,,education ,,and ,,the ,,good ,,life ,,education ,,and ,,the ,,good ,,life ,,bertrand ,,russell ,illustration ,,boni ,,liveright ,,new ,,york ,,mcmxxvi ,,copyright #aibf 33 ,,by ,,boni ,,liveright1 ,,inc4 ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,illustration ,first printing1 ,may1 #aibf ,second printing1 ,may1 #aibf ,third printing1 ,june1 #aibf ,fourth printing1 ,july1 #aibf ,,contents ,,page ,,introduction #g ,,part ,i ,,education ,,and ,,the ,,good ,,life ,,chapter ,i4 ,,postulates ,,of ,,modern ,,educational ,,theory #ae ,,ii4 ,,the ,,aims ,,of ,,education #dg ,,part ,,ii ,,education ,,of ,,character ,,iii4 ,,the ,,first ,,year #hg ,,iv4 ,,fear #aja ,v4 ,,play ,,and ,,fancy #abc ,,vi4 ,,constructiveness #acf ,,vii4 ,,selfishness ,,and ,,property #adg ,,viii4 ,,truthfulness #aeg ,,ix4 ,,punishment #aff ,x4 ,,importance ,,of ,,other ,,children #agh ,,xi4 ,,affection ,,and ,,sympathy #ahg ,,xii4 ,,sex ,,education #bji ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,nursery-,,school #bbd ,,part ,,iii ,,intellectual ,,education ,,xiv4 ,,general ,,principles #bci ,,xv4 ,,the ,,school ,,curriculum ,,before ,,fourteen #bfa ,,xvi4 ,,last ,,school ,,years #bgh ,,xvii4 ,,day ,,schools ,,and ,,boarding ,,schools #bib ,,xviii4 ,,the ,,university #cja ,,xix4 ,,conclusion #cad ,,introduction ,there must be in the world many parents who1 like the present author1 have young children whom they are anxious to educate as well as possible1 but reluctant to expose to the evils of most existing educational institutions4 ,the difficulties of such parents are not soluble by any effort on the part of isolated individuals4 ,it is of course possible to bring up children at home by means of governesses and tutors1 but this plan deprives them of the companionship which their nature craves1 and without which some essential elements of education must be lacking4 ,moreover it is extremely bad for a boy or girl to be made to feel 8odd0 and different from other boys and girls3 this feeling1 when traced to parents as its cause1 is almost certain to rouse resentment against them1 leading to a love of all that they most dislike4 ,the conscientious parent may be driven by these considerations to send his boys and girls to schools in which he sees grave defects1 merely because no existing schools seem to him satisfactory--or1 if any are satisfactory1 they are not in his neighbourhood4 ,thus the cause of educational reform is forced upon conscientious parents1 not only for the good of the community1 but also for the good of their own children4 ,if the parents are well-to-do1 it is not necessary to the solution of their private problem that all schools should be good1 but only that there should be some good school geographically available4 ,but for wage-earning parents nothing suffices except reform in the elementary schools4 ,as one parent will object to the reforms which another parent desires1 nothing will serve except an energetic educational propaganda1 which is not likely to prove effective until long after the reformer's children are grown up4 ,thus from love for our own children we are driven1 step by step1 into the wider sphere of politics and philosophy4 ,from this wider sphere ,i desire1 in the following pages1 to remain aloof as far as possible4 ,the greater part of what ,i have to say will not be dependent upon the views that ,i may happen to hold as regards the major controversies of our age4 ,but complete independence in this regard is impossible4 ,the education we desire for our children must depend upon our ideals of human character1 and our hopes as to the part they are to play in the community4 ,a pacifist will not desire for his children the education which seems good to a militarist2 the educational outlook of a communist will not be the same as that of an individualist4 ,to come to a more fundamental cleavage3 there can be no agreement between those who regard education as a means of instilling certain definite beliefs and those who think that it should produce the power of independent judgment4 ,where such issues are relevant1 it would be idle to shirk them4 ,at the same time1 there is a considerable body of new knowledge in psychology and pedagogy which is independent of these ultimate questions1 and has an intimate bearing on education4 ,already it has produced very important results1 but a great deal remains to be done before its teachings have been fully assimilated4 ,this is especially true of the first five years of life2 these have been found to have an importance far greater than that formerly attributed to them1 which involves a corresponding increase in the educational importance of parents4 ,my aim and purpose1 wherever possible1 will be to avoid controversial issues4 ,polemical writing is necessary in some spheres2 but in addressing parents one may assume a sincere desire for the welfare of their offspring1 and this alone1 in conjunction with modern knowledge1 suffices to decide a very large number of educational problems4 ,what ,i have to say is the outcome of perplexities in regard to my own children2 it is therefore not remote or theoretical1 and may1 ,i hope1 help to clarify the thoughts of other parents faced with a like perplexity1 whether in the way of agreement with my conclusions or the opposite4 ,the opinions of parents are immensely important1 because1 for lack of expert knowledge1 parents are too often a drag upon the best educationists4 ,if parents desire a good education for their children1 there will1 ,i am convinced1 be no lack of teachers willing and able to give it4 ,i propose1 in what follows1 to consider first the aims of education3 the kind of individuals1 and the kind of community1 that we may reasonably hope to see produced by education applied to raw material of the present quality4 ,i ignore the question of the improvement of the breed1 whether by eugenics or by any other process1 natural or artificial1 since this is essentially outside the problems of education4 ,but ,i attach great weight to modern psychological discoveries which tend to show that character is determined by early education to a much greater extent than was thought by the most enthusiastic educationists of former generations4 ,i distinguish between education of character and education in knowledge1 which may be called instruction in the strict sense4 ,the distinction is useful1 though not ultimate3 some virtues are required in a pupil who is to become instructed1 and much knowledge is required for the successful practice of many important virtues4 ,for purposes of discussion1 however1 instruction can be kept apart from education of character4 ,i shall deal first with education of character1 because it is especially important in early years2 but ,i shall carry it through to adolescence1 and deal1 under this head1 with the important question of sex education4 ,finally1 ,i shall discuss intellectual education1 its aims1 its curriculum1 and its possibilities1 from the first lessons in reading and writing to the end of the university years4 ,the further education which men and women derive from life and the world ,i shall regard as lying outside my scope2 but to make men and women capable of learning from experience should be one of the aims which early education should keep most prominently in view4 ,,part ,i ,,education ,,and ,,the ,,good ,,life ,,education ,,and ,,the ,,good ,,life ,,chapter ,i ,,postulates ,,of ,,modern ,,educational ,,theory ,in reading even the best treatises on education written in former times1 one becomes aware of certain changes that have come over educational theory4 ,the two great reformers of educational theory before the nineteenth century were ,locke and ,rousseau4 ,both deserved their reputation1 for both repudiated many errors which were wide-spread when they wrote4 ,but neither went as far in his own direction as almost all modern educationists go4 ,both1 for example1 belong to the tendency which led to liberalism and democracy2 yet both consider only the education of an aristocratic boy1 to which one man's whole time is devoted4 ,however excellent might be the results of such a system1 no man with a modern outlook would give it serious consideration1 because it is arithmetically impossible for every child to absorb the whole time of an adult tutor4 ,the system is therefore one which can only be employed by a privileged caste2 in a just world1 its existence would be impossible4 ,the modern man1 though he may seek special advantages for his own children in practice1 does not consider the theoretical problem solved except by some method of education which could be open to all1 or at least to all whose capacities render them capable of profiting by it4 ,i do not mean that the well-to-do should1 here and now1 forego educational opportunities which1 in the existing world1 are not open to all4 ,to do that would be to sacrifice civilization to justice4 ,what ,i do mean is that the educational system we must aim at producing in the future is one which gives to every boy and girl an opportunity for the best that exists4 ,the ideal system of education must be democratic1 although that ideal is not immediately attainable4 ,this1 ,i think1 would1 nowadays1 be pretty generally conceded4 ,in this sense1 ,i shall keep democracy in view4 ,whatever ,i shall advocate will be capable of being universal1 though the individual should not meantime sacrifice his children to the badness of what is common1 if he has the intelligence and the opportunity to secure something better4 ,even this very attenuated form of democratic principle is absent from the treatises of ,locke and ,rousseau4 ,although the latter was a disbeliever in aristocracy1 he never perceived the implications of his disbelief where education was concerned4 ,this matter of democracy and education is one as to which clarity is important4 ,it would be disastrous to insist upon a dead level of uniformity4 ,some boys and girls are cleverer than others1 and can derive more benefit from higher education4 ,some teachers have been better trained or have more native aptitude than others1 but it is impossible that everybody should be taught by the few best teachers4 ,even if the highest education were desirable for all1 which ,i doubt1 it is impossible that all should have it at present1 and therefore a crude application of democratic principles might lead to the conclusion that none should have it4 ,such a view1 if adopted1 would be fatal to scientific progress1 and would make the general level of education a hundred years hence needlessly low4 ,progress should not be sacrificed to a mechanical equality at the present moment2 we must approach educational democracy carefully1 so as to destroy in the process as little as possible of the valuable products that happen to have been associated with social injustice4 ,but we cannot regard a method of education as satisfactory if it is one which could not possibly be universal4 ,the children of rich people often have1 in addition to their mother1 a nurse1 a nurserymaid1 and a share in the other domestic servants2 this involves an amount of attention which could never1 in any social system1 be given to all children4 ,it is very doubtful whether carefully tended children really gain by being made unnecessarily parasitic1 but in any case no impartial person can recommend special advantages for the few1 except for special reasons1 such as feeble-mindedness or genius4 ,the wise parent1 at the present day1 is likely to choose1 if he can1 some method of education for his children which is not in fact universal1 and for the sake of experiment it is desirable that parents should have the opportunity of trying new methods4 ,but they ought to be such as could be made universal1 if found to produce good results1 not such as must from their very nature be confined to a privileged few4 ,fortunately1 some of the best elements in modern educational theory and practice have had an extremely democratic origin2 for example1 ,madame ,montessori's work began with nursery-schools in slums4 ,in higher education1 exceptional opportunity for exceptional ability is indispensable1 but otherwise there is no reason why any child should suffer from the adoption of systems which might be adopted by all4 ,there is another modern tendency in education1 which is connected with democracy1 but perhaps somewhat more open to question--,i mean the tendency to make education useful rather than ornamental4 ,the connection of the ornamental with aristocracy has been set forth searchingly in ,veblen's 8,theory of the ,leisure ,class01 but it is only the educational aspect of this connection that concerns us4 ,in male education1 the matter is bound up with the controversy between a classical and a 8modern0 education2 in the education of girls1 it is part of the conflict between the ideal of the 8gentlewoman0 and the desire to train girls to be self-supporting4 ,but the whole educational problem1 where women are concerned1 has been distorted by the desire for sex equality3 there has been an attempt to acquire the same education as that given to boys1 even where it was by no means good in itself4 ,consequently women educators have aimed at giving to their girls such 8useless0 knowledge as is given to boys of the same class1 and have been bitter opponents of the notion that some part of female education should be a technical training for motherhood4 ,these cross-currents make the tendency that ,i am considering in some respects less definite where women are concerned1 though the decay of the ideal of the 8fine lady0 is one of the most noteworthy examples of the tendency4 ,in order to avoid confusing the issue1 ,i shall for the moment confine myself to male education4 ,many separate controversies1 in all of which other questions arise1 are in part dependent upon our present question4 ,should boys learn mainly classics or mainly science8 ,among other considerations1 one is that the classics are ornamental and science is useful4 ,should education as soon as possible become technical instruction for some trade or profession8 ,again the controversy between the useful and the ornamental is relevant1 though not decisive4 ,should children be taught to enunciate correctly and to have pleasant manners1 or are these mere relics of aristocracy8 ,is appreciation of art a thing of any value except in the artist8 ,should spelling be phonetic8 ,all these and many other controversies are argued in part in terms of the controversy between the useful and the ornamental4 ,nevertheless1 ,i believe the whole controversy to be unreal4 ,as soon as the terms are defined1 it melts away4 ,if we interpret 8useful0 broadly and 8ornamental0 narrowly1 the one side has it2 in the contrary interpretation1 the other side has it4 ,in the widest and most correct sense of the word1 an activity is 8useful0 when it has good results4 ,and these results must be 8good0 in some other sense than merely 8useful01 or else we have no true definition4 ,we cannot say that a useful activity is one which has useful results4 ,the essence of what is 8useful0 is that it ministers to some result which is not merely useful4 ,sometimes a long chain of results is necessary before the final result is reached which can be called simply 8good04 ,a plough is useful because it breaks up the ground4 ,but breaking up the ground is not good on its own account3 it is in turn merely useful because it enables seed to be sown4 ,this is useful because it produces grain1 which is useful because it produces bread1 which is useful because it preserves life4 ,but life must be capable of some intrinsic value3 if life were merely useful as a means to other life1 it would not be useful at all4 ,life may be good or bad according to circumstances2 it may therefore also be useful1 when it is a means to good life4 ,somewhere we must get beyond the chain of successive utilities1 and find a peg from which the chain is to hang2 if not1 there is no real usefulness in any link of the chain4 ,when 8useful0 is defined in this way1 there can be no question whether education should be useful4 ,of course it should1 since the process of educating is a means to an end1 not an end in itself4 ,but that is not quite what the advocates of utility in education have in mind4 ,what they are urging is that the result of education should be useful3 put crudely1 they would say that an educated man is a man who knows how to make machines4 ,if we ask what is the use of machines1 the answer is ultimately that they produce necessaries and comforts for the body--food1 clothing1 houses1 etc4 ,thus we find that the advocate of utility1 in the sense in which his view is questionable1 is a man who attaches intrinsic value only to physical satisfactions3 the 8useful01 for him1 is that which helps us to gratify the needs and desires of the body4 ,when this is what is really meant1 the advocate of utility is certainly in the wrong if he is enunciating an ultimate philosophy1 though in a world where many people are starving he may be right as a politician1 since the satisfaction of physical needs may be at the moment more urgent than anything else4 ,much the same sort of dissection is necessary in considering the other side of this controversy4 ,to call the other side 8ornamental0 is1 of course1 to concede a point to the advocate of utility1 since 8ornament0 is understood to be more or less trivial4 ,the epithet 8ornamental0 is quite justified as applied to the traditional conception of a 8gentleman0 or a 8lady04 ,the eighteenth-century gentleman spoke with a refined accent1 quoted the classics on appropriate occasions1 dressed in the fashion1 understood punctilio and knew when a duel would advance his reputation4 ,there is a man in 8,the ,rape of the ,lock0 who was of amber snuff-box justly vain1 ,and the nice conduct of a clouded cane4 ,his education had been ornamental in the narrowest sense1 and in our age few of us are rich enough to be content with his accomplishments4 ,the ideal of an 8ornamental0 education in the old sense is aristocratic3 it presupposes a class with plenty of money and no need to work4 ,fine gentlemen and fine ladies are charming to contemplate in history2 their memoirs and their country houses give us a certain kind of pleasure which we no longer provide for our posterity4 ,but their excellences1 even when real1 were by no means supreme1 and they were an incredibly expensive product3 ,hogarth's 8,gin ,lane0 gives a vivid idea of the price that was paid for them4 ,no one nowadays would advocate an ornamental education in this narrow sense4 ,but that is not the real issue4 ,the real issue is3 should we1 in education1 aim at filling the mind with knowledge which has direct practical utility1 or should we try to give our pupils mental possessions which are good on their own account8 ,it is useful to know that there are twelve inches in a foot1 and three feet in a yard1 but this knowledge has no intrinsic value2 to those who live where the metric system is in use1 it is utterly worthless4 ,to appreciate 8,hamlet01 on the other hand1 will not be much use in practical life1 except in those rare cases where a man is called upon to kill his uncle2 but it gives a man a mental possession which he would be sorry to be without1 and makes him in some sense a more excellent human being4 ,it is this latter sort of knowledge that is preferred by the man who argues that utility is not the sole aim of education4 ,there appear to be three different substantial issues wrapped up in the debate between advocates of a utilitarian education and their opponents4 ,there is first a form of the debate between aristocrats and democrats1 the former holding that the privileged class should be taught to employ its leisure in ways that are agreeable to itself1 while the subordinate class should be taught to employ its labour in ways that are useful to others4 ,the opposition of the democrats to this view tends to be somewhat confused3 they dislike the teaching of what is useless to the aristocrat1 and at the same time argue that the wage-earner's education should not be confined to what is useful4 ,thus we find a democratic opposition to the old-fashioned classical education in the public schools1 combined with a democratic demand that working men should have opportunities for learning ,latin and ,greek4 ,this attitude1 even though it may imply some lack of theoretical clarity1 is on the whole right in practice4 ,the democrat does not wish to divide the community into two sections1 one useful and one ornamental2 he will therefore give more merely useful knowledge to the hitherto merely ornamental classes1 and more merely delightful knowledge to the hitherto merely useful classes4 ,but democracy1 per se1 does not decide the proportions in which these ingredients should be mixed4 ,the second issue is between men who aim only at material goods and men who care for mental delights4 ,most modern well-to-do ,englishmen and ,americans1 if they were transported by magic into the age of ,elizabeth1 would wish themselves back in the modern world4 ,the society of ,shakespeare and ,raleigh and ,sir ,philip ,sydney1 the exquisite music1 the beauty of the architecture would not console them for the absence of bath-rooms1 tea and coffee1 motor-cars1 and other material comforts of which that age was ignorant4 ,such men1 except in so far as they are influenced by conservative tradition1 tend to think that the main purpose of education is to increase the number and variety of commodities produced4 ,they may include medicine and hygiene1 but they will not feel any enthusiasm for literature or art or philosophy4 ,undoubtedly such men have provided a great part of the driving force for the attack upon the classical curriculum established at the renaissance4 ,i do not think it would be fair to meet this attitude by the mere assertion that mental goods are of more value than such as are purely physical4 ,i believe this assertion to be true1 but not the whole truth4 ,for1 while physical goods have no very high value1 physical evils may be so bad as to outweigh a great deal of mental excellence4 ,starvation and disease1 and the ever-present fear of them1 have overshadowed the lives of the great majority of mankind since foresight first became possible4 ,most birds die of starvation1 but they are happy when food is abundant1 because they do not think about the future4 ,peasants who have survived a famine will be perpetually haunted by memory and apprehension4 ,men are willing to toil long hours for a pittance rather than die1 while animals prefer to snatch pleasure when it is available1 even if death is the penalty4 ,it has thus come about that most men have put up with a life almost wholly devoid of pleasure1 because on any other terms life would be brief4 ,for the first time in history1 it is now possible1 owing to the industrial revolution and its by-products1 to create a world where everybody shall have a reasonable chance of happiness4 ,physical evil can1 if we choose1 be reduced to very small proportions4 ,it would be possible1 by organization and science1 to feed and house the whole population of the world1 not luxuriously1 but sufficiently to prevent great suffering4 ,it would be possible to combat disease1 and to make chronic ill-health very rare4 ,it would be possible to prevent the increase of population from outrunning improvements in the food supply4 ,the great terrors which have darkened the subconscious mind of the race1 bringing cruelty1 oppression1 and war in their train1 could be so much diminished as to be no longer important4 ,all this is of such immeasurable value to human life that we dare not oppose the sort of education which will tend to bring it about4 ,in such an education1 applied science will have to be the chief ingredient4 ,without physics and physiology and psychology1 we cannot build the new world4 ,we can build it without ,latin and ,greek1 without ,dante and ,shakespeare1 without ,bach and ,mozart4 ,that is the great argument in favour of a utilitarian education4 ,i have stated it strongly1 because ,i feel it strongly4 ,nevertheless1 there is another side to the question4 ,what will be the good of the conquest of leisure and health1 if no one remembers how to use them8 ,the war against physical evil1 like every other war1 must not be conducted with such fury as to render men incapable of the arts of peace4 ,what the world possesses of ultimate good must not be allowed to perish in the struggle against evil4 ,this brings me to the third issue involved in our controversy4 ,is it true that only useless knowledge is intrinsically valuable8 ,is it true that any intrinsically valuable knowledge is useless8 ,for my part1 ,i spent in youth a considerable proportion of my time upon ,latin and ,greek1 which ,i now consider to have been almost completely wasted4 ,classical knowledge afforded me no help whatever in any of the problems with which ,i was concerned in later life4 ,like ninety-nine per cent of those who are taught the classics1 ,i never acquired sufficient proficiency to read them for pleasure4 ,i learned such things as the genitive of 8supellex01 which ,i have never been able to forget4 ,this knowledge has no more intrinsic value than the knowledge that there are three feet to a yard2 and its utility1 to me1 has been strictly confined to affording me the present illustration4 ,on the other hand1 what ,i learned of mathematics and science has been not only of immense utility1 but also of great intrinsic value1 as affording subjects of contemplation and reflection1 and touchstones of truth in a deceitful world4 ,this is1 of course1 in part a personal idiosyncrasy2 but ,i am sure that a capacity to profit by the classics is a still rarer idiosyncrasy among modern men4 ,france and ,germany also have valuable literatures2 their languages are easily learnt1 and are useful in many practical ways4 ,the case for ,french and ,german1 as against ,latin and ,greek1 is therefore overwhelming4 ,without belittling the importance of the sort of knowledge which has no immediate practical utility1 ,i think we may fairly demand that1 except in the education of specialists1 such knowledge shall be given in ways that do not demand an immense expenditure of time and energy on technical apparatus such as grammar4 ,the sum of human knowledge and the complexity of human problems are perpetually increasing2 therefore every generation must overhaul its educational methods if time is to be found for what is new4 ,we must preserve the balance by means of compromises4 ,the humanistic elements in education must remain1 but they must be sufficiently simplified to leave room for the other elements without which the new world rendered possible by science can never be created4 ,i do not wish to suggest that the humanistic elements in education are less important than the utilitarian elements4 ,to know something of great literature1 something of world history1 something of music and painting and architecture1 is essential if the life of imagination is to be fully developed4 ,and it is only through imagination that men become aware of what the world might be2 without it1 8progress0 would become mechanical and trivial4 ,but science1 also1 can stimulate the imagination4 ,when ,i was a boy1 astronomy and geology did more for me in this respect than the literatures of ,england1 ,france and ,germany1 many of whose masterpieces ,i read under compulsion without the faintest interest4 ,this is a personal matter3 one boy or girl will derive stimulus from one source1 another from another4 ,what ,i suggest is that1 where a difficult technique is indispensable to the mastering of a subject1 it is better1 except in training specialists1 that the subject should be useful4 ,in the time of the renaissance1 there was little great literature in modern languages2 now there is a great deal4 ,much of the value of the ,greek tradition can be conveyed to people who do not know ,greek2 and as for the ,latin tradition1 its value is not really very great4 ,i should1 therefore1 where boys and girls without special aptitudes are concerned1 supply the humanistic elements of education in ways not involving a great apparatus of learning2 the difficult part of education1 in the later years1 ,i should1 as a rule1 confine to mathematics and science4 ,but ,i should make exceptions wherever a strong bent or special ability pointed in other directions4 ,cast-iron rules are above all things to be avoided4 ,in a mechanistic civilization1 there is grave danger of a crude utilitarianism1 which sacrifices the whole sthetic side of life to what is called 8efficiency04 ,perhaps ,i am old-fashioned1 but ,i must confess that ,i view with alarm the theory that language is merely a means of communication1 and not also a vehicle of beauty4 ,this tendency is world-wide1 but naturally it has advanced in ,america4 ,in a more or less authoritative book published by the ,children's ,foundation1#a ,i find some remarks on the teaching of ,english which seem to exemplify the tendency ,i deplore4 ,for example3 8,twenty-five years ago pupils learnt from ten to fifteen thousand words1 but as a result of investigations carried on during the past two decades1 it has been found that the typical graduate of a high school does not need in his school work1 and will not need in later life1 to spell more than three thousand words at the outside1 unless he engages in some technical pursuit1 when it may be necessary for him to master a special and technical vocabulary4 ,the typical ,american in his correspondence rarely employs more than fifteen hundred different words2 many of us never use more than half this number4 ,in view of these facts1 the course of spelling in the schools to-day is being constructed on the principle that the words that will be actually used in daily life should be mastered so that they can be spelled automatically1 and the technical and unusual words that were formerly taught but that will probably never be used are being eliminated0 7p4 #chd74 ,this seems to me a most singular inversion4 ,it is still thought that a man should know how to spell a word he is going to use1 although ,shakespeare and ,milton could not spell1 and the importance of spelling is purely and solely conventional4 ,but for this trivial purpose there is a willingness to sacrifice the teaching of a large vocabulary1 without which it is impossible to write well1 or even to understand good writing4 ,the important thing is not to know how to spell words1 but how to use them2 evidently this was not taught in the days when boys learned to spell #ae1jjj words but men only used #a1ejj4 ,the way to learn to use words is to read some good literature often and carefully1 intensively1 not extensively4 ,but careful reading is positively discouraged4 ,the same book says of school-children3 8,they are trained to read as rapidly as possible so that they will not be halted in the gaining of meaning by giving attention to separate words1 since explicit awareness of separate words in one's reading delays and often confuses the process of interpreting the thought contained in the reading0 7p4 #dbj74 ,i wonder what pupils so trained would make of ,sabrina fair1 ,listen where thou art sitting ,under the glassy1 cool1 translucent wave1 ,in twisted braids of lilies knitting ,the loose train of thy amber-dropping hair4 ,no doubt it will be said that the modern man has no time for such trivialities as the appreciation of great poetry4 ,yet the very men who say this are prepared to set aside a great deal of time in order to teach young men how to kill each other scientifically4 ,this is surely the reductio ad absurdum of a utilitarian philosophy4 ,so far1 we have been considering what sort of knowledge should be imparted4 ,i come now to a different set of problems1 concerned partly with methods of teaching1 partly with moral education and the training of character4 ,here we are no longer concerned with politics1 but with psychology and ethics4 ,psychology was1 until fairly lately1 a merely academic study1 with very little application to practical affairs4 ,this is all changed now4 ,we have1 for instance1 industrial psychology1 clinical psychology1 educational psychology1 all of the greatest practical importance4 ,we may hope and expect that the influence of psychology upon our institutions will rapidly increase in the near future4 ,in education1 at any rate1 its effect has already been great and beneficent4 ,let us take first the question of 8discipline04 ,the old idea of discipline was simple4 ,a child or boy was ordered to do something he disliked1 or abstain from something he liked4 ,when he disobeyed1 he suffered physical chastisement1 or1 in extreme cases1 solitary confinement on bread and water4 ,read1 for example1 the chapter in 8,the ,fairchild ,family0 about how little ,henry was taught ,latin4 ,he was told that he could never hope to become a clergyman unless he learned that language1 but in spite of this argument the little boy did not apply himself to his book as earnestly as his father desired4 ,so he was shut up in an attic1 given only bread and water1 and forbidden to speak to his sisters1 who were told that he was in disgrace and they must have nothing to do with him4 ,nevertheless1 one of them brought him some food4 ,the footman told on her1 and she got into trouble too4 ,after a certain period in prison1 the boy1 we are told1 began to love ,latin and worked assiduously ever after4 ,contrast with this ,chekov's story about his uncle who tried to teach a kitten to catch mice4 ,he brought a mouse into the room where the kitten was1 but the kitten's hunting instinct was not yet developed1 and it paid no attention to the mouse4 ,so he beat it4 ,the next day the same process was repeated1 and the next and the next4 ,at last the ,professor became persuaded that it was a stupid kitten1 and quite unteachable4 ,in later life1 though otherwise normal1 it could never see a mouse without sweating in terror and running away4 8,like the kitten10 ,chekov concludes1 8,i had the honour of being taught ,latin by my uncle40 ,these two stories illustrate the old discipline and the modern revolt against it4 ,but the modern educationist does not simply eschew discipline2 he secures it by new methods4 ,on this subject1 those who have not studied the new methods are apt to have mistaken ideas4 ,i had always understood that ,madame ,montessori dispensed with discipline1 and ,i had wondered how she managed a roomful of children4 ,on reading her own account of her methods1 ,i found that discipline still held an important place1 and that there was no attempt to dispense with it4 ,on sending my little boy of three to spend his mornings in a ,montessori school1 ,i found that he quickly became a more disciplined human being1 and that he cheerfully acquiesced in the rules of the school4 ,but he had no feeling whatever of external compulsion3 the rules were like the rules of a game1 and were obeyed as a means of enjoyment4 ,the old idea was that children could not possibly wish to learn1 and could only be compelled to learn by terror4 ,it has been found that this was entirely due to lack of skill in pedagogy4 ,by dividing what has to be learnt--for instance1 reading and writing--into suitable stages1 every stage can be made agreeable to the average child4 ,and when children are doing what they like1 there is of course no reason for external discipline4 ,a few simple rules--no child must interfere with another child1 no child must have more than one sort of apparatus at a time--are easily apprehended1 and felt to be reasonable1 so that there is no difficulty in getting them observed4 ,the child thus acquires self-discipline1 which consists partly of good habits1 partly of the realization1 in concrete instances1 that it is sometimes worth while to resist an impulse for the sake of some ultimate gain4 ,everybody has always known that it is easy to obtain this self-discipline in games1 but no one had supposed that the acquisition of knowledge could be made sufficiently interesting to bring the same motives into operation4 ,we now know that this is possible1 and it will come to be done1 not only in the education of infants1 but at all stages4 ,i do not pretend that it is easy4 ,the pedagogical discoveries involved have required genius1 but the teachers who are to apply them do not require genius4 ,they require only the right sort of training1 together with a degree of sympathy and patience which is by no means unusual4 ,the fundamental idea is simple3 that the right discipline consists1 not in external compulsion1 but in habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities4 ,what is astonishing is the great success in finding technical methods of embodying this idea in education4 ,for this1 ,madame ,montessori deserves the highest praise4 ,the change in educational methods has been very much influenced by the decay of the belief in original sin4 ,the traditional view1 now nearly extinct1 was that we are all born ,children of ,wrath1 with a nature full of wickedness2 before there can be any good in us1 we have to become ,children of ,grace1 a process much accelerated by frequent castigation4 ,most moderns can hardly believe how much this theory influenced the education of our fathers and grandfathers4 ,two quotations from the life of ,dr4 ,arnold by ,dean ,stanley will show that they are mistaken4 ,dean ,stanley was ,dr4 ,arnold's favourite pupil1 the good boy ,arthur in 8,tom ,brown's ,school ,days04 ,he was a cousin of the present writer1 who was shown over ,westminster ,abbey by him as a boy4 ,dr4 ,arnold was the great reformer of our public schools1 which are viewed as one of the glories of ,england1 and are still conducted largely according to his principles4 ,in discussing ,dr4 ,arnold1 therefore1 we are dealing1 not with something belonging to the remote past1 but with something which to this day is efficacious in moulding upper-class ,englishmen4 ,dr4 ,arnold diminished flogging1 retaining it only for the younger boys1 and confining it1 so his biographer tells us1 to 8moral offences1 such as lying1 drinking1 and habitual idleness04 ,but when a liberal journal suggested that flogging was a degrading punishment1 which ought to be abolished altogether1 he was amazingly indignant4 ,he replied in print3 ,i know well of what feeling this is the expression2 it originates in that proud notion of personal independence which is neither reasonable nor ,christian1 but essentially barbarian4 ,it visited ,europe with all the curses of the age of chivalry1 and is threatening us now with those of ,jacobinism4444 ,at an age when it is almost impossible to find a true manly sense of the degradation of guilt or faults1 where is the wisdom of encouraging a fantastic sense of the degradation of personal correction8 ,what can be more false1 or more adverse to the simplicity1 sobriety and humbleness of mind1 which are the best ornament of youth1 and the best promise of a noble manhood8 ,the pupils of his disciples1 not unnaturally1 believe in flogging natives of ,india when they are deficient in 8humbleness of mind04 ,there is another passage1 already quoted in part by ,mr4 ,strachey in 8,eminent ,victorians01 but so apt that ,i cannot forbear to quote it again4 ,dr4 ,arnold was away on a holiday1 enjoying the beauties of the ,lake of ,como4 ,the form his enjoyment took is recorded in a letter to his wife1 as follows3 ,it is almost awful to look at the overwhelming beauty around me1 and then think of moral evil2 it seems as if heaven and hell1 instead of being separated by a great gulf from one another1 were absolutely on each other's confines1 and indeed not far from every one of us4 ,might the sense of moral evil be as strong in me as my delight in external beauty1 for in a deep sense of moral evil1 more perhaps than in anything else1 abides a saving knowledge of ,god6 ,it is not so much to admire moral good2 that we may do1 and yet not be ourselves conformed to it2 but if we really do abhor that which is evil1 not the persons in whom evil resides1 but the evil which dwelleth in them1 and much more manifestly and certainly to our own knowledge1 in our own hearts--this is to have the feeling of ,god and of ,christ1 and to have our ,spirit in sympathy with the ,spirit of ,god4 ,alas6 how easy to see this and say it--how hard to do it and to feel it6 ,who is sufficient for these things8 ,no one1 but he who feels and really laments his own insufficiency4 ,god bless you1 my dearest wife1 and our beloved children1 now and evermore1 through ,christ ,jesus4 ,it is pathetic to see this naturally kindly gentleman lashing himself into a mood of sadism1 in which he can flog little boys without compunction1 and all under the impression that he is conforming to the religion of ,love4 ,it is pathetic when we consider the deluded individual2 but it is tragic when we think of the generations of cruelty that he put into the world by creating an atmosphere of abhorrence of 8moral evil01 which1 it will be remembered1 includes habitual idleness in children4 ,i shudder when ,i think of the wars1 the tortures1 the oppressions1 of which upright men have been guilty1 under the impression that they were righteously castigating 8moral evil04 ,mercifully1 educators no longer regard little children as limbs of ,satan4 ,there is still too much of this view in dealings with adults1 particularly in the punishment of crime2 but in the nursery and the school it has almost disappeared4 ,there is an opposite error to ,dr4 ,arnold's1 far less pernicious1 but still scientifically an error1 and that is the belief that children are naturally virtuous1 and are only corrupted by the spectacle of their elders' vices4 ,this view is traditionally associated with ,rousseau2 perhaps he held it in the abstract1 but when one reads 8,emile0 one finds that the pupil stood in need of much moral training before he became the paragon that the system was designed to produce4 ,the fact is that children are not naturally either 8good0 or 8bad04 ,they are born with only reflexes and a few instincts2 out of these1 by the action of the environment1 habits are produced1 which may be either healthy or morbid4 ,which they are to be1 depends chiefly upon the wisdom of mothers or nurses1 the child's nature being1 at first1 almost incredibly malleable4 ,in the immense majority of children1 there is the raw material of a good citizen1 and also the raw material of a criminal4 ,scientific psychology shows that flogging on weekdays and sermons on ,sundays do not constitute the ideal technique for the production of virtue4 ,but it is not to be inferred that there is no technique for this purpose4 ,it is difficult to resist ,samuel ,butler's view that the educators of former times took a pleasure in torturing children2 otherwise it is hard to see how they can have persisted so long in inflicting useless misery4 ,it is not difficult to make a healthy child happy1 and most children will be healthy if their minds and bodies are properly tended4 ,happiness in childhood is absolutely necessary to the production of the best type of human being4 ,habitual idleness1 which ,dr4 ,arnold regarded as a form of 8moral evil01 will not exist if the child is made to feel that its education is teaching it something worth knowing4#b ,but if the knowledge imparted is worthless1 and those who impart it appear as cruel tyrants1 the child will naturally behave like ,chekov's kitten4 ,the spontaneous wish to learn1 which every normal child possesses1 as shown in its efforts to walk and talk1 should be the driving force in education4 ,the substitution of this driving force for the rod is one of the great advances of our time4 ,this brings me to the last point which ,i wish to notice in this preliminary survey of modern tendencies--,i mean1 the greater attention paid to infancy4 ,this is closely connected with the change in our ideas as to the training of character4 ,the old idea was that virtue depends essentially upon will3 we were supposed to be full of bad desires1 which we controlled by an abstract faculty of volition4 ,it was apparently regarded as impossible to root out bad desires2 all we could do was to control them4 ,the situation was exactly analogous to that of the criminal and the police4 ,no one supposed that a society without would-be criminals was possible2 the most that could be done was to have such an efficient police force that most people would be afraid to commit crimes1 and the few exceptions would be caught and punished4 ,the modern psychological criminologist is not content with this view2 he believes that the impulse to crime could1 in most cases1 be prevented from developing by suitable education4 ,and what applies to society applies also to the individual4 ,children1 especially1 wish to be liked by their elders and their companions2 they have1 as a rule1 impulses which can be developed in good or bad directions according to the situations in which they find themselves4 ,moreover they are at an age at which the formation of new habits is still easy2 and good habits can make a great part of virtue almost automatic4 ,on the other hand1 the older type of virtue1 which left bad desires rampant1 and merely used will-power to check their manifestations1 has been found to afford a far from satisfactory method of controlling bad conduct4 ,the bad desires1 like a river which has been dammed1 find some other outlet which has escaped the watchful eye of the will4 ,the man who1 in youth1 would have liked to murder his father1 finds satisfaction later on in flogging his son1 under the impression that he is chastising 8moral evil04 ,theories which justify cruelty almost always have their source in some desire diverted by the will from its natural channel1 driven underground1 and at last emerging unrecognized as hatred of sin or something equally respectable4 ,the control of bad desires by the will1 therefore1 though necessary on occasion1 is inadequate as a technique of virtue4 ,these considerations bring us to the province of psycho-analysis4 ,there is much in the detail of psycho-analysis which ,i find fantastic1 and not supported by adequate evidence4 ,but the general method appears to me very important1 and essential to the creation of right methods of moral training4 ,the importance which many psycho-analysts attach to early infancy appears to me exaggerated2 they sometimes talk as if character were irrevocably fixed by the time a child is three years old4 ,this1 ,i am sure1 is not the case4 ,but the fault is a fault on the right side4 ,infant psychology was neglected in the past2 indeed1 the intellectualist methods in vogue made it almost impossible4 ,take such a matter as sleep4 ,all mothers wish their children to sleep1 because it is both healthy and convenient when they do4 ,they had developed a certain technique3 rocking the cradle and singing lullabys4 ,it was left for males who investigated the matter scientifically to discover that this technique is ideally wrong1 for though it is likely to succeed on any given day1 it creates bad habits4 ,every child loves to be made a fuss of1 because its sense of self-importance is gratified4 ,if it finds that by not sleeping it secures attention1 it will soon learn to adopt this method4 ,the result is equally damaging to health and character4 ,the great thing here is the formation of habit3 the association of the cot with sleep4 ,if this association has been adequately produced1 the child will not lie awake unless it is ill or in pain4 ,but the production of the association requires a certain amount of discipline2 it is not to be achieved by mere indulgence1 since that causes pleasurable associations with lying awake4 ,similar considerations apply to the formation of other good and bad habits4 ,this whole study is still in its infancy1 but its importance is already very great1 and almost sure to become greater4 ,it is clear that education of character must begin at birth1 and requires a reversal of much of the practice of nurses and ignorant mothers4 ,it is also clear that definite instruction can begin earlier than was formerly thought1 because it can be made pleasant and no strain upon the infant's powers of attention4 ,in both these respects educational theory has been radically transformed in recent years1 with beneficent effects which are likely to become more and more evident as the years go by4 ,accordingly ,i shall begin1 in what follows1 with a fairly detailed consideration of the training of character in infancy1 before discussing the instruction to be given in later years4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,aims ,,of ,,education ,before considering how to educate1 it is well to be clear as to the sort of result which we wish to achieve4 ,dr4 ,arnold wanted 8humbleness of mind01 a quality not possessed by ,aristotle's 8magnanimous man04 ,nietzsche's ideal is not that of ,christianity4 ,no more is ,kant's3 for while ,christ enjoins love1 ,kant teaches that no action of which love is the motive can be truly virtuous4 ,and even people who agree as to the ingredients of a good character may differ as to their relative importance4 ,one man will emphasize courage1 another learning1 another kindliness1 and another rectitude4 ,one man1 like the elder ,brutus1 will put duty to the ,state above family affection2 another1 like ,confucius1 will put family affection first4 ,all these divergences will produce differences as to education4 ,we must have some conception of the kind of person we wish to produce1 before we can have any definite opinion as to the education which we consider best4 ,of course an educator may be foolish1 in the sense