Class 4-_U 
 
 Book 
 
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 Copyright^ . 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 
 
THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 NURSERY ETHICS 
 
 FROM THE CHILD'S STANDPOINT 
 
 THE CHILDREN'S HEALTH 
 
 SOUTHERN HEARTS 
 
 VACATION HINTS 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CORRECT DRESS 
 
 NOVEL WAYS OF ENTERTAINING 
 
 CHARACTERS OF DICKENS 
 
 POPULAR EDITION, ILLUSTRATED: 
 ALSO, EDITION DE LUXE 
 
THE MOTHER IN 
 EDUCATION 
 
 By 
 
 Florence Hull Winterburn 
 
 Author of Nursery Ethics, From the Child's Stand- 
 pointy The Children's Health, etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 
 
 1914 
 
4 
 
 Copyright, 1914, by 
 McBrtde, Nast & Co. 
 
 Published* October, 1914 
 
 NOV 16(914 
 
 ©CI.A388401' 
 
DEDICATION 
 To the Rich Mother, with unlimited opportunity to 
 start her children in life well equipped with broad 
 culture ; 
 
 To the Poor Mother, making up in the keenness of her 
 intelligence, the zeal of her affection, for the depriva- 
 tion of mere money to carry out her worthy ambi- 
 tions ; 
 
 To the Cultured Mother, filled with enthusiasm for 
 her ideals, and able to direct her sons and daughters 
 better than any other teacher; 
 
 To the Simple Mother, who doubts her ability to give 
 her children that aid no other can give so well; 
 To all the Mothers of our beloved America, looked 
 upon with hope and faith by the rest of the world now, 
 as the destined agents for the up-building of the race; 
 This book is humbly dedicated by the author. 
 
FOKEWOKD 
 
 IS there any joy so pure and complete as that of 
 seeing a young nature unfolding day by day 
 under your influence and training ? And when 
 that child is your own, and all the comfort and 
 recompense of his development will belong to you, 
 does not the pleasure of his education, so far as you 
 can contribute to it, become irresistible ? 
 
 Believing as I do, that an intelligent mother can 
 do wonderful things in the mental education of her 
 child, as well as in that far more important matter, 
 development of his character, I put it forward not 
 only as an urgent duty, but as one of a woman's best 
 privileges, to give of her higher energies to her child's 
 development. 
 
 The great lesson of this century is that of a broader 
 humanity. We are best when we give out most, 
 smallest when we live merely for ourselves. The fine 
 privilege of an equal education with men has been 
 given to women. Surely, they can employ it in no 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 better way than in giving to the world better citizens. 
 
 In education the beginning is everything. Happy 
 is that child whose foundation has been well laid at 
 home, before he goes to school where he will be dealt 
 with as one of a crowd ! What I state I have proved 
 by practice. I know that school education can be 
 shortened by several years through the efforts of a 
 mother, and that nothing outside can sujDply the place 
 of an atmosphere of home culture. 
 
 Nor is the work complicated or hard. The 
 scheme outlined in this book is so practical and sim- 
 ple that it will surely appeal to all mothers who de- 
 sire to do their best by their children. To such I 
 dedicate it, with the earnest hope that they may find 
 as much satisfaction in it as I did while working it 
 out in actual practice. 
 
 For permission to reproduce some matter which has 
 appeared in their pages in the form of magazine arti- 
 cles thanks are due the Woman's Home Companion 
 and the New England Magazine. 
 
 F. H. W. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Introduction i 
 
 I The Inspiration of Mother Love .... 1 
 
 II How Mothers May Help Each Other ... 16 
 
 III The Birth of Faculty 33 
 
 IV Through Play to Work . . 49 
 
 V The Mother Tongue 63 
 
 VI Cultivating Observation 81 
 
 VII Imagination Plays 10 ° 
 
 VIII Nature Studies 116 
 
 IX Form, Size and Number I 29 
 
 X Mother Wit — and Humor 147 
 
 XI The Eight Method in Eeading 160 
 
 XII Self-Expression through Drawing . . . .179 
 
 XIII Early Social Ideas 198 
 
 XIV Children's Literary Life 216 
 
 XV Foreign Languages 237 
 
 XVI Accomplishments 257 
 
 XVII Infant Politicians 27 ° 
 
 XVIII The Advantages of Travel 283 
 
 XIX Talented Children 296 
 
 XX Esthetic Education 310 
 
 XXI Children in Society 324 
 
 Bibliography 337 
 
THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 IN starting out upon any work we first try to 
 classify our materials, putting together all those 
 things that are related, and setting aside those 
 that are incongruous with our general plan. What 
 builder, wishing to construct a cement house, would 
 have a pile of granite blocks occupying the center 
 space in his lot ? Or what housekeeper, intending to 
 make cake, would begin by setting out an array of 
 pots and skillets on her working table % In order to 
 get the best results the artist who has an oil painting 
 in hand concentrates his mind altogether on the proc- 
 ess of oil painting, eliminating for the time everything 
 belonging to crayon or water colors, and devoting 
 himself entirely to the work he is setting out to do. 
 
 This is the law for the reformer in morals and for 
 the educator also. The very first thing that either of 
 them try to effect is the separation of classes of in- 
 dividuals according to certain well known qualities. 
 Then, when they have their soldiers drawn up in line 
 
ii INTRODUCTION' 
 
 they go to work to drill them, and subject them to 
 disciplinary regulations which are made according to 
 the standardizing of their several capacities. For the 
 purpose of show nothing could be better. It is a 
 pretty sight to see a crowd moving in harmony, unit- 
 ing their voices in a stirring song, wearing almost the 
 same expression of countenance as they are inspired 
 with the same sentiment of patriotism or devotion. 
 They look very much alike and form a perfect com- 
 munity so long as the necessity for acting together 
 keeps them joined. This is all that their disciplina- 
 rians either attempt or effect. The instant they are 
 let loose from one another things begin to happen. 
 Nature has a chance to re-act against artificial re- 
 straints, and the individual shows what his raw ma- 
 terial consists in, separated from that part of him 
 which has been so nicely drilled. 
 
 Who has not marked with some interest the sailors 
 taking their shore leave from a man-of-war ? They 
 go about the town near which their ship is anchored, 
 not singly, but in groups, leaning up against one an- 
 other, as dependent as schools of fish, almost as help- 
 less as the fish to resist baits thrown to them by exploit- 
 ers of their simplicity. If one gets off by himself he 
 
INTRODUCTION iii 
 
 is almost certain to fall into mischief. Then he is 
 punished like a child, and not allowed more leave for 
 some time, in order that he may learn to obey certain 
 rules of conduct that have come to answer for him in 
 the place of self-imposed moral standards. But there 
 are always sailors who are above the average; who 
 incur no punishments, who are trustworthy and be- 
 yond the reach of common temptations. They are the 
 sailors who come of good families, who have had some 
 training at home before entering the navy, whose in- 
 telligence has been developed in childhood and whom 
 their mothers taught things never learned so well in 
 later life. Or else they belong to that brave, rare 
 squad, the self-educated, who have some fine instinct 
 in them that puts them above the average man, and 
 who, despite all obstacles and stumbling blocks work 
 out their own salvation. But it is at a terrible waste 
 of life and strength. In moral training as in all mat- 
 ters of education the beginning is everything. It 
 takes more time and power to undo a wrong beginning 
 and go straight afterwards than to live two ordinary 
 lives, where the beginning has been normal. 
 
