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[Illustration: Book Cover]
The Renewal of Life
BY MISS MORLEY
A SONG OF LIFE. 12mo $1.25
LIFE AND LOVE. 12mo 1.25
THE BEE PEOPLE. 12mo 1.25
THE HONEY-MAKERS. 12mo 1.25
LITTLE MITCHELL. 12mo 1.25
THE RENEWAL OF LIFE. 12mo 1.25
_Each fully illustrated_
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
CHICAGO
The Renewal of Life
_How and When to Tell the Story to the Young_
By
Margaret Warner Morley
Author of "A Song of Life," "Life and Love," etc.
Illustrated
[Illustration: Publisher's Logo]
Chicago
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1906
COPYRIGHT BY
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1906
Published September 15, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE RENEWAL OF LIFE 9
II. WHO IS TO TELL THE STORY, AND WHEN IS IT TO BE TOLD? 17
III. HOW TO TELL THE STORY 27
IV. TELLING THE TRUTH 36
V. ON NATURE STUDY 40
VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEED 52
VII. THE FERTILIZATION OF THE FLOWER 87
VIII. WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THE LIFE OF THE FISH 107
IX. AMPHIBIOUS LIFE 127
X. THE BIRD 137
XI. THE MAMMAL 154
XII. VIGILANCE 169
XIII. THE TRANSFORMATION 178
LIST OF BOOKS HELPFUL IN STUDYING PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE 193
_The Renewal of Life_
_How and When to Tell The Story to the Young_
I
THE RENEWAL OF LIFE
Every human being must sooner or later know the facts concerning the
origin of his life on the earth. One of the most puzzling questions is
how and when such information should be given to the young.
There is nothing the parent more desires than that his child should have
a high ideal in regard to the sex-life and that he should live in
accordance with that ideal, yet nowhere is careful and systematic
education so lacking as here.
What parent would allow his child to go untaught in the particulars
concerning truth-telling, honesty, cleanliness, and behavior, trusting
that in some way the child would discover the facts necessary to the
practice of these virtues and live accordingly? And yet with apparent
inconsistency one of the prime virtues is neglected; one of the most
vital needs of every human being--the understanding of his
sex-nature--is too often left entirely to chance. Not only is the youth
uninstructed, but no proper way of learning the truth is within his
reach. It is as though he were set blindfold in the midst of dangerous
pitfalls, with the admonition not to fall into any of them. Those who
ought to tell the facts will not, consequently the facts must be
gathered from chance sources which are too often bad, poisoning mind and
heart. Even the physiologies, with the exception of those large, and to
the average reader inaccessible, volumes used in medical schools,
scarcely ever touch upon the subject. Of course these larger books give
only the physiological facts couched in scientific terms. How and where,
then, can the youth learn what he needs to know?
It is true there is a noble effort being made for young men, and to a
less extent for young women, by certain organizations that exist for
the help of the young, to supply this curious defect in our educational
system; but these efforts reach but comparatively few members in a
community, and come too late in the life of the young to give them their
first impressions on the subject. Perhaps the most encouraging sign for
the future is the interest that thousands of mothers in all walks of
life are to-day taking in the best methods of training their children to
a right understanding and noble conception of sex-life. Innumerable
mothers' clubs give the subject a place in the curriculum of the club
work, at stated times discussing, reading, consulting all available
authorities which may be of help. Some of these mothers live in poor
homes in neighborhoods where their children are exposed to all sorts of
evil communications and temptations. Others have sheltered homes, from
which the children go out among refined associates from whom there may
be little danger of learning that which is evil. Yet others live in
moderate circumstances, where the home influences may be good, but
where the children are liable to mingle with a heterogeneous society in
their school and perhaps in their social life.
Moreover, in all these homes there are children of different
natures,--some with temperaments which make it easy for them to imbibe
harmful information, while others as naturally resent such information.
Nor is the child of rich parents living in a costly home necessarily the
child least likely to make mistakes. The facts quickly refute any such
idea. It is the child most carefully trained at home, with the most
inspiring counsel and the wisest guidance in all directions, who has the
best chance for successful living, the child whose parents not only
secure the best outside assistance where such is necessary, but who
themselves take a vital and continuous interest in his education. Such
parents, where the help of nurses and teachers is necessary in the home,
see to it that these helpers are wholesome, high-minded companions for
the growing minds put under their charge.
The poorest child is the child of wealthy parents, who is turned over to
hirelings, chosen more for their accent of a foreign tongue than for
their knowledge of child life and of the laws which govern the growing
mind and body. Such children not infrequently become as depraved as the
most neglected and exposed child of the slums, later poisoning the minds
or shocking the sensibilities of children in the schools they attend.
