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 Ella Flagg lourig 
 
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Contributions to Education 
 
 Number IV 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO; : : \ i 
 
 FOUNDED BV JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER - ' '"• 
 
 t « • • 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION 
 
 Number IV 
 
 Ethics IN the School 
 
 BY 
 
 ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 
 
 PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 
 1902 
 
EDUCATION DEPT 
 
 LC2b? 
 Y7 
 
 Copyright, 1902, by 
 
 The University of Chicago 
 
 chicago) ill 
 
Ethics in the School 
 
 6S59-7<^ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This study aims to assist inexperienced 
 teachers, and also those who, though having 
 considerable experience back of them and 
 much pleasure in teaching, still find them- 
 selves sometimes troubled and discouraged 
 because of their inability to discover those 
 gauses which are active in many trying cases 
 that arise in school discipline. Though the 
 questions discussed are raised by means of the 
 presentation of practical situations, I hope the 
 treatment is sufficiently suggestive to make it 
 effective in endeavors to answer others which 
 originate in conditions not involved m the ob- 
 servations forming the basis of this inquiry. 
 
 One of the most difficult tasks set for us is 
 yie application of principles to the direction of 
 our acts in the familiar affairs of life; hence no 
 apology is offered for making a study of the 
 perplexities and trials that beset the teacher in 
 the daily experience. I believe the petty an- 
 noyances, as well as the greater problems of 
 the class room, may be focused in the light of 
 ethical principles, so that we shall transcend the 
 commonplace in everything which pertains to 
 
 the conduct of the schools. 
 
 E. F. Y. 
 CmcAGO, December, 1901. 
 
ETHICS IN THE SCHOOL. 
 
 Running through the works of the theologian 
 and the poet, of the philosopher and the novel- 
 ist, is the question, What is the end and aim 
 of this life ? The answer, whether expressed 
 in argument or in song, by inquiry into the 
 mystery of life, or by the portrayal of a great 
 passion, is ever the same : our being's end and 
 aim is the evolution of ^character wh^^^^ 
 through thinking of the right and acting'tor 
 the right, shalljmake for right conduct, recti- 
 tude, righteousness. 
 
 Interest in this, the greatest question put 
 to the human race for solution, is not limited 
 to a particular type of mind nor to a single 
 class in society. The blacksmith at the forge, 
 as well as the philosopher in his study, discus- 
 ses the fundamental conditions in the attain- 
 ment of the good as an ultimate end of this 
 life's activity. The maid in the kitchen, as 
 well as the teacher in the school, weeps over 
 the failures and glows over the victories of the 
 creations of the dramatist and the novelist. 
 Each knows as she follows the deft weaving 
 of character that time will bring many con- 
 flicts ere the judgment, Well done, faithful one, 
 9 
 
Ethics in the School 
 
 can be passed. As the drama or the novel 
 closes, the beholder, awed by the long strug- 
 gle to gain the heights, murmurs, " Heaven is 
 not gained at a single bound." 
 
 Before reaching manhood or womanhood 
 we all come to know that a something called 
 virtue must, by a slow process, be realized in 
 the daily life. But when the ideals of virtue 
 are examined, we find that they range with in- 
 finitesimal variations, from the extreme where 
 virtue is painted as mere self-abnegation, to 
 that other where virtue is defined as a volun- 
 tary effort having three things in view: the 
 interest of self, the benefitjaf^others, and con- 
 formity to the law of right. 
 
 Considering the magnitude of the question, 
 What is the end and aim of this life ? and the 
 widespread interest in its answer, would it not 
 be reasonable to infer that first among the 
 problems carefully studied are those in ethics ? 
 Ethics is the science of duty, of conduct. It 
 deals with the causes of acts, considered not 
 from the gains or losses that will accrue to the 
 self, but from the nature of the causes them- 
 selves. So long did duty necessarily pertain to 
 self-preservation, and character stand for the 
 ability to cope with a foe, that for many genera- 
 tions the standard of conduct was not based on 
 the principle laid down in the definition of 
 
Ethics in the School 1 1 
 
 ethics. In recent years there has been a rapid 
 evolution of a higher standard of conduct than 
 that of earlier times. There has been, however, 
 and there still is, a widespread belief that the 
 iteration and reiteration of maxims, precepts, 
 and rules, based in part on definitions of the 
 moral ideals and in part on the customs of so- 
 ciety, is an excellent method for developing a 
 high standard of living and thinking in the 
 young. In the minds of teachers and adult 
 friends, the acceptance of this code without ob- 
 jections insures for the youth the promise of a 
 fine character. 
 
 Theories and customs that for centuries 
 have guided the human race in its upward 
 march cannot and should not be set aside 
 lightly. All interpretations of truths pertain- 
 ing to the higher nature must, however, from 
 time to time, be subjected to revision. As hu- 
 manity moves forward its soul's vistas enlarge, 
 taking in new sympathies and new beauties, 
 feo today, if we have been reared and nurtured 
 in the time spirit, the ideal of virtue as objecti- 
 fied by our characters should include elements 
 only foreshadowed in the characters of our an- 
 cestors a few generations back. What is true 
 of a race, or of a nation, as regards its charac- 
 ter development, is true of that part of the 
 body politic known as the teaching corps. 
 
1 2 Ethics in the School 
 
 Too long has the school been viewed as an in- 
 stitution having a morality peculiarly its own ; 
 too long have its particular rules and customs 
 been made the basis for only an initiation into 
 the social life of humanity. The day has come 
 when the teaching corps must, as a body, pass 
 in review the customs of the school ; must an- 
 alyze those based on the morality of an insti- 
 tution which separated itself from the social 
 whole; must reject those which develop a 
 traditional morality for a brief period of life ; 
 must move in step with the time spirit, devel- 
 oping throughout the school those sympathetic 
 and sterling qualities which make for right- 
 eousness all through life. 
 