 Now, similarly, the schools drill children in squads, 
 rating them according to the most general rules, stand- 
 
iv INTRODUCTION 
 
 ardizing their capacities on the hedonistic principle 
 of the best good for the greater number even though 
 injustice must thereby be done to exceptional pupils. 
 For the learning of facts the system is fair enough, 
 although even there those gifted with the best mem- 
 ories will forge ahead of the rest and then weary for 
 new matter long before the others are ready for it. 
 But superficially looked at the results are very strik- 
 ing. Twenty children, a hundred, a thousand chil- 
 dren, all with eager, interested faces, looking and lis- 
 tening, imbibing knowledge according to the easy 
 fashion of present day instruction, and seemingly 
 making rapid progress in science, literature and his- 
 tory. Looked at in the mass there is no appreciable 
 difference in them, or in their ability to receive and di- 
 gest learning. The most efficient system that educa- 
 tional reformers have been able to devise is now in 
 operation in all our better schools, and nothing that 
 can be done to make learning easy has been neglected. 
 Constant improvements are being made in the class- 
 ifying system, strenuous efforts attempted in the way 
 of " individualizing " instruction so as to bring out the 
 natural ability of the child. It is heroic, this enthu- 
 siasm of teachers to separate from the mass particular 
 
INTRODUCTION v 
 
 atoms and minister to their personal needs. But they 
 have a work in hand here that must always be in- 
 creasingly difficult ; that is beset by drawbacks that no 
 enthusiasm can overcome, because they are planted on 
 the bed-rock soil of natural differences not possible to 
 be understood by strangers or appreciated by any 
 one who is not intimately acquainted with the char- 
 acter of the child from the very beginning of his 
 life. 
 
 Moreover, in justice to all, no exceptions may be 
 made in the regulations that are for the welfare of the 
 mass. If a certain child is to be taken out of the 
 mass on account of one particular quality yet can- 
 not be elevated to the class above on account of not 
 being up to its standard in other essentials, he must 
 remain where he is, with his efficiency standardized 
 according to its lowest manifestation. Not only in 
 the big schools does this difficulty arise but in every 
 school. One of a principal's chief troubles is to clas- 
 sify his pupils especially when his classes are small, 
 and his boast is that he gives " individual " instruc- 
 tion. Always the one rule must be observed because 
 getting away from it is an impossibility: the child 
 must be rated according to his ignorance and not ac- 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 cording to his knowledge. He will be taught that 
 which he has no use for along with that which he 
 should have because the others need both. He must 
 lose time and energy because his loss is a necessary 
 part of the game that plays fair with the rest. 
 
 So he is drilled with his class. Again, it is a fair 
 and sightly instance of modern methods in education, 
 this drama of crowds of young people all having the 
 same general outside appearance of knowledge, all 
 having, as the valedictorians say, " traversed the same 
 paths of learning, and now separating for their indi- 
 vidual careers." But now that the mutual depend- 
 ence of class interests and — to be frank — class aid 
 secretly practised, is over and each tub stands on its 
 own bottom, what will be the fate of the tub ? If it 
 is a leaky vessel, a defective individuality, now is the 
 time when all its defects will become painfully ap- 
 parent. Idiosyncrasies will start into relief, never 
 having been suspected while the crowd concealed them, 
 and deficiencies unprovided for by a system that ap- 
 plied to all will make the individual quake with a 
 sense of ignorance and overwhelm him with a convic- 
 tion of being at a disadvantage with life. Diogenes 
 in his tub was well enough, but how about a troupe 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 of Diogeneses, all at odds with the world and deter- 
 mined to be eccentric? 
 
 The school trains children well for community 
 needs, for citizenship and the exigencies of war and 
 fires. It opens up to them the world of literature and 
 science by teaching them the letters. It offers them 
 a liberal knowledge of business and the arts by the 
 power to read the newspapers. It sends them forth 
 fortified in soul by acquaintance with heroes of his- 
 tory and by reiterated rules of conduct that apply to 
 all their public relations with one another. All this 
 is within its function, and it performs its duty well. 
 
 But there ar.e things that the school cannot teach, 
 that it can never teach though it should burst in 
 the effort, and these things are what make life most 
 worth the living. The best system of school instruc- 
 tion that can be devised can only effect the partial 
 development of a human being. All those qualities 
 that are peculiarly his own, that make him " differ- 
 ent " and consequently valuable to himself, are un- 
 touched by methods of instruction that have treated 
 him simply as a member of the community. He 
 has been taught to read; it may be a blessing, it 
 may be a curse. That depends upon the bent of his 
 
viii INTRODUCTION" 
 
 mind; upon the kind of influences his character has 
 been subjected to for the larger period of his growth 
 and development, which is manifestly that portion 
 of his time that is or ought to be spent at home. 
 If it is spent in the street then so much the worse. 
 But in any event it is a thing apart from the school. 
 The tastes and tendencies that have been encouraged 
 in him either by a wise parent or by his comrades 
 in the street will decide his destiny; not the fact 
 of his knowing who Abraham Lincoln was. Not 
 knowledge but our sympathies inspire us to any sort 
 of action; and sympathy is a matter of infantile 
 habit. The child leams to be hard and cruel or 
 generous and forbearing from his mother. Else in 
 the furnace of affliction, else not at all. And out of 
 his sympathies comes his rank in the world. Noth- 
 ing can gain place for him, nothing limit him but 
 his capacity for sympathy, which, is the force that 
 moves his intelligence. It is the duty of the school 
 to shut the door against the very display of person- 
 ality which is the life and soul of individual de- 
 velopment. Even if an odd teacher encourages the 
 expression of unusual ideas the school community in 
 general will hoot it down. Consequently it is a mat- 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 ter of anxious effort on the part of the unusual child 
 to conceal his eccentricities. He endeavors with all 
 his might to be n,o better and no worse than the 
 average of his class ; no wiser and not more ignorant, 
 to be the essential opposite probably, of what he de- 
 sires to be, in order to subserve the ends of popular- 
 ity. 
 
 Tlie child should be educated as an individual. If 
 he cannot get the education at school is he to go with- 
 out it ? There are many children who apparently 
 must go without it; the children of parents who are 
 too ignorant or too busy to do their duty. For emi- 
 grants, for the very poor and ignorant the school 
 steps in and offers a makeshift at this work. It has 
 tried hard to fulfil the duty of " character building " 
 which implies the development of qualities and tal- 
 ents, of tastes and habits ; and in the case of the docile 
 ignoramus, having no offset at home which he can 
 respect so much as he respects his teacher, no code 
 that disagrees, no social influences that re-mold his 
 ideas, it answers. It is better than no effort at all. 
 But are parents who have means and leisure, who 
 have culture not only above the average but capacity 
 that seeks an outlet beyond the routine of daily work, 
 
x INTRODUCTION 
 
 who yearn for opportunities to benefit the world, are 
 these in the right to leave the individuality of their 
 child to be treated in the rough as the nature of the 
 less fortunate is ? This is not equality but brutality. 
 This is losing the advantage of possessing the means 
 of the higher education and putting our child down 
 again on the level from which his family has arisen 
 by its own worth. 
 
