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@@ -0,0 +1,2157 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Education of the Child, by Ellen Key + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Education of the Child + +Author: Ellen Key + +Posting Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #988] +Release Date: July, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller + + + + + +THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD + +by Ellen Key + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + +Edward Bok, Editor of the "Ladies' Home Journal," writes: + +"Nothing finer on the wise education of the child has ever been brought +into print. To me this chapter is a perfect classic; it points the way +straight for every parent and it should find a place in every home in +America where there is a child." + + + + +THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD + +Goethe showed long ago in his Werther a clear understanding of +the significance of individualistic and psychological training, an +appreciation which will mark the century of the child. In this work he +shows how the future power of will lies hidden in the characteristics +of the child, and how along with every fault of the child an uncorrupted +germ capable of producing good is enclosed. "Always," he says, "I repeat +the golden words of the teacher of mankind, 'if ye do not become as +one of these,' and now, good friend, those who are our equals, whom we +should look upon as our models, we treat as subjects; they should have +no will of their own; do we have none? Where is our prerogative? Does it +consist in the fact that we are older and more experienced? Good God +of Heaven! Thou seest old and young children, nothing else. And in whom +Thou hast more joy, Thy Son announced ages ago. But people believe in +Him and do not hear Him--that, too, is an old trouble, and they model +their children after themselves." The same criticism might be applied to +our present educators, who constantly have on their tongues such words +as evolution, individuality, and natural tendencies, but do not heed +the new commandments in which they say they believe. They continue to +educate as if they believed still in the natural depravity of man, in +original sin, which may be bridled, tamed, suppressed, but not changed. +The new belief is really equivalent to Goethe's thoughts given above, +i.e., that almost every fault is but a hard shell enclosing the germ of +virtue. Even men of modern times still follow in education the old rule +of medicine, that evil must be driven out by evil, instead of the new +method, the system of allowing nature quietly and slowly to help itself, +taking care only that the surrounding conditions help the work of +nature. This is education. + +Neither harsh nor tender parents suspect the truth expressed by Carlyle +when he said that the marks of a noble and original temperament are +wild, strong emotions, that must be controlled by a discipline as hard +as steel. People either strive to root out passions altogether, or they +abstain from teaching the child to get them under control. + +To suppress the real personality of the child, and to supplant it with +another personality continues to be a pedagogical crime common to +those who announce loudly that education should only develop the real +individual nature of the child. + +They are still not convinced that egoism on the part of the child is +justified. Just as little are they convinced of the possibility that +evil can be changed into good. + +Education must be based on the certainty that faults cannot be atoned +for, or blotted out, but must always have their consequences. At +the same time, there is the other certainty that through progressive +evolution, by slow adaptation to the conditions of environment they may +be transformed. Only when this stage is reached will education begin to +be a science and art. We will then give up all belief in the miraculous +effects of sudden interference; we shall act in the psychological sphere +in accordance with the principle of the indestructibility of matter. We +shall never believe that a characteristic of the soul can be destroyed. +There are but two possibilities. Either it can be brought into +subjection or it can be raised up to a higher plane. + +Madame de Stael's words show much insight when she says that only the +people who can play with children are able to educate them. For success +in training children the first condition is to become as a child +oneself, but this means no assumed childishness, no condescending +baby-talk that the child immediately sees through and deeply abhors. +What it does mean is to be as entirely and simply taken up with the +child as the child himself is absorbed by his life. It means to +treat the child as really one's equal, that is, to show him the same +consideration, the same kind confidence one shows to an adult. It means +not to influence the child to be what we ourselves desire him to become +but to be influenced by the impression of what the child himself is; not +to treat the child with deception, or by the exercise of force, but with +the seriousness and sincerity proper to his own character. Somewhere +Rousseau says that all education has failed in that nature does not +fashion parents as educators nor children for the sake of education. +What would happen if we finally succeeded in following the directions of +nature, and recognised that the great secret of education lies hidden in +the maxim, "do not educate"? + +Not leaving the child in peace is the greatest evil of present-day +methods of training children. Education is determined to create a +beautiful world externally and internally in which the child can grow. +To let him move about freely in this world until he comes into contact +with the permanent boundaries of another's right will be the end of +the education of the future. Only then will adults really obtain a deep +insight into the souls of children, now an almost inaccessible kingdom. +For it is a natural instinct of self-preservation which causes the child +to bar the educator from his innermost nature. There is the person who +asks rude questions; for example, what is the child thinking about? a +question which almost invariably is answered with a black or a white +lie. The child must protect himself from an educator who would master +his thoughts and inclinations, or rudely handle them, who without +consideration betrays or makes ridiculous his most sacred feelings, who +exposes faults or praises characteristics before strangers, or even uses +an open-hearted, confidential confession as an occasion for reproof at +another time. + +The statement that no human being learns to understand another, or at +least to be patient with another, is true above all of the intimate +relation of child and parent in which, understanding, the deepest +characteristic of love, is almost always absent. + +Parents do not see that during the whole life the need of peace is +never greater than in the years of childhood, an inner peace under all +external unrest. The child has to enter into relations with his own +infinite world, to conquer it, to make it the object of his dreams. But +what does he experience? Obstacles, interference, corrections, the whole +livelong day. The child is always required to leave something alone, +or to do something different, to find something different, or want +something different from what he does, or finds, or wants. He is +always shunted off in another direction from that towards which his +own character is leading him. All of this is caused by our tenderness, +vigilance, and zeal, in directing, advising, and helping the small +specimen of humanity to become a complete example in a model series. + +I have heard a three-year-old child characterised as "trying" because +he wanted to go into the woods, whereas the nursemaid wished to drag him +into the city. Another child of six years was disciplined because she +had been naughty to a playmate and had called her a little pig,--a +natural appellation for one who was always dirty. These are typical +examples of how the sound instincts of the child are dulled. It was a +spontaneous utterance: of the childish heart when a small boy, after an +account of the heaven of good children, asked his mother whether she +did not believe that, after he had been good a whole week in heaven, he +might be allowed to go to hell on Saturday evening to play with the bad +little boys there. + +The child felt in its innermost consciousness that he had a right to be +naughty, a fundamental right which is accorded to adults; and not only +to be naughty, but to be naughty in peace, to be left to the dangers and +joys of naughtiness. + +To call forth from this "unvirtue" the complimentary virtue is to +overcome evil with good. Otherwise we overcome natural strength by weak +means and obtain artificial virtues which will not stand the tests which +life imposes. + +It seems simple enough when we say that we must overcome evil with good, +but practically no process is more involved, or more tedious, than to +find actual means to accomplish this end. It is much easier to say what +one shall not do than what one must do to change self-will into +strength of character, slyness into prudence, the desire to please +into amiability, restlessness into personal initiative. It can only be +brought about by recognising that evil, in so far as it is not atavistic +or perverse, is as natural and indispensable as the good, and that it +becomes a permanent evil only through its one-sided supremacy. + +The educator wants the child to be finished at once, and perfect. He +forces upon the child an unnatural degree of self-mastery, a devotion to +duty, a sense of honour, habits that adults get out of with astonishing +rapidity. Where the faults of children are concerned, at home and in +school, we strain at gnats, while children daily are obliged to swallow +the camels of grown people. + +The art of natural education consists in ignoring the faults of children +nine times out of ten, in avoiding immediate interference, which is +usually a mistake, and devoting one's whole vigilance to the control +of the environment in which the child is growing up, to watching the +education which is allowed to go on by itself. But educators who, day in +and day out, are consciously transforming the environment and themselves +are still a rare product. Most people live on the capital and interest +of an education, which perhaps once made them model children, but has +deprived them of the desire for educating themselves. Only by keeping +oneself in constant process of growth, under the constant influence of +the best things in one's own age, does one become a companion half-way +good enough for one's children. + +To bring up a child means carrying one's soul in one's hand, setting +one's feet on a narrow path, it means never placing ourselves in danger +of meeting the cold look on the part of the child that tells us without +words that he finds us insufficient and unreliable. It means the +humble realisation of the truth that the ways of injuring the child are +infinite, while the ways of being useful to him are few. How seldom does +the educator remember that the child, even at four or five years of age, +is making experiments with adults, seeing through them, with marvellous +shrewdness making his own valuations and reacting sensitively to each +impression. The slightest mistrust, the smallest unkindness, the least +act of injustice or contemptuous ridicule, leave wounds that last for +life in the finely strung soul of the child. While on the other side +unexpected friendliness, kind advances, just indignation, make quite as +deep an impression on those senses which people term as soft as wax but +treat as if they were made of cowhide. + +Relatively most excellent was the old education which consisted solely +in keeping oneself whole, pure, and honourable. For it did not at least +depreciate personality, although it did not form it. It would be well +if but a hundredth part of the pains now taken by parents were given to +interference with the life of the child and the rest of the ninety +and nine employed in leading, without interference, in acting as an +unforeseen, an invisible providence through which the child obtains +experience, from which he may draw his own conclusions. The present +practice is to impress one's own discoveries, opinions, and principles +on the child by constantly directing his actions. The last thing to be +realised by the educator is that he really has before him an entirely +new soul, a real self whose first and chief right is to think over the +things with which he comes in contact. By a new soul he understands only +a new generation of an old humanity to be treated with a fresh dose of +the old remedy. We teach the new souls not to steal, not to lie, to save +their clothes, to learn their lessons, to economise their money, to obey +commands, not to contradict older people, say their prayers, to fight +occasionally in order to be strong. But who teaches the new souls to +choose for themselves the path they must tread? Who thinks that the +desire for this path of their own can be so profound that a hard or +even mild pressure towards uniformity can make the whole of childhood a +torment. + +The child comes into life with the inheritance of the preceding members +of the race; and this inheritance is modified by adaptation to the +environment. But the child shows also individual