that he produces results other than those at which he was aiming4 ,uriah ,heep was the outcome of lessons in humility at a ,charity ,school1 which had had an effect quite different from what was intended4 ,but in the main the ablest educators have been fairly successful4 ,take as examples the ,chinese literati1 the modern ,japanese1 the ,jesuits1 ,dr4 ,arnold1 and the men who direct the policy of the ,american public schools4 ,all these1 in their various ways1 have been highly successful4 ,the results aimed at in the different cases were utterly different1 but in the main the results were achieved4 ,it may be worth while to spend a few moments on these different systems1 before attempting to decide what we should ourselves regard as the aims which education should have in view4 ,traditional ,chinese education was1 in some respects1 very similar to that of ,athens in its best days4 ,athenian boys were made to learn ,homer by heart from beginning to end2 ,chinese boys were made to learn the ,confucian classics with similar thoroughness4 ,athenians were taught a kind of reverence for the gods which consisted in outward observances1 and placed no barrier in the way of free intellectual speculation4 ,similarly the ,chinese were taught certain rites connected with ancestor-worship1 but were by no means obliged to have the beliefs which the rites would seem to imply4 ,an easy and elegant scepticism was the attitude expected of an educated adult3 anything might be discussed1 but it was a trifle vulgar to reach very positive conclusions4 ,opinions should be such as could be discussed pleasantly at dinner1 not such as men would fight for4 ,carlyle calls ,plato 8a lordly ,athenian gentleman1 very much at his ease in ,zion04 ,this characteristic of being 8at his ease in ,zion0 is also found in ,chinese sages1 and is1 as a rule1 absent from the sages produced by ,christian civilizations1 except when1 like ,goethe1 they have deeply imbibed the spirit of ,hellenism4 ,the ,athenians and the ,chinese alike wished to enjoy life1 and had a conception of enjoyment which was refined by an exquisite sense of beauty4 ,there were1 however1 great differences between the two civilizations1 owing to the fact that1 broadly speaking1 the ,greeks were energetic and the ,chinese were lazy4 ,the ,greeks devoted their energies to art and science and mutual extermination1 in all of which they achieved unprecedented success4 ,politics and patriotism afforded practical outlets for ,greek energy3 when a politician was ousted1 he led a band of exiles to attack his native city4 ,when a ,chinese official was disgraced1 he retired to the hills and wrote poems on the pleasures of country life4 ,accordingly the ,greek civilization destroyed itself1 but the ,chinese civilization could only be destroyed from without4 ,these differences1 however1 seem not wholly attributable to education1 since ,confucianism in ,japan never produced the indolent cultured scepticism which characterized the ,chinese literati1 except in the ,kyoto nobility1 who formed a kind of ,faubourg ,saint ,germain4 ,chinese education produced stability and art2 it failed to produce progress or science4 ,perhaps this may be taken as what is to be expected of scepticism4 ,passionate beliefs produce either progress or disaster1 not stability4 ,science1 even when it attacks traditional beliefs1 has beliefs of its own1 and can scarcely flourish in an atmosphere of literary scepticism4 ,in a pugnacious world which has been unified by modern inventions1 energy is needed for national self-preservation4 ,and without science1 democracy is impossible3 the ,chinese civilization was confined to the small percentage of educated men1 and the ,greek civilization was based on slavery4 ,for these reasons1 the traditional education of ,china is not suited to the modern world1 and has been abandoned by the ,chinese themselves4 ,cultivated eighteenth-century gentlemen1 who in some respects resembled ,chinese literati1 have become impossible for the same reasons4 ,modern ,japan affords the clearest illustration of a tendency which is prominent among all the ,great ,powers--the tendency to make national greatness the supreme purpose of education4 ,the aim of ,japanese education is to produce citizens who shall be devoted to the ,state through the training of their passions1 and useful to it through the knowledge they have acquired4 ,i cannot sufficiently praise the skill with which this double purpose has been pursued4 ,ever since the advent of ,commodore ,perry's squadron1 the ,japanese have been in a situation in which self-preservation was very difficult2 their success affords a justification of their methods1 unless we are to hold that self-preservation itself may be culpable4 ,but only a desperate situation could have justified their educational methods1 which would have been culpable in any nation not in imminent peril4 ,the ,shinto religion1 which must not be called in question even by university professors1 involves history which is just as dubious as ,genesis2 the ,dayton trial pales into insignificance beside the theological tyranny in ,japan4 ,there is an equal ethical tyranny3 nationalism1 filial piety1 ,mikado-worship1 etc41 must not be called in question1 and therefore many kinds of progress are scarcely possible4 ,the great danger of a cast-iron system of this sort is that it may provoke revolution as the sole method of progress4 ,this danger is real1 though not immediate1 and is largely caused by the educational system4 ,we have thus in modern ,japan a defect opposite to that of ancient ,china4 ,whereas the ,chinese literati were too sceptical and lazy1 the products of ,japanese education are likely to be too dogmatic and energetic4 ,neither acquiescence in scepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce4 ,what it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure1 though with difficulty2 that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken1 but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry4 ,in acting upon our beliefs1 we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster2 nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act4 ,this state of mind is rather difficult3 it requires a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy4 ,but though difficult it is not impossible2 it is in fact the scientific temper4 ,knowledge1 like other good things1 is difficult1 but not impossible2 the dogmatist forgets the difficulty1 the sceptic denies the possibility4 ,both are mistaken1 and their errors1 when wide-spread1 produce social disaster4 ,the ,jesuits1 like the modern ,japanese1 made the mistake of subordinating education to the welfare of an institution--in their case1 the ,catholic ,church4 ,they were not concerned primarily with the good of the particular pupil1 but with making him a means to the good of the ,church4 ,if we accept their theology1 we cannot blame them3 to save souls from hell is more important than any merely terrestrial concern1 and is only to be achieved by the ,catholic ,church4 ,but those who do not accept this dogma will judge ,jesuit education by its results4 ,these results1 it is true1 were sometimes quite as undesired as ,uriah ,heep3 ,voltaire was a product of ,jesuit methods4 ,but on the whole1 and for a long time1 the intended results were achieved3 the counter-reformation1 and the collapse of ,protestantism in ,france1 must be largely attributed to ,jesuit efforts4 ,to achieve these ends1 they made art sentimental1 thought superficial1 and morals loose2 in the end1 the ,french ,revolution was needed to sweep away the harm that they had done4 ,in education1 their crime was that they were not actuated by love of their pupils1 but by ulterior ends4 ,dr4 ,arnold's system1 which has remained in force in ,english public schools to the present day1 had another defect1 namely that it was aristocratic4 ,the aim was to train men for positions of authority and power1 whether at home or in distant parts of the empire4 ,an aristocracy1 if it is to survive1 needs certain virtues2 these were to be imparted at school4 ,the product was to be energetic1 stoical1 physically fit1 possessed of certain unalterable beliefs1 with high standards of rectitude1 and convinced that it had an important mission in the world4 ,to a surprising extent1 these results were achieved4 ,intellect was sacrificed to them1 because intellect might produce doubt4 ,sympathy was sacrificed1 because it might interfere with governing 8inferior0 races or classes4 ,kindliness was sacrificed for the sake of toughness2 imagination1 for the sake of firmness4 ,in an unchanging world1 the result might have been a permanent aristocracy1 possessing the merits and defects of the ,spartans4 ,but aristocracy is out-of-date1 and subject populations will no longer obey even the most wise and virtuous rulers4 ,the rulers are driven into brutality1 and brutality further encourages revolt4 ,the complexity of the modern world increasingly requires intelligence1 and ,dr4 ,arnold sacrificed intelligence to 8virtue04 ,the battle of ,waterloo may have been won on the playing-fields of ,eton1 but the ,british ,empire is being lost there4 ,the modern world needs a different type1 with more imaginative sympathy1 more intellectual suppleness1 less belief in bulldog courage and more belief in technical knowledge4 ,the administrator of the future must be the servant of free citizens1 not the benevolent ruler of admiring subjects4 ,the aristocratic tradition embedded in ,british higher education is its bane4 ,perhaps this tradition can be eliminated gradually2 perhaps the older educational institutions will be found incapable of adapting themselves4 ,as to that1 ,i do not venture an opinion4 ,the ,american public schools achieve successfully a task never before attempted on a large scale3 the task of transforming a heterogeneous selection of mankind into a homogeneous nation4 ,this is done so ably1 and is on the whole such a beneficent work1 that on the balance great praise is due to those who accomplish it4 ,but ,america1 like ,japan1 is placed in a peculiar situation1 and what the special circumstances justify is not necessarily an ideal to be followed everywhere and always4 ,america has had certain advantages and certain difficulties4 ,among the advantages were3 a higher standard of wealth2 freedom from the danger of defeat in war2 comparative absence of cramping traditions inherited from the ,middle ,ages4 ,immigrants found in ,america a generally diffused sentiment of democracy and an advanced stage of industrial technique4 ,these1 ,i think1 are the two chief reasons why almost all of them came to admire ,america more than their native countries4 ,but actual immigrants1 as a rule1 retain a dual patriotism3 in ,european struggles they continue to take passionately the side of the nation to which they originally belonged4 ,their children1 on the contrary1 lose all loyalty to the country from which their parents have come1 and become merely and simply ,americans4 ,the attitude of the parents is attributable to the general merits of ,america2 that of the children is very largely determined by their school education4 ,it is only the contribution of the school that concerns us4 ,in so far as the school can rely upon the genuine merits of ,america1 there is no need to associate the teaching of ,american patriotism with the inculcation of false standards4 ,but where the ,old ,world is superior to the ,new1 it becomes necessary to instil a contempt for genuine excellences4 ,the intellectual level in ,western ,europe and the artistic level in ,eastern ,europe are1 on the whole1 higher than in ,america4 ,throughout ,western ,europe1 except in ,spain and ,portugal1 there is less theological superstition than in ,america4 ,in almost all ,european countries the individual is less subject to herd domination than in ,america3 his inner freedom is greater even where his political freedom is less4 ,in these respects1 the ,american public schools do harm4 ,the harm is essential to the teaching of an exclusive ,american patriotism4 ,the harm1 as with the ,japanese and the ,jesuits1 comes from regarding the pupils as means to an end1 not as ends in themselves4 ,the teacher should love his children better than his ,state or his ,church2 otherwise he is not an ideal teacher4 ,when ,i say that pupils should be regarded as ends1 not as means1 ,i may be met by the retort that1 after all1 everybody is more important as a means than as an end4 ,what a man is as an end perishes when he dies2 what he produces as a means continues to the end of time4 ,we cannot deny this1 but we can deny the consequences deduced from it4 ,a man's importance as a means may be for good or for evil2 the remote effects of human actions are so uncertain that a wise man will tend to dismiss them from his calculations4 ,broadly speaking1 good men have good effects1 and bad men bad effects4 ,this1 of course1 is not an invariable law of nature4 ,a bad man may murder a tyrant because he has committed crimes which the tyrant intends to punish2 the effects of his act may be good1 though he and his act are bad4 ,nevertheless1 as a broad general rule1 a community of men and women who are intrinsically excellent will have better effects than one composed of people who are ignorant and malevolent4 ,apart from such considerations1 children and young people feel instinctively the difference between those who genuinely wish them well and those who regard them merely as raw material for some scheme4 ,neither character nor intelligence will develop as well or as freely where the teacher is deficient in love2 and love of this kind consists essentially in feeling the child as an end4 ,we all have this feeling about ourselves3 we desire good things for ourselves without first demanding a proof that some great purpose will be furthered by our obtaining them4 ,every ordinarily affectionate parent feels the same sort of thing about his or her children4 ,parents want their children to grow1 to be strong and healthy1 to do well at school1 and so on1 in just the same way in which they want things for themselves2 no effort of self-denial and no abstract principle of justice is involved in taking trouble about such matters4 ,this parental instinct is not always strictly confined to one's own children4 ,in its diffused form1 it must exist in any one who is to be a good teacher of little boys and girls4 ,as the pupils grow older1 it grows less important4 ,but only those who possess it can be trusted to draw up schemes of education4 ,those who regard it as one of the purposes of male education to produce men willing to kill and be killed for frivolous reasons are clearly deficient in diffused parental feeling2 yet they control education in all civilized countries except ,denmark and ,china4 ,but it is not enough that the educator should love the young2 it is necessary also that he should have a right conception of human excellence4 ,cats teach their kittens to catch mice and play with them2 militarists do likewise with the human young4 ,the cat loves the kitten1 but not the mouse2 the militarist may love his own son1 but not the sons of his country's enemies4 ,even those who love all mankind may err through a wrong conception of the good life4 ,i shall try1 therefore1 before going any further1 to give an idea of what ,i consider excellent in men and women1 quite without regard to practicality1 or to the educational methods by which it might be brought into being4 ,such a picture will help us afterwards1 when we come to consider the details of education2 we shall know the direction in which we wish to move4 ,we must first make a distinction3 some qualities are desirable in a certain proportion of mankind1 others are desirable universally4 ,we want artists1 but we also want men of science4 ,we want great administrators1 but we also want ploughmen and millers and bakers4 ,the qualities which produce a man of great eminence in some one direction are often such as might be undesirable if they were universal4 ,shelley describes the day's work of a poet as follows3 ,he will watch from dawn to gloom ,the lake-reflected sun illume ,the honey-bees in the ivy bloom1 ,nor heed nor see what things they be4 ,these habits are praiseworthy in a poet1 but not--shall we say--in a postman4 ,we cannot therefore frame our education with a view to giving every one the temperament of a poet4 ,but some characteristics are universally desirable1 and it is these alone that ,i shall consider at this stage4 ,i make no distinction whatever between male and female excellence4 ,a certain amount of occupational training is desirable for a woman who is to have the care of babies1 but that only involves the same sort of difference as there is between a farmer and a miller4 ,it is in no degree fundamental1 and does not demand consideration at our present level4 ,i will take four characteristics which seem to me jointly to form the basis of an ideal character3 vitality1 courage1 sensitiveness1 and intelligence4 ,i do not suggest that this list is complete1 but ,i think it carries us a good way4 ,moreover ,i firmly believe that1 by proper physical1 emotional and intellectual care of the young1 these qualities could all be made very common4 ,i shall consider each in turn4 ,vitality is rather a physiological than a mental characteristic2 it is presumably always present where there is perfect health1 but it tends to ebb with advancing years1 and gradually dwindles to nothing in old age4 ,in vigorous children it quickly rises to a maximum before they reach school age1 and then tends to be diminished by education4 ,where it exists1 there is pleasure in feeling alive1 quite apart from any specific pleasant circumstance4 ,it heightens pleasures and diminishes pains4 ,it makes it easy to take an interest in whatever occurs1 and thus promotes objectivity1 which is an essential of sanity4 ,human beings are prone to become absorbed in themselves1 unable to be interested in what they see and hear or in anything outside their own skins4 ,this is a great misfortune to themselves1 since it entails at best boredom and at worst melancholia2 it is also a fatal barrier to usefulness1 except in very exceptional cases4 ,vitality promotes interest in the outside world2 it also promotes the power of hard work4 ,moreover it is a safeguard against envy1 because it makes one's own existence pleasant4 ,as envy is one of the great sources of human misery1 this is a very important merit in vitality4 ,many bad qualities are of course compatible with vitality--for example1 those of a healthy tiger4 ,and many of the best qualities are compatible with its absence3 ,newton and ,locke1 for example1 had very little4 ,both these men1 however1 had irritabilities and envies from which better health would have set them free4 ,probably the whole of ,newton's controversy with ,leibniz1 which ruined ,english mathematics for over a hundred years1 would have been avoided if ,newton had been robust and able to enjoy ordinary pleasures4 ,in spite of its limitations1 therefore1 ,i reckon vitality among the qualities which it is important that all men should possess4 ,courage--the second quality on our list--has several forms1 and all of them are complex4 ,absence of fear is one thing1 and the power of controlling fear is another4 ,and absence of fear1 in turn1 is one thing when the fear is rational1 another when it is irrational4 ,absence of irrational fear is clearly good2 so is the power of controlling fear4 ,but absence of rational fear is a matter as to which debate is possible4 ,however1 ,i shall postpone this question until ,i have said something about the other forms of courage4 ,irrational fear plays an extraordinarily large part in the instinctive emotional life of most people4 ,in its pathological forms1 as persecution mania1 anxiety complex1 or what not1 it is treated by alienists4 ,but in milder forms it is common among those who are considered sane4 ,it may be a general feeling that there are dangers about1 more correctly termed 8anxiety01 or a specific dread of things that are not dangerous1 such as mice or spiders4#c ,it used to be supposed that many fears were instinctive1 but this is now questioned by most investigators4 ,there are apparently a few instinctive fears--for instance1 of loud noises--but the great majority arise either from experience or from suggestion4 ,fear of the dark1 for example1 seems to be entirely due to suggestion4 ,most vertebrates1 there is reason to think1 do not feel instinctive fear of their natural enemies1 but catch this emotion from their elders4 ,when human beings bring them up by hand1 the fears usual among the species are found to be absent4 ,but fear is exceedingly infectious3 children catch it from their elders even when their elders are not aware of having shown it4 ,timidity in mothers or nurses is very quickly imitated by children through suggestion4 ,hitherto1 men have thought it attractive in women to be full of irrational terrors1 because it gave men a chance to seem protective without incurring any real danger4 ,but the sons of these men have acquired the terrors from their mothers1 and have had to be afterwards trained to regain a courage which they need never have lost if their fathers had not desired to despise their mothers4 ,the harm that has been done by the subjection of women is incalculable2 this matter of fear affords only one incidental illustration4 ,i am not at the moment discussing the methods by which fear and anxiety may be minimized2 that is a matter which ,i shall consider later4 ,there is1 however1 one question which arises at this stage1 namely3 can we be content to deal with fear by means of repression1 or must we find some more radical cure8 ,traditionally1 aristocracies have been trained not to show fear1 while subject nations1 classes1 and sexes have been encouraged to remain cowardly4 ,the test of courage has been crudely behavioristic3 a man must not run away in battle2 he must be proficient in 8manly0 sports2 he must retain self-command in fires1 shipwrecks1 earthquakes1 etc4 ,he must not merely do the right thing1 but he must avoid turning pale1 or trembling1 or gasping for breath1 or giving any other easily observed sign of fear4 ,all this ,i regard as of great importance3 ,i should wish to see courage cultivated in all nations1 in all classes1 and in both sexes4 ,but when the method adopted is repressive1 it entails the evils always associated with that practice4 ,shame and disgrace have always been potent weapons in producing the appearance of courage2 but in fact they merely cause a conflict of terrors1 in which it is hoped that the dread of public condemnation will be the stronger4 8,always speak the truth except when something frightens you0 was a maxim taught to me in childhood4 ,i cannot admit the exception4 ,fear should be overcome not only in action1 but in feeling2 and not only in conscious feeling1 but in the unconscious as well4 ,the purely external victory over fear1 which satisfies the aristocratic code1 leaves the impulse operative underground1 and produces evil twisted reactions which are not recognized as the offspring of terror4 ,i am not thinking of 8shell-shock01 in which the connection with fear is obvious4 ,i am thinking rather of the whole system of oppression and cruelty by which dominant castes seek to retain their ascendancy4 ,when recently in ,shanghai a ,british officer ordered a number of unarmed ,chinese students to be shot in the back without warning1 he was obviously actuated by terror just as much as a soldier who runs away in battle4 ,but military aristocracies are not sufficiently intelligent to trace such actions to their psychological source2 they regard them rather as showing firmness and a proper spirit4 ,from the point of view of psychology and physiology1 fear and rage are closely analogous emotions3 the man who feels rage is not possessed of the highest kind of courage4 ,the cruelty invariably displayed in suppressing negro insurrections1 communist rebellions1 and other threats to aristocracy1 is an offshoot of cowardice1 and deserves the same contempt as is bestowed upon the more obvious forms of that vice4 ,i believe that it is possible so to educate ordinary men and women that they shall be able to live without fear4 ,hitherto1 only a few heroes and saints have achieved such a life2 but what they have done others could do if they were shown the way4 ,for the kind of courage which does not consist in repression1 a number of factors must be combined4 ,to begin with the humblest3 health and vitality are very helpful1 though not indispensable4 ,practice and skill in dangerous situations are very desirable4 ,but when we come to consider1 not courage in this and that respect1 but universal courage1 something more fundamental is wanted4 ,what is wanted is a combination of self-respect with an impersonal outlook on life4 ,to begin with self-respect3 some men live from within1 while others are mere mirrors of what is felt and said by their neighbours4 ,the latter can never have true courage3 they must have admiration1 and are haunted by the fear of losing it4 ,the teaching of 8humility01 which used to be thought desirable1 was the means of producing a perverted form of this same vice4 8,humility0 suppressed self-respect1 but not the desire for the respect of others2 it merely made nominal self-abasement the means of acquiring credit4 ,thus it produced hypocrisy and falsification of instinct4 ,children were taught unreasoning submission1 and proceeded to exact it when they grew up2 it was said that only those who have learned to obey know how to command4 ,what ,i suggest is that no one should learn how to obey1 and no one should attempt to command4 ,i do not mean1 of course1 that there should not be leaders in co-operative enterprises2 but their authority should be like that of a captain of a football team1 which is suffered voluntarily in order to achieve a common purpose4 ,our purposes should be our own1 not the result of external authority2 and our purposes should never be forcibly imposed upon others4 ,this is what ,i mean when ,i say no one should command and no one should obey4 ,there is one thing more required for the highest courage1 and that is what ,i called just now an impersonal outlook on life4 ,the man whose hopes and fears are all centred upon himself can hardly view death with equanimity1 since it extinguishes his whole emotional universe4 ,here1 again1 we are met by a tradition urging the cheap and easy way of repression3 the saint must learn to renounce ,self1 must mortify the flesh and forego instinctive joys4 ,this can be done1 but its consequences are bad4 ,having renounced pleasure for himself1 the ascetic saint renounces it for others also1 which is easier4 ,envy persists underground1 and leads him to the view that suffering is ennobling1 and may therefore be legitimately inflicted4 ,hence arises a complete inversion of values3 what is good is thought bad1 and what is bad is thought good4 ,the source of all the harm is that the good life has been sought in obedience to a negative imperative1 not in broadening and developing natural desires and instincts4 ,there are certain things in human nature which take us beyond ,self without effort4 ,the commonest of these is love1 more particularly parental love1 which in some is so generalized as to embrace the whole human race4 ,another is knowledge4 ,there is no reason to suppose that ,galileo was particularly benevolent1 yet he lived for an end which was not defeated by his death4 ,another is art4 ,but in fact every interest in something outside a man's own body makes his life to that degree impersonal4 ,for this reason1 paradoxical as it may seem1 a man of wide and vivid interests finds less difficulty in leaving life than is experienced by some miserable hypochondriac whose interests are bounded by his own ailments4 ,thus the perfection of courage is found in the man of many interests1 who feels his ego to be but a small part of the world1 not through despising himself1 but through valuing much that is not himself4 ,this can hardly happen except where instinct is free and intelligence is active4 ,from the union of the two grows a comprehensiveness of outlook unknown both to the voluptuary and to the ascetic2 and to such an outlook personal death appears a trivial matter4 ,such courage is positive and instinctive1 not negative and repressive4 ,it is courage in this positive sense that ,i regard as one of the major ingredients in a perfect character4 ,sensitiveness1 the third quality in our list1 is in a sense a corrective of mere courage4 ,courageous behaviour is easier for a man who fails to apprehend dangers1 but such courage may often be foolish4 ,we cannot regard as satisfactory any way of acting which is dependent upon ignorance or forgetfulness3 the fullest possible knowledge and realization are an essential part of what is desirable4 ,the cognitive aspect1 however1 comes under the head of intelligence2 sensitiveness1 in the sense in which ,i am using the term1 belongs to the emotions4 ,a purely theoretical definition would be that a person is emotionally sensitive when many stimuli produce emotions in him2 but taken thus broadly the quality is not necessarily a good one4 ,if sensitiveness is to be good1 the emotional reaction must be in some sense appropriate3 mere intensity is not what is needed4 ,the quality ,i have in mind is that of being affected pleasurably or the reverse by many things1 and by the right things4 ,what are the right things1 ,i shall try to explain4 ,the first step1 which most children take at the age of about five months1 is to pass beyond mere pleasures of sensation1 such as food and warmth1 to the pleasure of social approbation4 ,this pleasure1 as soon as it has arisen1 develops very rapidly3 every child loves praise and hates blame4 ,usually the wish to be thought well of remains one of the dominant motives throughout life4 ,it is certainly very valuable as a stimulus to pleasant behaviour1 and as a restraint upon impulses of greed4 ,if we were wiser in our admirations1 it might be much more valuable4 ,but so long as the most admired heroes are those who have killed the greatest number of people1 love of admiration cannot alone be adequate to the good life4 ,the next stage in the development of a desirable form of sensitiveness is sympathy4 ,there is a purely physical sympathy3 a very young child will cry because a brother or sister is crying4 ,this1 ,i suppose1 affords the basis for the further developments4 ,the two enlargements that are needed are3 first1 to feel sympathy even when the sufferer is not an object of special affection2 secondly1 to feel it when the suffering is merely known to be occurring1 not sensibly present4 ,the second of these enlargements depends mainly upon intelligence4 ,it may only go so far as sympathy with suffering which is portrayed vividly and touchingly1 as in a good novel2 it may1 on the other hand1 go so far as to enable a man to be moved emotionally by statistics4 ,this capacity for abstract sympathy is as rare as it is important4 ,almost everybody is deeply affected when some one he loves suffers from cancer4 ,most people are moved when they see the sufferings of unknown patients in hospitals4 ,yet when they read that the death-rate from cancer is such-and-such1 they are as a rule only moved to momentary personal fear lest they or some one dear to them should acquire the disease4 ,the same is true of war3 people think it dreadful when their son or brother is mutilated1 but they do not think it a million times as dreadful that a million people should be mutilated4 ,a man who is full of kindliness in all personal dealings may derive his income from incitement to war or from the torture of children in 8backward0 countries4 ,all these familiar phenomena are due to the fact that sympathy is not stirred1 in most people1 by a merely abstract stimulus4 ,a large proportion of the evils in the modern world would cease if this could be remedied4 ,science has greatly increased our power of affecting the lives of distant people1 without increasing our sympathy for them4 ,suppose you are a shareholder in a company which manufactures cotton in ,shanghai4 ,you may be a busy man1 who has merely followed financial advice in making the investment2 neither ,shanghai nor cotton interests you1 but only your dividends4 ,yet you become part of the force leading to massacres of innocent people1 and your dividends would disappear if little children were not forced into unnatural and dangerous toil4 ,you do not mind1 because you have never seen the children1 and an abstract stimulus cannot move you4 ,that is the fundamental reason why large-scale industrialism is so cruel1 and why oppression of subject races is tolerated4 ,an education producing sensitiveness to abstract stimuli would make such things impossible4 ,cognitive sensitiveness1 which should also be included1 is practically the same thing as a habit of observation1 and this is more naturally considered in connection with intelligence4 sthetic sensitiveness raises a number of problems which ,i do not wish to discuss at this stage4 ,i will therefore pass on to the last of the four qualities we enumerated1 namely1 intelligence4 ,one of the great defects of traditional morality has been the low estimate it placed upon intelligence4 ,the ,greeks did not err in this respect1 but the ,church led men to think that nothing matters except virtue1 and virtue consists in abstinence from a certain list of actions arbitrarily labelled 8sin04 ,so long as this attitude persists1 it is impossible to make men realize that intelligence does more good than an artificial conventional 8virtue04 ,when ,i speak of intelligence1 ,i include both actual knowledge and receptivity to knowledge4 ,the two are1 in fact1 closely connected4 ,ignorant adults are unteachable2 on such matters as hygiene or diet1 for example1 they are totally incapable of believing what science has to say4 ,the more a man has learnt1 the easier it is for him to learn still more--always assuming that he has not been taught in a spirit of dogmatism4 ,ignorant people have never been compelled to change their mental habits1 and have stiffened into an unchangeable attitude4 ,it is not only that they are credulous where they should be sceptical2 it is just as much that they are incredulous where they should be receptive4 ,no doubt the word 8intelligence0 properly signifies rather an aptitude for acquiring knowledge than knowledge already acquired2 but ,i do not think this aptitude is acquired except by exercise1 any more than the aptitude of a pianist or an acrobat4 ,it is1 of course1 possible to impart information in ways that do not train intelligence2 it is not only possible1 but easy1 and frequently done4 ,but ,i do not believe that it is possible to train intelligence without imparting information1 or at any rate causing knowledge to be acquired4 ,and without intelligence our complex modern world cannot subsist2 still less can it make progress4 ,i regard the cultivation of intelligence1 therefore1 as one of the major purposes of education4 ,this might seem a commonplace1 but in fact it is not4 ,the desire to instil what are regarded as correct beliefs has made educationists too often indifferent to the training of intelligence4 ,to make this clear1 it is necessary to define intelligence a little more closely1 so as to discover the mental habits which it requires4 ,for this purpose ,i shall consider only the aptitude for acquiring knowledge1 not the store of actual knowledge which might legitimately be included in the definition of intelligence4 ,the instinctive foundation of the intellectual life is curiosity1 which is found among animals in its elementary forms4 ,intelligence demands an alert curiosity1 but it must be of a certain kind4 ,the sort that leads village neighbours to try to peer through curtains after dark has no very high value4 ,the wide-spread interest in gossip is inspired1 not by a love of knowledge1 but by malice3 no one gossips about other people's secret virtues1 but only about their secret vices4 ,accordingly most gossip is untrue1 but care is taken not to verify it4 ,our neighbours' sins1 like the consolations of religion1 are so agreeable that we do not stop to scrutinize the evidence closely4 ,curiosity properly so called1 on the other hand1 is inspired by a genuine love of knowledge4 ,you may see this impulse1 in a moderately pure form1 at work in a cat which has been brought to a strange room1 and proceeds to smell every corner and every piece of furniture4 ,you will see it also in children1 who are passionately interested when a drawer or cupboard1 usually closed1 is open for their inspection4 ,animals1 machines1 thunderstorms1 and all forms of manual work1 arouse the curiosity of children1 whose thirst for knowledge puts the most intelligent adult to shame4 ,this impulse grows weaker with advancing years1 until at last what is unfamiliar inspires only disgust1 with no desire for a closer acquaintance4 ,this is the stage at which people announce that the country is going to the dogs1 and that 8things are not what they were in my young days04 ,the thing which is not the same as it was in that far-off time is the speaker's curiosity4 ,and with the death of curiosity we may reckon that active intelligence1 also1 has died4 ,but although curiosity lessens in intensity and in extent after childhood1 it may for a long time improve in quality4 ,curiosity about general propositions shows a higher level of intelligence than curiosity about particular facts2 broadly speaking1 the higher the order of generality the greater is the intelligence involved4 7,this rule1 however1 must not be taken too strictly47 ,curiosity dissociated from personal advantage shows a higher development than curiosity connected 7say7 with a chance of food4 ,the cat that sniffs in a new room is not a wholly disinterested scientific inquirer1 but probably also wants to find out whether there are mice about4 ,perhaps it is not quite correct to say that curiosity is best when it is disinterested1 but rather that it is best when the connection with other interests is not direct and obvious1 but discoverable only by means of a certain degree of intelligence4 ,this point1 however1 it is not necessary for us to decide4 ,if curiosity is to be fruitful1 it must be associated with a certain technique for the acquisition of knowledge4 ,there must be habits of observation1 belief in the possibility of knowledge1 patience and industry4 ,these things will develop of themselves1 given the original fund of curiosity and the proper intellectual education4 ,but since our intellectual life is only a part of our activity1 and since curiosity is perpetually coming into conflict with other passions1 there is need of certain intellectual virtues1 such as open-mindedness4 ,we become impervious to new truth both from habit and from desire3 we find it hard to disbelieve what we have emphatically believed for a number of years1 and also what ministers to self-esteem or any other fundamental passion4 ,open-mindedness should therefore be one of the qualities that education aims at producing4 ,at present1 this is only done to a very limited extent1 as is illustrated by the following paragraph from 8,the ,daily ,herald01 ,july #ca1 #aibe3 ,a special committee1 appointed to inquire into the allegations of the subversion of children's minds in ,bootle schools by their school teachers1 has placed its findings before the ,bootle ,borough ,council4 ,the ,committee was of opinion that the allegations were substantiated1 but the ,council deleted the word 8substantiated01 and stated that 8the allegations gave cause for reasonable inquiry04 ,a recommendation made by the ,committee1 and adopted by the ,council1 was that in future appointments of teachers1 they shall undertake to train the scholars in habits of reverence towards ,god and religion1 and of respect for the civil and religious institutions of the country4 ,thus whatever may happen elsewhere1 there is to be no open-mindedness in ,bootle4 ,it is hoped that the ,borough ,council will shortly send a deputation to ,dayton1 ,tennessee1 to obtain further light upon the best methods of carrying out their programme4 ,but perhaps that is unnecessary4 ,from the wording of the resolution1 it would seem as if ,bootle needed no instruction in obscurantism4 ,courage is essential to intellectual probity1 as well as to physical heroism4 ,the real world is more unknown than we like to think2 from the first day of life we practise precarious inductions1 and confound our mental habits with laws of external nature4 ,all sorts of intellectual systems--,christianity1 ,socialism1 ,patriotism1 etc4--are ready1 like orphan asylums1 to give safety in return for servitude4 ,a free mental life cannot be as warm and comfortable and sociable as a life enveloped in a creed3 only a creed can give the feeling of a cosy fireside while the winter storms are raging without4 ,this brings us to a somewhat difficult question3 to what extent should the good life be emancipated from the herd8 ,i hesitate to use the phrase 8herd instinct01 because there are controversies as to its correctness4 ,but1 however interpreted1 the phenomena which it describes are familiar4 ,we like to stand well with those whom we feel to be the group with which we wish to co-operate--our family1 our neighbours1 our colleagues1 our political party1 or our nation4 ,this is natural1 because we cannot obtain any of the pleasures of life without co-operation4 ,moreover1 emotions are infectious1 especially when they are felt by many people at once4 ,very few people can be present at an excited meeting without getting excited3 if they are opponents1 their opposition becomes excited4 ,and to most people such opposition is only possible if they can derive support from the thought of a different crowd in which they will win approbation4 ,that is why the ,communion of ,saints has afforded such comfort to the persecuted4 ,are we to acquiesce in this desire for co-operation with a crowd1 or shall our education try to weaken it8 ,there are arguments on both sides1 and the right answer must consist in finding a just proportion1 not in a whole-hearted decision for either party4 ,i think myself that the desire to please and to co-operate should be strong and normal1 but should be capable of being overcome by other desires on certain important occasions4 ,the desirability of a wish to please has already been considered in connection with sensitiveness4 ,without it1 we should all be boors1 and all social groups1 from the family upwards1 would be impossible4 ,education of young children would be very difficult if they did not desire the good opinion of their parents4 ,the contagious character of emotions also has its uses1 when the contagion is from a wiser person to a more foolish one4 ,but in the case of panic fear and panic rage it is of course the very reverse of useful4 ,thus the question of emotional receptivity is by no means simple4 ,even in purely intellectual matters1 the issue is not clear4 ,the great discoverers have had to withstand the herd1 and incur hostility by their independence4 ,but the average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself3 in science1 at least1 his respect for authority is on the whole beneficial4 ,i think that in the life of a man whose circumstances and talents are not very exceptional there should be a large sphere where what is vaguely termed 8herd instinct0 dominates1 and a small sphere into which it does not penetrate4 ,the small sphere should contain the region of his special competence4 ,we think ill of a man who cannot admire a woman unless everybody else also admires her3 we think that1 in the choice of a wife1 a man should be guided by his own independent feelings1 not by a reflection of the feelings of his society4 ,it is no matter if his judgments of people in general agree with those of his neighbours1 but when he falls in love he ought to be guided by his own independent feelings4 ,much the same thing applies in other directions4 ,a farmer should follow his own judgment as to the capacities of the fields which he cultivates himself1 though his judgment should be formed after acquiring a knowledge of scientific agriculture4 ,an economist should form an independent judgment on currency questions1 but an ordinary mortal had better follow authority4 ,wherever there is special competence1 there should be independence4 ,but a man should not make himself into a kind of hedgehog1 all bristles to keep the world at a distance4 ,the bulk of our ordinary activities must be co-operative1 and co-operation must have an instinctive basis4 ,nevertheless1 we should all learn to be able to think for ourselves about matters that are particularly well known to us1 and we ought all to have acquired the courage to proclaim unpopular opinions when we believe them to be important4 ,the application of these broad principles in special cases may1 of course1 be difficult4 ,but it will be less difficult than it is at present in a world where men commonly have the virtues we have been considering in this chapter4 ,the persecuted saint1 for instance1 would not exist in such a world4 ,the good man would have no occasion to bristle and become self-conscious2 his goodness would result from following his impulses1 and would be combined with instinctive happiness4 ,his neighbours would not hate him1 because they would not fear him3 the hatred of pioneers is due to the terror they inspire1 and this terror would not exist among men who had acquired courage4 ,only a man dominated by fear would join the ,ku ,klux ,klan or the ,fascisti4 ,in a world of brave men1 such persecuting organizations could not exist1 and the good life would involve far less resistance to instinct than it does at present4 ,the good world can only be created and sustained by fearless men1 but the more they succeed in their task the fewer occasions there will be for the exercise of their courage4 ,a community of men and women possessing vitality1 courage1 sensitiveness1 and intelligence1 in the highest degree that education can produce1 would be very different from anything that has hitherto existed4 ,very few people would be unhappy4 ,the main causes of unhappiness at present are3 ill-health1 poverty1 and an unsatisfactory sex-life4 ,all of these would become very rare4 ,good health could be almost universal1 and even old age could be postponed4 ,poverty1 since the industrial revolution1 is only due to collective stupidity4 ,sensitiveness would make people wish to abolish it1 intelligence would show them the way1 and courage would lead them to adopt it4 7,a timid person would rather remain miserable than do anything unusual47 ,most people's sex-life1 at present1 is more or less unsatisfactory4 ,this is partly due to bad education1 partly to persecution by the authorities and ,mrs4 ,grundy4 ,a generation of women brought up without irrational sex fears would soon make an end of this4 ,fear has been thought the only way to make women 8virtuous01 and they have been deliberately taught to be cowards1 both physically and mentally4 ,women in whom love is cramped encourage brutality and hypocrisy in their husbands1 and distort the instincts of their children4 ,one generation of fearless women could transform the world1 by bringing into it a generation of fearless children1 not contorted into unnatural shapes1 but straight and candid1 generous1 affectionate1 and free4 ,their ardour would sweep away the cruelty and pain which we endure because we are lazy1 cowardly1 hard-hearted and stupid4 ,it is education that gives us these bad qualities1 and education that must give us the opposite virtues4 ,education is the key to the new world4 ,but it is time to have done with generalities and come to the concrete detail in which our ideals are to be embodied4 ,,part ,,ii ,,education ,,of ,,character ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,first ,,year ,the first year of life was formerly regarded as lying outside the sphere of education4 ,at least until the infant could speak1 if not longer1 it was left to the entirely unchecked care of mothers and nurses1 who were supposed to know by instinct what was good for the child4 ,as a matter of fact1 they did not know4 ,an enormous proportion of children died during the first year1 and of the remainder many were already ruined in health4 ,by bad handling1 the foundations had been laid for disastrous habits of mind4 ,all this has only recently been realized4 ,the invasion of the nursery by science is often resented1 because it disturbs the sentimental picture of mother and child4 ,but sentimentality and love cannot coexist2 the parent who loves his or her child will wish it to live1 even if it should be necessary to employ intelligence for the purpose4 ,accordingly we find this sentimentality strongest in childless people and in people who1 like ,rousseau1 are willing to leave their children to the ,foundling ,hospital4 ,most educated parents are eager to know what science has to say1 and uneducated parents1 also1 learn from maternity centres4 ,the result is shown in the remarkable diminution of infant mortality4 ,there is reason to think that1 with adequate care and skill1 very few children would die in infancy4 ,not only would few die1 but the survivors would be healthier in mind and body4 ,questions of physical health1 strictly speaking1 lie outside the scope of this book1 and must be left to medical practitioners4 ,i shall touch on them only where they have