 Every child should have the best possible start in 
 the race. If he can be entered in class B he should 
 not be sunk to class J or K. An immense quantity 
 of time and power may be saved not only to himself 
 but to the state by his receiving at home all the previ- 
 ous education his parents can give him. If the child 
 of educated parents could be entered in school in the 
 rank above the primary grade that grade could be 
 left for the advantage of those who have not the good 
 fortune to possess educated parents. The child of 
 happier chance would not then have his budding am- 
 bition to make rapid progress weakened and stultified 
 by being kept back with a weaker class, and that class 
 would be enabled to proceed at the leisurely rate 
 agreeing with its relatively lower intelligence. It 
 is both a selfish and hedonistic proposition, taking 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 account of the best welfare of onr own child first 
 but giving heed also to the real welfare of the mass 
 outside. The one objection that may be urged against 
 removing the child of cultured parentage from as- 
 sociation with those of ignorant parents at the stage 
 of primary training, to the seeming loss of the latter, 
 is met in this way: in infancy the influence of evil 
 — and ignorance is to be so ranked in this connection 
 — is much stronger than the influence for good among 
 those of equal age. The less intelligent child, or 
 child whose intelligence is not developed, will be more 
 prominent through his ignorance than the better in- 
 structed child is through his ability. Every solecism 
 committed by the child who comes into social circles 
 above his experience furnishes food for comment and 
 conceit in his more fortunate companions. He would 
 himself rate it a joy to escape this ordeal until he 
 shall have received a little more preparation. And 
 the superior child would also have the advantage of 
 being only among his compeers for that period of his 
 life when his mind is at its most susceptible state for 
 receiving impressions. Conceit would be kept down 
 in him and ambition stimulated. He would feel the 
 need of doing his best in order to keep his place 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 among those as well prepared as himself. The aver- 
 age standard would he raised hy the superiority of 
 individuals. 
 
 The school is a world by itself. Does any one 
 doubt that it is better for the individual to enter into 
 this world fortified against evil influences by a char- 
 acter previously strengthened by some mental disci- 
 pline than to go forth as tender as an unfledged 
 chicken ? 
 
 One of the objections brought against large schools 
 by careful parents is that of bad associations. The 
 weight and truth of this objection is much greater 
 than is commonly known when it is uttered. But 
 it is done away with when the child mingling with 
 ignorant or vicious children knows enough to resist 
 evil and to afford an example of better conduct. If 
 he has received at home the essential preliminary ed- 
 ucation he can go through that ordeal unscathed. A 
 strong individuality is powerful against low com- 
 munity influences. 
 
 Only in the home can the child properly develop 
 his individuality. Let parents cease to believe that 
 they do their whole duty in sending their child to 
 school. A complete education must combine the 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 community teaching of the school with the individ- 
 ual teaching of the home. Putting aside the 
 question of physical and moral education, even 
 intellectual education itself depends for its best in- 
 terests largely upon parents. For mental activity 
 starts from feeling, and all the higher thoughts 
 that come to us as the result of knowledge have 
 their springs deep down in our emotional life. 
 What we learn to admire, what we learn to love in 
 our earlier years, becomes the object of our ambition 
 in maturity; and as will is merely a wish turned 
 into an action, and our ultimate character is the result 
 of willing, it is evident that the most powerful agents 
 of our destiny are those that first stir up in us aspira- 
 tions and intentions. 
 
 Is it not important then, that the parent who pos- 
 sesses the influence to mold character should exert it 
 intelligently? Is it not a mother's duty to give all 
 the time and pains necessary to that individual edu- 
 cation of her children that can only be carried on in 
 the home and under her supervision? Household 
 work is becoming every day more scientific and con- 
 sequently less arduous ; women have more and more 
 time for the higher things of life: what is higher 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 than the training of the young beings given into their 
 charge ? 
 
 Perfect education is the blending of home care with 
 school discipline, the uniting of individual develop- 
 ment with community life. To the school belongs its 
 indispensable part but to the parent belongs a duty 
 that is even more important. If the child could re- 
 ceive but one part of his education I doubt very much 
 if it would not be better for his ultimate welfare that 
 his character should be trained and his intelligence 
 developed by a home education than that he should 
 miss this entirely and only profit by school discipline. 
 
 It is a striking proof of the truth of this assump- 
 tion that the individuals who are leaders in the world 
 in the cause of humanity have had mothers whose 
 characters have been an influence in their lives, while 
 those who stand for everything that makes against the 
 general welfare have been early thrown upon the care 
 of the state for their entire training and have missed 
 the gentler culture of the home. 
 
THE 
 MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The Inspiration of Mother Love 
 
 u Everywhere throughout this nation the School of Home 
 was the most important detail of the educational system. 
 Woman gave her time to managing it, by love and being 
 loved. Real love it was, born of her minute knowledge of 
 her children and their faith in her. Continual association 
 only could produce such love and faith. 
 
 " We have abandoned the home school and almost all its 
 principles. It made men. We educate our children by the 
 thousand and no longer by the one. Our learning, like 
 much of our living, has been syndicated. But the men 
 whom we have given to the world, who put humanity into 
 their debt, were mother-taught in the little School of the 
 Home. Washing-ton, Webster, Lincoln, Greeley, Mark 
 Twain, Edison — all were educated in it. It was the cradle 
 of American preeminence. Mother was a potent word in 
 those days, strange as that may seem to children of the ris- 
 
 1 
 
2 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 ing generation. We men know that any country can be 
 made or unmade by its mothers." — Irving Bacheller. 
 
 HE was sitting on the door-sill, this blue- 
 eyed mite of four, his rosebud mouth 
 slightly open, and his fair little brows 
 slightly puckered, while his unsteady baby fingers es- 
 sayed to stand a certain troublesome block on top of 
 his tower. Eor half an hour he had been working, and 
 the moment of triumphant result was at hand. He 
 was too absorbed to hear approaching footsteps, and 
 started in alarm as a quick, impatient man's voice 
 sounded in his ears, "What are you making such a 
 litter in the doorway for ? Into the house with you, 
 Teddy. Here, let me pass, I'm in a hurry." 
 
 And with a careless, rough sweep of his cane the 
 father cast aside the pile of toys and made his way 
 down town in a perfectly complacent frame of mind 
 and with not the least idea of the ruin his momentary 
 irritation had wrought. But oh, the pity of it! 
 Where the stately tower had stood, wrought with such 
 patience by those small, weak fingers, was only an 
 unsightly pile of blocks. And where in the soul of the 
 baby architect had been elation, hope, pride, at the 
 crisis of an achievement, were grief and disappoint- 
 
INSPIRATION OF MOTHER LOVE 3 
 
 ment, and something harder to bear — a dumb, vague 
 resentment against the world which treated him thus 
 contemptuously. 
 
