if one abhors the day of weak things, of small work, of inefficiency and of shame, let him under- stand that he must travel the roads of truthfulness, chastity, application, justice, poise, and indeed all the roads of personal and social virtue to the end, that only by so doing can he have that fine self-respect which is the greatest power in the world for individual achievement. CHAPTER VIII IDEALS AND CONDUCT NOTHING shows so plainly and nothing is revealed so unmistakably as one's ideals in his work. The value of the work, of the life, of the conduct of an in- dividual is determined very largely by his ideals and his motives. The artist stands before the canvas, brush in hand, but the value of his work to the world cannot be estimated until his ideal, or the motive for his work, is known. The same is true of the sculptor. By the hundreds ^oung men are annually entering the profession of law. The value of their work is not at all determined by the profession which they enter. Probably no larger service has ever been rendered to the world than that which has been rendered by the well-trained lawyer with high ideals of service and worthy motives of life; and probably no one has hindered the progress of civil institutions more than has the equally brilliant lawyer whose ideals have been low and whose motives, unworthy. Who can estimate the value of the service to man- kind that has been rendered by the well-trained physician whose motive has been to serve humanity and whose ideal has been the abundant physical life for human kind? And who can estimate the misery and death that have followed in the wake of phy- 46 IDEALS AND CONDUCT 47 sicians whose ideals were personal prosperity and whose methods consisted in coddling and deceiving the public? The value even of the work of the min- istry is no less determined by the ideal possessed by the one who enters this highest of all callings. To him who sees the largeness of the opportunity, who thrills to the call of large service, there is no field which offers such large and manifold opportunities as does the ministry. But for him who enters the ministry with the ideal and motive of ease and com- parative luxury, of enjoying a degree of leadership among the people, there probably is not a value small enough to express the worth of his work. To one who has learned to think not only in counties and states but who is large enough to think in continents, the work of the missionary looms up large and im- portant. The value of the service rendered by such a one is beyond all telling, but my friend recites an instance of a young man who longed to be a mission- ary and to go into the middle of China where the foot of man had never trod. My friend is right in classi- fying the motive here as romance and not as religion, and certainly the religious work accomplished by a per- son with such an ideal would hardly be worth reciting. The value of the services rendered by a teacher is determined almost entirely in the light of his ideal, his motive in his work. Teachers of comparatively small training have done great work because they were seeking right ends; and teachers of the finest training have sometimes done work of little or no value, if indeed they have not done positive injury, 48 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER because they were headed nowhere and seeking noth- ing in particular, unless indeed it were some selfish, personal end. My blacksmith friend, who sometimes invites me to his shop to follow him at his work, is a skillful performer. He is known far and wide, and he is greatly admired and loved by all. This is not so much due to the fact that he is an artist, although he is in his profession, as it is to his fine motives and to his ideal. I have never had the pleasure of visit- ing his shop without being taught some new turn in his work. He has the same joy in nailing the shoe to the hoof of the horse that the musician has in render- ing a concerto. No wonder that this uncultured, un- couth, horny-handed person of an otherwise unknown community has had shipped to his shop the finest racing horses in the country. The psychological relation of ideals and conduct is plainly shown in this, that whether a man behaves according to his best or according to his worst, he must have an ideal standard of behavior. Biography contributes largely to such a standard. Let the boy read over and over again the story of Washington, of Franklin, of Livingstone, of Savonarola, of Jesus of Nazareth, and he will have ideal standards of conduct that will bring him to his best. On the other hand, let the boy delve into the vile stuff that is gotten out by the ton daily in our country, in which is depicted the low, the mean and the groveling, and the force of gravity in his life will become such that not all the other forces combined can save him from the downward road. Not only is an ideal standard of conduct necessary IDEALS AND CONDUCT 49 but an ideal road to travel in realizing this standard is necessary. In general outline, if not indeed in detail, the road must be seen stretching on ahead of the young person who is to travel it. But the ma- terials that go to make up the ideals are the materials that have been experienced. The traveler must furthermore idealize himself as now traveling the road. The significance of this is shown in the fact that one who is physically incapacitated is unable to will to undertake the task. The armless student who sits on the bleachers watching his team go down to defeat in baseball has his standard of victory and knows the road the other nine men must travel to attain this standard, but he is unable to will to travel the road himself. He can only wish that he had arms that he might will to help in the contest. The student who has a hopelessly falsetto voice, who is intensely loyal to his college, who would pay any price that his institution might win in the oratorical contest can only wish that he had a good speak- ing voice that he might will to do so. We see here how very closely related are human wealth, the abun- dant life, ideals and conduct. Without ideals there can be no effective conduct. Without the abundant life whereby one may will there can be no efficient conduct, for all conduct is objective willing, the last end of will being to get it done. The great concern then is, that from early childhood the material for worthy ideals of conduct and the opportunity for real- izing these ideals, should be at the disposal of all our children. CHAPTER IX MODELS AND IDEALS I HOPE that in the preceding chapter I have made clear the close relationship that exists between ideals and conduct. I desire to show in this chapter that the relation existing between ideals and models is just as close and important. Conduct, as has been seen, depends directly upon ideals. No less do ideals depend directly upon models. Ideals are the subjec- tive answer to models, as the objective suggestion. In a little town which I visited recently, the hotel proprietor was stampeded because of the large num- ber of guests which applied for lodging. He was pre- pared to take care of three and would accommodate the entire company of five if they would "double up." In the course of the conversation he said that he "reckoned his town was one of the best towns in the country." He also gave us the valuable and inter- esting information that he had been born in that community sixty years ago and that he had traveled to the extreme boundaries of the county, clinching his view that his town was one of the most prosper- ous in the country with the very meaningful remark that he did not know a town that had so much room around it. His idea of a town and of a public hostelry 50 MODELS AND IDEALS 51 was the exact counterpart of the models to which he had been exposed all his life. The ideal of womanhood that the girls of the Chinese empire have is a life of drudgery and burden- bearing. It cannot be otherwise with the models that they have before their eyes from birth day to death day. In the city of Hongkong Chinese women may be seen carrying the building materials up the winding paths for hundreds of palatial resi- dences on the mountain tops. A few years ago I was told that in the city of Hongkong there were but six horses, and these were race horses. The owners would not think of working these fine animals because this heavy, coarse, manual labor could be accomplished by the Chinese women. My young, inexperienced, vulgar country acquaint- ance who inherited a little property expressed the fear that he would be ruined by his fortune. His father had been the owner of one of the largest farms in the township. Many a young man has transacted more business in a day than this bumpkin's entire inheritance represented, without having felt that he was a captain of industry. The young farmer had his ideals of wealth and business determined by the models that had been before him. His ideal of a fortune was the .ownership of a few acres. A certain famous zoologist spent months traversing southern streams to find the missing connection be- tween two species of fish. When he saw a fish that seemed to meet the demand he went into the water, clothes and all, after it, and was rewarded for the 52 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER months of labor he had spent in searching for this specimen. He prepared it with his usual care, and that it might be preserved, put it into his alcohol jar. The native who had accompanied him day after day and month after month looked on in amaze- ment. When he saw the specimen go into the alcohol jar he remarked, "Why, man, that is good to eat!" It had never occurred to him that there was a higher use to which a single fish could be put than that of food, and his ideal of the use of the fish had been determined entirely by the models of use that had been before him all his life. The greatest ideals that have been born, and the highest standards that have been erected in America within the last hundred years, have been in the col- leges and universities. And many of the smallest ideals and the narrowest convictions that have been ground into our people within the last hundred years have been in some of the colleges and universities of our country. I can think of nothing that is so con- ducive to small ideas and low ideals as an educational institution handicapped for resources, with indiffer- ently trained teachers who believe in salvation by elimination, who are good because they are going to die and not because they are going to live. There is nothing in the world, in the slums of a great city or in the isolation of remote country life, that is so well calculated to result in narrowness, stupidity and gen- eral inefficiency as such models of professed leadership. When man has as his ideal of service "Git a plenty while you're a-gittin," everything about him may MODELS AND IDEALS 53 prosper. Nothing within him prospers. Everything he controls prospers, except himself. Because of the prosperity of his taxable property he serves as a model for many of the boys of his community. The result is that following upon such a model as an ideal, the undertakings of the boys of that com- munity, within the course of a comparatively few years, may be prosperous, but it will be a prosperity bought at the fearful price of human life. On the other hand, whenever a man has as his ideal the bigness of human life and couples with that the will- ingness, the eagerness to help raise it, he makes a mighty contribution to the human wealth of the world. These are the models that result in the ideals which alone can save the world. Every century, every generation must have a few people who are willing to make themselves the fittest to live so that they may be worthy to die, and those who are willing to invest all that they are and all that they have to the general uplift of humankind. The man who is doing this in Manila is elevating the general level of humankind the world around. The man who is doing this in Greenland is doing it no less. Conduct depends upon ideals, but I hope that it is coming to be