'fc^^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Shelf- -..KS 5"' UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2011 witii funding from Tine Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/sclioolfamilyethiOOkenn THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY THE ETHICS OF SCHOOL RELATIONS By JOHN KENNEDY IXSTRCCTOR I.V TEACHERS' IXSTITCTE3 S0^^^>^ NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS FEANKLIN SQUARE. 1878 3^ Eutered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S78, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE The doctrine of this treatise was embodied ill a paper entitled '' The Philosophy of School Discipline," read before the J^ew York State Teachers' Association at Platts- bnrgh, N". Y., July 25th, 1877. The paper Tras favorably received by the Association, and was afterwards pnblished in pamphlet form in order to subject it to the careful examination and criticism of the education- al public. Many opinions of the ^' Philosophy " have been received from leading educational au- thorities. Those opinions, while pronounc- ing the doctrine sound and its formulas use- ivr PREFACE. ful, have been accompanied by urgent re- quests for a more elaborate discussion of the principles laid down; and it is in compli- ance with these requests that the present work is undertaken. The author fully believes that there ex- ist in the nature of things materials for a Science of School Discipline. If this work should fail of scientific accuracy and com- pleteness, he trusts that it may at least have the effect of stimulating inquiry, and hasten- ing the time when we shall have an authen- tic science of this important subject. He is convinced, from extended observation in many of the foremost states in the Union, that the educational energy of this nation is suffering from a vicious empiricism. We see much guess-work abroad in the land, and many haphazard ventures, without uniform- ity of thought, and consequently without real progress. PREFACE. Until the profession of teaching rests upon scientific formulas it will ever be in its in- fancy. Bj empirical methods each teacher spends his life in more or less blundering experiments, and dies when he is beginning to understand his vocation. His successor repeats the same round of experience. Science would save this great waste of ex- periment, and conserve the fruits of experi- ence from slipping into the grave. Experi- ment could then be utilized in doing real pioneer work, and not be wasted on j^rob- lems that had been solved ages before. With a science of school discipline promulgated, teachers would not be found, as now, inquir- ing of each other, ''What would you do in this case V but rather, " What is the scien- tific solution ?" Science gives an authority representing not merely individual experi- ence, however good, but rather tlie collective experience of ages. Its dicta ought certainly to be entitled to respect. VI PREFACE. Having access to a science of his profes- sion, the young disciple is enabled to get his eyes open in advance of blundering steps ; he has a ready authority in case of doubt or un- certainty ; and he has a vantage-ground for really original achievements. A scientific ba- sis welds a profession together and increases its momentum. But the science of school discipline extends beyond the profession, and would tend to shape the thoughts and lives of families and communities. The work, as now elaborated, has several ends in view, which may account for the rather composite style in which it is writ- ten. It aims to reach the thinker, and for his pur230se would observe a closely philo- sophical method. It aims to reach the parents and the community ; and, in con- sequence, it has at times a fulness of ex- emplification which would be unnecessary in a strictly philosophical or professional work. PREFACE. Vll It aims to be an instrumentality in tlie work of practical reform; and for that reason it has in places an intensity of language that would otherwise be without meaning. Prac- tical refai-ras are not accomplished without hard blows against the evils to be removed. The inertia of custom is overcome only by vigorous shaking. It has the general pro- fessional and literary aim of calling attention to a great field of research, comparatively untouched in this country — viz., the field of educational science. Our gigantic empiricism may have been all needed in order to furnish the data for generalization. But if so, we have already accumulated such a surfeit of facts as ought to delight the soul of the philoso- pher. It would seem that the time has ar- I'ived for a new departure. If it were necessary in the beginning to feel our way and acquire educational opinions, we should Vni PREFACE. hereafter see our way and possess educa- tional knowledge. He who will co-ordi- nate the truths discovered bj our empiri- cism, and fasten them in a well-defined terminology, will do a great public good. Hoping that the aims of the book will invite a merciful forbearance of its faults, it is respectfully submitted to the public. John Kennedy. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Paok Preface iii Introduction 11 School Discipline 14 Conditions of Order for the District 17 Conditions of Order for the Parents 25 Conditions of Order for the Children 44 Conditions of Order for the Teacher 49 Causes of Disorder 72 Rights of the District 80 Rights op. the Parents 82 Rights of the Children 84 Rights op Teachers 87 Special Phases op Discipline 109 Tabltlar Analysis 127 Practical School Ethics 130 District Problems 134, Family Problems 152 Youth's Problems 179 Teachers' Problems 182 Index 201 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. introduction: Exact knowledge is acquired originally by induction — that is, by investigating the prop- erties of particular facts, noting their resem- blances and differences and the order of their occurrence. Resemblance and difference give rise to a classification of facts, and to the mental process of generalization ; order of occur- rence gives ]-ise to the conception of causa- tion. When we have effected a classification of a particular family of facts, and detected the order of causation, we have a subject. A subject in this sense is the summing-up of 12 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. our discoveries and conclusions within a specified limit of research. The knowledge embraced in the subject may be im]3arted in two ways: 1st. Objec- tively — that is, by causing the learner to ob- serve particular facts, and to make his own deductions successively to the ultimate con- clusions of the subject. 2d. Subjectively — that is, by asserting the conclusions and il- lustrating their soundness by application to particular cases. Objectiv^e instruction is best suited to young minds, which generalize slowly and witli difficulty. When, however, the mind is measurably practised in generalization, the subjective method may be ]3ursued with profit. Subjective leai'ning consists in ap23rehend- ing the meaning of propositions, and mak- ing the a]3plication to particular cases. Subjective instruction" is effective only when it results in edification. Edification is the fulness and strength resulting from the complete possession of the thought. Start- INTRODUCTION. 13 ing with the proposition, the mind sweeps through the field of particulars, and obtains complete possession of the thought only when it finds its application and verification in experience. With edification begins men- tal growth. Teaching should be to edifica- tion ; reading, or attention, should be to edi- fication. "We shall employ the subjective method in this work, and shall aim to give that clear- ness of statement which will be favorable to understanding and edification. The widest generalization in a subject is its definition. This, when correct, embraces all that enters into the subject, and finds its exemplification in a subsequent logical analysis. We can, therefore, expect tlie defi- nition to be but partly understood at the out- set, as all the subsecpient treatment tends to explain it. Through a series of minor proj)- ositions, involving less mental effort, we end with grasping the full significance of the definition. 14: THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. Definition. — Discipline, in the sense of government, is that power of control which produces and sustains order. Definition. — Order is fitness of condition in things. Throughout creation we see evidences of purpose. Every created thing has a definite end to fulfil in the economy of the universe, and relations to sustain to all other things. The extent of these relations is known only to the Infinite Mind; but copious glimpses of them are allowed to mortal discernment. It is the part of wisdom to search out the purposes, of which things are but the expres- sions. Without the purpose we but half know the thing. Change, activity, is the universal law of things. Where these infinite activities occur SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. 15 ill accordance with creative purposes, there is no conflict, no disorder, but rather the di- vinest harmony. In inanimate nature, also, among non-rational creatures, this harmony appears. All things within these classes fulfil their appointed purposes with the most un- questioning obedience. It remains for the volition of man to dis- turb the harmony of creation. Hence we can understand the poet's tendency to retire from things which appear out of joint, and find his inspiration in the harmonies of obe- dient nature. Poetic genius is but a soul attuned to the harmonies of divine pur]30se, and to whom Nature's voices are intelligible. It turns from man only when he is at war with order; but it returns to him again when he is worthy of notice, and finds its grandest pgean in a grand man. Man was intended to be the crowning glory of creation, instead of its single blot. If the volition of man is the only source 16 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. of disorder, when, then, is he in order ? When he is disposed "to will and to do of the good pleasure" of Him who gave liim his existence and his possibilities. Then is he in fitness of condition — then is he in order. Order as applied to a school means fitness of condition in all the parties comprehended in the idea of a school. The parties in this idea are as follows: 1st, the district as a body politic ; 2d, the parents or guardians ; 3d, the children ; 4th, the teacher. The school is in order when, and only when, all these parties are in order. These parties are in order when they are in the condition most favorable for the upbuilding and advancement of the school. We may examine this point under more sj^ecific conditions. CONDITIONS OF OKDER FOR THE DISTRICT. IT COXDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE DISTRICT. The district is in order — 1st, when it is able to pay the necessary expenses of the school ; 2d, when it is willing to contribute freely to the wants of the school ; 3d, when it possesses a decorous and law-abiding pub- lic sentiment. 1st. In the case of a private school, its district is unlimited in area and wealth. Its order, then, will depend principally upon the last two conditions, together with those of the remaining factors. It is different, however, in the case of the public schools. In this case the territory is parcelled out into definite areas for purposes of taxation. There is no disadvantage in this, provided the area has sufficient wealth to sustain an efficient school. Some states have wisely restricted the di- B 18 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. mensions to which the areas of taxation may be reduced. The to^^n or township is au- thorized to tax itself for the support of a sufficient number of schools to accommo- date the wants of its people. Under this basis of taxation, the concen- tration or extension of schools will be regu- lated by the financial ability of tlie town- ship. It is perhajDS true that every township in the nation has the ability to support one or more good schools. There is, therefore, un- der this organization, no financial necessity for a bad school. If the township) chooses to multiply its schools in order to diminish the travelling of isolated inhabitants, it per- forms an act of folly, assumes burdens that it is not able to bear, and thus prejudices the first condition of order. But this condition of order is ruined in other states by a ^^ernicious system of un- limited subdivision of territory. The ability to subdivide is abused bv the desire to save CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE DISTRICT. 19 travelling to and from the school-house ; and so the children's legs are saved at the ex- pense of their brains and character. An- other unworthy incentive to subdivision is the desire to get school-houses near enough to be nurseries for infants, an utter perver- sion of the purposes of a school. Subdivision produces inability to support a good school ; this poverty produces disor- der. The children will not respect the coops that are too often prepared for their recep- tion ; they cannot respect a cheap teacher : there results demoralization to the school, and ultimately to the community. The general evils attendant upon minute subdivision of territory are aggravated by special evils peculiar to the nature of the case. The business of the district is not transacted in a systematic manner; no delib- erative body discusses its necessities, hears suggestions for its improvement, or keeps a record of its proceedings as a guide to future action. The pure democracy use 20 THE SCHOOL AND THE FA^IILY. their privilege principally in deciding who shall control the pittance of patronage ; then comes in the most unseemly nepotism to give the finishing blow in the murder of a school. When we add the neighborhood animosi- ties resulting from scrambles after territory and schools, we have a fair recapitulation of the evils resulting from minute subdivision. As intimated in the beginning, this philos- ophy has been developed inductively, though treated subjectively. The results alluded to throughout the work are not simply what might occur under given circumstances, but what have actually occurred in the Am(?rican attempt at popular education. The writer has seen in the leading states of the Union what he chooses to call the created evils of legislation at work sapping the efficiency of education and the welfare of society with it. It is not easy to write with philosophic composure when the theme recalls the intel- lectual and moral destruction of so many CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE DISTRICT. 21 tlioiisands of a promising generation whose maturity the country needs. The nation has been so blind to the real condition of tilings as to listen with rapt attention to repeated enlogiums on the little school-houses dotting the land. When one knows how many of these structures may well bear on their portals the flaming in- scription, ''Who enters here leaves hope be- hind," the sight of them is more likely to awaken a shudder than a thrill of joy. It is an encouraging sign, however, that educational thought is moving against minute subdivision, and in favor of rational organi- zation. Several states have obliterated sub- district lines, and have organized educational work on the basis of the township system. But the old evils are largely entailed upon the new system : the so-called school-houses having an existence are permitted to settle the question of how many schools are to be supported in the township. Poverty, then, affects discipline by making 22 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. it impossible to secure suitable school-houses, apparatus, and competent teachers. 2d. Free communities control their own property. The ability to support a good school would be null without willingness on the part of the people to advance the funds necessary to put the school in order. 3d. The discipline of the school must nec- essarily be affected by the condition of public sentiment in the community. The children imbibe their character from every adult of their acquaintance: the teacher is but one among many who have access to them dur- ing the day. His efforts to inculcate subor- dination will not prosper while vicious asso- ciates are instructing the children that rebell- ion and license are the proj^er order of life, and the only things that are manly. His corrections will not have the desired effect while a neighborhood tells tlie children that they are martyrs, that the teacher is their enemy, and that they should retaliate their wrongs upon him at the earliest possible day. CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE DISTRICT. 23 Unless the teaclier's precepts find a fair degree of corroboration outside, they will but produce irritation and increase the dis- order. Instances are on record where teach- ers who wanted order have been thrown out of the school -house by the large boys, and the neighborhood laughed at the joke. That is not a commendable state of senti- ment w^here such boys become the heroes of breakfast-tables. Yet the writer has in mind a school in which, after one teacher had been thrown out with a broken leg, his successor escaped the same fate only by his quickness of action and the rapidity with which he administered bruisesr Instead of being frowned down by the community, and taught to hang their heads with shame after the first offence, those un- fortunate boys came back with the spirit of heroes in search of fresh laurels. These are, of course, exceptional cases ; but they serve to illustrate how important an. element of discipline is law-abiding public sentiment in 24: THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. a comminnty. License has its fascinations for the joungj and even in the best-ordered communities the children are exposed to the corrupting example and instruction of too many bad persons. CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. 25 CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. The parents are in order — 1st, when they appreciate the value of education to the child ; 2d, when they are wise in the daily management of their children's time, with a view to school duties and relations; 3d, when they are pro23erly affected towards the school, and thereby sustain its management. 1st. It is a great misfortune to children, and a great source of disturbance in dis- cipline, when parents have no lively sense of the value of education. It is common for parents of limited culture to regard edu- cation as a mere instrumentality in the trans- action of" business, and that a smattering of reading, writing, and computation will an- swer all the purposes of life. They overlook entirely the higher nature of the child — the existence of mental and 26 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. moral faculties ; the capacity of these facul- ties for growth and development, and the relation of this growth and development to happiness and usefulness. They are deficient in a proper ideal of maturity and character, and fail to appreciate the germs intrusted to their care. Though they are not wanting in affection, yet they see only the germs of physical growth, and are unaware that their ideals are only adult children. Dr. Young speaks of "hoary youth," and there is a world of meaning in the expression. Among the finer phases of human life is that of the j^oor but wise widow making the most painful personal sacrifices in order to procure that education which she knows her child needs. The contrast is that of her op- ulent neighbor sending his children to an incompetent and inexperienced teacher, and fearing the effects of over-education. There is no such thing as over-education ; but where this bugbear haunts the imagi- nations of parents, they will not second the CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. 27 teacher's efforts to awaken emulation and ambition. While there is no such thing as over-educa- tion, there is, however, such a thing as mal- education ; and the notion of over-education has arisen from a confusion of ideas. True education strengthens the common -sense of the individual, while mal-education may leave him an utter imbecile. Wliere the parents do not approve of cult- ure, the teacher's efforts to diffuse it will meet with friction, and the order of the school will be disturbed. 2d. Punctuality and regularity of attend- ance are eminently essential to the good order of a school. The teacher arranges his plans on the assumption that his pupils will be regular and punctual in their attendance. The teacher rules through his system. Ab- sence and tardiness tend to break into and demoralize that system. There is no doubt that parents are mainly responsible for absence and tardiness : they 28 THE SCHOOL Ai^D THE FAMILY. could suppress them almost entirely if tliej^ would. That parents do not suppress absence and tardiness is due to three causes — viz., 1, want of systematic home government ; 2, thought- lessness or overweening sentimental indul- gence; 3, covetousness. In well-governed homes the children retire at a given time ; they rise ref reslied at a given time ; and after discharging their morn- ing duties in order, they start for school in season. Habits of procrastination and irreg- ularity will find them unprei^ared to move when schooltime arrives. Instead of retiring to rest at bedtime, to recuperate their strength and spirits for the demands of the coming day, many children are subjected to the forc- ing process of acquitting themselves in even- ing parties and entertainments. The time which should be devoted to repose is given to actual dissipation. The dissipation re- garded as respectable is attended with phys- ical, mental, and moral wear and tear just as CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR TUK PARENTS. 29 truly as is the license wliicli society condemns. An adult dreads the ordeal of meeting tyran- nical custom in the night, because his judg- ment tells him it will be a tax on all his pow- ers. But an adult requires less rest than a youth, because he has his growth, has learned law, and has acquired a habit of husbanding his forces. Young people, on the contrary, have no conception of law ; prudence forms no part of their capital ; they are susceptible of the most intense excitement, and are en- tirely at its mercy; they rush headlong to prostration without experiencing a restrain- ing motive. To rob a child of its rest and expose it to the strain of night excitement is a sin attended w^th the most serious con- sequences. Parents who thus surrender their children to the tyranny of vicious custom inflict lasting injury upon the children and great disorder upon the school. The wearied young victims are apt to be late. But this is only an item in the disorder. They are op- pressed with a sinking lassitude, and have na'' 30 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. zest for exertion ; their faculties are clouded and benumbed, making tliinkino^ difficult and repulsive ; their minds are absent, wandering back to the scenes of excitement and dwell- ing upon new-found emotions. The faithful teacher sees and feels the change with dis- may. The school of yesterday, which was beginning to feel the spur of emulation, has been thrown back almost irretrievably by the shock of outside forces. Yet who will say that this teacher is incapable of governing because the accident of a night has intro- duced such disorder into his school ? It is not sufficient to the purposes of government that the teacher be in order ; it is necessary that the other factors be likewise in order. He who watches the clock, and sees that the school-child retires before nine is governing the school ; he who countenances late hours is introducing disorder. In the above we have depicted a fault in family government that is so universal as to be national. It is not only destroying the CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. 