Part 9 (1/2)
”Two of the children, brothers, about five and four years of age, coo to their seats without censure, if they could give an account of what they had been doing, which should be declared satisfactory by the whole school, who should decide; they stated separately that they had been conte the different positions of its body as it crossed their path, that it was now horizontal, and now perpendicular, and presently curved, and finally inclined, when it escaped into a tree The master then asked them abruptly, Why did you not kill it? The children stared Could you have killed it? asked the teacher Yes, but that would have been cruel and naughty, and a sin against God The little , infants as they were, manifested a character which, were it universal in the juvenile population, would in another generation reduce our rand departood effect of inculcating into the infant mind an abhorrence of cruelty to ani heart, which goes on increasing daily with the growth of the child, until a fearful career of crime is ended by murder, and its necessary expiation on the scaffold How many men who have suffered death for murder, could date their first steps towards it, from the time when in infancy they tortured a fly, or spun a cock-chaffer
”The teacher mentioned to the children one day, that he had been occupied about a boy and a girl who had no father or randreat poverty The boy was seven years of age, too old for the infant school, but soet the boy into one of the hospitals Here he purposely stopped to try the syirl He was not disappointed, several little voices called out at once, 'Oh! irl was to come to the infant school, and to be boarded there; which intelligence was received with loud plaudits”
Here we see the seeds of philanthropy sown in the young , even in infancy, to burst and blossolorious and abundant harvest The germ of love and mercy is in every breast, and cannot fail to be developed, if early called into action; and by the blessing of Alood results, the day is fast approaching, yea, is now at hand, when the fierce passions, the love of self, the long catalogues of debasing criive way before a golden age of true Christianity; when o hand in hand together in the bond of love, seeking to do good, and to accomplish the purposes for which they were created by an all-wise and all-benevolent God
The following anecdote illustrates the subject still further:-
”One day, when the children were in the play-ground, four boys occupied the boys' circular swing, while a stranger gentle looked at, the little felloheeling round with more than usual swiftness and dexterity, when a little creature of two or three years made a sudden dart forward into their very orbit, and in an instant reat force With a presence of mind and consideration, and with a mechanical skill,-which to admire most we knew not, one of the boys, about five years old, used the instant of tiular movement was practicable, threw his whole body into a horizontal position, and went clear over the infant's head But this was not all; in the same well employed instant it occurred to hih to save the little intruder, as he hier; for this he provided, by dropping his own feet to the ground, and stopping the whole machine the instant he had cleared the child's head The spectator of this ad, which was all necessarily the thought and act of a moment, had his hand instinctively in his pocket for a shi+lling, but was stopped by the teacher, who disowns all inferior motives for acts of kindness and justice The little hero, however, had his reward, for the incident was related by the teacher in a full school, in the presence of the strangers, and was received with several rounds of hearty applause”
We will quote another anecdote illustrative of the good effects of exercising the kindly feelings
JJ accused HS of having eaten up JJ's dinner It was proved by several witnesses that HS not only appropriated the dinner, but used force: the charge being proved to the satisfaction of the jury (the whole school), the same tribunal were requested by the teacher to decide what should be the consequence to the convict One orator rose, and suggested that as HS had not yet eat his own dinner, he ought to give it to JJ This motion, for the children alelcome any reasonable substitute for corporal punishment, was carried by acclamation When one o'clock came, and the dinner was handed over, ”coram publico,” to JJ, HS was observed by hi near his own dinner They were by this ti the result The tears were too much for JJ, ent to HS, threw his arms round his neck, told him not to cry, but to sit down and take half This invitation was of course accepted by HS, who reat inferiority of character to the other, and furnished an example of the blindness of the unjust to the justice of retribution, which they always feel to e and cruelty He could not bear to see JJ even sharing his dinner, and told him with bitterness that he would tell his in y'd a' back again” Of course the teacher interfered to prevent this gross injustice, and in the afternoon made their school-fellows perfectly aware of the part each had acted It is not easy to render a character like HS liberal, but a long course of such practice, for precept is iht modify what in after life would have turned out a selfish, unjust, and unsocial character
This selfish principle it is the great object of ainst We may trace almost all the misery in the world to it; and until it ceases to exist to the extent which it now does, little can be done to accoreat purpose But lessons like the above, and received into the infant e be taken of their occurrence, prove in the hands of the Aline for the removal of selfishness; and we know of noinfants into societies, which is done only in infant schools
The following anecdote, bearing on the same subject, came under the observation of the author of this work, very early in his labour for the extension of his systeives it here in the same words as he communicated it to a friend at the time of its occurrence
A few days since I went to the Boston Street school; the children were in the gallery, and the moment I entered, they rose to receive me When the school was over, the children ca, When will you coain? and so on I told them I could not tell, but that I would come as soon as I could This ansould not satisfy the One little girl, about four years old, kept looking stedfastly at esture escape her notice At last I finished o The infant in question immediately took hold of my hand, and said, ”We shall never see you any more, you o hoive you, but if you will coive you so it I could not go The child went ho to one of the ladies of the co down the street I saw the sa bitterly, and surrounded bythe cause, I received for answer, ”You would not coiven aiven with as much sincerity and disinterestedness as was manifested by this infant, I am much mistaken if we should not see a very different state of society
”Moral education,” writes Mr Simpson in his ”Philosophy of Education,” ”eulates the forluttony, indelicacy, violence, cruelty, greediness, cowardice, pride, insolence, vanity, or any mode of selfishness shew the, one and all must be repressed with the most watchful solicitude, and the most skilful treatment Repression may at first fail to be accomplished, unless by severity; but the instructor sufficiently enlightened in the faculties, will, in the first practicable moment, drop the coercive systeher faculties of conscience and benevolence, and to the powers of reflection: this, done with kindness, in other words, with a marked manifestation of benevolence itself, will operate with a power, the extent of which in education is yet, to a very limited extent, estimated In the very exercise of the superior faculties the inferior are indirectly acquiring a habit of restraint and regulation; for it is morally impossible to cultivate the superior faculties without a siulation of the inferior”