clear to the reader that no less do models determine almost entirely, in the lives of most people, the ideals that they have. A boy can hardly escape from worshiping the god of gold if his neigh- bors are bent only upon money-making and are suc- cessful in their efforts. A young person can hardly escape from worshiping the god of learning, striving 54 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER after the ideal of knowledge, if his parents and his neighbors are devoting their lives to successful research and study. With the greatest difficulty does one turn aside to the realization of large things in himself and in others who has had before him con- stantly from childhood those who have held positions of honor and responsibility, and who continue to be appointed or elected to such positions. The model that is set before the sons of public men, especially if those public men are successful, is such as to estab- lish in the heart and mind of the son the ideal, the desire, the longing for fame and notoriety, and some- times, let us hope, a life of usefulness in this same field. Now we have passed the era of stupidity, when we look with suspicion upon the one who succeeds in his financial career, in the career of a scholar or in the profession even of clean politics, but we have not yet entered the era in which we realize as we should that these are not comprehensive ideals and so cannot be comprehensive, satisfactory models for our people. They are not ends, they are means, and only par- tial means; and well will it be for our country and for the world when our sons and our daughters may look in whatever direction they will, in history, hi literature, in the business world, in the school, in the church, in the state, and find models of fine living, stirring models of the abundant life. How large will be the new era when we have grown men in the pul- pits, living men at the teachers' desks, vigorous, clean- lived men in our places of business, God-fearing men, with good digestions, absolutely free from selfish mo- MODELS AND IDEALS 55 tives, in our places of public trust. With a decade of such models who can venture to guess the trans- formation that would be made in the ideals of our sons and daughters in all their life reactions? The most important thing before an institution, be it the home, the school, the church or the state, is the living model of the abundant life. The respon- sibility of being such a model should weigh so heavily upon every man and woman who holds a place, even of smallest leadership, that he can have no peace until he has attained the abundant life to the highest degree possible to himself, CHAPTER X THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AN ABIDING IDEAL NOT every one who appreciates the transforming effect of ideals upon life realizes how great the demand is for steadfastness of purpose. Going in a straight line is seldom found in the performances of a human being, but it is the thing greatly to be desired on the part of every one who aspires to meet large tasks and accomplish them in a satisfactory manner. So it is important that one should have what I am pleased to call here the abiding ideal. No one who prospers can fail to have many and changing ideals through a long, successful lifetime. Such a person has many changes and unique and peculiar upheavals in his life, and these are marked by new motives and new powers. Childhood has its humors and its caprices, its ever" changing desires and hungerings and thirstings. Youth has its hopes, aspirations and ideals of undis- covered regions and unaccomplished tasks. Young manhood has its visions, swears allegiance to ideals of strength, valor and courage. Mature life has its visions and sometimes its dreams of the fullness of life and unselfish service. Not less do conditions change than does the individual himself. The world moves. New opportunities are continually stretch- 56 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AN ABIDING IDEAL 57 ing before the one who has his eyes developed to see them. New problems arise on every hand. The greatest thing the world has to present to the child has become of second-rate importance when he at- tains the years of youth. The greatest cry of the people that the youth hears is lost and forgotten during the years that he is pressing into young man- hood. So rapidly does the world move, so strenuous is modern life, so complex and so rapidly changing are the institutions of men, that the largest call that comes in the years of young manhood is a faint whisper as compared with the tremendous call that comes from the complicated, hustling world to this same man when he has attained the years of maturity. Young men to-day who are willing to serve have a thousand battles to wage in the modern city which were undreamed of and unguessed by their fore- fathers. The demand, for example, for sanitary engi- neers in the great cities of our country and of the world cannot be met by young men who are prepared to do the work. The person who takes the first steps on the road of life, through childhood into youth, young manhood and mature life, with ever-changing ideals from within and ever-changing demands from without, cannot be certain that he will go forward in the straight line of efficiency, cannot be sure which of these ideals is a worthy one and which of these de- mands is a real one. There must be an over-ideal, if you please. There must be a great purpose in life compared to which these ever-changing, legitimate ideals and demands are but as corollaries. 58 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER The immortal Lincoln is beloved as no other presi- dent of our country has been. He was probably the most gentle, unique, courageous, man-loving, God- fearing, God-directed, self-made character that this country has ever produced. The blow that he de- livered for the state and humankind is one whose effects are now only beginning to be felt; and time will serve only to emphasize and put upon his work a truthful interpretation. He had the highest and most lofty ideals that a president of his day could enter- tain. They were ideals that pertained to national affairs. But the world moves, and time has wrought changes such as our martyred president could not have imagined. Life is becoming complex at a fear- ful rate. The problems that demanded high ideals on the part of President Lincoln have been solved. New problems have arisen. The largest questions that confronted President Roosevelt were questions of in- ternational relationships. He did his work well. He was a man of ideals and a man who had the ability to realize upon them. But the thing that I am insisting upon here is that Mr. Lincoln had his set of ideals for his time merely as corollaries to the abiding ideal, to the over-ideal of service, and that Mr. Roosevelt likewise had his set of ideals always in submission to this same abiding ideal. Our grandfathers and grandmothers had their ideals of home life beautiful and beneficent. No stronger influence has ever gone into the life of the child than that which was generated about the family table with the lamp in the center, with father, mother and THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AN ABIDING IDEAL 59 the children gathered about it during long winter evenings. Our scientists, bent upon improvement, have put an end to all that. The beauty of fam- ily intercourse has been exchanged for the modern inconveniences. Then, about a common center, by the one stove or open fireplace the evenings were spent, in the expression of family hopes, joys and sorrows. But the furnace has come and the ten-room house is uniformly heated; the electric light has come and the same house is uniformly lighted; each child has his own room, and the members of the family say good night to one another on leaving the dinner table. What held the family together in the early days? Not a better conception of life, but the over- ideal of love and duty performed toward one another. What holds the family together to-day? Exactly the same abiding ideal. Without it family life would be a misnomer. This abiding ideal of love, of service, in whatever clime, under whatever conditions, ramifies to the remotest rooms even of a castle. The child is not saved to the best with which he was endowed be- cause of any procession of high ideals alone, but because held up to him and lived before him, under all the vicissitudes of fortune, is the over-ideal of the abundant life, of worthy manhood. During my boyhood days the country boy would have been hopelessly shiftless and worthless if he had rambled about his township so as to be familiar with the people who lived on the borders of it. But with our turnpikes, automobiles and electric railways, the boy to-day would be hopelessly stupid if his township 60 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER or even his county were not his community. The world moves. One's ideals shift, the geography of life's situations changes in relief, contour and prod- ucts. The only hope for the boy to-day whose com- munity is the county is the hope of the boy twenty years ago whose community was his school district, - the possession of an abiding ideal. The principle strongly enforced by an explicit rule twenty years ago would be violated by the application of the same rule to-day. The friends to whom we were anchored in childhood and youth are gone, or else they cannot or will not understand. The interests to which we were anchored are gone. Our ideals have varied from childhood through life. How shall we be saved from drifting? What can prevent human life from being wafted hither and thither, being subject to continual inner transformations and outer stimulations? There is but one hope, and it is found in the abid- ing ideal, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." I will not stop here to define what that is. The king- dom of God is as meaningful to the individual as the individual himself is full of meaning. Seek ye first the kingdom and the other things will be added. The changes, internal and external, are the shadows. The hope of the consistent, efficient life is found in the possession of an ideal that changeth not. CHAPTER XI THE SCHOOL AND IDEALS IN former chapters I have endeavored to show how prominent and important are ideals in the forming of efficient character. I wish in this chapter to show how large a share the school has in determining what these ideals shall be and therefore how large the re-, sponsibility is which rests upon the school in this matter. The home is the foundation of society, and if it fails in its basic work nothing can compensate for this failure. But no other institution has the oppor- tunity that the school possesses for raising up before the children worthy ideals of life and of character; and no other institution offers as a rule such ideal conditions under which the children may realize upon their ideals, for there is a degree of organization and of systematic procedure in even the poorest schools. Every one who reads this will remember the ideals that were instilled into his life during his school days. It was in the reading class, as a boy, that I had impressed upon me the fine ideal of faithfulness in the story of Peter Lenox and the turnip patch, and in the story of Casabianca. From the days of those reading lessons to the present time it would have been a little more difficult for me to have been un- 61 62 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER faithful to a task than it would have been if I had not been inspired by those examples of faithfulness. It was here also that I got my first ideals of courage, to do one's duty under all circumstances. The story of the English lad who declined to open the gate that the Duke of Wellington and his companions might pass through a cultivated field on a hunting trip brought me to my feet. And when the boy waved his hat and cried, "Hooray! hooray! I have done what Napoleon could not do; I have kept back the Duke of Wellington!" a permanent mark was made upon my boyish life. From that