psychological importance4 ,but physical and mental are scarcely distinguishable in the first year of life4 ,moreover the educator in later years may find himself handicapped by purely physiological mistakes in handling the infant4 ,we cannot therefore altogether avoid trespassing upon ground which does not of right belong to us4 ,the new-born infant has reflexes and instincts1 but no habits4 ,whatever habits it may have acquired in the womb are useless in its new situation3 even breathing sometimes has to be taught1 and some children die because they do not learn the lesson quickly enough4 ,there is one well-developed instinct1 the instinct of sucking2 when the child is engaged in this occupation1 it feels at home with its new environment4 ,but the rest of its waking life is passed in a vague bewilderment1 from which relief is found by sleeping most of the twenty-four hours4 ,at the end of a fortnight1 all this is changed4 ,the child has acquired expectations from regularly recurring experiences4 ,it is already a conservative--probably a more complete conservative than at any later time4 ,any novelty is met with resentment4 ,if it could speak1 it would say3 8,do you suppose ,i am going to change the habits of a lifetime at my time of life80 ,the rapidity with which infants acquire habits is amazing4 ,every bad habit acquired is a barrier to better habits later2 that is why the first formation of habits in early infancy is so important4 ,if the first habits are good1 endless trouble is saved later4 ,moreover habits acquired very early feel1 in later life1 just like instincts2 they have the same profound grip4 ,new contrary habits acquired afterwards cannot have the same force2 for this reason1 also1 the first habits should be a matter of grave concern4 ,two considerations come in when we are considering habit-formation in infancy4 ,the first and paramount consideration is health2 the second is character4 ,we want the child to become the sort of person that will be liked and will be able to cope with life successfully4 ,fortunately1 health and character point in the same direction3 what is good for one is good also for the other4 ,it is character that specially concerns us in this book2 but health requires the same practices4 ,thus we are not faced with the difficult alternative of a healthy scoundrel or a diseased saint4 ,every educated mother nowadays knows such simple facts as the importance of feeding the infant at regular intervals1 not whenever it cries4 ,this practice has arisen because it is better for the child's digestion1 which is an entirely sufficient reason4 ,but it is also desirable from the point of view of moral education4 ,infants are far more cunning than grown-up people are apt to suppose2 if they find that crying produces agreeable results1 they will cry4 ,when1 in later life1 a habit of complaining causes them to be disliked instead of petted1 they feel surprised and resentful1 and the world seems to them cold and unsympathetic4 ,if1 however1 they grow up into charming women1 they will still be petted when they are querulous1 and the bad training begun in childhood will be intensified4 ,the same thing is true of rich men4 ,unless the right methods are adopted in infancy1 people in later life will be either discontented or grasping1 according to the degree of their power4 ,the right moment to begin the requisite moral training is the moment of birth1 because then it can be begun without disappointing expectations4 ,at any later time it will have to fight against contrary habits1 and will therefore be met by resentful indignation4 ,in dealing with the infant1 therefore1 there is need of a delicate balance between neglect and indulgence4 ,everything necessary for health must be done4 ,the child must be picked up when it suffers from wind1 it must be kept dry and warm4 ,but if it cries when there is no adequate physical cause1 it must be left to cry2 if not1 it will quickly develop into a tyrant4 ,when it is attended to1 there should not be too much fuss3 what is necessary must be done1 but without excessive expressions of sympathy4 ,at no period of its life must it be regarded as an agreeable pet1 somewhat more interesting than a lap-dog4 ,it must from the very first be viewed seriously1 as a potential adult4 ,habits which would be intolerable in an adult may be quite pleasant in a child4 ,of course the child cannot actually have the habits of an adult1 but we should avoid everything that places an obstacle in the way of the acquisition of these habits4 ,above all1 we should not give the child a sense of self-importance which later experience will mortify1 and which1 in any case1 is not in accordance with the facts4 ,the difficulty in the education of young infants is largely the delicate balance required in the parent4 ,constant watchfulness and much labour are needed to avoid injury to health2 these qualities will hardly exist in the necessary degree except where there is strong parental affection4 ,but where this exists1 it is very likely not to be wise4 ,to the devoted parent1 the child is immensely important4 ,unless care is taken1 the child feels this1 and judges himself as important as his parents feel him4 ,in later life1 his social environment will not regard him so fondly1 and habits which assume that he is the centre of other people's universe will lead to disappointment4 ,it is therefore necessary1 not only in the first year1 but afterwards also1 that the parents should be breezy and cheerful and rather matter-of-fact where the child's possible ailments are concerned4 ,in old days1 infants were at once restricted and coddled3 their limbs were not free1 they were too warmly dressed1 they were hampered in their spontaneous activities1 but they were petted1 sung to1 rocked and dandled4 ,this was ideally wrong1 since it turned them into helpless pampered parasites4#d ,the right rule is3 encourage spontaneous activities1 but discourage demands upon others4 ,do not let the child see how much you do for it1 or how much trouble you take4 ,let it1 wherever possible1 taste the joy of a success achieved by its own efforts1 not extracted by tyrannizing over the grown-ups4 ,our aim1 in modern education1 is to reduce external discipline to a minimum2 but this requires an internal self-discipline which is much more easily acquired in the first year of life than at any other time4 ,for example3 when you want a child to sleep1 do not wheel it up and down1 or take it in your arms1 or even stay where it can see you4 ,if you do this once1 the child will demand that you should do it next time2 in an incredibly short space of time it becomes a terrific business to get the child to sleep4 ,make it warm and dry and comfortable1 put it down firmly1 and after a few quiet remarks leave it to itself4 ,it may cry for a few minutes1 but unless it is ill it will soon stop4 ,if you then go to look1 you will find that it is fast asleep4 ,and it will sleep far more with this treatment than with petting and indulgence4 ,the new-born infant1 as we observed before1 has no habits1 but only reflexes and instincts4 ,it follows that his world is not composed of 8objects04 ,recurrent experiences are necessary for recognition1 and recognition is necessary before the conception of an 8object0 can arise4 ,the feel of the cot1 the feel and smell of the mother's breast 7or the bottle71 and the mother's or nurse's voice will soon come to be familiar4 ,the visual appearance of the mother or the cot comes somewhat later1 because the new-born child does not know how to focus so as to see shapes distinctly4 ,it is only gradually1 through the formation of habits by association1 that touch and sight and smell and hearing come together and coalesce in the common-sense notion of an object1 of which one manifestation leads to the expectation of another4 ,even then1 for a time1 there is hardly any feeling of the difference between persons and things2 a baby which is partly breast-fed and partly bottle-fed will1 for a time1 have similar feelings towards mother and bottle4 ,during all this time1 education must be by purely physical means4 ,its pleasures are physical--chiefly food and warmth--and its pains also are physical4 ,habits of behaviour arise through seeking what is associated with pleasure and avoiding what is associated with pain4 ,a child's crying is partly a reflex connected with pain1 partly an act performed in the pursuit of pleasure4 ,at first1 of course1 it is only the former4 ,but since any real pain that the child may be suffering must1 if possible1 be removed1 it is inevitable that crying should come to be associated with pleasant consequences4 ,the child therefore soon begins to cry because it desires a pleasure1 not because it feels a physical pain2 this is one of its first triumphs of intelligence4 ,but try as it may1 it cannot give quite the same cry as when it is in actual pain4 ,the attentive ear of the mother knows the difference1 and if she is wise she will ignore the cry that is not an expression of physical pain4 ,it is easy and agreeable to amuse an infant by dandling it or singing to it4 ,but it learns with amazing rapidity to demand more and more of such amusements1 which soon interfere with necessary sleep--and sleep ought to occupy almost all the day except meal-times4 ,some of these precepts may seem harsh1 but experience shows that they make for the child's health and happiness4 ,but while the amusements which grown-up people provide should be kept within certain limits1 those which the infant can enjoy for itself should be encouraged to the utmost4 ,from the first1 it should have opportunities to kick and practise its muscles4 ,how our ancestors can have so long persisted in the practice of swaddling-clothes is almost inconceivable1 it shows that even parental affection has difficulty in overcoming laziness1 since the infant whose limbs are free needs more attention4 ,as soon as the child can focus1 it finds pleasure in watching moving objects1 especially things that wave in the wind4 ,but the number of possible amusements is small until the child has learned to grasp objects that it sees4 ,then1 immediately1 there is an enormous accession of pleasure4 ,for some time1 the exercise of grasping is enough to secure the happiness of many waking hours4 ,pleasure in a rattle also comes at this stage4 ,slightly earlier is the conquest of the toes and fingers4 ,at first1 the movement of the toes is purely reflex2 then the baby discovers that they can be moved at will4 ,this gives all the pleasure of an imperialist conquering a foreign country3 the toes cease to be alien bodies and become incorporated in the ego4 ,from this time onward1 the child should be able to find many amusements1 provided suitable objects are within his reach4 ,and a child's amusements1 for the most part1 will be just what its education requires--provided1 of course that it is not allowed to tumble1 or to swallow pins1 or otherwise injure itself4 ,the first three months of life are1 on the whole1 a somewhat dreary time for the infant1 except during the moments when it is enjoying its meals4 ,when it is comfortable1 it sleeps2 when it is awake1 there is usually some discomfort4 ,the happiness of a human being depends upon mental capacities1 but these can find little outlet in an infant under three months1 for lack of experience and muscular control4 ,young animals enjoy life much sooner1 because they depend more upon instinct and less upon experience2 but the things an infant can do by instinct are too few to provide more than a minimum of pleasure and interest4 ,on the whole1 the first three months involve a good deal of boredom4 ,but the boredom is necessary if there is to be enough sleep2 if much is done to amuse the child1 it will not sleep enough4 ,at about the age of two to three months1 the child learns to smile1 and to have feelings about persons which are different from its feelings about things4 ,at this age1 a social relation between mother and child begins to be possible3 the child can and does show pleasure at the sight of the mother1 and develops responses which are not merely animal4 ,very soon a desire for praise and approval grows up2 in my own boy1 it was first shown unmistakably at the age of five months1 when he succeeded1 after many attempts1 in lifting a somewhat heavy bell off the table1 and ringing it while he looked round at everybody with a proud smile4 ,from this moment1 the educator has a new weapon3 praise and blame4 ,this weapon is extraordinarily powerful throughout childhood1 but it must be used with great caution4 ,there should not be any blame at all during the first year1 and afterwards it should be used very sparingly4 ,praise is less harmful4 ,but it should not be given so easily as to lose its value1 nor should it be used to overstimulate a child4 ,no tolerable parent could refrain from praising a child when it first walks and when it first says an intelligible word4 ,and generally1 when a child has mastered a difficulty after persistent efforts1 praise is a proper reward4 ,moreover it is well to let the child feel that you sympathize with his desire to learn4 ,but on the whole an infant's desire to learn is so strong that parents need only provide opportunity4 ,give the child a chance to develop1 and his own efforts will do the rest4 ,it is not necessary to teach a child to crawl1 or to walk1 or to learn any of the other elements of muscular control4 ,of course we teach a child to talk by talking to it1 but ,i doubt whether any purpose is served by deliberate attempts to teach words4 ,children learn at their own pace1 and it is a mistake to try to force them4 ,the great incentive to effort1 all through life1 is experience of success after initial difficulties4 ,the difficulties must not be so great as to cause discouragement1 or so small as not to stimulate effort4 ,from birth to death1 this is a fundamental principle4 ,it is by what we do ourselves that we learn4 ,what grown-up people can do is to perform some simple action that the child would like to perform1 such as rattling a rattle1 and then let the child find out how to do it4 ,what others do is merely a stimulus to ambition2 it is never in itself an education4 ,regularity and routine are of the utmost importance in early childhood1 and most of all in the first year of life4 ,in regard to sleep1 food1 and evacuation1 regular habits should be formed from the start4 ,moreover familiarity of surroundings is very important mentally4 ,it teaches recognition1 it avoids overstrain1 and it produces a feeling of safety4 ,i have sometimes thought that belief in the uniformity of nature1 which is said to be a postulate of science1 is entirely derived from the wish for safety4 ,we can cope with the expected1 but if the laws of nature were suddenly changed we should perish4 ,the infant1 because of its weakness1 has need of reassurance1 and it will be happier if everything that happens seems to happen according to invariable laws1 so as to be predictable4 ,in later childhood1 the love of adventure develops1 but in the first year of life everything unusual tends to be alarming4 ,do not let the child feel fear if you can possibly help it4 ,if it is ill1 and you are anxious1 hide your anxiety very carefully1 lest it should pass to the child by suggestion4 ,avoid everything that might produce excitement4 ,and do not minister to the child's self-importance by letting it see that you mind if it does not sleep or eat or evacuate as it should4 ,this applies not only to the first year of life1 but still more to the subsequent years4 ,never let the child think that a necessary normal action1 such as eating which ought to be a pleasure1 is something that you desire1 and that you want it to do so to please you4 ,if you do1 the child soon perceives that it has acquired a new source of power1 and expects to be coaxed into actions which it ought to perform spontaneously4 ,do not imagine that the child has not the intelligence for such behaviour4 ,its powers are small and its knowledge is limited1 but it has just as much intelligence as a grown-up person where these limitations do not operate4 ,it learns more in the first twelve months than it will ever learn again in the same space of time1 and this would be impossible if it had not a very active intelligence4 ,to sum up3 ,treat even the youngest baby with respect1 as a person who will have to take his place in the world4 ,do not sacrifice his future to your present convenience1 or to your pleasure in making much of him3 the one is as harmful as the other4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 a combination of love and knowledge is necessary if the right way is to be followed4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,fear ,in the following chapters1 ,i propose to deal with various aspects of moral education1 especially in the years from the second to the sixth4 ,by the time the child is six years old1 moral education ought to be nearly complete2 that is to say1 the further virtues which will be required in later years ought to be developed by the boy or girl spontaneously1 as a result of good habits already existing and ambitions already stimulated4 ,it is only where early moral training has been neglected or badly given that much will be needed at later ages4 ,i suppose that the child has reached the age of twelve months healthy and happy1 with the foundations of a disciplined character already well laid by the methods considered in the preceding chapter4 ,there will1 of course1 be some children whose health is bad1 even if parents take all the precautions known to science at present4 ,but we may hope that their number will be enormously diminished as time goes on4 ,they ought1 even now1 to be so few as to be statistically unimportant1 if existing knowledge were adequately applied4 ,i do not propose to consider what ought to be done with children whose early training has been bad4 ,this is a problem for the schoolmaster1 not for the parent2 and it is especially to the parent that this book is addressed4 ,the second year of life should be one of great happiness4 ,walking and talking are new accomplishments1 bringing a sense of freedom and power4 ,every day the child improves in both4#e ,independent play becomes possible1 and the child has a more vivid sense of 8seeing the world0 than a man can derive from the most extensive globe-trotting4 ,birds and flowers1 rivers and the sea1 motor-cars and trains and steamers all bring delight and passionate interest4 ,curiosity is boundless3 8want to see0 is one of the commonest phrases at this age4 ,running freely in a garden or a field or on the seashore produces an ecstasy of emancipation after the confinement of crib and baby-carriage4 ,digestion is usually stronger than in the first year1 food is more varied1 and mastication is a new joy4 ,for all these reasons1 if the child is well cared for and healthy1 life is a delicious adventure4 ,but with the greater independence of walking and running there is apt to come also a new timidity4 ,the new-born infant can easily be frightened2 ,dr4 ,j4 ,b4 and ,mrs4 ,watson found that the things which alarm it most are loud noises and the sensation of being dropped4#f ,it is1 however1 so completely protected that it has little occasion for the rational exercise of fear2 even in real dangers it is helpless1 so that fear would not be of any use to it4 ,during the second and third year1 new fears develop4 ,it is a moot point how far this is due to suggestion1 and how far it is instinctive4 ,the fact that the fears do not exist during the first year is not conclusive against their instinctive character1 since an instinct may ripen at any age4 ,not even the most extreme ,freudian would maintain that the sex instinct is mature at birth4 ,obviously children who can run about by themselves have more need of fear than infants that cannot walk2 it would therefore not be surprising if the instinct of fear arose with the need4 ,the question is of considerable educational importance4 ,if all fears arise from suggestion1 they can be prevented by the simple expedient of not showing fear or aversion before a child4 ,if1 on the other hand1 some of them are instinctive1 more elaborate methods will be required4 ,dr4 ,chalmers ,mitchell1 in his book 8,the ,childhood of ,animals01 gives a large number of observations and experiments to show that there is usually no inherited instinct of fear in young animals4#g ,except monkeys and a few birds1 they view the age-long enemies of their species1 such as snakes1 without the slightest alarm1 unless their parents have taught them to feel fear of these animals4 ,children well under a year old seem never to be afraid of animals4 ,dr4 ,watson taught one such child to be afraid of rats by repeatedly sounding a gong behind its head at the moment when he showed it a rat4 ,the noise was terrifying1 and the rat came to be so by association4 ,but instinctive fear of animals seems quite unknown in the early months4 ,fear of the dark1 also1 seems never to occur in children who have not been exposed to the suggestion that the dark is terrifying4 ,there are certainly very strong grounds for the view that most of the fears which we used to regard as instinctive are acquired1 and would not arise if grown-up people did not create them4 ,in order to get fresh light on this subject1 ,i have observed my own children carefully2 but as ,i could not always know what nurses and maids might have said to them1 the interpretation of the facts was often doubtful4 ,so far as ,i could judge1 they bore out ,dr4 ,watson's views as to fear in the first year of life4 ,in the second year1 they showed no fear of animals1 except that one of them1 for a time1 was afraid of horses4 ,this1 however1 was apparently due to the fact that a horse had suddenly galloped past her with a very loud noise4 ,she is still in her second year1 and therefore for later observation ,i am dependent on the boy4 ,near the end of his second year1 he had a new nurse who was generally timid and especially afraid of the dark4 ,he quickly acquired her terrors 7of which we were ignorant at first72 he fled from dogs and cats1 cowered in abject fear before a dark cupboard1 wanted lights in every part of the room after dark1 and was even afraid of his little sister the first time he saw her1 thinking1 apparently1 that she was a strange animal of some unknown species4#h ,all these fears might have been acquired from the timid nurse2 in fact they gradually faded away after she was gone4 ,there were other fears1 however1 which could not be accounted for in the same way1 since they began before the nurse came1 and were directed to objects which no grown-up person would find alarming4 ,chief of these was a fear of everything that moved in a surprising way1 notably shadows and mechanical toys4 ,after making this observation1 ,i learned that fears of this sort are normal in childhood1 and that there are strong reasons for regarding them as instinctive4 ,the matter is discussed by ,william ,stern in his 8,psychology of ,early ,childhood01 p4 #did ff1 under the heading 8,fear of the ,mysterious04 ,what he says is as follows3 ,the special significance of this form of fear1 particularly in early childhood1 has escaped the notice of the older school of child psychologists2 it has lately been established by ,groos and by us4 8,fear of the unaccustomed seems to be more a part of primitive nature than fear of a known danger0 7,groos1 p4 #bhd74 ,if the child meets with anything that does not fit in with the familiar course of his perception1 three things are possible4 ,either the impression is so alien that it is simply rejected as a foreign body1 and consciousness takes no notice of it4 ,or the interruption of the usual course of perception is pronounced enough to attract attention but not so violent as to effect disturbance2 it is rather surprise1 desire for knowledge1 the beginning of all thought1 judgment1 enquiry4 ,or1 lastly1 the new suddenly breaks in upon the old with violent intensity1 throws familiar ideas into unexpected confusion without a possibility of an immediate practical adjustment2 then follows a shock with a strong affective-tone of displeasure1 the fear of the mysterious 7uncanny74 ,groos now has pointed out with keen insight that this fear of the uncanny is also distinctly founded on instinctive fear2 it corresponds to a biological necessity which works from one generation to the next4 ,stern gives many instances1 among others fear of a suddenly opened umbrella and 8the frequent fear of mechanical toys04 ,the former1 by the way1 is very strong in horses and cows3 a large herd can be driven into headlong flight by it1 as ,i have verified4 ,my own boy's terrors1 under this head1 were just such as ,stern describes4 ,the shadows that frightened him were vague quickly-moving shadows thrown into a room by unseen objects 7such as omnibuses7 passing in the street4 ,i cured him by making shadows on the wall and the floor with my fingers1 and getting him to imitate me2 before long1 he felt that he understood shadows and began to enjoy them4 ,the same principle applied to mechanical toys3 when he had seen the mechanism he was no longer frightened4 ,but when the mechanism was invisible the process was slow4 ,some one gave him a cushion which emitted a long melancholy whine after being sat upon or pressed4 ,this alarmed him for a long time4 ,in no case did we entirely remove the terrifying object3 we put it at a distance1 where it was only slightly alarming2 we produced gradual familiarity2 and we persisted till the fear completely ceased4 ,generally the same mysterious quality which caused fear at first produced delight when the fear had been overcome4 ,i think an irrational fear should never be simply let alone1 but should be gradually overcome by familiarity with its fainter forms4 ,we adopted an exactly opposite process--perhaps wrongly--in the case of two rational fears which were wholly absent4 ,i live half the year on a rocky coast where there are many precipices4 ,the boy had no sense whatever of the danger of heights1 and would have run straight over a cliff into the sea if we had let him4 ,one day when we were sitting on a steep slope that ended in a sheer drop of a hundred feet1 we explained to him quietly1 as a merely scientific fact1 that if he went over the edge he would fall and break like a plate4 7,he had lately seen a plate broken into many pieces by being dropped on the floor47 ,he sat still for some time1 saying to himself 8fall01 8break01 and then asked to be taken further from the edge4 ,this was at the age of about two and a half4 ,since then he has had just enough fear of heights to make him safe while we keep an eye on him4 ,but he would still be very rash if left to himself4 ,he now 7three and nine months7 jumps from heights of six feet without hesitation1 and would jump twenty feet if we would let him4 ,thus the instruction in apprehension certainly did not produce excessive results4 ,i attribute this to the fact that it was instruction1 not suggestion2 neither of us was feeling fear when the instruction was given4 ,i regard this as very important in education4 ,rational apprehension of dangers is necessary2 fear is not4 ,a child cannot apprehend dangers without some element of fear1 but this element is very much diminished when it is not present in the instructor4 ,a grown-up person in charge of a child should never feel fear4 ,that is one reason why courage should be cultivated in women just as much as in men4 ,the second illustration was less deliberate4 ,one day when ,i was walking with the boy 7at the age of three years and four months7 we found an adder on the path4 ,he had seen pictures of snakes1 but had never before seen a real snake4 ,he did not know that snakes bite4 ,he was delighted with the adder1 and when it glided away he ran after it4 ,as ,i knew he could not catch it1 ,i did not check him1 and did not tell him that snakes are dangerous4 ,his nurse1 however1 from that time on1 prevented him from running in long grass1 on the ground that there might be snakes4 ,a slight fear grew up in him as a result1 but not more than we felt to be desirable4 ,the most difficult fear to overcome1 so far1 has been fear of the sea4 ,our first attempt to take the boy into the sea was at the age of two and a half4 ,at first1 it was quite impossible4 ,he disliked the cold of the water1 he was frightened by the noise of the waves1 and they seemed to him to be always coming1 never going4 ,if the waves were big1 he would not even go near to the sea4 ,this was a period of general timidity2 animals1 odd noises1 and various other things1 caused alarm4 ,we dealt with fear of the sea piecemeal4 ,we put the boy into shallow pools away from the sea1 until the mere cold had ceased to be a shock2 at the end of the four warm months1 he enjoyed paddling in shallow water at a distance from waves1 but still cried if we put him into deep pools where the water came up to his waist4 ,we accustomed him to the noise of the waves by letting him play for an hour at a time just out of sight of them2 then we took him to where he could see them1 and made him notice that after coming in they go out again4 ,all this1 combined with the example of his parents and other children1 only brought him to the point where he could be near the waves without fear4 ,i am convinced that the fear was instinctive2 ,i am fairly certain there had been no suggestion to cause it4 ,the following summer1 at the age of three and a half1 we took the matter up again4 ,there was still a terror of going actually into the waves4 ,after some unsuccessful coaxing1 combined with the spectacle of everybody else bathing1 we adopted old-fashioned methods4 ,when he showed cowardice1 we made him feel that we were ashamed of him2 when he showed courage1 we praised him warmly4 ,every day for about a fortnight1 we plunged him up to the neck in the sea1 in spite of his struggles and cries4#i ,every day they grew less2 before they ceased1 he began to ask to be put in4 ,at the end of a fortnight1 the desired result had been achieved3 he no longer feared the sea4 ,from that moment1 we left him completely free1 and he bathed of his own accord whenever the weather was suitable--obviously with the greatest enjoyment4 ,fear had not ceased altogether1 but had been partly repressed by pride4 ,familiarity1 however1 made the fear grow rapidly less1 and it has now ceased altogether4 ,his sister1 now twenty months old1 has never shown any fear of the sea1 and runs straight in without the slightest hesitation4 ,i have related this matter in some detail1 because1 to a certain extent1 it goes against modern theories for which ,i have much respect4 ,the use of force in education should be very rare4 ,but for the conquest of fear it is1 ,i think1 sometimes salutary4 ,where a fear is irrational and strong1 the child1 left to himself1 will never have the experiences which show that there is no ground for apprehension4 ,when a situation has been experienced repeatedly without harm1 familiarity kills fear4 ,it would very likely be useless to give the dreaded experience once2 it must be given often enough to become in no degree surprising4 ,if the necessary experience can be secured without force1 so much the better2 but if not1 force may be better than the persistence of an unconquered fear4 ,there is a further point4 ,in the case of my own boy1 and presumably in other cases too1 the experience of overcoming fear is extraordinarily delightful4 ,it is easy to rouse the boy's pride3 when he has won praise for courage1 he is radiantly happy for the rest of the day4 ,at a later stage1 a timid boy suffers agonies through the contempt of other boys1 and it is much more difficult then for him to acquire new habits4 ,i think therefore that the early acquisition of self-control in the matter of fear1 and the early teaching of physical enterprise1 are of sufficient importance to warrant somewhat drastic methods4 ,parents learn by their mistakes2 it is only when the children are grown up that one discovers how they ought to have been educated4 ,i shall therefore relate an incident which shows the snares of overindulgence4 ,at the age of two and a half1 my boy was put to sleep in a room by himself4 ,he was inordinately proud of the promotion from the night-nursery1 and at first he always slept quietly through the night4 ,but one night there was a terrific gale1 and a hurdle was blown over with a deafening crash4 ,he woke in terror1 and cried out4 ,i went to him at once3 he had apparently waked with a nightmare1 and clung to me with his heart beating wildly4 ,very soon his terror ceased4 ,but he had complained that it was dark--usually1 at that time of year1 he slept all through the dark hours4 ,after ,i left him1 the terror seemed to return in a mitigated form1 so ,i gave him a night-light4 ,after that1 he made an almost nightly practice of crying out1 until at last it became clear that he was only doing it for the pleasure of having grown-up people come and make a fuss4 ,so we talked to him very carefully about the absence of danger in the dark1 and told him that if he woke he was to turn over and go to sleep again1 as we should not come to him unless there was something serious the matter4 ,he listened attentively1 and never cried out again except for grave cause on rare occasions4 ,of course the night-light was discontinued4 ,if we had been more indulgent1 we should probably have made him sleep badly for a long time1 perhaps for life4 ,so much from personal experience4 ,we must now pass on to a more general consideration of methods for eliminating fear4 ,after the first years1 the proper instructors in physical courage are other children4 ,if a child has older brothers and sisters1 they will stimulate it both by example and by precept1 and whatever they can do it will attempt4 ,at school1 physical cowardice is despised1 and there is no need for grown-up teachers to emphasize the matter4 ,at least1 that is the case among boys4 ,it ought to be equally the case among girls1 who should have precisely the same standards of courage4 ,in physical ways1 fortunately1 school-girls are no longer taught to be 8lady-like01 and their natural impulses towards physical prowess are allowed a fair amount of scope4 ,there is still1 however1 some difference between boys and girls in this respect4 ,i am convinced there ought to be none4#aj ,when ,i speak of courage as desirable1 ,i am taking a purely behaviorist definition3 a man is courageous when he does things which others might fail to do owing to fear4 ,if he feels no fear1 so much the better2 ,i do not regard control of fear by the will as the only true courage1 or even as the best form of courage4 ,the secret of modern moral education is to produce results by means of good habits which were formerly produced 7or attempted7 by self-control and will-power4 ,courage due to the will produces nervous disorders1 of which 8shell-shock0 afforded numerous instances4 ,the fears which had been repressed forced their way to the surface in ways not recognizable to introspection4 ,i do not mean to suggest that self-control can be dispensed with entirely2 on the contrary1 no man can live a consistent life without it4 ,what ,i do mean is1 that self-control ought only to be needed in unforeseen situations1 for which education has not provided in advance4 ,it would have been foolish1 even if it had been possible1 to train the whole population to have1 without effort1 the sort of courage that was needed in the war4 ,this was an exceptional and temporary need1 of so extraordinary a kind that all other education would have had to be stunted if the habits required in the trenches had been instilled in youth4 ,the late ,dr4 ,rivers1 in his book on 8,instinct and the ,unconscious01 gives the best psychological analysis of fear with which ,i am acquainted4 ,he points out that one way of meeting a dangerous situation is manipulative activity1 and that those who are able to employ this method adequately do not1 at least consciously1 feel the emotion of fear4 ,it is a valuable experience1 which stimulates both self-respect and effort1 to pass gradually from fear to skill4 ,even so simple a matter as learning to ride a bicycle will give this experience in a mild form4 ,in the modern world1 owing to increase of mechanism1 this sort of skill is becoming more and more important4 ,i suggest that training in physical courage should be as far as possible given by teaching skill in manipulating or controlling matter1 not by means of bodily contests with other human beings4 ,the kind of courage required for mountaineering1 for manipulating an aeroplane1 or for managing a small ship in a gale1 seems to me far more admirable than the sort required in fighting4 ,as far as possible1 therefore1 ,i should train school-children in forms of more or less dangerous dexterity1 rather than in such things as football4 ,where there is an enemy to be overcome1 let it be matter rather than other human beings4 ,i do not mean that this principle should be applied pedantically1 but that it should be allowed more weight in athletics than is the case at present4 ,there are1 of course1 more passive aspects of physical courage4 ,there is endurance of hurts without making a fuss2 this can be taught to children by not giving too much sympathy when they have small mishaps4 ,a great deal of hysteria in later life consists mainly of an excessive desire for sympathy3 people invent ailments in the hope of being petted and treated softly4 ,this disposition can usually be prevented from developing by not encouraging children to cry over every scratch and bruise4 ,in this respect1 the education of the nursery is still much worse for girls than for boys4 ,it is just as bad to be soft with girls as with boys2 if women are to be the equals of men1 they must not be inferior in the sterner virtues4 ,i come now to the forms of courage that are not purely physical4 ,these are the more important forms1 but it is difficult to develop them adequately except on a foundation of the more elementary kinds4 ,the fear of the mysterious has been already touched upon1 in connection with childish terrors4 ,i believe this fear to be instinctive1 and of immense historical importance4 ,most superstition is due to it4 ,eclipses1 earthquakes1 plagues1 and such occurrences arouse it in a high degree among unscientific populations4 ,it is a very dangerous form of fear1 both individually and socially2 to eradicate it in youth is therefore highly desirable4 ,the proper antidote to it is scientific explanation4 ,it is not necessary that everything which is mysterious at first sight should be explained3 after a certain number of explanations have been given1 the child will assume that there are explanations in other cases1 and it will become possible to say that the explanation cannot be given yet4 ,the important thing is to produce1 as soon as possible1 the feeling that the sense of mystery is only due to ignorance1 which can be dispelled by patience and mental effort4 ,it is a remarkable fact that the very things which terrify children at first by their mysterious properties delight them as soon as fear is overcome4 ,thus mystery becomes an incentive to study1 as soon as it ceases to promote superstition4 ,my little boy1 at the age of three and a half1 spent many hours in absorbed solitary study of a garden syringe1 until he had grasped how the water came in and the air came out1 and how the converse process occurred4 ,eclipses can be explained so as to be intelligible even to very tiny children4 ,whatever either terrifies or interests the child should be explained if it is at all possible2 this transforms fear into scientific interest by a process which is entirely along the lines of instinct and repeats the history of the race4 ,some problems1 in this connection1 are difficult1 and require much tact4 ,the most difficult is death4 ,the child soon discovers that plants and animals die4 ,the chances are that somebody he knows will die before he is six years old4 ,if he has at all an active mind1 it occurs to him that his parents will die1 and even that he will die himself4 7,this is more difficult to imagine47 ,these thoughts will produce a crop of questions1 which must be answered carefully4 ,a person whose beliefs are orthodox will have less difficulty than a person who thinks that there is no life after death4 ,if you hold the latter view1 do not say anything contrary to it2 no consideration on earth justifies a parent in telling lies to his child4 ,it is best to explain that death is a sleep from which people do not wake4 ,this should be said without solemnity1 as if it were the most ordinary thing imaginable4 ,if the child worries about dying himself1 tell him it is not likely to happen for many1 many years4 ,it would be useless1 in early years1 to attempt to instil a ,stoic contempt for death4 ,do not introduce the topic1 but do not avoid it when the child introduces it4 ,do all you can to make the child feel that there is no mystery about it4 ,if he is a normal healthy child1 these methods will suffice to keep him from brooding4 ,at all ages1 be willing to talk fully and frankly1 to tell all that you believe1 and to convey the impression that the subject is rather uninteresting4 ,it is not good either for old or young to spend much time in thinking about death4 ,apart from special fears1 children are liable to a diffused anxiety4 ,this is generally due to too much repression by their elders1 and is therefore much less common than it used to be4 ,perpetual nagging1 prohibition of noise1 constant instruction in manners1 used to make childhood a period of misery4 ,i can remember1 at the age of five1 being told that childhood was the happiest period of life 7a blank lie1 in those days74 ,i wept inconsolably1 wished ,i were dead1 and wondered how ,i should endure the boredom of the years to come4 ,it is almost inconceivable1 nowadays1 that any one should say such a thing to a child4 ,the child's life is instinctively prospective3 it is always directed towards the things that will become possible later on4 ,this is part of the stimulus to the child's efforts4 ,to make the child retrospective1 to represent the future as worse than the past1 is to sap the life of the child at its source4 ,yet that is what heartless sentimentalists used to do by talking to the child about the joys of childhood4 ,fortunately the impression of their words did not last long4 ,at most times1 ,i believed the grown-ups must be perfectly happy1 because they had no lessons and they could eat what they liked4 ,this belief was healthy and stimulating4 ,shyness is a distressing form of timidity1 which is common in ,england and ,china1 and parts of ,america1 but rare elsewhere4 ,it arises partly from having little to do with strangers1 partly from insistence upon company manners4 ,as far as is convenient1 children should1 after the first year1 become accustomed to seeing strangers and being handled by them4 ,as regards manners1 they should1 at first1 be taught the bare minimum required for not being an intolerable nuisance4 ,it is better to let them see strangers for a few minutes without restraint and then be taken away1 than to expect them to stay in the room and be quiet4 ,but after the first two years it is a good plan to teach them to amuse themselves quietly part of the day1 with pictures or clay or ,montessori apparatus or something of the kind4 ,there should always be a reason for quiet that they can understand4 ,manners should not be taught in the abstract1 except when it can be done as an amusing game4 ,but as soon as the child can understand he should realize that parents also have their rights2 he must accord freedom to others1 and have freedom for himself to the utmost possible extent4 ,children easily appreciate justice1 and will readily accord to others what others accord to them4 ,this is the core of good manners4 ,above all1 if you wish to dispel fear in your children1 be fearless yourself4 ,if you are afraid of thunderstorms1 the child will catch your fear the first time he hears thunder in your presence4 ,if you express a dread of social revolution1 the child will feel a fright all the greater for not knowing what you are talking about4 ,if you are apprehensive about illness1 so will your child be4 ,life is full of perils1 but the wise man ignores those that are inevitable1 and acts prudently but without emotion as regards those that can be avoided4 ,you cannot avoid dying1 but you can avoid dying intestate2 therefore make your will1 and forget that you are mortal4 ,rational provision against misfortune is a totally different thing from fear2 it is a part of wisdom1 whereas all fear is slavish4 ,if you cannot avoid feeling fears1 try to prevent your child from suspecting them4 ,above all1 give him that wide outlook and that multiplicity of vivid interests that will prevent him1 in later life1 from brooding upon possibilities of personal misfortune4 ,only so can you make him a free citizen of the universe4 ,,chapter ,v ,,play ,,and ,,fancy ,love of play is the most obvious distinguishing mark of young animals1 whether human or otherwise4 ,in human children1 this is accompanied by an inexhaustible pleasure in pretence4 ,play and pretence are a vital need of childhood1 for which opportunity must be provided if the child is to be happy and healthy1 quite independently of any further utility in these activities4 ,there are two questions which concern education in this connection3 first1 what should parents and schools do in the way of providing opportunity8 and secondly1 should they do anything more1 with a view to increasing the educational usefulness of games8 ,let us begin with a few words about the psychology of games4 ,this has been exhaustively treated by ,groos2 a shorter discussion will be found in ,william ,stern's book mentioned in the preceding chapter4 ,there are two separate questions in this matter3 the first is as to the impulses which produce play1 the second is as to its biological utility4 ,the second is the easier question4 ,there seems no reason to doubt the most widely accepted theory1 that in play the young of any species rehearse and practise the activities which they will have to perform in earnest later on4 ,the play of puppies is exactly like a dog-fight1 except that they do not actually bite each other4 ,the play of kittens resembles the behaviour of cats with mice4 ,children love to imitate any work they have been watching1 such as building or digging2 the more important the work seems to them1 the more they like to play at it4 ,and they enjoy anything that gives them new muscular facilities1 such as jumping1 climbing1 or walking up a narrow plank--always provided the task is not too difficult4 ,but although this accounts1 in a general way1 for the usefulness of the play-impulse1 it does not by any means cover all its manifestations1 and must not for a moment be regarded as giving a psychological analysis4 ,some psycho-analysts have tried to see a sexual symbolism in children's play4 ,this1 ,i am convinced1 is utter moonshine4 ,the main instinctive urge of childhood is not sex1 but the desire to become adult1 or1 perhaps more correctly1 the will to power4#aa ,the child is impressed by his own weakness in comparison with older people1 and he wishes to become their equal4 ,i remember my boy's profound delight when he realized that he would one day be a man and that ,i had once been a child2 one could see effort being stimulated by the realization that success was possible4 ,from a very early age1 the child wishes to do what older people do1 as is shown by the practice of imitation4 ,older brothers and sisters are useful1 because their purposes can be understood and their capacities are not so far out of reach as those of grown-up people4 ,the feeling of inferiority is very strong in children2 when they are normal and rightly educated1 it is a stimulus to effort1 but if they are repressed it may become a source of unhappiness4 ,in play1 we have two forms of the will to power3 the form which consists in learning to do things1 and the form which consists in fantasy4 ,just as the balked adult may indulge in daydreams that have a sexual significance1 so the normal child indulges in pretences that have a power-significance4 ,he likes to be a giant1 or a lion1 or a train2 in his make-believe1 he inspires terror4 ,when ,i told my boy the story of ,jack the ,giant ,killer1 ,i tried to make him identify himself with ,jack1 but he firmly chose the giant4 ,when his mother told him the story of ,bluebeard1 he insisted on being ,bluebeard1 and regarded the wife as justly punished for insubordination4 ,in his play1 there was a sanguinary outbreak of cutting off ladies' heads4 ,sadism1 ,freudians would say2 but he enjoyed just as much being a giant who ate little boys1 or an engine that could pull a heavy load4 ,power1 not sex1 was the common element in these pretences4 ,one day1 when we were returning from a walk1 ,i told him1 as an obvious joke1 that perhaps we should find a certain ,mr4 ,tiddliewinks in possession of our house1 and he might refuse to let us in4 ,after that1 for a long time1 he would stand on the porch being ,mr4 ,tiddliewinks1 and telling me to go to another house4 ,his delight in this game was unbounded1 and obviously the pretence of power was what he enjoyed4 ,it would1 however1 be an undue simplification to suppose that the will to power is the sole source of children's play4 ,they enjoy the pretence of terror--perhaps because the knowledge that it is a pretence increases their sense of safety4 ,sometimes ,i pretend to be a crocodile coming to eat my boy up4 ,he squeals so realistically that ,i stop1 thinking he is really frightened2 but the moment ,i stop he says1 8,daddy be a crocodile again04 ,a good deal of the pleasure of pretence is sheer joy in drama--the same thing that makes adults like novels and the theatre4 ,i think curiosity has a part in all this3 by playing bears1 the child feels as if he were getting to know about bears4 ,i think every strong impulse in the child's life is reflected in play3 power is only dominant in his play in proportion as it is dominant in his desires4 ,as regards the educational value of play1 everybody would agree in praising the sort that consists in acquiring new aptitudes1 but many moderns look with suspicion upon the sort that consists in pretence4 ,daydreams1 in adult life1 are recognized as more or less pathological1 and as a substitute for efforts in the sphere of reality4 ,some of the discredit which has fallen upon daydreams has spilled over on to children's pretences1 quite mistakenly1 as ,i think4 ,montessori teachers do not like children to turn their apparatus into trains or steamers or what not3 this is called 8disordered imagination04 ,they are quite right1 because what the children are doing is not really play1 even if to themselves it may seem to be nothing more4 ,the apparatus amuses the child1 but its purpose is instruction2 the amusement is merely a means to instruction4 ,in real play1 amusement is the governing purpose4 ,when the objection to 8disordered imagination0 is carried over into genuine play1 it seems to me to go too far4 ,the same thing applies to the objection to telling children about fairies and giants and witches and magic carpets and so on4 ,i cannot sympathize with the ascetics of truth1 any more than with ascetics of other kinds4 ,it is commonly said that children do not distinguish between pretence and reality1 but ,i see very little reason to believe this4 ,we do not believe that ,hamlet ever existed1 but we should be annoyed by a man who kept reminding us of this while we were enjoying the play4 ,so children are annoyed by a tactless reminder of reality1 but are not in the least taken in by their own make-believe4 ,truth is important1 and imagination is important2 but imagination develops earlier in the history of the individual1 as in that of the race4 ,so long as the child's physical needs are attended to1 he finds games far more interesting than reality4 ,in games he is a king3 indeed he rules his territory with a power surpassing that of any mere earthly monarch4 ,in reality he has to go to bed at a certain time1 and to obey a host of tiresome precepts4 ,he is exasperated when unimaginative adults interfere thoughtlessly with his mise-en-scne4 ,when he has built a wall that not even the biggest giants can scale1 and you carelessly step over it1 he is as angry as ,romulus was with ,remus4 ,seeing that his inferiority to other people is normal1 not pathological1 its compensation in fantasy is also normal and not pathological4 ,his games do not take up time which might be more profitably spent in other ways3 if all his hours were given over to serious pursuits1 he would soon become a nervous wreck4 ,an adult who indulges in dreams may be told to exert himself in order to realize them2 but a child cannot yet realize dreams which it is right that he should have4 ,he does not regard his fancies as a permanent substitute for reality2 on the contrary1 he ardently hopes to translate them into fact when the time comes4 ,it is a dangerous error to confound truth with matter-of-fact4 ,our life is governed not only by facts1 but by hopes2 the kind of truthfulness which sees nothing but facts is a prison for the human spirit4 ,dreams are only to be condemned when they are a lazy substitute for an effort to change reality2 when they are an incentive1 they are fulfilling a vital purpose in the incarnation of human ideals4 ,to kill fancy in childhood is to make a slave to what exists1 a creature tethered to earth and therefore unable to create heaven4 ,this is all very well1 you may say1 but what has it to do with giants eating children1 or ,bluebeard cutting off his wives' heads8 ,are these things to exist in your heaven8 ,must not imagination be purified and ennobled before it can serve any good purpose8 ,how can you1 a pacifist1 allow your innocent boy to revel in the thought of destroying human life8 ,how can you justify a pleasure derived from instincts of savagery which the human race must outgrow8 ,all this ,i imagine the reader has been feeling4 ,the matter is important1 and ,i will try to state why ,i hold to a different point of view4 ,education consists in the cultivation of instincts1 not in their suppression4 ,human instincts are very vague1 and can be satisfied in a great variety of ways4 ,most of them require1 for their gratification1 some kind of skill4 ,cricket and baseball satisfy the same instinct1 but a boy will play whichever he has learnt4 ,thus the secret of instruction1 in so far as it bears upon character1 is to give a man such kinds of skill as shall lead to his employing his instincts usefully4 ,the instinct of power1 which in the child is crudely satisfied by identification with ,bluebeard1 can find in later life a refined satisfaction by scientific discovery1 or artistic creation1 or the creation and education of splendid children1 or any one of a thousand useful activities4 ,if the only thing a man knows is how to fight1 his will to power will make him delight in battle4 ,but if he has other kinds of skill1 he will find his satisfaction in other ways4 ,if1 however1 his will to power has been nipped in the bud when he was a child1 he will be listless and lazy1 doing little good and little harm2 he will be 8a ,dio spiacente ed a' nemici sui40 ,this kind of milksop goodness is not what the world needs1 or what we should try to produce in our children4 ,while they are small and cannot do much harm1 it is biologically natural that they should1 in imagination1 live through the life of remote savage ancestors4 ,do not be afraid that they will remain at that level1 if you put in their way the knowledge and skill required for more refined satisfactions4 ,when ,i was a child1 ,i loved to turn head over heels4 ,i never do so now1 though ,i should not think it wicked to do so4 ,similarly the child who enjoys being ,bluebeard will outgrow this taste1 and learn to seek power in other ways4 ,and if his imagination has been kept alive in childhood by the stimuli appropriate to that stage1 it is much more likely to remain alive in later years1 when it can exercise itself in the ways suitable to a man4 ,it is useless to obtrude moral ideas at an age at which they can evoke no response1 and at which they are not yet required for the control of behaviour4 ,the only effect is boredom1 and imperviousness to those same ideas at the later age when they might have become potent4 ,that is one reason1 among others1 why the study of child psychology is of such vital importance to education4 ,the games of later years differ from those of early childhood by the fact that they become increasingly competitive4 ,at first1 a child's play is solitary2 it is difficult for an infant to join in the games of older brothers and sisters4 ,but collective play1 as soon as it becomes possible1 is so much more delightful that pleasure in playing alone quickly ceases4 ,english upper-class education has always attributed an enormous moral importance to school games4 ,to my mind1 there is some exaggeration in the conventional ,british view1 although ,i admit that games have certain important merits4 ,they are good for health1 provided they are not too expert2 if exceptional skill is too much prized the best players overdo it1 while the others tend to lapse into spectators4 ,they teach boys and girls to endure hurts without making a fuss1 and to incur great fatigue cheerfully4 ,but the other advantages which are claimed for them seem to me largely illusory4 ,they are said to teach co-operation1 but in fact they only teach it in its competitive form4 ,this is the form required in war1 not in industry or in the right kind of social relations4 ,science has made it technically possible to substitute co-operation for competition1 both in economics and in international politics2 at the same time it has made competition 7in the form of war7 much more dangerous than it used to be4 ,for these reasons1 it is more important than in former times to cultivate the idea of co-operative enterprises in which the 8enemy0 is physical nature1 rather than competitive enterprises in which there are human victors and vanquished4 ,i do not want to lay too much stress upon this consideration1 because competitiveness is natural to man and must find some outlet1 which can hardly be more innocent than games and athletic contests4 ,this is a valid reason for not preventing games1 but it is not a valid reason for exalting them into a leading position in the school curriculum4 ,let boys play because they like to do so1 not because the authorities think games an antidote to what the ,japanese call 8dangerous thoughts04 ,i have said a great deal in an earlier chapter about the importance of overcoming fear and producing courage2 but courage must not be confounded with brutality4 ,brutality is pleasure in forcing one's will upon other people2 courage is indifference to personal misfortunes4 ,i would teach boys and girls1 if opportunity offered1 to sail small ships in stormy seas1 to dive from heights1 to drive a motor-car or even an aeroplane4 ,i would teach them1 as ,sanderson of ,oundle did1 to build machines and incur risks in scientific experiment4 ,as far as possible1 ,i would represent inanimate nature as the antagonist in the game2 the will to power can find satisfaction in this contest just as well as in competing with other human beings4 ,the skill acquired in this way is more useful than skill in cricket or football1 and the character developed is more in accordance with social morality4 ,and apart from moral qualities1 the cult of athletics involves an under-estimation of intelligence4 ,great ,britain is losing her industrial position1 and will perhaps lose her empire1 through stupidity1 and through the fact that the authorities do not value or promote intelligence4 ,all this is connected with the fanatical belief in the paramount importance of games4 ,of course it goes deeper3 the belief that a young man's athletic record is a test of his worth is a symptom of our general failure to grasp the need of knowledge and thought in mastering the complex modern world4 ,but on this topic ,i will say no more now1 as it will be considered again at a later stage4 ,there is another aspect of school games1 which is usually considered good but which ,i think on the whole bad2 ,i mean1 their efficacy in promoting esprit de corps4 ,esprit de corps is liked by authorities1 because it enables them to utilize bad motives for what are considered to be good actions4 ,if efforts are to be made they are easily stimulated by promoting the desire to surpass some other group4 ,the difficulty is that no motive is provided for efforts which are not competitive4 ,it is amazing how deeply the competitive motive has eaten into all our activities4 ,if you wish to persuade a borough to improve the public provision for the care of children1 you have to point out that some neighbouring borough has a lower infant mortality4 ,if you wish to persuade a manufacturer to adopt a new process which is clearly an improvement1 you have to emphasize the danger of competition4 ,if you wish to persuade the ,war ,office that a modicum of military knowledge is desirable in the higher commands--but no1 not even fear of defeat will prevail in this case1 so strong is the 8gentlemanly0 tradition4#ab ,nothing is done to promote constructiveness for its own sake1 or to make people take an interest in doing their job efficiently even if no one is to be injured thereby4 ,our economic system has more to do with this than school games4 ,but school games1 as they now exist1 embody the spirit of competition4 ,if the spirit of co-operation is to take its place1 a change in school games will be necessary4 ,but to develop this subject would take us too far from our theme4 ,i am not considering the building of the good ,state1 but the building of the good individual1 in so far as this is possible in the existing ,state4 ,improvement in the individual and improvement in the community must go hand in hand1 but it is the individual that specially concerns the writer on education4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,constructiveness ,the subject of this chapter is one which has already been considered incidentally in connection with play1 but it is now to be considered on its own account4 ,the instinctive desires of children1 as we have seen1 are vague2 education and opportunity can turn them into many different channels4 ,neither the old belief in original sin1 nor ,rousseau's belief in natural virtue1 is in accordance with the facts4 ,the raw material of instinct is ethically neutral1 and can be shaped either to good or evil by the influence of the environment4 ,there is ground for a sober optimism in the fact that1 apart from pathological cases1 most people's instincts are1 at first1 capable of being developed into good forms2 and the pathological cases would be very few1 given proper mental and physical hygiene in the early years4 ,a proper education would make it possible to live in accordance with instinct1 but it would be a trained and cultivated instinct1 not the crude unformed impulse which is all that nature provides4 ,the great cultivator of instinct is skill3 skill which provides certain kinds of satisfaction1 but not others4 ,give a man the right kinds of skill1 and he will be virtuous2 give him the wrong kinds1 or none at all1 and he will be wicked4 ,these general considerations apply with special force to the will to power4 ,we all like to effect something1 but so far as the love of power is concerned we do not care what we effect4 ,broadly speaking1 the more difficult the achievement the more it pleases us4 ,men like fly-fishing1 because it is difficult2 they will not shoot a bird sitting1 because it is easy4 ,i take these illustrations1 because in them a man has no ulterior motive beyond the pleasure of the activity4 ,but the same principle applies everywhere4 ,i liked arithmetic until ,i learnt ,euclid1 ,euclid until ,i learnt analytical geometry1 and so on4 ,a child1 at first1 delights in walking1 then in running1 then in jumping and climbing4 ,what we can do easily no longer gives us a sense of power2 it is the newly-acquired skill1 or the skill about which we are doubtful1 that gives us the thrill of success4 ,that is why the will to power is so immeasurably adaptable according to the type of skill which is taught4 ,construction and destruction alike satisfy the will to power1 but construction is more difficult as a rule1 and therefore gives more satisfaction to the person who can achieve it4 ,i shall not attempt to give a pedantically exact definition of construction and destruction2 ,i suppose1 roughly speaking1 we construct when we increase the potential energy of the system in which we are interested1 and we destroy when we diminish its potential energy4 ,or1 in more psychological terms1 we construct when we produce a predesigned structure1 and we destroy when we liberate natural forces to alter an existing structure1 without being interested in the resulting new structure4 ,whatever may be thought of these definitions1 we all know in practice whether an activity is to be regarded as constructive or destructive1 except in a few cases where a man professes to be destroying with a view to rebuilding and we are not sure whether he is sincere4 ,destruction being easier1 a child's games usually begin with it1 and only pass on to construction at a later stage4 ,a child on the sand with a pail likes grown-up people to make sand-puddings1 and then knock them down with his spade4 ,but as soon as he can make sand-puddings himself1 he delights in doing so1 and will not permit them to be knocked down4 ,when a child first has bricks1 he likes to destroy towers built by his elders4 ,but when he has learnt to build for himself1 he becomes inordinately proud of his performances1 and cannot bear to see his architectural efforts reduced to a heap of ruins4 ,the impulse which makes the child enjoy the game is exactly the same at both stages1 but new skill has changed the activity resulting from the impulse4 ,the first beginnings of many virtues arise out of experiencing the joys of construction4 ,when a child begs you to leave his constructions undestroyed1 you can easily make him understand that he must not destroy other people's4 ,in this way you can create respect for the produce of labour1 the only socially innocuous source of private property4 ,you also give the child an incentive to patience1 persistence1 and observation2 without these qualities1 he will not succeed in building his tower to the height upon which he had set his heart4 ,in play with children1 you should only construct yourself sufficiently to stimulate ambition and to show how the thing is done2 after that1 construction should be left to their own efforts4 ,if a child has access to a garden1 it is easy to cultivate a more elaborate form of constructiveness4 ,the first impulse of a child in a garden is to pick every attractive flower4 ,it is easy to check this by prohibition1 but mere prohibition is inadequate as an education4 ,one wants to produce in the child the same respect for the garden that restrains the grown-ups from picking wantonly4 ,the respect of the grown-up is due to realization of the labour and effort required to produce the pleasing result4 ,by the time a child is three years old1 he can be given a corner of the garden and encouraged to plant seeds in it4 ,when they come up and blossom1 his own flowers seem precious and wonderful2 then he can appreciate that his mother's flowers also must be treated with care4 ,the elimination of thoughtless cruelty is to be effected most easily by developing an interest in construction and growth4 ,almost every child1 as soon as he is old enough1 wants to kill flies and other insects2 this leads on to the killing of larger animals1 and ultimately of men4 ,in the ordinary ,english upper-class family1 the killing of birds is considered highly creditable1 and the killing of men in war is regarded as the noblest of professions4 ,this attitude is in accordance with untrained instinct3 it is that of men who possess no form of constructive skill1 and are therefore unable to find any innocent embodiment of their will to power4 ,they can make pheasants die and tenants suffer2 when occasion arises1 they can shoot a rhinoceros or a ,german4 ,but in more useful arts they are entirely deficient1 as their parents and teachers thought it sufficient to make them into ,english gentlemen4 ,i do not believe that at birth they are any stupider than other babies2 their deficiencies in later life are entirely attributable to bad education4 ,if1 from an early age1 they had been led to feel the value of life by watching its development with affectionate proprietorship2 if they had acquired forms of constructive skill2 if they had been made to realize with apprehension how quickly and easily a slow product of anxious solicitude can be destroyed--if all this had formed part of their early moral training1 they would not be so ready to destroy what others have similarly created or tended4 ,the great educator in this respect in later life is parenthood1 provided the instinct is adequately aroused4 ,but in the rich this seldom happens1 because they leave the care of their children to paid professionals2 therefore we cannot wait till they become parents before beginning to eradicate their destructive tendencies4 ,every author who has had uneducated housemaids knows that it is difficult 7the public may wish it were impossible7 to restrain their passion for lighting the fire with his manuscripts4 ,a fellow-author1 even if he were a jealous enemy1 would not think of doing such a thing1 because experience has taught him the value of manuscripts4 ,similarly the boy who has a garden will not trample on other people's flower-beds1 and the boy who has pets can be taught to respect animal life4 ,respect for human life is likely to exist in any one who has taken trouble over his or her own children4 ,it is the trouble we take over our children that elicits the stronger forms of parental affection2 in those who avoid this trouble the parental instinct becomes more or less atrophied1 and remains only as a sense of responsibility4 ,but parents are far more likely to take trouble over their children if their own constructive impulses have been fully developed2 thus for this reason also it is very desirable to pay attention to this aspect of education4 ,when ,i speak of constructiveness1 ,i am not thinking only of material construction4 ,such occupations as acting and choral singing involve co-operative non-material construction2 they are pleasant to many children and young people1 and should be encouraged 7though not enforced74 ,even in purely intellectual matters it is possible to have a constructive or a destructive bias4 ,a classical education is almost entirely critical3 a boy learns to avoid mistakes1 and to despise those who commit them4 ,this tends to produce a kind of cold correctness1 in which originality is replaced by respect for authority4 ,correct ,latin is fixed once for all3 it is that of ,vergil and ,cicero4 ,correct science is continually changing1 and an able youth may look forward to helping in this process4 ,consequently the attitude produced by a scientific education is likely to be more constructive than that produced by the study of dead languages4 ,wherever avoidance of error is the chief thing aimed at1 education tends to produce an intellectually bloodless type4 ,the prospect of doing something venturesome with one's knowledge ought to be held before all the abler young men and young women4 ,too often1 higher education is regarded as conferring something analogous to good manners1 a merely negative code by which solecisms are avoided4 ,in such an education1 constructiveness has been forgotten4 ,the usual type produced is1 as might be expected1 niggling1 unenterprising1 and lacking in generosity4 ,all this is avoided when positive achievement is made the goal of education4 ,in the later years of education1 there should be a stimulation of social constructiveness4 ,i mean1 that those whose intelligence is adequate should be encouraged in using their imaginations to think out more productive ways of utilizing existing social forces or creating new ones4 ,men read ,plato's 8,republic01 but they do not attach it to current politics at any point4 ,when ,i stated that the ,russian ,state in #aibj had ideals which were almost exactly those of the 8,republic01 it was hard to say whether the ,platonists or the ,bolsheviks were the more shocked4 ,people read a literary classic without any attempt to see what it means in terms of the lives of ,brown1 ,jones and ,robinson4 ,this is particularly easy with a ,utopia1 because we are not told of any road which leads to it from our present social system4 ,the valuable faculty1 in these matters1 is that of judging rightly as to the next step4 ,british nineteenth-century ,liberals had this merit1 though the ultimate results to which their measures were bound to lead would have horrified them4 ,a great deal depends upon the kind of image that dominates a man's thinking1 often quite unconsciously4 ,a social system may be conceived in many ways2 the commonest are a mould1 a machine1 and a tree4 ,the first belongs to the static conceptions of society1 such as those of ,sparta and traditional ,china3 human nature is to be poured into a prepared mould1 and to set in a preconceived shape4 ,something of this idea exists in any rigid moral or social convention4 ,the man whose outlook is dominated by this image will have a political outlook of a certain kind--stiff and unyielding1 stern and persecuting4 ,the man who conceives of society as a machine is more modern4 ,the industrialist and the communist alike belong to this class4 ,to them1 human nature is uninteresting1 and the ends of life are simple--usually the maximizing of production4 ,the purpose of social organization is to secure these simple ends4 ,the difficulty is that actual human beings will not desire them2 they persist in wanting all kinds of chaotic things which seem worthless to the tidy mind of the organizer4 ,this drives the organizer back to the mould1 in order to produce human beings who desire what he thinks good4 ,and this1 in turn1 leads to revolution4 ,the man who imagines a social system as a tree will have a different political outlook4 ,a bad machine can be scrapped1 and another put in its place4 ,but if a tree is cut down1 it is a long time before a new tree achieves the same strength and size4 ,a machine or a mould is what its maker chooses2 a tree has its specific nature1 and can only be made into a better or worse example of the species4 ,constructiveness applied to living things is quite different from constructiveness applied to machines2 it has humbler functions1 and requires a sort of sympathy4 ,for that reason1 in teaching constructiveness to the young1 they should have opportunities of exercising it upon plants and animals1 not only upon bricks and machines4 ,physics has been dominant in thought since the time of ,newton1 and in practice since the industrial revolution2 this has brought with it a rather mechanical conception of society4 ,biological evolution introduced a new set of ideas1 but they were somewhat overshadowed by natural selection1 which it should be our aim to eliminate from human affairs by eugenics1 birth-control1 and education4 ,the conception of society as a tree is better than the mould or the machine1 but it is still defective4 ,it is to psychology that we must look to supply the deficiency4 ,psychological constructiveness is a new and special kind1 very little understood as yet4 ,it is essential to a right theory of education1 politics1 and all purely human affairs4 ,and it should dominate the imaginations of citizens1 if they are not to be misled by false analogies4 ,some people dread constructiveness in human affairs1 because they fear that it must be mechanical2 they therefore believe in anarchism and the 8return to nature04 ,i am trying in this book to show1 in concrete instances1 how psychological construction differs from the construction of a machine4 ,the imaginative side of this idea ought to be made familiar in higher education2 if it were1 ,i believe that our politics would cease to be angular and sharp and destructive1 becoming instead supple and truly scientific1 with the development of splendid men and women as its goal4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,selfishness ,,and ,,property ,i come now to a problem analogous to that of ,fear1 in that we are concerned with an impulse which is strong1 partly instinctive1 and largely undesirable4 ,in all such cases1 we have to be careful not to thwart a child's nature4 ,it is useless to shut our eyes to his nature1 or to wish that it were different2 we must accept the raw material which is provided1 and not attempt to treat it in ways only applicable to some different material4 ,selfishness is not an ultimate ethical conception2 the more it is analysed1 the vaguer it becomes4 ,but as a phenomenon in the nursery it is perfectly definite1 and presents problems with which it is very necessary to cope4 ,left to himself1 an older child will seize a younger child's toys1 demand more than his share of grown-up attention1 and generally pursue his desires regardless of the younger child's disappointments4 ,a human ego1 like a gas1 will always expand unless restrained by external pressure4 ,the object of education1 in this respect1 is to let the external pressure take the form of habits1 ideas and sympathies in the child's own mind1 not of knocks and blows and punishments4 ,the idea which is needed is that of justice1 not self-sacrifice4 ,every person has a right to a certain amount of room in the world1 and should not be made to feel wicked in standing up for what is due to him4 ,when self-sacrifice is taught1 the idea seems to be that it will not be fully practised1 and that the practical result will be about right4 ,but in fact people either fail to learn the lesson1 or feel sinful when they demand mere justice1 or carry self-sacrifice to ridiculous extremes4 ,in the last case1 they feel an obscure resentment against the people to whom they make renunciations1 and probably allow selfishness to return by the back door of a demand for gratitude4 ,in any case1 self-sacrifice cannot be true doctrine1 because it cannot be universal2 and it is most undesirable to teach falsehood as a means to virtue1 because when the falsehood is perceived the virtue evaporates4 ,justice1 on the contrary1 can be universal4 ,therefore justice is the conception that we ought to try to instil into the child's thoughts and habits4 ,it is difficult1 if not impossible1 to teach justice to a solitary child4 ,the rights and desires of grown-up people are so different from those of children that they make no imaginative appeal2 there is hardly ever direct competition for exactly the same pleasure4 ,moreover1 as the grown-up people are in a position to exact obedience to their own demands1 they have to be judges in their own case1 and do not produce upon the child the effect of an impartial tribunal4 ,they can1 of course1 give definite precepts inculcating this or that form of convenient behaviour3 not to interrupt when their mother is counting the wash1 not to shout when their father is busy1 not to obtrude their concerns when there are visitors4 ,but these are inexplicable requirements1 to which1 it is true1 the child submits willingly enough if otherwise kindly treated1 but which make no appeal to his own sense of what is reasonable4 ,it is right that the child should be made to obey such rules1 because he must not be allowed to be a tyrant1 and because he must understand that other people attach importance to their own pursuits1 however odd those pursuits may be4 ,but not much more than external good behaviour is to be got by such methods2 the real education in justice can only come where there are other children4 ,this is one of many reasons why no child should long be solitary4 ,parents who have the misfortune to have an only child should do all that they can to secure companionship for it1 even at the cost of a good deal of separation from home1 if no other way is possible4 ,a solitary child must be either suppressed or selfish--perhaps both by turns4 ,a well-behaved only child is pathetic1 and an ill-behaved one is a nuisance4 ,in these days of small families1 this is a more serious trouble than it used to be4 ,it is one of the grounds for advocating nursery-schools1 as to which ,i shall have more to say in a later chapter4 ,but for the moment ,i shall assume a family of two at least1 not very widely separated in age1 so that their tastes are largely the same4 ,where there is competition for a pleasure which can only be enjoyed by one at a time1 such as a ride in a wheelbarrow1 it will be found that the children readily understand justice4 ,their impulse1 of course1 is to demand the pleasure for themselves to the exclusion of the others1 but it is surprising how quickly this impulse is overcome when the grown-ups institute the system of a turn for each4 ,i do not believe that a sense of justice is innate1 but ,i have been astonished to see how quickly it can be created4 ,of course1 it must be real justice2 there must not be any secret bias4 ,if you are fonder of some of the children than of others1 you must be on your guard to prevent your affections from having any influence on your distribution of pleasures4 ,it is of course a generally recognized principle that toys must be equal4 ,it is quite useless to attempt to suppress the demand for justice by any kind of moral training4 ,do not give more than justice1 but do not expect the child to accept less4 ,there is a chapter in 8,the ,fairchild ,family0 on 8,the ,secret ,sins of the ,heart0 which illustrates the methods to be avoided4 ,lucy has maintained that she has been good1 so her mother tells her that even when her behaviour is all right her thoughts are wrong1 and quotes3 8,the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked0 7,jeremiah1 xvii1 #i74 ,so ,mrs4 ,fairchild gives ,lucy a little book in which to record the 8desperately wicked0 things that are in her heart when outwardly she is good4 ,at breakfast1 her parents give a ribbon to her sister and a cherry to her brother1 but nothing to her4 ,she records in her book that at this point she had a very wicked thought1 that her parents loved her brother and sister better than they loved her4 ,she had been taught1 and she believed1 that she ought to cope with this thought by moral discipline2 but by this method it could only be driven underground1 to produce strange distorted effects in later years4 ,the proper course would have been for her to express her feeling1 and for her parents to dispel it either by giving her a present1 too1 or by explaining1 in a way she could understand1 that she must wait for another time1 as no further present was available at the moment4 ,truth and frankness dispel difficulties1 but the attempt at repressive moral discipline only aggravates them4 ,closely connected with justice is the sense of property4 ,this is a difficult matter1 which must be dealt with by adaptable tact1 not by any rigid set of rules4 ,there are1 in fact1 conflicting considerations1 which make it difficult to take a clear line4 ,on the one hand1 the love of property produces many terrible evils in later years2 the fear of losing valued material possessions is one of the main sources of political and economic cruelty4 ,it is desirable that men and women should1 as far as possible1 find their happiness in ways which are not subject to private ownership1 i4e41 in creative rather than defensive activities4 ,for this reason1 it is unwise to cultivate the sense of property in children if it can be helped4 ,but before proceeding to act upon this view1 there are some very strong arguments on the other side1 which it would be dangerous to neglect4 ,in the first place1 the sense of property is very strong in children2 it develops as soon as they can grasp objects which they see 7the hand-eye co-ordination74 ,what they grasp1 they feel is theirs1 and they are indignant if it is taken away4 ,we still speak of a property as a 8holding01 and 8maintenance0 means 8holding in the hand04 ,these words show the primitive connection between property and grasp2 so does the word 8grasping04 ,a child which has no toys of its own will pick up sticks or broken bricks or any odds and ends it may find1 and will treasure them as its very own4 ,the desire for property is so deep-seated that it cannot be thwarted without danger4 ,moreover property cultivates carefulness and curbs the impulse of destruction4 ,especially useful is property in anything that the child has made himself2 if this is not permitted1 his constructive impulses are checked4 ,where the arguments are so conflicting1 we cannot adopt any clear-cut policy1 but must be guided to a great extent by circumstances and the child's nature4 ,nevertheless1 something can be said as to the means of reconciling these opposites in practice4 ,among toys1 some should be private and some common4 ,to take an extreme case1 a rocking-horse would of course always be common4 ,this suggests a principle3 where a toy can be equally enjoyed by all1 but only by one at a time1 it should be common if it is too large or expensive to be duplicated4 ,on the other hand1 toys more adapted to one child than to another 7because of difference of age1 for example7 may properly belong to the one to whom they give the most pleasure4 ,if a toy wants careful handling which an older child has learnt to give1 it is fair that a younger child should not be allowed to get hold of it and spoil it4 ,the younger child should be compensated by private property in the toys specially appropriate to its age4 ,after two years old1 a broken toy should not be immediately replaced if it has been broken by the child's carelessness2 it is just as well that the loss should be felt for a while4 ,do not let a child always refuse the use of its own toys to other children4 ,whenever it has more than it can actually use1 it should not be allowed to protest if another child plays with those that it is not using4 ,but here ,i should except toys which the other child is likely to break1 and toys out of which their owner has constructed some edifice which is a source of pride4 ,until the edifice is forgotten1 it should1 if possible1 be allowed to stand1 as a reward of industry4 ,subject to these provisos1 do not let the child develop a dog-in-the-manger attitude2 it must never be allowed to prevent another child's enjoyment wantonly4 ,it is not very difficult to teach a modicum of decent behaviour in these respects1 and it is quite worth the necessary firmness4 ,do not allow a child to snatch things from another child1 even when it would be within its legal rights in doing so4 ,if an older child is unkind to a younger one1 show a similar unkindness to the older one1 and explain immediately why you do so4 ,by such methods it is not difficult to establish that degree of kindness in children to each other which is necessary to prevent constant storms and tears4 ,on occasion1 a certain amount of sternness may be necessary1 amounting to a mild form of punishment4 ,but on no account must a habit of tyrannizing over the weak be allowed to develop4 ,while permitting a certain number of cherished possessions1 it is well to encourage the habit of using toys1 such as bricks1 to which the child only has the exclusive right while he is using them4 ,the ,montessori apparatus is common to all the children1 but so long as a child is using one piece of apparatus no other child must interfere4 ,this develops a sense of limited tenant-right1 dependent upon work2 such a sense does not run counter to anything that is desirable in later years4 ,for very young children1 this method is hardly applicable1 because they are not yet sufficiently constructive4 ,but as they acquire skill it becomes more and more possible to interest them in the process of building4 ,so long as they know they can have the material for construction whenever they like1 they will not much mind others having it too1 and the reluctance to sharing which they may feel at first is soon dispelled by custom4 ,nevertheless1 when a child is old enough1 he should1 ,i think1 be allowed to own books1 because that will increase his love of books and therefore stimulate reading4 ,the books that are his own property should1 as far as possible1 be good books1 such as ,lewis ,carroll and ,tanglewood ,tales1 not mere trash4 ,if the children want trash1 it should be common property4 ,the broad principles involved are3 ,first1 do not produce in the child a sense of thwarting from not having enough property2 this is the way to produce a miser4 ,secondly1 allow the child private property when it stimulates a desirable activity1 and1 in particular1 where it teaches careful handling4 ,but subject to these limitations turn the child's attention1 as far as you can1 to pleasures not involving private ownership4 ,and even where there is private ownership1 do not allow the child to be mean or miserly when other children wish to be allowed to play with his things4 ,as to this1 however1 the object is to induce the child to lend of his own free will2 so long as authority is required1 the end aimed at has not been achieved4 ,in a happy child1 it should not be difficult to stimulate a generous disposition2 but if the child is starved of pleasures1 he will of course cling tenaciously to those that are attainable4 ,it is not through suffering that children learn virtue1 but through happiness and health4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,truthfulness ,to produce the habit of truthfulness should be one of the major aims of moral education4 ,i do not mean truthfulness in speech only1 but also in thought2 indeed1 of the two1 the latter seems to me the more important4 ,i prefer a person who lies with full consciousness of what he is doing to a person who first subconsciously deceives himself and then imagines that he is being virtuous and truthful4 ,indeed1 no man who thinks truthfully can believe that it is always wrong to speak untruthfully4 ,those who hold that a lie is always wrong have to supplement this view by a great deal of casuistry and considerable practice in misleading ambiguities1 by means of which they deceive without admitting to themselves that they are lying4 ,nevertheless1 ,i hold that the occasions when lying is justifiable are few--much fewer than would be inferred from the practice of high-minded men4 ,and almost all the occasions which justify lying are occasions where power is being used tyrannically1 or where people are engaged in some harmful activity such as war2 therefore in a good social system they would be even rarer than they are now4 ,untruthfulness1 as a practice1 is almost always a product of fear4 ,the child brought up without fear will be truthful1 not in virtue of a moral effort1 but because it will never occur to him to be otherwise4 ,the child who has been treated wisely and kindly has a frank look in the eyes1 and a fearless demeanour even with strangers2 whereas the child that has been subject to nagging or severity is in perpetual terror of incurring reproof1 and terrified of having transgressed some rule whenever he has behaved in a natural manner4 ,it does not at first occur to a young child that it is possible to lie4 ,the possibility of lying is a discovery1 due to observation of grown-ups quickened by terror4 ,the child discovers that grown-ups lie to him1 and that it is dangerous to tell them the truth2 under these circumstances he takes to lying4 ,avoid these incentives1 and he will not think of lying4 ,but in judging whether children are truthful1 a certain caution is necessary4 ,children's memories are very faulty1 and they often do not know the answer to a question when grown-up people think they do4 ,their sense of time is very vague2 a child under four will hardly distinguish between yesterday and a week ago1 or between yesterday and six hours ago4 ,when they do not know the answer to a question1 they tend to say yes or no according to the suggestion in your tone of voice4 ,again1 they are often talking in the dramatic character of some make-believe4 ,when they tell you solemnly that there is a lion in the back garden1 this is obvious2 but in many cases it is quite easy to mistake play for earnest4 ,for all these reasons1 a young child's statements are often objectively untrue1 but without the slightest intention to deceive4 ,indeed1 children tend1 at first1 to regard grown-ups as omniscient1 and therefore incapable of being deceived4 ,my boy 7three and three quarters7 will ask me to tell him 7for the pleasure of the story7 what occurred to him on some interesting occasion when ,i was not present2 ,i find it almost impossible to persuade him that ,i don't know what happened4 ,grown-up people get to know so many things in ways the child does not understand1 that he cannot set limits to their powers4 ,last ,easter1 my boy was given a number of chocolate ,easter eggs4 ,we told him that if he ate too much chocolate he would be sick1 but1 having told him1 we left him alone4 ,he ate too much1 and was sick4 ,he came to me as soon as the crisis was over1 with a beaming face1 saying1 in a voice almost of triumph1 8,i was sick1 ,daddy--,daddy told me ,i should be sick40 ,his pleasure in the verification of a scientific law was astonishing4 ,since then1 it has been possible to trust him with chocolate1 in spite of the fact that he seldom has it2 moreover he implicitly believes everything we tell him about what food is good for him4 ,there has been no need of moral exhortation or punishment or fear in bringing about this result4 ,there has been need1 at earlier stages1 of patience and firmness4 ,he is nearing the age where it is usual for boys to steal sweet things and lie about it4 ,i dare say he will steal sometimes1 but ,i shall be surprised if he lies4 ,when a child does lie1 parents should take themselves to task rather than him2 they should deal with it by removing its causes1 and by explaining gently and reasonably why it is better not to lie4 ,they should not deal with it by punishment1 which only increases fear and therefore the motive for lying4 ,rigid truthfulness in adults towards children is1 of course1 absolutely indispensable if children are not to learn lying4 ,parents who teach that lying is a sin1 and who nevertheless are known to lie by their children1 naturally lose all moral authority4 ,the idea of speaking the truth to children is entirely novel2 hardly anybody did it before the present generation4 ,i greatly doubt whether ,eve told ,cain and ,abel the truth about apples2 ,i am convinced that she told them she had never eaten anything that wasn't good for her4 ,it used to be the thing for parents to represent themselves as ,olympians1 immune from human passions and always actuated by pure reason4 ,when they reproached the children1 they did it more in sorrow than in anger2 however they might scold1 they were not 8cross01 but talking to the children for their good4 ,parents did not realize that children are astonishingly clear-sighted3 they do not understand all the solemn political reasons for humbug1 but despise it straightforwardly and simply4 ,jealousies and envies of which you are unconscious will be evident to your child1 who will discount all your fine moral talk about the wickedness of the objects of these passions4 ,never pretend to be faultless and inhuman2 the child will not believe you1 and would not like you any the better if he did4 ,i remember vividly how1 at a very early age1 ,i saw through the ,victorian humbug and hypocrisy with which ,i was surrounded1 and vowed that1 if ,i ever had children1 ,i would not repeat the mistakes that were being made with me4 ,to the best of my ability1 ,i am keeping this vow4 ,another form of lying1 which is extremely bad for the young1 is to threaten punishments you do not mean to inflict4 ,dr4 ,ballard1 in his most interesting book on 8,the ,changing ,school01#ac has stated this principle rather emphatically3 8,don't threaten4 ,if you do1 let nothing stop you from carrying out your threat4 ,if you say to a boy1 #8,do that again and ,i'll murder you'1 and he does it again1 then you must murder him4 ,if you don't he will lose all respect for you0 7p4 #aab74 ,the punishments threatened by nurses and ignorant parents in dealing with infants are somewhat less extreme1 but the same rule applies4 ,do not insist1 except for good reason2 but when you have once begun insisting1 continue1 however you may regret having embarked upon the battle4 ,if you threaten a punishment1 let it be one that you are prepared to inflict2 never trust to luck that your bluff will not be called4 ,it is odd how difficult it is to get this principle understood by uneducated people4 ,it is particularly objectionable when they threaten something terrifying1 such as being locked up by the policeman or carried off by the bogey-man4 ,this produces first a state of dangerous nervous terror and then a complete scepticism as to all statements and threats by grown-up people4 ,if you never insist without carrying the matter through1 the child soon learns that on such occasions resistance is useless1 and he obeys a mere word without giving further trouble4 ,but it is essential to the success of this method that you should not insist unless there is some really strong reason for doing so4 ,another undesirable form of humbug is to treat inanimate objects as if they were alive4 ,nurses sometimes teach children1 when they have hurt themselves by bumping into a chair or table1 to smack the offending object and say1 8naughty chair0 or 8naughty table04 ,this removes a most useful source of natural discipline4 ,left to himself1 the child soon realizes that inanimate objects can only be manipulated by skill1 not by anger or cajolery4 ,this is a stimulus to the acquisition of skill1 and a help in realizing the limits of personal power4 ,lies about sex are sanctioned by time-honoured usage4 ,i believe them to be wholly and utterly bad1 but ,i shall say no more on this subject now1 as ,i propose to devote a chapter to sex education4 ,children who are not suppressed ask innumerable questions1 some intelligent1 others quite the reverse4 ,these questions are often wearisome1 and sometimes inconvenient4 ,but they must be answered truthfully1 to the best of your ability4 ,if the child asks you a question connected with religion1 say exactly what you think1 even if you contradict some other grown-up person who thinks differently4 ,if he asks you about death1 answer him4 ,if he asks you questions designed to show that you are wicked or foolish1 answer him4 ,if he asks you about war1 or capital punishment1 answer him4 ,do not put him off with 8you can't understand that yet01 except in difficult scientific matters1 such as how electric light is made4 ,and even then1 make it clear that the answer is