One of the difficulties every mother has to encounter is the presence of
undesirable companions in the school. The argument that a child coming
from a sheltered home will not be influenced by such companions is only
in part true. He may not be influenced, or, again, he may. Among older
children, if the wrongdoer be dazzling in manner, looks, social
position, or even in power to lavish money, he will acquire a certain
ascendency over many of his companions, who, if not safeguarded against
his allurements by a clear knowledge of the facts of life, may fall into
his snares.
How, then, can all these various situations be dealt with? How, how
much, when, and where shall the youth be safeguarded against influences,
misconceptions, and mistakes which may mar his whole after-life? These
are the questions which in part this book endeavors to answer.
The answers come from the writer's experience of many years' work with
mothers interested in this subject, especially from the testimony and
the questions of thousands of such mothers in all walks of life who
possessed children of all temperaments.
The book is not meant to be either exhaustive or arbitrary. It is
written with the single desire of helping the mother who may be groping
her way in this matter, its aim being twofold,--to indicate methods of
procedure among which the mother may find one adapted to her special
needs and circumstances, or at least from which she may get hints which
she can herself follow in her own way, and to indicate sources of
information.
One trivial difficulty has presented itself in preparing the succeeding
chapters, and that is the lack in the English language of a pronoun
including both genders. The English impersonal pronoun, being masculine
in form, is liable to create the impression that "he" or "his" exclusive
of "she" or "her" is the subject of discourse. This is not so. Generally
the masculine pronoun is used impersonally in this discussion, and the
discerning reader can easily decide from the context where this is not
the case.
As a help to the busy mother in selecting books for herself and her
children, a list is given at the end of the book. This list is by no
means exhaustive. There are many other and doubtless equally good books.
The books given are reliable, are prettily illustrated, are now in
print, and are easily obtainable at any book-store. If they are not in
stock the book-seller will be glad to send for them. Further, to aid in
selecting and ordering, the retail price is added. A small circulating
library of well chosen books adds greatly to the usefulness of a
mother's club, and such a library can be collected at small cost.
Where the club is composed of heterogeneous members it is advisable that
the president, or some member chosen for the purpose, should lead the
discussion, which should be on some one topic selected and made known
beforehand. This leader should not only guide the discussion, but be
ready to explain the books and make the subject clear to those tired and
overworked mothers who have had fewer educational advantages but who are
in need of such knowledge as will enable them to guide their children.
A mother unconnected with a club, and unable to afford all the books she
wants, can find many of those here recommended in the village or city
library; and where this is not the case the library is generally willing
to make such purchases as its patrons request.
II
WHO IS TO TELL THE STORY, AND WHEN IS IT TO BE TOLD?
Every thoughtful guardian of a child is sooner or later confronted with
three questions in connection with this subject,--
Who is to tell the story to the child?
When should it be told?
How should it be told?
_Who shall tell the story?_
The best teachers in this subject are undoubtedly the child's parents.
Since the mother generally spends more time with him and is more
accustomed to instruct him in manners and morals it naturally belongs to
her to give him his first instruction here, and it is an opportunity
which no mother understanding its value can afford to miss.
Nothing draws a child so close to his mother as the knowledge, rightly
conveyed, of how truly he is a part of her. Almost without exception the
young boy learning the truth from the lips of his mother has a new
feeling of reverence and love for her. Countless are the testimonies of
mothers as to the result of telling this fact. One illustration will
answer as an example of hundreds of similar ones. A certain little boy
listened open-eyed to the story; then, the blood mounting to his cheeks,
he threw himself into his mother's arms, exclaiming, "Oh, mamma, that is
why I love you so!"
Moreover, if the right kind of confidence is established between mother
and child, the child will come to his mother with his questions and
difficulties instead of trying to satisfy his curiosity elsewhere.
The question is often asked, Will not close companionship and sympathy
between mother and child in a general way produce the same result,
causing the child to confide in the mother in case of needing
information, without any previous talks on the subject?
Of course the closer the relationship between the two the more easily
will the child confide everything; yet with very many children, if this
one subject is avoided (and particularly is this true as the child grows
older), it will not be introduced by the child, no matter how much he
may desire the knowledge, or how intimate in other ways may be his talks
with his mother. The judicious mother can get a hold upon her son
through this subject that nothing else gives; she can keep him closer to
her, and oftentimes can guide him safely over difficult places. What is
true of the son is of course true of the daughter. The little girl will
respond as readily as her brother to confidences of this kind, and will
find them as helpful. She very often escapes much that her brother in
his freer life meets, yet undoubtedly in the great majority of cases the
instruction is as vitally necessary to her as to him.
