MORAL EDUCATION.
A few words in reference to deficiency of education in another direction,
and bearing especially on the future of the mental health of children,
will conclude what I have to say on this branch of my subject. Perhaps I
cannot introduce these remarks in a better way than by relating two
occurrences recently observed by me.
When sailing with a party of young people, during the last summer, on Long
Island Sound, and while there was blowing a stiff breeze, three of the
younger members of the party went forward very soon after we started, and
stood together on the front part of the boat, in an exposed position. The
captain quickly called to them to return to the rear part of the boat,
saying there was danger of their becoming wet, or washed from the prow of
the boat by the waves, which were rapidly becoming larger. No attention
was paid to his call, and he again and with great earnestness warned them
to return. Greatly to my surprise, not the slightest attention was paid to
his second order, but the young persons continued laughing and talking as
if no orders had been given. As the boat was rapidly passing out of the
harbor and into a locality more exposed to the wind, and the waves were
becoming more dangerous every minute, the captain again shouted to them to
return, and had but just done so, when a wave partially covered all of
them, and one was barely saved from being washed over-board.
A few days after the above occurrence I was standing not far from a
stage-coach which was near the door of a hotel. Very soon a little girl,
nine or ten years of age, came near to one of the horses, and began
endeavoring to put some flowers into the bridle. The animal soon became
restive and looked vicious, while the driver at once warned the child to
desist and to keep at a distance. Apparently not the slightest attention
was given by the child to this warning, and she was still persisting in
her effort, when the driver again, and this time in an angry tone, shouted
to her to keep away, adding some statement to the effect that the animal
was vicious and would hurt her. No more attention was paid to this than to
the driver's former order by the child, and before any one could remove
her, the horse had struck her head with his teeth, leaving a wound, the
scar of which will remain for life.
As will be observed, in both the above cases the children were in
positions of great danger; they were, in both cases, warned by those who
fully understood and explained to them the danger, and who had charge (the
one of the boat and the other of the horses). In both cases the children
were old enough to fully understand what was said to them, the danger
described, and the duty to obey orders so urgently and repeatedly given;
and yet their conduct seemed to differ in no respect from what it would
have been had no orders been given. Indeed, after the _denoument_, they
did not appear, in any measure, to realize that they had been to blame for
neglecting to obey the directions given.
These cases have not been related as unique, or in any measure remarkable
or uncommon in character, but as illustrations of such as may, almost any
day, be seen by the visitor at a summer resort, or by physicians in the
experience of their daily duties. The children were not half so much to
blame as were their parents, who utterly failed in their appreciation of
the importance and duty of parental government; who imagined that in order
to be a good and kind parent, and to avoid the trouble arising from
refusal, one should constantly yield to every wish and whim of the child;
and that to refuse a request indicates a lack of kindness and sympathy on
the part of the parent, and thus ere long, and indeed very early in life,
the child becomes the master of the situation, and feels little or no
obligation to yield obedience to authority.
The child who has not learned to obey the parental command is out of the
way of learning obedience to any other. Growing up under such an order of
home influences, and indulged in nearly all his wishes, he soon comes to
believe that he need be under no restraint from authority or duty outside
that of his home, and will be in danger of experiencing the penalty of
violating both the laws of society and of his own health.
If such cases were rare or exceptional, or if the results were of a
temporary nature, they might be considered as of less importance; but this
is far from the case. Every physician will readily recall many cases of
sick children who have died, not from the irremediable nature of the
disease, but because the mother will persist in allowing the child to
refuse the use of the necessary measures of relief. Darling Johnnie or
Minnie will not submit to disagreeable measures, and fights and screams if
any attempt is made to use them. This is extremely unpleasant, and the
mother cannot endure to have her pet crossed or thwarted, or obliged to do
what it does not wish to, _especially while it is ill_; and never having
required obedience when the child is in health, she is entirely unable to
do so, even when the greatest necessity may arise.