variations from the +type of the species, and if his own character is not to disappear during +the process of adaptation, all self-determined development of energy +must be aided in every way and only indirectly influenced by the +teacher, who should understand how to combine and emphasise the results +of this development. + +Interference on the part of the educator, whether by force or +persuasion, weakens this development if it does not destroy it +altogether. + +The habits of the household, and the child's habits in it must be +absolutely fixed if they are to be of any value. Amiel truly says that +habits are principles which have become instincts, and have passed over +into flesh and blood. To change habits, he continues, means to attack +life in its very essence, for life is only a web of habits. + +Why does everything remain essentially the same from generation to +generation? Why do highly civilised Christian people continue to plunder +one another and call it exchange, to murder one another en masse, and +call it nationalism, to oppress one another and call it statesmanship? + +Because in every new generation the impulses supposed to have been +rooted out by discipline in the child, break forth again, when the +struggle for existence--of the individual in society, of the society in +the life of the state--begins. These passions are not transformed by the +prevalent education of the day, but only repressed. Practically this +is the reason why not a single savage passion has been overcome in +humanity. Perhaps man-eating may be mentioned as an exception. But what +is told of European ship companies or Siberian prisoners shows that +even this impulse, under conditions favourable to it, may be revived, +although in the majority of people a deep physical antipathy to +man-eating is innate. Conscious incest, despite similar deviations, must +also be physically contrary to the majority, and in a number of women, +modesty--the unity between body and soul in relation to love--is an +incontestable provision of nature. So too a minority would find +it physically impossible to murder or steal. With this list I have +exhausted everything which mankind, since its conscious history began, +has really so intimately acquired that the achievement is passed on +in its flesh and blood. Only this kind of conquest can really stand up +against temptation in every form. + +A deep physiological truth is hidden in the use of language when one +speaks of unchained passions; the passions, under the prevailing system +of education, are really only beasts of prey imprisoned in cages. + +While fine words are spoken about individual development, children are +treated as if their personality had no purpose of its own, as if they +were made only for the pleasure, pride, and comfort of their parents; +and as these aims are best advanced when children become like every one +else, people usually begin by attempting to make them respectable and +useful members of society. + +But the only correct starting point, so far as a child's education in +becoming a social human being is concerned, is to treat him as such, +while strengthening his natural disposition to become an individual +human being. + +The new educator will, by regularly ordered experience, teach the child +by degrees his place in the great orderly system of existence; teach him +his responsibility towards his environment. But in other respects, none +of the individual characteristics of the child expressive of his life +will be suppressed, so long as they do not injure the child himself, or +others. The right balance must be kept between Spencer's definition +of life as an adaptation to surrounding conditions, and Nietzsche's +definition of it as the will to secure power. + +In adaptation, imitation certainly plays a great role, but individual +exercise of power is just as important. Through adaptation life attains +a fixed form; through exercise of power, new factors. + +Thoughtful people, as I have already stated, talk a good deal about +personality. But they are, nevertheless, filled with doubts when their +children are not just like all other children; when they cannot show in +their offspring all the ready-made virtues required by society. And so +they drill their children, repressing in childhood the natural instincts +which will have freedom when they are grown. People still hardly realise +how new human beings are formed; therefore the old types constantly +repeat themselves in the same circle,--the fine young men, the sweet +girls, the respectable officials, and so on. And new types with +higher ideals,--travellers on unknown paths, thinkers of yet unthought +thoughts, people capable of the crime of inaugurating new ways,--such +types rarely come into existence among those who are well brought up. + +Nature herself, it is true, repeats the main types constantly. But she +also constantly makes small deviations. In this way different species, +even of the human race, have come into existence. But man himself does +not yet see the significance of this natural law in his own higher +development. He wants the feelings, thoughts, and judgments already +stamped with approval to be reproduced by each new generation. So we get +no new individuals, but only more or less prudent, stupid, amiable, or +bad-tempered examples of the genus man. The still living instincts +of the ape, double, in the case of man, the effect of heredity. +Conservatism is for the present stronger in mankind than the effort to +produce new types. But this last characteristic is the most valuable. +The educator should do anything but advise the child to do what +everybody does. He should rather rejoice when he sees in the child +tendencies to deviation. Using other people's opinion as a standard +results in subordinating one's self to their will. So we become a part +of the great mass, led by the Superman through the strength of his will, +a will which could not have mastered strong personalities. It has been +justly remarked that individual peoples, like the English, have attained +the greatest political and social freedom, because the personal feeling +of independence is far in excess of freedom in a legal form. Accordingly +legal freedom has been constantly growing. + +For the progress of the whole of the species, as well as of society, it +is essential that education shall awake the feeling of independence; it +should invigorate and favour the disposition to deviate from the type +in those cases where the rights of others are not affected, or where +deviation is not simply the result of the desire to draw attention to +oneself. The child should be given the chance to declare conscientiously +his independence of a customary usage, of an ordinary feeling, for this +is the foundation of the education of an individual, as well as the +basis of a collective conscience, which is the only kind of conscience +men now have. What does having an individual conscience mean? It means +submitting voluntarily to an external law, attested and found good by +my own conscience. It means unconditionally heeding the unwritten law, +which I lay upon myself, and following this inner law even when I must +stand alone against the whole world. + +It is a frequent phenomenon, we can almost call it a regular one, that +it is original natures, particularly talented beings, who are badly +treated at home and in school. No one considers the sources of conduct +in a child who shows fear or makes a noise, or who is absorbed in +himself, or who has an impetuous nature. Mothers and teachers show in +this their pitiable incapacity for the most elementary part in the art +of education, that is, to be able to see with their own eyes, not with +pedagogical doctrines in their head. + +I naturally expect in the supporters of society, with their conventional +morality, no appreciation of the significance of the child's putting +into exercise his own powers. Just as little is this to be expected of +those Christian believers who think that human nature must be brought +to repentance and humility, and that the sinful body, the unclean beast, +must be tamed with the rod,--a theory which the Bible is brought to +support. + +I am only addressing people who can think new thoughts and consequently +should cease using old methods of education. This class may reply that +the new ideas in education cannot be carried out. But the obstacle is +simply that their new thoughts have not made them into new men; the old +man in them has neither repose, nor time, nor patience, to form his own +soul, and that of the child, according to the new thoughts. + +Those who have "tried Spencer and failed," because Spencer's method +demands intelligence and patience, contend that the child must be taught +to obey, that truth lies in the old rule, "As the twig is bent the tree +is inclined." + +BENT is the appropriate word, bent according to the old ideal which +extinguishes personality, teaches humility and obedience. But the new +ideal is that man, to stand straight and upright, must not be bent at +all only supported, and so prevented from being deformed by weakness. + +One often finds, in the modern system of training, the crude desire for +mastery still alive and breaking out when the child is obstinate. "You +won't!" say father and mother; "I will teach you whether you have a +will. I will soon drive self-will out of you." But nothing can be driven +out of the child; on the other hand, much can be scourged into it which +should be kept far away. + +Only during the first few years of life is a kind of drill necessary, as +a pre-condition to a higher training. The child is then in such a high +degree controlled by sensation, that a slight physical pain or pleasure +is often the only language he fully understands. Consequently for some +children discipline is an indispensable means of enforcing the practice +of certain habits. For other children, the stricter methods are entirely +unnecessary even at this early age, and as soon as the child can +remember a blow, he is too old to receive one. + +The child must certainly learn obedience, and, besides, this obedience +must be absolute. If such obedience has become habitual from the +tenderest age, a look, a word, an intonation is enough to keep the child +straight. The dissatisfaction of those who are bringing him up can +only be made effective when it falls as a shadow in the usual sunny +atmosphere of home. And if people refrain from laying the foundations of +obedience while the child is small, and his naughtiness is entertaining, +Spencer's method undoubtedly will be found unsuitable after the child is +older and his caprice disagreeable. + +With a very small child, one should not argue, but act consistently +and immediately. The effort of training should be directed at an early +period to arrange the experiences in a consistent whole of impressions +according to Rousseau and Spencer's recommendation. So certain habits +will become impressed in the flesh and blood of the child. + +Constant crying on the part of small children must be corrected when it +has become clear that the crying is not caused by illness or some +other discomfort,--discomforts against which crying is the child's only +weapon. Crying is now ordinarily corrected by blows. But this does not +master the will of the child, and only produces in his soul the idea +that older people strike small children, when small children cry. +This is not an ethical idea. But when the crying child is immediately +isolated, and it is explained to him at the same time that whoever +annoys others must not be with them; if this isolation is the absolute +result, and cannot be avoided, in the child's mind a basis is laid for +the experience that one must be alone when one makes oneself unpleasant +or disagreeable. In both cases the child is silenced by interfering with +his comfort; but one type of discomfort is the exercise of force on +his will; the other produces slowly the self-mastery of the will, +and accomplishes this by a good motive. One method encourages a base +emotion, fear. The other corrects the will in a way that combines it +with one of the most important experiences of life. The one punishment +keeps the child on the level of the animal. The other impresses upon him +the great principle of human social life, that when our pleasure +causes displeasure to others, other people hinder us from following our +pleasures; or withdraw themselves from the exercise of our self-will. +It is necessary that small children should accustom themselves to +good behaviour at table, etc. If every time an act of naughtiness is +repeated, the child is immediately taken away, he will soon learn +that whoever is disagreeable to others must remain alone. Thus a right +application is made of a right principle. Small children, too, must +learn not to touch what belongs to other people. If every time anything +is touched without permission, children lose their freedom of action one +way or another, they soon learn that a condition of their free action is +not to injure others. + +It is quite true, as a young mother remarked, that empty Japanese rooms +are ideal places in which to bring up children. Our modern crowded rooms +are, so far as children are concerned, to be condemned. During the year +in which the real education of the child is proceeding by touching, +tasting, biting, feeling, and so on, every moment he is hearing the +cry, "Let it alone." For the temperament of the child as well as for +the development of his powers, the best