 But as he fought with two big tears a gentle arm 
 came about his neck and a soft voice cooed, " What 
 is the matter with my little man? The nice house 
 had a tumble ? Mother will straighten things out and 
 then sit here and watch Teddy build it all up again. 
 Cheer up, all builders have some troubles, you know. 
 Be a good sport ! " 
 
 And in the sunshine of his mother's sympathy and 
 understanding the mite feels it possible to set to work 
 with fresh energy, and contentment and peace returns 
 to his heart. Well for his soul that what the thought- 
 less father spoils the mother's tender fingers restore. 
 The thing meddled with was not simply a material 
 object, capable of sustaining shocks and recovering, 
 but that fragile, intangible thing which is like the iri- 
 descent light playing over a prism. Break the glass 
 and it is gone. Do you not recollect that day in your 
 childhood when after a period of anticipation that 
 seemed like years to you, the palpitating moment 
 approached that was to crown the work that had cost 
 many moments or hours of self-sacrificing effort, and 
 
4 THE MOTHER IE" EDUCATION 
 
 some ruthless authority, knowing nothing of your 
 hopes and plans, spoiled your little house of mirth? 
 Perhaps only yesterday a meddlesome hand knocked 
 over some one of your hopeful houses of cards. You 
 know well the sting of the disappointment ; the feeling 
 that the world has not appreciated you, but has, on 
 the contrary, given you a cruel rebuff. So flees hap- 
 piness. 
 
 Of all the millions of little ones, busy at this hour 
 with their trivial occupations, silly to adult eyes, but 
 covering, if we could see beneath the surface, a mighty 
 ebb and flow of human passions, how many are being 
 hurt and baffled every second by some thoughtless act 
 of their elders ! Yet these elders are seldom moved 
 by the deliberate wish to do injury to children. They 
 merely lack sympathy, and consequently, understand- 
 ing. The evil they do comes from their absorption in 
 what they please to term the practical, important con- 
 cerns of life. Grown people are mostly in haste to 
 go about their business, and they believe themselves 
 justified in knocking over or scattering whatever lies 
 in their path. Eathers must earn the living, and in 
 their headlong rush after the nimble dollar they do not 
 pause long enough to comprehend the meaning of the 
 
INSPIRATION OF MOTHEE LOVE 5 
 
 dramas they catch glimpses of from time to time in 
 their homes. The unfolding of the delicate buds of 
 child character is a mystery they do not undertake to 
 fathom. And the habit of indifference begets a cer- 
 tain callousness or cynicism that is the last blow to 
 confidential relations. 
 
 I have known a very few men who had the gift of 
 a maternal instinct, so that when the mother of the 
 family passed away they were able to supply the place 
 of a woman in the care of their children. Such men 
 had very curiously, the feminine nature; and they 
 were not successful in the usual pursuits that men 
 undertake. But most men are of the build which 
 takes to the more robust occupations of life and 
 " leaves sentiment to women." At this moment a lit- 
 tle scrutiny into conditions reveals that modern 
 women also disdain sentiment in quite a manly fash- 
 ion and consider all their duty done when they pro- 
 vide for the material well-being of their offspring. 
 In effect, if not in so many words, numerous mothers 
 exclaim daily, " Get away, little soul, while I trim a 
 dress for your little body. I like better to use a needle 
 and busy myself with this pretty fancy work, which 
 allows my mind to be idle, than to strain my wits try- 
 
6 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 ing to keep up with the race of your young intellects 
 or weary myself developing your good instincts and 
 checking erring tendencies. Don't make demands 
 upon my attention. Let me alone ! " 
 
 Ah, mothers, mothers, you know not what you do» 
 It were better to deny yourselves the indulgence of 
 pretty, easy work, and accept the great work which is 
 your supreme duty on earth, and the one fraught with 
 the sweetest blessing humanity knows. There is no 
 other duty so exigent to a woman as that of fostering 
 and protecting the happiness of a child. Through the 
 making of the child's happiness she can develop within 
 him the seeds of goodness more effectually than if she 
 labored sternly and assiduously to correct his faults. 
 The world hardens and harshens us, but deep within 
 our hearts there always lives one little oasis where 
 brood some memories of our childhood's happy days. 
 And when the meaner impulses of our nature pull us 
 down these delicate memories swing us back into the 
 right path, and we are the better men and women 
 because once, in the long ago, we were happy children. 
 
 No wicked man is wholly wrong if he can look back 
 once in awhile to a sweet, wholesome day in his way- 
 ward life. No erring woman is lost whose eyes brim 
 
inspiration or mother love 7 
 
 with tears as there rushes across her vision some scene 
 in her innocent yonth when the snn shone on a brightly 
 upturned little face, and dancing baby feet keeping 
 time to the heart-beat of happiness. But there is not 
 much hope for the regeneration of unhappy men and 
 women whose childhood was barren and hard. They 
 might pardon circumstances for the wreck of their 
 lives, but for a miserable childhood they cannot 
 pardon God. 
 
 So it does mean something when we carelessly and 
 roughly turn the bright hues of hope in a baby breast 
 into the gloom of mourning. It means something 
 definite and very important to his future when a lit- 
 tle one murmurs into a tender ear, " Mother, I've had 
 a happy day ! " 
 
 There are no little things in life. The airy trifles 
 are the mighty forces which turn the material wheels 
 of our existence. Who knows at what instant we are 
 changing the tenor of a human career ! A light word 
 at the wrong time, a blighting sentence when tender- 
 ness was needed, mockery w T hen one's little efforts 
 should have been treated with seriousness, gloom when 
 the mother's eye should have beamed with joy — all 
 these mistakes are the spades that dig graves for 
 
8 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 those over whom our influence is strong, and for whose 
 welfare we are responsible. 
 
 And what wonderful things mothers have done for 
 children whose trust and confidence they have never 
 lost ! The artist Elaxman said that it was " his 
 mother's smile at the right moment which made him 
 an artist." Napoleon valued the good opinion of 
 his mother more than that of any other person, and 
 at the height of his glory consulted her when he re- 
 fused to defer to another mortal. How many great 
 statesmen and brave soldiers can look back to some in- 
 cident of their childhood when a single word fitly 
 spoken, an appreciative smile when the beginnings of 
 ambition were stirring in infantile breasts, furnished 
 the magnetism that set their ambition afire! 
 
 We should not forget that it is emotion that supplies 
 the vital force for all enterprises. Though the head 
 plans the heart directs, and a child that is down- 
 hearted, discouraged, at odds with the world, cannot 
 make his mind work as it should. The world would 
 cease to move along, even in a mechanical way, were it 
 not for the push of strong feeling. Ferrier asserts 
 that the springs of most of our later activities are 
 drawn from early recollections of things that were 
 
INSPIRATION OF MOTHEE LOVE 9 
 
 agreeable to us, or that provoked in us some strong 
 desire. It is one of the peculiar privileges of a 
 mother to guide her child aright through furnishing 
 him with a happy environment; to bathe him from 
 infancy in the glow of sympathy, to encourage him 
 continually by her understanding of his immature 
 but perhaps permanent ambitions, and never to ridi- 
 cule his ideas, however absurd they may seem. The 
 first stirring of a real desire may be an hereditary 
 impulse toward a pursuit for which the child has a 
 veritable talent. On the other hand, anything that 
 is absolutely nonsensical will soon be out-grown ; the 
 child voluntarily abandons what has no foundation 
 in common experience. 
 
 A little girl of ten years, whose forebears had been 
 in several instances remarkable linguists, was seized 
 with a strange ambition to invent a new tongue. 
 After some secret attempts to twist the roots of her 
 mother tongue to strange and unnatural usages, she 
 approached her mother with the passionate declara- 
 tion that if she had to give her life to the object she 
 meant to invent a. new language. The mother was a 
 discerning woman. Looking thoughtful, she observed 
 gently, " It's a great idea. But there are a good 
 
10 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 many languages in the world now. I wonder if after 
 all, we really need another one? However, I'll be 
 glad to help you out if I can. If you get into diffi- 
 culties come to me and we'll talk the matter over." 
 