While the earliest teachings seem to fall most naturally to the mother,
the father should also share the responsibility and the privilege,
talking with frank confidence upon the subject whenever occasion
offers.
The question is often asked, Is it not better for the father to talk to
the boys, the mother to the girls?
There no doubt are cases where this might be wise, but the mother,
understanding the close relationship between her son and herself that
may come through such talks,--a relationship continuing and increasing
in value as the years go on,--would feel that she could not afford to
lose anything so precious to both her boy and herself.
While the establishment of this relationship might be difficult or even
impossible later, it is easily begun in childhood and as easily
continued. Moreover, many boys are specially helped by talking with
their mother. They often feel in her a quicker sympathy and a more
perfect understanding of their needs; and as their instinctive desire is
to understand life from _her_ point of view as well, they often feel
something in her which is lacking in the father. On the other hand, the
boy who is talked to exclusively by the mother, particularly when he
begins to develop into manhood may say, or think, "Oh, you cannot
understand; you never were a man." The father's voice here is needed,
but if that is impossible there is abundant written testimony and advice
from well-known men to youth on this subject which can be put into the
boy's hands.
While the child's best teachers of these intimate truths are undoubtedly
his parents, it may happen for various reasons that this is impossible.
The child may have grown to an age where the timid parent, who has not
hitherto realized the necessity, cannot approach him. Or there may be
other reasons. In such cases the duty may devolve upon some one else
capable of fulfilling it. Such a one may be, should be, the minister. It
ought to be a part of the recognized duty of every minister of a
congregation to see that such of his young men as desire it are
instructed in the facts necessary to their well-being in this direction.
It is not enough to tell them to live pure lives; they must be helped to
understand their own organizations and everything pertaining to this
side of life that they need or want to know. There should be similar
help obtainable by the young women of the congregation from some
competent woman approved by the minister. Purity is an integral part of
the religion of the new civilization, and purity and everything helping
to it should be as conscientiously and thoroughly taught in the churches
as are any other religious truths. In the church the young man, the
young woman, should be able to find corroboration of the sex-truths
taught him by his parents; and those young people not so fortunate as to
receive instruction at home should be able to drink from their religious
teachers deep draughts from this spring of salvation.
The family physician ought also to be a refuge of help for the young;
and here the woman doctor, that blessing of these later days, can do a
work of reformation and salvation. No one has more power to sow seeds of
wisdom in the homes of the people, helping the mother to understand and
desire the careful instruction of her children, and where the mother
requests it, being ready to give the needed help to the young people
themselves.
Again, the teacher or some friend may be requested by the parent to
come to the help of the needy child. But whoever gives this information,
it is needless to say, should himself be pure in heart, of high moral
principles, with a firm belief in the value and possibility of purity,
and with sufficient knowledge of the subject in all its aspects to be a
wise instructor, giving not only physiological information where that is
desirable, but working specially for ethical and spiritual elevation.
Physiological facts alone may not have the slightest effect upon the
manner of living; there should be first and deeply implanted a spiritual
desire for purity, when the knowledge of such facts may be a valuable
help.
The question is very often asked, Should this subject be taught in
schools?
To a certain extent it is taught. Every botany class teaches its
rudiments; and in the higher grades, where biology is taught, the pupil
comes to a clear understanding of the main facts. School botany,
however, merely glimpses at the truth, and biological classes are few
and far between. So, as far as the majority of children are concerned,
the schools can hardly be said to touch the subject. Whether it would
be well for the schools to deal with it is a very difficult question, so
much depending upon the way the work is done. It might be possible to
introduce it helpfully in connection with a well graded system of
nature-study, but since such does not exist in most schools, and since
there is very great danger in speaking in public on this subject before
children, no matter how well the speaking may be done, it is undoubtedly
better not to approach it directly in the schools,--at least in grades
below the high school. Like religious training, this belongs peculiarly
to the home and the parent. Although she cannot give general
instruction, the teacher of children can help by being watchful of her
flock, alert to detect signs of wrong doing, ready to help by private
counsel, and--when parents consent--to give information to any needy
child. In dealing with this subject the teacher needs to be as wise as
the serpent and as harmless as the dove, not only for her own sake but
for the sake of those she wishes to help.
_When to tell the story._
It is an axiom of education that the foundations of knowledge should be
laid in childhood. From all time it has been observed that what is
learned in the earlier years remains most persistently through life.
Hence we begin to inculcate moral truths at an early age. Ideas of
truthfulness and honesty, for instance, are graven so deeply on the
young mind that they can never afterwards be erased. "Just as the twig
is bent the tree's inclined," said our forefathers, and it is true.