thing is a large, light nursery, +adorned with handsome lithographs, wood-cuts, and so on, provided +with some simple furniture, where he may enjoy the fullest freedom of +movement. But if the child is there with his parents and is disobedient, +a momentary reprimand is the best means to teach him to reverence the +greater world in which the will of others prevails, the world in which +the child certainly can make a place for himself but must also learn +that every place occupied by him has its limits. + +If it is a case of a danger, which it is desirable that the child +should really dread, we must allow the thing itself to have an alarming +influence. When a mother strikes a child because he touches the light, +the result is that he does this again when the mother is away. But let +him burn himself with the light, then he is certain to leave it alone. +In riper years when a boy misuses a knife, a toy, or something similar, +the loss of the object for the time being must be the punishment. Most +boys would prefer corporal punishment to the loss of their favourite +possession. But only the loss of it will be a real education through +experience of one of the inevitable rules of life, an experience which +cannot be too strongly impressed. + +We hear parents who have begun with Spencer and then have taken to +corporal punishment declare that when children are too small to repair +the clothing which they have torn there must be some other kind of +punishment. But at that age they should not be punished at all for such +things. They should have such simple and strong clothes that they can +play freely in them. Later on, when they can be really careful, the +natural punishment would be to have the child remain at home if he is +careless, has spotted his clothes, or torn them. He must be shown that +he must help to put his clothes in good condition again, or that he will +be compelled to buy what he has destroyed carelessly with money earned +by himself. If the child is not careful, he must stay at home, when +ordinarily allowed to go out, or eat alone if he is too late for meals. +It may be said that there are simple means by which all the important +habits of social life may become a second nature. But it is not possible +in all cases to apply Spencer's method. The natural consequences +occasionally endanger the health of the child, or sometimes are too +slow in their action. If it seems necessary to interfere directly, such +action must be consistent, quick, and immutable. How is it that the +child learns very soon that fire burns? Because fire does so always. +But the mother who at one time strikes, at another threatens, at another +bribes the child, first forbids and then immediately after permits some +action; who does not carry out her threat, does not compel obedience, +but constantly gabbles and scolds; who sometimes acts in one way and +just as often in another, has not learned the effective educational +methods of the fire. + +The old-fashioned strict training that in its crude way gave to the +character a fixed type rested on its consistent qualities. It was +consistently strict, not as at present a lax hesitation between all +kinds of pedagogical methods and psychological opinions, in which the +child is thrown about here and there like a ball, in the hands of grown +people; at one time pushed forward, then laughed at, then pushed aside, +only to be brought back again, kissed till it, is disgusted, first +ordered about, and then coaxed. A grown man would become insane if +joking Titans treated him for a single day as a child is treated for +a year. A child should not be ordered about, but should be just as +courteously addressed as a grown person in order that he may learn +courtesy. A child should never be pushed into notice, never compelled to +endure caresses, never overwhelmed with kisses, which ordinarily torment +him and are often the cause of sexual hyperaesthesia. The child's +demonstrations of affection should be reciprocated when they are +sincere, but one's own demonstrations should be reserved for special +occasions. This is one of the many excellent maxims of training that are +disregarded. Nor should the child be forced to express regret in begging +pardon and the like. This is excellent training for hypocrisy. A small +child once had been rude to his elder brother and was placed upon a +chair to repent his fault. When the mother after a time asked if he +was sorry, he answered, "Yes," with emphasis, but as the mother saw a +mutinous sparkle in his eyes she felt impelled to ask, "Sorry for what?" +and the youngster broke out, "Sorry that I did not call him a liar +besides." The mother was wise enough on this occasion, and ever after, +to give up insisting on repentance. + +Spontaneous penitence is full of significance, it is a deeply felt +desire for pardon. But an artificial emotion is always and everywhere +worthless. Are you not sorry? Does it make no difference to you that +your mother is ill, your brother dead, your father away from home? Such +expressions are often used as an appeal to the emotions of children. But +children have a right to have feelings, or not have them, and to have +them as undisturbed as grown people. The same holds good of their +sympathies and antipathies. The sensitive feelings of children are +constantly injured by lack of consideration on the part of grown people, +their easily stimulated aversions are constantly being brought out. But +the sufferings of children through the crudeness of their elders belong +to an unwritten chapter of child psychology. Just as there are few +better methods of training than to ask children, when they have behaved +unjustly to others, to consider whether it would be pleasant for them to +be treated in that way, so there is no better corrective for the trainer +of children than the habit of asking oneself, in question small and +great,--Would I consent to be treated as I have just treated my child? +If it were only remembered that the child generally suffers double as +much as the adult, parents would perhaps learn physical and psychical +tenderness without which a child's life is a constant torment. + +As to presents, the same principle holds good as with emotions and marks +of tenderness. Only by example can generous instincts be provoked. Above +all the child should not be allowed to have things which he immediately +gives away. Gifts to a child should always imply a personal requital +for work or sacrifice. In order to secure for children the pleasure of +giving and the opportunity of obtaining small pleasures and enjoyments, +as well as of replacing property of their own or of others which they +may have destroyed, they should at an early age be accustomed to perform +seriously certain household duties for which they receive some small +remuneration. But small occasional services, whether volunteered or +asked for by others, should never be rewarded. Only readiness to serve, +without payment, develops the joy of generosity. When the child wants to +give away something, people should not make a presence of receiving +it. This produces the false conception in his mind that the pleasure of +being generous can be had for nothing. At every step the child should be +allowed to meet the real experiences of life; the thorns should never be +plucked from his roses. This is what is least understood in present-day +training. Thus we see reasonable methods constantly failing. People find +themselves forced to "afflictive" methods which stand in no relation +with the realities of life. I mean, above all, what are still called +means of education, instead of means of torture,--blows. + +Many people of to-day defend blows, maintaining that they are milder +means of punishment than the natural consequences of an act; that blows +have the strongest effect on the memory, which effect becomes permanent +through association of ideas. + +But what kinds of association? Is it not with physical pain and shame? +Gradually, step by step, this method of training and discipline has +been superseded in all its forms. The movement to abolish torture, +imprisonment, and corporal punishment failed for a long time owing to +the conviction that they were indispensable as methods of discipline. +But the child, people answer, is still an animal, he must be brought up +as an animal. Those who talk in this way know nothing of children nor of +animals. Even animals can be trained without striking them, but they can +only be trained by men who have become men themselves. + +Others come forward with the doctrine that terror and pain have been the +best means of educating mankind, so the child must pursue the same road +as humanity. This is an utter absurdity. We should also, on this theory, +teach our children, as a natural introduction to religion, to practice +fetish worship. If the child is to reproduce all the lower development +stages of the race, he would be practically depressed beneath the level +which he has reached physiologically and psychologically through the +common inheritance of the race. If we have abandoned torture and painful +punishments for adults, while they are retained for children, it is +because we have not yet seen that their soul life so far as a greater +and more subtle capacity for suffering is concerned has made the same +progress as that of adult mankind. The numerous cases of child suicide +in the last decade were often the result of fear of corporal punishment; +or have taken place after its administration. Both soul and body are +equally affected by this practice. Where this is not the result, blows +have even more dangerous consequences. They tend to dull still further +the feeling of shame, to increase the brutality or cowardice of the +person punished. I once heard a child pointed out in a school as being +so unruly that it was generally agreed he would be benefited by a +flogging. Then it was discovered that his father's flogging at home had +made him what he was. If statistics were prepared of ruined sons, those +who had been flogged would certainly be more numerous than those who had +been pampered. + +Society has gradually given up employing retributive punishments because +people have seen that they neither awaken the feeling of guilt, nor +act as a deterrent, but on the contrary retribution applied by equal to +equal brutalises the ideas of right, hardens the temper, and stimulates +the victim to exercise the same violence towards others that has been +endured by himself. But other rules are applied to the psychological +processes of the child. When a child strikes his small sister the mother +strikes him and believes that he will see and understand the difference +between the blows he gets and those he gives, that he will see that the +one is a just punishment and the other vicious conduct. But the child +is a sharp logician and feels that the action is just the same, although +the mother gives it a different name. + +Corporal punishment was long ago admirably described by Comenius, who +compared an educator using this method with a musician striking a badly +tuned instrument with his fist, instead of using his ears and his hands +to put it into tune. + +These brutal attacks work on the active sensitive feelings, lacerating +and confusing them. They have no educative power on all the innumerable +fine processes in the life of the child's soul, on their obscurely +related combinations. + +In order to give real training, the first thing after the second +or third year is to abandon the very thought of a blow among the +possibilities of education. It is best if parents, as soon as the child +is born, agree never to strike him, for if they once begin with this +convenient and easy method, they continue to use corporal discipline +even contrary to their first intention, because they have failed while +using such punishment to develop the child's intelligence. + +If people do not see this it is no more use to speak to them of +education than it would be to talk to a cannibal about the world's +peace. + +But as these savages in educational matters are often civilised human +beings in other respects, I should like to request them to think over +the development of marriage from the time when man wooed with a club and +when woman was regarded as the soulless property of man, only to be kept +in order by blows, a view which continued to be held until modern times. +Through a thousand daily secret influences, our feelings and ideas have +been so transformed that these crude conceptions have disappeared, to +the great advantage of society and the individual. But it may be hard +to awaken a pedagogical savage to the conviction that, in quite the same +way, a thousand new secret and mighty influences will change our crude +methods of education, when parents once come to see that parenthood must +go through the same transformation as marriage, before it attains to a +noble and complete development. + +Only when men realise that whipping a child belongs to the same low +stage of civilisation as beating a woman, or a servant, or as the +corporal punishment of soldiers and criminals, will the first real +preparation begin of the material from which perhaps later an educator +may be formed. + +Corporal punishment was natural in rough times. The body is tangible; +what affects it has an immediate and perceptible result. The heat of +passion is cooled by the blows it administers; in a certain stage of +development blows are the natural expression of moral indignation, the +direct method by which the