 She never had to talk the matter over. In a few 
 days the child had discovered for herself the absurdity 
 of her ambition. But she began to cultivate herself 
 in her mother tongue, discovering a latent talent for 
 languages that afterwards led her to the study of sev- 
 eral foreign tongues with unusual success. The nat- 
 ural taste had an eccentric outburst at the start but 
 ended in a rational aspiration. 
 
 The fact that a strong bent leading toward a useful 
 pursuit may show itself in a grotesque form in in- 
 fancy, should deter us from ridiculing any singular 
 occupation in a child that has a real end in view. 
 There may be a genius in our midst without our know- 
 ing it. Often apparently dull children are the per- 
 sons of gifted natures. It is not well for parents to 
 believe that their geese are sure to turn out swans, 
 but it is encouraging to recollect that many notable 
 persons were hopelessly obtuse in their early youth. 
 Daniel Webster was twice sent home from school 
 as an " incorrigible dunce." Dr. Chalmers was 
 
INSPIRATION OF MOTHER LOVE 11 
 
 solemnly expelled from St. Andrews for the same 
 reason, and Ludwig, the famous mathematician, was 
 also sent away from school after four years' struggle 
 with elementary arithmetic. This is a significant re- 
 flection on his teachers ! 
 
 It is equally remarkable that the boy Chatterton — 
 that " marvelous boy " — was considered a hopelessly 
 dull child by his first teachers. Delmonichino, the 
 artist, was dubbed by his discerning comrades " the 
 ox " for his clumsy drawing, and it is said that Ho- 
 garth once excited energetic derision. The question 
 must suggest itself to us whether we are capable of 
 pronouncing judgment upon the abilities of others, 
 especially at the incipient stage of effort. It is safer 
 to be lenient where we are uncertain. 
 
 There are people who do not believe in shielding 
 a child ; in making its life " too tender." But they 
 forget that it takes a very robust nature to outlive 
 a shock or jar that stops the flow of mental energy. 
 If it were possible to protect a child altogether from 
 the influence of terror and from anger we should 
 probably be surprised at its increased ability for men- 
 tal effort. The child who is so surrounded by benefi- 
 cent influences that he stores up no miserable mem: 
 
12 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 ories to brood over is a thousand-fold blessed, for he 
 is not hindered in his growth in intelligence. Who 
 can say how much mental power one hateful memory 
 can destroy ! 
 
 In pleading for the sympathetic environment for 
 the child, I by no means say that the atmosphere of 
 home ought to be so soft as to be enervating. A 
 mother should be able to brace her child by her coun- 
 sel, uplift him by her wisdom and train him by her 
 steady discipline. One of the first lessons she will 
 find it well to set for him to learn is to be in earnest 
 in whatever he undertakes; not to give up quickly, 
 but to persevere to the end. " The thing I am most 
 grateful to my mother for is that she taught me, from 
 the time I can first recollect anything, to be thorough" 
 observed a successful business man at an educational 
 meeting. Upon looking backward many of us could 
 give testimony to the importance attaching to this 
 same lesson. I attribute much of a certain dogged 
 patience that has carried me past some discouraging 
 places, to the insistence of my father that I should 
 always untie knots in strings when I was a child. I 
 was never allowed to cut one with the scissors, but 
 had to sit down and untangle the most intricate with 
 
INSPIRATION OF MOTHER LOVE 13 
 
 my small fingers, until the untwisting of knots be- 
 came with me a sort of pride, and in my life I have 
 seen but one I was unable to untie ; and that was tied 
 by a sailor! Not the work itself but the habit of 
 thoroughness it engendered was the valuable lesson, 
 and I have been glad since of the hard moments I 
 spent on a stool, untying knots in rough string. 
 
 If a child is permitted to slur over his small tasks 
 and leave everything half done he will go through 
 life shirking larger duties as well as small ones, and 
 end by being a drag upon his family and friends. 
 From the time the baby can walk alone he should be 
 taught to do things for himself, and to do them well. 
 Let him come to have a pride in his work. Praise 
 what is well done, and merely look grave over what is 
 done ill. Scolding never made a good workman. 
 Make the child critical of his own tasks, and bring 
 him to have a conscience in his work, so that he will 
 never be contented with " Well enough." Eew men 
 or women make failures of their lives who have 
 learned in childhood to be thorough and in every task, 
 small or large, to do their very best. 
 
 The influence of pictures and of mottoes on a 
 child just beginning to learn to read is remarkable. 
 
14 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 If there hangs in his room a picture with a meaning 
 that relates to his own life, depicting some domestic 
 scene pleasantly, as many pictures of the Dutch school 
 do, he will probably never forget that particular pic- 
 ture or its meaning so long as he lives. And the illu- 
 minated mottoes bearing some wise but not pedanti- 
 cal saying, will engrave itself in his memory, and per- 
 haps be an inspiration to him throughout the years. 
 Suppose the beautiful epigram of Tennyson con- 
 fronts a child each day from the foot of his bed: 
 " Self-knowledge, self -reverence, self-control, these 
 three alone lead life to sovereign power." Could he 
 help being impressed despite himself, with the sig- 
 nificance of these lines, or their bearing on his indi- 
 vidual life ? Or suppose him each day at breakfast, 
 faced by such a home thrust as one rather popular in 
 some households — " Life is only one darned thing 
 after another." Will he be encouraged in well-doing 
 by that ? It takes a seasoned nature to throw off the 
 shadow of a pessimistic philosophy. I have been 
 thankful all my life for something that hung about 
 my early home ; — " Thoroughly to believe in one's 
 own self, so one's own self were thorough, were to do 
 great things." 
 
INSPIRATION OF MOTHER LOVE 15 
 
 Our early environment, our mother's influence, 
 may make or mar us, not only morally but intellectu- 
 ally and practically. Ruskin was right when he said, 
 " Scatter diligently in susceptible minds the germs of 
 the good and beautiful. They will develop there to 
 trees, bud, bloom, and bear the golden fruits of Para- 
 dise." 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 How Mothers May Help Each Other 
 
 "A Rennaisance tutor was appointed for Gargantua; 
 the first thing he did was to administer a potion to the child 
 to make him forget all that he had ever learned." — 
 Painter. 
 
 THE fabled Gargantua was the model French 
 boy whose entire training was faultless, after 
 it was definitely taken in hand by the right 
 tutors. But it appears that some poor instruction 
 must have crept in during those early years when he 
 bad been left to ordinary teachers, for his first real 
 teacher found it necessary to throw off all their in- 
 fluence — by administering a potion! There are 
 many mothers who would like to have the recipe for 
 that potion; who wishfully murmur, after rescuing 
 their child from some injudicious advisor or com- 
 panion, — " Oh, that I might someway make this child 
 forget what he has just been taught by this person ! " 
 
 16 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTHER 17 
 
 But there is no way of doing it. A child's memory 
 has a contrary way of cherishing up exactly that item 
 which it is most desirable to obliterate from his mind. 
 Some crass superstition imparted in secret by a 
 stupid nurse, some narrow view impressed by a dull 
 teacher, or a prejudice shared by a magnetic comrade 
 will linger for years, perhaps for life. If it were 
 possible to rear a child in a perfectly pure environ- 
 ment the result might not be satisfying, because all 
 action must be balanced by reaction, and a nature 
 grows as much by what it fights against as by what it 
 accepts. This is the comfort we may take from the 
 certainty that even the best guarded child will surely 
 have many things in his experience to forget — to un- 
 learn. 
 