31 order of our schools, but it is also weakening the quality of our people ; it is introducing the inevitable consequence of excess, human deterioration. The reaction of this night ex- citement is seen in a series of evil conse- quences. The more delicate children succumb to the unnatural strain and disappear from school. Where are they to be found there- after? Not in the broad arena of action, wielding the forces of a world. Many have furnished business to undertakers and tomb- stone manufacturers, while the mission of the rest is to remind these enterprising establish- ments that business is not in danger. Night excitement has for its fruit an army of candi- dates for early -grave accommodations. But the dissolution of the body is preceded by the wail of dying hope. Could our parents hear that continuous wail from the myriad victims of misgovernment, they would be prompt in getting their children to bed. But the children who survive the friglitful ordeal in consequence of their great recupera- 32 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. tive physical powers are also sufferers ; they bear the scars of intellectual and moral reac- tion ; their higher nature is seared by the hot iron of injustice. The good instructor who has an ideal of capacity to which he would have his pupil attain knows that he must first arouse in that pupil the emotions of emulation and ambition. Growth of pow- er is conditioned in emotion; there must be the will born of confidence and hope. Tem- porary or spasmodic emotion will not supply the conditions of development ; the emotion must be sustained. There is a limit to the recovery of emotion from the dej)ressing reactions of dissipation; the child at length becomes incapable of the proper emotion, and goes to swell the ranks of passive fail- ures. We want a national sensibility that will abhor the practice of making children ape the ways of maturity. If we protect them from excitement by jealously guarding their hours of repose, we do much to assure their CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. 33 good bejiavior in school and tlieir success in life. But do cliildren not need diversion 'i They do ; but not after nine o'clock at night ; at that point their sovereign need is refresh- ing sleep. Under healthy government the children will wake with the lark and rouse the household at dawn. Under right living, mankind will, as they should, wake up w^ith the rest of nature. A household sleepy in the morning bespeaks violated law. But what about the lessons that require late study ? The teacher is censurable for assigning such lessons. He is employed to instruct the children ; he has no right to compel them to take time from their rest in order to in- struct themselves. He should, it is true, en- courage application, and enforce, if need be, a certain amount of it ; but he can err seriously by imposing heavy tasks. A household ruled on the principle of a time for everything, and everything in its time, will give not only punctual pupils, but also punctual men and women. 34 THE SCHOOL A^T> THE FAMILY. But we have only begun the list of cumu- lative evils suggested by the fatal "nine." That hour marks a crisis in youth's daily history. If wakeful excitement continues beyond that point, there is death lurking in the minutes. Some well-meaning parents detain their children at home from time to time on the most trifling pretexts, thinking that the loss of a single day will not affect their progress materially ; or they let the children absent themselves on a mere freak. Eegularity is essential to close work and solid advance- ment, and a discouraged mind may And its cause in the absence of a single day. But the most unworthy cause of absence and tardiness is covetousness. Many parents discover a commercial value in the services of the child. They can estimate with very close accuracy the value of those services from year to year, up to that period when the law gives the little sufferer his release. That release is but a comfortless boon to COXDITTOXS OF ORDER FOR THE PAREXT:^. 35 one who has been robbed of his youth, and who is now cast upon the world shorn of his strength, maimed in body, intellect, and soul. Xo, the commercial parent is not concerned with questions of over-education and indul- gence ; his motive in detaining his children from school is dollars and cents. If for form's sake he lets them put in an appear- ance occasionally, it is with the regret of the miser who sees a penny slipping from his hoard. This is not the relation of parent and child ; it is the relation of slave and master. The slavery that above all others cries to heaven for vengeance is the slavery of a helpless child who feels within himself the promptings to noble things, but is ground down to the dust by the heavy hand of au- thority. Xo parent has a right to discover a com- mercial value in his child. It is true that both natural and civil law give him the cus- tody of the child ; but it is not for com- 36 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. mercial considerations. The custody is grant- ed as a tribute to the affections, and solely for the child's sake. It is presumed that the par- ent loves his child, and will provide for the wants of its growing existence more complete- ly than any other party. Love is not a task-master ; it sacrifices it- self for its object ; it rejoices in giving, not taking. Where could we presume that the child would be more likely to find justice than in the bosom of its parent ? The only services from the child to which the parent is justly entitled are obedience, respect, and filial love. But these are given in exchange for love ; he may forfeit them by ignoring his own share of the contract. But we are not arguing that children should be idlers. It is contrary to their nature to be idle ; they are called bundles of activities. Xature has certain things for the child to do ; the parent should give her a fair chance to work her purposes. It is then his duty to train his child to industry, economy, CONDITIONS OF ORDEK FOR THE PARENTS. 87 and practical skill in doing things as a prep- aration for a useful life. But it should be remembered that the aim is training ; and the training should not be exhausting. If material value results from the activity expended in the training, there is no wrong. This is property which the parent has right- fully acquired, just as the state finds property in the activities of the criminals it is trying to reform. But it would be wrong in either party to covet such property. The wisest parent will do well to leave a very large part of the training to nature ; and a serious mistake may be made, even, in calling in the aid of the schoolmaster at too early a day. 3d. To be properly affected towards the school is to be disposed to do the school justice. The parent who is properly affected towards the school will not pass hasty judg- ment on the teacher's action on the ex parte testimony of the child, and conclude that a 38 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FA^kllLT. wrong is clone because the child happens to think so. Where a wrong is suspected the teacher will not be condemned without a hearing, nor till after all available testimony has been weighed. The most important evidence in making up just judgment is the evidence of one's senses. Parents should see the discipline to which their children are subjected, and upon which so much depends. It is entirely un- accountable on what grounds parents neg- lect the duty of school inspection. But this neglect is so general throughout tlie land that parental visitation is a rare exception. It would seem that natural concern for the welfare of the child would impel the par- ent to visit the school and possess himself of the most absolute of all evidence, that of per- sonal observation, in regard to the discipline. That there is not almost continually a sprink- ling of anxious fathers and mothers looking in upon the discipline of their children is phenomenal, and almost puzzles philosophy. CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. 39 The fact bears on its face a terrible cliarge, that of indifference as to what manner of niatnrity the chiklren may take on. To a de- gree, the charge is snstained by facts. Otli- er parents compromise with their consciences by snpposing that hired watching will suffice. We shall discuss hired watching farther on. Bad discipline exists because it exists un- seen ; it would wither nnder the common- sense of parental scrutiny. The difficult}^ with hired watching is that it does not see with the eye of affection. There can be no substitute for parental visitation. Discipline will lag and be misinterpreted until parents discharge this sacred duty. It is common to hear parents discussing the teacher. Such discussions are fruitless, unless those parents have seen that teacher at work. They cannot discuss profitably what they do not know ; they do not know the teacher whose work they have not seen. The parent who is properly affected rec- ognizes the necessity of having authority in 40 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. the schoolroom, and will not weaken that authority by criticising the teacher in the presence of the child. All discussions of the teacher should be absolutely removed from the child's ear. To the child the teacher should be perfection. The child's own im- pressions of the school should be taken for just what they are worth ; but while he re- mains he should be required to respect the authority and superiority of the teacher. There is little chance for order where par- ents believe the teacher is unworthy of re- spect, and openly tell their children so. The parent who is properly affected w^ill remember that the teacher is in loco parentis, and that the cliild should carry to the school- room the same submissive allegiance which he renders at home. Under no circum- stances should the parent . encourage insub- ordination. It is a lesson in crime. Crime consists in a violation of law ; and he who has learned to trample upon the laws of the schoolroom is a criminal in all respects except CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. 41 the disgrace of legal punishment. lie is ripe for the commission of such trespasses as will place him behind prison-bars. We see in this instance the important re- lation existing between order in the school- room and order in the state, or public order. But the foundation of all is family order. If there is not a recognized authority at home, it will be difficult to secure recognition of au- thority elsewhere. Insubordination generally takes its rise at home, and springs from three causes — viz. : 1st, conflict of authority ; 2d, abuse of au- tliority ; 3d, abdication of authority. A conflict of authority occurs when the father and mother have opposing wishes in regard to the child's conduct. The child, being unable to obey both, is led, after a period of confused volition, to disobey both. Abuse of authority occurs when unjust exac- tions are required from the child, or when unjust punishments are inflicted upon him. The effect is to arouse resentment, which is 42 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAIkllLY. the forerunner of rebellion. Family trag- edies are but the collisions of wills which have been thrown out of their j)roper rela- tions either by conflict of authority or the abuse of it. A rebellious child is the fruit of faulty home discipline. Such a child is not a good subject for school discipline. Abdication of authority occurs when par- ents permit disobedience, and deliver the child over to its own inclinations. This is one of those amiable weaknesses which it is difficult to condemn. It results from large affection, which is of itself one of the grand- est qualities of humanity. The child is given to understand that he may obey his parent's wishes if it chances to be pleasant for him to do so. But if the obedience involves any personal discomfort or any violence to incli- nation, the kind parent would not for the world have him j^ut himself to anj incon- venience. The misguided aifection which abdicates authority may be at times so shocked Avith CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE PARENTS. 43 the caprice of a spoiled cliild as to employ entreaty and remonstrance in order to re- strain it. But these only emphasize the ab- dication, and give the child additional assur- ance that he is a law unto himself. Authorities exist in the schoolroom and in the state; the child should be prepared to encounter them by experiencing a whole- some subjection at home. The will of the parent is the law of the household, beyond which there is no appeal, so long as he does not ti*anscend the jDrovis- ions of civil law. This will should be in- flexible on all points of duty and allegiance from the child. It may, if needed, employ force in order to secure submission, but will not push the force beyond the necessities of submission. The iirm, unyielding will of the just parent produces subordination; the iron will of the unjust parent drives his child into rebellion. 44 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. CONDITIONS OF OBDEBFOR THE CHILDREN. The children are in order — 1st, when tliey are happy ; 2d, when they respect the teacher and his office ; 3d, when they feel interested in the school and have pride in its snccess. 1st. The happy alone are tractable. This is a law of human existence. The pursuit of liappiness is the mainspring of human activity. Happiness is fruition, content; un- hapi)iness is want, uneasiness. Happiness is a phase of love; and love is submission. Volition has its origin in the desires; the desires originate in want; they were created for the express purpose of making the person unhappy, so that he would will to supply the want in order to escape the unhappiness. The desires are blessings without which hu- man existence would suddenly cease; for reason alone is inadequate to the preserva- CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE CHILDREN. 45 tion of life. In an important sense, then, the desires are onr masters — imj^erious, despotic masters — enforcing their authority with the sanction of keenest torture. The desires of chiklhood are few and simple, but intense, in consequence of the excessive demands of growth. The desires at this period are mostly physical, as they have the task both of sustaining life and providing increase of structure. These im- perative physical desires may be summed up in the desire for food, the desire for exer- cise, and the desire for repose — three things absolutely essential to physical development. Children have one imperious moral desire — viz., the desire of love. In addition to these desires, they have susceptibilities, which are either incipient desires or the germs of fut- ure desires. Xow, when abundant provision is made for the imperious desires, and reasonable provis- ion for the susceptibilities, the child is in- tensely haj^py and tractable. It is in conse- 46 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. quence of the susceptibility of the child to enjoy sweet sounds and beautiful sights that music and pictures are introduced into the schoolroom, and shrubbery into the play- ground, as aids to discipline. When the conditions of happiness are understood and supplied, much has been done for order. This relation of happiness to obedience is universal. Suffering armies have been saved from mutiny, not by the authority of the commander, but by his skill in recalling their minds from their physical sufferings to the happiness of contemj)lating the recollections of the past, the merits of their cause, and future rewards. What is the inspiration to do and dare but an overwhelming sense of happiness which stifles minor tortures ? The authority of a national government is tolerated when its people are happy; when unhappiness seizes them, the government is menaced. This is right ; governments exist for the happiness of the governed. In the schoolroom the teacher cannot ex- CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE CHILDREN. 47 pect proper submission to liis will while the children are lashed into agony by one or other of their despotic desires. There occurs a conflict of authority which demoralizes the volition of the child and disturbs the order of the school. 2d. Respect for superior ability and the functions of authority are everywhere the con- ditions of willing subordination. Unwilling subordination is not discipline ; it is tyranny. There will not be order in the school if the teacher is jeered and insulted by his pupils out of school. This may or may not be owing to the teacher's fault, but it is nevertheless destructive of order while it continues. 3d. Discipline is much advanced when the children realize that the school is theirs as completely as it is the teacher's; that he is only a necessary part of it. When this point has been reached, there will be need of but few commands from the teacher; the neces- sities of the school may be freely discussed, and the orders issued by the common voice of 48 THE SCHOOL A^B THE FAMILY. the pupils. Discipline has indeed triumphed when the j)upils take upon themselves the task of preserving ordei*. The most orderly schools in this country are governed by the public opinion of the school. It has been the writer's good fort- une to see several schools which have reach- ed this grand consummation. In these cases the presence or absence of the teacher made no difference ; the pupils were on their hon- or, and that sufficed for order. We are searching for the nature of that power of control which produces and sustains order in a school; and we begin already to see that it is a snored power. We get the highest control over others by teaching them, both by precept and examj^le, to control them- selves. We control most powerfully by indi- rection ; the word of the pojDular leader will control millions to his purpose, while that of the titled monarch is set at nauo^ht. ^N'one but a moral power could bring about the conditions which we have so far found to be essential to order in a school. CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 49 CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. The teaclier is in order — 1st, when lie is thoroughly master of himself ; 2d, when he possesses the clearest mastery of the subjects he is presumed to teach ; 3d, when he ap- prehends correctly the relations surrounding and centring in him. 1st. Self-mastery is character. Character is a life conformed to the moral law. It is a growth ; it is the seal of man's maturity ; it is the symbol of victory in the struggles with the evil propensities of human nature. To the man of character life has become a science ; his volition is no longer controlled by impulse, but by fixed and definite princi- ples of action. His principles are his iden- tity ; if they are defeated in a single instance, he is humiliated in his own esteem. To him any shock to self-respect is more painful than D 50 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. the criticisms of the jDiiblic. His ready sense of rectitude and propriety, his conscience, he prizes above all other considerations. He is under the dominion of conscience. Deportment may be formed by external in- fluences; but character is shaped only from within. The world is too apt to mistake deportment for character; but the deception is short-lived. There come occasions in the history of every man which test his quali- ties, and tear away the mask from his real strength or weakness. Comjjlaisance is but the shadow of char- acter ; it is folly to ape the form and ignore the substance. A habit of appearing good is pleasant to the eye, but deceptive and treach- erous to the experience; but a habit of be- ing good is beyond all price; it is the rock upon which society rests. Perhaps nothing in the history of society has been so completely perverted and abused as politeness. It should be the mark of greatness of soul ; but it has too often been CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 51 studied in all its points and j)ut on as a gar- ment to conceal the designs of a villain. Every community in civilized countries has had its experience with polished rascality, which for the moment has eclipsed the merits of virtuous and honorable men who chanced to have some angles in their man- ners. We would not defend coarseness, nor make it the infallible sign of excellence ; but we would have that breeding which begins at the core and finishes on the surface. We have had abundance of whitened sepulchres ; the type is immortalized in " The mildest- mannered man that ever scuttled ship or cut a throat." What we want is character ; and we shall be glad to have it polite. The amenities of life which we prize so highly have had their origin in innate kindness. But character is essential to discij^line in a school; it gives a rallying -point for order, and gives to precept the sanction of example. None but a settled character is competent to 52 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. preside over the discipline of a school. The children have more logic than they are gen- erally credited with, and are quick to detect the variance between precept and example. They are loath to cleave to duty when they perceive it to be a one-sided affair. There are stages in character. First there is uncertain character ; then there is either character or want of character. We choose to use these terms in making the distinc- tions, in order that the grand word charac- ter may be saved to a S23ecific and definite meaning. It means such a loyalty to con- science as will not deviate a hair's -breadth though the heavens fall. It means a deter- mination to do right because it is right, re- gardless of consequences. It means the cour- age to endure pain and loss, if need be, in or- der to vindicate the right. That is not character which does right when it is convenient or politic, but does wrong when unobserved or when trial comes. Doubtless many people are self-deceived as CONDITIONS OF OEDER FOR THE TEACHER. 53 to wliicli of the stages they are in, and may imagine that they have character because they have never been tem23ted to do wrong. Only the person of chai'acter is competent to preserve order. The villain can only poison and demoralize ; the person of nncer- tain character is imbecile. Uncertain character is an accom^^animent of youth, the period of the strife between good intentions and bad propensities. The actions of the individual at this period are marked by the most striking contrasts and inconsistencies, without any iixed centre of motive. One so loose in conduct is not adapted to impart stability to others. When wrangles occur between the child-teacher and the other children under his charge, the par- ents will be apt to take sides with their own children as against the stranger. Whether this uncertain character will de- velop into character or w^ant of character is often a mere problem of circumstances. In any case, it imports disaster to the order of a 54 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. school when persons in this stage are ap- pointed to exercise its government. Yonth is not a crime ; bnt it is a crime to employ that youth for purposes to which it is not fitted. The purpose to which it is least fitted is that of allaying the turbulent and often disordered impulses of childhood. It needs the experience of self-mastery in order to read correctly the childish nature and be prepared to deal with it. Maturity may be hastened by effort ; but it is also true that many persons never pass the thresh- old of youth, and die young though they live to be fourscore. Character not only gives the teacher influ- ence in the schoolroom, but it also protects him from being misrejDresented and misun- derstood outside, and so contributes to other conditions of order. We have said that character is shaped from within. Without introspection the for- mation of a symmetrical character is almost an impossibility. What do we see on looking CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 55 within ? We beliold a complex structure of organs, faculties, and powers, rising in a given order of importance, all having certain func- tions to perform, all having certain relations to sustain to each other and to the surround- ing universe ; we see, in short, '' IIow fearful- ly and wonderfully we are made !" We see the temple of man's personality, the house intrusted to his special care, and for which he is held to a solemn accountability ; we see the purposes of its parts, the conditions of their health, and the method by which the house is kept in order. We take an inventory of our possessions, note the purposes to which they were de- signed, and begin our first act of govern- ment. That government consists in restrain- ing rebellious parts, and rousing into activity others which have a tendency to lie dormant. When the evil propensities are held in check, and all the faculties roused to the full dis- charge of their functions, we have an harmo- nious existence — we have a stable man. 56 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAJ^nLY. But this government is not a phase of self- ishness, nor of self-snfficiency. Eising above all the other faculties and powers in the hu- man composition are enthroned the natural and spiritual affections, craving objects be- yond self, and drawing man into communion with his Maker and his kind. This is the status of character — an enlightened will in- fluenced by love. This is the character req- uisite to the preservation of civil order, of which a school is but a phase. "We will not discuss here the influence of character in shaping the children's lives ; our present purpose is to show its relation to discipline. In order to do this, we are obliged to reveal its nature and the manner of its acquisition. 