moral will impresses itself on beings of +lower capacities. But it has since been discovered that the soul may be +impressed by spiritual means, and that blows are just as demoralising +for the one who gives them as for the one who receives them. + +The educator, too, is apt to forget that the child in many cases has +as few moral conceptions as the animal or the savage. To punish for +this--is only a cruelty, and to punish by brutal methods is a piece +of stupidity. It works against the possibility of elevating the child +beyond the level of the beast or the savage. The educator to whose mind +flogging never presents itself, even as an occasional resource, will +naturally direct his whole thought to finding psychological methods of +education. Administering corporal punishment demoralises and stupefies +the educator, for it increases his thoughtlessness, not his patience, +his brutality, not his intelligence. + +A small boy friend of mine when four years old received his first +punishment of this kind; happily it was his only one. As his nurse +reminded him in the evening to say his prayers he broke out, "Yes, +to-night I really have something to tell God," and prayed with deep +earnestness, "Dear God, tear mamma's arms out so that she cannot beat me +any more." + +Nothing would more effectively further the development of education than +for all flogging pedagogues to meet this fate. They would then learn +to educate with the head instead of with the hand. And as to public +educators, the teachers, their position could be no better raised than +by legally forbidding a blow to be administered in any school under +penalty of final loss of position. + +That people who are in other respects intelligent and sensitive continue +to defend flogging, is due to the fact that most educators have only a +very elementary conception of their work. They should constantly keep +before them the feelings and impressions of their own childhood in +dealing with children. The most frequent as well as the most dangerous +of the numerous mistakes made in handling children is that people do +not remember how they felt themselves at a similar age, that they do +not regard and comprehend the feelings of the child from their own past +point of view. The adult laughs or smiles in remembering the punishments +and other things which caused him in his childhood anxious days or +nights, which produced the silent torture of the child's heart, infinite +despondency, burning indignation, lonely fears, outraged sense of +justice, the terrible creations of his imagination, his absurd shame, +his unsatisfied thirst for joy, freedom, and tenderness. Lacking these +beneficent memories, adults constantly repeat the crime of destroying +the childhood of the new generation,--the only time in life in which the +guardian of education can really be a kindly providence. So strongly do +I feel that the unnecessary sufferings of children are unnatural as well +as ignoble that I experience physical disgust in touching the hand of a +human being that I know has struck a child; and I cannot close my +eyes after I have heard a child in the street threatened with corporal +punishment. + +Blows call forth the virtues of slaves, not those of freemen. As early +as Walther von der Vogelweide, it was known that the honourable man +respects a word more than a blow. The exercise of physical force +delivers the weak and unprotected into the hands of the strong. A child +never believes in his heart, though he may be brought to acknowledge +verbally, that the blows were due to love, that they were administered +because they were necessary. The child is too keen not to know that such +a "must" does not exist, and that love can express itself in a better +way. + +Lack of self-discipline, of intelligence, of patience, of personal +effort--these are the corner-stones on which corporal punishment rests. +I do not now refer to the system of flogging employed by miserable +people year in and year out at home, or, particularly in schools, that +of beating children outrageously, or to the limits of brutality. I +do not mean even the less brutal blows administered by undisciplined +teachers and parents, who avenge themselves in excesses of passion or +fatigue or disgust,--blows which are simply the active expression of a +tension of nerves, a detestable evidence of the want of self-discipline +and selfculture. Still less do I refer to the cruelties committed by +monsters, sexual perverts, whose brutal tendencies are stimulated +by their disciplinary power and who use it to force their victims to +silence, as certain criminal trials have shown. + +I am only speaking of conscientious, amiable parents and teachers who, +with pain to themselves, fulfil what they regard as their duty to the +child. These are accustomed to adduce the good effects of corporal +discipline as a proof that it cannot be dispensed with. The child by +being whipped is, they say, not only made good but freed from his evil +character, and shows by his whole being that this quick and summary +method of punishment has done more than talks, and patience, and the +slowly working penalties of experience. Examples are adduced to prove +that only this kind of punishment breaks down obstinacy, cures the habit +of lying and the like. Those who adopt this system do not perceive that +they have only succeeded, through this momentarily effective means, +in repressing the external expression of an evil will. They have +not succeeded in transforming the will itself. It requires constant +vigilance, daily self-discipline, to create an ever higher capacity for +the discovery of intelligent methods. The fault that is repressed is +certain to appear on every occasion when the child dares to show it. +The educator who finds in corporal punishment a short way to get rid +of trouble, leads the child a long way round, if we have the only real +development in view, namely that which gradually strengthens the child's +capacity for self-control. + +I have never heard a child over three years old threatened with corporal +punishment without noticing that this wonderfully moral method had an +equally bad influence on parents and children. The same can be said of +milder kinds of folly, coaxing children by external rewards. I have seen +some children coaxed to take baths and others compelled by threats. But +in neither case was their courage, or self-control, or strength of will +increased. Only when one is able to make the bath itself attractive is +that energy of will developed that gains a victory over the feeling of +fear or discomfort and produces a real ethical impression, viz., that +virtue is its own reward. Wherever a child is deterred from a bad habit +or fault by corporal punishment, a real ethical result is not reached. +The child has only learnt to fear an unpleasant consequence, which lacks +real connection with the thing itself, a consequence it well knows +could have been absent. Such fear is as far removed as heaven from the +conviction that the good is better than the bad. The child soon becomes +convinced that the disagreeable accompaniment is no necessary result of +the action, that by greater cleverness the punishment might have been +avoided. Thus the physical punishment increases deception not morality. +In the history of humanity the effect of the teaching about hell and +fear of hell illustrates the sort of morality produced in children's +souls by corporal punishment, that inferno of childhood. Only with the +greatest trouble, slowly and unconsciously, is the conviction of the +superiority of the good established. The good comes to be seen as more +productive of happiness to the individual himself and his environment. +So the child learns to love the good. By teaching the child that +punishment is a consequence drawn upon oneself he learns to avoid the +cause of punishment. + +Despite all the new talk of individuality the greatest mistake in +training children is still that of treating the "child" as an abstract +conception, as an inorganic or personal material to be formed and +transformed by the hands of those who are educating him. He is beaten, +and it is thought that the whole effect of the blow stops at the moment +when the child is prevented from being bad. He has, it is thought, a +powerful reminder against future bad behaviour. People no not suspect +that this violent interference in the physical and psychical life of +the child may have lifelong effects. As far back as forty years ago, +a writer showed that corporal punishment had the most powerful somatic +stimulative effects. The flagellation of the Middle Ages is known to +have had such results; and if I could publish what I have heard from +adults as to the effect of corporal punishment on them, or what I have +observed in children, this alone would be decisive in doing away with +such punishment in its crudest form. It very deeply influences the +personal modesty of the child. This should be preserved above everything +as the main factor in the development of the feeling of purity. The +father who punishes his daughter in this way deserves to see her some +day a "fallen woman." He injures her instinctive feeling of the sanctity +of her body, an instinct which even in the case of a small child can +be passionately profound. Only when every infringement of sanctity +(forcible caressing is as bad as a blow) evokes an energetic, +instinctive repulsion, is the nature of the child proud and pure. +Children who strike back when they are punished have the most promising +characters of all. + +Numerous are the cases in which bodily punishment can occasion +irremediable damage, not suspected by the person who administers it, +though he may triumphantly declare how the punishment in the specific +case has helped. Most adults feel free to tell how a whipping has +injured them in one way or another, but when they take up the training +of their own children they depend on the effect of such chastisement. + +What burning bitterness and desire for vengeance, what canine fawning +flattery, does not corporal punishment call forth. It makes the lazy +lazier, the obstinate more obstinate, the hard, harder. It strengthens +those two emotions, the root of almost all evil in the world, hatred and +fear. And as long as blows are made synonymous with education, both of +these emotions will keep their mastery over men. + +One of the most frequent occasions for recourse to this punishment is +obstinacy, but what is called obstinacy is only fear or incapacity. +The child repeats a false answer, is threatened with blows, and again +repeats it just because he is afraid not to say the right thing. He +is struck and then answers rightly. This is a triumph of education; +refractoriness is overcome. But what has happened? Increased fear +has led to a strong effort of thought, to a momentary increase of +self-control. The next day the child will very likely repeat the fault. +Where there is real obstinacy on the part of children, I know of cases +when corporal punishment has filled them with the lust to kill, either +themselves or the person who strikes them. On the other hand I know of +others, where a mother has brought an obstinate child to repentance and +self-mastery by holding him quietly and calmly on her knees. + +How many untrue confessions have been forced by fear of blows; how +much daring passion for action, spirit of adventure, play of fancy, and +stimulus to discovery has been repressed by this same fear. Even +where blows do not cause lying, they always hinder absolute +straightforwardness and the down-right personal courage to show oneself +as one is. As long as the word "blow" is used at all in a home, no +perfect honour will be found in children. So long as the home and the +school use this method of education, brutality will be developed in the +child himself at the cost of humanity. The child uses on animals, on +his young brothers and sisters, on his comrades, the methods applied to +himself. He puts in practice the same argument, that "badness" must be +cured with blows. Only children accustomed to be treated mildly, learn +to see that influence can be gained without using force. To see this +is one of man's privileges, sacrificed by man through descending to the +methods of the brute. Only by the child seeing his teacher always and +everywhere abstaining from the use of actual force, will he come himself +to despise force on all those occasions which do not involve the defence +of a weaker person against physical superiority. The foundation of the +desire for war is to be sought for less in the war games than in the +teachers' rod. + +To defend corporal discipline, children's own statements are brought +in evidence, they are reported as saying they knew they deserved such +discipline in order to be made good. There is no lower example of +hypocrisy in human nature than this. It is true the child may be sincere +in other cases in saying that he feels that through punishment he has +atoned for a fault which was weighing upon his conscience. But this is +really the foundation of a false system of ethics, the kind which still +continues to be preached as Christian, namely; that a fault may be +atoned for by sufferings which are not directly connected with the +fault. The basis of the new morality is just the opposite as I have +already shown. It teaches that no fault can be atoned for, that no one +can escape the results of his actions in any way. + +Untruthfulness belongs to the faults which the teacher thinks he must +most