"First impressions are the most lasting," is another true adage. This
being so, we should see to it that the first impression the child gets
on the subject in question is the one we wish him to keep. Many a life
has been lamed and saddened because of the first terrible and
ineradicable impressions it received upon this all-important subject.
Many a high-minded man and woman have gone through life tormented by
images of the first unworthy thoughts. No matter how good the
after-knowledge may be, it is almost impossible to erase from the
tablets of memory that old first impression.
Of course it would be absurd to tell a young child most of the facts,
just as it would be absurd to try to teach him the whole arithmetic in
one school term. He could not understand, and, particularly in the case
of the former subject, he would be harmed instead of helped. Just how
and when to unfold the matter to his comprehension will be carefully
considered as these pages progress. Here let it suffice to say that with
the young child we may begin by building carefully block by block the
foundation we want to use later; with the older one we must needs work
faster, seeking to anticipate or counteract any unfortunate information
from outside sources. Thus the age of the child and his surroundings
will to an extent determine the time or times of telling the facts.
III
HOW TO TELL THE STORY
This is the most difficult question to answer, and one that requires
time. Indeed, one might say it cannot be answered excepting in a general
way, and that any effort to tell the truth sacredly is better than not
to tell it at all. Where the children are still young the task is
comparatively simple when once begun. It develops naturally, with time
for thought on the part of the teller; and the steps are easy and
convincing.
One of the questions most frequently asked is this: Does not talking
about these things fix the child's mind unduly upon them?
As a matter of experience it is just the other way. The child who has
always known the facts is not curious. Why should he be? There is
nothing to be curious about. It is all as much a matter of course to
him as the rising of the sun. And he is safeguarded against a certain
pruriency that comes from wrongly stimulated and vilely fed curiosity.
Instead of causing the child to think more about the subject, the
tendency of good teaching is to prevent his thinking of it.
Another question frequently asked is, Does not talking on this subject
arouse curiosity in children who otherwise would not be curious?
The answer is that it does not arouse harmful curiosity. The right kind
of curiosity on any subject is of course good. Indeed without the desire
to question and investigate everything about him man would be yet a
savage living in a hole in the ground, and the starting-point of all the
child's after-knowledge is curiosity. There are two kinds of curiosity,
a good kind and a bad kind. The good kind is interested in finding out
things for the sake of understanding them; the bad kind serves a bad
end,--in connection with this subject it leads to investigations which
produce wrong thoughts and feelings, and is gratified for the sake of
producing those thoughts and feelings. The same subject may give rise to
either kind of curiosity, according as it is presented.
To-day we take every pains to stimulate the curiosity of our children.
We teach them to observe carefully the flowers, the insects, the
animals,--everything about them. We cannot expect them to exercise their
stimulated minds on all other subjects and turn blind eyes upon this one
which is obviously so important and so interesting. No, the more they
learn to look and ask about other things the more they will look and
wish to ask about this.
That children differ in curiosity is very true. Some children seem to
have very little curiosity about anything. Yet such children are sent to
school with as much care as are the children eager to know. A child
might show no interest in books, might find the reading lesson irksome;
but the mother would know he was learning to read for the use that
reading would be to him later, not for the sake of the things in the
reading-book. It is the same here, the child learns the facts for the
sake of his future. There are good reasons which will appear later why
every child should have the right information on this subject whether he
seeks it or not. If he is indifferent, one can be sure the proper kind
of information will not hurt him; if he is eager, one can be sure he
ought to be carefully and thoroughly instructed.
As a rule the most active and eager children and those with the quickest
minds are the ones most curious to understand the origin of life, though
there are exceptions. It is not legitimately gratified curiosity that
harms, but suppressed curiosity, which in this subject is almost sure to
result in the acquisition of wrong and often of perverting information.
The surest way to arouse curiosity is to try to conceal something. The
only thing, then, is to be ready to gratify honest curiosity by helpful
information.
Nor is it safe to defer too long. What the mother wants her child to
know in a certain way she should tell him herself, before he has a
chance to hear it elsewhere. The moment he leaves her presence, the
moment he starts alone to school, he may receive information which she
would give the world to prevent his receiving. Not that her telling will
necessarily keep him from hearing what others say, but to have his mind
preoccupied will tend to prevent the wrong ideas from taking firm root.
* * * * *
Another question very often asked is, Will teaching this subject not
encourage children to talk about it with other children?
On the contrary, the tendency is to prevent talk. The children of a
family equally instructed will not find it worth talking about. They
know what they want to know, and understand that the only person who can
really tell them anything more is their mother, or whoever takes her
place in this. If they do talk of it in the spirit in which they have
been taught, such talk can do no harm, excepting in the presence of
children not equally well instructed.