2d. Attention is an essential and powerful element of order. The absolute calm of a " spell - bound " audience is a thing well known ; and its laws are in a measure un- derstood. It is not regarded as an act of volition in compliment to the speaker. It CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 57 is known to be due to the relation of mind to ideas, of Avliicli the speaker is but the exciting cause. lie arrests attention by making vividly present a train of ideas which recall the wandering activities of the mind to a con- centration in a giyen direction. This con- centration produces stillness. While the en- forced stillness of a few moments is painful, audiences have been known to hang for hours on the words of an effective speaker with- out any discomfort, and to regret even then that the end was come. The power of vivid ideas in securing or- der is not limited to any class of humani- ty ; the vile and low, as well as the wor- thy and cultivated, are equally susceptible to its influence. This power has been so often illustrated as to give rise to the prov- erb, ''They came to scoff, but remained to pray." Cultivated persons acquire measurable con- trol over their attention, and can direct it 58 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. at will to given subjects. Training likewise produces habit ; and so, after naucli practice, there may result a habit of giving attention. But children are under the control of phys- ical impulses and mental fancies, and, in consequence, they are prone to manifesta- tions of activity that are not in keeping with order. But they are not exempt from the power of ideas; and this power steps in to win them from themselves. But there is no flashing of ideas in rote- teaching. It proves an irksome drudgery to the children, increasing their discomfort and multiplying the tendencies to disorder. A parody on true teaching is that process of giving the children text -books and telling them to get knowledge and culture for them- selves — knowledge and culture which per- chance the teacher does not possess. Noth- ing is better fitted to discourage the learner utterly, and make him distrust his mental powers, than such a course. Discourage a child by mechanical teaching, and you pre- CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 59 pare him to become either an adult dolt or a distinguished reprobate. Mechanical teaching is worse than none ; it is a positive injury : it perverts the child- ish nature, and is largely responsible for the imbecility and crime which aiiiict the country. In the United States to-day vast sums are annually expended in the production of in- jury to individual hai^piness and to the national welfare. It would seem that evil is plentiful enough without paying for it. Many taxpayers have had this thought dawn upon them, and have wisely decided to jDay as little as possible for the evils imposed upon them. In many communities the pub- lic school is practically repudiated, though the forms are retained. The forms are en- dured in order to comfort some people who think forms are capable of accomplishing something, and because forms are necessary in order to secure state aid. That mastery of the subject which intro- duces the power of ideas into the govern- 60 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. ment of a school is wanting — 1st, in those persons who never had a solid grasp of any subject — that is, persons who have been su- perficially educated, or rather ma/-educated ; 2d, those persons who were once in fair mental condition, but have lost their stu- dious habits. He who ceases to advance in knowledge must recede. The individual who some time ago reached a resting-place in his mental achievements is properly called a fossil. A fossil is a dead thing retaining some hints of its former self. So, too, knowledge may die, and yet retain resemblances to its living state. Yivid ideas mean literally live ideas, pul- sating ideas. There is in live knowledge a circulation, just as there is a circulation with- in the frame of the living animal. This cir- culation in knowledge is called the law of mental association. The sum total of knowl- edo^e is a unit. We have a universe in which all things known and unknown are tied to- CONDITIOXS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. CI getlier into one whole by the interweaving strands of rehxtions. These strands are clues which the mind loves to follow, and which the cultivated mind must follow. When a new idea is discovered, it must be adjusted. The mind runs down the existing strands to see that the connection is complete, and in its progress illuminates and vitalizes the pre- vious wisdom. Again, the mind gathers im- petus for new conquests by swift excursions over existing lines. Herein we see the mental circulation and the vitalizing effects produced by fresh in- vestigations. The reviews necessitated by research, and impelled by discovery, bring out our old knowledge into greater distinct- ness, and adom ^t with new meanings. By such discipline the mind becomes so familiar with its strands that it acquires a habit of sweeping through them with light- ning speed on the least exciting occasion. Then ideas do not come singly, but in trains — for the mind must sweep the strands. 62 THE SCHOOL A^D THE FA^IILY. Stop jour progress and joii stop the ne- cessities for excursions; soon yon stop the habit of excursions, and ere long the old, un- visited stores become mere reminiscences in memory. "When the mind would get at them, it must stumble with crutches over ground which it once swej^t with the swift- ness and ease of Mercurj^ It adheres anx- iously to any old waymarks that may be left, and hugs the ruts as its only salvation from being utterly lost. Gone are the trains of ideas ; gone the power to captivate the mind and recall it from its disorder. What remains ? Nothing but a process of hooking up the dead and stale ideas of the past and forcing them into unwilling minds that have no appetite for even wholesome food. Either that or words — words, the coun- terfeits of knowledge — a leaning on the lan- guage of the text -book instead of on the possessions of tlie mind. It is characteristic of teachers who are not masters of their subjects to be very con- CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 03 scieiitious about compelling the cliildreii to master them. The state of the appetite and the cpialitj of the food are altogether overlooked, while the business of cramming by quantity goes grimly and persistently on. There is an old adage about the ability to lead a horse to water, and the inability to make him drink. The animal can protect his organs of nutrition from abuse ; but the poor child undertakes to gorge himself with the innutritions things set before him, and in consequence gets his mind into the ut- most disorder. So great and permanent is this disorder that it has given rise to the term "unlearn," a word familiar to good teachers who have been compelled to re- ceive the relics of mismanagement. In alluding to superficial teachers, we do not necessarily mean the young; nor, in al- hiding to fossil teachers, do we necessarily mean the old. The distinction occurs on inherent condition, not on age; the terms are frequently reversed. 64 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. Kone but a progressive teaclier is compe- tent to discipline a school. In addition to the laws already laid down, we may add that the discovery in him of any halting ignorance or want of clearness will imme- diately imdermine his authority by weaken- ing res23ect for him. The mark of a progressive teacher is in- tellectual diligence inspired by a thirst after knowledge. lie may be known by the com- pany he keeps — that is, by the books he reads and the studies he pursues out of scliooh Unless his record is satisfactory on these points, the presumption is against his power to produce and sustain order. 3d. We use the term aj)2)rehension of re- lations rather than knowledge of relations. A knowledo:e of all the relations centring: in a particular school is something that would require long -continued observation, even if the task did not prove infinite. But a ready apprehension of relations, accompanying dil- igent observation, will enable a person to CONDITIOXS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 05 begin the great work of disciplining a school. The manifestations of disorder are effects of given causes. A very ordinary mind will be conscious of the disorder; but ready ap- prehension of relations in the teacher w^ill enable him to detect the cause lying back of the manifestation. We are now prepared for an analogy which is true and complete, and through which the whole nature of discipline dawns upon us. Disorder is of the nature of dis- ease ; the teacher is the physician on whom devolves the task of cure; and discipline is a remedial system. The j)hysician is latent while the school is in order, and then the instructor has the floor ; but the physician steps forward at the first symptoms of ill- ness, reads its nature, and begins its treat- ment. In medicine, a failure to understand the symptoms leads to disaster in the treatment; the quack, by his blunders, makes the diffi- E 66 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. culty chronic instead of driving it from tlie system in its acute stages. Moral disease is more intricate than physical maladies, and re- quires a higher order of skill and science in its treatment. As we ascend in the scale of being, we dis- cover more comjDlex structure, more delicate- ly interwoven relations. We rise tlirough the physical and mental before we reach the mor- al nature. But, in addition to greater com- plexity, there is the greater difficulty of mor- al investigation. Tlie things of the j^hysical nature may be seen by the physical eye, felt by the physical touch, and their relations de- termined by a simple exercise of intellectual apprehension; but the things of the moral nature are apparent only to moral discern- ment. Besides, as moral disorder often re- sults from jDhysical causes, the moral phy- sician must be wise in physical things. It is therefore a higher science. And yet nations throw the strongest legal safeguards around medicine, while they leave CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. P)7 the flood-gates open for the most unlimited moral quackery. The evils of physical mal- practice strike mainly at individuals, who have refuge at least in death ; while moral malpractice strikes at society, the individual that never dies. The wise teacher, then, will ^\\t a disor- derly school under treatment. Time is al- ways an element in treatment ; it is essential to have faith in remedies and in patience ; a sudden transition from chaos to order is an impossibility. The disorder may take its rise in the school- room, produced, perhaps, by physical discom- fort. In that case, the remedy consists in im- proving the seats, and attending to the warmth, ventilation, and all the other conditions of happiness. But the child may come freight- ed with tendencies to disorder imposed upon him outside. In this case the treatment be- comes more complex and cure less sudden. It is the teacher's duty to reclaim this child, and to do it with the least possible loss to the 68 THE SCHOOL AKD THE FAMILY. school. It is not only liis duty, but also his interest — ^the most direct means of securing order. People's notions are generally mere notions ; they are not conclusions founded on any ex- tensive ratiocinations. When the teacher has apprehended the speciiic causes of disorder in his district, it is his business to get the people out of their notions — to make them think; that is, it is his business to be an influence. He will And ways and means of getting access to their thoughts. It has been done, over and over; the notions of communities have been completely revolutionized by good schools ; and the cliildren have often proved the most efiicient missionaries. It is only a problem in human nature which is everywhere the same ; the teacher should not despair of suc- cess. Apprehension of relations is a great power in the teacher, for it enables him to utilize immediate and present facts in his govern- ment and instruction. CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACHER. 69 It will, perhaps, be already inferred that the teacher cannot enforce order by a mere act of will. A lirni will is a valuable ele- ment in the production of order when sup- plemented with the other conditions. There are no fruits of human activity without in- tense and sustained volition. It is unfortu- nate that most of the will-power in the world is expended in behalf of selfisliness. This selfishness will appear in the govern- ment of the school-room. We have said that it requires very little mind to be conscious of disturbance. Self- ishness is annoyed by the manifestations of disorder, and wills their summary suppres- sion. Its pride of authority is oif ended by failure to comply with its commands ; and violence is enlisted to give the sanction of fear. But the violence does not always have the credit of an external though mistaken motive ; it too often occurs as a simple ex- plosion of the teacher's anger, and is there- fore intensely selfish. 70 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. The worst disorders in schools are pro- duced by disorderly teachers. This tyran- nical self-assertion may so far triumph as to produce the silence of the grave. Even then we have the antipodes of order ; for we have a company of unhappy children learning to hate authority and restraint, and ready to in- dulge in the wildest license as soon as the "fear-inspired restraint is removed. We have children who will wield power as brutally, when it is placed in their own hands, as they found it wielded over themselves. We want strong will in the world ; but we want the will that is not selfish ; we want the will of Howard, of Wilberforce, of Florence Nightingale, of Bergh. The end of govern- ment is order. That end will not be at- tained by wrong methods. In the majority of cases we can but approximate to order ; we approximate by creating tendencies tow- ard order and removing the tendencies to disorder. There is no other way. If vic- tory is slow in some cases, there is comfort CONDITIONS OF ORDER FOR THE TEACH KK. 71 in the consciousness of some advance, be it never so small. When the case is thorough- ly understood, and when proper methods are brought to bear, then there is use for the ut- most will-power in pushing the conflict be- tween good and evil. 72 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. CAUSES OF DISORDER. In the pathology of our remedial system there are found three general causes of dis- order : viz., 1st, natm-al deformity; 2d, mere neglect ; 3d, the reaction of injustice. The first gives incapacity for principles, the sec- ond want of principles, and the third bad principles. 1st. A few unfortunate children are born without a moral nature, and are consequent- ly incapable of any moral life. They are helpless wards on the sympathy and charity of others, and seldom enter among the prob- lems of school discipline. 2d. Children may have such negative or passive influences about them that their moral qualities are in no way excited. In this case we have a mere animal existence, or what is called vegetation. The moral CAUSES OF DISORDEK. 73 powei's become torpid by disuse ; and the principal motives to action are the physical sensations. We have a sort of stupid and meaningless amiability, an utter absence of vo- lition, while the conditions of physical com- fort are supplied. But mere amiability is not order ; on the contrary, it constantly jeopardizes order by its want of moral per- ception. The uncultured child is not always amiable ; it may be possessed of a comba- tive and undiscriminating obtuseness result- ing from its own innate propensities. In either case the child is out of order. There is order only where there is intelli- gent volition — that is, where obedience is im- mediately enforced by the dictates of an en- lightened conscience. This point is reached, however, through the employment of many mediate forces. Some of these mediate forces have been hinted at already, and others will be discussed farther on. "Where there is only moral torpidity, the task of government is much less difficult than where there has been moral perversion. 74 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 3d. Torpidity or moral nonentity can only occur where there are no schools. A school excites the mental and moral faculties, and tends to make the children either better or worse than they would naturally vegetate. There is little cliance for pure vegetation in this country now, our schools are so universal, and have been so long established ; they have touched several generations. The effect, how- ever, has been mostly for the worse. The country is full of notions, a result unques- tionably due to the schools. The aggressive reprobates who poison the morals and order of communities are undoubtedly the products of the schools. We mean by this, of course, mismanaged schools, which have inflicted the most wide -spread injustice and consequent disorder. We have reached, then, the j)revailing cause of disorder, and shall examine it closely. In- justice is a violation of personal rights, and is a specific form of wrong. Wrong is an act or omission at variance with the will of the CAUSES OF DI60RDEK. Ti> Creator ; injustice is an abuse of the relations existino^ between man and man. All men are equally God's creatures, equal- ly dependent on liis beneficence, and are en- titled to an equal share of the blessings he bestows upon a fruitful earth. God is no re- specter of persons; there is no monopoly of blessings. The power to breathe and the necessity for breathing carry with them the right to nse the air which has been placed around the globe. The power to feed and the necessity for feeding carry with them the right to par- take of the productions of nature. And so, generally, faculties and necessities carry with them the right to their proper nutriment. In short, man has a right to fulfil the purposes of his existence and to share in the things necessary to that fulfilment. This is the general law of rights, the moral law, the will of God in regard to his creatures. The sacredness of these rights comes from the sanction of Omniscience. 76 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. Moralists have summed up the rights of men into the right to life and tlie right to liberty. Our Declaration adds the right to the pursuit of happiness ; but this is em- braced in the right to liberty. These rights are called inalienable — that is, inseparable from human personality ; they are the leading characteristics of manhood, and whoever restricts them performs an act of injustice. Our government is founded on the prin- ciple of equal and exact justice to all. The nation will never be truly prosjDerous until this jDrinciple is universally recognized and applied. There are three recognized causes of just alienation of personal rights : viz., 1st, volun- tary choice ; 2d, crime ; 3d, the necessities of society. A man may surrender his liberty or even his life, a thing often done with credit in the cause of benevolence or patriotism. Where this is done, human nature rises to the sub- CAUSES OF DISORDER. 77 lime. Self-abnegation is the true measure of size and greatness. Mere intellect may fill a space and be intensified in power by wicked- ness ; but it is always measurable. It may even appear contemptible in its littleness when analyzed and laid open in its naked de- formity. Only greatness of heart catches at the infinite and defies analysis. We cannot measure the motive to the act of generous self - immolation ; we can only admire the flash from the spirit of Eternal Goodness. The grave of noble self-sacrifice is the only shrine of greatness. It w^ould seem that such graves are given us to be our instructors, to show the possibilities of human powers. A single deed of generous devotion embodies more of wisdom, more of instruction, more of grandeur, than a cycle of plodding, jostling selfishness. Happy the community that has such eloquence in its midst. Shame on the muse that would prostitute its gift to the un- seemly and mercenary task of galvanizing little selfishness while the earth's bosom is 78 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. enriched witli the remains of so many real kings ! A man may encounter danger or death in the assertion of his convictions; but this is not surrender. It is rather the exercise of the highest hberty, that of liberty of conscience. The patient endurance of the martyr ranks with the voluntary offering of the hero, in that it rises above selfishness. The one dig- nifies the human heart, while the other digni- fies the human conscience. The one is sub- lime in his impulse, the other is sublime in his courage and constancy to principle. They are both heroes in that they can defy danger in order to do what they think is right. But there is this distinction between them : tlie intellect may be at fault in its cause, the heart never. A man may with propriety restrict his own rights through prudential motives ; but if he endangers them through merely selfish mo- tives, there is no heroism in the act ; other- wise the burglar is a hero. CAUSES OF DISORDER. 79 Criminals forfeit all rights ; and the just punishments for crime consist in losses of rights proportioned to the nature of the of- fence. Society is the condition of man's existence. lie is born into society. It is only through society that he can attain his highest end. It is for these reasons that society can justly command his services and use his powers, though the use may cost him his liberty and even his life. Society has the right to com- mand its members to act in accordance with its necessities. But society has no right to be capricious and to invade the rights of in- dividuals at will. Society, like individuals, finds the origin of its rights in faculties and necessities ; and its rights are likewise summed up in the general right to attain its end. With this general view of the nature of rights and injustice, we shall proceed to no- tice the personal rights at stake in a school. There are four persons or factors concerned 80 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. in a school ; there will, consequently, be four classes of personal rights. The district has a right — 1st, to the careful preservation of the proj^ertv it purchases ; 2d, to the comfort of an improved public sentiment resulting from a well-ordered school ; 3d, to the enhanced value of prop- erty resulting from the same cause. The nature of the first and third rights will be apparent to all, and the proj^riety of their existence self-evident. The second may also be made to appear a tangible reality. It in eludes, two things: viz., happiness and security. The pursuit of hap- piness is one of the great ends of life, and every increase of liappiness is gain. That moral and intelligent neighbors are a source of hapj^iness will be conceded on imagining them to be suddenly exchanged for others low and vile. Insecurity not only detracts from ha23pi- ness, and thus robs life of its reward, but it also increases expense — the expense of heavy CAUSES OF DISORDER. 