 Necessarily the problems and illustrations 
 presented in this paper will be taken from 
 everyday life in the school. 
 
 The first problem set for solution is this : Is 
 rivalry, emulatj flii between children, a health- 
 ful ifactor in the school ? A prominent psy- 
 chologist says : 
 
 The feeling of rivalry lies at the very basis of our 
 being, all social improvement being largely due to it. 
 Can we afiEord to throw such an ally away? Ought we 
 seriously to hope that marks, distinctions, prizes based 
 on the pursuit of recognized superiority, should be for- 
 ever banished from our schools ? As a psychologist, 
 obliged to notice the deep and pervasive character of 
 the emulous passion, I have my doubts. 
 
Ethics in the School 13 
 
 Let us first meet his position with an illus- 
 tration that might be taken from almost any 
 school. The names of three children in a 
 reading class are George, Lucy, and Frank. 
 George has just read a paragraph aloud and 
 the teacher has called upon Lucy to read the 
 same. When Lucy reads that paragraph what 
 should be her motive — to express the thought 
 as she understands it, or to surpass George ? 
 If we wish to know what that printed page 
 means to her ; if \ye wish her to read so as to 
 describe the mental image constructed by her 
 mind, why say, " Lucy, see if you can read 
 that better than George did ?" If we wish her 
 to read for the purpose of surpassing George, 
 what a motive has been given her for reading ! 
 Outside of the schools in what is termed real 
 life, friends do not ask one another to read a 
 sentence, a stanza, a business proposition to 
 see if one can read it better than another. 
 They ask for the interpretation, or, as usually 
 expressed, to find out what different people 
 understand by it. 
 
 Let us return to our little class. After 
 George and Lucy have read, Frank is asked if 
 he does not wish to see if he can do as well 
 as, or better than, the others. Frank knows 
 that he is a poor reader ; knows that any 
 attempt to play the role of a superior reader 
 
14 Ethics in the School 
 
 will make him appear ridiculous ; or, possibly, 
 he is not sufficiently imbued with the spirit of 
 rivalry to care to surpass his mates, so, he re- 
 plies, " No, I don't care to." According to 
 the moral code in most schools, Frank should 
 have desired to read, not necessarily to express 
 the thought as he understood it, but to surpass 
 his classmates, and that chiefly because his 
 teacher had summoned the ally, rivalry, to 
 speed on the contest. What is the prospect 
 as to Frank's evolution of character ? 
 
 Some will say that the changes rung on bet- 
 ter, *• Who can do better ?" " Mary, try — I 
 know you can do better than John;" "That 
 is better than Lucy's" mean little ; they are 
 rung for the purpose of arousing enthusiasm. 
 Enthusiasm for what ? 
 
 In an overwhelming majority of homes and 
 schools, rivalry is the spur constantly applied 
 by parents and teachers. Right there is the 
 cause of the trouble, in that spur. The discus- 
 sions that go on about emulation and imitation 
 as factors in education, are based on the same 
 kind of confusion in thinking. The difficulty 
 in each case originates in calling in the pas- 
 sion or the power as an ally, and the mistaken 
 •' ally " idea originates in the failure to dis- 
 ^guish_ .b^etween spontaneous activity and 
 directed ^agtiyit^. It is not whether we imi- 
 
Ethics in the School 15 
 
 tate, or do not imitate, that makes us or iginal, 
 mdividual, talented. It is the matrvationjof 
 the imitation. The same is true of emulation. 
 It is the willed imitation that gives an un- 
 changed copy; that is a foe to independent 
 action. It is the directed, the suggested, the\ 
 premeditated rivalry that develops low forms ) 
 of competition. -^ 
 
 The difference in influence of suggested imi- 
 tation and emulation, and of unconscious imi- 
 tation and emulation was well illustrated in a 
 school which contained forty-eight six-year- 
 old children and two teachers. The teacher in 
 charge was giving the children exercise by 
 having a child at the head of each aisle run, 
 upon the giving of a signal, to see which could 
 beat in reaching the back of the room. It was 
 a painful exercise to witness. It was a scram- 
 ble, almost a stampede. The fastest runner 
 was noisy and rough ; the children were urged 
 to run like him, and beat him. They formed 
 themselves on the model as directed. It was 
 a painful sight, those hard lines in the faces, 
 those flying arms, those pounding heels. The 
 other teacher rose and asked if the children 
 might be seated, as she wished to run. The 
 first teacher assented, and the second, a grace- 
 ful, fleet runner, ran a few times back and 
 forth. The children were filled with delight. 
 
i6 Ethics in the School 
 
 When she changed and ran without comment, 
 two or three steps as they had been running, 
 they were dismayed. When the light running 
 was resumed, it was a joy to see the changed 
 faces, and the endeavor to run as the admired 
 one ran. It was a perfect illustration of the 
 great gulf between suggested imitation and 
 rivalry on the one hand, and spontaneous 
 effort to do a fine thing well on the other hand. 
 
 Let us turn to a consideration of the claims 
 that determine our relations with the self and 
 our relations with others : the egoistic and the 
 ^altruistic claims. 
 