To meet this danger the mother can take certain precautions. Having won
the confidence of her child, she can generally trust him to keep these
matters confidential with her. She can explain that children do not
always know the truth about these things, and sometimes do not know
about them at all. That some mothers do not tell their children, but
that she wants her child to understand everything just as it is, and to
feel that she can trust him not to talk on these matters excepting when
alone with her.
Of course there will be instances where this does not succeed, and the
children eager and pure will speak in the presence of the neighbors'
children and make trouble. Then the question is, Which is better, to run
that risk and take the consequences, or to run the risk of allowing the
child to remain ignorant? If the child could really remain ignorant,
there might be room for argument against enlightening him, but there is
great danger that he will be enlightened in a very unenlightened manner,
and possibly by those same neighbors' children who are truly ignorant,
though they may not be ignorant in just the way their fond parents
believe them to be.
Many people still confound ignorance with innocence, though these are
by no means related. The most ignorant person in the world might be the
least innocent, and the most innocent might very well be the most
enlightened. It not infrequently happens that the very children whose
mothers are most opposed to enlightenment on this subject are dangerous
companions for good children.
To guard against unprofitable or otherwise harmful teaching, the mother
should instruct the child not to listen to talk on this subject and not
to join in it, and at the same time tell him that in case he does hear
anything that troubles him he should come to her and she will talk it
over and explain, so that he may know what is right and what wrong. She
should promise to tell him _the truth_ about whatever he may want to
know.
Having made this promise she must keep it. There is nothing more
dangerous than to put a child off with evasive answers. He immediately
jumps to the conclusion that there is some reason why his mother is
afraid or ashamed to explain things to him, and if he has heard evil
rumors it is quite natural for him to suspect that what he has heard is
the truth and the whole truth, else why should his mother not help him?
He soon feels ashamed to ask her questions which she refuses to answer,
and he ceases to confide in her. There is nothing easier than to win and
keep the confidence of a child, and often there is nothing more
difficult than to regain it when once it is lost, particularly in this
direction. It is a loss the mother can by no means afford to sustain.
Mothers sometimes object that their young sons bring them the most
shocking or absurd stories which they have heard in school or elsewhere.
The mother who gives one moment's serious thought to such a situation
will be forced to the conclusion that for her to hear such tales is
nothing compared to the child's hearing them, and that his coming to his
mother is proof of his own innocence. It is surely her first duty, no
matter how difficult or unsavory the task, to sift out the wrong from
the right, to show the child wherein the story is absurd, wicked, and
harmful. At such a crisis the mother should be very careful not to show
any offence because the child has brought her the story. She may condemn
the story as severely as she likes, but she must be careful that the
child does not feel himself included in the condemnation. She must also
be careful in denying the story not to deny the germ of truth which it
will contain, or the child may conclude that she is talking against the
facts, and is either ignorant or trying to conceal the truth. Many a
mother has said in despair, "My boy of nine knows more about these
things than I know myself."
It would be a great mistake to let the boy hear such a confession, as
his very best safeguard is his confidence in the knowledge of his
mother, or whoever assumes the duty of instructing him in these
matters.
IV
TELLING THE TRUTH
Should the mother tell pleasant but totally false stories as to the
origin of the child,--or should she tell the truth?
It is generally safer to tell the truth. Excepting with very young
children the fiction is not long believed, and a course of deception,
having been entered upon, oftentimes proves a stumbling block in the way
of later veracity. It is so much easier to go on telling fairy-tales.
Moreover, the truth, properly conveyed, is far more beautiful than any
fairy-tale.
The parent must not forget that the child's mind is a blank page upon
which any picture may be drawn, and that the child sees only what is
presented to him. The thousand problems, the thousand troubles and
fears, and all the knowledge of evil that burden the mind of the adult
are entirely absent from that of the child. He sees only the one
shining fact, that he was once a part of his dear mother, nourished and
protected by her until he was ready to open his eyes on the big world.
The child has very little interest in details as a rule; and how to meet
the demand for them, should it arise, will be considered later.
If the mother tells the story of the stork bringing the newcomer to the
home, or of the doctor carrying him in his pocket, or the apothecary
selling him over the counter, the child very soon learns that this is
not true. He gets an inkling of the truth, understands that he has been
deceived, and according to his age, his nature, and what he has heard,
he will draw his conclusions as to why his mother did not tell him the
truth.