81 police cand armies. A people instructed in the nature of right and wrong, and in respect for authority, are less liable to violate the laws and disturb the peace of communities than those who are ignorant and vicious ; that is, they are self-governing ; and the expensive machinery of protection may be reduced or dispensed with. It is on the supposition that returns are made in the forms of happiness and security that communities justify the taxation of pri- vate property for the support of public schools. Hence the community has a right to those returns. The right is precisely the same in the case of private schools, which are supported by voluntary taxation. F 82 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY RIGHTS OF PARENTS. The parents have a right — 1st, to feel that their children are managed with thoughtful kindness and care with reference to their physical, moral, and mental well-being; 2d, to the gratification of beholding the devel- oped powers and possibilities of their chil- dren ; 3d, to the assurance that their chil- dren are prepared for correct and success- ful lives. The first and third rights embrace the scope of parental responsibility. These are the things due to the child from the par- ent, and the payment of which is intrusted to the promptings of affection. Schools are devised to enable parents to pay their debts ; and the parents have a right to feel that their creditors are justified, especially since the cred- itors are of their own flesh and blood. EIGHTS OF PARENTS. 83 The second right enil)races the principal parental reward. When parents do their duty they are entitled to their reward. The school should insure that reward, in- stead of intercepting it. 8J: THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. BIGHTS OF CHILDREN The cliildren have a right — 1st, to find their parents' affection in the teacher's chair, inspiring their faitli, hope, and perse- verance ; 2d, they have a right to sound in- struction and correct example; 3d, they have a right to that perfect and strong maturity that comes of correct training. 1st. Schools and teachers are artificial contrivances ; there are no such existences in the natural order of things. Instruction is a parental duty. It is founded upon the affections, which secure to the parent the custody of the child. Love considers the welfare of its object ; and instruction is essential to the welfare of the child. Many circumstances make it expedient to procure this instruction through schools. Tlie teacher, when such a contri- RIGHTS OF CHILDREN. 85 vaiice is devised, is simply a person in loco jyarentis, vested with certain parental rela- tions for the dischai-ge of certain parental duties. We have said that the one imperious moral desire of the child is the desire of love. The child has a right to that love which it craves, and should never be out of its atmosphere. It is j^resumed that the child is ever v^dthin reach of parental sym- pathy and assistance, both at home and at school. Its duties to the teacher are like- wise the same as those to the parent — viz., obedience, resj)ect, and filial love. The mut- ual relations remain unchanged. 2d. The susceptibility to instruction and example gives rise to the right to sound in- struction and correct example. The child is helpless to select wdiolesome physical, mental, or moral food ; hence the selection is a parental duty. Sad, indeed, are the results of failure to read the whole meaning of innocent, help- 86 THE SCHOOL AND THE FA^IILY. less, trusting childhood ! Infamous are the customs that make traffic of their rights, and change them from budding angels into incarnate fiends ! 3d. But towering above all the specific rights of childhood, and embracing them all in its wide significance, is the grand right of maturity — the right to the com- plete unfolding of its powers ; the right to attain its end ; the right to be a man ; the right to read the Creative Mind spjread abroad upon his works; the right to the infinite pleasures that await ujDon mature susceptibilities ; the right to scatter happi- ness here — the right to retire in peace from a well-employed mortality ! This is the meaning of childhood and its rights. This is the grand fabric which af- fection should build, but which ruthless in- justice is everywhere preventing by making an early ruin. RIGHTS OF TEACHERS. 87 EIQHTS OF TEACHERS. The teacher's contract gives liim no moral right. He onlj acquires rights as he gets himself into his proper condition. He then has a right — 1st, to his pay; 2d, to the obe- dience, respect, and love of the children ; 3d, to the confidence and support of the par- ents and the community. 1st. "The laborer is worthy of his hire." The general conscience of mankind concedes to the faithful laborer the right to compen- sation for his services. But it is on the supposition that the service has been of value. Under his contract the incompetent teacher may draw pay, but the transaction is legalized fraud. From a moral standpoint it is viewed as the jDlunder of a sacred fund. 2cl. Only when the teacher shows parental spirit is he morally entitled to the duties of 88 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. childhood. He may have extravagant no- tions of his authority, but tliat authority is none other than the parental authority of custody intrusted to the affections. Many teachere act on the principle that might makes right, and emj)loy physical force as the sine qua non of discipline. Such teach- ers have no right to tlie duties of tlie child. If the teacher is not in his proper condi- tion, his very presence is a moral wrong — the efficient cause, in fact, of the endless wrongs and miseries which work the ruin of order in schools. A violation of any of the rights men- tioned works injustice. It is incumbent upon the argument to show that this in- justice works disorder in school. REACTION OF INJUSTICE. REACTION OF INJUSTICE. Let, for instance, the property be contin- ually damaged and destroyed. This is an injustice, inasmnch as it violates the first right of the district. It will immediately react npon one of the conditions of order — viz., willingness to contribute freely to the necessary expenses of the school. Dilapidation is not always due to penu- rionsness. It may be evidence of a dis- couraged district that has witnessed wanton waste and destruction. It becomes an ap- parently useless task to make imj^rovements, if improvements are only to whet the ap- petite of vandalism ; so dilapidation is per- mitted to have its course. Good dwellings, fences, barns, and churches go up, while the school-house goes down. It is not un- common to see very shabby school - houses 90 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. in very enterprising and well-to-do commu- nities. It would be wrong to infer penuri- ousness or want of public spirit in a people who are unwilling to submit to injustice. Dilapidation is destructive of order ; in- justice may liave caused the dilapidation ; and the teacher is resjDonsible for the in- justice. It is the function of discipline to get the school in order; and children who are in order will not destroy property. The community which some might call stingy has suffered other injustice besides waste of school property — it has suffered the loss of teachers' salaries. The returns to which it was entitled, in the forms of happiness, security, and enhanced value of property, have not been forthcoming, but rather their opposite evils. Unwillingness to be taxed under ^such circumstances is natural. Unkind and violent treatment is an in- justice, since it violates several rights. It violates the first right of the children and REACTION OF INJUSTICE. 91 the lirst right of the parents. It affects all the children's conditions of order and also the third condition of the parents. Chil- dren cannot be happy under unkind and violent treatment, they cannot respect and love a harsh teacher, nor can they feel an interest in a school that is suggestive of torture. They may give partial obedience, but it is not given to discipline — it is given to their own physical fear, which for the moment becomes the superior motive. The inclination to disobedience is increased. Loose conduct in the teacher is an in- justice. It violates the second right of the children, the first right of the parents, and the second right of the district. Loose con- duct includes everything that is not honor- able, manly, and noble in daily walk ^ and conversation. It includes every phase of grossness and impropriety. ^ If this appears exacting, it is true, then, that teaching is a very exacting profession. He who regards good conduct as a strait- 92 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. jacket would do well to omit teaching. The teacher should be everywhere the ralljiiig- point for propriety, which is the essence of order. We do not use the term proj^riety in the sense of stilted formality. Naturalness is the most pleasing of all things; and the conduct which springs from a pure heart and reasonable seriousness of purpose will constitute a wdiolesome example for the children. Manners will take their com- plexion from the heart. A man who is free from gross intentions will not indulge in gross deportment. Delicacy is inseparable from goodness — it is to a degree inborn in all human beings. We should aim to culti- vate a natural grace rather than teach how to talk, walk, and behave by rule Mere book - behavior is a heartless thing ; it is often cultivated at the expense of soul, and destroys that frank and open candor which is the mark of true manliness. A knowledge of the conventionalities of societ}^ is useful in putting a man at ease in KEACTioN OF injusticp:. 93 different situations. But those convention- alities are no test of conduct. A man may be ignorant of them, and yet liv^e without reproach. It is a mistaken supposition tliat good con- duct interferes with pleasure. The teacher should be supremely happy, and should take all the relaxation and recreation necessary to make him so. In fact, he is not master of himself unless the red blood of health mantles in his cheek, and the light of a buoyant spirit sparkles in his eye. lie should never cast a shadow, but should ever carry with him the warmth of a genial nat- ure. He must unbend at times, or he ^Y\\\ become permanently rigid. While providing for his own relaxations, he should encourage the relaxations of others, and so contribute to the general happiness. In holding that he should be the rallying-point of propriety, we do not mean that he should appear as an iceberg to put out the lires of enjoy- ment. 94: THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. The liypoclionclriac is out of place in the school-room. The teacher would do well to consult his glass, and when he sees the pallor attacking his cheeks and heaviness seizing upon his eyes, surrender his school and betake himself to the mountains. He has had all the needed evidence that he is no longer lit to govern. An act or trait good in itself may be pushed to excess. A few teachers are what may be called om- nivorous students. They oscillate between the study and the school-room, keejDing their mental powers under continual strain. The result is general exhaustion, a shattered ner- vous system, and total unfitness to govern. But while good conduct does not pre- clude pleasure, it does preclude rude man- ners and the offensive habits resulting from low instincts. Loose conduct, like every other injustice, reacts upon the conditions of order. It shakes the respect of the children for the moral suj)eriority of the teacher; it dimin- REACTION OF INJUSTICE. 95 islies the confidence of the parents, affects the TvilKngness of the district, and lowers the tone of public sentiment, making in the aggregate such an onslaught upon order as no other qualities can counteract. Ignorance and intellectual idleness in the teacher are rank injustice to the children, the parents, and the district. They violate every right of all the other factors by mak- ing the school a sham and a pretence. The mind that is not open for the recej)tion of instruction is not the tit vehicle for impart- ing it. The child is "the heir of all the ages in the foremost files of time," and the opaque teacher steps between him and his birthright. The teacher, who should trans- mit the inheritance, makes the inheritance an impossibility. K^atm-e, with her thousand voices, is wait- ing to instruct the recipient teacher, offer- ing him free lectures, free text-books, free cabinet, and free apparatus. The scientists, the poets, the historians of thirty centuries. 96 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. are ready to pour out to him the wealth of their discoveries; and yet with sublime com- posure he ignores all these avenues of wis- dom, and assumes to keep school on a knack which he has picked up from the external manifestations of others. The farce would be ludicrous were it not for its ghastly con- sequences. But our immediate point is the reaction of ignorance upon order. It reacts upon happiness, respect, confidence, and willing- ness. The very conscientiousness of an ig- norant teacher makes him only the greater infliction on the school. Starting with wrong methods, the more he pushes tliem, the niore damage he does. Confusion be- comes worse confounded, until recovery is almost ho23eless. It would be a good thing for the cause of education, the welfare of the country, and the pockets of taxpayers if people could realize how much better no school at all is than such a school. Dulness of apprehension of relations in REACTION OF INJUSTICE. 97 the teacher is an injustice. It vioLites the third right of the children. The teacher may be thoroughly upright and well-be- liaved, he may be scholarly and studious ; but if he is wanting in apprehension, he will inflict, though unintentionally, the greatest injustice, and seriously disturb order. He will be apt to reprimand and even punish the children for disorder caused by discomfort. This disorder, instead of being a delinquency, is a signal from E'ature that the conditions of health and happiness are wanting. The wise teacher rejoices in the signal, and promptly obeys its behests. It may apprise him that the air is foul, and that the children are in danger of being poisoned. It may apprise him that the children are suffering from cold, perhaps sit- ting in damp garments, thus having their health dangerously exposed. It may apprise him that the seats and desks are so con- structed as to cause present discomfort and permanent injury to the bodily frame. It G 98 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. may apprise him that the light is not prop- erly distributed, and that the cause of the children's discomfort threatens danger to their eyesight. Many graves and many bro- ken and deformed bodies are the ^vork of the kindest, best -behaved, and, it may also be said, of the most scholarly and studious teachers. Apprehension of relations will enable the teacher to administer correction with dis- crimination, and prevent him from fixing responsibility where it does not belong. Apprehension will inf onn the teacher when the mental strain is sufficient, and when the young brain needs rest and relaxation ; oth- erwise, with the kindest of motives, he may murder the child, and be a too successful instnictor. It is clear that want of apprehension of relations causes great injustice, suffering, and injury. But it reacts upon order by diminishing happiness and by diminishing tlie teacher's outside influence ; it interferes REACTION OF INJUSTICE. 99 with tlie pointed missionary work which is part of the task of diseipb'ne. In hke manner, every conceivable act of injustice reacts somewhere upon the condi- tions of order. It is well that it is so; it is Nature's voice proclaiming against injus- tice. The function of discipline, then, is to ad- minister justice. When complete justice is done, there will be order. The teacher should be competent to clearly define the rights of all the parties at issue, and ulti- mately to secure those rights to their pos- sessors in their fullest exercise. If he pro- ceeds from any other standpoint of action, he will fail to get his school in order. If he trusts to mechanical imitation of the ex- ternal methods of others, or to the dictates of sudden impulse, he will fail. He can only succeed by being absolutely just. But rights and their reasons are only part of the moral law. We rise to a full concep- tion of the great ethical system which the 100 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. Creator has instituted for the moral gov- ernment of his creatures only when we grasp the idea of reciprocity. Giving in re- turn for receiving is the law. Every right involves the obligation of payment. This payment is called duty. Every moral gov- ernor should be clear not only in the nature of rights, but also in that of their corre- sponding duties. Until the sense of obli- gation is aroused in the governed, the gov- ernment will not be successful. We have said before that perfect order results from the immediate influence of an enlightened conscience. Conscience is a lively sense of duty — the internal court which sits in judo-ment upon our conduct and motives, enforcing its mandates with the terrors of retribution. The law of retribu- tion is one of the earliest learned by the child. In its infant ignorance it violates natural law, and pain and suffering are the consequences. "A. burned child dreads the fire." The caution resulting from experi- RE ACTION OF INJUSTICE. 101 ence of pain is but the physical conscience. The sanctions of moral conscience are also, in a sense, cantion against suffering — the moral suffering of remorse as well as the pliYsical suffering incurred by moral delin- quency. Discipline cannot overlook the uses of suf- fering — it is one of the important mediate forces employed before conscience assumes the ascendency and renders it unnecessary. But the correct employment of suffering in discipline is one of its most delicate prob- lems. It requires the clearest conviction that suffering is the proper force required in the case. Then occur the important questions of the character and amount of suffering fitted to have the desired effect. The line is delicately marked, on one side of which suffering serves as an educator to conscience, and on the other side of which it proves a destroyer of order. In this deli- cate case the good disciplinarian will choose to err on the side of mercy. 102 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. Teachers who are not in order often abuse the force of suffering bj inflicting nnjnst and brutal punishments. Boards of education in some places have found it necessary to pro- tect the children from unjust violence. They have, however, taken the wrong course; in- stead of dismissing the disorderly teachers, they have dismissed corporal punishment, which is equivalent to dismissing discipline and accepting disorder. The act is an admis- sion that the children's rights are in danger. The proper protection would be to remove those persons who endanger these rights, and not to try to remodel the Creator's laws. Ret- ribution is inseparable from evil-doing. It cannot be abolished at the option of a gener- ous school-board; its operation can only be delayed, to fall, at last, with more telling and crushing force. The duty involved in a vested right em- braces — 1st, a recognition of the possession ; 2d, gratitude to the giver; 3d, humble and loving submission to the will of benevolent REACTION OF INJUSTICE. 103 superiority. Obedience is founded in faith ; and faith is the fruit of evidence of kindly ability. Sulfering will have its best effects after the children have acquired faith in the good intentions of the teacher. Instead of re- sentino- what under other circumstances would appear unjust pain, they are tilled with lively remorse for the misdeed which caused it. Discipline consists in instruction in duty; and to this end all mediate forces will be sub- ordinated. Duty means but one thing ; it is a scientific reality, accessible to all who seek after its nature. It is the highest form of knowledge, as it is the most useful form of knowledge ; it is the key to individual hap- piness and to the happiness of mankind in their necessary social relations. The discipline of a school should not be intrusted to any one who is not master of this important branch of knowledge, because everything is involved in it. If duty be made the first subject submitted to candidates for admission to the profession of teaching, our 104 THE SCHOOL AND THE FA:\nLT. schools will be measurably protected from dis- order. We have trusted to tact, to our sor- row ; it is time to insist upon knowledge. Some men claim to govern by inspiration ; tliey liave within them an indescribable some- thing which they call executive ability, and which carries them at once to the root of each problem that arises in daily experience. Such men scorn to be interrogated upon the particular details of duty ; they are not given to analysis; they know a delinquency by in- tuition ; and by intuition they suppress it, and make themselves masters of the situation. If it is time that these men dive with unerr- ing instinct to the roots of every problem in school discipline, we can see how a great fi- nancial gain would be effected by getting a few of them to go to Washington and run the nation by inspiration. But we must confess our scepticism as to this whole subject of executive ability, as com- monly understood. Wliile we believe that cer- tain men are born with an itchins; to com- REACTION OF INJUSTICE. 105 niaiul, vet we do not believe that they will coinmaiul well until they know how. We would be inclined to discourage a candidate who offered no assurance of his iitness to govern but a breastful of faith driven by a forty -horse power of determination. From our ignorance of the secret springs of execu- tive ability, we would have to regard him as. an enthusiastic Juggernaut, and keep our children out of his way. We would want a man to be in order, and be able to demonstrate it under a critical examination. We regard our chil- dren as subjects of instruction, not subjects of experiment ; and those who would instruct must know what they would teach. We see that the duties of childhood are all associated with its rights. When its last and greatest right, maturity, is vested, its duties are not absolved, but increased in number and character. The parent still retains the right to the child's duty, though he loses the custody of his person. But with the loss of the right of custody there occur new classes of rights. 106 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. The burden of duties performed and ad- vancing years are making inroads upon pa- rental vigor ; nature is beginning to call back that vitality which has served its purpose; the weak, dependent child has become the powerful, aggressive man ; there seems to have occurred a transfer of strength, a re- versal of relations. N^ow, the parent has a right to lean upon the strong tower which his own exhaustive struggles have reared : as he descends through the stages of weakness and decay to the grave, he is entitled to a return of that sympathy which his ow^n warm, manly heart bestowed upon childhood's tribulations. The chivalry w^itli which a dutiful child, after maturity, rushes to the support and comfort of its parents' declining years has its exact counter- part in that other chivalry with which a true- hearted man rushes to the rescue of his coun- try. Patriotism is not an unexplained phe- nomenon; it is conscieDce, sense of duty to that other parent, the state, which has nur- REACTION OF INJUSTICE. 