frequently punish with blows. But there is no case in which this +method is more dangerous. + +When the much-needed guide-book for parents is published, the +well-known story of George Washington and the hatchet must appear in it, +accompanied by the remark which a clever ten-year-old child added to the +anecdote: "It is no trouble telling the truth when one has such a kind +father." + +I formerly divided untruthfulness into unwilling, shameless, and +imaginative lies. A short time ago I ran across a much better division +of lying; first "cold" lies, that is, fully conscious untruthfulness +which must be punished, and "hot" lies; the expression of an excited +temperament or of a vigorous fancy. I agree with the author of this +distinction that the last should not be punished but corrected, though +not with a pedantic rule of thumb measure, based on how much it exceeds +or falls short of truth. It is to be cured by ridicule, a dangerous +method of education in general, but useful when one observes that this +type of untruthfulness threatens to develop into real untrustworthiness. +In dealing with these faults we are very strict towards children, so +strict that no lawyer, no politician, no journalist, no poet, could +exercise his profession if the same standard were applied to them as to +children. + +The white lie is, as a French scientist has shown, partly caused by pure +morbidness, partly through some defect in the conception. It is due +to an empty space, a dead point in memory, or in consciousness, that +produces a defective idea or gives one no idea at all of what has +happened. In the affairs of everyday life the adults are often mistaken +as to their intentions or acts. They may have forgotten about their +actions, and it requires a strong effort of memory to call them back +into their minds; or they suggest to themselves that they have done, or +not done, something. In all of these cases, if they were forced to give +a distinct answer, they would lie. In every case of this kind, where a +child is concerned, the lie is assumed to be a conscious one, and when +on being submitted to a strict cross-examination, he hesitates, becomes +confused, and blushes, it is looked upon as a proof that he knows he has +been telling an untruth, although as a rule there has been no instance +of untruthfulness, except the finally extorted confession from the child +that he has lied. Yet in all these complicated psychological problems, +corporal punishment is treated as a solution. + +The child who never hears lying at home, who does not see exaggerated +weight placed on small, merely external things, who is not made cowardly +by fear, who hears conscious lies always spoken of with contempt, will +get out of the habit of untruthfulness simply by psychological means. +First he will find that untruthfulness causes astonishment, and a +repetition of it, scorn and lack of confidence. But these methods should +not be applied to untruthfulness caused by distress or by richness of +imagination; or to such cases as originate from the obscure mental ideas +noted above, ideas whose connection with one another the child cannot +make clear to himself. The cold untruth on the other hand, must be +punished; first by going over it with the child, then letting him +experience its effect in lack of confidence, which will only be restored +when the child shows decided improvement in this regard. It is of the +greatest importance to show children full and unlimited confidence, +even though one quietly maintains an attitude of alert watchfulness; for +continuous and undeserved mistrust is just as demoralising as blind and +easy confidence. + +No one who has been beaten for lying learns by it to love truth. The +accuracy of this principle is illustrated by adults who despise corporal +punishment in their childhood yet continue to tell untruths by word +and deed. Fear may keep the child from technical untruth, but fear also +produces untrustworthiness. Those who have been beaten in childhood for +lying have often suffered a serious injury immeasurably greater than +the direct lie. The truest men I ever knew lie voluntarily and +involuntarily; while others who might never be caught in a lie are +thoroughly false. + +This corruption of personality begins frequently at the tenderest +age under the influence of early training. Children are given untrue +motives, half-true information; are threatened, admonished. The child's +will, thought, and feeling are oppressed; against this treatment +dishonesty is the readiest method of defence. In this way educators +who make truth their highest aim, make children untruthful. I watched +a child who was severely punished for denying something he had +unconsciously done, and noted how under the influence of this senseless +punishment he developed extreme dissimulation. + +Truthfulness requires above everything unbroken determination; and many +nervous little liars need nourishing food and life in the open air, not +blows. A great artist, one of the few who live wholly according to the +modern principles of life, said to me on one occasion: "My son does not +know what a lie is, nor what a blow is. His step-brother, on the other +hand, lied when he came into our house; but lying did not work in the +atmosphere of calm and freedom. After a year the habit disappeared by +itself, only because it always met with deep astonishment." + +This makes me, in passing, note one of the other many mistakes of +education, viz., the infinite trouble taken in trying to do away with +a fault which disappears by itself. People take infinite pains to teach +small children to speak distinctly who, if left to themselves, would +learn it by themselves, provided they were always spoken to distinctly. +This same principle holds good of numerous other things, in children's +attitude and behaviour, that can be left simply to a good example and to +time. One's influence should be used in impressing upon the child habits +for which a foundation must be laid at the very beginning of his life. + +There is another still more unfortunate mistake, the mistake of +correcting and judging by an external effect produced by the act, by the +scandal it occasions in the environment. Children are struck for using +oaths and improper words the meaning of which they do not understand; or +if they do understand, the result of strictness is only that they go +on keeping silence in matters in which sincerity towards those who are +bringing them up is of the highest importance. The very thing the child +is allowed to do uncorrected at home, is not seldom corrected if it +happens away from home. So the child gets a false idea that it is not +the thing that deserves punishment, but its publicity. When a mother +is ashamed of the bad behaviour of her son she is apt to strike +him--instead of striking her own breast! When an adventurous feat fails +he is beaten, but he is praised when successful. These practices produce +demoralisation. Once in a wood I saw two parents laughing while the +ice held on which their son was sliding; when it broke suddenly they +threatened to whip him. It required strong self-control in order not +to say to this pair that it was not the son who deserved punishment but +themselves. + +On occasions like these, parents avenge their own fright on their +children. I saw a child become a coward because an anxious mother struck +him every time he fell down, while the natural result inflicted on the +child would have been more than sufficient to increase his carefulness. +When misfortune is caused by disobedience, natural alarm is, as a rule, +enough to prevent a repetition of it. If it is not sufficient blows have +no restraining effect; they only embitter. The boy finds that adults +have forgotten their own period of childhood; he withdraws himself +secretly from this abuse of power, provided strict treatment does +not succeed in totally depressing the level of the child's will and +obstructing his energies. + +This is certainly a danger, but the most serious effect of corporal +punishment is that it has established an unethical morality as its +result. Until the human being has learnt to see that effort, striving, +development of power, are their own reward, life remains an unbeautiful +affair. The debasing effects of vanity and ambition, the small and great +cruelties produced by injustice, are all due to the idea that failure or +success sets the value to deeds and actions. + +A complete revolution in this crude theory of value must come about +before the earth can become the scene of a happy but considerate +development of power on the part of free and fine human beings. Every +contest decided by examinations and prizes is ultimately an immoral +method of training. It awakens only evil passions, envy and the +impression of injustice on the one side, arrogance on the other. After I +had during the course of twenty years fought these school examinations, +I read with thorough agreement a short time ago, Ruskin's views on the +subject. He believed that all competition was a false basis of stimulus, +and every distribution of prizes a false means. He thought that the +real sign of talent in a boy, auspicious for his future career, was +his desire to work for work's sake. He declared that the real aim of +instruction should be to show him his own proper and special gifts, to +strengthen them in him, not to spur him on to an empty competition with +those who were plainly his superiors in capacity. + +Moreover it ought not to be forgotten that success and failure involve +of themselves their own punishment and their own reward, the one bitter, +the other sweet enough to secure in a natural way increased strength, +care, prudence, and endurance. It is completely unnecessary for the +educator to use, besides these, some special punishments or special +rewards, and so pervert the conceptions of the child that failure seems +to him to be a wrong, success on the other hand as the right. + +No matter where one turns one's gaze, it is notorious that the +externally encouraging or awe-inspiring means of education, are an +obstacle to what are the chief human characteristics, courage in oneself +and goodness to others. + +A people whose education is carried on by gentle means only (I mean +the people of Japan), have shown that manliness is not in danger where +children are not hardened by corporal punishment. These gentle means are +just as effective in calling forth selfmastery and consideration. These +virtues are so imprinted on children, at the tenderest age, that one +learns first in Japan what attraction considerate kindliness bestows +upon life. In a country where blows are never seen, the first rule of +social intercourse is not to cause discomfort to others. It is told that +when a foreigner in Japan took up a stone to throw it at a dog, the dog +did not run. No one had ever thrown a stone at him. Tenderness towards +animals is the complement in that country of tenderness in human +relationship, a tenderness whose result is observed, among other +effects, in a relatively small number of crimes against life and +security. + +War, hunting for pleasure, corporal discipline, are nothing more than +different expressions of the tiger nature still alive in man. When the +rod is thrown away, and when, as some one has said, children are +no longer boxed on their ears but are given magnifying glasses and +photographic cameras to increase their capacity for life and for loving +it, instead of learning to destroy it, real education in humanity will +begin. + +For the benefit of those who are not convinced that corporal punishment +can be dispensed with in a manly education, by so remote and so distant +an example as Japan, I should like to mention a fact closer to us. +Our Germanic forefathers did not have this method of education. It was +introduced with Christianity. Corporal discipline was turned into +a religious duty, and as late as the seventeenth century there were +intelligent men who flogged their children once a week as a part of +spiritual guardianship. I once asked our great poet, Victor Rydberg, and +he said that he had found no proof that corporal punishment was usual +among the Germans in heathen times. I asked him whether he did not +believe that the fact of its absence had encouraged the energetic +individualism and manliness in the Northern peoples. He thought so, and +agreed with me. Finally, I might note from our own time, that there +are many families and schools, our girls' schools for example, and also +boys' schools in some countries, where corporal punishment is never +used. I know a family with twelve children whose activity and capacity +are not damaged by bringing them under the rule of duty alone. Corporal +punishment is never used in this home; a determined but mild mother +has taught the children to obey voluntarily, and has known how to train +their wills to self-control. + +By "voluntary obedience," I do not mean that the child is bound to ask +endless questions for reasons, and to dispute them before he obeys. A +good teacher never gives a command without there being some good reason, +but whether the child is convinced or not, he must always obey, and if +he asks "why" the answer is very simple; every one, adults as well as +children, must obey the right and must submit to what cannot be avoided. +The great necessity in life must be imprinted in childhood. This can +be done without harsh means by training the child, even previous to his +birth, by cultivating one's self-control, and