Mothers often ask whether there is any more reason for refraining from
the stork fiction than from the Santa Claus one. When Santa Claus is
found out, the whole thing is generally understood as a joke, a pleasant
sort of fairy tale. There was nothing hidden behind the fiction. In the
other case, if the child chances somewhere to hear the facts stated in a
coarse manner, he will be likely to feel instinctively that the new
tale is the true one, and will naturally conclude that the pretty fable
was told to conceal a most unsavory truth. His first impression of the
real facts will in such a case be ugly and--in a deep sense--false. It
will hurt his sensibilities, or arouse his lower nature, according to
his temperament.
The mother can guide herself by a rule which has exceptions but which in
the main holds good: The child able to ask a question is able to
understand the answer.
This is by no means saying that all the facts should be stated at once.
That would be absurd. The question asked should be answered as simply as
possible, the parent remembering that children's questions are usually
more profound to the hearer than to the asker. It is difficult for the
adult not to read into the child's chance question all the profundity of
his own years of experience, and the mother who approaches this subject
with dread is almost invariably astonished and relieved to find how
easily the child is satisfied.
Where the child asks by chance or design (and it is a wise parent who
can always decide which it is) a question beyond his comprehension, or
one that the parent is not ready to answer, he can be put off
temporarily with the promise to explain another time. The child may
forget all about it. If not, then the promise must be kept; and the very
fact that the child remembers shows that he is thinking, and therefore
ought to be helped. If the child asks questions which the mother feels
sure he is not ready to have answered, she can promise to tell him when
he gets older, explaining that he could not understand now. In such
cases, however, the mother should always manifest a willingness to tell
him something; she should talk with him enough to make him feel sure she
will keep her promise. He should never be allowed to forget that he can
go to his mother as frankly as to his own heart, with the certainty of
finding sympathy and aid. And she should not let him forget that he is
not to seek information from outside sources, such information being
unreliable.
V
ON NATURE STUDY
Since the most beautiful and ideal way of presenting the facts of the
renewal of life is through nature-study, a few words as to the handling
of this interesting topic may be helpful to some mothers.
In all nature-work with the child, the subjects treated should be made
interesting and beautiful. This cannot be too strongly insisted upon.
The child has a right to the pleasure, the elevation of sentiment, the
play of imagination which the contemplation of nature is able to give in
such a peculiar degree. He has a right to the romance of the flower,
cloud, bird, fish, animal life, plant life, in all their ramifications.
It is a part of his soul-development. Consequently, whatever is done for
him should be done in such a way as not to hurt his sensibilities. His
pleasure in nature should be increased, not lessened, as a result of
his study.
As his knowledge expands his interest should deepen. This will almost
never be the case where the first instruction is purely technical.
Nothing, for instance, has deadened the interest of children in plant
life so much as the study of botany. This is because the school methods
have been wrong, the work being almost always approached from the wrong
end. It is because the learner's mind is dammed up by difficult and to
him empty technical terms. As a consequence, the course of its flow in
this direction is stopped, and instead of a clear stream leaping
joyfully through the woods and meadows finally to reach the great goal
of the boundless ocean, it resembles rather a motionless pond, the
surface of which is covered with lifeless and unlovely debris. Naturally
the child seeks to escape from this uninteresting and dead pool by
turning his mental energies in other directions, and too often he loses
interest forever, and with it the pleasure and the vast profit that
might have come to him from a different conception of the subject.
Facts about the life of the plant should be abundantly presented, and
the facts as collected and told to-day are well-nigh inexhaustible as
well as fascinating. True stories of plant life can be, and should be,
as interesting as any other stories. Technical terms should be used at
first with great restraint, and, as a rule, only where they are
obviously convenient or of such universal application that they are a
distinct help in developing a sense of the continuity of living things.
Those that are used should be so skilfully introduced, and their meaning
so thoroughly digested, that they do not seem like technical terms.
Perhaps an illustration will make this point clearer. A child who loves
flowers goes to school; he is given one of his favorites and told to
pull it to pieces, look at its different parts, and label them with such
words as petals, sepals, pistil, stamens; to these are presently added
calyx, corolla, monopetalous, polypetalous, innate, adnate, indehiscent,
etc., until the child's mind resembles a lumber room of senseless
rubbish, in which the flower is buried and lost. To a sensitive child
this process is exceedingly painful. He often feels as though he were
murdering some helpless thing he had loved, and conceals his tears and
his heartache for fear of being laughed at. Less sensitive children are
soon wearied and disgusted, and the love for nature which might have
been aroused in them, to the sweetening and steadying of their whole
after-life, receives a fatal check.
While the child's love for flowers, and his sentiment concerning them,
should not be harmed by his plant work, on the other hand a certain
tendency to weak sentimentality wherever encountered should be
restrained. He should not be a mere receptacle for dry ashes nor yet a
mush of sentimentality. The wise leader will discover the broad middle
course where love of the flower shall be deepened, and, as it were,
broadened, by knowledge of its wonderful structure and functions. These
can be well understood without so much as one technical term, though the
skilful introduction of a few helpful words will not detract at all from
the pleasure of the study, and will be most convenient.