107 tured its helpless infancy with the benefi- cence of its laws. But what shall we say of the parent by proxy, the teacher ? Is there no debt of grat- itude, support, and sympathy due to him in his extremity? Is there no dereliction of duty anywhere when he is cast aside, like a worn-out horse, after his usefulness in the school-room is ended ? Most assuredly there is. The child whom he has led by the hand to man's estate is in an important sense his child. His weakness should call forth filial sympathy; he should share in the strength which he has imparted to his pupils. The state also owes him a debt of substantial gratitude for the strong pillars of citizen- ship which he has added to its structure. The correct and faithful disciplinarian should have no occasion to fear the approach of age. Discipline will suffer an irremedi- able loss if he is obliged to betake his pow- ers into other employments in order to se- cure a competency for his declining years. lOS THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. In return for his useful labors society owes him sympathy and comfort. It has not with- in its borders more venerable or sacred monu- ments than those persons who have given the strength of their maturity to tlie discipline of schools. The moral hero w^ho has fought and won the great battle of discipline should sink to rest amid tlie benisons of his coun- try, and the tear of affectionate remembrance should fall above his well-marked grave. SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. 109 SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. We have discussed the general law of dis- cipline. There are phases of its operation to be noticed before closing. We have in this country systems of school supervision. Their nature and functions should be thoroughly understood by all in- quirers into the philosophy of school disci- pline. The schools of a city, town, county, or state are placed under the direction of an official head called a superiiitendent. This individual is supposed to be a person of su- perior wisdom and experience, who can judge of the wants of the schools, and who can by his counsel and authority enforce improve- ment. The conception of supervision is a wise one ; for it enables a person of superior disciplinary powers to extend his usefulness 110 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. over a wider field without detriment to order. Supervision simply creates a larger school ; but it does not alter the character of its fac- tors or their relations. The superintendent is still the teacher ; and he is morally respon- sible for the discipline of all the schools un- der his charge. Having pronounced him a teacher, it is sufficient to say in regard to his duties and relations that they have been dis- cussed already under their proper heads. But there is this peculiarity about his functions : he can multiply his personality so as to be proj)erly represented in places where he is unable to be in person. The theory is an excellent one, that discipline should not be at the mercy of circumstances, but rather un- der the control of superior experience. Supervision, then, is the source, the foun- tain-head, of wide-spread disciplinary activity. Poison the source and you pollute the entire stream. When supervision proves false to its trust, the pall of death settles down upon the SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. Ill discipline of its field. It could not be other- wise ; when the guardian sells out his charge for a price, that charge must languish. We have called discipline moral heroism : the his- tory of supervision in this country has been too largely a history of moral cowardice, if not moral perversion. This is due to the system of getting super- vision rather than to the wilful perversity of men. If the aim had been to deprive the su- j)erintendent of his conscience and make the schools a laughing-stock, a more ingenious system than ours could not have been devised to that end. The prime cause of the failure of our supervision was the original blunder of connecting it with politics. A little re- flection might have foreseen the evil fruits of such, a plan. Our early educational legis- lators were doubtless blinded by the force of analogy, and by misconception of the scope of the doctrine of local self-government and the. sovereign rights of the people. Our laws de- cided that a superintendent of schools should 112 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. be chosen for certain areas bj tlie ballots of the legal voters. This system, intended donbtless to conserve the rights of the people, was fitted in its nat- ure to trample down every sacred right of community as well as of individuals. It will be conceded that whatever affects the wel- fare of the children affects the welfare of the community, for they are the constantly on-coming community. Xow, it is a fact well established in political exj^erience that the existence of a political office creates a horde of office-seekers who are willing to hold any office under the sun. There can be no doubt that if medical practice and the ministry of the Gospel were made the func- tions of politically elected incumbents, these gentlemen would all run for the office of doc- tor or clergyman. Professional office-seekers are persons of ubiquitous volition, and are .serenely indifferent as to the prov^ince in which their valuable services are employed, providing it lias emoluments. SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. 113 Now, the eiiect of making supervision po- litical lias been to make the entire system of schools under its charge j)olitical. Questions of ctHciency have been entirely superseded by questions of patronage, until the great aggregation of American free schools has become one grand system of spoils. The politically elected superintendent is not per- mitted to select his teachers, even if he chances to be competent to discharge such a weighty task. Where the law makes a Her- bert Spencer ineligible, and gives the office to the party who can best manage the com- binations of a caucus and a political cam- paign, the chances are not in favor of brill- iant professional ability. But, be that as it may, he is immediately beset by candidates for teaching who are more anxious to ex- hibit their " claims " than their qualifications. These claims are in the shape of '■' influence " which has either contributed to his election or is capable of punishing him should he ever again be a candidate for public favor. Ilav- II 114 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. ing secured his office, lie is considered very ungrateful if lie prevents other peoj)le from getting their offices. In this rush for place it is not to be sup- posed that the public is frenzied with zeal to instruct the rising youth ; it is frenzied with zeal to fill the offices and draw the salaries. It is a chase to see who shall have the privi- lege of spoiling the children. The air re- sounds with clamor for patronage, while the poor children, whose rights are thus bartered, are dumb. Political men with a long line of political aspirations like to be " popular." It is jdos- sible to be in politics and at the same time be both popular and honest; but not in tlie office of superintendent of schools, elected by the people. The honest superintendent will tell some candidates that they are not qualified to do good work as teachers. The disappointed candidates and their relatives and friends take umbrage at a man who will not perjure himself in order to accommo- SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. 115 date tliem. Many such eases make large in- roads upon his popularity. Of course, these good people do not want the superintendent to perjure himself ; but they do want him to certify to their qualifications, whether he can find them or not. The superintendent sees that he does his duty at his peril ; the disaffected control his daily bread; he has but one chance in con- nection with duty, and that is for a glorions martyrdom. But a man who fights a hard political campaign in order to get this office is not quite ready for martyrdom; he gen- erally has a few other projects on the tapis with which martyrdom would seriously in- terfere. Where no awkward scruples stand in the way, his course is clear : give the people w^hat they want, and be popular. ]^o one demands duty, but crowds are demanding certificates. It is possible that the incumbent never was troubled with any scruples, or, if he was, that he lost them in the campaign which carried 116 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAJ^IILY. him into office. In that case he can scatter certificates as thick as the autumn leaves, and yet sleep as soundly as a new-born babe. This is all very well as a burlesque ; but it is a sad commentary on the condition of edu- cation in this country that such things are possible. We have many brave superintend- ents who are trying to protect their schools against the tide of political pressure ; but they are groaning in anguish under the strain. We find, in the nature of things, that the power of discipline is the power of con- science. If conscience is eliminated, we have Samson shorn of his locks; we have size and form minus power. Schools are perverted from their pui-poses when they become mat- ters of business, patronage, and emoluments. Political schools suggest no other idea than that of plunder, the basest of plunder, since it fattens upon the rights of childhood and the interests of society. Under political supervision there is great energy expended ; SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. 117 but it is not expended towards building up strong and virtuous citizenship ; it is expend- ed towards capturing the school funds. Free schools were established in this coun- try for the purpose of preserving self-govern- ment by training up intelligent patriotism. Under political supervision, instead of breed- ing patriots they have been breeding vam- pires ; they have flooded the country with physical, mental, and moral wrecks. Still we have good people in the country, or we should have immediate disintegration. Fortunately the maturity of our children is not altogether at the mercy of political schools. We have other moral forces which tend to save many of them from the corrupting influence of vicious discipline. Family discipline is still fighting against the tide ; and many fortunate children get their dominant moral characteristics at home. The churches are everywhere wielding a mighty power in the moral education of the race ; and organized societj^, public opinion, 118 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. constrains many men to lionor. So if good people come up out of political schools, it may be inferred that they do so in spite of the schools, and not by reason of them. But we have other conserving forces which need to be noticed. Political supervision, though altogether too general, is fortunately not universal. AYe have superintendents who are appointed by competent bodies of men who are responsible to their constituents for the faithful discharge of their trust. The ad- vantages of this system are ob\'ious. Re- sponsibility makes men cautious in selecting ; and the probabilities are altogether in favor of securing a competent incumbent. In se- lecting by universal ballot, responsibility at- taches nowhere ; and the force of caution is altogether lost. The appointed superintend- ent finds himself measurably at liberty to at- tend to school questions rather than to polit- ical ones. lie can face successive elections with comparative composure, feeling that he has demonstrated his usefulness, and that the SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. 119 better judgment of tlie appointive body will sustain liim. Eepresentative deliberative bodies are con- strained to be judicial in their decisions ; so discipline is measurably protected. "We use the term ^' measurably " because absolute pro- tection does not lie in expedients ; selfishness has been found capable of penetrating to a degree the strongest special safeguards yet devised. Absolute protection lies only in a sensitive popular conscience. But the fruits of appointive supervision have been sufficient- ly gratifying, on the whole, to create hopes of the success of public education. Schools un- der appointive supervision have made great advance towards order, and to that extent have proved a beneficent force in the coun- try. Suj)ervision is reasonably untrammelled when it dares to inaugurate principles of ac- tion ; and this is what our appointed superin- tendents, as a body, have done. Principles bear fruits of faith and obedience. In some communities the will of a judicious super- 120 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAJ^IILY. intendent has become already almost abso- lute. While considering the conserving forces which have saved us from the complete con- sequences of our educational blunders, it would be unjust to omit mention of the private schools which prevail so extensively throughout the land. These institutions, to- tally dissevered from politics, and relying upon efficiency for recognition and support, have done a great good work for the coun- try in the way of building up scholarship and character. But the free school is the boon of American childhood and the bulwark of American na- tionality. It should therefore be the aim of the philanthropist and statesman to make it efficient. Efficiency lies, 1st, in having right views of discipline ; 2d, in having a correct "system of organization. We have considered political supervision, under which King Caucus manij)nlates his patronage, perverting the schools from their SPECIAL PHASES OF DISCIPLINE. 121 proper j^urposes to sellisli uses. There is another injurious phase of supervision to be noticed. It is injurious in a negative rather than in a positive sense. We refer to what we may call nominal, or rather restricted supervision. Under this form the superin- tendent is assigned a limited list of duties, beyond the discharge of which his official con- nection with the schools ceases. This places the superintendent in an anomalous position. It is a form of edncational paralysis. It is the creation of a vigorous head, suj)plied with sensor but not with motor nerves. This head becomes cognizant of things which should be done ; it has the will, but not the power, to act. If we hold the teacher responsible for the discipline of his school, he should certainly have ample liberty in managing the details of the school. It is wrong to hold a superin- tendent responsible for evils which he is for- bidden to check. We have areas of nominal supervision within which there are other areas 122 THE SCHOOL AKD THE FAMILY. of political supervision, constituting states within a state, and tlioronglily untrammelled in their license. Supervision is defeated of its purpose unless it has the power of exact- ing reasonable uniformit}^ and unquestioned efficiency. CONCLUSION. 123 CONCLUSIOK AVe have completed an examination of the theory of discipline, and have endeavored to trace its law. With whatever of streno'th or weakness this has been done is a question for the reader to decide. We shall be glad if some deo-ree of truth is recoo^nized in the propositions laid down ; wherein we are in error we shall as gladly stand corrected when the error is made known to us. It is alto- gether improbable that a single individual may escape error in pursuing such an intri- cate subject ; but if the method herein em- ployed prove suggestive to other explorers, this labor has not been expended in vain. The great need is for more general think- ing in discipline as a subject ; and we be- lieve this end will be hastened by formu- lating into a science the truths discovered 124 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. and demonstrated bj experience. Experience palls on those who are destitute of method. We would institute a method of progress. We have been compelled to say severe things, but have endeavored to be just. No one has less reason than ourselves to speak slightingly of the existing institutions of our country. We would be glad to be spared the office of censor, and so devote ourselves to the more pleasant duties of j^hilosophy and eulogy ; but we know it would be wrong to cloak the evils which every candid observer must admit. The present demands earnest- ness and sincerity. It would be severe, but true, to say that during the century, instead of building up a system of education, we have only called into existence a vast aggre- gation of educational symbols. Why ? Be- cause we have given the building over to novices and charlatans, and have driven away the constructive brain and the skilful hand. A nation's vitality may stand such a strain for a time ; but there always is a point at CONCLUSION. 125 which the accumulation of evils produces a crash. When we rise to criticism, we rise to make a case in behalf of the children, in behalf of a national citizenship, and in be- half of mankind ao'ainst a dishonest and de- structive empiricism. Our reasonings have led us to the conclu- sion that our teachers should be wise. We want absolute evidence of that wisdom be- fore they be permitted to touch the delicate structure of a child's mental and moral nat- ure. An artificer should be acquainted with his materials, and should have clear notions of the product he would bring forth. Is it more important to construct a house or a railroad than to build a man ? And yet how cautious people are to intrust the former tasks only to competent talent ! Of all the improvements that can be introduced into a country, the most powerful and useful are improved people. He is the highest bene- factor who gives to his country the services of a fully equipped man. We want a guild 126 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. of thought and soul builders, who will take the raw materials of a child's possibilities and fashion them into the fabric of a strong and symmetrical maturity. But these are truisms. The specific point is that the teacher should be familiar with natural philosophy, human physiology, men- tal and moral science, as a condition of dis- cipline. He should likewise be enthusiastic in his calling, and not gauge his labors by his pay. If he has the heart of a true teacher, he will be inspired by but one motive, and that is the advancement of his pupil. How these qualifications may be secured and as- sured we shall discuss under the head of Practical School Ethics. TABULAR ANALYSIS. 127 TABULAR ANALYSIS. Definition. Definition. Parties in a School, Conditions of Order. Deduction. Deduction. Deduction. Discipline (government). That power of control which produces and sustains order. Order. Fitness of condition in things. 1. District, 2. Parents, 3. Children. 4. Teaclier. 1. District. rl. Ability to support. J 2. Willingness to support. 2. Parents. 3. Healthy public senti- ment, 1, Appreciation of knowl- edge. 2, Wisdom in family man- agement, 3, Proper affection towards school. 1. Happiness. Children. -{ 2. Respect for superiors. 3. Interest in school, rl. Self-mastery. 4. Teacher. \ 2, Sound scholarship. 1 3. Correct apprehension. The power of discipline is a moral power. Discipline is a remedial system. Moral order is the undisturbed exercise of rights and the complete discharge of duties — the reign of justice. 128 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. Causes of Dis- order. Definition. C 1. Natural deformity. -j 2. Neglect. 1 3. Reaction of injustice. Injustice. Personal Rights. fl. Parents. 2. District. Children. 4. Teacher (condition- al). Violation of personal rights. 1. Teacher's kindness and care. 3. To enjoy the develop- ment of the children. 3. To be assured of their children's success. 1. Preservation of prop- erty. 2. Improved public senti- ment. 3. Enhanced value of prop- erty. 1. Parental kindness and care. 2. Sound instruction and correct example. . 3. Maturity. 1. Pay. 2. Respect, obedience, and filial love. Confidence and co-op- eration. Deduction. Rights and duties are correlates. ((involved] 1. Recognition of the possession. Duties-! in a vest- 1 2. Gratitude to the giver. led right). J 3. Submission to benevolent superiorit)'. Deduction. The production of order is the education of conscience. Deduction. The education of conscience involves the employment of mediate forces. A me- diate force is a special restraint upon a diseased will, and is discontinued iis conscience assumes control of the will. TABULAR ANALYSIS. 129 POSTUXATE. Deduction. Postulate. Deduction. Causes of Insubordination. Deduction. Retribution is the inseparable consequent of violated law. The education of conscience involves ex- perience of retribution ; hence disci- pline employs suffering as a mediate force. Retribution is the complement of aspira- tion ; it is the compulsion of nature to right living — that is, to the diligent ex- ercise of the various human faculties. Subordination to justly constituted au- thorities is a natural state of man. 1. Conflict of authority. 3. Abuse " " 3. Abdication of " Selfishness is subversive of discipline ; intuition is inadequate to its delicate decisions ; actual knowledge of natural law is the essential condition of the ad- ministration of discipline. 130 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. UNDEK-tliis head we open a department for the unlimited discussion of practical school problems. It should be the exemplification of the science of school discipline ; and it can be made the test of any system assuming sci- entific completeness. Practical ethics will be established on a proper basis only after we have an authentic and accepted science of dis- cipline. It ought, then, to give us an excep- tionally rich educational literature, coming up from the practical workers in their varied fields of experience. But all contributions to practical ethics should be to the point ; they should either enrich our science (after we get it) or illustrate it. We should conserve dis- cussion to really new thoughts (the science will take care of the old ones). By so doing all educational thinkers may feed on real dis- TRACTICxVL SCHOOL ETHICS. 