Part 4 (2/2)

It is the product of civilized society It is a recognition, in so of the undisciplined will to the pleasure and satisfaction of others Like all other habits, it becoreeable to the person who practises it, but the first training into it, is a painful struggle

Do we not all remember that in the picture painted by the melancholy Jacques of the shadow side of hu face” of the child was not forgotten as one of the shadow tints of that stage of life?

The education into habits of neatness is almost entirely in the hands of the hly educated into it, and it ell that she rehters to remember, that real neatness includes the unseen as well as the seen Neatness has a h it is true that the dress is an index of the character, and that external neatness habitually covering untidy underclothing, is only typical of some moral unsoundness, it is equally true that there is an influence in the other direction, from the external, inwards The habit of neatness furnishes soil in which the tree of self-respect rowth Do we not all know that a child behaves better in clean clothes than in soiled ones? And has there not been a perceptible elevation in the real character of the city police since they were dressed in neat uniforms? I know that the fact that they are in _uniform_ touches another point, and yet it is not all If instead of setting the beggar on horseback, we clothe hiiven hiood

Obedience is perhaps the next habit to be spoken of Unquestioning obedience we must demand from the child for her own safety It irl runs when she is called, or throay so it into her her office than this? It is the first yielding of the untrained will to rightful authority, and as such, has an ihters and sons to obedience were better childless, for she is but giving to her country eleth She is furnishi+ng future in arms into the hands of the enemies of law and order And yet, how can a woman who has no clear ideas herself of what should be deuage to express directions clearly, as never taught herself to obey, and who has no definite idea of what end she really wishes to attain, educate her children into obedience? A sense of exact justice, a persistent attention, and a consistent thought are necessary Has the education which we have been giving our girls tended to develop these? Are they not ”developed only by mental work in those very directions which have scarcely heretofore forirls?” Does not the welfare of the country iive those who are to be the only educators of the children in their first and decisive years, a thorough, sloell-founded and finished education?

Order, in any of its manifestations, is not natural to the race But the very nature of civilization forces it upon us We may yield our will at first to its de tiive us so great an amount of annoyance, that the pain of the inconvenience incurred will far outweigh the pleasure of lawlessness in this respect

Here, also, the h the teacher should coin, and here I touch a subject which demands a little more attention than has hitherto been paid to it, for too nificance of rules as educators in girls' schools It is allowed in very large schools, and where boys and girls are brought together, that there e enerally taken for granted in a girls' school, and where the numbers are small, that very little or no discipline is required or even desirable This view follows logically enough if one assuood of the school as a whole But if we assume that its prime object is the future benefit of the pupils, individually, it will follow that the size of the school is not an element which should enter into the question at all, and this is the basis which I assert to be the only true one

I do not deny that there e pupils around with arbitrary prohibitions, but any attempt at this, like any other unreasonable action, will soon result in its opposite, so that the two extremes are ultimately the same in effect

Many persons speak and act as if they believed rules to be in themselves only a necessary evil, of which the less we have the better, and an entire absence of which would be the desirable state Rousseau ht be said to be the leader of this class, educationally speaking, for this is pre-eh I fancy that those who objecttheo on in regular routine, that a regular order should be established, and that no slight cause should be suffered to break this, that there should be soular order in which pupils should coo fros to quiet and econoulations like these on the intellectual and moral character The daily and hourly habit in external observances repeats itself in habits of thought and study Unconsciously, facts are learned, and thoughts take on regular habits, and the impress made by the silent work of years is ineffaceable It will show itself, in years to cos--and this is what our conde for,--in well-ordered homes, where each duty has its appointed tiularly that it is hardly noticeable, except in an absence of all confusion and a perularity, tiher culture, and the whole family will be elevated thereby

Closely connected with this ularity is that of Punctuality, which should be no less trained at school into a habit, and the effect of which, on the oes, punctuality is necessary in order that work be thoroughly done, and that time be saved But it is not for this reason soinfluences on the whole character, that the little girl should be made to feel it a matter of importance that she is in her seat when the bell strikes, and that she is ready for her work at the precise minute appointed Is it not at once seen how a requisition of this kind will gently force her into habits of order? If she suffer for being late, because, when she started for school she could not find her rubbers or gloves, she will be more careful the next day that they are in their proper places If she is late at recitation because her pencil was not to be found at the call, she will finally conclude that it would be a better plan to keep arithether; and so, alenerally will fall into groups and classes in her desk Not only there, but at hoh all her life, the habit will run It needs only a reat will be the result Accustohts at a certain time, for a certain work, she will have acquired a mastery over theencies, and able to summon her whole mental power at will for any hen it ain, that silence should be enforced in schooltherefrom, but that the continual impulse to talk should be restrained and held in check by the will, till the subjection of impulse to will shall become a daily and hourly habit, is a matter of no less than infinite moment

And the wise teacher, who must always look beyond the present and immediate result, to its future and h the enforceulations, on the formation of the character of the child under her influence, basing her action on the rational foundations of the Science of Education, and mindful ever that the so-called intellectual part of her ill not be well perforlected

Laws and rules are, to her, not an unfortunate necessity, inseparable from society, but the divinely-appointed means whereby the huhts grudgingly surrendered by the individual for te under foot of capricious impulses, that by this renunciation the individual may ascend to his own noblest freedom

