previous analysis of their meaning serves no good purpose whatever.
Proverbs are the condensed expression of the moral experience of
generations. The teacher should search out the experiences to which the
proverbs refer. Proverbs may be compared to those delicate Eastern
fabrics which can be folded up into the smallest compass, but which,
when unfolded, are seen to cover a large space. The teacher should
explore the territory covered by the proverb. Take, for example, such a
saying as this, "Blessed be he who has the good eye." What is the good
eye? The eye that sees the good in others. Is it easy to see the good in
others? Yes, if we are fond of them; but if we are not, we are likely to
see only the evil. But suppose there is no good to be seen, at least
not on the surface; why, then the good eye is that which sees the good
beneath the surface, which, like the divining-rod, shows where in human
character gold lies buried, and helps us to penetrate to it. But even
this does not exhaust the meaning of the proverb. The good eye is that
which, as it were, sees the good into others, sends its good influence
into them, makes them good by believing them to be so. The good eye is a
creative eye. Or take the proverb, "A falsehood is like pebbles in the
mouth." Why not say a falsehood is like a pebble? No, one falsehood is
like many pebbles. For every falsehood tends to multiply itself, and
each separate falsehood is like a pebble--not like bread, which we can
assimilate, but like a stone, a foreign body, alien to our nature.
Moreover, the proverb says, A falsehood is like pebbles in the mouth;
which means that these stony falsehoods will choke us, choke the better
life in us, unless we cast them out. Again, take such sayings as these
from the Dhammapada: "As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house,
passion will break through an unreflecting mind." Explain what kind of
reflection is needed to keep off passion. "He who is well subdued may
subdue others." Show what kind of self-control is meant, and in what
sense others are to be subdued. "He who holds back anger like a rolling
chariot, him I call a real driver; other people are but holding the
reins." "Let a man overcome anger by love; let him overcome evil by
good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth."
Describe the sort of brake by means of which the rolling chariot of
anger may be checked in mid-course, and the efficacy of goodness in
overcoming evil. From the Encheiridion it occurs to me to mention the
saying, "Everything has two handles: the one by which it can be borne,
the other by which it can not be borne." Epictetus himself gives an
illustration: "If your brother acts unjustly toward you, do not lay hold
of the act by that handle wherein he acts unjustly, for that is the
handle by which it can not be borne; but lay hold of the other, that he
is your brother, and you will lay hold of the thing by that handle by
which it can be borne." There are also many other illustrations of this
noble maxim. Disappointment has two handles, the one by which it can be
borne, the other by which it can not. Affliction has two handles.
Illustrate profusely; search out the meaning in detail.
There is a mine of practical wisdom in these sayings. There exist
proverbs relating to all the various duties which have been discussed in
our course; proverbs relating to the pursuit of knowledge; many and
beautiful proverbs on the filial and fraternal duties, on courage, on
humility, on the importance of keeping promises, on kindness to animals,
on the moral end of civil society. Proverbs should be classified under
their proper heads and used as occasion offers. Permit me, however, to
add one word of caution. It is a mistake to teach too many proverbs at a
time, to overload the pupil's mind with them. The proverbs selected
should be brief, pithy, and profoundly significant. But there should not
be too many at a time. It is better to return to the same proverb often,
and to penetrate deeper into its meaning every time. The value of the
proverbs is that they serve as pegs in the memory, to which long chains
of moral reflection can be attached. They are guide-posts pointing with
their short arms to the road of duty; they are voices of mankind
uttering impressive warnings, and giving clear direction in moments when
the promptings of self-interest or the mists of passion would be likely
to lead us astray.
It may also be well to select a number of speeches which embody high
moral sentiments, like some of the speeches of Isaiah, the speech of
Socrates before his judges, and others, and, after having explained
their meaning, to cause them to be recited by the pupils. Just as the
delivery of patriotic speeches is found useful for inculcating patriotic
sentiments, so such speeches as these will tend to quicken the moral
sentiments. He who repeats the speech of another for the time being puts
on the character of the other. The sentiments which are uttered by the
lips live for the moment in the heart, and leave their mark there.
