Part 24 (1/2)

Pedagogists make this the main feature of their treatment All admit more or less the need of some external stimulus to induce school-children to study and behave well, although some are of opinion that it would be well to instil into the child the love of good for its own sake, and that a sense of duty rather than the fear of punishnized as lofty, but iine that the child could be stiogic absurdity”; nor is it credible that a child could persevere in the paths of industry and good conduct merely with a view to a distant end, such as the fine social position he ht some day win for himself in the world by means of study Some direct stimulus, some immediate token of approval, is necessary True, it has been deeorous and the bestowal of prizes less ostentatious, and such eneral

Indeed, those fustigations and corporal punisho were usual in prisons, lunatic asylums, and schools have been abandoned in schools; the penalties of to-day are slight: bad marks, reproofs, unfavorable reports to the faiving is also a thing of the past, the solemn function at which the scholars mounted the platform as in triumph to receive their prizes frouished persons of the neighborhood, who accoeitated parents, murmured their approval and admiration All these superfluities have been abolished; the prize, the object, is simply handed to the winner in an ante-room of the school

The important matter is that the child shall receive the object he has deserved The medals, too, hich pupils were formerly able to adorn their breasts, are now abolished; the prize is a book, a useful object A sense of the practical has found its way even into our schools Perhaps the good children will presently be rewarded by the presentation of a piece of soap, or the iver and recipient

But a prize there hout all the discussions of the pedagogists and the evolutions of punish hiood which is rewarded, and what the evil which is punished, or whether, before urging children on to an undertaking, it would not be well to cast a glance at the undertaking itself, and judge of its value

At last positive studies on the school question have shed sufficient light to enable us to construct a new base for the old question Is it well to allure children by a prize, to incite theht? And is it well to check the instinct of self-preservation, they seek to avoid these perils? At last we all know that the prize-winners of the eleh school; that the prize-winners of the high school are the exhausted students of the acadehout their school career are those who arethis, is it well to stimulate on the one hand and to repress on the other, to the end that children may remain in this ruinous condition? Are not the perils of school life already serious enough, without adding stimuli to induce theies? A nu comparative studies have been ain prizes and those who incur punishenious in ood faith that they have even proposed to inquire whether the ical superiority, congenital hly developed than that of ical notes reveal their physical inferiority, ie their low stature and their remarkably narrow chest uished from those of less clever scholars; et a clearer picture of the life of a child who diligently perfor uish; who learns all his lessons, thus of necessity depriving himself of a walk, a saunter, an hour of rest Obsessed by anxiety to be the first, or even stimulated by illusions of a future more brilliant than that of his companions, exhilarated by the praises and prizes which make him believe himself to be ”one of the hopes of his country,” and the ”solace of his parents,” he rushes forward to future impotence, as if dazed by a fairy vision His careless companions, on the other hand, have well-developed chests, and are the merriest boys in the class

Other types of clever pupils are those who are helped at home by tutors, or educated mothers who devote themselves to their advancement; while other types of dull pupils, often punished, are poor children who are not made welcome in their homes, but are left to the for their bread in the early hours of theto school In an inquiry I made, the children ere praised and passed without exaood luncheon with them; the children at the bottom of the class, who incurred punishht no provisions, or only a piece of bread

It must not be supposed that the above is an exhaustive enumeration of the causes which contribute to the deceptive phenomenon connected with prizes and punishments; but it is obvious that a clearly defined road has been marked out which should lead us to comprehension of the facts

Prizes and punishments are not anization of the school Just as the annulment of the examination of a pupil who has helped a companion is but the extreme instance of ”an education” which tends to isolate the individual in his egotism; so the prize and the punishment are the extreanism of the school is based: e others cleverer than theh marks, praises and prizes, will be stimulated to imitate these, to do better, to overtake their companions Thus what may be described as a kind of mechanism is evolved, which uplifts the whole school, not merely towards work, but towards effort It is the moral purpose to accustom children to ”suffer”

Let us take an example of such emulation When the observant doctor entered the school, his attention was directed to the organs of sense, and he foundless than the others, they appeared less intelligent, and as a ”punishated to the desks at the very back of the schoolroom They were often set to repeat because they had never learnt to write ”from dictation,” and made incredible and unpardonable mistakes Emulation and punishment had alike proved powerless; not even when they were placed as far as possible from the teacher did these deaf children improve! There were also lively children, ere repeatedly punished to induce them to keep still, and ere vainly exhorted to ie nu froh their ot bad marks and punishments because they were never attentive; meanwhile this defect of the open mouth was vainly combated by the kind and careful teacher, who liness of children who keep their ers in their mouths!

