MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EXERCISES.
HARMONIOUS development is Froebel's idea. Hence, although the physical
should never be sacrificed, and comes first into view, in the scheme of
Kindergarten culture, it is not to be exclusive. Children grow in
stature and physical force, all the better for having their hearts and
minds opened in the beginning. It is desirable to have a child become
conscious of right and wrong, in reference to eating and drinking, quite
early; though temptation to excess should be removed, as a general
thing, by giving them simple wholesome food. In any case where children
may not go home at noon, and there is a luncheon, some simple fruit,
like apples or grapes, together with milk biscuits, or plain bread and
butter, make the best repast, satisfying hunger, and not stimulating the
palate unduly. I am sometimes shocked at the kind of luncheon children
bring to the Kindergarten, it shows such lamentable ignorance of
physiological laws. The practical value of the beautiful symbol of the
origin of evil, which stands as the first word of the sacred volume, is
enhanced, by its having the form in which temptation first assails the
child. No deeper interpretation of it is foreclosed by our presenting it
at first, to children, just as it stands. The forbidden fruit is that
which will hurt the child; _i. e._, give it the disease which by and by
may make death a merciful release from pains intolerable to bear.
Serpents have no higher function than eating; but human beings live to
know and love and do good, and so ought not to eat everything that is
pleasant to the eyes,--but to stop, as Eve did not, and inquire whether
it is God or the mere animal which is man's proper adviser. Our appetite
is the serpent, our thought is from God. A child understands all this
very early, if it is thus simply presented; and it suggests the
beginning of his moral life. The lesson can soon be generalized.
Whatever wrong things he is tempted to do, whatever his conscience tells
him not to do, is "forbidden fruit;" his desire to do it is the serpent,
and if he falls, it is the old folly of Eve, who preferred the advice of
the lower being to the command of God, always given in the Conscience.
I have known a child, to whom this story was early read and interpreted,
to whom it seemed to become a "guard angelic" over her life. The moral
nature responded to it at once, and a suggestion that a desire was
perhaps the voice of the serpent, was always quite enough to arouse the
guardian angel--Conscience--to a watch and ward of the severest
character. It precluded the necessity of present punishment and the fear
of future retribution, (with which a child should never be terrified.)
There is such a thing as making children, I will not say too
conscientious, but too conscious; and this is often done by well-meaning
parents and teachers, who make them look upon themselves personally as
objects of God's pleasure or displeasure. This will be avoided by using
a symbol, like the story of Adam and Eve, which touches the imagination,
and saves them from the reactions of personal pique. A judicious
teacher, who knows how to paraphrase as she reads, and to skip what is
mere prosaic statement, (and no one who cannot do this, is fit to read
to children,) can make use of many other passages of the Old and New
Testament, and of "Pilgrim's Progress," to give to children the whole
doctrine of religious self-control, and inspire them to the highest
moral issues.
_Spiritual_ life, strictly speaking, can only be _prepared for_ by the
_best_ education. Its characteristic and essence consists in that action
of the heart and reason which does not come from human prompting. But
it _can_ be prepared for, by awakening in the child such an aspiration
and felt necessity for virtue, as well as general idea of God, as makes
prayer to the Father of Spirits spontaneous and inevitable. I am in the
habit of speaking of God to children as the Giver of love and goodness,
and of the power of thought and action, rather than as the Creator of
the outward world, and have found that the tyrannizing unity of the
soul's instinct did the rest.
In what is called religious education, teachers often do great harm,
with the best intentions, to finely strung moral organizations.
Encouragement to good should altogether predominate over warning and
fault-finding. It is often better, instead of blaming a child for
short-coming, or even wrong-doing, to pity and sympathize, and, in a
hopeful voice, speak of it as something which the child did not mean to
do, or at least was sorry for as soon as done; suggesting at the same
time, perhaps, how it can be avoided another time. Above all things, an
invariable rule in moral education is not to throw a child upon
self-defence. The movement towards defending one's self and making
excuses, is worse than almost any act of overt wrong. Let the teacher
always appear as the friend who is saving or helping the child out of
evil, rather than as the accuser, judge, or executioner. Another
principle should be, not to confound or put upon the same level the
trespasses against the by-laws of the Kindergarten, made for the
teacher's convenience, and those against the moral laws of the universe.
The desirableness of the by-laws that we make for our convenience can be
shown at times when the children are all calm, and their attention can
be drawn to the subject; and if these regulations are broken, all that
is necessary will be to ask if it is kind and loving to do such things?
But it must never be forgotten that natural conscience always suffers
when artificial duties are imposed. Hence the immoral effect of
formality and superstition.
In a well-regulated Kindergarten there should be no punishments, but an
understanding should be had with parents that sometimes the child is to
be sent home for a day, or at least for some hours. The curtailment of
the Kindergarten will generally prove an effectual restraint upon
disorder, and it will not be necessary to repeat the penalty in a school
year.
But I shall say no more upon moral and religious exercises, Mrs. Mann
having treated this part of the subject so exhaustively. It is to be
remembered, however, that she had in her school children who had strayed
much farther from the kingdom of heaven than those who will generally
make up the Kindergarten. But she shows the _spirit_ that should pervade
all that is done to children at all times.
I saw, in observing the Kindergartens of Germany, that
there was great moral education involved in the mutual
consideration of each other, which the children learn
to practise, in order to make the plays beautiful; and
also in the constant idea kept before them, of making
beautiful things for the purpose of giving pleasure to
their parents and other friends, by giving them away
on birthdays and Christmas and New-Year's Days. Moral
education does not come by the hearing of the ear, but
by generous life.