day to this it would have been more difficult to have scared or stampeded me into an act of cowardice than before that time. History offers large opportunities for instilling ideals of patriotism and loyalty. There is nothing better calculated to stir a young American to the emotion of patriotism and loyalty than the recital of the suffer- ings and endurance of the American Revolutionary women, whose heroism yet remains to be sung by generations unborn. I shall never forget the thrill of a new-born patriotism that I experienced as I first read that at the close of the American Revolutionary War Washington might have been crowned king, but that he declined the crown. I had followed his career with great care and interest from the days when he was a young surveyor, through the French and Indian War, through the Revolutionary War, and the struggle afterward for a satisfactory scheme of government. I had begun to realize that he exer- cised an influence over the people which would claim THE SCHOOL AND IDEALS 63 their allegiance and their following wherever he might choose to go. And this one act of his brought me at once to a higher plane of patriotism and loy- alty, a plane which I fear I might not have attained had it not been that in the name of patriotism Washington, after he had gained all, laid it all down. There must be a finer and truer patriotism and loyalty in the minds and hearts of our young people when they read of the services of President J. Q. Adams; how, after he had been elevated to the position of highest honor and responsibility in the gift of the American people, he was willing, for the sake of ser- vice to his country, to accept a less conspicuous post and to represent his home district for a number of years in the national House of Representatives. There is hardly a lesson in history that does not lend itself to high ideals of life and conduct with especial reference, of course, to one's obligation to the insti- tutions in the midst of which he lives. But no other department of school work offers such fine and numerous opportunities for impressing the young with high ideals as the department of liter- ature. For an ideal of clean, unbiased, absolute justice, where the wheel of life makes a complete turn, give the student "King Lear." And when you wish your student to realize that a man must reap whatever he sows, which is itself a lesson in justice, let him read "Hamlet." The critics may never be able to answer the question, Was Hamlet mad? but there is no question in the mind of any one who reads, that if Hamlet was not mad he was on the verge of 64 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER madness. Madness is the inevitable outcome of such an experience. The story of ideals in the literary world is so well known that it need not be retold here. It serves, however, to good purpose in empha- sizing the close relationship between the school and ideals, and the responsibility of the school in determi- ning the ideals of the students. In art the school offers an opportunity for develop- ment at comparatively small expense. Copies of the finest works of art can be placed in the halls and on the walls of the schoolroom and all unconsciously to the student he will gain true artistic ideals. The ugly and the grotesque will in the course of time become painful to him if he has been living in the presence of fine art. He will no longer measure the value and beauty of a picture by the amount of paint or by the square yard. But, after all, the greatest chance that the school offers for worthy ideals in the lives of young people is that which comes through personal, daily contact with the teacher. No historic story, no literary character, no work of art, nor all of these combined, in the long run make for or against the student's best development so completely and permanently as can the life of the teacher in a comparatively short time. The best cure for curvature of the spine and round shoulders is a young teacher who comes into the com- munity with broad shoulders, high head and elastic step, capable of feats of strength and endurance. The doctors have their place, but the presence of such a teacher in a community for one year will do THE SCHOOL AND IDEALS 65 more to make the physical life straight and strong than all the bandages and splints and shoulder braces in the doctors' offices. Are the children slovenly, untidy, unwashed? Let a healthy, clean-minded, efficient young man or woman come before these children for one year as teacher, and the dispenser of toothbrushes and soap will surely find his business increasing. The vast majority of people, especially of young people, speak the truth, but also the vast majority of them do not speak the complete truth. Let a young man or woman come into the community to teach school who has ideals of truthfulness, who tells the truth, the complete truth, who tells it freely, without any hesitation whatever, and who lives it as freely and fully as he speaks it; ideals of truth will be born into the lives of the young people which could come to them in no other way. Let this young teacher be a master of the subjects that he teaches and let him be skillful in the presen- tation of them, and the children will get an insight into the meaning of efficiency and will have ideals of mastery such as they have not had and under other conditions could not have had. As the result of the coming of this strong, complete, truthful, efficient young person into the community, the children and their parents will come to have an ideal of the abun- dant life which after all is the end of living. We should not, however, forget that there are five insti- tutions of civilization, five great organized agencies of civilized life, and that the school is only one of these. We will therefore not hold the school responsible for 66 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER all the shortcomings and misdemeanors of society, but we will hold the school responsible for placing and holding before the children worthy ideals of conduct and of life, and of offering to the children a program for realizing these ideals. CHAPTER XII THE ROOTS OF CHARACTER EVERY one has observed that strength of character is not always proportionate to the knowledge which one possesses; neither is it always proportionate to the fine emotional life of the individual. I wish in this chapter to determine as nearly as possible in what soil character has its roots ; and I mean of course here, as elsewhere, by character the ability to stand where one should stand and to do as one should do; I mean efficiency; I mean that positive characteristic of the individual which makes him a stable and valua- ble factor in society; I mean the sum total of one's capitalization. The road that leads to this kind of character has in it three stages. The first is the stage of unconscious inefficiency. Here the individual is inefficient but does not care because he does not know. The second is the stage of conscious inefficiency. This is the learning stage, the stage of going forward, of capitalizing one's self. Here the individual is inefficient and is conscious of it and is putting forth more or less effort to over- come it. The third is the stage of unconscious effi- ciency. It is the stage in which the individual does his work as well as it can be done without attending closely 67 68 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER to all the details. It has become a matter of habit with him, habit in the sense in which the Duke of Welling- ton meant it when he said, "Habit is second nature. Habit is ten times nature!" These three stages of development may be illus- trated in ways familiar to all. In the first few weeks or months of its life the child is inefficient as a talker. It does not talk and does not try to talk. It is, so far as any one knows or can guess, entirely uncon- scious of its deficiency. The needed stimulations have not been experienced fully enough to arouse the child to a consciousness of its deficiency and its needs. It is in what we have called the stage of unconscious inefficiency. But in the course of time, through the suggestions that come to it hourly from its parents and brothers and sisters, it begins to imitate them, and from that time until it has learned to speak con- nected sentences and from then on through its school work, in language, grammar, composition, and so on, it is living in the stage of conscious inefficiency. It does not use the language so forcefully and elegantly as it desires to and it is conscious of this fact; it is putting forth a conscious effort to gain the skill which it does not possess. This is what I call the stage of conscious inefficiency. But there will come a time, to him who persists in his language development and skill, when he will no longer need to think of the nomi- native or objective forms, but as naturally as he breathes will these forms come when he is expressing himself. He can now devote all of his mental and physical energy to the development of the thought THE ROOTS OF CHARACTER 69 which he wishes to express and, as a matter of course, the language will flow along in fine form. He has become the efficient user of the language, but not until the day of conscious thought on the language forms is past. It is well for the one who wishes to become an effective public speaker to study the sub- jects of poise, of gesture, of pronunciation, and so on, but no one is ever at his best in public speaking who is obliged at the time to give any of his thought or con- cern to these things. There was a time when it was important to give these things thought, to keep them in the center of conscious attention, but that is not the day of finished public performance. The three stages on the road to efficient character may be illustrated in learning to play the piano. Through the first few months and years of the child's life it is inefficient as a pianist, but is not at all concerned about the deficiency because it is in the stage of unconscious inefficiency. The piano is pur- chased, the teacher employed, the lesson assigned, and the practice begins. From this time forth, for years, the energetic, persistent student of the piano is in the stage of conscious inefficiency. But if he combines native ability with persistence, the time will come when it will be no longer necessary for him to keep his eyes upon the music, the keyboard, or his hands, but he will be able to lose himself in the emotion he is trying to express, and his hands, so to speak, will be turning out the music. He who has attained this skill has arrived at the stage of unconscious efficiency. The simple skills of walking, dressing, of appro- 70 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER priate adjustments in polite society are all illustra- tions of these three stages on the road to strength of character. Now if one is never at his best, never skillful in the conscious stage, but only in the uncon- scious stage, the questions which arise are these : Where are the roots of efficient character? What is the soil into which runs the taproot of this thing? I wish by a few simple illustrations to throw some light upon this subject. My friend, a university president, has said in my hearing repeatedly that he would not be intoxicated in public for any amount of money. He might have meant that he would not set going in his life the tendency toward this thing, or the appetite which he might not be able to control, but he did not mean this. He meant that he would not be intoxi- cated in public, and by this he meant that there is a profounder and broader, a more comprehensive and more truthful life than the life which is lived out in one's conscious moments; that when the conscious senses which serve as chaperons and guards of one's life are off duty the real life manifests itself; and that although his life had been clean and honorable throughout, during his boyhood days there had been made through the eye and the ear certain impressions, that there had been certain thoughts in the past which, when his life should express