a pleasure in store for him1 as soon as he has learnt rather more than he now knows4 ,tell him rather more than he can understand1 not rather less2 the part he fails to understand will stimulate his curiosity and his intellectual ambition4 ,invariable truthfulness to a child reaps its reward in increased trust4 ,the child has a natural tendency to believe what you say1 except when it runs counter to a strong desire1 as in the case of the ,easter eggs which ,i mentioned just now4 ,a little experience of the truth of your remarks even in these cases enables you to win belief easily and without emphasis4 ,but if you have been in the habit of threatening consequences which did not happen1 you will have to become more and more insistent and terrifying1 and in the end you will only produce a state of nervous uncertainty4 ,one day my boy wanted to paddle in a stream1 but ,i told him not to1 because ,i thought there were bits of broken crockery which would cut his feet4 ,his desire was keen1 so he was sceptical about the crockery2 but after ,i had found a piece and shown him the sharp edge1 he became entirely acquiescent4 ,if ,i had invented the crockery for my own convenience1 ,i should have lost his confidence4 ,if ,i had not found any1 ,i should have let him paddle4 ,in consequence of repeated experiences of this sort1 he has almost entirely ceased to be sceptical of my reasons4 ,we live in a world of humbug1 and the child brought up without humbug is bound to despise much that is commonly thought to deserve respect4 ,this is regrettable1 because contempt is a bad emotion4 ,i should not call his attention to such matters1 though ,i should satisfy his curiosity whenever it turned towards them4 ,truthfulness is something of a handicap in a hypocritical society1 but the handicap is more than outweighed by the advantages of fearlessness1 without which no one can be truthful4 ,we wish our children to be upright1 candid1 frank1 self-respecting2 for my part1 ,i would rather see them fail with these qualities than succeed by the arts of the slave4 ,a certain native pride and integrity is essential to a splendid human being1 and where it exists lying becomes impossible1 except when it is prompted by some generous motive4 ,i would have my children truthful in their thoughts and words1 even if it should entail worldly misfortune1 for something of more importance than riches and honours is at stake4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,punishment ,in former days1 and until very recently1 the punishment of children1 both boys and girls1 was taken as a matter of course1 and was universally regarded as indispensable in education4 ,we have seen in an earlier chapter what ,dr4 ,arnold thought about flogging1 and his views were1 at the time1 exceptionally humane4 ,rousseau is associated with the theory of leaving things to nature1 yet in 8,emile0 he occasionally advocates quite severe punishments4 ,the conventional view1 a hundred years ago1 is set forth in one of the 8,cautionary ,tales01 in which a little girl makes a fuss because they are putting on her white sash when she wants her pink one4 ,papa1 who in the parlour heard ,her make the noise and rout1 ,that instant went to ,caroline1 ,to whip her1 there's no doubt4 ,when ,mr4 ,fairchild found his children quarrelling1 he caned them1 making the cane keep time to the verse 8,let dogs delight to bark and bite04 ,he then took them to see a corpse hanging in chains on a gibbet4 ,the little boy was frightened1 and begged to be taken home1 as the chains rattled in the wind4 ,but ,mr4 ,fairchild compelled him to look for a long time1 saying that this spectacle showed what happened to those who had hatred in their hearts4 ,the child was destined to become a clergyman1 and presumably had to be taught to depict the terrors of the damned with the vividness of one who has experienced them4 ,nowadays1 few people would advocate such methods1 even in ,tennessee4 ,but there is considerable divergence of opinion as to what should take their place4 ,some people still advocate a fair amount of punishment1 while others consider that it is possible to dispense with punishment altogether4 ,there is room for many shades between these two extremes4 ,for my part1 ,i believe that punishment has a certain very minor place in education2 but ,i doubt whether it need ever be severe4 ,i include speaking sharply or reprovingly among punishments4 ,the most severe punishment that ought ever to be necessary is the natural spontaneous expression of indignation4 ,on a few occasions when my boy has been rough with his younger sister1 his mother has expressed anger by an impulsive exclamation4 ,the effect has been very great4 ,the boy burst into sobs1 and would not be consoled until his mother had made much of him4 ,the impression was very profound1 as one could see from his subsequent good conduct towards his sister4 ,on a few occasions we have resorted to mild forms of punishment when he has persisted in demanding things we had refused him1 or in interfering with his sister's play4 ,in such cases1 when reason and exhortation have failed1 we take him to a room by himself1 leave the door open1 and tell him he can come back as soon as he is good4 ,in a very few minutes1 after crying vigorously1 he comes back1 and is invariably good3 he perfectly understands that in coming back he has undertaken to be good4 ,so far1 we have never found any need of severer penalties4 ,if one can judge from the books of old-fashioned disciplinarians1 the children educated by the old methods were far naughtier than the modern child4 ,i should certainly be horrified if my boy were half as badly behaved as the children in 8,the ,fairchild ,family02 but ,i should think the fault lay more with his parents than with himself4 ,i believe that reasonable parents create reasonable children4 ,the children must feel their parents' affection--not duty and responsibility1 for which no child is grateful1 but warm love1 which feels delight in the child's presence and ways4 ,and except when it is quite impossible1 a prohibition must be explained carefully and truthfully4 ,small misfortunes1 such as bruises and slight cuts1 should sometimes be allowed to happen rather than interfere with rash games2 a little experience of this kind makes children more willing to believe that a prohibition may be wise4 ,where these conditions are present from the first1 ,i believe children will seldom do anything deserving of serious punishment4 ,when a child persistently interferes with other children or spoils their pleasures1 the obvious penalty is banishment4 ,it is imperatively necessary to take steps of some kind1 because it would be most unfair to let the other children suffer4 ,but there is no use in making the refractory child feel guilty2 it is much more to the purpose to make him feel that he is missing pleasures which the others are enjoying4 ,madame ,montessori describes her practice as follows3 ,as to punishments1 we have many times come in contact with children who disturbed the others without paying attention to our corrections4 ,such children were at once examined by the physician4 ,when the case proved to be that of a normal child1 we placed one of the little tables in a corner of the room1 and in this way isolated the child2 having him sit in a comfortable little armchair1 so placed that he might see his companions at work1 and giving him those games and toys to which he was most attracted4 ,this isolation almost always succeeded in calming the child2 from his position he could see the entire assembly of his companions1 and the way in which they carried on their work was an object lesson much more efficacious than any words of the teacher could possibly have been4 ,little by little1 he would come to see the advantages of being one of the company working so busily before his eyes1 and he would really wish to go back and do as the others did4 ,we have in this way led back again to discipline all the children who at first seemed to rebel against it4 ,the isolated child was always made the object of special care1 almost as if he were ill4 ,i myself1 when ,i entered the room1 went first of all directly to him1 as if he were a very little child4 ,then ,i turned my attention to the others1 interesting myself in their work1 asking questions about it as if they had been little men4 ,i do not know what happened in the soul of these children whom we found it necessary to discipline1 but certainly the conversion was always very complete and lasting4 ,they showed great pride in learning how to work and how to conduct themselves1 and always showed a very tender affection for the teacher and for me4#ad ,the success of this method depended upon several factors not present in old-fashioned schools4 ,there was first the elimination of those whose bad conduct was due to some medical defect4 ,then there was tact and skill in applying the method4 ,but the really vital point was the good conduct of the majority of the class3 the child felt itself opposed to the public opinion which it naturally respected4 ,this is1 of course1 an entirely different situation from that of the schoolmaster who has a class bent on 8ragging04 ,i do not propose to discuss the methods which he should employ1 because they would never be needed if education were properly conducted from the start4 ,children like to learn things1 provided they are the right things properly taught4 ,the same mistake is made in imparting knowledge as is made1 at an earlier stage1 in regard to food and sleep3 something which is really an advantage to the child is made to appear like a favour to the adult4 ,infants easily come to think that the only reason for eating and sleeping is that grown-ups desire it2 this turns them into dyspeptic sufferers from insomnia4#ae ,unless a child is ill1 let it leave its food and go hungry4 ,my boy had been coaxed into eating by his nurse1 and had grown more and more difficile4 ,one day when we had him for his mid-day meal1 he refused to eat his pudding1 so we sent it out4 ,after a while1 he demanded it back1 but it turned out that the cook had eaten it4 ,he was flabbergasted1 and never made such pretences with us again4 ,exactly the same method should apply to instruction4 ,those who do not want it should be allowed to go without1 though ,i should see to it that they were bored if they were absent during lesson-time4 ,if they see others learning1 they will presently clamour to be taught3 the teacher can then appear as conferring a benefit1 which is the truth of the situation4 ,i should have in every school a large bare room to which pupils could go if they did not want to learn1 but if they went there1 ,i should not allow them to come back to lessons that day4 ,and they should be sent there as a punishment if they behaved badly in lesson-time4 ,it seems a simple principle that a punishment should be something you wish the culprit to dislike1 not something you wish him to like4 ,yet 8lines0 are a common punishment where the professed aim is to produce a love of classical literature4 ,mild punishments have their utility for dealing with mild offences1 especially such as are concerned with manners4 ,praise and blame are an important form of rewards and punishments for young children1 and also for older boys and girls if conferred by a person who inspires respect4 ,i do not believe it possible to conduct education without praise and blame1 but in regard to both a certain degree of caution is necessary4 ,in the first place1 neither should be comparative4 ,a child should not be told that he has done better than so-and-so1 or that such-and-such is never naughty3 the first produces contempt1 the second hatred4 ,in the second place1 blame should be given much more sparingly than praise2 it should be a definite punishment1 administered for some unexpected lapse from good behaviour1 and it should never be continued after it has produced its effect4 ,in the third place1 praise should not be given for anything that should be a matter of course4 ,i should give it for a new development of courage or skill1 and for an act of unselfishness as regards possessions1 if achieved after a moral effort4 ,all through education1 any unusually good piece of work should be praised4 ,to be praised for a difficult achievement is one of the most delightful experiences in youth1 and the desire for this pleasure is quite proper as an added incentive1 though it should not be the main motive4 ,the main motive should always be an interest in the matter itself1 whatever the matter may happen to be4 ,grave faults of character1 such as cruelty1 can seldom be dealt with by means of punishment4 ,or rather1 punishment should be a very small part of the treatment4 ,cruelty to animals is more or less natural to boys1 and requires1 for its prevention1 an education ad hoc4 ,it is a very bad plan to wait until you find your boy torturing an animal1 and then proceed to torture the boy4 ,this only makes him wish he had not been caught4 ,you should watch for the first beginnings of what may afterwards develop into cruelty4 ,teach the boy respect for life2 do not let him see you killing animals1 even wasps or snakes4 ,if you cannot prevent it1 explain very carefully why it is done in this particular case4 ,if he does something slightly unkind to a younger child1 do the same to him at once4 ,he will protest1 and you can explain that if he does not want it done to him he must not do it to others4 ,in this way the fact that others have feelings like his own is brought vividly to his attention4 ,it is obviously essential to this method that it should be begun early1 and applied to minor forms of unkindness4 ,it is only very small injuries to others that you can retort in kind upon the child4 ,and when you can adopt this plan1 do not let it seem that you are doing it as a punishment1 but rather as an instruction3 8,see1 that is what you did to your little sister40 ,when the child protests1 you say3 8,well1 if it was unpleasant1 you mustn't do it to her40 ,so long as the whole incident is simple and immediate1 the child will understand1 and will learn that other people's feelings must be considered4 ,in that case1 serious cruelty will never develop4 ,all moral instruction must be immediate and concrete3 it must arise out of a situation which has grown up naturally1 and must not go beyond what ought to be done in this particular instance4 ,the child himself will apply the moral in other similar cases4 ,it is much easier to grasp a concrete instance1 and apply analogous considerations to an analogous instance1 than to apprehend a general rule and proceed deductively4 ,do not say1 in a general way1 8,be brave1 be kind01 but urge him to some particular piece of daring1 and then say1 8,bravo1 you were a brave boy02 get him to let his sister play with his mechanical engine1 and when he sees her beaming with delight1 say1 8,that's right1 you were a kind boy40 ,the same principle applies in dealing with cruelty3 ,look out for its faint beginnings1 and prevent them from developing4 ,if1 in spite of all your efforts1 grave cruelty develops at a later age1 the matter must be taken very seriously1 and dealt with like an illness4 ,the boy should be punished in the sense that unpleasant things should happen to him1 just as they do when he has measles1 but not in the sense that he should be made to feel wicked4 ,he should be isolated for a while from other children and from animals1 and it should be explained to him that it is not safe to let him associate with them4 ,he should be made to realize1 as far as possible1 how he would suffer if he were cruelly treated4 ,he should be made to feel that a great misfortune had befallen him in the shape of an impulse to cruelty1 and that his elders were endeavouring to shield him from a similar misfortune in the future4 ,i believe that such methods would be completely successful in all except a few pathological cases4 ,physical punishment ,i believe to be never right4 ,in mild forms1 it does little harm1 though no good2 in severe forms1 ,i am convinced that it generates cruelty and brutality4 ,it is true that it often produces no resentment against the person who inflicts it2 where it is customary1 boys adapt themselves to it and expect it as part of the course of nature4 ,but it accustoms them to the idea that it may be right and proper to inflict physical pain for the purpose of maintaining authority--a peculiarly dangerous lesson to teach to those who are likely to acquire positions of power4 ,and it destroys that relation of open confidence which ought to exist between parents and children1 as well as between teachers and pupils4 ,the modern parent wants his children to be as unconstrained in his presence as in his absence2 he wants them to feel pleasure when they see him coming2 he does not want a fictitious ,sabbath calm while he is watching1 succeeded by pandemonium as soon as he turns his back4 ,to win the genuine affection of children is a joy as great as any that life has to offer4 ,our grandfathers did not know of this joy1 and therefore did not know that they were missing it4 ,they taught children that it was their 8duty0 to love their parents1 and proceeded to make this duty almost impossible of performance4 ,caroline1 in the verse quoted at the beginning of this chapter1 can hardly have been pleased when her father went to her1 8to whip her1 there's no doubt04 ,so long as people persisted in the notion that love could be commanded as a duty1 they did nothing to win it as a genuine emotion4 ,consequently human relations remained stark and harsh and cruel4 ,punishment was part of this whole conception4 ,it is strange that men who would not have dreamed of raising their hand against a woman were quite willing to inflict physical torture upon a defenceless child4 ,mercifully1 a better conception of the relations of parents and children has gradually won its way during the last hundred years1 and with it the whole theory of punishment has been transformed4 ,i hope that the enlightened ideas which begin to prevail in education will gradually spread to other human relations as well1 for they are needed there just as much as in our dealings with our children4 ,,chapter ,x ,,importance ,,of ,,other ,,children ,so far1 we have been considering what parents and teachers can do themselves towards creating the right kind of character in a child4 ,but there is a great deal that cannot possibly be done without the help of other children4 ,this becomes increasingly true as the child gets older2 indeed contemporaries are never more important than at the university4 ,in the first year of life1 other children are not important at all in the earlier months1 and only a slight advantage in the last three months4 ,at that stage1 it is slightly older children that are useful4 ,the first child in a family is usually slower in learning to walk and talk than subsequent children1 because grown-ups are so perfect in these accomplishments that they are difficult to imitate4 ,a child of three years old is a better model for a child one year old1 both because the things it does are more what the younger child would wish to do1 and because its powers do not seem so superhuman4 ,children feel that other children are more akin to them than adults are1 and therefore their ambition is more stimulated by what other children do4 ,only the family provides the opportunity for this early education by older children4 ,most children who have a choice wish to play with children rather older than themselves1 because then they feel 8grand02 but these older children wish to play with still older children1 and so on4 ,the consequence is that1 in a school1 or in the streets of a slum1 or anywhere else where a large choice is possible1 children play almost entirely with their contemporaries1 because the older ones will not play with the younger ones4 ,in this way it comes about that what is to be learnt from older children must be learnt mainly in the home4 ,this has the drawback that in every family there must be one oldest child1 who fails to get the benefits of the method4 ,and as families grow smaller1 the percentage of oldest children grows larger1 so that the drawback is an increasing one4 ,small families are in some ways a disadvantage to children1 unless supplemented by nursery-schools4 ,but nursery-schools will form the subject of a later chapter4 ,older children1 younger children1 and contemporaries all have their uses1 but the uses of older and younger children1 for the reasons just given1 are mainly confined to the family4 ,the great use of older children is to provide attainable ambitions4 ,a child will make tremendous efforts to be thought worthy of joining in an older child's game4 ,the older child behaves in an offhand natural way1 without the consideration and make-believe which is bound to form part of a grown-up person's games with children4 ,the same lack of consideration in a grown-up would be painful1 both because the grown-up has power and authority1 and because he plays to please the child1 not to please himself4 ,a child will be cheerfully submissive to an older brother or sister1 in a way which would be impossible towards an adult except as a result of excessive discipline4 ,the lesson of co-operation in a subordinate role is best learnt from other children2 when grown-ups try to teach it1 they are faced with the opposite dangers of unkindness and pretence--unkindness if they demand real co-operation1 pretence if they are content with the appearance of it4 ,i do not mean that either real or pretence co-operation is to be always avoided1 but that it has not the spontaneity which is possible between an older and a younger child1 and therefore cannot be combined for hours on end with pleasure to both parties4 ,all through youth1 slightly older people continue to have a special use in teaching--not formal teaching1 but the sort which occurs outside working hours4 ,a slightly older boy or girl remains always a very effective stimulus to ambition1 and1 if kind1 can explain difficulties better than an adult1 from the recent recollection of overcoming them4 ,even at the university1 ,i learnt much from people a few years senior to me1 which ,i could not have learnt from grave and reverend signors4 ,i believe this experience is general wherever the social life of the university is not too rigidly stratified by 8years04 ,it is1 of course1 impossible where1 as too often happens1 the older students consider it infra dig to have anything to do with the younger ones4 ,younger children also have their uses1 especially in the years from three to six2 these uses are chiefly in connection with moral education4 ,so long as a child is with adults1 it has no occasion for the exercise of a number of important virtues1 namely1 those required by the strong in dealing with the weak4 ,a child has to be taught not to take things by force from a younger brother or sister1 not to show excessive anger when the junior inadvertently knocks over his tower of bricks1 not to hoard toys he is not using which the other desires4 ,he has to be taught that the junior can be easily hurt by rough handling1 and to feel compunction when he has wantonly caused tears4 ,in protecting a younger child1 one can speak to the senior with a sharpness and suddenness which would not otherwise be justified1 but which have their uses through the strong impression produced by their unexpectedness4 ,all these are useful lessons1 which it is hardly possible to give naturally in any other way4 ,it is a folly and a waste of time to give abstract moral instruction to a child2 everything must be concrete1 and actually demanded by the existing situation4 ,much that1 from an adult point of view1 is moral education1 feels to the child just like instruction in handling a saw4 ,the child feels that he is being shown how the thing is done4 ,that is one reason why example is so important4 ,a child who has watched a carpenter at work tries to copy his movements2 a child who has seen his parents behaving always with kindness and consideration tries to copy them in this respect4 ,in each case1 prestige is attached to what he wants to imitate4 ,if you gave your child a solemn lesson in the use of a saw1 but yourself always tried to use it as a chopper1 you would never make a carpenter of him4 ,and if you urge him to be kind to his little sister1 but are not kind to her yourself1 all your instruction will be wasted4 ,for that reason1 when you have to do something that makes a little child cry1 such as cleaning its nose1 you should be careful to explain to the older child why it is necessary to do it4 ,otherwise he is quite likely to rise up in defence of the younger child1 and fight you to make you stop being cruel4 ,if you allow him to remain under the impression that you are cruel1 you will have lost the power to curb his own impulses towards tyranny4 ,although both older and younger children are important1 contemporaries are far more so1 at any rate from the age of four onwards4 ,behaviour to equals is what most needs to be learnt4 ,most of the inequalities in the existing world are artificial1 and it would be a good thing if our behaviour ignored them4 ,well-to-do people imagine themselves superior to their cooks1 and behave to them in a different way from that in which they behave in society4 ,but they feel inferior to a ,duke1 and treat him in a way which shows a lack of self-respect4 ,in both cases they are wrong3 the cook and the ,duke should both be felt and treated as equals4 ,in youth1 age makes a hierarchy which is not artificial2 but for that very reason the social habits which will be desirable in later life are best learnt by associating with contemporaries4 ,games of all kinds are better among equals1 and so is school competition4 ,among schoolfellows1 a boy has that degree of importance which is accorded to him by their judgment2 he may be admired or despised1 but the issue depends upon his own character and prowess4 ,affectionate parents create a too indulgent milieu2 parents without affection create one where spontaneity is repressed4 ,it is only contemporaries who can give scope for spontaneity in free competition and in equal co-operation4 ,self-respect without tyranny1 consideration without slavishness1 can be learnt best in dealing with equals4 ,for these reasons1 no amount of parental solicitude can give a boy or girl the same advantages at home as are to be enjoyed in a good school4 ,apart from these considerations1 there is another1 perhaps even more important4 ,the mind and body of a child demand a great deal of play1 and after the first years play can hardly be satisfactory except with other boys and girls4 ,without play1 a child becomes strained and nervous2 it loses the joy of life and develops anxieties4 ,it is1 of course1 possible to bring up a child as ,john ,stuart ,mill was brought up1 to begin ,greek at the age of three1 and never know any ordinary childish fun4 ,from the mere standpoint of acquiring knowledge1 the results may be good1 but taken all round ,i cannot admire them4 ,mill relates in his ,autobiography that during adolescence he nearly committed suicide from the thought that all combinations of musical notes would one day be used up1 and then new musical composition would become impossible4 ,it is obvious that an obsession of this sort is a symptom of nervous exhaustion4 ,in later life1 whenever he came upon an argument tending to show that his father's philosophy might have been mistaken1 he shied away from it like a frightened horse1 thereby greatly diminishing the value of his reasoning powers4 ,it seems probable that a more normal youth would have given him more intellectual resilience1 and enabled him to be more original in his thinking4 ,however that may be1 it would certainly have given him more capacity for enjoying life4 ,i was myself the product of a solitary education up to the age of sixteen--somewhat less fierce than ,mill's1 but still too destitute of the ordinary joys of youth4 ,i experienced in adolescence just the same tendency to suicide as ,mill describes--in my case1 because ,i thought the laws of dynamics regulated the movements of my body1 making the will a mere delusion4 ,when ,i began to associate with contemporaries1 ,i found myself an angular prig4 ,how far ,i have remained so1 it is not for me to say4 ,in spite of all the above arguments1 ,i am prepared to admit that there are a certain number of boys and girls who ought not to go to school1 and that some of them are very important individuals4 ,if a boy has abnormal mental powers in some direction1 combined with poor physique and great nervousness1 he may be quite incapable of fitting into a crowd of normal boys1 and may be so persecuted as to be driven mad4 ,exceptional capacities are not infrequently associated with mental instability1 and in such cases it is desirable to adopt methods which would be bad for the normal boy4 ,care should be taken to find out if abnormal sensitiveness has some definite cause1 and patient efforts should be made to cure it4 ,but these efforts should never involve terrible suffering1 such as an abnormal boy may easily have to endure from brutal companions4 ,i think such sensitiveness generally has its source in mistakes during infancy1 which have upset the child's digestion or its nerves4 ,given wisdom in handling infants1 ,i think almost all of them would grow into boys and girls sufficiently normal to enjoy the company of other boys and girls4 ,nevertheless1 some exceptions will occur1 and they may easily occur among those who have some form of genius4 ,in these rare cases1 school is undesirable1 and a more sheltered youth is to be preferred4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,affection ,,and ,,sympathy ,many readers may think that ,i have hitherto unaccountably neglected affection1 which is1 in some sense1 the essence of a good character4 ,i hold that love and knowledge are the two main requisites for right action1 yet1 in dealing with moral education1 ,i have hitherto said nothing about love4 ,my reason has been that the right sort of love should be the natural fruit resulting from the proper treatment of the growing child1 rather than something consciously aimed at throughout the various stages4 ,we have to be clear as to the kind of affection to be desired1 and as to the disposition appropriate to different ages4 ,from ten or twelve years old until puberty1 a boy is apt to be very destitute of affection1 and there is nothing to be gained by trying to force his nature4 ,throughout youth1 there is less occasion for sympathy than in adult life1 both because there is less power of giving effective expression to it1 and because a young person has to think of his or her own training for life1 largely to the exclusion of other people's interests4 ,for these reasons1 we should be more concerned to produce sympathetic and affectionate adults than to force a precocious development of these qualities in early years4 ,our problem1 like all problems in the education of character1 is a scientific one1 belonging to what may be called psychological dynamics4 ,love cannot exist as a duty3 to tell a child that it ought to love its parents and its brothers and sisters is utterly useless1 if not worse4 ,parents who wish to be loved must behave so as to elicit love1 and must try to give to their children those physical and mental characteristics which produce expansive affections4 ,not only must children not be commanded to love their parents1 but nothing must be done which has this result as its object4 ,parental affection1 at its best1 differs from sex-love in this respect4 ,it is of the essence of sex-love to seek a response1 as is natural1 since1 without a response1 it cannot fulfil its biological function4 ,but it is not of the essence of parental love to seek a response4 ,the natural unsophisticated parental instinct feels towards the child as towards an externalized part of the parent's body4 ,if your great toe is out of order1 you attend to it from self-interest1 and you do not expect it to feel grateful4 ,the savage woman1 ,i imagine1 has a very similar feeling towards her child4 ,she desires its welfare in just the same way as she desires her own1 especially while it is still very young4 ,she has no more sense of self-denial in looking after the child than in looking after herself2 and for that very reason she does not look for gratitude4 ,the child's need of her is sufficient response so long as it is helpless4 ,later1 when it begins to grow up1 her affection diminishes and her demands may increase4 ,in animals1 parental affection ceases when the child is adult1 and no demands are made upon it2 but in human beings1 even if they are very primitive1 this is not the case4 ,a son who is a lusty warrior is expected to feed and protect his parents when they are old and decrepit2 the story of neas and ,anchises embodies this feeling at a higher level of culture4 ,with the growth of foresight1 there is an increasing tendency to exploit children's affections for the sake of their help when old age comes4 ,hence the principle of filial piety1 which has existed throughout the world and is embodied in the ,fifth ,commandment4 ,with the development of private property and ordered government1 filial piety becomes less important2 after some centuries1 people become aware of this fact1 and the sentiment goes out of fashion4 ,in the modern world1 a man of fifty may be financially dependent upon a parent of eighty1 so that the important thing is still the affection of the parent for the child rather than of the child for the parent4 ,this1 of course1 applies chiefly to the propertied classes2 among wage-earners1 the older relationship persists4 ,but even there it is being gradually displaced as a result of old-age pensions and similar measures4 ,affection of children for parents1 therefore1 is ceasing to deserve a place among cardinal virtues1 while affection of parents for children remains of enormous importance4 ,there is another set of dangers1 which has been brought to the fore by the psycho-analysts1 though ,i think their interpretation of the facts may be questioned4 ,the dangers ,i am thinking of are those connected with undue devotion to one or other parent4 ,an adult1 and even an adolescent1 ought not to be so overshadowed by either father or mother as to be unable to think or feel independently4 ,this may easily happen if the personality of the parent is stronger than that of the child4 ,i do not believe that there is1 except in rare morbid cases1 an 8dipus ,complex01 in the sense of a special attraction of sons to mothers and daughters to fathers4 ,the excessive influence of the parent1 where it exists1 will belong to the parent who has had most to do with the child--generally the mother--without regard to difference of sex4 ,of course1 it may happen that a daughter who dislikes her mother and sees little of her father will idealize the latter2 but in that case the influence is exerted by dreams1 not by the actual father4 ,idealization consists of hanging hopes to a peg3 the peg is merely convenient1 and has nothing to do with the nature of the hopes4 ,undue parental influence is quite a different thing from this1 since it is connected with the actual person1 not with an imaginary portrait4 ,an adult with whom a child is in constant contact may easily become so dominant in the child's life as to make the child1 even in later life1 a mental slave4 ,the slavery may be intellectual1 or emotional1 or both4 ,a good example of the former is ,john ,stuart ,mill1 who could never bring himself1 in the last resort1 to admit that his father might have been mistaken4 ,to some degree1 intellectual slavery to early environment is normal2 very few adults are capable of opinions other than those taught by parents or teachers1 except where there is some general drift that carries them along4 ,the children of ,mohammedans are ,mohammedans1 the children of ,buddhists are ,buddhists1 and so on4 ,it may be maintained that intellectual slavery is natural and normal2 ,i am inclined to admit that it can only be avoided by an education ad hoc4 ,this form of excessive parental and scholastic influence ought to be avoided carefully1 since1 in a rapidly changing world1 it is exceedingly dangerous to retain the opinions of a by-gone generation4 ,but for the present ,i shall consider only slavery of the emotions and the will1 since that is more directly bound up with our present topic4 ,the evils considered by psycho-analysts under the heading 8dipus ,complex0 7which ,i regard as misleading7 arise from an undue desire on the part of parents for an emotional response from their children4 ,as ,i said a moment ago1 ,i believe that the parental instinct in its purity does not desire an emotional response2 it is satisfied by the dependence of the young1 and the fact that they look to parents for protection and food4 ,when the dependence ceases1 parental affection also ceases4 ,this is the state of affairs among animals1 and for their purposes it is entirely satisfactory4 ,but such simplicity of instinct is scarcely possible for human beings4 ,i have already considered the effect of military and economic considerations1 as shown in the preaching of filial piety4 ,i am now concerned with two purely psychological sources of confusion in the working of the parental instinct4 ,the first of these is of a sort which occurs wherever intelligence observes the pleasures to be derived from instinct4 ,broadly speaking1 instinct prompts pleasant acts which have useful consequences1 but the consequences may not be pleasant4 ,eating is pleasant1 but digestion is not--especially when it is indigestion4 ,sex is pleasant1 but parturition is not4 ,the dependence of an infant is pleasant1 but the independence of a vigorous grown-up son is not4 ,the primitive maternal type of woman derives most pleasure from the infant at the breast1 and gradually less pleasure as the child grows less helpless4 ,there is therefore a tendency1 for the sake of pleasure1 to prolong the period of helplessness1 and to put off the time when the child can dispense with parental guidance4 ,this is recognized in conventional phrases1 such as being 8tied to his mother's apron-strings04 ,it was thought impossible to deal with this evil in boys except by sending them away to school4 ,in girls it was not recognized as an evil1 because 7if they were well-to-do7 it was thought desirable to make them helpless and dependent1 and it was hoped that after marriage they would cling to their husbands as they had formerly clung to their mothers4 ,this seldom happened1 and its failure gave rise to the 8mother-in-law0 joke4 ,one of the purposes of a joke is to prevent thought--a purpose in which this particular joke was highly successful4 ,no one seemed to realize that a girl brought up to be dependent would naturally be dependent upon her mother1 and therefore could not enter into that whole-hearted partnership with a man which is the essence of a happy marriage4 ,the second psychological complication comes nearer to the orthodox ,freudian point of view4 ,it arises where elements appropriate to sex-love enter into parental affection4 ,i do not mean anything necessarily dependent upon difference of sex2 ,i mean merely the desire for a certain kind of emotional response4 ,part of the psychology of sex--that part1 in fact1 which has made monogamy a possible institution--is the desire to come first for some one1 to feel that oneself is more important than any other human being to the happiness of at least one person in the world4 ,when this desire has produced marriage1 it will only produce happiness if a number of other conditions are realized4 ,for one reason or another1 a very large proportion of married women in civilized countries fail to have a satisfying sex-life4 ,when this happens to a woman1 she is apt to seek from her children an illegitimate and spurious gratification of desires which only men can gratify adequately and naturally4 ,i do not mean anything obvious3 ,i mean merely a certain emotional tension1 a certain passionateness of feeling1 a pleasure in kissing and fondling to excess4 ,these things used to be thought quite right and proper in an affectionate mother4 ,indeed1 the difference between what is right and what is harmful is very subtle4 ,it is absurd to maintain1 as some ,freudians do1 that parents ought not to kiss and fondle their children at all4 ,children have a right to warm affection from their parents2 it gives them a happy1 care-free outlook upon the world1 and is essential to healthy psychological development4 ,but it should be something that they take for granted1 like the air they breathe1 not something to which they are expected to respond4 ,it is this question of response that is the essence of the matter4 ,there will be a certain spontaneous response1 which is all to the good2 but it will be quite different from the active pursuit of friendship from childish companions4 ,psychologically1 parents should be a background1 and the child should not be made to act with a view to giving his parents pleasure4 ,their pleasure should consist in his growth and progress2 anything that he gives them in the way of response should be accepted gratefully as a pure extra1 like fine weather in spring1 but should not be expected as part of the order of nature4 ,it is very difficult for a woman to be a perfect mother1 or a perfect teacher of young children1 unless she is sexually satisfied4 ,whatever psycho-analysts may say1 the parental instinct is essentially different from the sex instinct1 and is damaged by the intrusion of emotions appropriate to sex4 ,the habit of employing celibate female teachers is quite wrong psychologically4 ,the right woman to deal with children is a woman whose instinct is not seeking from them satisfactions for herself which they ought not to be expected to provide4 ,a woman who is happily married will belong to this type without effort2 but any other woman will need an almost impossible subtlety of self-control4 ,of course1 the same thing applies to men in the same circumstances1 but the circumstances are far less frequent with men1 both because their parental instincts are usually not very strong1 and because they are seldom sexually starved4 ,it is as well to be clear in our own thoughts as regards the attitude we are to expect from children to parents4 ,if parents have the right kind of love for their children1 the children's response will be just what the parents desire4 ,the children will be pleased when their parents come1 and sorry when they go1 unless they are absorbed in some agreeable pursuit2 they will look to their parents for help in any trouble1 physical or mental1 that may arise2 they will dare to be adventurous1 because they rely upon their parents' protection in the background--but this feeling will be hardly conscious except in moments of peril4 ,they will expect their parents to answer their questions1 resolve their perplexities1 and help them in difficult tasks4 ,most of what their parents do for them will not enter into their consciousness4 ,they will like their parents1 not for providing their board and lodging1 but for playing with them1 showing them how to do new things1 and telling them stories about the world4 ,they will gradually realize that their parents love them1 but this ought to be accepted as a natural fact4 ,the affection that they feel for their parents will be quite a different kind from that which they feel for other children4 ,the parent must act with reference to the child1 but the child must act with reference to himself and the outer world4 ,that is the essential difference4 ,the child has no important function to perform in relation to his parents4 ,his function is to grow in wisdom and stature1 and so long as he does so a healthy parental instinct is satisfied4 ,i should be very sorry to convey the impression that ,i want to diminish the amount of affection in family life1 or the spontaneity of its manifestations4 ,that is not at all what ,i mean4 ,what ,i do mean is that there are different kinds of affection4 ,the affection of husband and wife is one thing1 that of parents for children is another1 and that of children for parents is yet another4 ,the harm comes when these different kinds of natural affection are confused4 ,i do not think the ,freudians have arrived at the truth1 because they do not recognize these instinctive differences4 ,and this makes them1 in a sense1 ascetic as regards parents and children1 because they view any love between them as a sort of inadequate sex-love4 ,i do not believe in the need of any fundamental self-denial1 provided there are no special unfortunate circumstances4 ,a man and woman who love each other and their children ought to be able to act spontaneously as the heart dictates4 ,they will need much thought and knowledge1 but these they will acquire out of parental affection4 ,they must not demand from their children what they get from each other1 but if they are happy in each other they will feel no impulse to do so4 ,if the children are properly cared for1 they will feel for their parents a natural affection which will be no barrier to independence4 ,what is needed is not ascetic self-denial1 but freedom and expansiveness of instinct1 adequately informed by intelligence and knowledge4 ,when my boy was two years and four months old1 ,i went to ,america1 and was absent three months4 ,he was perfectly happy in my absence1 but was wild with joy when ,i returned4 ,i found him waiting impatiently by the garden gate2 he seized my hand1 and began showing me everything that specially interested him4 ,i wanted to hear1 and he wanted to tell2 ,i had no wish to tell1 and he had none to hear4 ,the two impulses were different1 but harmonious4 ,when it comes to stories1 he wishes to hear and ,i wish to tell1 so that again there is harmony4 ,only once has this situation been reversed4 ,when he was three years and six months old1 ,i had a birthday1 and his mother told him that everything was to be done to please me4 ,stories are his supreme delight2 to our surprise1 when the time for them came1 he announced that he was going to tell me stories1 as it was my birthday4 ,he told about a dozen1 then jumped down1 saying 8no more stories to-day04 ,that was three months ago1 but he has never told stories again4 ,i come now to the wider question of affection and sympathy in general4 ,as between parents and children1 there are complications owing to the possibility of abuse of power by parents2 it was necessary to deal with these complications before attacking the general question4 ,there is no possible method of compelling a child to feel sympathy or affection2 the only possible method is to observe the conditions under which these feelings arise spontaneously1 and then endeavour to produce the conditions4 ,sympathy1 undoubtedly1 is partly instinctive4 ,children are worried when their brothers or sisters cry1 and often cry too4 ,they will take their part vehemently against the grown-ups when disagreeable things are being done to them4 ,when my boy had a wound on his elbow which had to be dressed1 his sister 7aged eighteen months7 could hear him crying in another room1 and was very much upset4 ,she kept on repeating 8,jonny crying1 ,jonny crying01 until the painful business was finished4 ,when my boy saw his mother extracting a thorn with a needle from her foot1 he said anxiously1 8,it doesn't hurt1 ,mummy04 ,she said it did1 wishing to give him a lesson in not making a fuss4 ,he insisted that it didn't hurt1 whereupon she insisted that it did4 ,he then burst into sobs1 just as vehement as if it had been his own foot4 ,such occurrences must spring from instinctive physical sympathy4 ,this is the basis upon which more elaborate forms of sympathy must be built4 ,it is clear that nothing further is needed in the way of positive education except to bring home to the child the fact that people and animals can feel pain1 and do feel it under certain circumstances4 ,there is1 however1 a further negative condition3 the child must not see people he respects committing unkind or cruel actions4 ,if the father shoots or the mother speaks rudely to the maids1 the child will catch these vices4 ,it is a difficult question how and when to make a child aware of the evil in the world4 ,it is impossible to grow up ignorant of wars and massacres and poverty and preventable disease which is not prevented4 ,at some stage1 the child must know of these things1 and must combine the knowledge with a firm conviction that it is a dreadful thing to inflict1 or even permit1 any suffering which can be avoided4 ,we are here confronted by a problem similar to that which faces people who wish to preserve female chastity2 these people formerly believed in ignorance till marriage1 but now adopt more positive methods4 ,i have known some pacifists who wished history taught without reference to wars1 and thought that children should be kept as long as possible ignorant of the cruelty in the world4 ,but ,i cannot praise the 8fugitive and cloistered virtue0 that depends upon absence of knowledge4 ,as soon as history is taught at all1 it should be taught truthfully4 ,if true history contradicts any moral we wish to teach1 our moral must be wrong1 and we had better abandon it4 ,i quite admit that many people1 including some of the most virtuous1 find facts inconvenient1 but that is due to a certain feebleness in their virtue4 ,a truly robust morality can only be strengthened by the fullest knowledge of what really happens in the world4 ,we must not run the risk that