 Often when a child is attractive physically, 
 or is quick mentally, parents and friends rec- 
 ognize the beauty or the precocity, until the 
 egoistic claims are uppermost in the child's 
 mind, and a Tito Melema is the outcome. Just 
 as often, when a child is unattractive physically, 
 or is slow mentally, the claims of others upon 
 his time and strength are enforced until an 
 Ishmael is the outcome. Fortunate is it for 
 children suffering from this one-sided home 
 training, if in the schools they have large- 
 minded teachers; teachers who will counter- 
 act the vanity of the flattered one by arousing 
 thoughts about the excellencies of others; 
 teachers who will pour the sunshine of love 
 into the life of the unhappy one, by recogniz- 
 
Ethics in the School 17 
 
 ing the excellencies and the rights of the 
 lonely soul whose hand is against everybody. 
 Such large-minded teachers will study children 
 as they reveal themselves in speech and acts. 
 They will never construe the flippant manner 
 and inattention of the one, or the sullen air 
 and rude reply of the other, as a personal 
 affront. The training of these children so 
 that they shall grow to a recognition of the 
 true claims of self and of others, may be from 
 the standpoint established by the traditions 
 of the school, or from that indicated by ethics. 
 The vain and the sullen may be led to see 
 that other children, those liked by the teacher, 
 do whatever the teacher requests, and also 
 answer in a tone and manner different from 
 theirs. By following this line of observation 
 and reasoning, they may learn, as a means of 
 personal advancement, to pay proper respect 
 to the professional dignity of the teacher. On 
 the other hand, they may be led to change 
 their tone and manner because of a belief in 
 helpfulness and kindliness as a means to the 
 happiness of all. 
 
 One afternoon at the close of school, a 
 teacher said to the principal, " I have told 
 Sumner Brown to report to you before he 
 takes his seat again in my room." The prin- 
 cipal looked anxious, and then expressed re- 
 
1 8 Ethics in the School 
 
 gret that Sumner was in trouble again, finish- 
 ing with the comment : '* He is not a bad boy, 
 but he will be if he contiuues to have trouble 
 with his teacher." The teacher quietly and 
 dignifiedly repeated the impertinent question 
 injected by Sumner into the orderly recitation, 
 and then gave a description of the scene re- 
 sulting from the silly question : some laughed 
 outright, some tittered, and even the good had 
 to assume a disapproving look. In reply to the 
 inquiry, "What would you have thought if the 
 child of a friend had raised the question out 
 of school ?" the woman, not the offended dig- 
 nity, replied, " I should have thought it rather 
 bright." In response to the remark that it 
 was nevertheless flippant and should under 
 any circumstances bring forth reproof, she 
 bristled and said, "When I am out in society, 
 I am not going to act like a schoolma'am." 
 Evidently her professional self did not rank 
 very high in the estimation of this teacher. 
 She viewed neither it nor the school as a part 
 of the social organization. A moment later 
 the real self, which was a noble one, said to 
 the principal, "When Sumner comes tomor- 
 row morning, please send him directly to me." 
 Sumner learned in course of time to guard his 
 thoughts and control his tongue. 
 
 Here arises a question in ethics : Was this 
 
Etiiics in the School 19 
 
 control based on the recognition by the boy of 
 the gain that would accrue to him if he kept in 
 good standing with his teacher's dignity or was 
 it founded on a recognition of the needs and 
 rights of classmates and self and teacher in 
 the recitation ? The question may be put in 
 another form : Was self-control acquired be- 
 cause of the peace and advancement it brought 
 in a preparatory world ruled by a dictator, or 
 was it acquired because of an appreciation of 
 an egoistic and an altruistic claim, existing in a 
 real world — in a democracy of an advanced 
 type ? 
 
 The professional self that for a time ob- 
 scured the vision of Sumner's teacher is an 
 interesting study. In The Autocrat of the Break- 
 fast Table, Holmes lists the different Johns 
 and Thomases engaged in a dialogue between 
 John and Thomas. In his Psychology, James 
 has an interesting dissertation on our different 
 selves ; the bodily, the social, and the spirjt- 
 ual. The professipnal self is probably a sub- 
 class of the social self. Unfortunately, the 
 professional self is a familiar figure, for it is 
 not uncommon to see a man, upon entering 
 the class room in which he teaches, suddenly 
 transformed into a being devoid of the graces 
 which mark him in his intercourse with friends 
 and acquaintances who are not members of 
 
Ethics in the School 
 
 his academic world. His voice will ascend to 
 an unnaturally high pitch, and will vibrate 
 without variation or any of those cadences 
 which indicate the play of thought and sym- 
 pathy. His dull wit will play on the defi- 
 ciencies of the young who are to learn from 
 him. It is not uncommon to see a young 
 woman with an attractive face and manner 
 undergo a transformation equally surprising, 
 upon entering the schoolroom for the work of 
 the day. The corners of the mouth will take 
 a downward direction ; the eye will become 
 alert, suspicious, reproving ; even the personal 
 identity will be lost, and she will know and 
 speak of herself in the third person during 
 I those hours when she should say, with the 
 (Great Teacher, "Suffer little children to come 
 unto me." The pronoun of the first person 
 will be unknown in her schoolroom, and the 
 words of that beautiful command be changed 
 to ." Suffer little children to come unto Miss 
 Smith." The care and attention which are 
 bestowed on the professional self in protect- 
 ing its rights and its dignity have brought 
 many a teacher into severe straits, the culmi- 
 nation of which is expressed in the familiar 
 explanation : It is unfortunate that I gave 
 those directions. They were unnecessary — 
 yes, even wrong ; but now that they have been 
 
 Vur 
 
Ethics in the School 21 
 
 given they must be obeyed, otherwise the chil- 
 dren, the young people, will lose their respect 
 for me as their teacher ! Would it not be bet- 
 iter to be a man or a woman than to be the 
 Wardian of a professional self ? 
 