itself freely with the guards off duty, he did not care to have made public. In the statement that he would not be intoxicated in public for any amount of money this wise man was expressing in his own way how funda- mental is the substratum of life in the making or THE ROOTS OF CHARACTER 71 the unmaking of the permanent character of the individual. Hypnotism helps us here. The hypnotic subject will act upon the suggestion of the hypnotist; and when he is brought out of the hypnotic state he will not remember his performance while in it. Suppose while the subject is under the influence of hypnotism the hypnotist should make a test in the form of a suggestion, like this: "To-morrow afternoon at three o'clock, wherever you are, you must wave your hat in the air and yell for Andrew Jackson." Strange things will then follow. The subject will be brought out of the hypnotic state and will be unable to remember anything that he did while under its influence. Until three o'clock the next afternoon he will live his normal, conscious life entirely unaware that a suggestion is lurking somewhere in the subsoil of his being, but it is there, regardless of the fact that he does not know it. At three o'clock he will have a strange feeling, strange tuggings at his life, and in all probability he will say to his companions, "I have queer feelings, I feel as if I were about to do some- thing foolish, something unaccountable." Suddenly he will raise his arm, wave his hat, and yell for Andrew Jackson. Now my question here (which I ask merely to throw light upon the topic) is this: Where had the suggestion that had been implanted in him during his hypnotic state been lurking during the twenty- four hours that had elapsed? Certainly not in his conscious, normal life, for during these twenty-four hours, he was entirely unaware that such a suggestion 72 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER was waiting to get in its work on him. There is something here that suggests that the conservative forces are deeper than the conscious life, and that the roots of character go deeper than the superficial, evanescent life of normal, waking consciousness. The same thing is shown in anaesthesia and in the delirium of fever. Many a man has revealed his true character while under the influence of an anaesthetic, and many a person has talked out his real life while in the delirium of a fever. Many illustrations could be given but none need be. Things that have been hidden for years, for decades, have then come to the surface. No conscious pull during all these decades has been strong enough to bring them up, but when life has sloughed off from the top centers down, these things that have been hidden in the subsoil for years are brought out once more. We have every reason to believe, although we shall probably never be able to demonstrate it, that the roots are in what the psychol- ogists call the subconscious life. The greatest thing you can say about a man in connection with his efficient character is not that he is a great thinker, or that he has a strong will, or a fine emotional life. The greatest thing is the sum total of his capitalization which has been covered up in the region of his subconsciousness. And so far as we know, nothing that ever goes into the life is lost. Everything that goes into a human life becomes a permanent part of that life. When the incidents of active life are past, when the early and later friendships are broken forever and the man in his last days stands alone, like some lone oak THE ROOTS OF CHARACTER 73 in the open field, he realizes the truthfulness of the lesson here taught, that after all the greatest thing in the world that a boy does or that the man does is to determine the company that he will have when he is old. The old man recalls distinctly the events of fifty years ago and less distinctly the events of a dozen years ago. There are four things which I wish to impress upon the reader: first, that the road to efficient character has three stages, that of unconscious inefficiency, that of conscious inefficiency, and that of unconscious effi- ciency; second, that the roots of character are deeper than the conscious life; third, that nothing that goes into human life is ever lost ; and fourth, that when we are young, vigorous and active we are providing joy or sorrow for the days to come; we are determin- ing the company we shall have when we are old. CHAPTER XIII WILL, THE CENTER OF CHARACTER I DO not propose here to go into a psychological discussion of the will. I shall make no attempt to define or analyze the will, and I am not interested for the purposes of this chapter to enter into a discussion of the freedom of the will. These are large and im- portant questions, but they have no bearing whatever upon the topic. The entire world acts as if people were free, and in developing this I shall assume that the world is right in dealing with people as if they were free. If the child were not free to do otherwise than he has done in committing a misdemeanor in the school, then certainly the teacher would not be justi- fied in meting out punishment to him. The ground for punishment in the home or in the school, however misbehaved the child may be, can be no other than that of freedom. With any other assumption the child is irresponsible. The institution of the state whose organizing idea is justice, exercises the function of control or punishment on the assumption of the inherent freedom of its citizens to do right. With- out the assumption that the people are free to choose we cannot assume that they are responsible, and without such assumption correction would follow only 74 WILL, THE CENTER OF CHARACTER 75 illogically. On any other basis than that of the freedom of people to choose and to will, the world would go to pieces. Every man would be a law unto himself, which means the absence of all law; and law- lessness and anarchy would reign. Without going into any psychological or philosophical discussion of the question then, I shall assume what the people assume, and shall follow out my purpose, which is merely to show the place of will; that it is the center in our psychical lives ; that it is fundamental in the behavior and ef- ficiency of the people; that it is pivotal in all conduct; that it is the tap root and the only good fruit of the tree of life. The old psychology, so called, always recognized the conventional classification of the conscious states or activities into intellect, emotion and will. These functions of the mind were supposed to be exercised in the order named. One became aware of an object or situation, cognized it, became intelligent as to it, and thus there was aroused in him a desire for it or a drawing toward it. He was built up, made happy, joyous, glad through it. Or he was pulled down, made sad, gloomy, sorrowful, angry by it. The emotion was the direct result of the intellect, and dependent upon it, was made up and advanced by it. If the object created an emotion of pleasure or desire, the individual made an effort to secure it, he willed to have it; or if the object created the emotion of aversion, he decided against it, willed to avoid it. Thus the will grew directly out of the emotional life and was dependent upon it. The road to mental 76 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER development was considered a road with three turns, the first turn always coming first, the last turn always coming last. To illustrate: The student got a taste of mathematics incidentally; this constituted his knowledge or intelligence of the subject. He liked it which constituted his emotional attitude toward the subject and went after more of it which con- stituted his willing or volitional relation toward the subject. There is some truth in this theory, but as a theory it is partial and inadequate. While I do not profess to say the last word upon the will as the center of character, I do propose to show that in all life, in the making or building of efficient character, will is cen- tral, and is both the root and the fruit of the intellec- tual and emotional life. It is the soil out of which knowledge (intelligence) and emotion, grow. Not only this, but it is the only fruitage that they produce. A few simple illustrations will make this last point clear. I have a friend who lectures on history for "history's sake"; but my friend is a very badly puzzled man when he is asked to state in clear terms what he means by " history's sake." The fact is that neither history nor zoology nor mathematics nor any other subject taught in the school has a "sake." History and all the rest of them are taught for the sake of something else. Why is history taught? The only satisfactory answer is, that in performing our duties as members of society we shall do better with historic knowledge and historic perspective ; we shall foreknow WILL, THE CENTER OF CHARACTER 77 the inevitable results of certain proposed plans; we shall be better able than otherwise to do the appro- priate and best thing. We know that we may do. There is no other excuse for knowledge. And the doing is the essence of will, because the last end of will, if not the entire essence of it, is getting some- thing done. All other elements of will are prelimi- nary steps or superficial factors. He only knows thoroughly who does thoroughly. What is the fruit of physiological and hygienic knowledge? It is better living. What is the fruit of mathematical knowledge? It is the modern railway system, the modern sky- scraper, the tunneling of mountains and the irrigation of deserts. The only legitimate fruit of mathematics is getting the real work done as it otherwise could not be done. So in the knowledge that constitutes the various professions, that of medicine and surgery, for example, the fruitage comes only after the appli- cation has been made. Without going more fully into illustrations, it is evident, then, that the only legitimate function of knowledge is a higher and more appropriate form of adjustment or conduct than would otherwise be possible. The will is just as truly the fruitage of the emotional life as it is of the intellect. There is probably no mental dissipation in the world so great as that of weltering in fine emotions if they issue not in high and holy living. Unless the emotional life of the individual results in bringing him to a higher plane of adjustment, it means demoralization and deterioration. One of the much used words in modern pedagogy 78 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER is "functioning." We have gained the advanced ground where we care but little how much the indi- vidual knows or how fine is his emotional life unless his knowledge and his emotion mean getting him somewhere or getting something done. My plea here is that the finest fruitage of the intellectual life and of the emotional life is will. No less is it true that the will is the root as well as the fruit of the intellectual and emotional life; and by will I mean doing, adjustment, living, getting the task done. Any adult looking at a tree would at once pronounce it cylindrical, but no one ever saw a cylinder. The adult is able to pronounce it a cylinder because all his life he has viewed trees from one side and another; and the knowledge that this tree is a cylinder is possible to him and comes to him at a glance because he has lived in a world of cylinders. The fact is that not only one's perceptions but prac- tically all the knowledge that one gathers as he goes along are the epitome of his past living. If the front of a man could go detached down the street, it would serve practically all the purposes of a man so far as those whom it should meet would be concerned. They see the front merely, and that only indefinitely, - a mere shadow even of the front, and the rest is assumed and thrown in. This is because the indi- vidual has always seen the front of a man coming and assumed that the rest was there. The superficial signs give him knowledge through his past behavior and conduct. Daily we pass up and down the street and assume the buildings. We would be