[Illustration: THE ANEMONE OR WIND-FLOWER]
Even the botanical names of the flowers themselves are of questionable
value. The main thing is to recognize the flower as we recognize any
other friend, and of course some name is necessary, but that this name
be technical is, in most cases, not even desirable. "Wind-flower" is
quite as good as "anemone," better, indeed, as it expresses a certain
feeling about the flower that "anemone" does not convey. So, too,
"mayflower" is more suggestive than "trailing arbutus," and that than
_Epigaea repens_. Thus at first let the children learn only the common
names of the flowers, at the same time that they discover all that is
interesting about them. Later, when their interest is sure, the pretty
name "anemone" will give an added charm. They can be told that it comes
from the Greek word _anemos_, meaning wind, and that anemones grow in
Greece, and all that part of the world, and are gathered by the little
children there. If the children are of an age to be studying or reading
the tales of mythology, or the fascinating beginnings of Greek and Roman
history, they will be delighted to think that anemones were no doubt
gathered by Ulysses and Hector and the other Trojan heroes when they
were children in that far-away land, and that the grandson of AEneas saw
them in the Campagna near the Rome he founded, as the Italian children
see them to-day. Thus through his botany the child can get a more vivid
sense of the life of the past, can have a link forged in that invaluable
mental chain which links him, mind, body, and soul, to everything else
in the universe, and the consciousness of which is one of our most
precious and helpful endowments in this life.
The universality of life and mind and soul, the universality of the
methods of their manifestations even, the unity of life,--nothing by
itself, everything going out into and permeating everything else,--this
great truth, which ought to burst upon the young mind with controlling
force at a critical period later, should have its way prepared in
childhood.
So far as technical terms are concerned, the child will gladly take
them--in small doses--when he understands the things they
represent,--that is, when the knowledge comes before the label; and when
he recognizes their convenience in grouping the different varieties and
species so that their relations to themselves and to other plants can be
kept in the mind with a minimum of exertion.
[Illustration: WILD ROSE WITH BEES GATHERING HONEY]
The time comes when the analysis of the flower can be as interesting as
any part of the work, if it has been preceded by other information and
if it is pursued intelligently and delightfully. To illustrate again.
The wild rose looked at simply as a thing of beauty and perfume becomes
yet more interesting to the child who watches the bee gather its golden
pollen and its luscious nectar. There is a bond of union now between
the fragile flower and its winged guest that begets an altruism which
later becomes normally the corner-stone of character. When the graceful
tribute of the bee to the flower is presently understood, and the child
learns that the seeds of the flower have to thank the bee for their
life, the mind expands yet more, and glows at the thought of this
relationship in which each of these charming creatures practically
preserves the life of the other.
[Illustration: THE SEED, THE CHILD OF THE PLANT, IS AT THE HEART OF
EVERY FLOWER]
Now, too, the thought that the seed, the child of the plant, is at the
heart of every flower, that it is for this nascent life, this new
venture into the great world, that the blossom unfolds in beauty and
sheds its perfume on the summer air, yet more expands the joyous
interest taken in the blossom. The mind, through a knowledge of these
facts, can leap out into wider spaces of feeling and imagination. Thus
every truth the child learns about the rose in those first tender years
ought to add to his poetic conception of it. Thus he should learn his
rose until the time comes when its relation to certain other plants will
be full of meaning and full of interest. Perhaps the child has studied
the apple blossom, the strawberry flower, the peach blossom in this same
delightful way. With a very little help he will recognize the similarity
of all three to the rose. He will be delighted to know that these are as
truly related as they seem to be, that they are indeed cousins in one
charming family. How they came to be so different will be a natural
question, the answer to which will involve the latest and most valuable
scientific discoveries. Indeed, in studying nature we should begin with
the latest discoveries of science, which are biological and vital, and
end with man's earlier efforts toward knowledge,--that is, with
classification and nomenclature. When the child knows his plants he may
be interested in their relationships and willing to do the necessary
drudgery toward establishing them. If not, it doesn't matter, he has the
really vital part of the subject, the part that will best help him
toward understanding all life, his own included.
It is to foster a high sentiment toward the life of the plant that the
numerous so-called unscientific botanies which crowd the book-stores
to-day are so valuable, and the numbers that are sold testify to the
interest this side of the subject awakens. What technical botany has
anything like the sale of these less technical books? So far as the real
development of the world at large is concerned they are of inestimably
more use than the technical works, though of course those were the stern
Puritan parents who have given rise to this flock of lovely
non-puritanical children, and without which they of course could not
have existed.