Many of the lazy children, ould not do the gymnastic exercises like the rest, whoand thus set a bad exa from heart affections, anemia, or liver complaints Yet one of the ymnastic competitions, competitions in endurance and coed to continue the exercise as long as possible; or to cover the ground in the shortest possible tiical study has revealed the fact that there are two principal types of constitution: one in which the chest predos predos and heart strong, endurance is ood of the other type, in which, by reason of the length of the legs and the slightness of the chest, agility prevails No eical study of the child, whose body is transforanization of gyin in the body, as constitution or disease, should be considered in the body No miracle can be performed by the sentiment of emulation

This prejudice in favor of ean n in Italy to procure the formation of separate classes for deficient children in connection with the eleainst er be helped by the example of the clever, industrious children; and when these weaklings had been deprived of the sti

But e equals When ”competitions” take place, ”champions” are chosen To a deficient child, the exa; his inferiority, his impotence are perpetually cast in his teeth by the victorious career of his coed as the zealous teacher scolds and punishes him for his weakness and points out the radiant exaht, a gli soht nevertheless have a value of its own; to penetrate into soht coed Then he would be like others, he would be exhilarated and coht expand He has infinitely greater need of encouragement, solace, and external stimuli to excite him to activity than the normal child

And what happens to the normal child, the clever boy, who serves as an example to his inferiors? Who that he may ascend? If all need to be draards in order to climb, who is to draw him who stands above all? This time the question is out of place In his case, the irade Here we have the thrice happy type of him who competes with his inferiors! This iven by Voisin of a coed by one of the idiots in his asylum This boy, as very tall, selected all the shortest and youngest of the idiots, and challenged thehted

Such an example is not, however, peculiar to Voisin's asylum; it is the _moral attitude_ of all who are ambitious, but idle, and are anxious to outshi+ne others without toomuch on the pheno to be preceded by an unskilful speaker; and pretty girls who have not the means to adorn the about with their plainer friends

I have read an a fable, which was evidently a parody of this pheno nose that it was positively ridiculous When a neighboring king proposed to visit hi asha people Then the priht of an expedient, and propounded this practical plan to the king: ”Your Majesty, on this occasion let your noble court retire; I will search throughout the kingdom for the men with the most prominent noses, and for the time they shall constitute your court” This was done; and such noses appeared on the scene that that of the king seeue noticed that the court was re had a nose of abnorth

These stories of the competition between idiots and the court of noses make us smile; but the normal competitions between our children are not matters for mirth The healthy children hen side by side with the deaf, the sickly, and the deficient are only conscious of their superiority; the fortunate children who have the help of educated lected children, merely feel that they are exa sleep in comfortable beds, placed side by side with little busy workers who get up before sunrise to sell newspapers, or deliver ine themselves to be superior to these, and to serve as a ”stimulus” to themisled into an unconscious acceptance of injustice They are being deceived They are not better, they are only more fortunate than their conize the truth; to pity the, sickly, to console the unfortunate, to admire the heroes It is not their fault if, instead of all this, vanity, a up in their hearts

It is true that the teacherthe, unfortunate, and heroic children by means of moral stories which all learn without distinction in the sa the good feeling of , the unfortunate, and the heroic are all there ao to school; but they cannot conize each other; and thus these subjects who are actually present are distinguished only as the ones who receive all the scoldings, punishments, and humiliations while their antly as their exa their own souls in the process

In this ht of God,” as in hell, what strong spirit is stimulated to develop all his precious activities and cultivate his own heart? All are lost, the strong as well as the weak; few indeed are those who possess an individual instinct capable of saving them, who do not succumb to the temptations of prizes, threats of punishestions of emulation and of fraudulent rivalry, and who come out with their powers still intact and their hearts pure, sensible of the great facts of huh the ordeal untouched by its elories and persecutions, and set forth on the path of a productive life which attains to beauty and goodness by internal energy and is susceptible to truth--these are they e hail as enius, as benefactors of the huood and evil positively, we feel that in _reality_ much of the ”evil” we theoretically deplore in individuals may be resolved into external causes The depravity of the masses resolves itself into the coeneration; the faults of children and scholars arise from the darkness of prejudice But as these causes are not absolute and immutable, but are related to transitory states which may be altered, the ancient philosophic conception of evil resolves itself partially into so ive work and coely toso eneration and education of the degenerate, is to combat crime, and therefore to promote morality

Thus, if in schools the dense darkness of prejudice is the cause of innumerable moral ills, to reform the school by the help of natural principles will be the first step towards its moralization

It is in this direction, then, that we reat question, not by analytical examination of the system of prizes and punishments, of the principle of emulation, of theues That which we have hitherto regarded so lightly as a didactic problereat and veritable social question