XVII.
THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF MORAL TEACHING.
This subject is of the greatest importance. It really requires extended
and careful treatment, but a few hints must suffice. The teacher should
remember that he is educating not boys and girls in general, but
particular boys and girls, each of whom has particular faults needing to
be corrected and actual or potential virtues to be developed and
encouraged. Therefore a conscientious study of the character of the
pupils is necessary. This constitutes an additional reason why moral
instruction should be given in a daily school rather than in a Sunday
school, the opportunities for the study of character being vastly better
in the former than they can possibly be in the latter. The teacher who
gives the moral lessons, in undertaking this study, should solicit the
co-operation of all the other teachers of the school. He should request
from time to time from each of his fellow-teachers reports stating the
good and bad traits observed in each pupil, or rather the facts on which
the various teachers base their estimates of the good and bad qualities
of the scholars; for the opinions of teachers are sometimes unreliable,
are sometimes discolored by prejudice, while facts tell their own
story. These facts should be collated by the moral teacher, and, with
them as a basis, he may endeavor to work out a kind of chart of the
character of each of his pupils. It goes without saying, that he should
also seek the co-operation of the parents, for the purpose of
discovering what characteristic traits the pupil displays at home; and
if the reputation which a pupil bears among his companions, can be
ascertained without undue prying, this, too, will be found of use in
forming an estimate of his disposition. The teacher who knows the
special temptations of his pupils will have many opportunities, in the
course of the moral lessons, to give them pertinent warnings and advice,
without seeming to address them in particular or exposing their faults
to the class. He will also be able to exercise a helpful surveillance
over their conduct in school, and to become in private their friend and
counselor. Moreover, the material thus collected will in time prove
serviceable in helping us to a more exact knowledge of the different
varieties of human character--a knowledge which would give to the art of
ethical training something like a scientific basis.[22]
FOOTNOTE:
[22] See some remarks on types of character in my lecture on the
Punishment of Children.
RECAPITULATION.
Let us now briefly review the ground we have gone over in the present
course. In the five introductory lectures we discussed the problem of
unsectarian moral teaching, the efficient motives of good conduct, the
opportunities of moral influence in schools, the classification of
duties, and the moral status of the child on entering school.
In mapping out the primary course we assumed as a starting-point the
idea that the child rapidly passes through the same stages of evolution
through which the human race has passed, and hence we endeavored to
select our material for successive epochs in the child's life from the
literature of the corresponding epochs in the life of the race.
In regard to the method of instruction, we observed that in the fairy
tales the moral element should be touched on incidentally; that in
teaching the fables isolated moral qualities should be presented in such
a way that the pupil may always thereafter be able to recognize them;
while the stories display a number of moral qualities in combination and
have the value of moral pictures.
In the primary course the object has been to train the moral
perceptions; in the grammar course, to work out moral concepts and to
formulate rules of conduct. The method of getting at these rules may
again be described as follows: Begin with some concrete case, suggest a
rule which apparently fits that case or really fits it, adduce other
cases which the rule does not fit, change the rule, modify it as often
as necessary, until it has been brought into such shape that it will fit
every case you can think of.
In planning the lessons on duty which make up the subject matter of the
grammar course, we took the ground that each period of life has its
specific duties, that in each period there is one paramount duty around
which the others may be grouped, and that each new system of duties
should embrace and absorb the preceding one.
It remains for me to add that the illustrations which I have used in the
grammar course are intended merely to serve as specimens, and by no
means to exclude the use of different illustrative matter which the
teacher may find more suitable. Furthermore, I desire to express the
hope that it may be possible, without too much difficulty, to eliminate
whatever subjective conceptions may be found to have crept into these
lessons, and that, due deduction having been made, there may remain a
substratum of objective truth which all can accept. It should be
remembered that these lectures are not intended to take the place of a
text-book, but to serve as a guide to the teacher in preparing his
lessons.