the young people whom we have educated in ignorance will turn to wickedness with delight as soon as they discover that there is such a thing4 ,unless we can give them an aversion from cruelty1 they will not abstain from it2 and they cannot have an aversion from it if they do not know that it exists4 ,nevertheless1 the right way of giving children a knowledge of evil is not easily found4 ,of course1 those who live in the slums of big cities get to know early all about drunkenness1 quarrels1 wife-beating1 and so on4 ,perhaps this does them no harm1 if it is counteracted by other influences2 but no careful parent would deliberately expose a very young child to such sights4 ,i think the great objection is that they rouse fear so vividly as to colour the whole of the rest of life4 ,a child1 being defenceless1 cannot help feeling terror when it first understands that cruelty to children is possible4 ,i was about fourteen when ,i first read 8,oliver ,twist01 but it filled me with emotions of horror which ,i could scarcely have borne at an earlier age4 ,dreadful things should not be known to young people until they are old enough to face them with a certain poise4 ,this moment will come sooner with some children than with others3 those who are imaginative or timid must be sheltered longer than those who are stolid or endowed with natural courage4 ,a mental habit of fearlessness due to expectation of kindness should be firmly established before the child is made to face the existence of unkindness4 ,to choose the moment and the manner requires tact and understanding2 it is not a matter which can be decided by a rule4 ,there are1 however1 certain maxims which should be followed4 ,to begin with1 stories such as ,bluebeard and ,jack the ,giant ,killer do not involve any knowledge of cruelty whatever1 and do not raise the problems we are considering4 ,to the child1 they are purely fantastic1 and he never connects them with the real world in any way4 ,no doubt the pleasure he derives from them is connected with savage instincts1 but these are harmless as mere play-impulses in a powerless child1 and they tend to die down as the child grows older4 ,but when the child is first introduced to cruelty as a thing in the real world1 care must be taken to choose incidents in which he will identify himself with the victim1 not with the torturer4 ,something savage in him will exult in a story in which he identifies himself with the tyrant2 a story of this kind tends to produce an imperialist4 ,but the story of ,abraham preparing to sacrifice ,isaac1 or of the she-bears killing the children whom ,elisha cursed1 naturally rouses the child's sympathy for another child4 ,if such stories are told1 they should be told as showing the depths of cruelty to which men could descend long ago4 ,i once1 as a child1 heard a sermon of an hour's duration1 entirely devoted to proving that ,elisha was right in cursing the children4 ,fortunately1 ,i was old enough to think the parson a fool2 otherwise ,i should have been driven nearly mad with terror4 ,the story of ,abraham and ,isaac was even more dreadful1 because it was the child's father who was cruel to him4 ,when such stories are told with the assumption that ,abraham and ,elisha were virtuous1 they must either be ignored or utterly debase a child's moral standards4 ,but when told as an introduction to human wickedness1 they serve a purpose1 because they are vivid1 remote1 and untrue4 ,the story of ,hubert putting out little ,arthur's eyes1 in 8,king ,john01 may be used in the same way4 ,then history may be taught1 with all its wars4 ,but in telling about wars1 sympathy at first should be with the defeated4 ,i should begin with battles in which it is natural to feel on the side of the beaten party--for instance1 the battle of ,hastings in teaching an ,english boy4 ,i should emphasize always the wounds and suffering produced4 ,i should gradually lead the child to feel no partisanship in reading about wars1 and to regard both sides as silly men who had lost their tempers1 and ought to have had nurses to put them to bed till they were good4 ,i should assimilate wars to quarrels among the children in the nursery4 ,in this way1 ,i believe children could be made to see the truth about war1 and to realize that it is silly4 ,if any actual instance of unkindness or cruelty comes under the child's notice1 it should be fully discussed1 with all the moral values which the adult himself attaches to the incident1 and always with the suggestion that the people who acted cruelly were foolish1 and did not know any better because they had not been well brought up4 ,but ,i should not call the child's attention to such things in his real world1 if they were not spontaneously observed by him1 until after he had grown familiar with them in history and stories4 ,then ,i should gradually introduce him to a knowledge of evil in his surroundings4 ,but ,i should always give him the feeling that the evil can be combated1 and results from ignorance and lack of self-control and bad education4 ,i should not encourage him to be indignant with malefactors1 but rather to regard them as bunglers1 who do not know in what happiness consists4 ,the cultivation of wide sympathies1 given the instinctive germ1 is mainly an intellectual matter3 it depends upon the right direction of attention1 and the realization of facts which militarists and authoritarians suppress4 ,take1 for example1 ,tolstoy's description of ,napoleon going round the battlefield of ,austerlitz after the victory4 ,most histories leave the battlefield as soon as the battle is over2 by the simple expedient of lingering on it for another twelve hours1 a completely different picture of war is produced4 ,this is done1 not by suppressing facts1 but by giving more facts4 ,and what applies to battles applies equally to other forms of cruelty4 ,in all cases1 it should be quite unnecessary to point the moral2 the right telling of the story should be sufficient4 ,do not moralize1 but let the facts produce their own moral in the child's mind4 ,it remains to say a few words about affection1 which differs from sympathy in being inevitably and essentially selective4 ,i have spoken already of affection between parents and children2 it is affection between equals that ,i now wish to consider4 ,affection cannot be created2 it can only be liberated4 ,there is a kind of affection which is partly rooted in fear2 affection for parents has this element1 since parents afford protection4 ,in childhood affections of this sort are natural1 but in later life they are undesirable1 and even in childhood affection for other children is not of this sort4 ,my little girl is intensely devoted to her brother1 although he is the only person in her world who ever treats her unkindly4 ,affection as to an equal1 which is the best kind1 is much more likely to exist where there is happiness and absence of fear4 ,fears1 conscious or unconscious1 are very apt to produce hatred1 because other people are regarded as capable of inflicting injuries4 ,with most people1 as things are1 envy is a barrier to wide-spread affection4 ,i do not think envy can be prevented except by happiness2 moral discipline is powerless to touch its subconscious forms4 ,happiness1 in turn1 is largely prevented by fear4 ,young people who have a chance of happiness are deterred by parents and 8friends01 nominally on moral grounds1 but really from envy4 ,if the young people have enough fearlessness1 they will ignore the croakers2 otherwise1 they will allow themselves to be made miserable1 and join the company of envious moralists4 ,the education of character that we have been considering is designed to produce happiness and courage2 ,i think1 therefore1 that it does what is possible to liberate the springs of affection4 ,more than this cannot be done4 ,if you tell children that they ought to be affectionate1 you run the risk of producing cant and humbug4 ,but if you make them happy and free1 if you surround them with kindness1 you will find that they become spontaneously friendly with everybody1 and that almost everybody responds by being friendly with them4 ,a trustful affectionate disposition justifies itself1 because it gives irresistible charm1 and creates the response which it expects4 ,this is one of the most important results to be expected from the right education of character4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,sex ,,education ,the subject of sex is so surrounded by superstitions and taboos that ,i approach it with trepidation4 ,i fear lest those readers who have hitherto accepted my principles may suspect them when they are applied in this sphere2 they may have admitted readily enough that fearlessness and freedom are good for a child1 and yet desire1 where sex is concerned1 to impose slavery and terror4 ,i cannot so limit principles which ,i believe to be sound1 and ,i shall treat sex exactly as ,i have treated the other impulses which make up a human character4 ,there is one respect in which1 quite independently of taboos1 sex is peculiar1 and that is the late ripening of the instinct4 ,it is true1 as the psycho-analysts have pointed out 7though with considerable exaggeration71 that the instinct is not absent in childhood4 ,but its childish manifestations are different from those of adult life1 and its strength is much less1 and it is physically impossible for a boy to indulge it in the adult manner4 ,puberty remains an important emotional crisis1 thrust into the middle of intellectual education1 and causing disturbances which raise difficult problems for the educator4 ,many of these problems ,i shall not attempt to discuss2 it is chiefly what should be done before puberty that ,i propose to consider4 ,it is in this respect that educational reform is most needed1 especially in very early childhood4 ,although ,i disagree with the ,freudians in many particulars1 ,i think they have done a very valuable service in pointing out the nervous disorders produced in later life by wrong handling of young children in matters connected with sex4 ,their work has already produced wide-spread beneficial results in this respect1 but there is still a mass of prejudice to be overcome4 ,the difficulty is1 of course1 greatly increased by the practice of leaving children1 during their first years1 largely in the hands of totally uneducated women1 who cannot be expected to know1 still less to believe1 what has been said by learned men in the long words necessary to escape prosecution for obscenity4 ,taking our problems in chronological order1 the first that confronts mothers and nurses is that of masturbation4 ,competent authorities state that this practice is all but universal among boys and girls in their second and third years1 but usually ceases of itself a little later on4 ,sometimes it is rendered more pronounced by some definite physical irritation which can be removed4 7,it is not my province to go into medical details47 ,but it usually exists even in the absence of such special reasons4 ,it has been the custom to view it with horror1 and to use dreadful threats with a view to stopping it4 ,as a rule these threats do not succeed1 although they are believed2 the result is that the child lives in an agony of apprehension1 which presently becomes dissociated from its original cause 7now repressed into the unconscious71 but remains to produce nightmares1 nervousness1 delusions and insane terrors4 ,left to itself1 infantile masturbation has1 apparently1 no bad effect upon health#af1 and no discoverable bad effect upon character2 the bad effects which have been observed in both respects are1 it seems1 wholly attributable to attempts to stop it4 ,even if it were harmful1 it would be unwise to issue a prohibition which is not going to be observed2 and from the nature of the case1 it is impossible to make sure that the child will not continue after you have forbidden him to do so4 ,if you do nothing1 the probability is that the practice will soon be discontinued4 ,but if you do anything1 you make it much less likely that it will cease1 and you lay the foundation of terrible nervous disorders4 ,therefore1 difficult as it may be1 the child should be let alone in this respect4 ,i do not mean that you should abstain from methods other than prohibition1 in so far as they are available4 ,let him be sleepy when he goes to bed1 so that he will not lie awake long4 ,let him have some favourite toy in bed1 which may distract his attention4 ,such methods are quite unobjectionable4 ,but if they fail1 do not resort to prohibition1 or even call his attention to the fact that he indulges in the practice4 ,then it will probably cease of itself4 ,sexual curiosity normally begins during the third year1 in the shape of an interest in the physical differences between men and women1 and between adults and children4 ,by nature1 this curiosity has no special quality in early childhood1 but is simply a part of general curiosity4 ,the special quality which it is found to have in children who are being conventionally brought up is due to the grown-up practice of making mysteries4 ,when there is no mystery1 the curiosity dies down as soon as it is satisfied4 ,a child should1 from the first1 be allowed to see his parents and brothers and sisters without their clothes whenever it so happens naturally4 ,no fuss should be made either way2 he should simply not know that people have feelings about nudity4 7,of course1 later on he will have to know47 ,it will be found that the child presently notices the differences between his father and mother1 and connects them with the differences between brothers and sisters4 ,but as soon as the subject has been explored to this extent1 it becomes uninteresting1 like a cupboard that is often open4 ,of course1 any questions the child may ask during this period must be answered just as questions on other topics would be answered4 ,answering questions is a major part of sex education4 ,two rules cover the ground4 ,first1 always give a truthful answer to a question2 secondly1 regard sex knowledge as exactly like any other knowledge4 ,if the child asks you an intelligent question about the sun or the moon or the clouds1 or about motor-cars or steam-engines1 you are pleased1 and you tell him as much as he can take in4 ,this answering of questions is a very large part of early education4 ,but if he asks you a question connected with sex1 you will be tempted to say1 8hush1 hush04 ,if you have learnt not to do that1 you will still answer briefly and dryly1 perhaps with a trifle of embarrassment in your manner4 ,the child at once notices the nuance1 and you have laid the foundations of prurience4 ,you must answer with just the same fulness and naturalness as if the question had been about something else4 ,do not allow yourself to feel1 even unconsciously1 that there is something horrid and dirty about sex4 ,if you do1 your feeling will communicate itself to him4 ,he will think1 necessarily1 that there is something nasty in the relations of his parents2 later on1 he will conclude that they think ill of the behaviour which led to his existence4 ,such feelings in youth make happy instinctive emotions almost impossible1 not only in youth1 but in adult life also4 ,if the child has a brother or sister born when he is old enough to ask questions about it1 say after the age of three1 tell him that the child grew in his mother's body1 and tell him that he grew in the same way4 ,let him see his mother suckling the child1 and be told that the same thing happened to him4 ,all this1 like everything else connected with sex1 must be told without solemnity1 in a purely scientific spirit4 ,the child must not be talked to about 8the mysterious and sacred functions of motherhood02 the whole thing must be utterly matter-of-fact4 ,if no addition to the family occurs when the child is old enough to ask questions about it1 the subject is likely to arise out of being told 8that happened before you were born04 ,i find my boy still hardly able to grasp that there was a time when he did not exist2 if ,i talk to him about the building of the ,pyramids or some such topic1 he always wants to know what he was doing then1 and is merely puzzled when he is told that he did not exist4 ,sooner or later he will want to know what 8being born0 means1 and then we shall tell him4 ,the share of the father in generation is less likely to come up naturally in answer to questions1 unless the child lives on a farm4 ,but it is very important that the child should know of this first from parents or teacher1 not from children whom bad education has made nasty4 ,i remember vividly being told all about it by another boy when ,i was twelve years old2 the whole thing was treated in a ribald spirit1 as a topic for obscene jokes4 ,that was the normal experience of boys in my generation4 ,it followed naturally that the vast majority continued through life to think sex comic and nasty1 with the result that they could not respect a woman with whom they had intercourse1 even though she were the mother of their children4 ,parents pursued a cowardly policy of trusting to luck1 although fathers must have remembered how they gained their first knowledge4 ,how it can have been supposed that such a system helped sanity or sound morals1 ,i cannot imagine4 ,sex must be treated from the first as natural1 delightful and decent4 ,to do otherwise is to poison the relations of men and women1 parents and children4 ,sex is at its best between a father and mother who love each other and their children4 ,it is far better that children should first know of sex in the relations of their parents than that they should derive their first impressions from ribaldry4 ,it is particularly bad that they should discover sex between their parents as a guilty secret which has been concealed from them4 ,if there were no likelihood of being taught badly about sex by other children1 the matter could be left to the natural operation of the child's curiosity1 and parents could confine themselves to answering questions--always provided that everything became known before puberty4 ,this1 of course1 is absolutely essential4 ,it is a cruel thing to let a boy or girl be overtaken by the physical and emotional changes of that time without preparation1 and possibly with the feeling of being attacked by some dreadful disease4 ,moreover1 the whole subject of sex1 after puberty1 is so electric that a boy or girl cannot listen in a scientific spirit1 which is perfectly possible at an earlier age4 ,therefore1 quite apart from the possibility of nasty talk1 a boy or girl should know the nature of the sexual act before attaining puberty4 ,how long before this the information should be given depends upon circumstances4 ,an inquisitive and intellectually active child must be told sooner than a sluggish child4 ,there must at no time be unsatisfied curiosity4 ,however young the child may be1 he must be told if he asks4 ,and his parents' manner must be such that he will ask if he wants to know4 ,but if he does not ask spontaneously1 he must in any case be told before the age of ten1 for fear of being first told by others in a bad way4 ,it may therefore be desirable to stimulate his curiosity by instruction about generation in plants and animals4 ,there must not be a solemn occasion1 a clearing of the throat1 and an exordium3 8,now1 my boy1 ,i am going to tell you something that it is time for you to know40 ,the whole thing must be ordinary and every-day4 ,that is why it comes best in answer to questions4 ,i suppose it is unnecessary at this date to argue that boys and girls must be treated alike4 ,when ,i was young1 it was still quite common for a 8well-brought-up0 girl to marry before knowing anything about the nature of marriage1 and to have to learn it from her husband2 but ,i have not often heard of such a thing in recent years4 ,i think most people recognize nowadays that a virtue dependent upon ignorance is worthless1 and that girls have the same right to knowledge as boys4 ,if there are any who still fail to recognize this1 they are not likely to read the present work1 so that it is not worth while to argue with them4 ,i do not propose to discuss the teaching of sexual morality in the narrower sense4 ,this is a matter as to which a variety of opinions exist4 ,christians differ from ,mohammedans1 ,catholics from ,protestants who tolerate divorce1 freethinkers from medivalists4 ,parents will all wish their children taught the particular brand of sexual morality in which they believe themselves1 and ,i should not wish the ,state to interfere with them4 ,but without going into vexed questions1 there is a good deal that might be common ground4 ,there is first of all hygiene4 ,young people must know about venereal disease before they run the risk of it4 ,they should be taught about it truthfully1 without the exaggerations which some people practise in the interests of morals4 ,they should learn both how to avoid it1 and how to cure it4 ,it is a mistake to give only such instruction as is needed by the perfectly virtuous1 and to regard the misfortunes which happen to others as a just punishment of sin4 ,we might as well refuse to help a man who has been injured in a motoring accident1 on the ground that careless driving is a sin4 ,moreover1 in the one case as in the other1 the punishment may fall upon the innocent2 no one can maintain that children born with syphilis are wicked1 any more than that a man is wicked if a careless motorist runs over him4 ,young people should be led to realize that it is a very serious matter to have a child1 and that it should not be undertaken unless the child has a reasonable prospect of health and happiness4 ,the traditional view was that1 within marriage1 it is always justifiable to have children1 even if they come so fast that the mother's health is ruined1 even if the children are diseased or insane1 even if there is no prospect of their having enough to eat4 ,this view is now only maintained by heartless dogmatists1 who think that everything disgraceful to humanity redounds to the glory of ,god4 ,people who care for children1 or do not enjoy inflicting misery upon the helpless1 rebel against the ruthless dogmas which justify this cruelty4 ,a care for the rights and importance of children1 with all that is implied1 should be an essential part of moral education4 ,girls should be taught to expect that one day they are likely to be mothers1 and they should acquire some rudiments of the knowledge that may be useful to them in that capacity4 ,of course both boys and girls ought to learn something of physiology and something of hygiene4 ,it should be made clear that no one can be a good parent without parental affection1 but that even with parental affection a great deal of knowledge is required as well4 ,instinct without knowledge is as inadequate in dealing with children as knowledge without instinct4 ,the more the necessity of knowledge is understood1 the more intelligent women will feel attracted to motherhood4 ,at present1 many highly educated women despise it1 thinking that it does not give scope for the exercise of their intellectual faculties2 this is a great misfortune1 since they are capable of being the best mothers1 if their thoughts were turned in that direction4 ,one other thing is essential in teaching about sex-love4 ,jealousy must not be regarded as a justifiable insistence upon rights1 but as a misfortune to the one who feels it and a wrong towards its object4 ,where possessive elements intrude upon love1 it loses its vivifying power and eats up personality2 where they are absent1 it fulfils personality and brings a greater intensity of life4 ,in former days1 parents ruined their relations with their children by preaching love as a duty2 husbands and wives still too often ruin their relations to each other by the same mistake4 ,love cannot be a duty1 because it is not subject to the will4 ,it is a gift from heaven1 the best that heaven has to bestow4 ,those who shut it up in a cage destroy the beauty and joy which it can only display while it is free and spontaneous4 ,here1 again1 fear is the enemy4 ,he who fears to lose what makes the happiness of his life has already lost it4 ,in this1 as in other things1 fearlessness is the essence of wisdom4 ,for this reason1 in teaching my own children1 ,i shall try to prevent them from learning a moral code which ,i regard as harmful4 ,some people who themselves hold liberal views are willing that their children shall first acquire conventional morals1 and become emancipated only later1 if at all4 ,i cannot agree to this1 because ,i hold that the traditional code not only forbids what is innocent1 but also commends what is harmful4 ,those who have been taught conventionally will almost inevitably believe themselves justified in indulging jealousy when occasion arises2 moreover they will probably be obsessed by sex either positively or negatively4 ,i shall not teach that faithfulness to our partner through life is in any way desirable1 or that a permanent marriage should be regarded as excluding temporary episodes4 ,so long as jealousy is regarded as virtuous1 such episodes cause grave friction2 but they do not do so where a less restrictive morality is accepted on both sides4 ,relations involving children should be permanent if possible1 but should not necessarily on that account be exclusive4 ,where there is mutual freedom and no pecuniary motive1 love is good2 where these conditions fail1 it may often be bad4 ,it is because they fail so frequently in the conventional marriage that a morality which is positive rather than restrictive1 based upon hope rather than fear1 is compelled1 if it is logical1 to disagree with the received code in matters of sex4 ,and there can be no excuse for allowing our children to be taught a morality which we ourselves believe to be pernicious4 ,finally1 the attitude displayed by parents and teachers towards sex should be scientific1 not emotional or dogmatic4 ,for example1 when it is said of a mother speaking to her daughter2 8,let her tell nature's plan1 in a spirit of reverence02 and of a father instructing his son3 8,the father should1 in a spirit of reverence1 explain nature's plan for the starting of a new life0--such sayings may be passed over by the reader as embodying nothing questionable4 ,but to my mind there should be no more occasion for 8reverence0 than in explaining the construction of a steam-engine4 8,reverence0 means a special tone of voice from which the boy or girl infers that there is some peculiar quality about sex4 ,from this to prurience and indecency is only a step4 ,we shall never secure decency in matters of sex until we cease to treat the subject as different from any other4 ,it follows that we must not advance dogmas for which there is no evidence1 and which most impartial students question1 such as3 8,after maturity is reached the ideal social relationship of the sexes is monogamous wedlock1 to which relationship both parties should live in absolute fidelity0 7ib4 p4 #caj74 ,this proposition may or may not be true2 at present there is certainly no evidence sufficient to prove it true4 ,by teaching it as something unquestionable1 we abandon the scientific attitude1 and do what we can to inhibit rational thought upon a most important matter4 ,so long as this dogmatism persists in teachers1 it is not to be hoped that their pupils will apply reason to any question upon which they feel strongly4 ,and the only alternative to reason is violence4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,the ,,nursery-,,school ,in previous chapters1 ,i have tried to give an outline of what can be done for the young child in the way of creating the habits which will give happiness and usefulness in later life4 ,but ,i have not discussed the question whether parents are to give this training1 or whether it is to be given in schools designed for the purpose4 ,i think the arguments in favour of the nursery-school are quite overwhelming--not only for children whose parents are poor1 ignorant1 and overworked1 but for all children1 or1 at the very least1 for all children who live in towns4 ,i believe that the children at ,miss ,margaret ,mc,millan's nursery-school in ,deptford get something better than any children of well-to-do parents can at present obtain4 ,i should like to see the same system extended to all children1 rich and poor alike4 ,but before discussing any actual nursery-school1 let us see what reasons there are for desiring such an institution4 ,to begin with1 early childhood is of immeasurable importance both medically and psychologically4 ,these two aspects are very closely intertwined4 ,for example3 fear will make a child breathe badly1 and breathing badly will predispose it to a variety of diseases4#ag ,such interrelations are so numerous that no one can hope to succeed with a child's character without some medical knowledge1 or with its health without some psychology4 ,in both directions1 most of the knowledge required is very new1 and much of it runs counter to time-honoured traditions4 ,take for example the question of discipline4 ,the great principle in a contest with a child is3 do not yield1 but do not punish4 ,the normal parent sometimes yields for the sake of a quiet life1 and sometimes punishes from exasperation2 the right method1 to be successful1 requires a difficult combination of patience and power of suggestion4 ,this is a psychological example2 fresh air is a medical example4 ,given care and wisdom1 children profit by constant fresh air1 day and night1 with not too much clothing4 ,but if care and wisdom are absent1 the risk of chills from wet or sudden cold cannot be ignored4 ,parents cannot be expected to possess the skill or the leisure required for the new and difficult art of dealing with young children4 ,in the case of uneducated parents1 this is obvious2 they do not know the right methods1 and if they were taught them they would remain unconvinced4 ,i live in an agricultural district by the sea1 where fresh food is easy to obtain1 and there are no extremes of heat or cold2 ,i chose it largely because it is ideal for children's health4 ,yet almost all the children of the farmers1 shopkeepers1 and so on1 are pasty-faced languid creatures1 because they are indulged in food and disciplined in play4 ,they never go to the beach1 because wet feet are thought dangerous4 ,they wear thick woollen coats out-of-doors even in the hottest summer weather4 ,if their play is noisy1 steps are taken to make their behaviour 8genteel04 ,but they are allowed to stay up late1 and are given all kinds of unwholesome tit-bits of grown-up food4 ,their parents cannot understand why my children have not died of cold and exposure long ago2 but no object lesson will convince them that their own methods are capable of improvement4 ,they are neither poor nor lacking in parental affection1 but they are obstinately ignorant owing to bad education4 ,in the case of town parents who are poor and overworked1 the evils are of course far greater4 ,but even in the case of parents who are highly educated1 conscientious1 and not too busy1 the children cannot get as much of what they need as in a nursery-school4 ,first and foremost1 they do not get the companionship of other children of the same age4 ,if the family is small1 as such families usually are1 the children may easily get too much attention from their elders1 and may become nervous and precocious in consequence4 ,moreover1 parents cannot have the experience of multitudes of children which gives a sure touch4 ,and only the rich can provide the space and the environment that best suits young children4 ,such things1 if provided privately for one family of children1 produce pride of possession and a feeling of superiority1 which are extraordinarily harmful morally4 ,for all these reasons1 ,i believe that even the best parents would do well to send their children to a suitable school from the age of two onwards1 at least for part of the day--provided such a school existed in their neighbourhood4 ,there are1 at present1 two kinds of schools1 according to the status of the parents4 ,there are ,froebel schools and ,montessori schools for well-to-do-children1 and there are a small number of nursery-schools for very poor children4 ,of the latter1 the most famous is ,miss ,mc,millan's1 of which the above-mentioned book gives an account which should be read by every lover of children4 ,i am inclined to think that no existing school for well-to-do children is as good as hers1 partly because she has larger numbers1 partly because she is not troubled by the fussiness which middle-class snobbery obtrudes upon teachers4 ,she aims at keeping children1 if possible1 from one year old till seven1 though the education authorities incline to the view that the children ought to go to an ordinary elementary school at the age of five4 ,the children come at eight in the morning1 and stay till six in the evening2 they have all their meals in the school4 ,they spend as much as possible of their time out-of-doors1 and indoors they have an abnormal amount of fresh air4 ,before a child is admitted1 he or she is medically examined1 and if possible cured at the clinic or in the hospital if not healthy4 ,after admission1 the children become and remain healthy with very few exceptions4 ,there is a large1 lovely garden1 and a good deal of the time is spent in playing there4 ,the teaching is broadly on ,montessori lines4 ,after dinner the children all sleep4 ,in spite of the fact that at night1 and on ,sundays1 they have to be in poverty-stricken homes1 perhaps in cellars with drunken parents1 their physique and intelligence become equal to the best that middle-class children achieve4 ,here is ,miss ,mc,millan's account of her seven-year-old pupils3 ,they are nearly all tall1 straight children4 ,all are straight1 indeed1 if not tall1 but the average is a big1 well-made child with clean skin1 bright eyes1 and silky hair4 ,he or she is a little above the average of the best type of well-to-do child of the upper middle class4 ,so much for his or her physique4 ,mentally he is alert1 sociable1 eager for life and new experience4 ,he can read and spell perfectly1 or almost perfectly4 ,he writes well and expresses himself easily4 ,he speaks good ,english and also ,french4 ,he can not only help himself1 but he or she has for years helped younger children3 and he can count and measure and design and has had some preparation for science4 ,his first years were spent in an atmosphere of love and calm and fun1 and his last two years were full of interesting experiences and experiment4 ,he knows about a garden1 and has planted and watered1 and taken care of plants as well as animals4 ,the seven-year-old can dance1 too1 and sing and play many games4 ,such are the children who will soon present themselves in thousands at the ,junior ,schools' doors4 ,what is to be done with them8 ,i want to point out1 first of all1 that the elementary school teachers' work will be changed by this sudden uprush of clean and strong young life from below4 ,either the ,nursery-,school will be a paltry thing1 that is to say a new failure1 or else it will soon influence not only elementary schools but also the secondary4 ,it will provide a new kind of children to be educated1 and this must react sooner or later1 not only on all the schools1 but on all our social life1 on the kind of government and laws framed for the people1 and on the relation of our nation to other nations4 ,i do not think these claims exaggerated4 ,the nursery-school1 if it became universal1 could1 in one generation1 remove the profound differences in education which at present divide the classes1 could produce a population all enjoying the mental and physical development which is now confined to the most fortunate1 and could remove the terrible dead-weight of disease and stupidity and malevolence which now makes progress so difficult4 ,under the ,education ,act of #aiah1 nursery-schools were to have been promoted by ,government money2 but when the ,geddes ,axe descended it was decided that it was more important to build cruisers and the ,singapore ,dock for the purpose of facilitating war with the ,japanese4 ,at the present moment1 the ,government is spending a million a year to induce people to poison themselves with preservatives in ,canadian butter rather than eat pure butter from ,denmark4 ,to secure this end1 our children are condemned to disease and misery and unawakened intelligence1 from which multitudes could be saved by a million a year spent on nursery-schools4 ,the mothers now have the vote2 will they some day learn to use it for the good of their children8#ah ,apart from these wider considerations1 what has to be realized is that the right care of young children is highly skilled work1 which parents cannot hope to do satisfactorily1 and that it is quite different work from school-teaching in later years4 ,to quote ,miss ,mc,millan again3 ,the ,nursery child has a fairly good physique4 ,not only do his neighbours in the slums fall far short of him3 his 8betters0 in good districts1 the middle-class children1 of a very good type1 fall short of him4 ,it is clear that something more than parental love and 8parental responsibility0 are wanted4 ,rules of thumb have all broken down4 8,parental love0 without knowledge has broken down4 ,child nurture has not broken down4 ,it is very highly skilled work4 ,as regards the finances3 ,a ,nursery-,school of #ajj children can be run to-day at an annual cost of #ab per head1 and of this sum the parents in the poorest quarters can pay one-third4 ,a ,nursery-,school staffed by students will cost more1 but the greater part of the increased cost would be paid as fees and maintenance of future teachers4 ,an open-air nursery and training centre1 numbering in all about #ajj children and thirty students1 costs as nearly as makes no difference #b1bjj per annum4 ,one more quotation3 ,one great result of the ,nursery-,school will be that the children can get faster through the curriculum of to-day4 ,when they are half or two-thirds through the present elementary school life they will be ready to go on to more advanced work4444 ,in short1 the ,nursery-,school1 if it is a real place of nurture1 and not merely a place where babies are 8minded0 till they are five1 will affect our whole educational system very powerfully and very rapidly4 ,it will quickly raise the possible level of culture and attainment in all schools1 beginning with the junior schools4 ,it will prove that this welter of disease and misery in which we live1 and which makes the doctor's service loom bigger than the teacher's1 can be swept away4 ,it will make the heavy walls1 the terrible gates1 the hard playground1 the sunless and huge class-room look monstrous1 as they are4 ,it will give teachers a chance4 ,the nursery-school occupies an intermediate position between early training of character and subsequent giving of instruction4 ,it carries on both at once1 and each by the help of the other1 with instruction gradually taking a larger share as the child grows older4 ,it was in institutions having a similar function that ,madame ,montessori perfected her methods4 ,in certain large tenement houses in ,rome1 a large room was set apart for the children between three and seven1 and ,madame ,montessori was put in charge of these 8,children's ,houses04#ai ,as in ,deptford1 the children came from the very poorest section of the population2 as in ,deptford1 the results showed that early care can overcome the physical and mental disadvantages of a bad home4 ,it is remarkable that1 ever since the time of ,sguin1 progress in educational methods with young children has come from study of idiots and the feeble-minded1 who are1 in certain respects1 still mentally infants4 ,i believe the reason for the necessity of this detour was that the stupidities of mental patients were not regarded as blameworthy1 or as curable by chastisement2 no one thought that ,dr4 ,arnold's recipe of flogging would cure their 8laziness04 ,consequently they were treated scientifically1 not angrily2 if they failed to understand1 no irate pedagogue stormed at them and told them they ought to be ashamed of themselves4 ,if people could have brought themselves to take a scientific instead of a moralizing attitude towards children1 they could have discovered what is now known about the way to educate them without first having to study the mentally deficient4 ,the conception of 8moral responsibility0 is 8responsible0 for much evil4 ,imagine two children1 one of whom has the good fortune to be in a nursery-school1 while the other is left to unalleviated slum-life4 ,is the second child 8morally responsible0 if he grows up less admirable than the first8 ,are his parents 8morally responsible0 for the ignorance and carelessness which makes them unable to educate him8 ,are the rich 8morally responsible0 for the selfishness and stupidity which have been drilled into them at expensive schools1 and which make them prefer their own foolish luxuries to the creation of a happy community8 ,all are victims of circumstances2 all have had characters warped in infancy and intelligence stunted at school4 ,no good purpose is served by choosing to regard them as 8morally responsible01 and holding them up to reprobation because they have been less fortunate than they might have been4 ,there is only one road to progress1 in education as in other human affairs1 and that is3 ,science wielded by love4 ,without science1 love is powerless2 without love1 science is destructive4 ,all that has been done to improve the education of little children has been done by those who loved them2 all has been done by those who knew all that science could teach on the subject4 ,this is one of the benefits we derive from the higher education of women3 in former days1 science and love of children were much less likely to coexist4 ,the power of moulding young minds which science is placing in our possession is a very terrible power1 capable of deadly misuse2 if it falls into the wrong hands1 it may produce a world even more ruthless and cruel than the haphazard world of nature4 ,children may be taught to be bigoted1 bellicose1 and brutal1 under the pretence that they are being taught religion1 patriotism1 and courage1 or communism1 proletarianism1 and revolutionary ardour4 ,the teaching must be inspired by love1 and must aim at creating love in the children4 ,if not1 it will become more efficiently harmful with every improvement in scientific technique4 ,love for children exists in the community as an effective force2 this is shown by the lowering of the infant death-rate and the improvement of education4 ,it is still far too weak1 or our politicians would not dare to sacrifice the life and happiness of innumerable children to their nefarious schemes of bloodshed and oppression2 but it exists and is increasing4 ,other forms of love1 however1 are strangely lacking4 ,the very individuals who lavish care on children cherish passions which expose those same children1 in later life1 to death in wars which are mere collective insanities4 ,is it too much to hope that love may gradually be extended from the child to the man he will become8 ,will the lovers of children learn to follow their later years with something of the same parental solicitude8 ,having given them strong bodies and vigorous minds1 shall we let them use their strength and vigour to create a better world8 ,or1 when they turn to this work1 shall we recoil in terror1 and plunge them back into slavery and drill8 ,science is ready for either alternative2 the choice is between love and hate1 though hate is disguised beneath all the fine phrases to which professional moralists do homage4 ,,part ,,iii ,,intellectual ,,education ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,general ,,principles ,the building up of character1 which has been our theme hitherto1 should be mainly a matter for the earlier years4 ,if rightly conducted1 it ought to be nearly complete by the age of six4 ,i do not mean that a character cannot be spoilt after that age2 there is no age at which untoward circumstances or environment will not do harm4 ,what ,i mean is that1 after the age of six1 a boy or girl who has been given the right early training ought to have habits and desires which will lead in the right direction if a certain care is taken with the environment4 ,a school composed of boys and girls rightly brought up during their first six years will constitute a good environment1 given a modicum of good sense in the authorities2 it ought not to be necessary to give much time or thought to moral questions1 since such further virtues as are required ought to result naturally from purely intellectual training4 ,i do not mean to assert this pedantically as an absolute rule1 but as a principle guiding school authorities as regards the matters upon which they ought to lay emphasis4 ,i am convinced that1 if children up to the age of six have been properly handled1 it is best that the school authorities should lay stress upon purely intellectual progress1 and should rely upon this to produce the further development of character which is still desirable4 ,it is a bad thing for intelligence1 and ultimately for character1 to let instruction be influenced by moral considerations4 ,it should not be thought that some knowledge is harmful and some ignorance is good4 ,the knowledge which is imparted should be imparted for an intellectual purpose1 not to prove some moral or political conclusion4 ,the purpose of the teaching should be1 from the pupil's point of view1 partly to satisfy his curiosity1 partly to give him the skill required in order that he may be able to satisfy his curiosity for himself4 ,from the teacher's point of view1 there must also be the stimulation of certain fruitful kinds of curiosity4 ,but there must never be discouragement of curiosity1 even if it takes directions which lie outside the school curriculum altogether4 ,i do not mean that the curriculum should be interrupted1 but that the curiosity should be regarded as laudable1 and the boy or girl should be told how to satisfy it after school hours1 by means of books in the library for example4 ,but at this point ,i shall be met by an argument which must be faced at the outset4 ,what if a boy's curiosity is morbid or perverted8 ,what if he is interested in obscenity or in accounts of tortures8 ,what if he is only interested in prying into other people's doings8 ,are such forms of curiosity to be encouraged8 ,in answering this question1 we must make a distinction4 ,most emphatically1 we are not to behave so that the boy's curiosity shall continue to be limited to these directions4 ,but it does not follow that we are to make him feel wicked for wishing to know about such things1 or that we are to struggle to keep knowledge of them away from him4 ,almost always1 the whole attraction of such knowledge consists in the fact that it is forbidden2 in a certain number of cases1 it is connected with some pathological mental condition which needs medical treatment4 ,but in no case is prohibition and moral horror the right treatment4 ,as the commonest and most important case1 let us take an interest in obscenity4 ,i do not believe that such a thing could exist in a boy or girl to whom sex knowledge was just like any other knowledge4 ,a boy who obtains possession of indecent pictures is proud of his skill in having done so1 and of knowing what his less enterprising companions have failed to find out4 ,if he had been told openly and decently all about sex1 he would feel no interest in such pictures4 ,if1 nevertheless1 a boy were found to have such an interest1 ,i should have him treated by a doctor skilled in these matters4 ,the treatment should begin by encouraging him to utter freely even his most shocking thoughts1 and should continue with a flood of further information1 growing gradually more technical and scientific1 until the whole matter bored him to extinction4 ,when he felt that there was nothing more to know1 and that what he did know was uninteresting1 he would be cured4 ,the important point is that the knowledge in itself is not bad1 but only the habit of brooding on one particular topic4 ,an obsession is not cured1 at first1 by violent efforts to distract attention1 but rather by a plethora of the subject4 ,through this1 the interest can be made scientific instead of morbid2 and when that has been achieved1 it takes its legitimate place among other interests1 and ceases to be an obsession4 ,this1 ,i am convinced1 is the right way to deal with a narrow and morbid curiosity4 ,prohibition and moral horror can only make it worse4 ,although improvement of character should not be the aim of instruction1 there are certain qualities which are very desirable1 and which are essential to the successful pursuit of knowledge2 they may be called the intellectual virtues4 ,these should result from intellectual education2 but they should result as needed in learning1 not as virtues pursued for their own sakes4 ,among such qualities the chief seem to me3 curiosity1 open-mindedness1 belief that knowledge is possible though difficult1 patience1 industry1 concentration and exactness4 ,of these1 curiosity is fundamental2 where it is strong and directed to the right objects1 all the rest will follow4 ,but perhaps curiosity is not quite so active as to be made the basis of the whole intellectual life4 ,there should always also be a desire to do something difficult2 the knowledge which is acquired should appear in the pupil's mind as skill1 just like skill in games or gymnastics4 ,it is1 ,i suppose1 