 In the case of Sumner Brown, the teacher 
 dealt with a child made vain and selfish by 
 parental admiration of his quickness of the 
 wits. The conditions were not so trying as 
 they would have been had the teacher been 
 met with a sullen manner and a rude reply. 
 The first time that Grant Stearns's new teacher 
 called upon him to read, the pose of the body, 
 the mumbling tone, the sly wink to his com- 
 rades as he slid down into his seat after read- 
 ing, all gave proof that Grant had been in 
 many a conflict with his former teacher, and 
 that he had not come off second best, in the 
 attempt to roil his natural enemy, the pro- 
 fessional dignity of his teacher. This new 
 teacher, however, having no false dignity to 
 maintain, did not pick up the gauntlet thrown 
 down by the boy, though each evening when 
 alone the continued rudeness would come be- 
 fore her, but always could she say, "It cannot 
 be a personal matter between Grant and me, 
 for he had that manner the first time I called 
 upon him to recite." Yet this query always 
 followed. Shall I ever be able to influence 
 
2 2 Ethic s in the School 
 
 the boy for good ? Before long, Grant 
 wearied of his useless efforts to tease a teacher 
 who could not be teased, and who had so 
 much that was interesting in the lessons. One 
 day, after two or three children had read the 
 same paragraph, the teacher said : "There is 
 Atill a thought that has not been brought out. 
 \How would you read that. Grant?" When 
 the boy sat down, the teacher had the wisdom 
 not to make him self-conscious by words of 
 praise for his intelligible and intelligent read- 
 ing. 
 
 Let us return to a general consideration of 
 the personal and social claims of the children. 
 In arousing thought in regard to his relations 
 to others and their claims upon him, it is 
 necessary, first, to consider his relations to 
 himself, to his rights, to his own needs Rec- 
 ognition of his better self and of his rights 
 [must be accorded him, if he is to see and 
 jacknowledge the good in others, and also 
 Itheir rights. Neglect to give recognition to 
 the efforts and rights of the child or of the 
 adult allows jealousy to establish itself in the 
 neglected soul. J[ejil(Ousy, the second in rank 
 of the seven deadly sins, needs from the cradle 
 to the grave the repressing hand of parent, of 
 teacher, of friend, and most of all of self. 
 How often, instead of repressing this deadly 
 
Ethics in the School 23 
 
 passion, foolish parents, teachers, and friends 
 stimulate it by neglect or by invidious com- 
 parisons, hoping by arousing it to enkindle 
 intellectual activity. Miserable, jealous self 
 sheds bitter tears, not because of its own short- 
 comings, but because another has superior 
 merit. 
 
 If one were asked what advance step has 
 been taken in the development of character of 
 the young in the last decade, there would be 
 no hesitancy in replying,' for there has been a 
 general awakening to the necessity of culti- 
 vating the feeling of pity for the sufferer ; of 
 tenderness toward the weak and inferior ; of 
 compassion for the poor and unfortunate ; of 
 kindness to animals. But we may well ponder 
 these questions : Are we still using rivalry and 
 jealousy as incentives to learning ? Are we 
 theoretically developing the emotions in one 
 direction, and practically training them in 
 another? What do the changes rung on "bet- 
 ter than your classmates" indicate? Why do 
 so many school .exercises terminate with our 
 writing in a conspicuous place the names of 
 a successful minority, so that the overwhelm- 
 ing majority that fell by the wayside may be 
 reminded that others are stronger ? Do we 
 make a sharp distinction between developing 
 the essentials in the moral character of a child 
 

 24 Ethics in the School 
 
 and the essentials in the developed moral 
 character of men and women ? 
 
 Alongside these questions about motivation, 
 the subject of punishments presents'itself . Mar- 
 velous tales are toTd of a manly spirit aroused 
 in a boy by a flogging. Some assert that the 
 management of a school is made easier often, 
 not by whipping the children, but by having 
 them know that the teachers have the right to 
 whip them. This seems to me a fair presenta- 
 tion of their view of the subject : Children 
 Should be taught to know something of the 
 wonderful structure and mechanism of the 
 body ; they should be taught to care for that 
 body ; to keep it clean, to keep it pure ; they 
 should be made to realize that knowledge of 
 their environment comes by way of the or- 
 gans of special sense ; that the interchange of 
 thought with parents and friends is effected 
 through the action of nerve and muscular 
 structure ; after teaching them to respect this 
 temple and having them memorize the lines : 
 
 *' Make the house, where Gods may dwell, 
 Beautiful, entire, and clean." 
 
 Then to beat the ends of these nerves, to mar 1 
 the skin, will awaken a manly spirit in a 
 troublesome child; at least, the knowledge 
 that the teacher has the right to treat that 
 
Ethics in the School 25 
 
 temple scornfully, will make the children 
 better. 
 
 In some schools where the teaching corps 
 has not moved forward in the training of chil- 
 dren to a belief in the abolition of the non- 
 ethical whip, but has been forced by the rules 
 of the board of education to discontinue 
 whipping, another instrument, .^i|ca^Si, that 
 weapon whose lash cuts and stings the soul, 
 has been substituted. 
 
 The abolishment of the rod and of sarcasm 
 does not mean that punishment is never neces- 
 sary. Logical punishment for wrong doing 
 should follow the deed. But how many pun- 
 ishments inflicted are the logical outcome of 
 the offense ? Sometimes one hears or sees this 
 announcement in a schoolroom: " The w hole 
 class must stay after school to make j^^^ 
 geography lesson." How applicable to that 
 wholesale punishment are these words of 
 Horace Mann : 
 
 Where all share the same odious fortune, disgrace 
 attaches to none. Like the inhabitants of Botany Bay, 
 all being rogues, nobody loses caste. Shame never 
 belongs to multitudes. 
 