 But the unlearning is a waste of energy that should 
 be applied to other purposes. Fighting errors is good 
 muscular exercise — after we recognize them as er- 
 rors. But if a belief gets a real hold upon a young 
 mind, and other ideas grow up, founded upon that, 
 scarcely anything is more difficult than to replace all 
 this material of thinking by another and contrary 
 kind. 
 
 It has not yet been recognized that a great deal of 
 
18 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 the early training of the child mind is farcical non- 
 sense; a narrowing of his intelligence, a stupefying 
 of his natural humanity. He gets the way of " hating 
 this " and of " loving that," of hending down to arti- 
 ficial rules and rulers, and of hiding his honest senti- 
 ments for fear that they may be incorrect. His im- 
 mediate and near-by associates are of course, his uni- 
 verse, and their opinions form his own. And of the 
 stuff poured into his brain in the very earliest years 
 will have to be made that ultimate belief about life 
 which will sensibly influence his conduct to the end 
 of his days. Who, for instance, can ever completely 
 out-grow certain little fancies about the moon and 
 stars, the clouds and mountains that were related to 
 him when he was just beginning to ask questions about 
 these natural mysteries ? It would be a wonderfully 
 interesting thing to trace throughout both the ignorant 
 and the enlightened parts of the world the effect of 
 such a tale as the almost universal myth of the " Pot 
 of gold at the end of the rainbow ! " 
 
 That is not in itself a harmful fancy, but it merely 
 goes to show the tenacity of an idea sown on the 
 plastic soil of infancy. Given then, the fact that 
 early teaching is exceedingly important, in what prac- 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTHER 19 
 
 tical way may a mother, having duties to herself, to 
 the rest of her family, and to the world in general, eke 
 out her limited resources and arrange for her child 
 such an environment as may minister at all times to 
 his best interests? 
 
 There is a wealth of material lying all about us, an- 
 swering to every one of our needs ; but we are usually 
 too conservative and timid to appropriate it. The 
 conservatism of the average mother is remarkable. 
 She is really influenced very little by her knowledge 
 and almost entirely guided by her inherited habits. 
 That astute observer, Theodore Drieser, asserts that 
 it is seldom principle, but usually habit that regulates 
 all our minor acts. It is certain that a woman de- 
 parts with the utmost reluctance from the beaten path 
 in matters relating to her children, because she has to 
 overcome such an amount of hereditary inertia that 
 the effort is a kind of moral revolution. 
 
 Yet at the present moment women believe them- 
 selves thoroughly progressive. They have mothers' 
 clubs in immense numbers, read radical papers on 
 every theme, glow with enthusiasm on the subject of 
 the new education — and go home to the same old 
 grind of duties unrelieved by any of those new 
 
20 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION" 
 
 methods that might bring joy and peace to a fretted 
 household. 
 
 At a mothers' meeting which, recently took place in 
 a lively town, one bright woman rose at the end of 
 some suggestive speech and asked plaintively, " I 
 should like to know whether, after we have performed 
 our motherly duties according to this advice, there will 
 be any scraps of time left over for anything else ? " 
 And no one could answer her. How little women be- 
 lieve in co-operation! How reluctant they are to 
 frankly avow a need and seek the aid required from 
 one another! It takes a courageous as well as an 
 original woman to strike out in a new path and try 
 new ways. Any woman with common sense and firm 
 will can do her sex a great service by merely carrying- 
 out some single good idea that occurs to her about 
 the training of her child. A single innovation may 
 carry light afar and spread around from a neighbor- 
 hood to a foreign land. And how much she will ef- 
 fect for her own children ! The most inexorable hard- 
 ship of childhood is the inelasticity of home training. 
 School teachers constantly introduce changes into their 
 methods but parents obstinately keep to their old 
 ways, so making home life contrast unfavorably with 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTHER 21 
 
 the outer world. Yet the tone of a home should be 
 lively and refreshing. But it cannot be so unless the 
 mother is magnetic. 
 
 It is favorable to any change a mother may intro- 
 duce that children eagerly welcome novelty. Young 
 creatures suffer so much from monotony that even 
 a change for the worse has its compensations. If 
 they are to be bruised they prefer a new spot. But 
 on the other side, it is better to build our plans upon 
 a foundation that has been tested and rendered fa- 
 miliar, because children love persons and places they 
 already know, and are apt to become terrified when 
 confronted intimately with circumstances and per- 
 sons they have never before met. 
 
 This the wise mother will take into account. 
 When she is laying plans to get more time to read or 
 to go out with her husband, without neglecting her 
 little tots, she will not hastily turn them over to a 
 strange nurse, nor send them to school to get rid of 
 them. Above all, if she has a particle of foresight, 
 and realizes the vital harm done to young nerves by 
 too early contact with the bustle of the outer world 
 especially in great cities, she will not take her young 
 child downtown with her shopping, or to noisy shows, 
 
22 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 or to nocturnal amusements of any sort whatsoever. 
 The sight of a small child enduring agony at a moving 
 picture show at eleven o'clock at night, being aroused 
 from stupor to go into the keen night air with his 
 nerves in a state of frenzy, is enough to make a sane 
 person weep. Happily, the spectacle is less common 
 than it used to be. Our grandparents in New Eng- 
 land were required by law to attend meeting, and no 
 adult might remain at home to care for a child old 
 enough to go with its parents. This discreet age was 
 fixed at so tender a period that the infants in arms 
 were not exempt. But how great the difference be- 
 tween those somnorific old meeting houses and our 
 modern bedlams of electric motion plays or terrifying 
 business streets ! No law now requires that a child 
 shall accompany its parents anywhere. He may be 
 left to cry alone or to roam the streets by himself, if 
 it is so decreed by his autocrats. 
 
 There is another way. Lacking grandmother or 
 kind aunt, and if there is not a trained attendant with 
 at least a smattering of lore of the nature of kinder- 
 gartens, mothers may supplement one another; may 
 loan out their time and energies for mutual advantage, 
 and by a judicious selection among themselves ac- 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTHER 23 
 
 complisli something like a miracle for their children. 
 Would it not. be an excellent thing if our child could 
 spend a portion of his time each day with an expert 
 instructor in some special branch of knowledge, or 
 some adept in an art or piece of practical lore ? It is 
 practical, this ideal system. I have seen it tried, and 
 with success. 
 
 In a certain select kindergarten in New York there 
 were two small pupils who formed an exception to 
 the rest of the class, inasmuch as they were looked 
 after with more than ordinary zeal. Upon one side 
 of the great sunny room left for visitors there fre- 
 quently appeared the mothers of these two little 
 maidens, and their motions were watched unobtru- 
 sively, silently, with loving, intelligent eyes. Both 
 mothers were gentlewomen, and the able teacher 
 needed no suggestions. But their interest in the edu- 
 cational method in process was so active that they were 
 impelled to try to understand it. Consequently, they 
 were enabled to help the little ones materially, by 
 their companionship at home. 
 