Such cases are pitiable in the extreme, as well as highly censurable. If
the mischief ended in the less grave instances, as between the child and
its parents during childhood, it would be of less importance; but this is
far from being true. The effects of such training, or rather lack of
training, continue through life with a tendency to much suffering to both
children and parents.
One of the first requisites in any course of education for the young is to
learn to obey. From the cradle to the grave, man is in constant danger
from the effects of violated laws. He is surrounded by laws as with a wall
of fire, and their infringement in any measure or degree requires that the
penalty be paid to the full. Home and school education should aid the
child in learning obedience to these laws while in childhood, that in
later life it may constitute a part of his character. No person can become
a good citizen, or useful in any considerable measure to either the State
or the community in which he may live, without such an education, and is
largely liable to become a nuisance, a criminal, or an invalid.
If, however, it is important that the child be educated to obedience so
far as his relations to others extend, it is doubly so for his own
physical and mental health. I have sometimes thought that the freedom of
our institutions and State and national governments greatly favored the
general tendency toward lax rules as to conduct, both at home and in
school, so that there exists less of self-control, both in home and social
life, than under most other forms of government. But, however this may be,
I regard it of the highest importance that the child should learn
self-control and some self-denial, both for individual and the public
good, and when this element of education is lost sight of, and the child
is permitted to grow up having his own way in most things, and his every
wish gratified, he has a large disadvantage when brought into contact with
the friction of adult life.
I have seen not a few young men and women hopelessly stranded in life,
whose early education had been one of extreme indulgence. They had never
been controlled in home-life, and when projected against the rough
experiences of actual life, were brought up with a round turn, or with no
turn at all. The shocks were too much for them; they could not bend, nor
yield, and were, therefore, broken. The lesson of obedience, which is
often one of the most difficult to learn, must be learned, like most other
lessons, when young, if it is to be effectually learned.
Again, the acquisition of self-control and obedience to law is essential
to mental discipline and training. The operations of the brain are more or
less under the control of the will, and the more thoroughly the habit of
obedience and self-control is gained, the more fully are all mental
operations under individual or will-control. The will is the highest and
grandest manifestation of the _Ego_ possible. This it is which lifts man
so immeasurably high above all other creatures, and so largely helps him
to control his own destiny on earth. By the judicious use of this, he
guides his mental operations into channels which lead to happiness and
health, or to those tending in the opposite direction; he brings into
subjection and control the vast army of his lower passions and desires,
making them minister to his own and the higher welfare of society, or he
leaves them to run riot, and ultimately to become his master.
If, therefore, he would have a brain capable of healthy mental action, he
must learn to have its operations early under the control of his
will-power. He must learn to guide it toward its higher and better
impulses, and to strengthen it with the best nourishment. He must learn
how to use not only his brain but his whole nervous system, and by this
means acquire skill in the accomplishment of various kinds of labor. In no
other way can he become self-supporting and independent, in the midst of
the conflicting and competing tendencies of modern life. Without such
self-control and independence he is constantly in danger of drifting down
and backward in the grand race in which the society of the present is
competing.
I must repeat that obedience to law, whether it be parental, social, or
civil, is one of the corner-stones, in fact, the fundamental element, in
any efficient and worthy system of education. While I would not go back to
the strict system of a hundred years ago, wherein all individuality was
lost, and nearly every thing was made to yield to the law element in
society, yet I fear that, in the recoil from that system, we have been,
and still are, in great danger of going too far in the opposite direction.
Freedom of individual thought and action, especially for the young, is in
danger of degenerating into mere license, so that, in too many quarters,
respect for parental, school, and civil authority is considered an
indication of weakness and indecision.
If something beyond mere knowledge of right and wrong always has been
necessary, and is likely to be necessary for some ages to come, among
adult persons, to deter many of them from violating the laws of society
and of their own health; if persons need the fear of penalty in the way of
illness, helplessness, and suffering to aid them in conforming to
obedience, how much more necessary it is in relation to the young, whose
experiences have been so limited, and whose reason is so immature. Hence
it is, that the parent and the educator must not only _instruct, but
enforce obedience_.