Do not the very weaknesses, habits and failures, which are considered especially feeneral lack in a proper appreciation of the educational value of strict and exactly enforced rules? It is because little girls have not, in their educative process, been forced to accept the responsibility, and to suffer the results of their own deeds, that they are, in after life, placed in false and ridiculous positions, when they are forced to co or in business, with the rational regulations of business life They expect, and take, special privileges, and feel therieved if these are not accorded; they continually place their own individual opinions or fancies alongside of the necessary laws of trade, as if the tere to be balanced for a single moment; they have not learned that there are times when silence is better than speech, and they seeht to be accepted by the president and directors of a bank, in lieu of the payment at the proper time of a protested note

That these follies are universally characterized, wherever they occur, by the ter business,” is sufficient proof that they are characteristic of the majority of women; but that the cause of the trouble lies, not in their nature, but in their education is proved by the fact that wherever wo and bewildering feminine characteristics, which render them only a source of confusion, are not found Co-education is, in this respect, of incalculable good to our Airls, for the necessary laws of rational discipline, in a irls as on the boys, and the result is, if possible, of greater value to the girls than to the boys

When we tell the little girl that she ed to her bosom, and persuade her to allow her sister to look at or play with them, when the little arly handed over, we behold the bending of a natural will, and one of the first victories of the spiritual being There is a great struggle going on in the tiny thought

She is probably too young to be a, and simply yields to the force of the already acquired habit of obedience, or to the force of her affection

But if she do not yield, if she still hugs the toys in her natural selfishness, shall we be _educating_ her if by physical pain we force her to drop thele illustration and question of this kind will sho large interests are involved in what is seely so simple a matter The question of hoe shall deal with her to force her to do what she ought to do, cannot be answered without first deter what is the end in view Have we simply in mind as an end that the other child shall have some of the toys in that particular instance, or is it the training, the education of the untrained will, of which we are thinking? And yet the questionchild stands there in full possession of all the playthings, her arms rosy with the strain, and the other child, quite as natural, quite as untrained, is perhaps preparing to take her share by violence, and cries aloud for justice Is it not manifest that every mother--that every woman who may have the care of children, should be so educated that she ency by some established principles, and with a clear vision of causes and results? How many such questions come up for settlement in the course of twelve hours, only a wo children can know; and how often has she, in the course of half an hour, either from the result of her decision, or from her own reflection, becoht not to have done! This would not be so often the case if our girls were really educated

We hold a general in the army responsible for the mistakes of execution made under his orders, and if he commit many, we assert him to be incompetent, half-educated, and deirl who has never had the chance for any study or coround for such decisions, at the head of a family, and when, either in devotion to interests which she practically thinks of greater importance, or in despair at her oant of success, fretted and worried beyond the power of endurance, she fails in nervous health and gives up the care of her children to ignorant nurses, onder that American children are so unruly We sow the wind and we reap the ind, but the soas done long ago in the narrow and unfinished education which we gave to our girls, now the mothers

Politeness does not consist in any outside mannerisms, nor is it simply kindness It consists, as a wiser than I has said, in treating every person as if she hat she ht be, instead of what she actually is A person tells us e know not to be true We do not contradict her, which would be treating her as if she intended to tell a lie, though we may be convinced that such was the actual case, but we treat her as if she intended to be a scrupulously truthful person We speak not to _her_ then, but to a non-existing ideal of her, e ask her politely whether she may not bethat her statement was correct Or a self-important salesman insists, very i of e desire, that the piece of goods which we are exa colors, tastefully co which we most need If we answered hi to his folly,” we simply treat him as what he actually is, and we are as impolite as he The woman who has been educated into true politeness answers him, if she answer hie of her needs than she herself is And so with all cases of politeness

It is manifest that no manual of htest avail, and all such would seem beneath notice here, were it not evident from the number of such books published, and the nue de to an observer can be a ht than the result produced on manners by their faithful study It is sufficient for us to try to iine the man who of all our acquaintance is theto follow out the cast-iron rules contained in these books, for us to appreciate the difference between the politeness which springs fro Of Americanattained a mastershi+p in this art of politeness, fully able to educate our girls into it? Are we not a sadly uneducated people?

But there is still so else to be done In the unrestrained and affectionate intercourse of the fa in any degree her real self She is under an observation that is intelligent and sympathetic, and she is sure of the kindest construction of all her actions If she talks or laughs loudly, for instance, it is not supposed that this springs from a desire to attract attention, but fro of healthful spirits, and a forgetfulness of self But her social education cannot be called finished till she has in soht to distrust others Shein sympathy, and always ready to put the kindest construction on her words and actions She must learn this sooner or later Shall she learn it byherself often in absurd and annoying positions, by having her confidence betrayed, and the outspoken utterances resulting froht made the occasion of coarse reainst all these by being taught that sheas pure and innocent as she? We ive her confidence, or show to uninterested persons too much of her real self In other words, wedignity which holds all but the nearest and dearest at a little distance fro whatone's self in peace” The h loudly on Broadway, do not do this to attract attention They do it simply because their education on this point is not yet coht indication of the sa pet nairl students If the girls the to a world of careless strangers, the names which family affection has bestowed upon theues, direct and overrule their uneducated taste? It is only necessary to iue of Harvard or Yale, printed in the sairls thenity displayed Men, in their intercourse with the world, learn sooner than wo of experience, the necessity of fending in their inner selves froht be saved nized more clearly that this was a part of education