after his birth by never +giving in to a child's caprices. The rule is, in a few cases, to work +in opposition to the action of the child, but in other cases work +constructively; I mean provide the child with material to construct his +own personality and then let him do this work of construction. This is, +in brief, the art of education. The worst of all educational methods are +threats. The only effective admonitions are short and infrequent ones. +The greatest skill in the educator is to be silent for the moment and +then so reprove the fault, indirectly, that the child is brought to +correct himself or make himself the object of blame. This can be done +by the instructor telling something that causes the child to compare his +own conduct with the hateful or admirable types of behaviour about which +he hears information. Or the educator may give an opinion which the +child must take to himself although it is not applied directly to him. + +On many occasions a forceful display of indignation on the part of the +elder person is an excellent punishment, if the indignation is reserved +for the right moment. I know children to whom nothing was more frightful +than their father's scorn; this was dreaded. Children who are deluged +with directions and religious devotions, who receive an ounce of +morality in every cup of joy, are most certain to be those who will +revolt against all this. Nearly every thinking person feels that the +deepest educational influences in his life have been indirect; some good +advice not given to him directly; a noble deed told without any direct +reference. But when people come themselves to train others they forget +all their own personal experience. + +The strongest constructive factor in the education of a human being +is the settled, quiet order of home, its peace, and its duty. +Open-heartedness, industry, straightforwardness at home develop +goodness, desire to work, and simplicity in the child. Examples of +artistic work and books in the home, its customary life on ordinary +days and holidays, its occupations and its pleasures, should give to the +emotions and imagination of the child, periods of movement and repose, +a sure contour and a rich colour. The pure, warm, clear atmosphere +in which father, mother, and children live together in freedom and +confidence; where none are kept isolated from the interests of the +others; but each possesses full freedom for his own personal interest; +where none trenches on the rights of others; where all are willing to +help one another when necessary,--in this atmosphere egoism, as well as +altruism, can attain their richest development, and individuality +find its just freedom. As the evolution of man's soul advances to +undreamed-of possibilities of refinement, of capacity, of profundity; +as the spiritual life of the generation becomes more manifold in +its combinations and in its distinctions; the more time one has for +observing the wonderful and deep secrets of existence, behind the +visible, tangible, world of sense, the more will each new generation of +children show a more refined and a more consistent mental life. It is +impossible to attain this result under the torture of the crude methods +in our present home and school training. We need new homes, new schools, +new marriages, new social relations, for those new souls who are to +feel, love, and suffer, in ways infinitely numerous that we now can +not even name. Thus they will come to understand life; they will +have aspirations and hopes; they will believe; they will pray. The +conceptions of religion, love, and art, all these must be revolutionised +so radically, that one now can only surmise what new forms will be +created in future generations. This transformation can be helped by the +training of the present, by casting aside the withered foliage which now +covers the budding possibilities of life. + +The house must once more become a home for the souls of children, not +for their bodies alone. For such homes to be formed, that in their +turn will mould children, the children must be given back to the home. +Instead of the study preparation at home for the school taking up, as +it now does, the best part of a child's life, the school must get +the smaller part, the home the larger part. The home will have the +responsibility of so using the free time as well on ordinary days as on +holidays, that the children will really become a part of the home both +in their work and in their pleasures. The children will be taken from +the school, the street, the factory, and restored to the home. The +mother will be given back from work outside, or from social life to the +children. Thus natural training in the spirit of Rousseau and Spencer +will be realised; a training for life, by life at home. + +Such was the training of Old Scandinavia; the direct share of the child +in the work of the adult, in real labours and dangers, gave to the life +of our Scandinavian forefathers (with whom the boy began to be a man at +twelve years of age), unity, character, and strength. Things specially +made for children, the anxious watching over all their undertakings, +support given to all their steps, courses of work and pleasure specially +prepared for children,--these are the fundamental defects of our present +day education. An eighteen-yearold girl said to me a short time ago, +that she and other girls of the same age were so tired of the system of +vigilance, protection, amusement, and pampering at school and at home, +that they were determined to bring up their own children in hunger, +corporal discipline, and drudgery. + +One can understand this unfortunate reaction against an artificial +environment, the environment in which children and young people of the +present grow up; an existence that evokes a passionate desire for +the realities of life, for individual action at one's own risk and +responsibility, instead of being, as is now the case, at home and in the +school, the object of another's care. + +What is required, above all, for the children of the present day, is +to be assigned again real home occupations, tasks they must do +conscientiously, habits of work arranged for week days and holidays +without oversight, in every case where the child can help himself. +Instead of the modern school child having a mother and servants about +him to get him ready for school and to help him to remember things, he +should have time every day before school to arrange his room and brush +his clothes, and there should be no effort to make him remember what +is connected with the school. The home and the school should combine +together systematically to let the child suffer for the results of his +own negligence. + +Just the reverse of this system rules to-day. Mothers learn their +children's lessons, invent plays for them, read their story books to +them, arrange their rooms after them, pick up what they have let fall, +put in order the things they have left in confusion, and in this and +in other ways, by protective pampering and attention, their desire for +work, their endurance, the gifts of invention and imagination, qualities +proper to the child, become weak and passive. The home now is only a +preparation for school. In it, young people growing up, are accustomed +to receive services, without performing any on their part. They are +trained to be always receptive instead of giving something in return. +Then people are surprised at a youthful generation, selfish and +unrestrained, pressing forward shamelessly on all occasions before their +elders, crudely unresponsive in respect of those attentions, which in +earlier generations were a beautiful custom among the young. + +To restore this custom, all the means usually adopted now to protect the +child from physical and psychical dangers and inconveniences, will have +to be removed. Throw the thermometer out of the window and begin with +a sensible course of toughening; teach the child to know and to bear +natural pain. Corporal punishment must be done away with not because +it is painful but because it is profoundly immoral and hopelessly +unsuitable. Repress the egoistic demands of the child when he interferes +with the work or rest of others; never let him either by caresses or by +nagging usurp the rights of grown people; take care that the servants do +not work against what the parents are trying to insist on in this and in +other matters. + +We must begin in doing for the child in certain ways a thousand times +more and in others a hundred thousand times less. A beginning must be +made in the tenderest age to establish the child's feeling for nature. +Let him live year in and year out in the same country home; this is one +of the most significant and profound factors in training. It can be held +to even where it is now neglected. The same thing holds good of making +a choice library, commencing with the first years of life; so that the +child will have, at different periods of his life, suitable books for +each age; not as is now often the case, get quite spoilt by the constant +change of summer excursions, by worthless children's books, and costly +toys. They should never have any but the simplest books; the so-called +classical ones. They should be amply provided with means of preparing +their own playthings. The worst feature of our system are the playthings +which imitate the luxury of grown people. By such objects the covetous +impulse of the child for acquisition is increased, his own capacity for +discovery and imagination limited, or rather, it would be limited if +children with the sound instinct of preservation, did not happily smash +the perfect playthings, which give them no creative opportunity, and +themselves make new playthings from fir cones, acorns, thorns, and +fragments of pottery, and all other sorts of rubbish which can be +transformed into objects of great price by the power of the imagination. + +To play with children in the right way is also a great art. It should +never be done if children do not themselves know what they are going +to do; it should always be a special treat for them as well as their +elders. But the adults must always on such occasions, leave behind every +kind of educational idea and go completely into the child's world of +thought and imagination. No attempt should be made to teach them +at these times anything else but the old satisfactory games. The +experiences derived from these games about the nature of the children, +who are stimulated in one direction or another by the game, must be kept +for later use. + +Games in this way increase confidence between children and adults. They +learn to know their elders better. But to allow children to turn all the +rooms into places to play in, and to demand constantly that their elders +shall interest themselves in them, is one of the most dangerous species +of pampering common to the present day. The children become accustomed +to selfishness and mental dependence. Besides this constant educational +effort brings with it the dulling of the child's personality. If +children were free in their own world, the nursery, but out of it had +to submit to the strict limits imposed by the habits, wills, work, +and repose of parents, their requirements and their wishes, they would +develop into a stronger and more considerate race than the youth of the +present day. It is not so much talking about being considerate, but the +necessity of considering others, of really helping oneself and others, +that has an educational value. In earlier days, children were quiet +as mice in the presence of elder persons. Instead of, as they do now, +breaking into a guest's conversation, they learned to listen. If the +conversation of adults is varied, this can be called one of the best +educational methods for children. The ordinary life of children, under +the old system, was lived in the nursery where they received their most +important training from an old faithful servant and from one another. +From their parents they received corporal punishment, sometimes a +caress. In comparison with this system, the present way of parents and +children living together would be absolute progress, if parents could +but abstain from explaining, advising, improving, influencing every +thought and every expression. But all spiritual, mental, and bodily +protective rules make the child now indirectly selfish, because +everything centres about him and therefore he is kept in a constant +state of irritation. The six-yearold can disturb the conversation of the +adult, but the twelve-year-old is sent to bed about eight o'clock, even +when he, with wide open eyes, longs for a conversation that might be to +him an inspiring stimulus for life. + +Certainly some simple habits so far as conduct and order, nourishment +and sleep, air and water, clothing and bodily movement, are concerned, +can be made the foundations for the child's conceptions of morality. He +cannot be made to learn soon enough that bodily health and beauty must +be regarded as high ethical characteristics, and that what is injurious +to health and beauty must be regarded as a hateful act. In this sphere, +children must be kept entirely independent of custom by allowing the +exception to every rule to have its valid place. The present anxious +solicitude that children should eat when the clock strikes, that they +get certain food at fixed meals, that they be clothed according to the +degree of temperature, that they go to bed when the clock strikes, that +they be protected from every drop of