 There is another saying of his that reaches 
 the subject from another standpoint: "You 
 cannot open blossoms with a northeast storm." 
 The question regarding that class in geography 
 
26 Ethics in the School 
 
 is this : Could it be possible that a whole class 
 of children, under healthful influences, would 
 wilfully neglect the preparation of work as- 
 signed by the teacher ? That some had been 
 indolent, that some had been negligent is prob- 
 able, but that a whole class had failed to pre- 
 pare a lesson, suitable as regards length and 
 matter, is incredible. What was the ethical 
 training in the punishment for the children 
 who had accomplished the possible, or for 
 those who had struggled to accomplish the im- 
 possible? What brings an erring man or 
 woman to the knees ? Not an illogical pun- 
 ishment. The erring one will spend hours, 
 trying to prove that the punishment was unjust. 
 In the same way will the child concentrate 
 thought, not on his error, but on the illogical, 
 or as he terms it, the unfair punishment. Is 
 not this question of the logical a fruitful one 
 for thought as we pass in review the time- 
 honored methods for the development of char- 
 acter through punishment ? The child as well 
 as Ithe adult should learn to make expiation 
 without shame and without weakness. The 
 man or the woman, training children is not 
 assigned the single role of an avenging Nem- 
 - yhTA.'K^ a^ esjs; there is the other and higher, that of an 
 
Ethics in the School 27 
 
 Let us make a brief survey of some questions 
 concerning habits and manners. 
 
 Though there have been exceptional cases, 
 yet in the main it has held and still holds true 
 that a wide gulf exists between the home and the 
 school. In one matter, however, there has 
 always been a demand on the part of each that 
 the other should supplement its endeavors to 
 bring about a desired result. This common 
 demand refers to the formation of habits which 
 jyill be operative in society. Sometimes the 
 desired result is classed under habits and 
 sometimes under manners, but whichever be 
 the general term, there is no uncertainty as to 
 the subject-matter. It includes bodily pos- 
 tures, and forms of speech in asking for favors 
 or courtesies and in replying to questions of a 
 commanding nature. In the whole range of 
 ethics, the science of values, there is nothing 
 more remarkable than the varying ideals of de- 
 sirable habits of bodily attitudes and of speech 
 — the unconscious modes of expressing the self. 
 No sooner is there an expressed agreement 
 between parents and teachers as to the impor- 
 tance of these, than a difference in opinion be- 
 comes apparent. The parent has one ideal, the 
 teacher another, which in each case is based 
 on the customs of the group in which the indi- 
 vidual's social interests center. Neither ideal 
 
28 Ethics in the School 
 
 has significance as a factor in education if it is 
 set up for copy for the child to imitate. Each 
 ideal has great value if it is used as a means 
 of interpretation of conditions and their causes. 
 Such, however, is the attitude toward habits of 
 bodily postures, and words of appreciation or 
 non-appreciation of courtesies and kindnesses, 
 that adults prescribe the habits without asking 
 such questions as these : How do habits origi- 
 nate ? What do they signify ? Why is this 
 form of speech desirable always ? Is it desira- 
 ble always ? What is the hygienic value of 
 this mode of sitting, standing, writing, or 
 holding the book or other material ? Why do 
 I, an adult, vary from these standards in my 
 conduct, though well-trained to them in youth? 
 Has this form of activity a useful function, or 
 is it merely a mode of action that pleases me 
 personally ? Is the law of life repression in 
 childhood and overt action in adult life ? Or, 
 to put it in another way, is this the law : Out 
 of repression, correct expression will develop ? 
 If these questions concerning habits, and all 
 other questions bearing on the development of 
 character in school, are to be answered so that 
 children shall have a high standard of conduct 
 and behavior, we must study them as we study 
 questions concerning habits influencing our own 
 lives. It is worse than useless to attempt to 
 
Ethics in the School 29 
 
 create in the minds of the young, unnatural 
 ideals in which self-sacrifice and self-repression 
 are the chief attributes of goodness. Such 
 ideals make the attitude of parents and teach- 
 ers harsh, or weakly sentimental. Equally 
 objectionable is it to permit children, through 
 their speech and acts, to develop ideals in 
 which rude self-assertion and lawlessness are 
 elements in right conduct. Parents and teach- 
 ers in America have taken advanced position 
 on the training of children through their activi- 
 ties. Some, however, fail of that conception 
 of character which includes the development 
 of the child not only as an individual but also 
 as a member of society. To let him run riot, 
 as a law unto himself and the only law, is to 
 help him to become a one-sided, ill-equipped 
 individual in the social community. In the 
 revolt against Czarism in parents and teachers, 
 it is a fatal mistake to let the child set himself 
 up as Czar ; because in that case, the wand of 
 unbridled authority has merely changed hands. 
 It is dangerous to seize upon new half-truths 
 and substitute them for old half-truths. 
 