I hope hereafter to continue the work which has thus been begun. In the
advanced course, which is to follow the present one, we shall have to
reconsider from a higher point of view many of the subjects already
treated, and in addition to take up such topics as the ethics of the
professions, the ethics of friendship, conjugal ethics, etc., which have
here been omitted.
I shall also attempt to indicate the lines for a systematic study of
biographies, and to lay out a course of selected readings from the best
ethical literature of ancient and modern times.
APPENDIX.
THE INFLUENCE OF MANUAL TRAINING ON CHARACTER.[23]
Manual training has recently been suggested as one of the means of
combating the criminal tendency in the young, and this suggestion is
being received with increasing favor. But until now the theory of manual
training has hardly begun to be worked out. The confidence which is
expressed in it is based, for the most part, on unclassified experience.
But experience without theory is altogether insufficient. Theory, it is
true, without experience is without feet to stand. But experience
without the guiding and directing help of theory is without eyes to see.
I shall now offer, in a somewhat tentative way, a few remarks intended
to be a contribution to the philosophy of manual training as applied to
the reformation of delinquent children. I shall confine myself, however,
to one type of criminality in children--a not uncommon type--that of
moral deterioration arising from weakness of the will.
In the first place, let us distinguish between feeling, desiring, and
willing. A person who is without food feels hunger. A person who, being
hungry, calls up in his mind images of food, will experience a desire. A
person who adopts means to obtain food performs an act of the will. A
Russian prisoner in Siberia who suffers from the restraints of
confinement is in a state of feeling. The same person, when he recalls
images of home and friends, is in a state of desire; but when he sets
about adopting the means to effect his escape, concerts signals with his
fellow-prisoners, undermines the walls of his dungeon, etc., he is
performing acts of the will. Permit me to call particular attention to
the fact that the will is characterized at its birth by the intellectual
factor which enters into it; for the calculation of means to ends is an
intellectual process, and every conscious act of volition involves such
a process. If the will is thus characterized at its birth, we can at
once anticipate the conclusion that any will will be strong in
proportion as the intellectual factor in it predominates. It was said by
one of the speakers that "an ounce of affection is better than a ton of
intellect." Give me a proper mixture of the two. Give me at least an
ounce of intellect together with an ounce of affection. There is great
danger lest we exaggerate the importance of the emotions for morality.
The opinion is widely entertained that good feeling, kind feeling,
loving feeling, is the whole of morality, or, at least, the essential
factor in it. But this opinion is surely erroneous. The will may be
compared to the power which propels a ship through the waves. Feeling is
the rudder. The intellect is the helmsman.
Let me give illustrations to bring into view the characteristics of a
strong and of a weak will. Great inventors, great statesmen, great
reformers, illustrate strength of will. We note in them especially
tenacity of purpose and a marvelous faculty for adjusting and
readjusting means to ends. Persons who are swayed by the sensual
appetites illustrate weakness of will. We note in them vacillation of
purpose, and the power of adjusting means to ends only in its
rudimentary form. The ideas of virtue are complex. No one can illustrate
virtue on a high plane unless he is capable of holding in mind long
trains and complex groups of ideas. The lowest vices, on the other hand,
are distinguished by the circumstance that the ends to which they look
are simple, and the means employed often of the crudest kind. Thus,
suppose that a person of weak will is hungry. He knows that gold will
buy food. He adopts the readiest way to get gold. Incapable of that long
and complex method of attaining his end, which is exhibited, for
instance, by the farmer who breaks the soil, plants the corn, watches
his crops, and systematizes his labors from the year's beginning to its
end, he takes the shortest road toward the possession of gold--he
stretches forth his hand and takes it where he finds it. The man of weak
will, who has a grudge against his rival, is not capable of putting
forth a sustained and complex series of efforts toward obtaining
satisfaction, for instance, by laboring arduously to outstrip his rival.