The technical botanies indeed have their use to-day, and it can be
confidently expected that they will be more used than ever before,
because of the large numbers who have had their interest quickened and a
desire to know more awakened. Those who would have found botany
interesting in spite of the old methods will pursue it yet more eagerly
under the new. Many who would have turned away from it entirely will
continue their study into the technical works, while great numbers who
have no leaning toward technical study and would have had nothing to do
with botany under the old methods, under the new will assimilate the
best truths the study of this subject is able to give, and so far from
finding a wild rose less fragrant or less beautiful because of their
close scrutiny of it, they will find it infinitely more so,--infinitely
more rich in affording poetical thoughts, comparisons, and images.
What is true of plant life is equally true of animal life. The first
attention should be directed toward the animal itself, its life and
habits, technical information coming afterwards.
VI
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEED
In dealing with the special subject of this book too much stress cannot
be laid upon the value of associating the phenomena of the renewal of
life with all other vital phenomena, instead of divorcing it from them.
Two reasons why the subject of reproduction has such undue prominence in
the minds of many people are, first, the manner in which it has been
made conspicuous through concealment; and second, the fact that when
spoken of at all, it has been treated as a unique phenomenon unrelated
to anything else. These are not the only reasons, but they are strong
ones, and their existence is quite unnecessary.
Education, therefore, should remove both of these stumbling-blocks. The
first one is easily removed, though the value of its removal depends
entirely upon the manner in which that removal is accomplished. The
second is also easily removed, the only difficulty being how to do it in
the most helpful manner. The problem, then, for the instructor to solve
is, how fully to acquaint the child with the phenomena of the
reproductive life without making the subject unduly prominent.
This can well be done by interesting him in all the phenomena of living
things, and allowing the reproductive function to take its place, not as
something alone and different from everything else, but as one in a
series of vital phenomena, all equally important and all interesting;
not as something peculiar to human life or to the higher animals, but
belonging equally to every living thing, whether animal or plant, and
manifesting itself in the same way everywhere. Nor is this as difficult
as at first glance it may seem. Indeed it is not difficult at all if one
can begin with the young child, building little by little the foundation
upon which later to erect a noble superstructure.
It is a beautiful fact that the plant world offers illustrations of all
the underlying phenomena of the reproductive life, and that through the
flowers the little one can get his first introduction to the great
subject. Not that he will at first understand the connection between the
flower life and the human life, but the facts in the flower having been
clearly perceived, there is nothing easier or more beautiful than to
expand the idea when the time comes, until it embraces all life.
But what about those children who are no longer in their infancy? How
are they to be taught?
In practically the same way, with some modification of method.
Since the aim here is to present the subject from the beginning, the
first succeeding chapters will deal with it as applied to the young
child. Following this, methods for use with older children will be
discussed.
* * * * *
Objects to be accomplished with the younger children in the study of the
plant.
(1) To make them feel that the plants are living things with activities
like other living things.
(2) To convey a clear idea of the true relation of seed to plant. This
can be amplified later to cover the reproductive phenomena of human
life.
(3) To give them a foundation for understanding the relation of father
to child, when the time comes to explain that.
* * * * *
Some children naturally think of the plant as alive; they endow it with
thought, feeling, and emotion; talk to it, consult it, caress it. Others
do not. In both cases it is of value to the child to know the deeper
truths concerning the life of the plant. In the one case it will steady
sentimentality and guard against later loss of interest, in the other it
will stimulate imagination and foster a high type of sentiment.
An easy and effective way to begin the study of the plant is to watch it
as it sprouts from the seed. Since a large seed, easy to see and simple
in structure, is best, an ordinary bean answers the purpose admirably,
particularly as the bean has the convenient habit of rising up above
the ground when it sprouts, the development of the embryo proceeding in
full view. Any of the common varieties will answer the purpose, though
of course the larger the bean the more easily it can be observed.
A child of three or four will be interested in watching a seed grow. The
first season he may get only one idea, the seed grows into a plant. The
next season the experiment may be repeated with as much of the story of
the plant added as the little one can understand. Thus Spring after
Spring the child plants his seeds and watches them grow, constantly
adding to his store of knowledge about them, until the story of the
plant and its seed is as familiar to him as any fairy-tale, and has gone
into his consciousness to stay there forever. Let us examine the bean,
then, and see what can be learned from it, the information thus obtained
to be shared with the child as fast as his age and his power of
understanding permit.
[Illustration: THE BEAN, SPROUTING, TO SHOW THE TWO SEED-LEAVES AND THE
EMBRYO]