unavoidable that the skill should be in part merely that required for artificial school tasks2 but wherever it can be made to appear necessary for some non-scholastic purpose which appeals to the pupil1 something very important has been accomplished4 ,the divorce of knowledge from life is regrettable1 although1 during school years1 it is not wholly avoidable4 ,where it is hardest to avoid1 there should be occasional talks about the utility of the knowledge in question--taking 8utility0 in a very broad sense4 ,nevertheless1 ,i should allow a large place to pure curiosity1 without which much of the most valuable knowledge 7for instance1 pure mathematics7 would never have been discovered4 ,there is much knowledge which seems to me valuable on its own account1 quite apart from any use to which it is capable of being put4 ,and ,i should not wish to encourage the young to look too closely for an ulterior purpose in all knowledge2 disinterested curiosity is natural to the young1 and is a very valuable quality4 ,it is only where it fails that ,i should appeal to the desire for skill such as can be exhibited in practice4 ,each motive has its place1 but neither should be allowed to push the other aside4 ,i am aware that ,i have been assuming that some knowledge is desirable on its own account1 not merely on account of its utility4 ,this view is often challenged4 ,i find it said by ,professor ,o',shea#bj that in ,european and ,oriental schools 8a person is not regarded as educated1 or at least not cultured1 unless he has amassed a considerable body of knowledge of ancient flavour4 ,but in our country we are rapidly coming to the view that culture does not depend upon the mere possession of facts1 whether ancient or modern4 ,the cultured individual is one who has acquired knowledge and skill which make him of service to society1 and habits of conduct which make him agreeable in association with his fellows4#ba ,knowledge which does not function in the life of the individual in his relations with others1 to-day is not regarded by ,american teachers as of value for culture any more than for disciplinary purposes40 ,of course this account of how the ,old ,world regards culture is a caricature4 ,no one would maintain that mere knowledge of facts confers culture4 ,but it would be argued that culture implies a certain freedom from parochialism1 both in space and time1 and that this involves a respect for excellence even if it is found in another country or another age4 ,we are apt to exaggerate our superiority not only to foreigners1 but to the men of former times1 and this makes us contemptuous of everything in which they were better than we are1 which includes the whole sthetic side of life4 ,and ,i should say that culture involves a certain power of contemplation1 for thinking or feeling without rushing headlong into energetic action4 ,this leads me to a certain hesitation in adopting the theory of what is called 8dynamic0 education1 which 8requires pupils actually to do what they are learning0 7ib4 p4 #dja74 ,undoubtedly this method is right with young children1 but education is not complete until more abstract and intellectual methods have become possible4 ,to 8do0 the nebular hypothesis or the ,french ,revolution would take a long time1 not to mention danger from the guillotine4 ,a person who has been adequately educated has learned to extract the meaning from abstractions when necessary1 and to manipulate them as abstractions so long as that will serve his purpose4 ,a mathematician who had to stop to realize the meaning of each step in his transformations would never get through his work2 the essential merit of his instrument is that it can be used without this labour4 ,in higher education1 therefore1 the dynamic method seems inadequate4 ,i cannot help thinking that its popularity in ,america is partly due to the notion that all excellence consists in doing1 rather than in thinking and feeling4 ,this notion is implicit in the definition of culture which ,i quoted just now1 and is natural in a mechanical age1 since a machine can only do1 and is not expected to think or feel4 ,but the assimilation of men to machines1 whatever may be thought of it metaphysically1 is hardly likely to give us a just standard of values4 ,open-mindedness is a quality which will always exist where desire for knowledge is genuine4 ,it only fails where other desires have become entangled with the belief that we already know the truth4 ,that is why it is so much commoner in youth than in later life4 ,a man's activities are almost necessarily bound up with some decision on an intellectually doubtful matter4 ,a clergyman cannot be disinterested about theology1 nor a soldier about war4 ,a lawyer is bound to hold that criminals ought to be punished--unless they can afford a leading lawyer's fee4 ,a schoolmaster will favour the particular system of education for which he is fitted by his training and experience4 ,a politician can hardly help believing in the principles of the party which is most likely to give him office4 ,when once a man has chosen his career1 he cannot be expected to be perpetually considering whether some other choice might not have been better4 ,in later life1 therefore1 open-mindedness has its limitations1 though they ought to be as few as possible4 ,but in youth there are far fewer of what ,william ,james called 8forced options01 and therefore there is less occasion for the 8will to believe04 ,young people ought to be encouraged to regard every question as open1 and to be able to throw over any opinion as the result of an argument4 ,it is implied in this freedom of thought that there should not be complete freedom of action4 ,a boy must not be free to run off to sea under the influence of some story of adventure in the ,spanish ,main4 ,but so long as his education continues1 he should be free to think that it is better to be a pirate than a professor4 ,power of concentration is a very valuable quality1 which few people acquire except through education4 ,it is true that it grows naturally1 to a considerable extent1 as young people get older2 very young infants seldom think of any one thing for more than a few minutes1 but with every year that passes their attention grows less volatile until they are adult4 ,nevertheless1 they are hardly likely to acquire enough concentration without a long period of intellectual education4 ,there are three qualities which distinguish perfect concentration3 it should be intense1 prolonged1 and voluntary4 ,intensity is illustrated by the story of ,archimedes1 who is said to have never noticed when the ,romans captured ,syracuse and came to kill him1 because he was absorbed in a mathematical problem4 ,to be able to concentrate on the same matter for a considerable time is essential to difficult achievement1 and even to the understanding of any complicated or abstruse subject4 ,a profound spontaneous interest brings this about naturally1 so far as the object of interest is concerned4 ,most people can concentrate on a mechanical puzzle for a long time2 but this is not in itself very useful4 ,to be really valuable1 the concentration must also be within the control of the will4 ,by this ,i mean that1 even where some piece of knowledge is uninteresting in itself1 a man can force himself to acquire it if he has an adequate motive for doing so4 ,i think it is above all the control of attention by the will that is conferred by higher education4 ,in this one respect1 an old-fashioned education is admirable2 ,i doubt whether modern methods are as successful in teaching a man to endure voluntary boredom4 ,however1 if this defect does exist in modern educational practice1 it is by no means irremediable4 ,the matter is one to which ,i shall return later4 ,patience and industry ought to result from a good education4 ,it was formerly thought that they could only be secured1 in most cases1 by the enforcement of good habits imposed by external authority4 ,undoubtedly this method has some success1 as may be seen when a horse is broken in4 ,but ,i think it is better to stimulate the ambition required for overcoming difficulties1 which can be done by grading the difficulties so that the pleasure of success may at first be won fairly easily4 ,this gives experience of the rewards of persistence1 and gradually the amount of persistence required can be increased4 ,exactly similar remarks apply to the belief that knowledge is difficult but not impossible1 which is best generated by inducing the pupil to solve a series of carefully graded problems4 ,exactness1 like the voluntary control of attention1 is a matter to which educational reformers perhaps tend to attach too little importance4 ,dr4 ,ballard 7op4 cit4 ,chap4 ,,xvi7 states definitely that our elementary schools1 in this respect1 are not so good as they were1 although in most respects they are vastly improved4 ,he says3 8,there is in existence a large number of tests given to school-children in the annual examinations of the 'eighties and early 'nineties1 and the results of those tests were scheduled for purposes of grant4#bb ,when those same tests are set to-day to children of the same age the results are palpably and consistently worse4 ,account for it as we may1 there can be no doubt whatever about the fact4 ,taken as a whole1 the work done in our schools--our primary schools at least--is less accurate than it was a quarter of a century ago40 ,dr4 ,ballard's whole discussion of this subject is so excellent that ,i have little to add to it4 ,i will1 however1 quote his concluding words3 8,after all deductions have been made1 it accuracy is still a noble and inspiring ideal4 ,it is the morality of the intellect3 it prescribes what it ought to strive for in the pursuit of its own proper ideal4 ,for the extent to which we are accurate in our thoughts1 words1 and deeds is a rough measure of our fealty to truth40 ,the difficulty which is felt by the advocate of modern methods is that accuracy1 as hitherto taught1 involves boredom1 and that it is an immense gain if education can be made interesting4 ,here1 however1 we must make a distinction4 ,boredom merely imposed by the teacher is wholly bad2 boredom voluntarily endured by the pupil in order to satisfy some ambition is valuable if not overdone4 ,it should be part of education to fire pupils with desires not easily gratified--to know the calculus1 to read ,homer1 to perform well on the violin1 or what not4 ,each of these involves its own kind of accuracy4 ,able boys and girls will go through endless tedium and submit willingly to severe discipline in order to acquire some coveted knowledge or skill4 ,those who have less native ability can often be fired by similar ambitions if they are inspiringly taught4 ,the driving force in education should be the pupil's wish to learn1 not the master's authority2 but it does not follow that education should be soft and easy and pleasant at every stage4 ,this applies1 in particular1 to the question of accuracy4 ,the acquisition of exact knowledge is apt to be wearisome1 but it is essential to every kind of excellence1 and this fact can be made obvious to a child by suitable methods4 ,in so far as modern methods fail in this respect1 they are at fault4 ,in this matter1 as in many others1 reaction against the old bad forms of discipline has tended to an undue laxity1 which will have to give place to a new discipline1 more internal and psychological than the old external authority4 ,of this new discipline1 accuracy will be the intellectual expression4 ,there are various kinds of accuracy1 each of which has its own importance4 ,to take the main kinds3 ,there is muscular accuracy1 sthetic accuracy1 accuracy as to matter-of-fact1 and logical accuracy4 ,every boy or girl can appreciate the importance of muscular accuracy in many directions2 it is required for the control of the body which a healthy child spends all its spare time in acquiring1 and afterwards for the games upon which prestige depends4 ,but it has other forms which have more to do with school-teaching1 such as well-articulated speech1 good writing1 and correct performance on a musical instrument4 ,a child will think these things important or unimportant according to his environment4 sthetic accuracy is difficult to define2 it has to do with the appropriateness of a sensible stimulus for the production of emotion4 ,one way of teaching an important form of it is to cause children to learn poetry by heart--e4g41 ,shakespeare1 for purposes of acting--and to make them feel1 when they make mistakes1 why the original is better4 ,i believe it would be found that1 where sthetic sensibility is wide-spread1 children are taught conventional stereotyped performances1 such as dances and songs1 which they enjoy1 but which must be done exactly right on account of tradition4 ,this makes them sensitive to small differences1 which is essential to accuracy4 ,acting1 singing1 and dancing seem to me the best methods of teaching sthetic precision4 ,drawing is less good1 because it is likely to be judged by its fidelity to the model1 not by sthetic standards4 ,it is true that stereotyped performances also are expected to reproduce a model1 but it is a model created by sthetic motives2 it is copied because it is good1 not because copying is good4 ,accuracy as to matter-of-fact is intolerably boring when pursued on its own account4 ,learning the dates of the kings of ,england1 or the names of the counties and their capitals1 used to be one of the terrors of childhood4 ,it is better to secure accuracy by interest and repetition4 ,i could never remember the list of capes1 but at eight years old ,i knew almost all the stations on the ,underground4 ,if children were shown a cinema representing a ship sailing round the coast1 they would soon know the capes4 ,i don't think they are worth knowing1 but if they were1 that would be the way to teach them4 ,all geography ought to be taught on the cinema2 so ought history at first4 ,the initial expense would be great1 but not too great for governments4 ,and there would be a subsequent economy in ease of teaching4 ,logical accuracy is a late acquisition1 and should not be forced upon young children4 ,getting the multiplication table right is1 of course1 accuracy as to matter-of-fact2 it only becomes logical accuracy at a much later stage4 ,mathematics is the natural vehicle for this teaching1 but it fails if allowed to appear as a set of arbitrary rules4 ,rules must be learnt1 but at some stage the reasons for them must be made clear2 if this is not done1 mathematics has little educative value4 ,i come now to a question which has already arisen in connection with exactness1 the question1 namely1 how far it is possible or desirable to make all instruction interesting4 ,the old view was that a great deal of it must be dull1 and that only stern authority will induce the average boy to persist4 7,the average girl was to remain ignorant47 ,the modern view is that it can be made delightful through and through4 ,i have much more sympathy with the modern view than with the old one2 nevertheless1 ,i think it is subject to some limitations1 especially in higher education4 ,i shall begin with what ,i think true in it4 ,modern writers on infant psychology all emphasize the importance of not urging a young child to eat or sleep3 these things ought to be done spontaneously by the child1 not as a result of coaxing or forcing4 ,my own experience entirely bears out this teaching4 ,at first1 we did not know the newer teaching1 and tried the older methods4 ,they were very unsuccessful1 whereas the modern methods succeeded perfectly4 ,it must not be supposed1 however1 that the modern parent does nothing about eating and sleeping2 on the contrary1 everything possible is done to promote the formation of good habits4 ,meals come at regular times1 and the child must sit through them without games whether he eats or not4 ,bed comes at regular times1 and the child must lie down in bed4 ,he may have a toy animal to hug1 but not one that squeaks or runs or does anything exciting4 ,if the animal is a favourite1 one may play the game that the animal is tired and the child must put it to sleep4 ,then leave the child alone1 and sleep will usually come very quickly4 ,but never let the child think you are anxious he should sleep or eat4 ,that at once makes him think you are asking a favour2 this gives him a sense of power1 which leads him to demand more and more coaxing or punishment4 ,he should eat and sleep because he wants to1 not to please you4 ,this psychology is obviously applicable in great measure to instruction4 ,if you insist upon teaching a child1 he will conclude that he is being asked to do something disagreeable to please you1 and he will have a psychological resistance4 ,if this exists at the start1 it will perpetuate itself2 at a later age1 the desirability of getting through examinations may become evident1 and there will be work for that purpose1 but none from sheer interest in knowledge4 ,if1 on the contrary1 you can first stimulate the child's desire to know1 and then1 as a favour1 give him the knowledge he wants1 the whole situation is different4 ,very much less external discipline is required1 and attention is secured without difficulty4 ,to succeed in this method1 certain conditions are necessary1 which ,madame ,montessori successfully produces among the very young4 ,the tasks must be attractive and not too difficult4 ,there must1 at first1 be the example of other children at a slightly more advanced stage4 ,there must be no other obviously pleasant occupation open to the child at the moment4 ,there are a number of things the child may do1 and he works by himself at whichever he prefers4 ,almost all children are perfectly happy in this rgime1 and learn to read and write without pressure before they are five years old4 ,how far similar methods can advantageously be applied to older children is a debatable question4 ,as children grow older1 they become responsive to more remote motives1 and it is no longer necessary that every detail should be interesting in itself4 ,but ,i think the broad principle that the impulse to education should come from the pupil can be continued up to any age4 ,the environment should be such as to stimulate the impulse1 and to make boredom and isolation the alternative to learning4 ,but any child that preferred this alternative on any occasion should be allowed to choose it4 ,the principle of individual work can be extended1 though a certain amount of class-work seems indispensable after the early years4 ,but if external authority is necessary to induce a boy or girl to learn1 unless there is a medical cause1 the probability is that the teacher is at fault or that previous moral training has been bad4 ,if a child has been properly trained up to the age of five or six1 any good teacher ought to be able to win his interest at later stages4 ,if this is possible1 the advantages are immense4 ,the teacher appears as the friend of the pupil1 not as his enemy4 ,the child learns faster1 because he is co-operating4 ,he learns with less fatigue1 because there is not the constant strain of bringing back a reluctant and bored attention4 ,and his sense of personal initiative is cultivated instead of being diminished4 ,on account of these advantages1 it seems worth while to assume that the pupil can be led to learn by the force of his own desires1 without the exercise of compulsion by the teacher4 ,if1 in a small percentage of cases1 the method were found to be a failure1 these cases could be isolated and instructed by different methods4 ,but ,i believe that1 given methods adapted to the child's intelligence1 there would be very few failures4 ,for reasons already given in connection with accuracy1 ,i do not believe that a really thorough education can be made interesting through and through4 ,however much one may wish to know a subject1 some parts of it are sure to be found dull4 ,but ,i believe that1 given suitable guidance1 a boy or girl can be made to feel the importance of learning the dull parts1 and can be got through them also without compulsion4 ,i should use the stimulus of praise and blame1 applied as the result of good or bad performance of set tasks4 ,whether a pupil possesses the necessary skill should be made as obvious as in games or gymnastics4 ,and the importance of the dull parts of a subject should be made clear by the teacher4 ,if all these methods failed1 the child would have to be classified as stupid1 and taught separately from children of normal intelligence1 though care must be taken not to let this appear as a punishment4 ,except in very rare cases1 the teacher1 even at an early age 7i4e41 after four1 say7 should not be either parent4 ,teaching is work requiring a special type of skill1 which can be learnt1 but which most parents have not had the opportunity of learning4 ,the earlier the age of the pupil1 the greater is the pedagogical skill required4 ,and apart from this1 the parent has been in constant contact with the child before formal education began1 so that the child has a set of habits and expectations towards the parent which are not quite appropriate towards a teacher4 ,the parent1 moreover1 is likely to be too eager and too much interested in his child's progress4 ,he will be inordinately pleased by the child's cleverness and exasperated by his stupidity4 ,there are the same reasons for not teaching one's own children as have led medical men not to treat their own families4 ,but of course ,i do not mean that parents should not give such instruction as comes naturally2 ,i mean only that they are1 as a rule1 not the best people for formal school lessons1 even when they are well qualified to teach other people's children4 ,throughout education1 from the first day to the last1 there should be a sense of intellectual adventure4 ,the world is full of puzzling things which can be understood by sufficient effort4 ,the sense of understanding what had been puzzling is exhilarating and delightful2 every good teacher should be able to give it4 ,madame ,montessori describes the delight of her children when they find they can write2 ,i remember a sense almost of intoxication when ,i first read ,newton's deduction of ,kepler's ,second ,law from the law of gravitation4 ,few joys are so pure or so useful as this4 ,initiative and individual work give the pupil the opportunity of discovery1 and thus afford the sense of mental adventure far more often and more keenly than is possible where everything is taught in class4 ,wherever it is possible1 let the student be active rather than passive4 ,this is one of the secrets of making education a happiness rather than a torment4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,the ,,school ,,curriculum ,,before ,,fourteen ,the questions3 what should be taught8 and how should it be taught8 are intimately connected1 because1 if better methods of teaching are devised1 it is possible to learn more4 ,in particular1 more can be learnt if the pupils wish to learn than if they regard work as a bore4 ,i have already said something about methods1 and ,i shall say more in a later chapter4 ,for the present1 ,i shall assume that the best possible methods are employed1 and ,i shall consider what ought to be taught4 ,when we consider what an adult ought to know1 we soon realize that there are things which everybody ought to know1 and other things which it is necessary that some should know1 though others need not4 ,some must know medicine1 but for the bulk of mankind it is sufficient to have an elementary knowledge of physiology and hygiene4 ,some must know higher mathematics1 but the bare elements suffice for those to whom mathematics is distasteful4 ,some should know how to play the trombone1 but mercifully it is not necessary that every school-child should practise this instrument4 ,in the main1 the things taught at school before the age of fourteen should be among those that every one ought to know2 apart from exceptional cases1 specialization ought to come later4 ,it should1 however1 be one of the aims of education before fourteen to discover special aptitudes in boys and girls1 so that1 where they exist1 they may be carefully developed in the later years4 ,for this reason1 it is well that everybody should learn the bare beginnings of subjects which need not be further pursued by those who are bad at them4 ,when we have decided what every adult ought to know1 we have to decide the order in which subjects are to be taught2 here we shall naturally be guided by relative difficulty1 teaching the easiest subjects first4 ,to a great extent1 these two principles determine the curriculum in the early school years4 ,i shall assume that1 by the time a child is five years old1 he knows how to read and write4 ,this should be the business of the ,montessori school1 or whatever improvement upon it may hereafter be devised4 ,there1 also1 the child learns a certain accuracy in sense-perception1 the rudiments of drawing and singing and dancing1 and the power to concentrate upon some educational occupation in the middle of a number of other children4 ,of course the child will not be very perfect in these respects at five years old1 and will need further teaching in all of them for some years to come4 ,i do not think that anything involving severe mental effort should be undertaken before the age of seven1 but by sufficient skill difficulties can be enormously diminished4 ,arithmetic is a bugbear of childhood--,i remember weeping bitterly because ,i could not learn the multiplication table--but if it is tackled gradually and carefully1 as it is by means of the ,montessori apparatus1 there is no need of the sense of blank despair which its mysteries used to inspire4 ,in the end1 however1 there must be a good deal of rather tiresome mastering of rules if sufficient facility is to be acquired4 ,this is the most awkward of early school subjects to fit into a curriculum intended to be interesting2 nevertheless1 a certain degree of proficiency is necessary for practical reasons4 ,also1 arithmetic affords the natural introduction to accuracy3 the answer to a sum is either right or wrong1 and never 8interesting0 or 8suggestive04 ,this makes arithmetic important as one element in early education1 quite apart from its practical utility4 ,but its difficulties should be carefully graded and spread out thin2 not too much time at a stretch should be devoted to them4 ,geography and history were1 when ,i was young1 among the worst taught of all subjects4 ,i dreaded the geography lesson1 and if ,i tolerated the history lesson it was only because ,i have always had a passion for history4 ,both subjects might be made fascinating to quite young children4 ,my little boy1 though he has never had a lesson1 already knows far more geography than his nurse4 ,he has acquired his knowledge through the love of trains and steamers which he shares with all boys4 ,he wants to know of journeys that his imaginary steamers are to make1 and he listens with the closest attention while ,i tell him the stages of the journey to ,china4 ,then1 if he wishes it1 ,i show him pictures of the various countries on the way4 ,sometimes he insists upon pulling out the big ,atlas and looking at the journey on the map4 ,the journey between ,london and ,cornwall in the train1 which he makes twice a year1 interests him passionately1 and he knows all the stations where the train stops or where carriages are slipped4 ,he is fascinated by the ,north ,pole and the ,south ,pole1 and puzzled because there is no ,east ,pole or ,west ,pole4 ,he knows the directions of ,france and ,spain and ,america over the sea1 and a good deal about what is to be seen in those countries4 ,none of this has come by way of instruction1 but all in response to an eager curiosity4 ,almost every child becomes interested in geography as soon as it is associated with the idea of travel4 ,i should teach geography partly by pictures and tales about travellers1 but mainly by the cinema1 showing what the traveller sees on his journey4 ,the knowledge of geographical facts is useful1 but without intrinsic intellectual value2 when1 however1 geography is made vivid by pictures1 it has the merit of giving food for imagination4 ,it is good to know that there are hot countries and cold countries1 flat countries and mountainous countries1 black men1 yellow men1 brown men1 and red men1 as well as white men4 ,this kind of knowledge diminishes the tyranny of familiar surroundings over the imagination1 and makes it possible in later life to feel that distant countries really exist1 which otherwise is very difficult except by travelling4 ,for these reasons1 ,i should give geography a large place in the teaching of very young children1 and ,i should be astonished if they did not enjoy the subject4 ,later on1 ,i should give them books with pictures1 maps1 and elementary information about different parts of the world1 and get them to put together little essays about the peculiarities of various countries4 ,what applies to geography applies even more strongly to history1 though at a slightly more advanced age1 because the sense of time is rudimentary at first4 ,i think history can profitably be begun at about five years old1 at first with interesting stories of eminent men1 abundantly illustrated4 ,i myself had1 at that age1 a picture-history of ,england4 ,queen ,matilda crossing the ,thames at ,abingdon on the ice made such a profound impression upon me that ,i still felt thrilled when ,i did the same thing at the age of eighteen1 and quite imagined that ,king ,stephen was after me4 ,i believe hardly any boy of five years old would fail to be interested by the life of ,alexander4 ,columbus perhaps belongs more to geography than to history2 ,i can testify that he becomes interesting before the age of two1 at least to children who know the sea4 ,by the time a child is six years old1 he ought to be ripe for an outline of world history1 treated more or less on ,mr4 ,wells's or ,mr4 ,van ,loon's lines1 with the necessary simplifications1 and with pictures1 or the cinema if possible4 ,if he lives in ,london1 he can see the strange beasts in the ,natural ,history ,museum2 but ,i should not take him to the ,british ,museum before the age of ten or thereabouts4 ,it is necessary to be careful1 in teaching history1 not to obtrude aspects which are interesting to us until the child is ripe for them4 ,the two aspects which are first interesting are3 the general pageant and procession1 from geology to man1 from savage man to civilized man1 and so on2 and the dramatic story-telling interest of incidents which have a sympathetic hero4 ,but ,i think we should keep in our own minds1 as a guiding thread1 the conception of gradual chequered progress1 perpetually hampered by the savagery which we inherit from the brutes1 and yet gradually leading on towards mastery of ourselves and our environment through knowledge4 ,the conception is that of the human race as a whole1 fighting against chaos without and darkness within1 the little tiny lamp of reason growing gradually into a great light by which the night is dispelled4 ,the divisions between races1 nations and creeds should be treated as follies1 distracting us in the battle against ,chaos and ,old ,night1 which is our one truly human activity4 ,i should give first the illustrations of this theme1 and only afterwards1 if ever1 the theme itself4 ,i should show savage man cowering in the cold1 gnawing the raw fruits of the earth4 ,i should show the discovery of fire1 and its effects2 in this connection1 the story of ,prometheus would be in place4 ,i should show the beginnings of agriculture in the ,nile ,valley1 and the domestication of sheep and cows and dogs4 ,i should show the growth of ships from canoes to the largest liners1 and the growth of cities from colonies of cave-dwellers to ,london and ,new ,york4 ,i should show the gradual growth of writing and of numerals4 ,i should show the brief gleam of ,greece1 the diffused magnificence of ,rome1 the subsequent darkness1 and the coming of science4 ,the whole of this could be made interesting in detail even to very young children4 ,i should not keep silence about wars and persecutions and cruelties1 but ,i should not hold up military conquerors to admiration4 ,the true conquerors1 in my teaching of history1 should be those who did something to dispel the darkness within and without--,buddha and ,socrates1 ,archimedes1 ,galileo and ,newton1 and all the men who have helped to give us mastery over ourselves or over nature4 ,and so ,i should build up the conception of a lordly splendid destiny for the human race1 to which we are false when we revert to wars and other atavistic follies1 and true only when we put into the world something that adds to our human dominion4 ,in the early years at school1 there should be a time set apart for dancing1 which is good for the body and a training for the sthetic sense1 besides being a great pleasure to the children4 ,collective dances should be taught after the elements have been learnt2 this is a form of co-operation which young children easily appreciate4 ,similar remarks apply to singing1 though it should begin a little later than dancing1 both because it does not afford the same muscular delight1 and because its rudiments are more difficult4 ,most children1 though not all1 will enjoy singing1 and after nursery rhymes they should learn really beautiful songs4 ,there is no reason to corrupt their taste first and try to purify it afterwards4 ,at the best1 this makes people precious4 ,children1 like adults1 differ enormously in musical capacity1 so that the more difficult singing classes would have to be reserved for a selection among the older children4 ,and among them singing ought to be voluntary1 not enforced4 ,the teaching of literature is a matter as to which it is easy to make mistakes4 ,there is not the slightest use1 either for young or old1 in being well-informed about literature1 knowing the dates of the poets1 the names of their works1 and so on4 ,everything that can be put into a handbook is worthless4 ,what is valuable is great familiarity with certain examples of good literature--such familiarity as will influence the style1 not only of writing1 but of thought4 ,in old days the ,bible supplied this to ,english children1 certainly with a beneficial effect upon prose style2 but few modern children know the ,bible intimately4 ,i think the good effect of literature cannot be fully obtained without learning by heart4 ,this practice used to be advocated as a training for the memory1 but psychologists have shown that it has little1 if any1 effect in this way4 ,modern educationists give it less and less place4 ,but ,i think they are mistaken1 not because of any possible improvement of memory1 but on account of the effect upon beauty of language in speech and writing4 ,this should come without effort1 as a spontaneous expression of thought2 but in order to do so1 in a community which has lost the primitive sthetic impulses1 it is necessary to produce a habit of thought which ,i believe is only to be generated by intimate knowledge of good literature4 ,that is why learning by heart seems to me important4 ,but mere learning of set pieces1 such as 8the quality of mercy0 and 8all the world's a stage01 seems tedious and artificial to most children1 and therefore fails of its purpose4 ,it is much better that learning by heart should be associated with acting1 because then it is a necessary means to something which every child loves4 ,from the age of three onwards1 children delight in acting a part2 they do it spontaneously1 but are overjoyed when more elaborate ways of doing it are put in their way4 ,i remember the exquisite amusement with which ,i acted the quarrel scene between ,brutus and ,cassius1 and declaimed3 ,i had rather be a dog and bay the moon ,than such a ,roman4 ,children who take part in performing ,julius ,csar or ,the ,merchant of ,venice or any other suitable play will not only know their own parts1 but most of the other parts as well4 ,the play will be in their thoughts for a long time1 and all by way of enjoyment4 ,after all1 good literature is intended to give pleasure1 and if children cannot be got to derive pleasure from it they are hardly likely to derive benefit either4 ,for these reasons1 ,i should confine the teaching of literature1 in early years1 to the learning of parts for acting4 ,the rest should consist of voluntary reading of well-written stories1 obtainable in the school library4 ,people nowadays write silly sentimental stuff for children1 which insults them by not taking them seriously4 ,contrast the intense seriousness of 8,robinson ,crusoe04 ,sentimentality1 in dealing with children and elsewhere1 is a failure of dramatic sympathy4 ,no child thinks it charming to be childish2 he wants1 as soon as possible1 to learn to behave like a grown-up person4 ,therefore a book for children ought never to display a patronizing pleasure in childish ways4 ,the artificial silliness of many modern children's books is disgusting4 ,it must either annoy a child1 or puzzle and confuse his impulse towards mental growth4 ,for this reason1 the best books for children are those that happen to suit them1 though written for grown-up people4 ,the only exceptions are books written for children but delightful also to grown-up people1 such as ,lear and ,lewis ,carroll4 ,the question of modern languages is one which is not altogether easy4 ,in childhood it is possible to learn to speak a modern language perfectly1 which can never be achieved in later years2 there are therefore strong grounds for teaching languages at an early age1 if at all4 ,some people seem to fear that knowledge of one's own language suffers if others are learnt too soon4 ,i do not believe this4 ,tolstoy and ,turgenev were quite competent in ,russian1 though they learnt ,english1 ,french and ,german in infancy4 ,gibbon could write in ,french as easily as in ,english1 but this did not spoil his ,english style4 ,all through the eighteenth century1 all ,english aristocrats learnt ,french in early youth as a matter of course1 and many also learnt ,italian2 yet their ,english was vastly better than that of their modern descendants4 ,a child's dramatic instinct prevents it from confusing one language with another1 provided it speaks them to different people4 ,i learnt ,german at the same time as ,english1 and spoke it to nurses and governesses up to the age of ten2 then ,i learnt ,french1 and spoke it to governesses and tutors4 ,neither language ever confused itself with ,english1 because it had different personal associations4 ,i think that if a modern language is to be taught1 it should be taught by a person whose native language it is1 not only because it will be better taught1 but because children feel less artificiality in talking a foreign language to a foreigner than in talking it to a person whose natural language is the same as their own4 ,i think1 therefore1 that every school for children ought to have a ,french mistress1 and if possible a ,german mistress too1 who should not formally instruct the children in her language1 except quite at first1 but should play games with them and talk to them1 and make the success of the games depend upon their understanding and answering4 ,she could start with ,frre ,jacques and ,sur le pont d',avignon1 and go on gradually to more complicated games4 ,in this way the language could be acquired without any mental fatigue1 and with all the pleasure of play-acting4 ,and it can be acquired then far more perfectly and with less waste of valuable educational time than at any subsequent period4 ,the teaching of mathematics and science can only be begun towards the end of the years that we are considering in this chapter--say at the age of twelve4 ,of course ,i assume that arithmetic has already been taught1 and that there have been popular talks about astronomy and geology1 about prehistoric animals1 famous explorers1 and such naturally interesting matters4 ,but ,i am thinking now of formal teaching--geometry and algebra1 physics and chemistry4 ,a few boys and girls like geometry and algebra1 but the great majority do not4 ,i doubt if this is wholly due to faulty methods of teaching4 ,a sense for mathematics1 like musical capacity1 is mainly a gift of the gods1 and ,i believe it to be quite rare1 even in a moderate degree4 ,nevertheless1 every boy and girl should have a taste of mathematics1 in order to discover those who have a talent for it4 ,also1 even those who learn little profit by the knowledge that there is such a subject4 ,and by good methods almost everybody can be made to understand the elements of geometry4 ,of algebra ,i cannot say the same2 it is more abstract than geometry1 and essentially unintelligible to those whose minds are incapable of detachment from the concrete4 ,a taste for physics and chemistry1 properly taught1 would probably be found to be less rare than a taste for mathematics1 though still existing only in a minority of young people4 ,both mathematics and science1 in the years from twelve to fourteen1 ought only to be pursued to the point at which it becomes clear whether a boy or girl has any aptitude for them4 ,this1 of course1 is not immediately evident4 ,i loathed algebra at first1 although afterwards ,i had some facility in it4 ,in some cases1 it would still be doubtful at the age of fourteen whether there was ability or not4 ,in these cases1 tentative methods would have to be continued for a while4 ,but in most cases a decision could be made at fourteen4 ,some would definitely like the subjects and be good at them1 others would dislike them and be bad at them4 ,it would very seldom happen that a clever pupil disliked them or a stupid pupil liked them4 ,what has been said about mathematics and science applies equally to the classics4 ,between twelve and fourteen1 ,i should give just so much instruction in ,latin as would suffice to show which boys and girls had a love of the subject and facility for it4 ,i am assuming that at fourteen education should begin to be more or less specialized1 according to the tastes and aptitudes of the pupil4 ,the last years before this moment arrives should be spent in finding out what it will be best to teach in subsequent years4 ,all through the school years1 education in outdoor things should continue4 ,in the case of well-to-do children1 this can be left to the parents1 but with other children it will have to be partly the business of the school4 ,when ,i speak of education in outdoor things1 ,i am not thinking of games4 ,they1 of course1 have their importance1 which is sufficiently recognized2 but ,i am thinking of something different3 knowledge of agricultural processes1 familiarity with animals and plants1 gardening1 habits of observation in the country1 and so on4 ,i have been amazed to discover that town-bred people seldom know the points of the compass1 never know which way the sun goes round1 cannot find out which side of the house is out of the wind1 and are generally destitute of knowledge which every cow or sheep possesses4 ,this is the result of life exclusively in towns4 ,perhaps ,i shall be thought fanciful if ,i say that it is one reason why the labour party cannot win rural constituencies4 ,but it certainly is the reason why town-bred people are so utterly divorced from everything primitive and fundamental4 ,it has to do with something trivial and superficial and frivolous in their attitude to life--not of course always1 but very often4 ,the seasons and the weather1 sowing and harvest1 crops and flocks and herds1 have a certain human importance1 and ought to be intimate and familiar to everybody if the divorce from mother earth is not to be too complete4 ,all this knowledge can be acquired by children in the course of activities which are of immense value to health1 and deserve to be undertaken for that reason alone4 ,and the pleasure of town children in the country shows that a profound need is being satisfied4 ,so long as it is not satisfied1 our educational system is incomplete4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,last ,,school ,,years ,after the summer holidays in the fifteenth year1 ,i shall assume that a boy or girl who so desires is allowed to specialize1 and that this will be done in a large proportion of cases4 ,but where there is no definite preference1 it will be better to prolong an all-round education4 ,and in exceptional cases specializing may begin earlier4 ,all rules1 in education1 should be capable of being broken for special reasons4 ,but ,i think that1 as a general rule1 pupils of more than average intelligence should begin to specialize at about fourteen1 while pupils of less than average intelligence should usually not specialize at all at school1 unless in the way of vocational training4 ,i am refraining1 in this book1 from saying anything on this subject4 ,but ,i do not believe that it ought to begin before fourteen1 and ,i do not think that1 even then1 it ought to take up the whole of the school time of any pupil4 ,i do not propose to discuss how much time it should take up1 or whether it should be given to all pupils or only to some4 ,these questions raise economic and political issues which are only indirectly connected with education1 and which cannot be discussed briefly4 ,i therefore confine myself to the scholastic education in the years after fourteen4 ,i should make three broad divisions in school3 7#a7 classics1 7#b7 mathematics and science1 7#c7 modern humanities4 ,this last should include modern languages1 history1 and literature4 ,in each division it might be possible to specialize somewhat more before leaving school1 which ,i shall suppose does not occur before eighteen4 ,obviously all who take classics must do both ,latin and ,greek1 but some may do more of the one1 and some more of the other4 ,mathematics and science should go together at first1 but in some sciences it is possible to achieve eminence without much mathematics1 and in fact many eminent men of science have been bad mathematicians4 ,i should1 therefore1 at the age of sixteen1 allow a boy or girl to specialize in science or to specialize in mathematics1 without entirely neglecting the branch not chosen4 ,similar remarks apply to modern humanities4 ,certain subjects1 of great utilitarian importance1 would have to be taught to everybody4 ,among these1 ,i should include anatomy1 physiology and hygiene1 to the extent that is likely to be required in adult daily life4 ,but perhaps these subjects ought to come at an earlier stage1 since they are naturally connected with sex education1 which ought to be given1 as far as possible1 before puberty4 ,the objection to putting them very early is that they ought not to be forgotten before they are needed4 ,i think the only solution is to give them twice over1 once1 very simply and in bare outline1 before puberty1 and again later in connection with elementary knowledge about health and disease4 ,i should say that every pupil ought to know something also about ,parliament and the ,constitution1 but care must be taken to prevent teaching on this subject from degenerating into political propaganda4 ,more important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given4 ,as to this1 the main problem is to make the work interesting without making it too easy4 ,exact and detailed study should be supplemented by books and lectures on general aspects of the studies concerned4 ,before sitting down to a ,greek play1 ,i would have the students read a translation1 by ,gilbert ,murray or some other translator with a poetic gift4 ,mathematics should be diversified by an occasional lecture on the history of mathematical discovery1 and on the influence of this or that piece of mathematics upon science and daily life1 with hints of the delightful things to be found in higher mathematics4 ,similarly the detailed study of history should be supplemented by brilliant outlines1 even if they contained questionable generalizations4 ,the students might be told that the generalizations are doubtful1 and be invited to consider their detailed knowledge as supporting or refuting them4 ,in science1 it is good to read popular books which give an aperu of recent research1 in order to have some idea of the general scientific purpose served by particular facts and laws4 ,all these things are useful as incentives to exact and minute study1 but are pernicious if they are treated as substitutes for it4 ,pupils must not be encouraged to think that there are short cuts to knowledge4 ,this is a real danger in modern education1 owing to the reaction against the old severe drill4 ,the mental work involved in the drill was good2 what was bad was the killing of intellectual interests4 ,we must try to secure the hard work1 but by other methods than those of the old disciplinarian4 ,i do not believe this is impossible4 ,one finds in ,america that men who were idle as undergraduates work hard in the law school or the medical school1 because at last they are doing work which strikes them as important4 ,that is the essence of the matter3 make the school work seem important to the pupils1 and they will work hard4 ,but if you make the work too easy1 they will know1 almost by instinct1 that you are not giving them what is really worth having4 ,clever boys and girls like to test their minds on difficulties4 ,with good teaching and the elimination of fear1 very many boys and girls would be clever who now seem stupid and lethargic4 ,all through education1 initiative should come from the pupil as far as possible4 ,madame ,montessori has shown how this can be done with very young children1 