 No sooner is the wand of authority men- 
 tioned in connection with children than parents 
 and teachers begin to discuss the question of 
 a child's will and its development. Accord- 
 ing to the general consensus of opinion, the 
 
30 Ethics in tlic SchooJ 
 
 will acts in those moments only in which reason 
 and desire are in conflict ; and in that conflict 
 will appreciates the arguments of reason. If 
 the rational line of action is followed out, will 
 is declared victorious ; it is strong. If irra- 
 tional or foolish motives, that is desires, prevail, 
 the will is declared vanquished ; it is too weak 
 for battle with the agents of evil. In this con- 
 ception adults find not only unanswerable 
 reasons for alertness in strengthening the will 
 of a child, but also excuses for their own 
 weaknesses and shortcomings. The assign- 
 ment of the will to playing the leading part 
 or character, in a process separate and aloof 
 from the emotions, from the motives that have 
 been developed by habit, and from the mental 
 content which functions behind those motives, 
 has limited it to being a choosing power of the 
 mind. This limitation of the will entirely ob- 
 scures the impulses and emotions as the begin- 
 nings of the act — obscujres the intellectual 
 phase of the act. In other words, many today, 
 like the old psychologists and metaphysicians, 
 fail to observe all that is involved in a volun- 
 tary act — lose sight of the fact that the whole 
 self is carried into the realization of an idea. 
 They fail to see that an act of the will is an 
 expression of that which satisfies one's self ; in 
 short, that the will is simply the final step in 
 
Ethics in the School 31 
 
 the activity through which we make ourselves 
 known. 
 
 In training the will of a child, it is generally 
 assumed that what is called reason is the ideal 
 constructed by the trainer, and desire is the 
 alluring, deceiving ideal constructed by the one 
 to be trained. Without depreciating the value 
 of the experience of the adult in weighing con- 
 ditions that are often new and perplexing to 
 the boy or girl, one sees in this assumption of 
 a command of all that is right afid reasonable 
 by the adult, an ignoring of mentality in the 
 child. The conduct of a home or a school on 
 the theory that it is the parent's home, or the 
 teacher's school, and hence the child must con- 
 form to the laws, rules, or customs which the 
 parent, or teacher, has decided to be satis- 
 factory to him, is hostile to the growth in the 
 mind of the child of an ideal of co-partnership 
 in and responsibility for the order and care 
 of that home or that school. When the child 
 doubts the reasonableness of the customs or 
 rules, he expresses his doubts as his elders do, 
 by glances and movements that are intelligible 
 to every on-looker. In the case of Sumner 
 Brown, to see himself the observed of all ob- 
 servers was the boy's conception of pleasure. 
 The customs of the school interfered with his 
 individualistic theory of activity. When his 
 
32 Ethics in the School 
 
 teacher endeavored to develop an idea of the 
 school as a cooperative workshop, two con- 
 ditions must have pressed for recognition in 
 her mind, before she was properly prepared to 
 advance any valuable ideas : first, the boy's 
 idea of the recitation was such that he was an 
 actor ready to break into her game ; second, 
 her idea of the recitation was such that thought 
 in its free play was subjected to the limitations, 
 not of the subject, but of what she deemed 
 admissible in her domain. She indicated this 
 when saying she should have thought the 
 question " rather bright " outside of the school- 
 room. These conditions carry or force the 
 question back of the expression of the boy's 
 idea of individualistic smartness to a considera- 
 tion of the intellectual habits and ideas that 
 are the mainspring of his activity. These habits 
 and ideas will necessarily be studied as results 
 of the response to stimuli in the social environ- 
 ment. 
 
 In the case of Grant Stearns, there was the 
 expression of a mind that had been finding 
 little nutriment in the material spread before 
 it, in the conditions surrounding it. The 
 mental disgust was shown in such a manner as 
 to stimulate a similar reaction by the adult 
 unless the conditions back of the conduct 
 were analyzed to their causes. In the accen- 
 
Ethics in the School 33 
 
 tuation of the school conditions that entered 
 into the environment of these boys, it is not 
 forgotten that much of their conduct may have 
 been a reproduction of the speech and manners 
 of older associates on the street,or in the home. 
 Each boy may have been finishing the circle 
 of action that began in stimulations entirely 
 outside of the school, and were worked into 
 images that waited time and place for presenta- 
 tion. And yet there must have been in the 
 atmosphere of the school, conditions anal- 
 ogous to those outside. The intellect which 
 had found pertness or rudeness stimulating to 
 constructive activity, was by association again 
 busy with a like construction. In the first 
 illustration the teacher found she had not gone 
 far enough to discover the cause ; in the second, 
 the teacher did not offer stimuli for like pro- 
 ductions to the mind that had images of itself 
 as a tantalizing being stirring the wrath of a 
 superior. 
 
 The strength of the pioneer kindergartners 
 lay in that comprehension of the relation of 
 teacher and pupil which precludes the teach- 
 er's offering or responding to stimuli that are 
 the basis of images of rude self-assertion or 
 over-emphasis of the individual. With the 
 influx of thousands into the teaching corps of 
 the kindergarten, there have entered some 
 
34 Ethics in the School 
 
 who have not studied this subject so thor- 
 oughly that they recognize the never-failing 
 truth that the mind reacts with its natural 
 vigor to a stimulus that is sincere, genuine ; 
 and that it reacts with disgust or a weak senti- 
 mentality to a stimulus that is affected and 
 insincere. It would be unnecessary to refer to 
 this condition were it not that the reference 
 helps emphasize the truth that the intellect 
 consciously, or unconsciously, constructs 
 images and ideas that are similar in nature to 
 the stimulus to which it responds, and in the 
 will it gives the outward expression of the re- 
 sults of that activity. 
 
 In this brief survey of the will nothing has 
 been said of those desires that draw us hither 
 and thither after the intellect has made its de- 
 cision. This conflict between desires and 
 reason is not a combat over which will pre- 
 sides. The selection or setting of an end or 
 aim to be attained, the selection of the means 
 by which it shall be attained, depend upon 
 intellectual qualities. The intellect is the 
 selecting and constructing activity, the per- 
 ceiving and conceiving part of us. It builds 
 ideals and directs the realization of them. 
 The emotions encourage or discourage us 
 with their return waves of approval or disap- 
 proval of the aims which spirit has chosen and 
 
Ethics in the School 35 
 
 the degree of success with which it has made 
 them effective in life. 
 