He is, furthermore, incapable of those larger considerations, those
complex groups of ideas relating to society and its permanent interests,
which check the angry passions in the educated. He gives free and
immediate rein to the passion as it rises. He takes the readiest means
of getting satisfaction: he draws the knife and kills. The man of weak
will, who burns with sensual desire, assaults the object of his desire.
The virtues depend in no small degree on the power of serial and complex
thinking. Those vices which are due to weakness of will are
characterized by the crudeness of the aim and the crudeness of the
means.
To strengthen the will, therefore, it is necessary to give to the person
of weak will the power to think connectedly, and especially to reach an
end by long and complex trains of means.
Let us pause here for a moment to elucidate this point by briefly
considering a type of criminality which is familiar to all guardians of
delinquent children. This type is marked by a group of salient traits,
which may be roughly described as follows: Mental incoherency is the
first. The thoughts of the child are, as it were, slippery, tending to
glide past one another without mutual attachments. A second trait is
indolence. A third, deficiency in the sense of shame; to which may be
added that the severest punishments fail to act as deterrents.
Mental incoherency is the leading trait, and supplies the key for the
understanding of the others. Lack of connectedness between ideas is the
radical defect. Each idea, as it rises, becomes an impulse, and takes
effect to the full limit of its suggestions. A kind thought rises in the
mind of such a child, and issues in a demonstrative impulse of
affection. Shortly after, a cruel thought may rise in the mind of the
same child; and the cruel thought will, in like manner, take effect in a
cruel act. Children answering to this type are alternately kind,
affectionate, and cruel. The child's indolence is due to the same
cause--lack of connectedness between ideas. It is incapable of sustained
effort, because every task implies the ability to pass from one idea to
related ideas. The child is deficient in shame, because the sense of
shame depends on a vivid realization of the idea of self. The idea of
self, however, is a complex idea, which is not distinctly and clearly
present to such a child. Lastly, the most severe punishments fail to act
as deterrents for the same reason. The two impressions left in the mind,
"I did a wrong," "I suffered a pain," lie apart. The memory of one does
not excite the recollection of the other. The thought of the wrong does
not lift permanently into consciousness the thought of the pain which
followed. The punishment, as we say, is quickly forgotten. If,
therefore, we wish to remedy a deep-seated defect of this kind, if we
wish to cure a weak will, in such and all similar cases we must seek to
establish a closer connection between the child's ideas.
The question may now be asked, Why should we not utilize to this end the
ordinary studies of the school curriculum--history, geography,
arithmetic, etc.? All of these branches exercise and develop the faculty
of serial and complex thinking. Any sum in multiplication gives a
training of this kind. Let the task be to multiply a multiplicand of
four figures by a multiplier of three. First the child must multiply
every figure in the multiplicand by the units of the multiplier and
write down the result; then by the tens, and then by the hundreds, and
combine these results. Here is a lesson in combination, in serial, and,
for a young child, somewhat complex thinking. Let the task be to bound
the State of New York. The child must see the mental picture of the
State in its relation to other States and parts of States, to lakes and
rivers and mountains--a complex group of ideas. Or, let it be required
to give a brief account of the American Revolution. Here is a whole
series of events, each depending on the preceding ones. Why, then, may
we not content ourselves with utilizing the ordinary studies of the
school curriculum? There are two reasons.
First, because history, geography, and arithmetic are not, as a rule,
interesting to young children, especially not to young children of the
class with which we are now dealing. These listless minds are not easily
roused to an interest in abstractions. Secondly, it is a notorious fact
that intellectual culture, pure and simple, is quite consistent with
weakness of the will. A person may have very high intellectual
attainments, and yet be morally deficient. I need hardly warn my
reflective hearers that, when emphasizing the importance for the will of
intellectual culture, I had in mind the intellectual process as applied
to acts. To cultivate the intellect in its own sphere of contemplation
and abstraction, apart from action, may leave the will precisely as
feeble as it was before.