but with older children different methods are required4 ,it is1 ,i think1 generally recognized by progressive educationists that there should be much more individual work and much less class-work than has been customary1 though the individual work should be done in a room full of other boys and girls similarly engaged4 ,libraries and laboratories should be adequate and roomy4 ,a considerable part of the working day should be set apart for voluntary self-directed study1 but the pupil should write an account of what he or she is studying1 with an abstract of any information acquired4 ,this helps to fix things in the memory1 to make reading have a purpose instead of being desultory1 and to give the teacher just that amount of control which may be necessary in each case4 ,the cleverer the pupil1 the less control is required4 ,with those who are not very clever it will be necessary to give a great deal of guidance2 but even with them it should be by way of suggestion1 inquiry1 and stimulus rather than by command4 ,there should1 however1 also be set themes1 giving practice in ascertaining the facts about some prescribed subject1 and in presenting them in an orderly manner4 ,in addition to regular work1 boys and girls ought to be encouraged to take an interest in current controversial questions of importance1 political1 social1 and even theological4 ,they should be encouraged to read all sides in such controversies1 not only the orthodox side4 ,if any of them have strong feelings on one side or the other1 they should be told how to find out facts which support their view1 and should be set to debate with those who hold the opposite view4 ,debates1 conducted seriously with a view to ascertaining the truth1 could be of great value4 ,in these1 the teacher should learn not to take sides1 even if he or she has strong convictions4 ,if almost all the pupils take one side1 the teacher should take the other1 saying that it is only for purposes of argument4 ,otherwise1 his part should be confined to correcting mistakes as to facts4 ,by such means1 the pupils could learn discussion as a means of ascertaining truth1 not as a contest for rhetorical victory4 ,if ,i were at the head of a school for older boys and girls1 ,i should consider it equally undesirable to shirk current questions and to do propaganda about them4 ,it is a good thing to make pupils feel that their education is fitting them to cope with matters about which the world is excited2 it gives them a sense that scholastic teaching is not divorced from the practical world4 ,but ,i should not urge my own views upon the pupils4 ,what ,i should do is to put before them the ideal of a scientific attitude to practical questions4 ,i should expect them to produce arguments that are arguments1 and facts that are facts4 ,in politics1 especially1 this habit is as rare as it is valuable4 ,every vehement political party generates a cocoon of myth1 within which its mentality peacefully slumbers4 ,passion1 too often1 kills intellect2 in intellectuals1 on the contrary1 intellect not infrequently kills passion4 ,my aim would be to avoid both these misfortunes4 ,passionate feeling is desirable1 provided it is not destructive2 intellect is desirable1 with the same proviso4 ,i should wish the fundamental political passions to be constructive1 and ,i should try to make the intellect serve these passions4 ,but it must serve them genuinely1 objectively1 not only in the world of dreams4 ,when the real world is not sufficiently flattering we all tend to take refuge in an imaginary world1 where our desires are gratified without great effort4 ,this is the essence of hysteria4 ,it is also the source of nationalist1 theological1 and class myths4 ,it shows a weakness of character which is almost universal in the present world4 ,to combat this weakness of character should be one of the aims of later school education4 ,there are two ways of combating it1 both necessary1 though in a sense opposites4 ,the one is to increase our sense of what we can achieve in the world of reality2 the other is to make us more sensitive to what reality can do in the way of dispelling our dreams4 ,both are comprised in the principle of living objectively rather than subjectively4 ,the classic example of subjectivity is ,don ,quixote4 ,the first time he made a helmet1 he tested its capacity for resisting blows1 and battered it out of shape2 next time he did not test it1 but 8deemed0 it to be a very good helmet4 ,this habit of 8deeming0 dominated his life4 ,but every refusal to face unpleasant facts is of the same kind3 we are all ,don ,quixotes more or less4 ,don ,quixote would not have done as he did if he had been taught at school to make a really good helmet1 and if he had been surrounded by companions who refused to 8deem0 whatever he wished to believe4 ,the habit of living in fancies is normal and right in early childhood1 because young children have an impotence which is not pathological4 ,but as adult life approaches1 there must be a more and more vivid realization that dreams are only valuable in so far as they can be translated1 sooner or later1 into fact4 ,boys are admirable in correcting the purely personal claims of other boys2 in a school1 it is difficult to cherish illusions as to one's power in relation to schoolfellows4 ,but the myth-making faculty remains active in other directions1 often with the co-operation of the masters4 ,one's own school is the best in the world2 one's country is always right and always victorious2 one's social class 7if one is rich7 is better than any other class4 ,all these are undesirable myths4 ,they lead us to deem that we have a good helmet1 when in fact some one else's sword could cut it in two4 ,in this way they promote laziness and lead ultimately to disaster4 ,to cure this habit of mind1 it is necessary1 as in many other cases1 to replace fear by rational prevision of misfortune4 ,fear makes people unwilling to face real dangers4 ,a person afflicted with subjectivity1 if awakened in the middle of the night by the cry of 8fire01 might decide that it must be his neighbour's house1 since the truth would be too terrifying2 he might thus lose the moment when escape was still possible4 ,this1 of course1 could only occur in a pathological case2 but in politics the analogous behaviour is normal4 ,fear1 as an emotion1 is disastrous in all cases where the right course can only be discovered by thinking2 we want1 therefore1 to be able to foresee possibilities of evil without feeling fear1 and to use our intelligence for the purpose of avoiding what is not inevitable4 ,evils which are really inevitable have to be treated with sheer courage2 but it is not of them that ,i am speaking4 ,i do not want to repeat what ,i said about fear in a former chapter2 ,i am concerned with it now only in the intellectual sphere1 as an obstacle to truthful thinking4 ,in this sphere1 it is much easier to overcome in youth than in later life1 because a change of opinion is less likely to bring grave misfortune to a boy or girl than to an adult1 whose life is built upon certain postulates4 ,for this reason1 ,i should encourage a habit of intelligent controversy among the older boys and girls1 and ,i should place no obstacles in their way even if they questioned what ,i regarded as important truths4 ,i should make it my object to teach thinking1 not orthodoxy1 or even heterodoxy4 ,and ,i should absolutely never sacrifice intellect to the fancied interest of morals4 ,it is generally held that the teaching of virtue demands the inculcation of falsehood4 ,in politics1 we conceal the vices of eminent statesmen of our own party4 ,in theology1 we conceal the sins of ,popes if we are ,catholics1 and the sins of ,luther and ,calvin if we are ,protestants4 ,in matters of sex1 we pretend before young people that virtue is much commoner than it is4 ,in all countries1 even adults are not allowed to know certain kinds of facts which the police consider undesirable1 and the censor1 in ,england1 does not allow plays to be true to life1 since he holds that the public can only be cajoled into virtue by deceit4 ,this whole attitude implies a certain feebleness4 ,let us know the truth1 whatever it is2 then we can act rationally4 ,the holders of power wish to conceal the truth from their slaves1 in order that they may be misled as to their own interests2 this is intelligible4 ,what is less intelligible is that democracies should voluntarily make laws designed to prevent themselves from knowing the truth4 ,this is collective ,quixotism3 they are resolved not to be told that the helmet is less good than they wish to believe4 ,such an attitude of abject funk is unworthy of free men and women4 ,in my school1 no obstacle to knowledge shall exist of any sort or kind4 ,i shall seek virtue by the right training of passions and instincts1 not by lying and deceit4 ,in the virtue that ,i desire1 the pursuit of knowledge1 without fear and without limitation1 is an essential element1 in the absence of which the rest has little value4 ,what ,i am saying is no more than this3 that ,i should cultivate the scientific spirit4 ,many eminent men of science do not have this spirit outside their special province2 ,i should seek to make it all-pervasive4 ,the scientific spirit demands in the first place a wish to find out the truth2 the more ardent this wish1 the better4 ,it involves1 in addition1 certain intellectual qualities4 ,there must be preliminary uncertainty1 and subsequent decision according to the evidence4 ,we must not imagine in advance that we already know what the evidence will prove4 ,nor must we be content with a lazy scepticism1 which regards objective truth as unattainable and all evidence as inconclusive4 ,we should admit that even our best-founded beliefs probably stand in need of some correction2 but truth1 so far as it is humanly attainable1 is a matter of degree4 ,our beliefs in physics are certainly less false now than they were before the time of ,galileo4 ,our beliefs as to child psychology are certainly nearer to the truth than ,dr4 ,arnold's were4 ,in each case1 the advance has come through substituting observation for preconceptions and passions4 ,it is for the sake of this step that preliminary uncertainty is so important4 ,it is necessary1 therefore1 to teach this1 and also to teach the skill required for marshalling evidence4 ,in a world where rival propagandists are perpetually blazing falsehoods at us1 to induce us to poison ourselves with pills or each other with poison gases1 this critical habit of mind is enormously important4 ,ready credulity in the face of repeated assertions is one of the curses of the modern world1 and schools should do what they can to guard against it4 ,throughout the later school years1 even more than earlier1 there should be a sense of intellectual adventure4 ,pupils should be given the opportunity of finding out exciting things for themselves after their set tasks were done1 and therefore the set tasks should not be too heavy4 ,there must be praise whenever it is deserved1 and although mistakes must be pointed out1 it should be done without censure4 ,pupils should never be made to feel ashamed of their stupidity4 ,the great stimulus in education is to feel that achievement is possible4 ,knowledge which is felt to be boring is of little use1 but knowledge which is assimilated eagerly becomes a permanent possession4 ,let the relation of knowledge to real life be very visible to your pupils1 and let them understand how by knowledge the world could be transformed4 ,let the teacher appear always the ally of the pupil1 not his natural enemy4 ,given a good training in the early years1 these precepts will suffice to make the acquisition of knowledge delightful to the great majority of boys and girls4 ,,chapter ,,xvii ,,day ,,schools ,,and ,,boarding ,,schools ,whether a boy or girl should be sent to a boarding school or a day school is1 to my mind1 a question which must be decided in each case according to circumstances and temperament4 ,each system has its own advantages2 in some cases the advantages of one system are greater1 in others those of the other4 ,i propose1 in this chapter1 to set forth the kind of arguments which would weigh with me in deciding about my own children1 and which1 ,i imagine1 would be likely to weigh with other conscientious parents4 ,there are first of all considerations of health4 ,whatever may be true of actual schools1 it is clear that schools are capable of being made more scientifically careful in this respect than most homes1 because they can employ doctors and dentists and matrons with the latest knowledge1 whereas busy parents are likely to be comparatively uninformed medically4 ,moreover1 schools can be put in healthy neighbourhoods4 ,in the case of people who live in big towns1 this argument alone is very powerful in favour of boarding schools4 ,it is obviously better for young people to spend most of their life in the country1 so that if their parents have to live in towns it may be desirable to send the children away for their schooling4 ,this argument may perhaps cease1 before long1 to have much validity3 the health of ,london1 for example1 is steadily improving1 and might be brought up to the standard of the country by the artificial use of ultra-violet light4 ,nevertheless1 even if illness could be brought as low as in the country1 a considerable nervous strain would remain4 ,constant noise is bad for both children and adults2 the sights of the country1 the smell of damp earth1 the wind and the stars1 ought to be stored in the memory of every man and woman4 ,i think1 therefore1 that life in the country for the greater part of the year will remain important for the young whatever improvements may be effected in urban health4 ,another argument1 though a much smaller one1 in favour of boarding schools is that they save the time otherwise spent in going and coming4 ,most people do not have a really good day school at their doors1 and the distance to be traversed may be considerable4 ,this argument is strongest in the country1 as the other was strongest for town dwellers4 ,when it is desired to try any innovation in educational methods1 it is almost inevitable that it should first be tried in a boarding school1 because it is unlikely that the parents who believe in it will all live within one small area4 ,this does not apply to infants1 because they are not yet wholly in the grip of the education authorities2 consequently ,madame ,montessori and ,miss ,mc,millan were able to try their experiment upon the very poor4 ,within the recognized school years1 on the contrary1 only the rich are allowed to try experiments with their children's education4 ,most of them1 naturally1 prefer what is old and conventional2 the few who desire anything else are geographically widely distributed1 and do not anywhere suffice to support a day school4 ,such experiments as ,bedales are only possible for boarding schools4 ,the arguments on the other side are1 however1 very considerable4 ,in a school1 many aspects of life do not appear3 it is an artificial world1 whose problems are not those of the world at large4 ,a boy who is only at home during the holidays1 when everybody makes a fuss over him1 is likely to acquire far less knowledge of life than a boy who is at home every morning and evening4 ,this is1 at present1 less true of girls1 because more is demanded of them in many homes2 but in proportion as their education is assimilated to that of boys1 their home life also will become similar1 and their present greater knowledge of domestic affairs will disappear4 ,after fifteen or sixteen1 it is good for boys and girls to have a certain share in parental occupations and anxieties--not too much1 it is true1 since that would interfere with education1 but still some1 lest they should fail to realize that the old people have their own life1 their own interests1 and their own importance4 ,in the school1 only young people count1 and it is for them that everything is done4 ,in holidays1 the atmosphere of home is apt to be dominated by the young people4 ,consequently they tend to become arrogant and hard1 ignorant of the problems of adult life1 and quite aloof from their parents4 ,this state of affairs is apt to have a bad effect upon the affections of young people4 ,their affection for their parents becomes atrophied1 and they never have to learn to adjust themselves to people whose tastes and pursuits are different from their own4 ,i think this tends towards a certain selfish completeness1 a feeling of one's own personality as something exclusive4 ,the family is the most natural corrective of this tendency1 since it is a unit composed of people of different ages and sexes1 with different functions to perform2 it is organic1 in a way which a collection of homogeneous individuals is not4 ,parents love their children largely because they give so much trouble2 if parents give no trouble to their children1 their children will not take them seriously4 ,but the trouble they give must be legitimate3 it must be only such as is necessary if they are to do their work and have any life of their own4 ,respect for the rights of others is one of the things young people ought to learn1 and it is more easily learnt in the family than elsewhere4 ,it is good for boys and girls to know that their father can be harassed by worries and their mother worn out by a multiplicity of details4 ,and it is good that filial affection should remain alive during adolescence4 ,a world without family affection tends to become harsh and mechanical1 composed of individuals who try to domineer1 but become cringing if they fail4 ,i fear that these bad effects are to a certain extent produced by sending children to boarding schools1 and ,i regard them as sufficiently serious to offset great advantages4 ,it is of course true1 as modern psychologists insist1 that the excessive influence of father or mother is a very harmful thing4 ,but ,i do not believe it is likely to exist where children have gone to school from the age of two or three1 as ,i have suggested that they should4 ,day school from an early age affords1 to my mind1 the right compromise between parental domination and parental insignificance4 ,so far as concerns the set of considerations with which we have just been occupied1 this seems clearly the best course1 given a good home4 ,in the case of sensitive boys1 there is a certain risk in leaving them to the exclusive society of other boys4 ,boys of about twelve are1 for the most part1 at a rather barbarous and insensitive stage4 ,quite recently1 at a leading ,english school1 there was a case of a boy suffering grave bodily injury for being sympathetic to the ,labour ,party4 ,boys who differ from the average in their opinions and tastes are likely to suffer seriously4 ,even at the most modern and progressive boarding schools in existence1 pro-,boers had a bad time during the ,boer war4 ,any boy who is fond of reading1 or does not dislike his work1 is pretty sure to be ill-treated4 ,in ,france1 the cleverest boys go to the ,ecole ,normale ,suprieure and do not mix any longer with the average4 ,this plan certainly has advantages4 ,it prevents the intellectuals from having their nerve broken and becoming sycophants of the average ,philistine1 as happens to many of them in this country4 ,it avoids the strain and misery which an unpopular boy must suffer4 ,it makes it possible to give to clever boys the kind of teaching which suits them1 which goes at a much more rapid pace than is possible for the less intelligent4 ,on the other hand1 it isolates the intellectuals from the rest of the community in later life1 and makes them1 perhaps1 less able to understand the average man4 ,in spite of this possible disadvantage1 ,i think it on the whole better than the ,british upper-class practice of torturing all boys who have exceptional brains or exceptional moral qualities1 unless they happen also to be good at games4#bc ,however1 the savagery of boys is not incurable1 and is in fact much less than it was4 8,tom ,brown's ,school ,days0 gives a black picture1 which would be exaggerated if applied to the public schools of our own day4 ,it would be still less applicable to boys who had had the kind of early training which we considered in previous chapters4 ,i think also that co-education--which is possible at a boarding school1 as ,bedales shows--is likely to have a civilizing effect upon boys4 ,i am chary of admitting native differences between the sexes1 but ,i think that girls are less prone than boys to punish oddity by serious physical cruelty4 ,at present1 however1 there are very few boarding schools to which ,i should venture to send a boy if he were above the average in intelligence1 morals1 or sensitiveness1 or if he were not conservative in politics and orthodox in theology4 ,for such boys1 ,i am convinced that the existing school system for the sons of rich parents is bad4 ,and among such boys are included almost all who have any exceptional merit4 ,of the above considerations1 both for and against boarding schools1 there are only two that are essential and unalterable1 and these two are on opposite sides4 ,on the one side there is the benefit of the country and air and space2 on the other1 the family affections and the education derived from knowledge of family responsibilities4 ,in the case of parents who live in the country1 there is a different argument in favour of boarding schools1 namely1 the improbability of a really good day school in their neighbourhood4 ,i do not think it is possible1 in view of these conflicting considerations1 to arrive at any general conclusion4 ,where children are so strong and vigorous that considerations of health need not be taken very seriously1 one argument for boarding schools fails4 ,where they are very devoted to their parents1 one argument for day schools fails1 since the holidays will suffice to keep family affection alive1 and term time may just prevent it from becoming excessive4 ,a sensitive child of exceptional ability had better not go to boarding school1 and in extreme cases had better not go to school at all4 ,of course1 a good school is better than a bad home1 and a good home is better than a bad school4 ,but where both are good1 each case must be decided on its merits4 ,so far1 ,i have written from the standpoint of a well-to-do parent1 to whom individual choice is possible4 ,when the matter is considered politically1 from the point of view of the community1 other considerations enter in4 ,we have on the one hand the expense of boarding schools1 on the other the simplification of the housing problem if children are away from home4 ,i hold strongly that1 apart from a few rare cases1 every one ought to have a scholastic education up to the age of eighteen1 and exclusively vocational training should only begin after that age4 ,although much might be urged both ways on our present topic1 the financial consideration will1 for a long time to come1 decide the question1 in the case of most wage-earners' sons and daughters1 in favour of day schools4 ,since there is no clear ground for thinking this decision wrong1 we may accept it1 in spite of the fact that it is not made on educational grounds4 ,,chapter ,,xviii ,,the ,,university ,in previous chapters1 we have considered the education in character and knowledge which1 in a good social system1 should be open to everybody1 and should in fact be enjoyed by everybody1 except for serious special reasons such as musical genius4 7,it would have been unfortunate if ,mozart had been obliged to learn ordinary school subjects up to the age of eighteen47 ,but even in an ideal community there would1 ,i think1 be many people who would not go to the university4 ,i am convinced that1 at present1 only a minority of the population can profit by a scholastic education prolonged to the age of twenty-one or twenty-two4 ,certainly the idle rich who at present infest the older universities very often derive no benefit from them1 but merely contract habits of dissipation4 ,we have therefore to ask on what principle we are to select those who should go to the university4 ,at present1 they are in the main those whose parents can afford to send them1 though this principle of selection is being increasingly modified by the scholarship system4 ,obviously1 the principle of selection ought to be educational1 not financial4 ,a boy or girl of eighteen1 who has had a good school education1 is capable of doing useful work4 ,if he or she is to be exempted for a further period of three or four years1 the community has a right to expect that the time will be profitably employed4 ,but before deciding who is to go to the university1 we must have some view as to the function of the university in the life of the community4 ,british universities have passed through three stages1 of which1 however1 the second is not yet wholly displaced by the third4 ,at first1 they were training colleges for the clergy1 to whom1 in the ,middle ,ages1 learning was almost wholly confined4 ,then1 with the renaissance1 the idea gained ground that every well-to-do person ought to be educated1 though women were supposed to need less education than men4 8,the education of a gentleman0 was given at the universities throughout the seventeenth1 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries1 and is still given at ,oxford4 ,for reasons which we considered in ,chapter ,i1 this ideal1 which was formerly very useful1 is now out-of-date2 it depended upon aristocracy1 and cannot flourish either in a democracy or in an industrial plutocracy4 ,if there is to be an aristocracy1 it had better be composed of educated gentlemen2 but it is better still to have no aristocracy4 ,i need not argue this question1 since it was decided in ,england by the ,reform ,bill and the repeal of the ,corn ,laws1 and in ,america by the ,war of ,independence4 ,it is true that we still have in ,england the forms of aristocracy1 but the spirit is that of plutocracy1 which is quite a different thing4 ,snobbery makes successful business men send their sons to ,oxford to be turned into 8gentlemen01 but the result is to give them a distaste for business1 which reduces their children again to comparative poverty and the need of earning a living4 ,the 8education of a gentleman0 has therefore ceased to be an important part of the life of the nation1 and may be ignored in considering the future4 ,the universities are thus reverting to a position more analogous to that which they occupied in the ,middle ,ages2 they are becoming training schools for the professions4 ,barristers1 clergymen and medical men have usually had a university education2 so have the first division of the civil service4 ,an increasing number of engineers and technical workers in various businesses are university men4 ,as the world grows more complicated and industry becomes more scientific1 an increasing number of experts are required1 and in the main they are supplied by the universities4 ,old-fashioned people lament the intrusion of technical schools into the haunts of pure learning1 but it continues none the less1 because it is demanded by plutocrats who care nothing for 8culture04 ,it is they1 much more than the insurgent democracy1 who are the enemies of pure learning4 8,useless0 learning1 like 8art for art's sake01 is an aristocratic1 not a plutocratic1 ideal2 where it lingers1 it is because the renaissance tradition is not yet dead4 ,i regret the decay of this ideal profoundly2 pure learning was one of the best things associated with aristocracy4 ,but the evils of aristocracy were so great as easily to outweigh this merit4 ,in any case1 industrialism must kill aristocracy1 whether we desire it or not4 ,we may as well make up our minds1 therefore1 to save what we can by attaching it to new and more potent conceptions2 so long as we cling to mere tradition1 we shall be fighting a losing battle4 ,if pure learning is to survive as one of the purposes of universities1 it will have to be brought into relation with the life of the community as a whole1 not only with the refined delights of a few gentlemen of leisure4 ,i regard disinterested learning as a matter of great importance1 and ,i should wish to see its place in academic life increased1 not diminished4 ,both in ,england and in ,america1 the main force tending to its diminution has been the desire to get endowments from ignorant millionaires4 ,the cure lies in the creation of an educated democracy1 willing to spend public money on objects which our captains of industry are unable to appreciate4 ,this is by no means impossible1 but it demands a general raising of the intellectual level4 ,it would be much facilitated if our learned men would more frequently emancipate themselves from the attitude of hangers-on of the rich1 which they have inherited from a time when patrons were their natural source of livelihood4 ,it is of course possible to confound learning with learned men4 ,to take a purely imaginary example1 a learned man may improve his financial position by teaching brewing instead of organic chemistry2 he gains1 but learning suffers4 ,if the learned man had a more genuine love of learning1 he would not be politically on the side of the brewer who endows a professorship of brewing4 ,and if he were on the side of democracy1 democracy would be more ready to see the value of his learning4 ,for all these reasons1 ,i should wish to see learned bodies dependent upon public money rather than upon the benefactions of rich men4 ,this evil is greater in ,america than in ,england1 but it exists in ,england1 and may increase4 ,leaving aside these political considerations1 ,i shall assume that universities exist for two purposes3 on the one hand1 to train men and women for certain professions2 on the other hand1 to pursue learning and research without regard to immediate utility4 ,we shall therefore wish to see at the universities those who are going to practise these professions1 and those who have that special kind of ability which will enable them to be valuable in learning and research4 ,but this does not decide1 by itself1 how we are to select the men and women for the professions4 ,at present1 it is very difficult to enter upon such a profession as law or medicine unless one's parents have a certain amount of money1 since the training is expensive and earnings do not begin at once4 ,the consequence is that the principle of selection is social and hereditary1 not fitness for the work4 ,take medicine as illustrative4 ,a community which wished to have its doctoring done efficiently would select for medical training those young people who showed most keenness and aptitude for the work4 ,at present this principle is applied partially1 to select among those who can afford the training2 but it is quite probable that many of those who would make the best doctors are too poor to take the course4 ,this involves a deplorable waste of talent4 ,let us take another example of a somewhat different kind4 ,england is a very thickly populated country1 which imports most of its food4 ,from a number of points of view1 but especially from that of safety in war1 it would be a boon if more of our food were produced at home4 ,yet no measures are taken to see that our very limited area is efficiently cultivated4 ,farmers are selected mainly by heredity3 as a rule1 they are the sons of farmers4 ,the others are men who have bought farms1 which implies some capital but not necessarily any agricultural skill4 ,it is known that ,danish methods of agriculture are more productive than ours1 but no steps are taken to cause our farmers to know about them4 ,we ought to insist that every person allowed to cultivate more than a small holding should have a diploma in scientific agriculture1 just as we insist on a motorist having a licence4 ,the hereditary principle has been abandoned in government1 but it lingers in many other departments of life4 ,wherever it exists1 it promotes the inefficiency to which it formerly led in public affairs4 ,we must replace it by two correlative rules3 first1 that no one shall be allowed to undertake important work without having acquired the necessary skill2 secondly1 that this skill shall be taught to the ablest of those who desire it1 quite independently of their parents' means4 ,it is obvious that these two rules would enormously increase efficiency4 ,university education should therefore be regarded as a privilege for special ability1 and those who possess the skill but no money should be maintained at the public expense during their course4 ,no one should be admitted unless he satisfies the tests of ability1 and no one should be allowed to remain unless he satisfies the authorities that he is using his time to advantage4 ,the idea of the university as a place of leisure where rich young men loaf for three or four years is dying1 but1 like ,charles ,,ii1 it is an unconscionable time about it4 ,when ,i say that a young man or woman at the university should not be allowed to be idle1 ,i must hasten to add that the tests of work must not consist in a mechanical conformity to system4 ,in the newer universities in ,england and ,america there is a regrettable tendency to insist upon attendance at innumerable lectures4 ,the arguments in favour of individual work1 which are allowed to be strong in the case of infants in a ,montessori school1 are very much stronger in the case of young people of twenty1 particularly when1 as we are assuming1 they are keen and exceptionally able4 ,when ,i was an undergraduate1 my feeling1 and that of most of my friends1 was that lectures were a pure waste of time4 ,no doubt we exaggerated1 but not much4 ,the real reason for lectures is that they are obvious work1 and therefore business men are willing to pay for them4 ,if university teachers adopted the best methods1 business men would think them idle1 and insist upon cutting down the staff4 ,oxford and ,cambridge1 because of their prestige1 are to some extent able to apply the right methods2 but the newer universities are unable to stand up against business men1 and so are most ,american universities4 ,the teacher should1 at the beginning of the term1 give a list of books to be read carefully1 and a slight account of other books which some may like and others not4 ,he should set papers1 which can only be answered by noticing the important points in the books intelligently4 ,he should see the pupils individually when they have done their papers4 ,about once a week or once a fortnight1 he should see such as care to come in the evening1 and have desultory conversation about matters more or less connected with their work4 ,all this is not very different from the practice at the older universities4 ,if a pupil chooses to set himself a paper1 different from that of the teacher but equally difficult1 he shall be at liberty to do so4 ,the industry of the pupils can be judged by their papers4 ,there is1 however1 one point of great importance4 ,every university teacher should be himself engaged in research1 and should have sufficient leisure and energy to know what is being done in his subject in all countries4 ,in university teaching1 skill in pedagogy is no longer important2 what is important is knowledge of one's subject and keenness about what is being done in it4 ,this is impossible for a man who is overworked and nervously exhausted by teaching4 ,his subject is likely to become distasteful to him1 and his knowledge is almost sure to be confined to what he learnt in youth4 ,every university teacher ought to have a ,sabbatical year 7one in every seven71 to be spent in foreign universities or in otherwise acquiring knowledge of what is being done abroad4 ,this is common in ,america1 but ,european countries have too much intellectual pride to admit that it is necessary4 ,in this they are quite mistaken4 ,the men who taught me mathematics at ,cambridge were almost wholly untouched by the ,continental mathematics of the previous twenty or thirty years2 throughout my undergraduate time1 ,i never heard the name of ,weierstrass4 ,it was only by subsequent travel that ,i came in contact with modern mathematics4 ,this was no rare or exceptional circumstance4 ,of many universities at many periods similar things could be said4 ,there is in universities a certain opposition between those who care most for teaching and those who care most for research4 ,this is almost entirely due to a wrong conception of teaching1 and to the presence of a number of students whose industry and capacity are below the level which ought to be exacted as a condition of residence4 ,the idea of the old-fashioned schoolmaster persists to some extent at universities4 ,there is a desire to have a good moral effect on students1 and a wish to drill them in old-fashioned worthless information1 largely known to be false but supposed to be morally elevating4 ,students ought not to be exhorted to work1 but they should not be allowed to remain if they are found to be wasting their time1 whether from idleness or from lack of ability4 ,the only morality which can be profitably exacted is that of work2 the rest belongs to earlier years4 ,and the morality of work should be exacted by sending away those who do not possess it1 since evidently they had better be otherwise employed4 ,a teacher should not be expected to work long hours at teaching1 and should have abundant leisure for research2 but he should be expected to employ this leisure wisely4 ,research is at least as important as education1 when we are considering the functions of universities in the life of mankind4 ,new knowledge is the chief cause of progress1 and without it the world would soon become stationary4 ,it could continue1 for a time1 to improve by the diffusion and wider use of existing knowledge1 but this process1 by itself1 could not last long4 ,and even the pursuit of knowledge1 if it is utilitarian1 is not self-sustaining4 ,utilitarian knowledge needs to be fructified by disinterested investigation1 which has no motive beyond the desire to understand the world better4 ,all the great advances are at first purely theoretical1 and are only afterwards found to be capable of practical applications4 ,and even if some splendid theory never has any practical use1 it remains of value on its own account2 for the understanding of the world is one of the ultimate goods4 ,if science and organization had succeeded in satisfying the needs of the body and in abolishing cruelty and war1 the pursuit of knowledge and beauty would remain to exercise our love of strenuous creation4 ,i should not wish the poet1 the painter1 the composer or the mathematician to be preoccupied with some remote effect of his activities in the world of practice4 ,he should be occupied1 rather1 in the pursuit of a vision1 in capturing and giving permanence to something which he has first seen dimly for a moment1 which he has loved with such ardour that the joys of this world have grown pale by comparison4 ,all great art and all great science springs from the passionate desire to embody what was at first an unsubstantial phantom1 a beckoning beauty luring men away from safety and ease to a glorious torment4 ,the men in whom this passion exists must not be fettered by the shackles of a utilitarian philosophy1 for to their ardour we owe all that makes man great4 ,,chapter ,,xix ,,conclusion ,at the end of our journey1 let us look back over the road1 to obtain a bird's-eye view of the country we have traversed4 ,knowledge wielded by love is what the educator needs and what his pupils should acquire4 ,in earlier years1 love towards the pupils is the most important kind2 in later years1 love of the knowledge imparted becomes increasingly necessary4 ,the important knowledge at first is knowledge of physiology1 hygiene1 and psychology1 of which the last more especially concerns the teacher4 ,the instincts and reflexes with which a child is born can be developed by the environment into the most diverse habits1 and therefore into the most diverse characters4 ,most of this happens in very early childhood2 consequently it is at this period that we can most hopefully attempt to form character4 ,those who like existing evils are fond of asserting that human nature cannot be changed4 ,if they mean that it cannot be changed after six years old1 there is a measure of truth in what they say4 ,if they mean that nothing can be done to alter the instincts and reflexes with which an infant is born1 they are again more or less in the right1 though of course eugenics could1 and perhaps will1 produce remarkable results even here4 ,but if they mean1 as they usually do1 that there is no way of producing an adult population whose behaviour will be radically different from that of existing populations1 they are flying in the face of all modern psychology4 ,given two infants with the same character at birth1 different early environments may turn them into adults with totally different dispositions4 ,it is the business of early education to train the instincts so that they may produce a harmonious character1 constructive rather than destructive1 affectionate rather than sullen1 courageous1 frank1 and intelligent4 ,all this can be done with a great majority of children2 it is actually being done where children are rightly treated4 ,if existing knowledge were used and tested methods applied1 we could1 in a generation1 produce a population almost wholly free from disease1 malevolence1 and stupidity4 ,we do not do so1 because we prefer oppression and war4 ,the crude material of instinct is1 in most respects1 equally capable of leading to desirable and to undesirable actions4 ,in the past1 men did not understand the training of instinct1 and therefore were compelled to resort to repression4 ,punishment and fear were the great incentives to what was called virtue4 ,we now know that repression is a bad method1 both because it is never really successful1 and because it produces mental disorders4 ,the training of instincts is a totally different method1 involving a totally different technique4 ,habits and skill make1 as it were1 a channel for instinct1 leading it to flow one way or another according to the direction of the channel4 ,by creating the right habits and the right skill1 we cause the child's instincts themselves to prompt desirable actions4 ,there is no sense of strain1 because there is no need to resist temptation4 ,there is no thwarting1 and the child has a sense of unfettered spontaneity4 ,i do not mean these statements to be taken in an absolute sense2 there will always be unforeseen contingencies in which older methods may become necessary4 ,but the more the science of child psychology is perfected1 and the more experience we acquire in nursery-schools1 the more perfectly the new methods can be applied4 ,i have tried to bring before the reader the wonderful possibilities which are now open to us4 ,think what it would mean3 health1 freedom1 happiness1 kindness1 intelligence1 all nearly universal4 ,in one generation1 if we chose1 we could bring the millennium4 ,but none of this can come about without love4 ,the knowledge exists2 lack of love prevents it from being applied4 ,sometimes the lack of love towards children brings me near to despair--for example1 when ,i find almost all our recognized moral leaders unwilling that anything should be done to prevent the birth of children with venereal disease4 ,nevertheless1 there is a gradual liberation of love of children1 which surely is one of our natural impulses4 ,ages of fierceness have overlaid what is naturally kindly in the dispositions of ordinary men and women4 ,it is only lately that many ,christians have ceased to teach the damnation of unbaptized infants4 ,nationalism is another doctrine which dries up the springs of humanity2 during the war1 we caused almost all ,german children to suffer from rickets4 ,we must let loose our natural kindliness2 if a doctrine demands that we should inflict misery upon children1 let us reject it1 however dear it may be to us4 ,in almost all cases1 the psychological source of cruel doctrines is fear2 that is one reason why ,i have laid so much stress upon the elimination of fear in childhood4 ,let us root out the fears that lurk in the dark places of our own minds4 ,the possibilities of a happy world that are opened up by modern education make it well worth while to run some personal risk1 even if the risk were more real than it is4 ,when we have created young people freed from fear and inhibitions and rebellious or thwarted instincts1 we shall be able to open to them the world of knowledge1 freely and completely1 without dark hidden corners2 and if instruction is wisely given1 it will be a joy rather than a task to those who receive it4 ,it is not important to increase the amount of what is learnt above that now usually taught to the children of the professional classes4 ,what is important is the spirit of adventure and liberty1 the sense of setting out upon a voyage of discovery4 ,if formal education is given in this spirit1 all the more intelligent pupils will supplement it by their own efforts1 for which every opportunity should be provided4 ,knowledge is the liberator from the empire of natural forces and destructive passions2 without knowledge1 the world of our hopes cannot be built4 ,a generation educated in fearless freedom will have wider and bolder hopes than are possible to us1 who still have to struggle with the superstitious fears that lie in wait for us below the level of consciousness4 ,not we1 but the free men and women whom we shall create1 must see the new world1 first in their hopes1 and then at last in the full splendour of reality4 ,the way is clear4 ,do we love our children enough to take it8 ,or shall we let them suffer as we have suffered8 ,shall we let them be twisted and stunted and terrified in youth1 to be killed afterwards in futile wars which their intelligence was too cowed to prevent8 ,a thousand ancient fears obstruct the road to happiness and freedom4 ,but love can conquer fear1 and if we love our children nothing can make us withhold the great gift which it is in our power to bestow4 ,,the ,,end ,,footnotes3 #a 8,the ,child3 ,his ,nature and ,his ,needs40 ,prepared under the editorial supervision of ,m4 ,v4 ,o',shea1 ,professor of ,education1 ,university of ,wisconsin1 #aibd4 ,i shall allude to this book as 8,o',shea04 #b ,probably many of ,dr4 ,arnold's pupils suffered from adenoids1 for which medical men do not usually prescribe flogging1 although they cause habitual idleness4 #c ,on fear and anxiety in childhood1 see e4g4 ,william ,stern1 8,psychology of ,early ,childhood01 ,chap4 ,,xxxv4 7,henry ,holt1 #aibd74 #d ,if it be objected that1 after all1 the world progressed1 the reply is that it did not progress nearly as fast as it might have done1 or as it will do if children are wisely handled4 #e ,this is perhaps not strictly accurate4 ,most children have periods of apparent stagnation1 which cause anxiety to inexperienced parents4 ,but probably throughout these periods there is progress in ways that are not easily perceptible4 #f 8,studies in ,infant ,psychology01 ,scientific ,monthly1 ,december1 #aiba1 p4 #ejf4 #g ,i came to know of these passages from a quotation in ,dr4 ,paul ,bousfield's 8,sex and ,civilization01 where the same point of view is strongly advocated4 #h ,i think this fear was the same as the fear of mechanical toys4 ,he saw her first asleep1 and thought she was a doll2 when she moved he was startled4 #i ,the method adopted with me at the same age was to pick me up by the heels and hold my head under water for some time4 ,this method1 oddly enough1 succeeded in making me like the water2 nevertheless ,i do not recommend it4 #aj ,see ,bousfield1 8,sex and ,civilization01 passim4 #aa ,cf4 8,the ,nervous ,child0 by ,dr4 ,h4 ,c4 ,cameron 7#crd ed41 ,oxford1 #aibd71 p4 #cb ff4 #ab ,see e4g4 8,the ,secret ,corps01 by ,captain ,ferdinand ,tuohy1 ,chap4 ,,vi1 7,murray1 #aibj74 #ac ,hodder and ,stoughton1 #aibe4 #ad 8,the ,montessori ,method0 7,heinemann1 #aiab71 p4 #ajc4 #ae ,see ,dr4 ,h4 ,c4 ,cameron1 8,the ,nervous ,child01 ,chaps4 ,,iv and ,v4 #af ,in very rare instances1 it does a little harm1 but this is easily cured and is not more serious than the results of thumb-sucking4 #ag ,on this subject1 cf4 8,the ,nursery-,school01 by ,margaret ,mc,millan 7,dent1 #aiai71 p4 #aig4 #ah ,although ,miss ,mc,millan is ,american1 ,i understand that the importance of nursery-schools is even less appreciated in ,america than in ,england4 ,as1 however1 there are not the financial difficulties which exist in ,europe1 it may be hoped that the movement will soon become wide-spread in the ,united ,states4 ,there is no mention of it in ,o',shea's book1 though the need of it is evident from his remarks on p4 #ahb4 #ai ,see ,montessori1 8,the ,montessori ,method0 7,heinemann1 #aiab71 p4 #db ff4 #bj ,o',shea1 p4 #chf4 #ba ,are we to infer that culture consists in carrying a hip-flask8 ,the definition seems applicable4 #bb ,in those days1 in ,england1 the ,state bore only part of the expense of the school2 this part was called a 8grant01 and depended upon the success of the children in examinations4 #bc ,the arguments in favour of segregating the able children are well stated in ,o',shea1 ,chap4 ,,xiv4 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes3 ,italicized text is surrounded by underscores3 italics4 ,obvious typographical errors have been corrected4 ,inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized4 ,archaic or variant spelling has been retained4 ,the cover image for this e,book was created by the transcriber and is entered into the public domain4