 In the last analysis, the fundamental in the 
 ethical life is the same in the school as it is in 
 all other divisions of society. It is the de- 
 termining cause of the act that makes the 
 individual weaker or stronger. In the de- 
 termining cause are involved the original 
 motivation, the criticism of self upon its own 
 motive and act, and the effort to elevate both 
 to a higher plane. The ethical life cannot be 
 separated or differentiated from the intellec- 
 tual life. If, in the work of the school, haste 
 and facility in forming and stating opinions 
 and judgments are the predominating char- 
 acteristic, then sincerity in getting at the 
 essence of things cannot be the final result. 
 If knowledge acquired in the school is used 
 there only, then it must be viewed as some- 
 thing that has no intrinsic value — has a mark- 
 ing value merely. 
 
 A little eight-year-old girl, after reading a 
 paragraph, said, "I didn't make it mean what 
 I think it means," and then, without any re- 
 mark from her teacher, re-read it to her own 
 satisfaction. This demand by the little child 
 that she should rightly interpret the author; 
 this giving the soul's touch to the expression 
 of thought ; this permeating the whole with 
 
36 Ethics in the School 
 
 the spirit of the worker, means an advance in 
 the ethical life far beyond that in the child 
 who is trained to read according to a model. 
 To train to imitate is to ignore the relation of 
 expression to thought, the relation of will to 
 intellect. In the act of the little girl, the 
 recognition of the symbols of thought as 
 given on the printed page, the grasp of the 
 author's meaning, the command of the vocal 
 apparatus so that the technique would be co- 
 ordinated with the idea, were those determi- 
 nations by the self which resulted in an overt 
 act that showed a developing and disciplined 
 will. 
 
 This training' of the ethical nature through 
 free expression is understood in diverse ways. 
 A discussion between several teachers who 
 were representatives of various theories once 
 presented the diversity in four lines of think- 
 ing. It was opened by a teacher who secures 
 highly-finished results in everything she 
 deems worthy of undertaking in her school- 
 room; who secures courteous behavior from 
 all children. The discussion was brought on 
 by an inspection of work in water colors which 
 some elementary school children had been 
 doing. 
 
 The first speaker gave vent to her indig- 
 nation over the masses of crude, inharmo- 
 
Ethics in the School 37 
 
 nious colors in some of the work exhibited. 
 She outlined her theory as follows : A child 
 should never be permitted to experiment and 
 go wrong. The teacher should carefully in^ 
 struct him in the harmony of colors, and the 
 necessity for toning down the standard colors 
 if they are to cover comparatively large 
 spaces. In all work the teacher should have 
 a clear conception of an artistic whole, and 
 the pupils should be so directed that they will 
 come out of a school exercise with a compo- 
 sition, a drawing, a reading of an article, a bit 
 of color work, a carriage in walking, a manner 
 in addressing others, superior in its finish to 
 anything they could have conceived without 
 suggestion and direction. This general ad- 
 vance of the pupils, she concluded, would 
 prove the teacher to be a good one. One of 
 the listeners murmured, "Now I understand 
 why I always think her pencil has touched up 
 the children's drawings." 
 
 A second teacher, after inveighing against 
 such a system of repression, summed up her 
 theory and practice about as follows : Miss X 
 is right when she says, "A teacher should 
 have a clear conception of an artistic whole, 
 and that the class should come out with a re- 
 sult in harmony with that conception." But, 
 between the beginning and the end, there 
 
$8 Ethics in the School 
 
 should come in the self-activity of the chil- 
 dren. This activity would be manifested in 
 ^eir attempts to tell what sentences would 
 sound well in the written composition ; what 
 emphasis would be best in the reading ; what 
 colors should be used in the picture or draw- 
 [ ing ; what carriage would be most graceful in 
 i walking. The teacher should show the con- 
 I gruity or incongruity of the various sugges- 
 \ tions, and when the right ones were secured, 
 Ithen should the children begin constructing in 
 laccord with the light given. In reply to the 
 question, " Would not the exercise be largely 
 an attempt to guess at your standard ? " she 
 replied : " Guessing games have always been 
 helpful." 
 
 The third group was represented by one 
 who said she did not form any conception of 
 the result; she let the children work out 
 whatever seemed right to them. When asked 
 what growth there was under this method, she 
 said the very small number that had enough 
 mental power to become scholars and artists 
 came out strong at the end of the year ; and 
 the large numbers that were indolent and in- 
 different, and always wanting to try something 
 else, simply proved that the majority of chil- 
 dr^en in our schools should be taken out and 
 put to some kind of regular work. 
 
Ethics in the School 39 
 
 The members of the fourth group were not 
 so positive in their statements as were those of 
 the first three. Each deprecatingly referred 
 to the fact that she had once thought as those 
 of the first or second or third group thought. 
 One of them finally said she agreed with the 
 first two speakers, that the teacher should have 
 a clearly defined idea of the movement in a 
 literary production ; should read sympathetic- 
 ally and understandingly; should be familiar 
 with the structure of English prose composi- 
 tion ; should appreciate rhythm in music and 
 harmony in color ; should have the speech and 
 manners of a well-bred woman. She agreed 
 with them, that the result of class work should 
 be an advance on the children's power before 
 the new exercise came into the field. But 
 
 when the re^ult5 were obtained they should 
 
 not be duplicates of the teacher's construc- 
 tions. They should each be a construction 
 resting on a child's conception. And the 
 vitalizing force in each construction should be 
 the child's endeavor to convey to others 
 through the media of the voice and the read- 
 ing, of the pen and the written language, of 
 the brush and the picture, of the speech and 
 the manner, the mental creation on which the 
 Construction rested. In response to the ques- 
 tion, "What would you do when that construe- 
 