 These two mothers were strangers to each other, 
 and of all places in the world, Gotham is the hardest 
 for women to break the social ice ; but their common 
 
24 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 interest in childhood drew them irresistibly together, 
 and gradually they formed an acquaintance that was 
 more than ordinarily congenial. Both their little 
 girls, being only children in each instance, were de- 
 lighted to visit at each other's houses and found recrea- 
 tion in occasionally breathing in the atmosphere of a 
 home different from, yet not opposing, their own. 
 Presently a third acquaintance in the person of the 
 earnest, thoughtful stepmother of a nice little daugh- 
 ter, became admitted to the friendship of this small 
 circle, and the three homes became alternate camp- 
 ing grounds for the youthful coterie* 
 
 Then it occurred to one of these women that on 
 the afternoons that these little ones romped together 
 it was not necessary for three adults to sit idly talk- 
 ing, to pass the time. There is too much to do in 
 the world nowadays for nine adults to accompany one 
 small child to the circus, as happened sometimes in 
 old-fashioned rural districts. One watcher seemed to 
 this more resourceful woman sufficient. The others 
 might occupy their time more profitably. So she pro- 
 posed to her friends to form a mutual benefit guild. 
 The arrangement was that the children should spend 
 alternate afternoons in company, and the mother who 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTHEE 25 
 
 was hostess for that day should take entire charge of 
 the three little girls, leaving the other two mothers 
 absolutely free to pursue their own plans from 
 luncheon to bedtime. None of the women employed 
 a nurse. They were all three devoted, conscientious 
 mothers and would never have brought their minds 
 to a state of contentment with any arrangement that 
 was not best for their children. But here was an 
 opportunity to give the little ones pleasant social in- 
 tercourse and themselves long desired leisure to spend 
 in intellectual enjoyments. So they eagerly embraced 
 the chance. The little ones, already friends, were 
 happy, and the mothers equally pleased. 
 
 Now out of this original device grew something 
 much greater. Most discoveries are accidental, and 
 this one was not an exception. It happened that all 
 three of these women were specially gifted. One 
 was a fine artist, another an accomplished musician, 
 and the third an exquisite, scientific household man- 
 ager. When their children's year of kindergarten 
 training was accomplished and they were asking 
 themselves with anxiety, what was to come next, in 
 that dreary hiatus between kindergarten and school 
 their consultation resulted in another idea. There 
 
26 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 are in some advanced schools what are called " con- 
 necting classes/' undertaking to provide for children 
 until it is time for them to enter into routine work. 
 " Suppose we do better than this/' suggested one of 
 the friends ; " suppose we become mutual helpers in 
 education \ " 
 
 It was an idea to give pause. Not one of them 
 particularly liked formal teaching, and two were 
 averse to entering upon such a responsibility as 
 the suggestion appeared to imply. Yet upon weigh- 
 ing all the advantages against the slight inconvenience 
 of putting their rusting talents to active use, they were 
 impelled to try the plan. It was not called, but was 
 actually, in miniature, a neighborhood tutoring school, 
 and of the rarest character, because the mercenary ele- 
 ment was absent and the instructors were actuated by 
 the spirit of doing exactly as they were done by. 
 The arrangement was for one mother to take charge 
 of the three little girls two days in each week, and 
 give them lessons in housekeeping. With the gas 
 range and grown-up paraphernalia it was doll house- 
 keeping, glorified. What meals were prepared, what 
 scientific house-cleanings for the doll's family accom- 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTHER 27 
 
 plished, what lessons learned in the art of caring for 
 habies and of what to do in emergencies! And all 
 without pedagogic stiffness or enforced work. " No 
 fear of homes dying out among us if the honest pref- 
 erences of children are considered, " observed the su- 
 pervisor of these domestic lessons. " The baby heart 
 is an honest, simple heart and will turn readily 
 to the homely things of life if its attention is secured 
 once. And it is to the wholesome, unspoiled baby 
 nature that we must direct our efforts in domestic 
 education. If ever lessons in household science can 
 be given without pain and with bursts of glee it is 
 with a doll's house for a background, and docile tots 
 for learners, to whom the whole matter is almost play, 
 but who work at it with the zeal that children throw 
 into everything that really interests them. Do you 
 know that a child absolutely likes work, if it is con- 
 vinced that it is the same kind of work that grown 
 people are doing \ That is the secret ; to make them 
 participators of our own occupations. And the way to 
 do it is first, to enter into theirs." 
 
 After a morning so spent, the afternoon was given 
 to outdoor recreations, sometimes in the great city 
 
28 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 play-ground, Central Park, oftener after a trolley 
 ride that brought the troupe to the real country, where 
 there was no " grass to keep off." 
 
 The second mother had undertaken the task of 
 teaching her three charges the rudiments of music, hut 
 she made her lessons short if important and her play 
 spells correspondingly longer. The vital point was 
 that she conscientiously imparted during her brief 
 half hour lesson something that was always remem- 
 bered by the children, because there was the element 
 of eternal truth in her excellent science. They were 
 henceforth fortified against shallow, false music, and 
 that is the most valuable thing about the divine art 
 that can be learned in early life. 
 
 To the third mother had fallen the duty of super- 
 vising the three young persons in clay modeling and 
 drawing. Of the first, she made an active pleasure, 
 providing white clay on broad boards in the big 
 kitchen, and skilfully turning the apparently spon- 
 taneous work of the trio to good account in molding 
 fruits and every other conceivable object that might 
 be imitated, and afterward, making crude but quite 
 reasonable drawings of these self-constructed models. 
 She learned the truth of what she had suspected, that 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTIIEE 29 
 
 a child prefers to do the whole thing, and carry out 
 in its completeness every idea he has a glimmering 
 about, rather than to cooperate with a superior intel- 
 ligence in something he believes his own. In other 
 words, he is deeply interested when he supposes him- 
 self to be both designer and workman. An apple 
 molded from clay and then copied in charcoal is a 
 product of his own; it belongs to him, and after it 
 is all done, he could eat it, from very joy of owner- 
 ship ! 
 
 The arrangement described here had the rare ad- 
 vantage of securing a group of specialists for each 
 child, such as the most expensive private school could 
 not excel, and this without any expense at all. Why 
 should it not be adopted by other mothers of small 
 families where the children crave companionship and 
 change and they themselves crave leisure ? Leaving 
 out the item of special talent for art, there can be 
 a very useful exchange made of other aptitudes 
 among women. Every woman can do some little 
 thing well. Let her teach her friend's child that 
 thing in exchange for another sort of guardianship. 
 Let us have less formality and more humanity among 
 us! 
 