131 coveries, and keep together in the line of edu- cational progress. We have no time to listen to vaporing ; nor have we time to listen to an individual's experience unless he is quite sure that it is not the common experience of the profession. Of all weariness, the most excru- ciating is that resulting from listening to the labored presentation of an oft-told tale. A profession is not built up by rhetoric, by plodding empiricism, nor by dogmatic as- sertion ; it is built np only by careful toil within prescribed limits. The professional talk which embodies only what has been well said before is a double infliction, because, in addition to disgusting the auditors, it also takes time from progress. The most general educational problem of the hour is that of providing a citizenship fitted to enjoy the institutions of free govern- ment, and fitted to develop the boundless re- sources of the American domain. To do this, education has not only to train up American childhood to fitness for its royal prerogatives, 132 THE SCHOOL AIN'D THE FAMILY. but it has also to assimilate into stnrdv citi- zenship the heterogeneous elements pouring in upon us from all quarters of tlie globe ; it has the task of making patriots out of stran- gers. It has the task of uprooting habits of thought fastened by older civilizations, and of giving free and universal scope to the Amer- ican idea. This American idea contemplates a brother- hood of citizens having common political aspi- rations undisturbed bj phases of private opin- ion and belief. It means the enthronement of order, freedom, and progress. It means to show that mankind can attain its majority and dispense with the paternal nursings that have been practised upon its infancy. It means the creation of a public opinion powerful enough to crush all fraud and political heresy here, and capable of instructing other nations in the pathways of political freedom and progress. The American idea is generous in its intentions and broad in its j^iirposes. Whether it shall be permitted to pass into PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 133 history as a mere fanciful conception or as a powerful reality is the problem of American education. It has certainly suffered hitherto; the many triumphs of selfishness have put us sadly out of countenance. But if we begin in earnest now, we still have the resources of victory. Nothing but a strong-handed education will save the American idea, and with it the intended career of the American republic. We must rescue our schools from the char- latanry and selfishness which have over- whelmed them, and restore them to their original purpose of nourishing healthful brain and soul for the nation. Nations have been crushed by superior force, and have disappeared in glory ; but the most pain- ful lessons of history are those of national suicide. Our example would be the most doleful of all, because we have had the best opportunities and the best possessions to throw away. This strong-handed education calls for or- 134 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FA^IILT. ganizers, for leaders. Such talent is in the country ; a portion of the organizing skill expended in selfish or even wicked projects would give us a capital educational system. Men of genius enter our ranks from time to time ; but, finding no field for their abilities, they soon abandon us to our charlatanry and seek growth in other vocations. Even they, while with us, were not good teachers ; they only had the possibilities of good teachers. They know that we permitted them to use us as stepping-stones in their own ambitions while they gave us the benefit of more or less ingenious experiments. This strong-handed education calls for a profession. How shall we get it ? By want- ing it. Demand calls into existence a supply. But what if our professional standard should exclude many w^ho are now officiating as teachers ? All the better ; we want to get rid of empirics. It will do them no harm to go back to school, learn the things we wish them to know, and come out as rational and PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 135 competent teachers. They must, of course, at- tend tlie right schools ; for the longer they stay in certain schools, the less prepared will they be to pass a critical examination. Schools which do not make them think will leave them in a sad plight to approach a thinker. An important 2:)oint in our practical ethics is the injustice done to an individual by permit- ting him to teach before he is ready. We thereby stop his growth, cripple his mental stature, and dwarf his maturity. Where we intend a personal kindness we inflict serious injustice. It is important both for the teach- ers and the schools that such injustice should cease. The cpiestion of facilities for training a corps of teachers is a proper one to be con- sidered under practical ethics. The facili- ties for obtaining the requisite literary and scientific knowledge together with mental training are already ample. We have many institutions which give sound instruction and proper mental exercise. These have a capac- 136 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. itj for training all the teachers we need, if the candidates for teaching would only enter them. But inasmuch as we practically place a premium on ignorance, these institutions are abandoned to candidates for other vocations. Xo candidate for teaching can plead want of facilities in justification of his ignorance. The energy proper to a teacher can readily find facilities near at hand, if he wishes to avail himself of them. But, in addition to general culture, the teacher needs special professional preparation. He needs instruction in the science and art of discipline, and in the science and art of in- struction. He needs training to skill in hand- ling the complex problems of school work. There are fair facilities for meeting even this want ; professional schools for teachers are already somewhat common in the United States. They are doing good woi'k, too, and are endeavoring to impart that fitness which teachers should possess. But in consequence of the evils heretofore mentioned, the experi- PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 137 ence of the normal schools in this country has been rather ludicrous. They have been creat- ing a supply for which there is no demand. The normal graduate iinds that the districts don't want him ; he has become too good and costly an article for them. He finds the mar- ket glutted with parties holding certificates of fitness, and discovers that his chances to teach would have been greatly improved had he never attended "the normal." The badge of knighthood conferred by the superintend- ent politician demolishes the diploma of the professional graduate ; four years' hard labor is beaten by an " interview ;" incompetence has possession, and merit must seek its bread elsewhere. Appointive supervision is saving a fragment of normal material to the profes- sion ; but the majority of it is driven away. JSTormal schools will scarcely have a vocation until a professional diploma is made the only legal evidence of fitness to teach. In conse- quence of the disadvantages with which nor- mal graduates have to contend, the ruinous 138 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. competition they have to encounter, our nor- mal schools have been obliged to descend from their high professional functions and place a premium on attendance to prevent entire desertion. This premium is in the form of academical or non-professional in- struction. Students of deficient education will enter for the benefits of the academy, making the professional curriculum a sec- ondary consideration. But normal schools are not censurable for offering this premium on attendance. It is absolutely necessary, under the present state of things. A strictly professional cur- riculum would constitute inducement to very few ; the schools would be compelled to close their doors for want of employment. Medical schools are supported because the law will not permit men to practise with- out absolutely obtaining a diploma. Law- schools are supj)orted because the law Avill not permit men to practise without virtually possessing a dij^loma. Theological schools are TRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 139 supported because clmrch law requires diplo- mas. Kornial schools are neglected because their diplomas have uo particular legal or moral significance. In the State of Mas- sachusetts several of the more enterprising cities have been enabled to fill strictly pro- fessional training-schools with students, in con- sequence of making the diplomas of those schools the requisite evidences of fitness to teach. "Were such requirements universal, our nor- mal schools could then repudiate the pre- mium which they are now paying, and con- centrate their resources on strictly profes- sional work. These schools are not to blame for their own defects — the blame rests with our laws and customs. It is rather ludicrous to be compelled to pay in arithmetic and grammar for the privilege of teaching edu- cational science and art. But the fact is indicative of the state of our educational work. We should have such a demand for educational science and art as would tax 140 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. our normal schools to their utmost capacity, and call into existence others. The masculine gender has been employed throughout this work. It is perhaps unnec- essary to say that this is only a form of expression intended to include both sexes. We have been treating of human nature, not particularly of masculine nature. But the question of female power in discipline is a vital one in practical ethics. We em- ploy many female teachers, but in practice we discriminate against the sex as such. This is, at the same time, unjust and highly imj^olitic. If our discrimination is a charge of universal incapacity in the sex, then we should not employ the sex at all ; we can- not afford to use incapacity in any form. But this assumption has been repeatedly overthrown by facts; some of our most ca- pable disciplinarians are females. Discipline does not depend on sex, but on the quali- ties heretofore discussed. Where these qual- ties are found, they should be recognized PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 141 and preferred, regardless of sex. Indeed, if there is to be any discrimination in school management, it should be in favor of the capable woman : with equal intellectual ca- pacity, she is likely to have the greater moral resources of the two. It is true that experience has discovered many cases of female incapacity — an utter deficiency of organizing power and force. But so long as we aim, by our system of education, to keep our girls always children, we cannot expect a different experience. We make boys men by treating them as men; by reminding them of their possibil- ities and arousing their ambition. We dis- cuss serious subjects with our boys, and thus give them mental gymnastics ; we avoid se- rious subjects with children, in which class we have practically placed the girls. The result of such a procedure is obvious : we come to make a distinction really on ma- turity, while we suppose it is founded on sex. This is the educational fallacy we 142 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. would refute. It is well known that bojs can be kept young by tlie same processes employed with girls. Effeminacy has come to be regarded as another term for child- ishness. We have effeminate men, who are simply the product of a system which aimed to keep them children, and succeeded. It is known that women mature after they are treated as adults — that is, after they are compelled by circumstances to as- sume responsibilities; the clinging vine be- comes the self-supporting trunk; and the child develops the largest business capac- ities. It is known, also, that woman does not necessarily lose her loveliness by be- coming self-centred and strong ; though shal- low observers would associate with strength such unseemly qualities as mannishness and hatefulness. We have been pursuing the error of keeping our girls weak in order to keep them lovely. Accomplishments are pleasing when they adorn a substance; a cornice without a house is a monstrosity. TRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 143 A weakling will not make a disciplinarian ; if we would lit our girls for teaching, we should give them a substantial and serious training. It would be well to assume that all our girls are to teach ; for the same training that fits them to be successful teach- ers would make them excellent mothers. We have excluded from most of our strictures that portion of free education which chances to be under the management of appointive supervision. We have inti- mated that even that portion suffers to some extent from the inroads of selfishness, and that it is still a practical problem how that selfishness may be checked. It can be most effectually checked by fixing by law a genuine and uniform standard of fitness to teach. Individuals are flexible in matters of option ; but law is inflexible where it is specific. There appears at present no safer criterion of fitness than the diplomas of professional schools. It is the function of these institutions to study the w^ants of 14:4: THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. scliools and supply those wants. But the faculty should be made impeachable for der- eliction of duty. The creation of a fraudu- lent teacher should be a crime punishable with the severest penalties. Legislation of this character would only be in keeping with that already enacted for the protection of medical practice. But appointive supervision, in which we take some comfort, is confined almost ex- clusively to cities. It becomes, therefore, an important point in practical ethics to con- sider the consequences of regaling our rural population with an educational farce. The rural population is the nation. Its condi- tion and characteristics are the condition and characteristics of national life. Cities are but sj^ecial instrumentalities for serving the wants of the rural population Cities are not self-sustaining, either in substance or in men. Cities are rooted in the country, and, in return for the conveniences they afford, they absorb and consume a portion of the PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 145 substance and blood of tlie country. The country produces men, and cities wear them out. Cities also feed upon the morals of the country, which is the real source of a wholesome public opinion. Cities move their mighty operations because they always con- tain some countrymen who are not yet worn out ; cities contain honor and respectability mainly because they have some countrymen who are not yet altogether corrupted. The main significance of a city is its ca- pacity for consuming physical and moral stamina. The significance of the country is its capacity for producing physical and moral stamina. Many reasons could be advanced in support of these assertions. We will se- lect a few. The country air is pure, while the city air is poisoned with pestiferous ex- halations. The country has pure water and fresh food ; the city's food is stale, to say the least, and its water is such as circum- stances and contrivances make it. The coun- try sleeps at night, while the city runs riot, K 146 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. wearing out vitality and scattering the seeds of vice. The country has youth, while the city has " juveniles." The country, then, has the materials for stalwart men — viz., phys- ical soundness and moral health. But it has not only the materials, but also the condi- tions, for large manhood. Country labor is largely physical, and so contributes to sound rest, instead of impairing it. Much of this labor is needed exercise ; shattered constitutions have been restored by engag- ing in it. The enterpi-ise of the country is based on the simpler laws of nature, and on accurate predictions ; so the men- tal problems are few, and consequently the mental wear and tear small. The coun- try incites to honesty and character. In a measure, they are inbred. They are also enforced by the circumstances of the situa- tion. In the country the family institution prevails in its purest form ; children are born into the patriarchal system, and asso- ciate mostly during early life with father. PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 147 mother, sisters, and brothers. They are con- strained by the ties of nature to be true and loyal to these associates, and are under the moulding influence of honest parentage. The result is a rural conscience, which is sharply contrasted with city caution ; the one is the monition of the heart, the other the monition of the head ; the one is the motive of personal dignity, the other the motive of personal safety; the one is an in- ternal, the other an external motive ; the one is a tribute to individual strength, the other a compliment to the force of social organi- zation; the one is a respect for right, the other a respect for comfort and convenience. Furthermore, rural transactions are per- sonal; it is more difficult to wrong those we know, and with whom we must mingle in daily association, than those w^ho have but a mythical existence on paper. So ed- ucation, habit, circumstance, contribute to moral life and growth in the country. ISTor will it be far-fetched to assert that Mother 148 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. Nature warms the heart to just and noble purposes. We have enumerated some ex- cellent moral forces in the country. They need but to be supplemented with sound in- struction, whereby the eyes of thought may be opened and the soul aroused to a reali- zation of its possibilities. With this want provided, the country becomes the grand producing - ground of manhood and public opinion. In consequence of this want, there is a constant exodus from the country of fam- ilies who wish to place their children within reach of intellectual advantages. This in- volves a double calamity ; for the children who go to cities to be instructed get their knowledge at the expense of moral loss, while the country suffers in tone by the loss of its better elements and by the influx of inferior classes. This exodus of families, and also of brilliant youths, drawn to the dazzling op- portunities of cities, leads many to suppose that knowledge and culture are incompatible PEACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 149 with rural life and pursuits. But the »as- sumption is not true. It is not vocation that distributes men, but rather congeniality of ideals. If we aim to fasten upon the country population a totally uninspired ex- istence, we must expect the more sensitive souls to flee away from it. Human nature cannot endure isolation ; man must mingle with his kind, or be unhappy. Rural pursuits, as such, are not distasteful to scholarship. They are, on the contrary, the preferred employments of some of our most cultured men. We can fortunately point to some college farmers. Agriculture thrives when science strikes the fields ; we have then improved products, increased pro- duction, and organized thought. Our agri- cultural societies are evidences that some brain has forced its way into the domain of production ; and the proceedings of those societies have evinced the deepest learning applied to the most practical things. Our scholar-farmers are lifting agriculture out of 150 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. a retrogressive and wasteful empiricism into a broad science ; and where is the man who is too large to treat the subject of agricultural science ? The scientific farmer is the largest and wisest man in the nation^ because all social problems have their roots in his; his line of thought and interest commands the whole domain of social activity; he has the only training for the ideal statesman. We expect to see our new-born agricult- ural societies dealing ere long with this problem of education ; for it is an agricult- Tiral problem. It will be apparent that the rural districts will be profited as much by improved men and women as by improved cattle, soils, and cereals. Empirical farming curtails production and exhausts the lands it operates upon ; science reaps its golden stores, and leaves the ground fatter for fut- ure jiroduction. Mere muscle has had its day; we have learned the uses of an intelli- gent soldiery ; we will learn the uses of an intelligent yeomanry. PRACTICAL SCHOOL ETHICS. 151 We need, perhaps, but recapitulate that every consideration of national welfare, as well as every consideration of right and jus- tice, impels us to carry the torch of instruc- tion into the rural districts. Instead of a system of make-believes, propagating imbe- cility, let us have a system of schools that will take hold of the children and strength- en the fibres of their threefold nature — physi- cal, intellectual, and moral. Let us have a system that begins to make maturity by first knowing what maturity is. Let us erect such safeguards around the vocation of teaching that educational quackery in this country will be impossible. 152 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. FAMILY PROBLEMS. We have discussed some of the ethics of the community. We j)ass to other classes of problems more restricted, perhaps, though not less weighty, nor less important. Blessed are the wise parents. In nothing do the beauty and wisdom of divine purj^ose shine out more clearly than in the family relation. The family is not only society in miniature ; it is also an epitome of all the problems of society. Men aspire to wealth and inHii- ence ; he who has a family possesses both. The Homan matron, when asked to display her jewels, led forward two glorious boys. Her sense of affluence was not affected by the absence of horses, dogs, lands, and trin- kets. Her gallery, however, contained the richest of earthly treasures — living statuary and breathing pictures: she held two bright FAMILY PROBLEMS. 153 and loving souls who honored and cherished the mother tliat nourished them. No won- der that her bosom heaved with the sense of great possession ; she led by the hand Rome's freedom and the liberties of man- kind. Cornelia and her bright -eyed boys are moving the world to-day after the lapse of two thousand years ; the trinkets of her haughty neighbors hang in our museums, inviting speculation as to the individuals for whom history gives no sign. She knew her wealth, for she knew the toil and watchful solicitude that produced it. The artist mother recognized her handiwork in every graceful movement, in every brill- iant conception, in every lofty sentiment that found expression in her children. She had put them there. She was but a woman, the daughter of Africanus ; yet she proved her- self worth two sons. Her case illustrates a universal truth ; if parents choose to put their own souls into their children, they can do it. But they ought to see to it that they have 164: THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. good souls to put into them. An energetic Dacian mother would doubtless have made the Gracchi successful hunters; an Egyptian mother would have prepared them to toil submissively in the quarries all their lives, in order to furnish a tomb for a tyrant king; a Spartan mother would have made them val- orous thieves ; but the Eoman Cornelia made them men. They were men because she wanted them to be men, and because she knew what constitutes manhood, and how it is developed. She had an ideal, a purpose, and a skill ; she was, in short, fitted for the parental office. She blessed her boys when they bared their breasts against the ranks of injustice; she thanked her lucky stars for such boys, as she received their mangled bodies, and closed their eyes in death. Her boys had sentiments, and were true to them. Death in a cause is the highest proof of earnestness ; as she buried her heroes she felt that he is but a feeble moralist who will take no risk in behalf of his principles. FAMILY PROBLEMS. 155 Yes, a family supplies wealth and infliv eiice — an influence of a definite character, which can be estimated. A parent's influ- ence is not precarious, at the mercy of rare opportunities ; he has possession of the child, and with it unlimited opportunity. The par- ent can renew himself in his child and re- pair the blunders of his own career, which experience has made apparent to him. If the parent has external ambitions, he can ad- vance them by inspiring his child with the same purposes ; and surely if he wishes to influence the community, he cannot find a more favorable point to operate upon than his child. His suggestions fall upon a friend- 1}^ ear ; he is sure of carrying conviction. If a parent has views, he makes a great mistake in withholding them from his children. But men are intellectually ambitious, and like scope for their powers. There is no wider field for the exercise of intellectual activity than that afforded by family prob- lems. He who will condescend to study 156 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. tliem will find the most edifying exercise and the most wide-reaching science. A par- ent can find his best personal interests in the line of his dntj ; he can find the larg- est life in dealing out justice to his child. He is absolute monarch of an interesting domain ; his government, when he chooses to exercise it, gives scope for the largest capacity, and is attended with the most gratifj^ng results. Besides dereliction of duty, a man makes a great mistake in stej^ping over the prob- lems of his family to reach those beyond. Before he attempts to govern the public, he should first be satisfied in his mind that he has been a successful governor in liis own household. It makes a large discount on a man's supposed greatness to find that he is the parent of wayward children. In attempting to cultivate distant fields, he has let the garden of his household be overrun with weeds. He must thereafter ever face the evidences of failure — evidences patent FAMILY PROBLEMS. 