greatly WILL, THE CENTER OF CHARACTER 79 surprised if some one should tell us that these are just rows of fronts. In meeting these things we see what we see and assume that which is unseen. If one never knew a thing until he knew it first hand in its entirety, the number of things learned would be com- paratively small. Now the point that I am desirous of emphasizing here is that because we have lived, we gain knowledge of most things through meager and superficial signs and that the great bulk of knowledge thus gained, is the direct outcome of the life that is producing it. And so it is with the emotional life. James and Lange say that we are afraid because we run, that we are angry because we strike. I shall not argue this question here, but merely give it as my conviction that they are not only partially but entirely correct in their view. Whoever has the poise and the self- control to remain perfectly quiet in every fiber of his being may judge whether it is wise to run or to strike, but until he begins to act he may not have the sen- sation of fear or of anger. Those who are not sure that this is true and who are therefore inclined to reject it, will at least agree that if he who is afraid runs, he will become more afraid; and if he who is angry strikes, he will become more angry that in this partial sense at least the emotions of anger and of fear are the results of the motions of running and striking. If then the only legitimate excuse for knowledge and emotion is the finer and more appropriate adjust- ment which is the last end of will; and if the roots of 80 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOE THE TEACHER knowledge and emotion are found in the subsoils of action or living, it must be plain that will is both the root and the fruit and is therefore of fundamental importance in our lives. It is in this sense that I insist that will is the center of character. CHAPTER XIV WORK AND CHARACTER Two things can be observed the world over: first, that as a rule people do as little as is necessary to get what they desire, that most people travel the short- est road possible to get where they wish to go; and second, that whoever will help may help, so that in a comparatively short time the lifted is willing to sit down on the lifter and ride on through life. As a result of these things it has become a problem to the parent to know how many doors of opportunity he should open to his son or daughter at the risk of pauperizing his child. It has become a problem to the teacher to know how much assistance he can give his student at the risk of rendering him a mental pauper. It has become a problem for the wise pastor to know how many of the burdens of his people he can share with them and bear for them at the risk of rendering them social and spiritual paupers. It has become a problem for the captain of industry, the small one as well as the large one, to know how sym- pathetic and considerate he can be of his employees and not render them industrial paupers. In this chapter I wish to show the close relationship between work and character. And by character in this con- si 82 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER nection I do not mean that negative, worthless, insipid kind of human life, the absence of everything aggressive, whereby the individual manages to keep out of the jail and the penitentiary, but I mean strength of character, efficient character, ability to do things, personal power. I wish to show that these characteristics are developed in the life, that one imbues himself with power or weakness in the process of daily living, and that we are moralized or demoral- ized in the daily activities of life; that no amount of instruction in ethics will save a man from the king- dom of small things if he busies himself in the per- formance of small things. The Spaniards have a proverb which says, "The good is enemy to the best." With the riffraff of humankind this is probably not true, but with the more respect- able people it is true that the great enemy of the best is the good. The people are satisfied to dwell upon the low levels of mediocrity and therefore they seldom attain the high plateaus of mastery. For example, within the last decade long steps for- ward have been taken in the construction of modern school buildings, in the equipment of modern labora- tories, in the building and supplying of large libraries, in the professional training of teachers. These steps are good. They are even yet too few and too short, but they are out of all proportion to the real advance- ment that has been made on the part of the children who have attended these schools, who have studied in these laboratories and these libraries, and who have been taught by these professionally trained teachers. WORK AND CHARACTER 83 The advance in knowledge, virility and power that the graduates of to-day have made over the graduates of a decade ago is microscopically small. With justi- fiable pride have the people been congratulating them- selves upon the fine advance that has been made. Yet unconsciously to themselves, their teachers and their parents, the students of the last decade or two, have demonstrated the truthfulness of the Spanish maxim that "the good is enemy to the best." These gains that we have made in the form of equipment and well-trained teachers will be of greatest value when once it is recognized and realized that they can never be of more than secondary importance to the student. It is said that there are institutions of higher learn- ing in this country with long and honorable records in which students can pass on a minimum grade of fifty and in which it is possible for the student to attain his degree without so much as looking at his books from the time he enters the institution until he grad- uates from it. This may be a false indictment. I hope it is, but to a degree at least it is true that many young men who spend some of the best years of their lives in such institutions decapitalize and demoralize themselves, and so are rendered unfit for the later duties of life. In one institution in which I worked for four years, my own observation was that the high school that sent us on the average the best students we had in college was a school with only fairly well-trained teachers, very ordinary buildings, small laboratories and no well-supplied library. But 84 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER it was a school in which there was a tradition that there is some credit in excelling and that it is no unmanly thing to lead one's class; that it is not commendable to see on how small an amount of work the student can make his credits. The large number of young men and young women who have come up to college from these less than average oppor- tunities have always stood high in their college classes. No other high school in the state with the best-trained teachers, the most modern buildings, the best laboratory and library facilities, has made so good a record. The people do not seem to realize that one reason why the young man could not wear the King's armor was that he had not earned the right to wear it. He had never built an armor for himself nor for any one else, but he had built many slings and had used them effectively, and once again he makes a sling and uses it to good purpose. The people do not yet seem to realize that the only animal in the world that can wear a shell gracefully and with benefit to itself is the animal that has built its own shell out of its own blood. The people do not seem to realize that the only real merit in the world is earned merit, and that the only personal power, humanly speaking, that there is in the world is self-made power. There is but one road to efficient character and that is the road of consistent application to something that is worth while; and in the making of human life all other things, desirable as they may be, are secondary, and are valuable only as they contribute to the ease WORK AND CHARACTER 85 and the efficiency of the adjustment of the individual to his tasks. The great traits of character which make the sum total of human power are valuable only through work. It is thus that the trait of over- coming is attained, the fruit of which is a fine sense of mastery. Through one's accomplishments he develops the trait of completeness or incomplete- ness, dependent entirely upon the character of his performance, because let it never be forgotten that one is made or unmade, moralized or demoralized, strengthened or weakened, made fit or unfit by his work. Nothing is so conducive to a sense of being a producer, a real factor, as is the act of producing, of getting things done. Through work one develops a fine sense of inde- pendence, of self-sufficiency and of self-respect. He gains the sense of freedom from the slavery of small things and small performances and comes into the kingdom of a free man. Thus certain beneficent re- sults of work are these marks on mind and character, and by no other process can they be laid on a man. The obverse is just as true because one becomes like his work. A bungler does bunglesome work; the result of bunglesome work is a bungler. A trifler does trifling work; the result of trifling work is that the trifler is confirmed as such. Small work means small results in the life of the worker as well as in the thing done. The result of stealing is a thief. The result of a life of sane sacrifice and service is a saint. One of the largest problems, therefore, that confronts a young person is the selection of his life's work, and 86 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER it is a problem which he alone can solve. Failure and misery have resulted from too much interference here. The doors of opportunity should be opened to the young person; friendly and unprejudiced advice and counsel should be given him; but he has his own life to live, he knows as no one else can the pulls upon his mind, his heart and his life. The parent and the teacher should render advisory service and should im- press upon him with faithfulness the magnitude and meaning of this choice. Then he must be left free to go his own way, knowing that in the selection and execution of the work that he is choosing he must work out the pattern of his own life, believing that so long as his work contributes to the wealth of the world and to his own personal welfare there is posi- tively no high nor low except as the spirit of the worker makes it so, realizing that whoever does large things in a large way becomes large, and that who- ever does small things in a small way becomes small. To the magnanimous all things are magnanimous and all things are magnificent. To the small all people are small and all things are mean. CHAPTER XV PLAY AND CHARACTER PLAY marks the life no less than does work, for all activity produces its result in organization and tend- ency. Play is the expression of a universal instinct in all animal life. This is shown in certain character- istics of play. In the first place all animals play; there is not an animal form so low, and there is not one so high and so complete that, in its youth at least, it does not play. The slug (soft snail) plays, snakes play, young fowls, young calves, kittens, puppies play, every normally born human being plays through childhood and youth; and fortunate is he who can remain young throughout all his life and who finds pleasure in play. Not only is it true that all animals play but each species of animal has its own style of play. This is what we should expect, because no two organisms are alike and the destinies of no two species of animals are the same. All animals play instinctively, showing that play is a deep-seated function, and in all play there is the factor of make-believe, which is one of the marks that distinguishes play from work. Many a boy has plodded on through a difficult piece of work when he has had the imagination to turn it into play. A classical illustration of this is Tom Sawyer. 