It is indeed ais yet, to a very li to its not being understood by the generality of those selected for the office of teachers of infants, nor can it be expected that persons of sufficient intellect and talent to coreat object, can be procured, until a sufficient remuneration is held out to theies to the subject It is a fatal error to suppose that irls, taken perhaps from some laborious occupation, and whose su, can carry out viehich it requires a philosophical e, to effect They may be able to instruct the children in theas they confine theo on capitally, but no further than this can they go; and though the children may appear to a casual visitor, to be very nicely instructed, and very wonderful little creatures, on a closer examination they will be found ht on the subject, the syste that the ure of mechanism will not work properly in any hands, except those that thoroughly understand it
Enough may have now been said on this subject, and my earnest prayer is, that by God's help, these remarks may produce beneficial results; and if my endeavours to make the subject of moral instruction more easily understood, and to demonstrate its importance as clearly as possible are successful, the results will soon shew me that the hard labour of three-and-thirty years has not been entirely in vain, and this will be to reater reward than all the praise, distinction, and honour that it is in man's power to confer
Whenever an infant is detected in any of those anireat end of iven, having a tendency to excite an abhorrence of the fault on the minds of all the children An opportunity of this description should never be let pass These are the very best times to i pupils These are the golden opportunities of bringing into action the higher faculties of conscience and benevolence, and the powers of reflection
If an instance of the too prevalent cruelty of the young to anihtlessness, itby a few lessons like the one which we have given as a speci the rudiluttony, violence, pride, deceit, or any other vice The gallery is the proper place for these lessons; and after the round, or wherever else it has occurred, the children should then be allery, to receive a proper instruction on the subject Cruelty, on the part of boys, is too prevalent; it is energy, enterprise, and high aniislated for on the part of parents and teachers, which descends to cruelty, first to animals, then to all which has life, that cannot defend itself Children soon learn to distinguish those children and animals, who can, and will, resent cruelty, from those ill not; and therefore, speculate on the results accordingly, and becoht up to this point A child should never be without a kind and wise guide at this period; that which in itself descends to evil, for the want of a ood The faculties ulated This is the office of the teacher Too frequently we try to crush the powers that early want training and regulating The same pohich run to vice, ht not, to be kept too much in abeyance
Children are not naturally cruel, although they differ much in the propensity to annoy and reduce animals and each other under their individual control; the passive subetic will not; it is then that the active assailant learns an important lesson, which can only be learned in society, and which to hireat importance The difficulty on the part of the teacher, is to knohen to interfere, and when to let alone I have often erred by interference, of this I am quite satisfied; the anxiety to prevent evil, has causedtime to the pupil fully to develops his act I hope others will profit fro study of different temperaments, in children, to knohen to let alone and when to interfere; but certain it is, that the moral faculties can and must be developed, in any system worthy of the name of education Other vices beside cruelty are to be found in children Moral training applies to these, and none are left to run their own course Why should they? What are schools for? but to for who can coood citizen, and, the being who fears and loves God Ends less than these, cannot be worthy of the efforts of the philanthropist and the truly religiousbeen in my mind, and which I hope soious Service adapted for children, in our various places of worshi+p No accurate observer of the young in churches during divine service, can have failed to witness the inattention of the numbers of children who are asse and inappropriate for them, as is also the sermon It is addressed to adults, and sometimes the terricultural districts Men cannot be too si and illiterate; there is ard to the young, I can answer for thee, which they can understand, and are supplied with proper religious food for the understanding, suitable to its state of receptivity, and, if I estive powers; they, as a body, will shew us an exaard to the Church, there ht be taken from the Prayer Book, a simple service adapted to the purpose I am certain I could do it with ease, as I knohat is adapted for children, or at least I ought to do The next point, all the preachers should be reat simplicity of manner I do not care how learned they are; the es but in spiritual things There are thousands of passages in the Holy Word which are adapted, and I think, intended for the purpose, and there are , and otten, they s properly to children, requires enerality of the public suppose The younger the children are, the e it requires on the part of the instructor But to teach spiritual things properly to children, men cannot know too e and reduce it to practice An evening service will not do for children, itor the middle of the day So fully am I impressed with the importance of this idea, that I am determined shortly to take means to carry it out
CHAPTER X
REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS
Necessity of some punishment-Rewards to Monitors-Trial by Jury-Illustrative case-Necessity of fir the truant-Its evils-Means for prevention-Devices for punish children-Case of Hartly-Difficulty of legislating for rewards and punishe of distinction not necessary
How does the Deity deal with His creatures, on this momentous question? This is the question which every thinker-and every religious ly
As man comes into the world with a propensity to do that which is forbidden, it has been found necessary at all tiovern and even to punish him, when he acts contrary to them; and ill deny the man a just reho has done any act whereby his fellow-men have been benefitted? ”The hope of reward sweetens labour” If, then, rewards and punishments are necessary to make men active, and to keep theoverned without so the unpopular side of the question, by beco this, I overned without it; and that the many theories ushered into the world, on this subject, have not been exactly acted upon And since this ritten I aard to both Scotland and Ireland Indeed, it appears to s, it is not possible that either they or their offspring, can be governed without soree of punishreat prudence, and never employed but as a last resource; and I am sorry to say, that it has descended to brutality in some schools, which, perhaps, is one reason why so ht write as others have done, by stating that I had brought up a fa struck even once any of eneral conducting of a school; in school, children are spoiled before they coinning, the cases therefore entirely differ