157 not only to himself, but to all who know the condition of his domestic establishment. A wayward household is an ungoverned liousehold, in which government has either abdicated its function, or has been over- thrown by its own rebellious subjects in consequence of its own usurpations of un- constitutional powers- Here is the rub. It is folly to attempt the mastery of state con- stitutions until one understands that consti- tution on which they are modelled. As gravitation is the basis of universal order and law, so is the bread-and-butter problem the basis of all other family prob- lems. But this would be a desolate and dreary universe were all other forces sus- pended but that of gravitation. The mul- tiplied forms of beauty, which result from the combination and co-operation of forces, would give way to a dread monotony. So likewise may there be dread desolation in the household if the parent sees nothing in his mission beyond the necessities of 158 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. the table and the wardrobe. He has made beantj possible ; but instead of securing it he has invited either the drear waste of in- anity or the black storms of satanic forces. In all this we have assumed that the par- ent has supplied the bread, which is his duty to do. Matters are brought to a worse pass when he so far violates natural law as to regard his children as bread-win- ners instead of opening buds. True, he should prepare them to be good bread-win- ners when they pass from his jurisdiction; but they are not the bread-winners of his household. But the abuses of the bread question are intensified when the parent compels his children to be money-makers for their own sakes. That is but an ac- cursed thrift which is acquired at the ex- pense of soul and body. But the greatest abuse occurs when the parent compels the children to make money for his sake. The other error, though serious in its conse- quences, carries with it some extenuation FAMILY PROBLEMS. 159 in the form of intended benevolence. But this last is the blackest of crimes, and goes farther than any other one thing to prove the doctrine of total depravity. Nothing conld better show the ntter absence of worthy sentiments and emotions than the coining of one's own flesh and blood into lilthy Incre. The parent who is awake sees a hundred other problems besides that which concerns the cupboard and the clothes - press. He sees before him plastic minds and souls, ca- pable of receiving any impression he may choose to make upon them, and capable of becoming things of beauty and joy for- ever. He considers how he may awaken and feed aptitudes ; he watches with in- terest those which burst forth spontaneous- ly, knowing them to be the suggestions of nature, revealing the bent and qual- ities of soul ; he sees a thousand oppor- tunities for impressing practical lessons in thought, feeling, and morals. Happy the 160 THE SCHOOL AND THE rA]MILY. individual who can do a good tiling, and say, " 'Twas thus my father taught me to act." All children have the common mission of becoming mature men and women ; but the special mission of each in life should de- pend upon the preponderance of aptitudes. It is a parental problem to detect this pre- ponderance and know in advance what the child's mission is to be, long before it makes the selection. This knowledge will enable the parent to speed that mission. The se- lection should always be made by the child ; the parental function is to make a wise se- lection probable. Genius chafes and pines when it is out of its element; most failures are due to the arbitrary selection of voca- tions. Every facnlty in the human constitution has beauty in its construction and grandeur in its purj^ose. The parental problems are coextensive with these faculties, and may best be referred to them. The problems of FAMILY PROBLEMS. 161 duty are to supply nourisliinent to all the faculties, and to see that none are perverted or withered by disuse. There is a very common reluctance on the part of parents towards entertaining any of the family problems except that of bread and butter. There are circumstances which render it questionable how far even this is unselfish. Parents must eat, and must there- fore have a furnished table to which the chil- dren are necessarily admitted. It is doubtless true that culinary matters are considered, for the most part, from the standpoint of parental appetite. But parents are under compulsion of law and custom to feed and clothe their children; so it remains an open question how far this feeding is a thoroughly benevo- lent act. It is certain that some parents per- mit their children to go hungry while they gratify their own appetites at prodigious ex- pense. But whether or not we trace selfishness to the table, we certainly do trace it to other L 162 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. problems of the family. Many parents re- gard the advent of children as a calamity and tlieir presence an annoyance. The chil- dren are interlopers who interfere with the routine of habit, or disturb the weighty re- flections that possess parental minds. When fehe children are good-natured, they are dan- dled on the knee as interesting toys; but when they are in trouble, they are bundled off to the nursery or to an infant school. The fact that the child is troubled is over- looked ; the only thing realized is that he is troublesome. Banishment is the remedy for his sufferings — banishment from the pa- rental bosom to the management of a testy nurse or nervous school-teacher. We have the comi):ion phenomenon of a parent en- casing himself in selfishness and keeping his children at bay. It has a suggestion of frost. The advances and encroachments of childhood are little knockings at the pa- rental heart. Instinct tells the child that that is his place wherein he may nestle and FAMILY PROBLEMS. WS be warmed by the fires of affection, jnst as tlie cliickeii knows by instinct that comfort prevails under the parent wing. Tlie warm solicitude and faithful parentage of the brute creation put to blush, in many cases, the parentage of man. The sense of desolation and suffering in a banished child must be horrible beyond comparison. Such parental mistakes prepare the way for frightful re- actions. Parents who wish to solve family prob- lems will dismiss entirely from mind the idea that children are, in any sense, en- cumbrances. They will not seek the so- ciety and applause of heartless flatterers in preference to the society and love of their affectionate babes. They will not seek di- version in companionship steeped in sin, while angels of purity are waiting in their own household to cheer their hours and teach them the way to heaven. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings cometh praise ;" the parent who starts in earnest 164: THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. to instruct his child will find himself the most instructed of the two. The little one is freighted with suggestions from the In- finite, untarnished bj the faults and fallacies of the world ; and he cooes into the parental car the voice of the Eternal Father. The parent will heed the knockings ; he will open the door of his heart and let his little dar- lings in, never again to be separated from his consciousness while life lasts. The significance of the knockings is that the little ones would be shielded from the clammy touches of the world and have r* strong bulwark between them and evil. Yice recruits its ranks from the victims of parental selfishness ; it is powerless to reach such children as Cato's daughter or Corne- lia's sons. Parental exclusiveness is the Mo- loch of modern times ; parents ,^re so pre- occupied with business and^sot-ial cares that they have no time nor inclination to ward off the many -armed monster that is reach- ing after the fresh and blooming children. FAMILY PROBLEMS. 165 Parents would justify tins exelusiveness on tlie ground that tliey support institutions for the instruction and training of children. The excuse is not valid. Schools are design- ed as supplements to parental effort, not as substitutes for it. Schools address them- selves mainly to intellect ; they do not hold examinations in virtue. The culture of the heart is peculiarly the work of the home. Cornelia was not mistress of the calculus, nor the German language ; but she was mis- tress of the soul. Instead of heart-culture at schools, the chances are altogether in favor of finding evil associations, calling for renewed efforts on the part of parents to counteract them. The parent has no right to possess thoughts, tastes, and purposes secluded from his children. The child inherits all the ex- perience of the parent ; and the latter should hasten to put the little one into possession. A domestic Sphinx or Sir Oracle was never contemplated by nature any more than a do- mestic tyrant. Professional men are espe- 166 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMIL ciallj apt to withdraw into themselves, in consequence of the preoccupation of their studies, and to lose the tliread of the fami- ly's dailj history. The law of family hap- piness and prosperity is freedom of associa- tion. Whatever checks this is detrimental to all the family problems. Business neces- sitates a certain amount of separation be- tween parent and child ; but the worst form of separation is that which occurs when they are togetlier — the sejDaration of souls. Busi- ness is a stern necessity, connected with the bread problem; but it should not be carried home. But in the beautiful order of thinors one l^arent is free from business engagements. The mother cannot be excused for becoming oblivious of her chiklren. The Creator has given her warm affections and unlimited oj)- portunity for domestic culture. She is the real parent, the home - builder. While her husband is wrestling with the bread problem, she is esjDecially responsible for the solution FAMILY PKOBLEMS. 167 of the others. It is her function to detect the spiritual and intellectual needs of her children, and to furnish the nourishment which tliose needs require. She is the gar- dener of the household, who sows the seeds of virtue, waters its phmts and flowers, and uproots the little springing weeds of vice. 'Tis she who must arouse and nourish the aptitudes; 'tis she who must inculcate self- restraint and subjection to just authority. She has to manage not only her children, but also her husband; she is the inductive philosopher of the household, and she has to indoctrinate her husband and children ^\'ith the fruits of her observations. If home dravrs its members awav from competing allurements, the victory is hers. If home is enriched with the jewels of a true nobility, the pride of achievement is hers. It is, then, a great privilege to be a mother. Her office is the most dignified and influen- tial on earth. The sort of greatness which domineers a senate does not compare either 168 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. in qiiantitj or quality with the greatness that successfully rules a family. As family organization is the model of social organiza- tion, so is family statesmanship the model of social statesmanship. Family statesmanship finds its embodiment in the tlioughtful, ju- dicious, faithful mother. She is the ideal of earthly excellence, the centre and source of the best social forces. If mothers are faith- ful to their trust, the j^roblems of school dis- cipline will be greatly simplified. We have some modern Cornelias who are giving noble men and women to society. Perhaps not all who contemplate the massive unselfishness and generosity of Washington are conscious of the extent to which he was indebted for his traits to the training of his mother. But motherhood is beginning to receive recogni- tion as a mighty j)Ower; and in the near fut- ure, maternity, instead of paternity, will be taken as the key to a man's character. He is such as his mother makes him ; and there will cease to be an analysis which does not FAMILY PROBLEMS. 1G9 include the mother. But the great mis- sion of motherhood affords no time for vanity. Her problems are such as to re- quire earnest, persevering purpose. 170 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. YOUTH'S PROBLEMS. If parents were always in order, there could be no necessity for discussing the prob- lems of youth : children could be referred to their parents for counsel in all matters 2)ertaining to their ambitions. But inasmuch as many children are jostled aside by parent- al selfishness, and compelled to solve their own problems, it becomes proj^jer to make them an audience. The trouble with young people is inexperience. They feel that they have problems, but they do not understand them ; they engage in a blind battle with fate. They feel within themselves an in- stinct to do and to be : it is the divine pur- pose spurring them on to their mission. They are conscious of something around them called the world — an indefinite some- thing — to which they must adjust them- youth's problems. 171 selves; they liave indistinct notions of growth and a future ; they are totally ignorant of law, hut sanguine of success, and are prone to plunge headlong across the lines of rela- tions into numberless mistakes. Wisdom is not the portion of youth ; that comes only by experience. Since youth is blind, its first need is wise and benevolent counsel in which it can trust Avith implicit faith. It never ogives this 'faith to doo:ma- tism ; it only yields it to sympathy. Young people are prone to secretiv^eness in regard to their personal purposes. They could not make a greater mistake than to nurse a soli- tary ambition ; tbeir prosperity and happiness would be greatly enhanced by discussing their intentions with an older friend. But youth's ideals are too sacred to be exposed to any but the most friendly eye. The best test of sympathy and goodness is a child's conlidence. Happy the parent who has the confidence of his child; happy the child whose parent can command its confidence. 172 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. Happy the teacher who gets the confidence of his pupil ; hap]3y the pupil who finds a teacher worthy of confidence. The youth who has his own problems to solve should select his mentor, his pilot, his older self with whom he can hold most intimate communion. He will thus iiave ballast and direction to guard him from disaster. A youth who is without any counsel but his own instincts is in a precarious condition ; he is exposed to so many dangers of whose existence he is entire- ly unconscious that one cannot observe him without trembling. His future may be ru- ined by the accidents of an hour, all his bright possibilities eclipsed in the eternal nio^ht of failure. Young people are prone to a remarkable falhicy — that of eagerness to get rid of their youth, as though youth were a rej^roach. We have not too much youth at the best ; we cannot afford to lose any portion of it. Ma- turity is conditioned in the uses of youth ; in proportion as youth is destroyed, maturity youth's problems. 173 is impaired. Those who grow restive with youth, and inflate tlieniselves into an imagi- nary manhood, are likely to possess but an im- aginary manhood while they live ; they are as dwarfs disporting in giant's trappings. jN^ever, until they become humble and realize their true dimensions, will they grow towards fitting the garments they have selected for their persons. It is sad to see self -conse- quence demanding the homage of the crowd and smarting under the crowd's indifference. It is sad to see a youth embarrassed by his fancied size, and wincing under the supposed gaze of thousands who do not see him at all. Young people are doubtless goaded on to casting away their youth by the notions of the knowing ones. Good people, of course, never sneer at greenness ; they consider it a very proper and beautiful thing, its juices giving rich promise of the vigorous fibre and the ripened fruit further on. But the corrupt, who have blackened their own nat- ures, find purity offensive, and aim to make 17-i THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. it dissatisfied with itself. Youth makes the mistake of supposing that only the know- ing ones are wise, and that good people are fogies. It hastens to smirch its own white- ness and earn the badge of maturity by pro- ficiency in vice. The blushing boy is fas- cinated by the composure of the " blood," while he is exasperated by his taunts ; he hastens to be himself a blood with loud cos- tume, a defiant eye, an aggressive gait, a foul vocabulary, loathsome habits, and a loath- some record. The boy escapes the specific persecution, it is true; but he escapes tempo- rary annoyances at the expense of perdition. The innocence and modesty, which the wick- ed call greenness, are a boy's brightest pos- sessions. They are the characteristics of real boyhood ; and a real boy is a pleasing sight — a boy who acknowledges a novelty and opens his eyes with wonder. There is hope for a boy who can be surprised. Growth is pleasing, but precocity is offensive, especially the precocity of evil: the so-called young men are nondescripts. YOUTirS PROBLEMS. 175 Almost every scliool tests a boy's moral courage; for it is almost sure to contain a certain amount of taunting precocity, even if it does not contain an element of finished bloods. A boy with a conscience is put to the torture of doing wrong to escape sneers. The knowing ones enthrall him, while the massive dignity of his preceptor is unfelt. It is thus that vice and disorder propagate them- selves. Precocity in schools has its grada- tions, from the urchin who fastens pins in the seat to the college blood who patronizes his old j^rofessors and languidly pooh-poohs the superstitions ideas of mankind in regard to goodness. This last-named individual is a character. In his " diversions " he has run the whole gamut of mischief and wicked- ness, causing a thousand heartaches to parents, teachers, and friends. He reaches a point at last where exhaustion and seniorial traditions combine to secure a fair exterior. After having jested with every sacred thing, and after having given unbridled rein to all his 176 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. passions and propensities, he relapses into a quiet cj^nicism, smiling ironically at the yonthfulness of the world, because it does not grow old as fast as he did. He is a sphinx-like terror to the unspoiled freshman ; his smile is more tantalizing than the open sneers of younger reprobates. It will be observed that the evil world is very attentive to the boys, driving and luring them into its ranks. If the good world com- peted for the boys w^ith equal diligence, we should have fewer failures. But the good w^orld is generally so absorbed in great en- terjDrises as to be oblivious of snch things as boys and their destinies. Boys are brushed aside with such lack of sympathy that it seems as if the good world forgets that it once passed through the stage of boyhood. Boys must have wise and sympathetic coun- sel, or they will win their wisdom at the expense of lost opportunities. Hero-worship is characteristic of youth. Boys become bad because they are permitted to seek their own youth's problems. 177 models, iind because bad models are obtru- sively thrust upon them. Those who are too weak or vile to conmumd the homage of the world revel in the gushing homage of the boys. But boys are as willing to deify good- ness if it does them a kindness and reaches their sympathies. Boys are imaginative and constructive. They must admire. If not drawn to revere strong models, they will dress up a fiend witli virtues. We forget that boys are to be courted when we try to drive them into the Avays of rectitude. It is strange that boys are not understood by those who have been boys : the most sensitive natures are left to build their air-castles alone, and have their hopes dashed by repeated slights and rebuffs. The problems of unaided youth are certain- ly very weighty ones. It seems as though the world conspires against them : those who carry through to manhood a consistent am- bition have to lift mountains. This is all wrong ; the mature generation owes the boys a helping hand, and pilotage instead of sup- M 178 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. pression. No boy is fully capable of under- standing his destiny and shaping correct ends unaided. The " excelsior " impulse is im- planted within him ; but it may drive him on to the rotten branch that overhangs the yawning abyss. He needs the warning voices of those who know the ro^d. But as his im- pulses originate in his breast, he likewise hears only with his breast ; he comprehends only the logic of affection. His one active sense must be reached in order to control him. A Socrates or Confucius Avill draw the boys, while they give the scowling Di- ogenes a wide berth. The Quixotic impulses of youth do not re- quire suppression, but direction. Show them the windmills, but do not depress their cliivalry. As experience brings its light they will direct their onslaughts upon real foes. Happy the boy avIio is not tamed by his ex- perience and who gets his light without loss of volition. In practice we seek simply to conquer the irrepressible boys, and we sue- youth's pkoulems. 179 ceed. The world has strategy ; the boys liave none. We thus fill the world with quaking cowards, where there ought to be lion-hearted heroes. The boys throw down the gauntlet to destiny ; they rush upon unseen w^eapons ; they are punished, overcome, humiliated, dis- couraged. Select the bitterest misanthrope, and you will find an individual who started into life a veritable Bayard. AYhen we speak of the " cold world," we mean the conquered boys whose enthusiasm vanished with their hopes, and who have been driven to assume a desperate defensive. But the young genera- tion are ever warm with generous sentiments and noble, unselfish purposes. The hope of society is not in the blasted trunk, but in the thrifty, pliable sapling. "What a beautiful order of things surrounds the air-castles of youth ! Therein are ceru- lean skies, embowering landscapes ; beauty everywhere in infinite variety of forms ; man at his best estate vying with his kind in vir- tue ; all prosperity, happiness, love ; a general 180 THE SCHOOL AND THE FA3IILY. movement in nnison with the soul of the In- finite. This is holy ground — the vision of earthly destiny brought by new arrivals that have not yet learned the discords in real things. The awakening from this ideal world to the real world of wrong, of suffer- ing and despair, is a harsh and terrible crisis in a human life. But though the dream de- parts, its standard of perfection remains to in- spire efforts of reform. The attempt to cor- rect things, though bootless, is worthy of all praise and admiration. Maturity is wise when it keeps an ear close to the suggestions of dreaming youth and tries to analyze tlie earthly heaven of a boy's brain. Maturity is true when it keeps watch and ward over the boy and protects him from tlie snares which lie cannot liimself see. Maturity is unwise as well as unkind when it robs a boy of his visions before he is ready to face a disordered world. A youth should not trust to his own un- aided judgment in shaping his future. Xo youth's problems. 