87 88 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER An instinct so universal as that of play, and so generally expressed, cannot fail to arrest the atten- tion of the thoughtful mind and demand an ex- planation. The most valuable and satisfactory of these explanations is the surplus-energy theory. The young are bubbling over with energy, and play serves as a safety valve. The mischievous child becomes docile through play. In this explanation we doubt- less have a true word, that much of the play in the world is due to an exuberance of vitality. But there 'is much play that is not explained in this way. The surplus-energy theory must be supplemented by the recreation theory. On the same theory that a horse will travel farther and tire less on an undulating road than he will on a level road, is play found to be a method of recreation from the fatigue of work. Different muscles are brought into action; different stores of energy are set free; the mind is freed from the attention that work demanded. A short period of play often restores one to his normal state. Another theory which helps in the explanation of play and is not merely supplementary to the surplus- energy theory, is that of preparation for the so-called sterner duties of later life. The play of the kitten, of the puppy, of the young child, are all prophetic of the work of the adult life. If a program were to be studiously thought out whereby the child in its in- fancy and childhood could be trained for its later duties of business and professional life, no schedule could be planned that would be half so good as the one which the child instinctively follows in its play. PLAY AND CHARACTER 89 One other satisfactory explanation of play is that of the recapitulation theory. When damaging news comes one sets his teeth, clenches his fist and stamps his foot, because his remote ancestors met and over- came offensive things (the animal or the enemy) by grappling, biting and stamping. So to-day, when the author of the damaging news is thousands of miles away we display these now useless activities which were of greatest value centuries ago. Any one who will observe the play of young animals, the make-believe of pursuit and fight, and the play of young children in their hand-to-hand competitions, in unorganized plays and in organized games, cannot doubt that their performances are the recapitulation of activities once useful in the preservation of the in- dividual and the species. What now is the close relationship between char- acter and this universal instinct to play? I wish to make it clear that the relationship here is just as im- portant and just as close as that between character and work. Play of course is different from work. It is the spontaneous expression of the need of the individual, and its end is in itself, not in the objective task. The fine traits of character brought out here as nowhere else come unconsciously. The chance to direct oneself, the freedom of choice and action which any growing child has the opportunity to exercise as a worker, are small, for he goes forth under direction, and he and his work are merely means to objective results. Play, in developing the instinct and power of initiative, exceeds all other oppor- 90 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER tunities of life combined. Not only this, but play is a large factor in socializing the child. Here without superior guidance he must learn the fine art of adjust- ing himself to others. Indeed the child of ten or eleven years of age does not play organized games because he has not yet learned the fine art of human adjustment, but later on we find him playing on a baseball team, and playing other games which require co-operation and adaptation. He has become social- ized and he is taking the first steps toward efficiency in institutional life. The child who learns to play as he should, who has done well on the athletic or gym- nasium teams, will thereby be a stronger member of the church, of the state and of all organized institu- tions than he otherwise would have been. The great difficulty in our organized institutions of civilization to-day is that men have not learned the fine art of adjustment. Through play large results are obtained in the physical life of the individual. Every one appre- ciates the danger incident to athletics and other forms of organized play; but the health and physical virility and the power to endure punishment are in their beneficent results out of all proportion to the damage thus done. And no work in the world, men- tal or physical, so quickly and certainly makes for mental agility, accuracy and decision as does play; and the same strong word may be spoken for play in behalf of its beneficent moral results. But we must not forget here that the most dis- astrous results that come to a human being are those PLAY AND CHARACTER 91 that follow the misuse of a good thing. Bad things appeal to and injure only bad people. The respect- able people in the world are injured by the misuse of good things. It is true of the school, of the college, of money, of friends, of the church, and it is no less true of the fine universal instinct to play. Men have become brutal through play; they have laid down their physical capital at the altar of play; they have become demoralized through play. Promising men in our institutions of higher learning have become bound hand and foot by play and have made discreditable and sometimes dishonorable records as students. My point here, it will be observed, is not to pronounce a eulogy upon play, neither is it to disparage it, but to show its significance. It is to show that through it people are made or unmade; that it is a thing that cannot be ignored; that whoever ignores it is less than human; that there is the very closest relation- ship between one's play and one's character; that one of the roads to physical, mental and moral efficiency is the road of play, if this road runs on life's table- lands; and one of the roads to decapitalization in all these respects is the road of play if it runs through the lowlands of life. Nothing determines character more than play, and there is no finer index to charac- ter than the kind of play which one enjoys. CHAPTER XVI PERSISTENCE AND CHARACTER IN his " Outlines of Psychology" Royce makes much of persistence through restlessness. We all ap- preciate the value of initiative. We all find it very difficult to tell what we mean by initiative and to explain it. Royce throws some light upon this sub- ject. Through inherent restlessness one organism will persist. In the absence of this restlessness another organism does not persist. It quickly be- comes quiescent. The stimulations of the former result in reactions on the part of the organism entirely foreign to anything experienced by the organism which becomes early satisfied, and it thus finds new environment. So that the restless organism is con- tinually doing things which the other one is not, and is characterized by what the world calls initiative. Probably the zebra is not more stimulated by the har- ness which is thrown on his back than is the young horse under the same conditions; but the zebra is rest- less : it persists, it will not be broken. The young horse with its heredity reaches the stage of quiescence much more readily, ceases to be restless, succumbs to civiliza- tion and is domesticated. Whether one goes into the civilized institutions of men or sits down satisfied to 92 PERSISTENCE AND CHARACTER 93 have but a look-in into these institutions is determined largely, if not indeed entirely, by the degree of persist- ence or the native restlessness of the organism. Now in all probability this restlessness is an inherent, un- changeable quantity; but one thing the intelligent human being can do which will be of great value to him. Recognizing that restlessness is a given unchangeable quantity, he may also recognize that the growth in persistence, if he is to have any growth here, need not be allowed to depend upon the proportionate increase in the restlessness. He can substitute knowledge. Knowing that since his restlessness is of a compara- tively quiescent type he would naturally persist but little; knowing that he can, however, attain large things only as he persists, he can go forward to larger things upon this basis of knowledge and dogged determination not to be commonplace and contented to stop as he travels up the road of life. The large difference in men is that one sits down contented at the first turn in the road; the other, because he can- not be satisfied, representing it may be no larger native ability than the former, pushes on and gains an experience and a capitalization in the course of time entirely unknown to the former. Inherent restlessness is shown in the inquisitive child who is changing from one thing to another, breaking things to pieces, opening things up, asking endless questions. When the mother has answered the child's questions to her satisfaction she has only started the child on a new set of inquiries. Later this inquisitiveness is illustrated by the open-eyed, 94 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER hungry-minded youth who devours book after book, climbs trees, hunts birds' nests, and is interested in taking apart and setting up machinery. Later in life this principle of persistence through restlessness is illustrated by the investigator, the Wright brothers, Marconi. It is not that these men are so much bent upon fortune, or even upon startling the world or rendering it a great service, I fancy, as it is that they are restless, they sense something ahead. Their dis- coveries will be of great value to the world, but they are not held to the task so much by a sense of being of large service (although this has its place in their minds) as by the nervous push which will not allow them to stop. Many another man may long to render as large a service but his temperament is such that he is not goaded on along the lines of investiga- tion. One of the large results of persistence through restlessness is that many men of only average en- dowment are occupying large and responsible posi- tions in all lines of professional and business life. The important places in education, in law, in the ministry, in medicine are thus filled by men of average endow- ment. On the other hand, many men of large native endowment are occupying small places; they are men early satisfied, they have quiescent tempera- ments; they have the native capacity to master almost anything if they could get to it, but they do not have the persistence that carries them to the task and the large opportunity; and so regardless of their comparatively large endowment they do compara- tively small work in the world. PERSISTENCE AND CHARACTER 95 Some years ago President W. L. Bryan, of Indiana University, conceived the notion through his obser- vation and experiments that many people become " near-great," that they in all probability stop just short of realizing the best there is in them, or better things than they have yet realized; that they take out the papers of citizenship in the country in which they have been dwelling because they have not quite persistence enough to cross the border into the land of larger promise. President Bryan's student, Noble Harter, an expert telegrapher, opened up a field of experiment in the telegraphic language. Through this experiment they found that practically all the young people who begin to learn the telegraphic language make rapid improvement at the beginning. In the first weeks they are encouraged with their prog- ress; but as the weeks go forward progress is made much more slowly; and after all, the large per- centage of those who begin to learn the telegraphic language give it up just before they become pro- ficient enough to make it pay or to take charge of a small office. The small percentage, those who finally acquire the language, did not in all probability make more rapid gains than those who gave it up, but they persisted, they were restless, or, as I have suggested before, they knew that they must persist, and in a comparatively short time they were born into a higher kingdom of skill and efficiency. These are