K 
 
 40 Ethics in the School 
 
 tion was a meaningless jumble of words, a 
 meaningless repetition of the words in the 
 book, a meaningless rendering of the song, a 
 meaningless combination of lines and colors, 
 a meaningless combination of awkwardness 
 and timidity?" she said she should not drop 
 that product and begin working for a new one, 
 as she used to ; that she would positively de- 
 to know what this, which was to her a 
 meaningless construction, stood for with the 
 child ; that she had found since she had come 
 to desire positively to understand the child's 
 mental creation through his construction, in- 
 stead of worrying because the construction 
 did not tally with hers, the dullest child had 
 responded to her desire ; she had found that 
 kindliness and the atmosphere of a few good 
 beautiful, and true things, had in time en- 
 riched the mental creation and strengthened 
 the objective construction. 
 
 This last theory and method of teaching 
 recognizes the will as a function of the thought 
 that is back of it ; it is based on the belief that 
 the development of the will is the growth of 
 power in the individual to make his acts ex- 
 press more and more truly the feeling and 
 t:hinking that are their motif ; it aims to keep 
 the child-self a unit in what the psychologist 
 calls his feeling, thinking, and willing, i. e., it 
 
Ethics in the School 41 
 
 does not inject another's thought between 
 thinking and willing in that mental movement 
 which takes its rise in feeling, develops in 
 thinking, culminates in doing, and then with 
 the judgment, "well-done," or " fairly done," 
 or "badly done," reverberates back into the 
 emotions ; in short, it makes frankness, sin- 
 cerity, and integrity in dealing with one's 
 self the basis of the ethical and social virtues. 
 The development of character in children will 
 be in harmony with their mental life-process 
 when they know (possibly unconsciously) their 
 teachers as sensitive to and sympathetic with 
 the aims of their struggling and often baffled 
 young souls ; as intelligent in regard to the 
 truth and the way thereof. 
 
 There are, and there have always been, 
 teachers who have sustained to their pupils the 
 relation of friend and guide. One can safely 
 assert that the teaching corps as a body, longs 
 to be the means of turning the light into the 
 souls of children so that no darkness shall 
 thwart and hinder the upward climb. Right 
 there, in the very form of that longing, lies the 
 beginning of the mistake of many teachers : 
 for, in their vain imaginings, they are the be- 
 ginning, the middle, and the end of the move- 
 ment of which light is to be the result. The 
 very talent that makes many successful in the 
 
4 2 Ethics in the School 
 
 schoolroom, combined with the traditional 
 theory regarding teachers and teaching, helps 
 develop self-assertion, rather than sympathy 
 and intelligent helpfulness. In some this un- 
 due self-assertion takes on a form of dictation 
 that crushes the timid, and makes the bold re- 
 bellious. In others, it takes on such an ingra- 
 tiating manner, that both teacher and children 
 are stifled in an atmosphere laden with adula- 
 tion and sentimentality. 
 
 Sympathy cannot develop where children 
 are accustomed to hear others reproved con- 
 stantly. Sarcasm, reproofs, stern descriptions 
 of the beautiful, the good, and the true, kill sym- 
 pathetic tendencies and cause to blossom self- 
 ishness and indifference ; sympathy cannot 
 expand where children are accustomed to con- 
 stant praise. Flattery, indiscriminate praise 
 of results having neither function nor value, 
 kill sympathetic tendencies and cause to blos- 
 som self-satisfaction and ennui. That sympa- 
 thy, which characterizes the wise parent and 
 the thoughtful teacher, makes the dull child 
 feel that the result of his slow thinking will be 
 treated with respect ; it makes the vain one 
 realize that the expression of his thought is 
 prized and yet that his vanity grieves a friend ; 
 it makes the indolent regret that he has noth- 
 ing to offer; it makes the over-shrewd blush 
 
Ethics in the School 43 
 
 as he fumbles with counterfeit coin ; it makes 
 the faint-hearted wrestle with thought; it 
 makes the gifted feel the responsibity for 
 strengthening his talents. Pupils always look 
 with an open eye and direct gaze toward a 
 sympathetic teacher. The open eye and the 
 direct gaze indicate a mind turned toward a 
 light that it knows will not blind or dazzle, but 
 will illumine. 
 
 With the teaching corps standing in this 
 sympathetic attitude toward the young, the 
 school will not set up an external which an 
 adult has worked out for the young to copy 
 through blind obedience. A far higher prin- 
 ciple than that of obedience in conscious sub- 
 servience or submission to another's thought 
 will permeate the school. The principle thalx 
 is recognized as fundamental in intellectual! 
 growth will be recognized as fundamental iiy 
 the expression of growth. Ideals of relations 
 to others and of duty to self will be con- 
 structed out of the stimuli arising from the 
 world in which the children find life. This 
 will not be a world determined by one being ; 
 it will be the product of the cooperation of 
 many workers. Activity in such a school- 
 world will develop habits of doing with and 
 for others ; will develop attention to the far- 
 reaching effects of everyday conduct; will 
 
44 Ethics in the School 
 
 develop conceptions of truth, sincerity, good- 
 ness, and loveliness as outgrowths of the daily 
 experience ; will develop a will that identifies 
 itself with the longings, the aspirations, the 
 weaknesses, and the strength of the mind 
 which it makes known to its fellow-beings. In 
 such an atmosphere the strong will be gener- 
 ous, the weak will dare to be true ; the gifted 
 and the lowly will each strive for the good of 
 all. 
 

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