181 single step should be resolved ui^on without counselling with maturity. He will thus be saved the punishment attendant upon mis- takes. His parent is his proper mentor. But if deprived of parental guidance, he should seek a substitute for it among the worthiest of his acquaintance. That substitute should be one who lives well, and who both knows and feels. He is fortunate if he can find his cabinet in his teacher. The enemies of youth are internal as well as external ; and he encounters both under the same disadvantage of inexperience. He is subjected to a fiery warfare of propensities and passions without understanding their nat- ure or the law of self-control. He learns law by experience, it is true ; but his knowledge may come after violation of law has worked his ruin, and after he has become the slave of habit. The problems of youth are all involved in the general problem of getting development and a rich experience without personal loss. 182 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. TEACHERS' PROBLEMS. The teacher's problems are great, even when he approaches them with due prepara- tion and in the proper spirit. His problems are the improvement of society through the development of the young and the diffusion of intelligence and morality. As free gov- ernment extends through the world it anch- ors its hopes in the schoolmaster. The teach- er is the connecting link between the great past and the great future. He is the conser- vator of progress. The great future appeals to him through the eyes of the little ones, and asks him for the report of time. Time has brought knowledge and wisdom to light ; the future is prepared to use them, and trusts him to transmit the heritage. Viewed sim- ply in his relation to the ages, the teacher's responsibilities are vast, and should be ap- teachers' PKOBLEilS. 183 proaclied with reverence. But in regard to his immediate surroundings, he stands in im- portant relation to tlie welfare of society, and to the highest good and happiness of sensitive and immortal beings. That deep reflection is required in order to meet the demands of these responsibilities and relations will scarcely be questioned. But what is it to reflect ? It is to think, to reason, to find out law. What is law ? It is the normal form of an activity. The teacher is the exponent of discipline, the personifica- tion and efiicient director of that power which is to control the school to the best interests of all concerned. We have discussed the nature of that power and the conditions of its suc- cessful operation. It is needless to urge that a knowledge of those conditions is essential to success. But when philosophy has ex- liausted itself, it only carries the teacher to liis problems ; his success then depends upon his own personal power. That power con- sists — 1st, in making up his case and stating lS:t THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. it trutlifully ; 2d, in carrying out faithfully the suggestions of j)hilosop]iy. In making up his case he distinguishes and defines with accuracy the salient peculiarities of his field — including, among other things, his general physical surroundings, the charac- teristics of the people, and the history of past government in the school. Most of the data for the case may be obtained in advance of the opening of school. The teacher who thus collects it will be prepared to anticipate, or at least understand, the manifestations of tlie children when they assemble. His minute inquiries will make a favorable impression upon the people by indicating something of his capacity and earnestness. The people are seldom lukewarm towards a teacher ; they either like or dislike him intensely. The children know this verdict, and are influ- enced by it in their own conduct. First im- pressions take deep root; and the teacher makes a mistake in leaving those impressions at the mercv of disorderlv children. teachers' troblems. 185 But in tlie case of collecting data the im- pressions were onlj a secondary motive. In like manner, every really wise and well-con- sidered act starts a widening circle of good influences. But the opposite is also true, that an unwise act has its series of evil concomi- tants. It is difficult to entirely repair a blun- der, for one can seldom tell how far the poison has spread. These facts should not make teachers cowardly, but only cause them to defer decisive action till after mature re- flection. There is a difference between gov- ernments that are elastic and those that are inconsistent ; better defer a decision than re- call an impolitic edict. The latter is defeat, and paralyzes discipline. The delay of rigid authority is not weak temporizing ; it is onl}^ giving principles time to bear their fruits ; it is a recognition of the important fact that au- thority must be established before it can be exercised. It will aid the teacher in the analysis and management of his case to commit his data 186 THE SCHOOL AND THE FA:MILy. to wiTting ; for it may become quite volumi- nous after the preliminary information has been supplemented by the revelations of the school-room. He relieves his memory there- by, and is also better enabled to study his case. The rule should be to make every in- cident affecting discipline a matter of record and reflection before decisive action. Disci- pline is a growth in each particular school ; it is not the application of rigid universal rules. The teacher who brings a list of rules to be enforced and defended invites and secures de- feat. The rules which are admirably adapted to one school may be very inapplicable to another. The issues which call for decisive action will arise fast enough without precipi- tating a fight along the wdiole line by the in- troduction of artificial rules. It is easier to conquer an enemy by cutting off his detach- ments in detail than by inviting a general concentration of forces. Decisive action upon an issue does estab- lish a rule, for it carries the implication that teachers' problems. 187 all similar cases will be disposed of in a simi- lar manner. In this way there will grow np a list of rules for that particular school. The establishment of rules marks the progress of discipline, and with it the progress of the children and the people. A rule properly established is an event of great im]3ortance in the history of a school ; it records the growth of just authority, and its correlate submission. A rule established is a fortress won, in which are implied all the skirmish- ings with the outposts, the gradual invest- ment, the sapping and mining, the forward movement to the ultimate reduction and final surrender. A rule established is a record of work. The teacher's data may exhibit a long cat- alogue of disorders. It would be very con- venient if these could be at once obliterated by the promulgation of rules and penalties. Canute would give rules to the sea, and the sea dashed over him and his rules. So, like- wise, the great sea of human feeling, emotion, 188 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. passion, defies the edict of a little despot. If the teacher assumes that the children are a mob, thej will ultimately justify his assump- tion by becoming a veritable mob. He may possess brute force enough to suppress the mob for the time being; but the mob spirit js there awaiting its opportunity for license. Must we look for the qualities of the prize- fighter in the person we would pronounce fit to control a school ? This requirement would rule out many estimable and powerful teach- ers. The solution must be sought in other qualities. In fact, anything particularly san- guinary ought to tell against the candidate. But a steady eye and force of character are not brutish; they indicate power of soul. Moral resolution (the power needed) may be found in a frame that would abhor physical struggles. What will the teacher do who has collected his data,, and discovers that past mismanage- ment has organized a mob for him ? He will utterly ignore the oflice of policeman, and 189 assume his proper character of parent and friend. He will dissolve the mob hy con- vincing it that there is no occasion for its existence; he will guard against all fretful- ness and preserve a cheerful, benignant de- meanor ; he will reach the better sentiments of the children, and organize those sentiments as a basis of discipline. He will keep in abeyance his policy as a ruler until he has established his character as a friend. Even then he will not reveal his policy except as circumstances j)ermit it to become law. The teacher's acts are proper topics of comment ; his intentions are his own ; besides, it strength- ens a man to be supposed to have reserved power. If a teacher wishes counsel on his policy, he should obtain it by a discussion of general principles or of supposititious cases. An important reason why a teacher should not reveal his intentions is that he is not fully committed to a policy until he has crys- tallized it into decisive action. But the policy is all - important. What 190 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. kind of governmeut shall the teacher seek to introduce into the school? Doubtless all will answer the government of just and salu- tary principles. But what is the form of tliis government of just and salutary principles? The despot may hold that he embodies it ; the autocrat may claim that he represents it ; the drill-sergeant may insist that he has the true conception of order and its laws. We believe that the best teachers will dissent from all these forms and seek to create a democracy. The discussion of government with the governed tends to enlighten them as to its uses : it distributes responsibility and infuses loyalty. A rule established by common consent raises an impregnable bar- rier against disorder. Delinquents feel the government of the school, and not the sever- ity of the teacher. The teacher becomes the executive officer of a system, the represent- ative of a constituency. The teacher origi- nates and matures measures under the dem- ocratic system ; but lie only enforces what 191 lias met with general acceptance. By this system his government escapes the reactions of imtimely innovations, and he escapes the unpopularity of being regarded as a martinet and theorist. The teacher will bide his time, working meanwhile Tipon the general condi- tions ; he will submit his points as he feels the sentiment ripe for their adoption ; and he will thereafter enforce them with the most miflinching firmness. The non-enforce- ment of a rule is as detrimental to discijDline as the creation of an nntimely rule. The work of discipline is to bring volition under law. The experience of law shonld be that of wholesome firmness. In the matter of actual government we observe that the teacher shonld proceed with the utmost deliberation ; but in the matter of making the people governable he may pro- ceed with the utmost activity and persistence. What acts tend to make the people govern- able? Any act that tends to uproot a preju- dice ; any act that tends to enlarge their con- 192 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. ce2:>tions of tilings ; any act that increases their confidence in the goodness and capacity of the teacher ; any act that awakens their grat- itude ; any act that arouses their sense of re- sponsibihty; any act that enhghtens them as to the nature of duty and the proper sphere of government. There are a thousand acts both small and great which are attended with these fruitful results, and which are compre- hended under the teacher's proper problems. The proper method of managing a school is the most comfortable ; tliere is a joy in doing good ; and there is an ecstasy in each victory over disorder. Tlie autocrat is sel- dom happy ; his blunders heap coals of fire upon his own head. lie drifts into an un- known school and finds himself face to face with serious disorder. He attempts to har- ness the disorder with his rules, and finds it fractious. He becomes worried, petulant, an- gry ; he precipitates colHsions, employs vio- lence, brings about a state of war, and stirs up much bad blood in the neighborhood. If he teachers' problems. 193 holds his post, he holds rankling hate that requires to be watched with argus eyes, giv- ing not a moment's sense of security. His nerves are under continual excitement ; he feels condemned to the most excruciating tort- ure ; he considers that he has the most " aw- ful" neighborhood and the most ^^ awful" scholars that ever persecuted an unhappy teacher. He longs for liis release, and on that point at least his pupils are with him ; they are as unhappy and miserable as he. But this is all retribution for beginning wrong; it is the terrible reaction of injus- tice; it is disastrous failure. The above is a very common experience in school management. It is noticeable that while those teachers rejDort their own pangs, they seem utterly unconscious of having in- flicted any. They have inflicted pangs, and they have clouded young lives. They suffer- ed and failed because they did not come to their work with generous intentions; they came with the selfish motive of earning a 194: THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. little money comfortably ; and inasmuch as the unhappy children robbed them of their comfort, they feel that they are martyrs. There is no comfort except in the observ- ance of law. The teacher who studies his problems in order to conform to law in his movements will hnd the thorns disappearing from his pathway and beds of roses taking their places. But it may a23pear laborious to discover the individuality of the district, the parents, and the children, and to operate from the stand- point of this individuality according to the laws of development. True, it requires exer- tion ; but there is not the wear and tear in it that occurs in a blind battle with forces. The exertion involved in rational 'govern- ment is the exercise of one's superior powers — exercise that gives the teacher develo]3ment for his reward, exercise that makes him great and strong for occasions, instead of wear- ing him out. Then he has, furthermore, the teacher's highest reward — the intense satisfac- teachers' problems. 195 tion of seeing his little well-disciplined army moving steadily onward to success, after they leave his jurisdiction, with colors flying and hearts freighted with hope and confidence. He knows that each will do a soldier's duty wherever the fortunes of war may place him, and at the end of the campaign send in a glorious report to headquarters. Surely the possibility of such rewards ought to nerve the teacher to any amount of exertion needed to subdue and master his situation. These possibilities are not confined to any one dis- trict ; they exist in all. It is, then, a high privilege to have the moulding of youthful emotions, the shajDing of youthful conceptions. The teacher is that maturity that stoops to youth, that it may con- quer ; he is that maturity that adjusts the real to the ideal without doing violence to the suggestions of nature ; he is that older friend who protects the untrained footsteps of youth from error ; he is that maturity that saves the faith of man in the sympathy and 196 THE SCHOOL AXD THE FAMILY. generosity of his kind. Let us have in onr schools that kind of government which con- duces to the good of all, and not that kind of government which scatters discord, unhappi- ness, and failure. Our matter-of-fact age, in its intellectual tendencies, would underesti- mate the value of the affections ; it j)roscribes " gush." But there will come a reaction. It seems scarcely possible that the cynic shall dictate the universal form of himian exist- ence. The highest type of man is he who can feel as well as know. It has taken ages of injustice to make us a race of cynics ; it may take other ages of kindness to restore us to our normal condition of "good w^ill towards men." The cynic himself concedes that man has a spiritual nature, the seat of the affec- tions, but holds that he should grow away from it, instead of letting it unfold and grow with him. We know in order that we may feel, not that we may dispense with feeling : our high- est sensibilities are fed by knowledge. We teachers' problems. 197 would be delivered from tliut professed ina- turitj whicli offers as its credentials a with- ered heart. True generosity will not halt in its noble undertakings because icy selfish- ness cliooses to stigmatize its expressions as ''gush" and "sentiment." The teacher needs the courage to be good, and to profess good- ness. The teacher finds his problems all around him in the imperfections to be removed, and in the qualities and aptitudes to be nourished and developed. He is the physician of the modern school who repudiates plasters and nostrums, and who assists nature to arrest disease and shake it off. Those problems are numerous ; to discuss them all w^ould take much space. But they are not all revealed ; widening experience will bring more and more to light. Those desirous of seeing them will find them in the data of the good governor. Each problem is a case represent- ing a large class of similar experiences. We need an educational literature giving in full 198 THE SCHOOL AND THE FAIVIILY. the history of the solution of each problem. Science and literature will be indebted to the recorded observations and operations of the capable teacher. But can we afford good government ? — that is, can we afford to employ wisdom and skill to preside over our schools? The answer will be found in otlier queries. Can we afford to be happy? Can we afford to dispense with the dead weights which intellectual and mor- al ignorance are ever imposing upon society ? Can we afford a jDopulation of producers, in- stead of drones and wrecks to be carried ? The answer comes from the districts them- selves. The small salary of an autocrat is felt to be a burden; and it is a real burden, for it is so much dead loss and waste. Com- plaints about expenses prevail mostly in dis- tricts that pay small salaries, because those districts have not received benefits from their expenditures. Districts which have passed through the same stages of complaint have been known to pay cheerfully much larger teachers' problems. 199 salaries in order to retain the services of a capable teacher. It will not pay to use in- competency gratis ; but there will result the best returns from giving a living compensa- tion to merit. We reiterate, in closing, the necessity for educational doctrines and formulas to unify the educational power of the nation, to con- serve experience, to facilitate progress, and to protect the profession and the cause from abuses. We have hinted at a grand correla- tion of principles in education, that would en- dow the young with the experience of the old, and make the experience of one the expe- rience of all. For the teachers and the pub- lic we need distinct and uniform educational doctrines ; for the profession we need to have those doctrines formulated under an exhaust- ive classification and fixed technology. We believe the time is near at hand when a teach- er's orthodoxy may be tested by terms, when he will be required to discuss the things and relations of educational science as he now 200 THE SCHOOL a:nd the family. discusses the things and relations of English grammar. The science of education is c[uite as easy to comprehend as the science of sentences. They are both logical sciences ; the distinc- tions in the one are neither more refined nor abstruse than in the other. Our art of talk- ing has led us to perceive the laws of speech or the science of grammar. Our art of teach- ing should lead us to the laws of develop- ment or the science of education. It should be easy to decide which of these sciences ought to have the preference. Bad grammar makes us offend against taste ; bad education makes us offend against the fun- damental laws of being. INDEX. Absence, causes of Page 28 Activity of childhood 31, 170 univ^ersal law of 14 Affections, ground of custody 30 spiritual, the culmination of our moral nature. ... 50 Allegiance due from the child 40 American educational problem, the 132 Anah'sis, tabular 127 Assimilation of citizens the work of education 132 Association of ideas illustrated, the 57, 01 Attention essential to order 56 how produced 57 Authority, abdication of 42 abuse of 41 conflict of 41 Character a power in discipline 53 defined 49 how formed 54 Cheerfulness necessary in the teacher 93 Compensation due to service of value 87 Complaisance deceptive 50 Confidence secured by sympathy 171 Conscience defined 100 the immediate cause of order 73 Conserving forces in society 117 Corporal punishment, proper use of 101 Counsel an absolute need of youth 171 Covetousness a cause of absence 34 Crime a violation of law 40 Criminal punishments are losses of rights 78 Custody granted to the affections 30 '202 INDEX. Desires produce volition Page 44 Dilapidation of school property, causes of 89 Discipline defined 14 Disobedience, causes of 41 Dissipation produced by custom 28 Domestic culture the work of the mother 161 Duties of parents 83 Duty a branch of knowledge 103 Edification defined 12 Education an art 126, 153 Educational science , 136 Eligibility to educational ofRces 113 Enforced stillness, evils of 57, 70, 88 Examination of teachers should include educational sci- ence 105, 135 Excitement, effects of 29 Executive ability delusive 104 External training 22, 173 False maturity 178 Family government 28 Female education 141 teachers 140 Fossil teachers 60 Happiness a condition of order 44 Heroism, uses of 77 Hero-worship a necessity of childhood 176 Hours of rest 33 Human nature, elements of 55 Ideality characteristic of youth -. 179 Illogical notions 68 Imitation, powerlessness of 96 Induction defined 11 Indulgence, effects of 34, 42 Injudicious criticism 39 Injustice defined 74 reaction of 89 Insecurity expensive 80 INDEX. 203 Instinct the child's law Page 1()"2 Insubordination, causes of 41 Intellectual idleness 95 Judicial decision 37 Legal protection needed ()♦> License caused by undue restraint 70 consists of 91 Love, solicitude of 3(j test of character 5(» the basis of instruction 8-1 ]Mal-education 27 [Manners, how formed 92 Maturity a right of childhood 84 detined 8G tested 49 Migration caused by educational wants 148 [Misanthropy, how caused 179 Missionary work of teachers 68 Moral courage an element of character 52, 78 law detined 75 power necessary to the teacher 48, 188 remedies in discipline G5 Motherhood, importance of 167 Music a power over conduct 46 Natural imbecility 72 signals 97 Normal schools 136 Obedience depends on faith 103 produced by conscience 73 the duty of the child 43 Objective instruction detined 12 Order defined 14 Over-education a fallacy 26 Parental exclusiveness 164 opinions fallacious 25 204: INDEX. Parental visitation of schools Page 39 Parties in a school 15 Patriotism a cause of self-sacrifice 76 Perjury, incentives to 115 Poetic genius a perception of law and order 15 Practical reforms related to youth's ideals 180 Precocity, phases of 175 Preoccupation a parental fault 165 Prerogatives of citizenship , 131 Presumptive perfection of the teacher 40 Procraatination, effects of 28 Professional education, need of 184 Progress a factor in discipline 60 indications of 64 Propensities, contest with 63, 181 Prudence wanting in children 29 Public opinion, power of 132 Public order related to happiness 46 related to order in schools 41 Punctualit}', importance of 27 Rebellion encouraged 23 Reciprocity the law of acquisition 100 Reflection defined 183 Relaxation a need 93 Respect a condition of obedience 47 Retribution inseparable from wrong action 100, 192 Rights, how alienated 76 inalienable 76 of children 84 of district 80 of parents 82, 106 of property 37 of society 79 of teachers 87, 107 origin of 75 Rote-teaching injurious 58 Rules, use and abuse of 186 Rural education, importance of 144 opportunities 145 INDEX. 205 School patriotism Page 17 polity l«i» Schools, purpose of 82 Selfishness abuses government Gl) destroys schools 13:^ in the family 1(11 Self-mastery in the teacher a power in discipline 'JD Sentiments cultivated 15;} Services due from children o(> Slavery of children .'!"> Society the condition of human development 71> Subdivision of territory affects discipline li) Subject defined 11 Subjective instruction defined 12 Superintendent a teacher, the 110 Supervision a phase of discipline 109 appointive 118 nominal .. 121 political 112 Support the prime family problem 157 Susceptibilities defined 45 Tardiness, causes of 28 Taxation, grounds of 81 Teachers' facilities for preparation 130 Township system 18 Training, industrial, a parental duty. . , . > 30 Tyranny of custom 29 Unprofitable discussions 39 Violence a violation of rights 90 springs from selfishness 09 Volition, origin of 44 Weakness of youth 54 Wealth, what constitutes 152 Will power an evil and a good 69 Wrong defined 74 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 287 823 6