And now, all that has been said thus far converges upon the point that
has been in view from the beginning--the importance of manual training
as an element in disciplining the will. Manual training fulfills the
conditions I have just alluded to. It is interesting to the young, as
history, geography, and arithmetic often are not. Precisely those pupils
who take the least interest or show the least aptitude for literary
study are often the most proficient in the workshop and the
modeling-room. Nature has not left these neglected children without
beautiful compensations. If they are deficient in intellectual power,
they are all the more capable of being developed on their active side.
Thus, manual training fulfills the one essential condition--it is
interesting. It also fulfills the second. By manual training we
cultivate the intellect in close connection with action. Manual training
consists of a series of actions which are controlled by the mind, and
which react on it. Let the task assigned be, for instance, the making of
a wooden box. The first point to be gained is to attract the attention
of the pupil to the task. A wooden box is interesting to a child, hence
this first point will be gained. Lethargy is overcome, attention is
aroused. Next, it is important to keep the attention fixed on the task:
thus only can tenacity of purpose be cultivated. Manual training enables
us to keep the attention of the child fixed upon the object of study,
because the latter is concrete. Furthermore, the variety of occupations
which enter into the making of the box constantly refreshes this
interest after it has once been started. The wood must be sawed to line.
The boards must be carefully planed and smoothed. The joints must be
accurately worked out and fitted. The lid must be attached with hinges.
The box must be painted or varnished. Here is a sequence of means
leading to an end, a series of operations all pointing to a final object
to be gained, to be created. Again, each of these means becomes in turn
and for the time being a secondary end; and the pupil thus learns, in an
elementary way, the lesson of subordinating minor ends to a major end.
And, when finally the task is done, when the box stands before the boy's
eyes a complete whole, a serviceable thing, sightly to the eyes, well
adapted to its uses, with what a glow of triumph does he contemplate his
work! The pleasure of achievement now comes in to crown his labor; and
this sense of achievement, in connection with the work done, leaves in
his mind a pleasant after-taste, which will stimulate him to similar
work in the future. The child that has once acquired, in connection with
the making of a box, the habits just described, has begun to master the
secret of a strong will, and will be able to apply the same habits in
other directions and on other occasions.
Or let the task be an artistic one. And let me here say that manual
training is incomplete unless it covers art training. Many otherwise
excellent and interesting experiments in manual training fail to give
satisfaction because they do not include this element. The useful must
flower into the beautiful, to be in the highest sense useful. Nor is it
necessary to remind those who have given attention to the subject of
education how important is the influence of the beautiful is in
refining the sentiments and elevating the nature of the young. Let the
task, then, be to model a leaf, a vase, a hand, a head. Here again we
behold the same advantages as in the making of the box. The object is
concrete, and therefore suitable for minds incapable of grasping
abstractions. The object can be constantly kept before the pupil's eyes.
There is gradual approximation toward completeness, and at last that
glow of triumph! What child is not happy if he has produced something
tangible, something that is the outgrowth of his own activity,
especially if it be something which is charming to every beholder?
And now let me briefly summarize certain conclusions to which reflection
has led me in regard to the subject of manual training in reformatory
institutions. Manual training should be introduced into every
reformatory. In New York city we have tested a system of work-shop
lessons for children between six and fourteen. There is, I am persuaded,
no reason why manual training should not be applied to the youngest
children in reformatories. Manual training should always include art
training. The labor of the children of reformatories should never be let
to contractors. I heartily agree with what was said on that subject this
morning. The pupils of reformatories should never make heads of pins or
the ninetieth fraction of a shoe. Let there be no machine work. Let the
pupils turn out complete articles, for only thus can the full
intellectual and moral benefits of manual training be reaped.
Agriculture, wherever the opportunities are favorable, offers, on the
whole, the same advantages as manual training, and should be employed
if possible, in connection with it.