the people who are in the small telegraphic offices the country over. Now many of these become satisfied with their attainments; they do not seek greater skill; 96 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER they have reached the stage of quiescence; and so we have all over the country men and women in the comparatively small offices who have been there for many years. But others are not thus easily satisfied. They put forth every effort to improve. The im- provement is slow; they move as it were on a plateau; they do not show greater efficiency than they did months before, but in the case of most of these the experience is that finally and very suddenly the oper- ator is able to do work of an entirely different class from that in which he has been working. Then there comes to him the plateau experience again. It is a long road and a monotonous one, but if he persists he will in the course of time reclassify himself. So Mr. Bryan and Mr. Harter found that there are three or four stages of skill and efficiency in the telegraphic language. There is the stage where one is able to take the small office; there is the advanced stage of the good operator; and there is the more advanced stage of the expert. The expert in the first few weeks and months of his apprenticeship showed no more native ability than those who remained upon the low level a lifetime. Indeed he may not have shown more ability than the large percentage of those who dropped out before they had attained the lowest level. To-day in his profession he is a picked man, an expert, due entirely, the psychologists think, to the fact that he could not be satisfied, that he was restless, that he was persistent, that he would go up the road even though he must climb hills, and the eminence that he has attained in his profession is the PERSISTENCE AND CHARACTER 97 result of such persistent climbing. He is a strong character, an efficient character in his business. A close relationship exists between persistence and character. We are not all interested in the telegraphic language, but whoever thinks is interested in the meaning of this experiment and its application to the lives of the people. The bright, lazy fellow is satisfied when he accomplishes seven out of the ten problems or seventy per cent of anything. He goes through the schools with his minimum of accomplishment and out into life with a minimum of attainment and a maxi- mum of decapitalization through his lack of applica- tion. The inevitable results of this kind of thing are small things, subjectively and objectively. His class- mate, "slow in the head," achieves with difficulty, but he cannot sleep until the work is accomplished; he is restless under the unaccomplished task. He has a dogged persistence. It costs midnight oil and human energy, but when the new day dawns ten of the ten problems have been solved. He goes through school in this way. He comes out not only with a com- paratively large attainment but with a character of steel, and in the course of years he comes to occupy large and responsible positions. But an even higher result of persistence is that it leads the individual to self-discovery. The person who can be satisfied to dwell in the lowlands is stim- ulated only by the things that are in the lowlands and he is never led to the real discovery of himself. Here is the great chance and the great function of 98 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER the high school and the college. Many a man has been a misfit throughout his entire life because he did not persist until he reached the physical labora- tory. Many a girl has been a misfit throughout life because she has not persisted in attending to the courses in English, in art and in music that the schools offer. It is a fortunate thing for the young person who has traveled the long and tortuous road of the common schools, the high school and the first three years of college, when the stimuli come flooding into his life during his senior year which reveal him to himself, and he realizes that he has found himself, his place and his work. He who persists not has not these stimuli, and therefore in all probability self- discovery may never come to him, and instead of doing his own piece of work, he goes on through life doing just anybody's work, which has about the value of nobody's work. The most pathetic situ- ation in the world is to find young people of large endowment who lack native persistence or whose parents or teachers have not persisted for them until they have learned the lesson for themselves: they sit down at the first crossroads of life, down in the low- lands, and are satisfied. Fortunate indeed is the young person who is not early satisfied ; the way may not be clear, the road, so far as he is able to see it, may be a crooked and a rough one, but whatever it is there is an inner impulse which makes him travel it. And fortunate indeed is the young person who as he travels the road can see the footprints of the men and the women who have traveled it before him, who PERSISTENCE AND CHARACTER 99 has every reason to believe that it can be traveled, and keeps on and on until he finds his place, until he discovers himself and makes the adjustment to life which enables him to do his work. Persistence simply means exposure, nothing more. Exposure should mean experience; experience means capitalization, and this spells out power. The young men and young women with hungry minds, not easily satisfied, who persist at great cost, have things ahead of them. But many are not so fortunate as to be thus endowed with the hungry mind and the rest- less temperament. Let them know that their only hope is in going forward. Let them recognize that there are but small things ahead of the person who is willing to travel only the short road. Let them realize that whoever fails to persist falls short of the outer stimulations and the appropriate inner develop- ment necessary to the finest type of efficient character of which the individual is capable. CHAPTER XVII CHOICE AND CHARACTER THE relationship existing between the choices of an individual and his character is a very close one. The significance of choice cannot be overemphasized, for at every turn of life it must be exercised. One's advancement is thus determined. He must go on or stop, and this involves choice. And if he chooses to go forward there are many ways open to him, and he must choose which one of these ways he will pursue. So that from earliest childhood to the end of life there is one continual procession of choices. We are apt to choose what we desire, and when there is a conflict of desires we are apt to follow the stronger; but desire may be inherent, and it may just as easily be a pull down as a push up. It is just as apt to be in the direction toward death as toward the more abundant life. Every one has realized in his own experience that the bare native desires of a human being are not always final criteria of the direction he should take. As one accumulates experience he may of course desire what is best in the long run although not most gratifying at the present, but this of course means that one has already lived and that he has accumulated experience. It demands sufficient past 100 CHOICE AND CHARACTER 101 experience to serve as a perspective, to give him in- sight into the long run ahead. There is always found here a conflict between the strong inclination to gratify the present desire and what would be best in the long run. And even in mature life the desire for present gratification, for the short run, sometimes prevails. The objective stimuli outweigh the sub- jective ideals and the prospective benefits to be derived from following them; so that all along the road of life one never becomes so capitalized and so fully the master of himself that he does not at times feel the waging of the conflict in making his choices. How are our young people with small experience, with practically no perspective, to be helped in de- ciding for the good in the long run against the desire for present gratification? In other words, how may our young people have the hope, the enthusiasm, the prospect of the young, and at the same time the judgment and the wisdom of the mature in making their choices? This is a condition greatly to be de- sired and never to be realized. I hope that the sug- gestions that I make here will have some value in helping to approximate it. ^First, choice is largely a matter of naming or classifying. Our young people can be taught this as a fact, as they are taught the multiplication table as a fact or the verb forms of their mother tongue as a fact. They can if need be commit it to memory. By copious illustrations this can be made very clear to the mind of the average young person. Whether young men decide upon a certain course of action or 102 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER not depends very largely indeed upon their classi- fication or naming of the thing they propose to do or desist from doing. On the Fourth of July or at Christmas time if young men say, "This day comes but once a year; we should appreciate it and be good fellows together. A little wine must be taken for the stomach's sake. This is an occasion for merri- ment and not for long faces. Everything is made to be used; it is too bad to let a good thing that costs so much go to waste," they will in all proba- bility, with very little sense of wrong, imbibe freely. But if, on the other hand, they name it differ- ently, if they make a different classification; if, for example, they say, " This may result in drunkenness to-day, in a bad head to-morrow, in misery in the home; this thing may set up tendencies toward an all-conquering appetite which will in the long run be ruinous; this act classifies us with all those who im- bibe, with those who are to-day in the jails and peni- tentiaries, in the gutters and in the madhouses," they will, in all probability, desist. In either case the bare act would be the same, but classifying it as innocent merriment enables them to go in, and clas- sifying it as a strong pull toward ruin they stay out. The same thing is true in the simple virtue of obedience in the family or in the state. If one classi- fies it as the basis for institutional harmony and in- stitutional efficiency, he will gladly obey those in authority and will insist upon complete obedience; but if he classifies it as an imposition by those in CHOICE AND CHARACTER 103 authority, he will resent it and will be disobedient to the point of disaster to his own life. Every one who spends six days a week in the factory, mill or shop feels the physical and mental need of outdoor recreation. One must have the sunshine, the fresh air, the uplift that comes from a trip into the country, a half day in the park or a cross-country automobile drive. Of course these things are needful, and so of course our clean, high- minded, law-abiding citizens in numbers too large to be told are spending their Sundays in this way. But if, on the other hand, it is important that the people from time to time should be still before God, that they should commune together and with Him, that they should meditate upon the best, that Sunday should be a holy day and not a holiday; if it is more im- portant to observe the Sabbath as a holy day than it is that one's business should prosper; if it is clearly seen and said that the desecration of Sunday is a fatal blow to the foundations of our civilized life, then the parks of amusement will be closed, the white cities will cease their operations, and Sunday will cease to be a day of whoop and hurrah and general fussiness, and will become a day of quiet meditation and holy devotion to higher things. The path into which one's feet turn on Sunday morning is determined almost entirely by the classification of the opportunity which the day affords. The same thing is true of the use of profanity. Men often say that they must do the subject justice and that a good "cussing out" is the only thing that 104 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER can be done. They forget