unboiled water and every extra +piece of candy, this makes them nervous, irritable slaves of habit. A +reasonable toughening process against the inequalities, discomforts, and +chances of life, constitutes one of the most important bases of joy of +living and of strength of temper. In this case too, the behaviour of the +person who gives the training, is the best means of teaching children +to smile at small contretemps, things which would throw a cloud over the +sun, if one got into the habit of treating them as if they were of great +importance. If the child sees the parent doing readily an unpleasant +duty, which he honestly recognises as unpleasant; if he sees a parent +endure trouble or an unexpected difficulty easily, he will be in honour +bound to do the like. Just as children without many words learn to +practice good deeds when they see good deeds practiced about them; learn +to enjoy the beauty of nature and art when they see that adults enjoy +them, so by living more beautifully, more nobly, more moderately, we +speak best to children. They are just as receptive to impressions of +this kind as they are careless of those made by force. + +Since this is my alpha and omega in the art of education, I repeat now +what I said at the beginning of this book and half way through it. Try +to leave the child in peace; interfere directly as seldom as possible; +keep away all crude and impure impressions; but give all your care and +energy to see that personality, life itself, reality in its simplicity +and in its nakedness, shall all be means of training the child. + +Make demands on the powers of children and on their capacity for +self-control, proportionate to the special stage of their development, +neither greater nor lesser demands than on adults. But respect the joys +of the child, his tastes, work, and time, just as you would those of an +adult. Education will thus become an infinitely simple and infinitely +harder art, than the education of the present day, with its +artificialised existence, its double entry morality, one morality for +the child, and one for the adult, often strict for the child and lax for +the adult and vice versa. By treating the child every moment as one does +an adult human being we free education from that brutal arbitrariness, +from those over-indulgent protective rules, which have transformed him. +Whether parents act as if children existed for their benefit alone, or +whether the parents give up their whole lives to their children, the +result is alike deplorable. As a rule both classes know equally little +of the feelings and needs of their children. The one class are happy +when the children are like themselves, and their highest ambition is +to produce in their children a successful copy of their own thoughts, +opinions, and ideals. Really it ought to pain them very much to see +themselves so exactly copied. What life expected from them and required +from them was just the opposite--a richer combination, a better +creation, a new type, not a reproduction of that which is already +exhausted. The other class strive to model their children not according +to themselves but according to their ideal of goodness. They show their +love by their willingness to extinguish their own personalities for +their children's sake. This they do by letting the children feel that +everything which concerns them stands in the foreground. This should be +so, but only indirectly. + +The concerns of the whole scheme of life, the ordering of the home, its +habits, intercourse, purposes, care for the needs of children, and their +sound development, must stand in the foreground. But at present, in most +cases, children of tender years, as well as those who are older, are +sacrificed to the chaotic condition of the home. They learn self-will +without possessing real freedom, they live under a discipline which is +spasmodic in its application. + +When one daughter after another leaves home in order to make herself +independent they are often driven to do it by want of freedom, or by +the lack of character in family life. In both directions the girl +sees herself forced to become something different, to hold different +opinions, to think different thoughts, to act contrary to the dictates +of her own being. A mother happy in the friendship of her own daughter, +said not long ago that she desired to erect an asylum for tormented +daughters. Such an asylum would be as necessary as a protection against +pampering parents as against those who are overbearing. Both alike, +torture their children though in different ways, by not understanding +the child's right to have his own point of view, his own ideal of +happiness, his own proper tastes and occupation. They do not see that +children exist as little for their parent's sake as parents do for their +children's sake. Family life would have an intelligent character if each +one lived fully and entirely his own life and allowed the others to do +the same. None should tyrannise over, nor should suffer tyranny from, +the other. Parents who give their home this character can justly +demand that children shall accommodate themselves to the habits of the +household as long as they live in it. Children on their part can ask +that their own life of thought and feeling shall be left in peace at +home, or that they be treated with the same consideration that would be +given to a stranger. When the parents do not meet these conditions they +themselves are the greater sufferers. It is very easy to keep one's son +from expressing his raw views, very easy to tear a daughter away from +her book and to bring her to a tea-party by giving her unnecessary +occupations; very easy by a scornful word to repress some powerful +emotion. A thousand similar things occur every day in good families +through the whole world. But whenever we hear of young people speaking +of their intellectual homelessness and sadness, we begin to understand +why father and mother remain behind in homes from which the daughters +have hastened to depart; why children take their cares, joys, and +thoughts to strangers; why, in a word, the old and the young generation +are as mutually dependent as the roots and flowers of plants, so often +separate with mutual repulsion. + +This is as true of highly cultivated fathers and mothers as of simple +bourgeois or peasant parents. Perhaps, indeed, it may be truer of the +first class, the latter torment their children in a naive way, while the +former are infinitely wise and methodical in their stupidity. Rarely +is a mother of the upper class one of those artists of home life who +through the blitheness, the goodness, and joyousness of her character, +makes the rhythm of everyday life a dance, and holidays into festivals. +Such artists are often simple women who have passed no examinations, +founded no clubs, and written no books. The highly cultivated mothers +and the socially useful mothers on the other hand are not seldom those +who call forth criticism from their sons. It seems almost an invariable +rule that mothers should make mistakes when they wish to act for the +welfare of their sons. "How infinitely valuable," say their children, +"would I have found a mother who could have kept quiet, who would have +been patient with me, who would have given me rest, keeping the outer +world at a distance from me, with kindly soothing hands. Oh, would that +I had had a mother on whose breast I could have laid my head, to be +quiet and dream." + +A distinguished woman writer is surprised that all of her +well-thought-out plans for her children fail--those children in whom +she saw the material for her passion for governing, the clay that she +desired to mould. + +The writer just cited says very justly that maternal unselfishness +alone can perform the task of protecting a young being with wisdom +and kindliness, by allowing him to grow according to his own laws. The +unselfish mother, she says, will joyfully give the best of her life +energy, powers of soul and spirit to a growing being and then open all +doors to him, leaving him in the broad world to follow his own paths, +and ask for nothing, neither thanks, nor praise, nor remembrance. But to +most mothers may be applied the bitter exclamation of a son in the book +just mentioned, "even a mother must know how she tortures another; if +she has not this capacity by nature, why in the world should I recognise +her as my mother at all." + +Certain mothers spend the whole day in keeping their children's nervous +system in a state of irritation. They make work hard and play joyless, +whenever they take a part in it. At the present time, too, the school +gets control of the child, the home loses all the means by which +formerly it moulded the child's soul life and ennobled family life. +The school, not father and mother, teaches children to play, the school +gives them manual training, the school teaches them to sing, to look at +pictures, to read aloud, to wander about out of doors; schools, clubs, +sport and other pleasures accustom youth in the cities more and more +to outside life, and a daily recreation that kills the true feeling for +holiday. Young people, often, have no other impression of home than that +it is a place where they meet society which bores them. + +Parents surrender their children to schools in those years in which they +should influence their minds. When the school gives them back they +do not know how to make a fresh start with the children, for they +themselves have ceased to be young. + +But getting old is no necessity; it is only a bad habit. It is very +interesting to observe a face that is getting old. What time makes out +of a face shows better than anything else what the man has made out +of time. Most men in the early period of middle age are neither +intellectually fat nor lean, they are hardened or dried up. Naturally +young people look upon them with unsympathetic eyes, for they feel that +there is such a thing as eternal youth, which a soul can win as a prize +for its whole work of inner development. But they look in vain for this +second eternal youth in their elders, filled with worldly nothingnesses +and things of temporary importance. + +With a sigh they exclude the "old people" from their future plans and +they go out in the world in order to choose their spiritual parents. + +This is tragic but just, for if there is a field on which man must sow a +hundred-fold in order to harvest tenfold it is the souls of children. + +When I began at five years of age to make a rag doll, that by its weight +and size really gave the illusion of reality and bestowed much joy on +its young mother, I began to think about the education of my future +children. Then as now my educational ideal was that the children +should be happy, that they should not fear. Fear is the misfortune of +childhood, and the sufferings of the child come from the half-realised +opposition between his unlimited possibilities of happiness and the way +in which these possibilities are actually handled. It may be said that +life, at every stage, is cruel in its treatment of our possibilities of +happiness. But the difference between the sufferings of the adult +from existence, and the sufferings of the child caused by adults, is +tremendous. The child is unwilling to resign himself to the sufferings +imposed upon him by adults and the more impatient the child is against +unnecessary suffering, the better; for so much the more certainly will +he some day be driven to find means to transform for himself and for +others the hard necessities of life. + +A poet, Rydberg, in our country who had the deepest intuition into +child's nature, and therefore had the deepest reverence for it, wrote as +follows: "Where we behold children we suspect there are princes, but as +to the kings, where are they?" Not only life's tragic elements diminish +and dam up its vital energies. Equally destructive is a parent's want +of reverence for the sources of life which meet them in a new being. +Fathers and mothers must bow their heads in the dust before the exalted +nature of the child. Until they see that the word "child" is only +another expression for the conception of majesty; until they feel that +it is the future which in the form of a child sleeps in their arms, and +history which plays at their feet, they will not understand that they +have as little power or right to prescribe laws for this new being as +they possess the power or might to lay down paths for the stars. + +The mother should feel the same reverence for the unknown worlds in +the wide-open eyes of her child, that she has for the worlds which like +white blossoms are sprinkled over the blue orb of heaven; the father +should see in his child the king's son whom he must serve humbly with +his own best powers, and then the child will come to his own; not to the +right of asking others to become the plaything of his caprices but to +the right of living his full strong personal child's life along with +a father and a mother who themselves live a personal life, a life from +whose sources and powers the child can take the elements he needs for +his own individual growth. Parents should never expect their own highest +ideals to become the ideals of their child. The free-thinking sons of +pious parents and the Christian children of freethinkers have become +almost proverbial. + +But parents can live nobly and in entire accordance to their own ideals +which is the same thing as making children idealists. This can often +lead to a quite different system of thought from that pursued by the +parent. + +As to ideals, the elders should here as elsewhere, offer with timidity +their advice and their experience. Yes they should try to let the young +people search for it as if they were seeking fruit hidden under the +shadow of leaves. If their counsel is rejected, they must show neither +surprise nor lack of self-control. + +The query of a humourist, why he should do anything for posterity since +posterity had done nothing for him, set me to thinking in my early youth +in the most serious way. I felt that posterity had done much for its +forefathers. It had given them an infinite horizon for the future beyond +the bounds of their daily effort. We must in the child see the new +fate of the human race; we must carefully treat the fine threads in the +child's soul because these are the threads that one day will form the +woof of world events. We must realise that every pebble by which one +breaks into the glassy depths of the child's soul will extend its +influence through centuries and centuries in ever widening circles. +Through our fathers, without our will and without choice, we are given a +destiny which controls the deepest foundation of our own being. Through +our posterity, which we ourselves create, we can in a certain measure, +as free beings, determine the future destiny of the human race. + +By a realisation of all this in an entirely new way, by seeing the +whole process in the light of the religion of development, the twentieth +century will be the century of the child. This will come about in +two ways. Adults will first come to an understanding of the child's +character and then the simplicity of the child's character will be kept +by adults. So the old social order will be able to renew itself. + +Psychological pedagogy has an exalted ancestry. I will not go back to +those artists in education called Socrates and Jesus, but I commence +with the modern world. In the hours of its sunrise, in which we, who +look back, think we see a futile Renaissance, then as now the spring +flowers came up amid the decaying foliage. At this period there came +a demand for the remodelling of education through the great figure of +modern times, Montaigne, that skeptic who had so deep a reverence for +realities. In his Essays, in his Letters to the Countess of Gurson, are +found all of the elements for the education of the future. About the +great German and Swiss specialists in pedagogy and psychology, Comenius, +Basedow, Pestalozzi, Salzmann, Froebel, Herbart, I do not need to speak. +I will only mention that the greatest men of Germany, Lessing, Herder, +Goethe, Kant and others, took the side of natural training. In regard to +England it is well known that John Locke in his Thoughts on Education, +was a worthy predecessor of Herbert Spencer, whose book on education in +its intellectual, moral, and physical relations, was the most noteworthy +book on education in the last century. + +It has been noted that Spencer in educational theory is indebted to +Rousseau; and that in many cases, he has only said what the great German +authorities, whom he certainly did not know, said before him. But this +does not diminish Spencer's merit in the least. Absolutely new thoughts +are very rare. Truths which were once new must be constantly renewed by +being pronounced again from the depth of the ardent personal conviction +of a new human being. + +That rational thoughts on the subject of pedagogy as on other subjects, +are constantly expressed and re-expressed, shows among other things +that reasonable, or practically untried education has certain principles +which are as axiomatic as those of mathematics. Every reasonable +thinking man must as certainly discover anew these pedagogical +principles, as he must discover anew the relation between the angles of +a triangle. Spencer's book it is true has not laid again the foundation +of education. It can rather be called the crown of the edifice founded +by Montaigne, Locke, Rousseau, and the great German specialists in +pedagogy. What is an absolutely novel factor in our times is the study +of the psychology of the child, and the system of education that has +developed from it. + +In England, through the scientist Darwin, this new study of the +psychology of the child was inaugurated. In Germany, Preyer contributed +to its extension. He has done so partly by a comprehensive study of +children's language, partly by collecting recollections of childhood on +the part of the adult. Finally he experimented directly on the child, +investigating his physical and psychical fatigue and endurance, +acuteness of sensation, power, speed, and exactness in carrying out +physical and mental tasks. He has studied his capacity of attention in +emotions and in ideas at different periods of life. He has studied the +speech of children, association of ideas in children, etc. During the +study of the psychology of the child, scholars began to substitute for +this term the expression "genetic psychology." For it was found that the +big-genetic principle was valid for the development both of the psychic +and the physical life. This principle means that the history of +the species is repeated in the history of the individual; a truth +substantiated in other spheres; in philology for example. The psychology +of the child is of the same significance for general psychology as +embryology is for anatomy. On the other hand, the description of savage +peoples, of peoples in a natural condition, such as we find in Spencer's +Descriptive Sociology or Weitz's Anthropology is extremely instructive +for a right conception of the psychology of the child. + +It is in this kind of psychological investigation that the greatest +progress has been made in this century. In the great publication, +Zeitschrift fur psychologie, etc., there began in 1894 a special +department for the psychology of children and the psychology of +education. In 1898, there were as many as one hundred and six essays +devoted to this subject, and they are constantly increasing. + +In the chief civilised countries this investigation has many +distinguished pioneers, such as Prof. Wundt, Prof. T. H. Ribot, and +others. In Germany this subject has its most important organ in the +journal mentioned above. It numbers among its collaborators some of the +most distinguished German physiologists and psychologists. As related to +the same subject must be mentioned Wundt's Philosophischen Studien, and +partly the Vierteljahrschrift fur Wissenschaftlichie Philosophie. In +France, there was founded in 1894, the Annee Psychologique, edited +by Binet and Beaunis, and also the Bibliotheque de Pedagogie et de +Psychologie, edited by Binet. In England there are the journals, Mind +and Brain. + +Special laboratories for experimental psychology with psychological +apparatus and methods of research are found in many places. In Germany +the first to be founded was that of Wundt in the year 1878 at Leipzig. +France has a laboratory for experimental psychology at Paris, in the +Sorbonne, whose director is Binet; Italy, one in Rome. In America +experimental psychology is zealously pursued. As early as 1894, +there were in that country twenty-seven laboratories for experimental +psychology and four journals. There should also be mentioned the +societies for child psychology. Recently one has been founded in +Germany, others before this time have been at work in England and +America. + +A whole series of investigations carried out in Kraepelin's laboratory +in Heidelberg are of the greatest value for determining what the brain +can do in the way of work and impressions. + +An English specialist has maintained that the future, thanks to the +modern school system, will be able to get along without originally +creative men, because the receptive activities of modern man will +absorb the cooperative powers of the brain to the disadvantage of +the productive powers. And even if this were not a universally valid +statement but only expressed a physiological certainty, people will some +day perhaps cease filing down man's brain by that sandpapering process +called a school curriculum. + +A champion of the transformation of pedagogy into a psycho-physiological +science is to be found in Sweden in the person of Prof. Hjalmar Oehrwal +who has discussed in his essays native and foreign discoveries in +the field of psychology. One of his conclusions is that the so-called +technical exercises, gymnastics, manual training, sloyd, and the like, +are not, as they are erroneously called, a relaxation from mental +overstrain by change in work, but simply a new form of brain fatigue. +All work, he finds, done under conditions of fatigue is uneconomic +whether one regards the quantity produced or its value as an exercise. +Rest should be nothing more than rest,--freedom to do only what one +wants to, or to do nothing at all. As to fear, he proves, following +Binet's investigation in this subject, how corporal discipline, threats, +and ridicule lead to cowardice; how all of these methods are to be +rejected because they are depressing and tend to a diminution of +energy. He shows, moreover, how fear can be overcome progressively, +by strengthening the nervous system and in that way strengthening +the character. This result comes about partly when all unnecessary +terrorising is avoided, partly when children are accustomed to bear +calmly and quietly the inevitable unpleasantnesses of danger. + +Prof. Axel Key's investigations on school children have won +international recognition. In Sweden they have supplied the most +significant material up to the present time for determining the +influence of studies on physical development and the results of +intellectual overstrain. + +It is to be hoped that when through empirical investigation we begin to +get acquainted with the real nature of children, the school and the home +will be freed from absurd notions about the character and needs of the +child, those absurd notions which now cause painful cases of physical +and psychical maltreatment, still called by conscientious and thinking +human beings in schools and in homes, education. + + +By Helen Key + +The Century of the Child + +Cr. 8vo. With Frontispiece. Net, $1.50 + +CONTENTS: The Right of the Child to Choose His Parents, The Unborn Race +and Woman's Work, Education, Homelessness, Soul Murder in the Schools, +The School of the Future, Religious Instruction, Child Labor and the +Crimes of Children. This book has gone through more than twenty German +Editions and has been published in several European countries. "A +powerful book."--N. Y. Times. + +The Education of the Child + +Reprinted from the Authorized American Edition of "The Century of the +Child," With Introductory Note by EDWARD BOK. + +Cr. 8vo. Net 75 cents + +"Nothing finer on the wise education of the child has ever been brought +into print. To me this chapter is a perfect classic; it points the way +straight for every parent, and it should find a place in every home in +America where there is a child."--EDWARD BOK, Editor of the Ladies' Home +Journal. + +Love and Marriage Cr. 8vo + +Ellen Key is gradually taking a hold upon the reading public of this +country commensurate with the enlightenment of her views. In Europe and +particularly in her own native Sweden her name holds an honored place as +a representative of progressive thought. + +New York G. P. Putnam's Sons London + +Clever, original, and fascinating The Lost Art of Reading Mount Tom +Edition New Edition in Two Volumes + +I. The Child and the Book + +A Manual for Parents and for Teachers in Schools and Colleges + +II. The Lost Art of Reading or, The Man and The Book + +Two Volumes, Crown 8vo. Sold separately. Each net, $1,50 + +By Gerald Stanley Lee + + + +"I must express with your connivance the joy I have had, the enthusiasm +I have felt, in gloating over every page of what I believe is the most +brilliant book of any season since Carlyle's and Emerson's pens were +laid aside. The title does not hint at any more than a fraction of +the contents. It is a highly original critique of philistinism and +gradgrindism in education, library science, science in general, and life +in general. It is full of humor, rich in style, and eccentric in form +and all suffused with the perfervid genius of a man who is not merely +a thinker but a force. Every sentence is tinglingly alive, and as if +furnished with long antennae of suggestiveness. I do not know who Mr. +Lee is, but I know this--that if he goes on as he has been, we need no +longer whine that we have no worthy successors to the old Brahminical +writers of New England. + +"I have been reading with wonder and laughter and with loud cheers. It +is the word of all words that needed to be spoken just now. It makes +me believe that after all we have n't a great kindergarten about us +in authorship, but that there is virtue, race, sap in us yet. I can +conceive that the date of the publication of this book may well be the +date of the moral and intellectual renaissance for which we have long +been scanning the horizon."--WM. SLOANE KENNEDY in Boston Transcript. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Education of the Child, by Ellen Key + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD *** + +***** This file should be named 988.txt or 988.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/988/ + +Produced by Charles Keller + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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