that profanity is the means that small minds employ to express themselves emphatically. The other men simply classify pro- fanity in another category. I heard a man in a high official position say that women have no smuggling conscience. He was pro- voked to this statement by the fact that women of high social standing and intelligence and positions of honor in the church had smuggled large quantities of goods through the customhouse, and by the merest accident had been caught. Now these women would not have been guilty of the offense of stealing from the government or from an individual, of taking things outright; they made this serious mistake through failure to classify the act as one of theft. The country boy does not hesitate a moment to play a joke on his neighbor by taking a watermelon from his field, but he could not be hired to steal a watermelon from his neighbor. It is the same act in either case. Call it a joke and he goes in; call it theft and he stays out. Now, as was stated in a former paragraph, we can help our young people by teaching them outright the best names to apply to certain conduct, and when they have definite styles of conduct labeled correctly their behavior will like- wise be correct. In the second place, we can teach our young people outright, as we do the multiplication table or the verb forms, that choice is largely a matter of atten- tion; that as a man thinketh in his heart, that is, as he attends with his life, as he focuses himself upon CHOICE AND CHARACTER 105 a thing, so is he. So that if the objects of attention now present to the individual are not conducive to what he knows to be right choices, he can flee them as he would a pestilence and bring himself into a human and institutional environment which will offer him objects of attention conducive to this right choosing. If the eye offend thee, pluck it out. This may be done by plucking out the thing that appeals to the individual through the eye, and this is most readily done by plucking oneself away from the presence of such an object. And if the hand offend thee, cut it off. This may best be done by cutting off the thing that the hand grasps, by cutting oneself off from the presence of the thing which is an offense through the hand. We can teach young people that thinking and doing are one and the same thing, merely obverse sides one of the other; that as one attends, his choice is determined, and that the only way of choosing the best is to go away from the objects that lure us downward. Now there are certain large and comprehensive choices which determine the multitude of smaller choices and which are fraught with the greatest re- sponsibility. The choice of one's occupation, for example, will determine to a large degree the character of all the later choices which follow in the prosecu- tion of the occupation. The choice of one's lifemate will affect the character practically of all the choices that are made in after life. The choice of one's occupation involves no smaller question than this, the thing that one decides to spend his life with; and the 106 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER choice of one's mate determines no smaller question than this, the person with whom one decides to spend his life. These are the largest choices of life, and in the making of them our young people should be helped, not driven, to classify materials of choice on the highest, sanest and truest basis. What is a man's life work to be? Give it the right name, classify it correctly and attend to right things in determining it, and the choice will be well made. Who is a man's mate to be? Define it right and attend to the right character in making the choice and the choice will be well made. There is nothing so important to the human life, humanly speaking, as these comparatively early and exceedingly large choices, and yet many young people make them more hurriedly, more thoughtlessly, with less judgment and less counsel, than they would exercise in the smallest business trans- action. They take the remainder of life to repent. The road through life that one travels determines his environment, his stimuli, and to a large extent his objective opportunities; and these determine in a very large measure his life reactions and his conduct. There is therefore nothing of greater importance than the large choices of life, and we certainly have here the crux of human responsibility. CHAPTER XVIII THE SCHOOL AND CHARACTER WE have seen in previous chapters the part the school has in determining the ideals of the children. In this chapter I wish to emphasize the value of the school as an institution in which the method of realizing these ideals can be taught. Chapter XIV insists upon application or work as the only sure and legitimate method. To realize on himself and his ideals the individual must choose his work and then apply himself to it. What is the opportunity offered by the school for developing in the child the power and habit of wise choice and effective application? I wish to make it plain that the opportunities here are as numerous as the steps taken from the moment the child enters the school until the hour he graduates from it. It is a program of choice and application from beginning to finish. The course that the child takes in the mastery of every assignment is to be chosen by him. There is the opportunity for exercise of judgment at every step. Take, for example, his work in arithmetic. Any problem that has in it a half dozen steps requires the exercise of judgment and choice a half dozen times; and any problem that requires a hundred 107 108 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER steps in its solution requires likewise the exercise of judgment and choice a hundred times. I know of no field in the so-called affairs of later life which de- mands that right choice be made in order that right results may be obtained to a higher degree than does the work in arithmetic, and the mathematics that follow it in the higher grades. The same demand for conscientious exercise of judgment and choice is found in the chemical laboratory. The questions are always arising, what things shall be used, how much, in what proportions, in what way, how long, when is the experiment concluded and what, after all, are the legitimate deductions that can be made from it? Choice is no less demanded in all the other subjects of study than in these two which I have used merely by way of example; biology, physics, algebra, geometry, grammar offer the same chance. Whether the management of athletics has always been wise or not is not here the question. Sometimes it has been wise, sometimes it has been unwise. But athletics has rendered great service to the school and to the world. Football, for example, has demon- strated to the satisfaction of every one sufficiently wide awake to get the lesson, that a man simply cannot do his best unless he is at his best. This principle is demonstrated objectively and in a com- paratively coarse way on the gridiron, but it applies just as truly to the work of the teacher at his desk or to the preacher in the pulpit as it does to the athlete. If the athlete is not tingling with vitality, if he is not at his best, he cannot play the game. If the minister THE SCHOOL AND CHARACTER 109 or the teacher is at less than his best then he cannot get the finest results. Now athletics offers a fine field for quick judgment and right choice. The shortstop has no time after receiving the ball to consult with the captain as to what he shall do with it. Quicker almost than thought, if men are on second and third bases a good shortstop will do the appropriate thing, which might have been the most inappropriate thing if men were not on second and third. In all the hours of practice and play, quick action, accurate action and correct action are demanded. The same thing is true of the quarter back in the game of football. He must detect at a glance the weak place in the opposing team; he must detect at a glance which of his own men are at their best, and which are undertoned; he must be quick to accept every slip on the part of the opposition. The judgments and the choices of the quarter back in the game of football are almost as important as the training of the team in the days that precede the game. So that the school in its work and in its play offers continued and varied opportunities for the develop- ment of the power and the habit of wise choice. It offers no less opportunity for the development in the child of the power and habit of persistent, consistent, effective application. After all, the great word in pedagogy, as in life, is getting it done, human adjust- ment, accomplishing the task, and thereby accom- plishing the much larger and more important work of one's own life. Neither the shop, the factory nor the 110 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS FOR THE TEACHER office in after life will offer such systematic and varied opportunities for the development of this power of application as does the school. No man at his desk or in the factory is obliged to apply himself more faithfully, intensely and consecutively to the task in hand than is the student who is plowing his way through the subject of quadratics. And probably a single misstep in the work at the desk or in the factory would not result so disastrously to the end desired as would a single misstep in the solution of a problem in quadratics. The same thing is true of the mastery of an assignment in Virgil, in biology, in history. Mastery in all these lines demands consecutive, uni- form, intelligent application, just such application as the world will demand in later life, just such applica- tion as the world to-day is demanding and which it is not always securing. Manual training, which has gone forward so rapidly in our schools within the last ten years, offers a fine chance here. Not only the industrial world but the professional world in the next decade will have more willing and worthy workers in it as a result of the power and habit of effective application that our young men by the thousands are gaining in the manual-training schools. The school offers as does no other institution, during the plastic years, which because they are plastic are therefore the hopeful years, the opportunity for imbedding into the char- acters of the young the habits of exactness and appli- cation which will be valuable assets throughout life. The great chance of the school and therefore the THE SCHOOL AND CHARACTER 111 great function of the school is a threefold one. First, from the beginning to the finish, it offers a vast variety of organized stimulations to the child which are calculated to bring into activity all of his tend- encies upward and to allow to remain inactive the tendencies downward. The inevitable result of this is that the tendencies downward will become arrested in their development and that they will be elimi- nated through disuse, and that the tendencies up- ward, through these long and systematic stimulations, will be developed until they reach the place of mastery in one's life. In the second place, the school offers the child a long list and a vast variety of oppor- tunities for choice. No school can fail entirely in these opportunities; and, other things being equal, the school which meets this demand most fully is the best school. In the third place, the school should give the child a long list of varied chances to apply himself in getting results and in overcoming. This is the only method that will result in that degree of effi- ciency which every department of life needs so much. The school, then, is not so much an institution for the imparting of facts as it is an institution for the build- ing of character through its own stimulations, and through the choices and applications of the students. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 001 099 148 7 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. SUBJECT TO FINE IF l^ EDUCATION MAY 3 19S8 '964 IM* MAY 2 1 ,99! -9 4. Form L9-25m-3,'61(B8165s4)444 UCLA-ED/PS v'CH ^1 LC 268 B84 L 005 583 613 4