30 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 There are two ways of rearing children — the one, 
 to leave them in infancy to nurses, and later on, to 
 teachers: the other, to supervise every step of their 
 development from birth to maturity. Eor the mother 
 who elects to do her duty there seems nothing possi- 
 ble but unremitting attention to maternal cares and 
 consequent neglect of all other modes of usefulness. 
 Under present conditions. But why in the world 
 should any sort of absurd conditions hold, when an 
 improvement is within our reach? Women are no- 
 toriously timid about introducing improvements into 
 their way of living, a fact that entitles them to be 
 called the " invariable element " in nature, while men 
 are the originating element, consequently, variable. 
 There was a time when men distrusted any departure 
 from conventionality in the women of their house- 
 holds, and frowned down new ideas. But they are 
 no longer doing it. They may be surprised when wife 
 and mother devises some new and good thing, but they 
 are delighted also. Perhaps they suspect that the 
 germ of the bit of originality was in some occult way, 
 niched from their own brains while they slept, and 
 congratulate themselves in their sly power! Be that 
 as it may, we have fallen into a bad habit of apathy 
 
HOW MOTHERS HELP EACH OTHEE 31 
 
 in this matter of child-training versus self-develop- 
 ment, and need to look over the ground and see what 
 we can do towards reform. The woman who neglects 
 her home while she teaches the world how to think, 
 legislate and act is not admirable in any aspect. 
 " Mother is so busy in her educational work now that 
 she is scarcely ever at home/' announced a young high- 
 school girl with innocent pride. The listener could 
 only appreciate the humor of it without betraying 
 sympathy. 
 
 Every experiment that helps to solve this problem 
 of how to do justice to the rising generation without 
 doing injustice to the retiring one, is of value. If 
 " Youth will be served " then age must not be en- 
 slaved. The only way is to make of duty a joy and 
 a release. Co-operation between parents is a key to 
 the situation, and when the froth of talk about im- 
 possible methods of " child-training " niters down to 
 practical meaning, it must occur to every sensible 
 mother that to take advantage of the fact that many 
 people want the same thing that she wants should be 
 an inspiration to the right end. 
 
 Suppose that among a group of friends in a com- 
 munity there are three or four mothers with similar 
 
32 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 ideals and almost equal capacities, inexperienced per- 
 haps, in formal teaching, but possessing average edu- 
 cation and therefore, ability to make time passed in 
 their society useful and agreeable to the young. Well, 
 instead of these women each devoting herself singly 
 to the care of her separate offspring, and wearing 
 nerve and spirit to atoms by the drudgery of an un- 
 varying routine, it would be an immense relief and 
 refreshment to themselves and their children, if they 
 should exchange motherhood either regularly or at 
 intervals. Leaving out the question of specific in- 
 struction, the society of a refined and educated mother 
 is far more beneficial for the young child than that 
 of either nurse or ordinary person. The feeling that 
 she is doing a co-operative service, that as she is serv- 
 ing so she will be served, must be a stimulant to pro- 
 duce good results. Happy that child who has the 
 advantage of such a community league ! And happy 
 must be that mother who realizes that in effecting a 
 boon for herself she has also secured a wholesome 
 and agreeable diversion for the home-bred child. He 
 is safe-guarded and ministered to as he could not be 
 in any other environment than a good home. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Bikth of Faculty 
 
 " Our start must be taken from a careful training of the 
 senses in perception." — Ladd. 
 
 BACK of all our education stand our five 
 senses. Upon them we depend for acquaint- 
 ance with our environment, for the develop- 
 ment of our intellect, and for the tone of our char- 
 acter. It is of the first importance that at his entrance 
 into the world a child should be shielded from all 
 shocks that might work injury to his delicate organs. 
 It will make an enormous difference to him all 
 through life if a single sense organ becomes injured ; 
 if it is even slightly incapacitated, so that the in- 
 formation he is meant to receive through that one 
 source will not be received. Every one realizes, when 
 the matter is distinctly put to them, that a person 
 whose hearing, sight or sense of smell is less powerful 
 than it normally should be, is handicapped. He must 
 
 33 
 
34 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 work harder than a completely normal individual 
 does, to get the same results, and he may never ac- 
 complish what he might under better conditions. 
 Certainly, in order to make up a deficiency in one 
 sense, his other senses will be required to do over- 
 work, and are, consequently, likely to give out sooner 
 than they should do. But unhappily, as our senses 
 are not imperative in their demands upon public 
 attention, like our features and legs, they are less 
 likely to be considered important, so long as they are 
 unobtrusive. 
 
 The child who is born deformed is from the first 
 instant, comprehended and aided by science. 
 Crooked noses are straightened, twisted limbs care- 
 fully attended to. Such defects stand out at once, 
 and receive the treatment they demand. But a de- 
 fective organ is not able to make an immediate ap- 
 peal to sympathy. In the first place, the period when 
 each sense normally comes to its powers varies with 
 children. There is a standard, but comparatively 
 few persons know or, at least, recollect it. It is, how- 
 ever, very important that a mother keep in mind 
 several facts that bear upon the permanent welfare 
 of her child in this connection. 
 
THE BIRTH OF FACULTY 35 
 
 The first sense to develop is tliat of taste. A baby 
 distinguishes generally, when a few hours old, between 
 sweet and sour, and prefers the former. As the 
 taking of nourishment is his first need, it is quite 
 natural that his earliest intelligent act should be to 
 choose the sort of nourishment in accord with his 
 preference! But occasionally, the child does not 
 make such a distinction until he has been in this 
 world for several days. His ability to do so should 
 not be unduly delayed, and a mother ought to note 
 whether the tiny newcomer is properly equipped with 
 this gustatory sense, by offering him. at least on the 
 second day, both a sweetened and a bitter suck at 
 something, that his subsequent remarks upon the 
 matter may be observed. They will be, of course, 
 merely facial expressions ! 
 
 The second sense in order of development is that 
 of smell. To learn whether this sense organ is nor- 
 mal the baby may be approached by his nurse with a 
 bottle of strong smelling salts. The wrinkling of his 
 nose, or absolute indifference, is significant of his 
 power to distinguish odors. But possibly, and not 
 from any fault of his organs, he may confuse smell 
 with taste, and try to suck the thing held to his nose. 
 
36 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 Babies have been known to suck at flowers, liking 
 their fragrance. Several experiments, made at in- 
 tervals, can establish the point beyond dispute. 
 
 The third sense, the cutaneous, or sense of touch, 
 comes more slowly. Some children suffer immedi- 
 ately from an excess of cold or heat, but very few 
 indeed, are able to show their discomfort, so it is 
 generally assumed that unless the appeal made is 
 strong, they are indifferent to changes of tempera- 
 ture at first. But this mental indifference must not 
 make us oblivious to the fact that their physical wel- 
 fare is greatly affected by climatic changes. Warmth 
 is their native element, and they should not be al- 
 lowed to be cold, under any circumstances. This is, 
 accurately speaking, the cutaneous sense, not touch. 
 
 Preyer, whose observations upon this subject are en- 
 titled to great respect, asserts that every child is born 
 completely deaf. Yet I have known at least two ex- 
 ceptions. Usually, though, his remark holds true. 
 Sometimes hearing does not develop until several days 
 elapse; but in the case of a child of intelligent and 
 mentally active parents, and particularly, when the 
 parents are musically inclined, it is not rare for hear- 
 ing to show itself as soon as the second day. Eor- 
 
THE BIRTH OF FACULTY 37 
 
 tunately, the new-born infant hears with difficulty 
 at first ; otherwise, he would be dreadfully disturbed 
 by the noisy world into which he has entered. A 
 careful mother will try to have the young baby kept 
 as quiet as possible; safe-guarded from abrupt, loud 
 voices and from all jarring sounds. His nerves will 
 benefit much by this care. 
 
 Children, like kittens, are born without capacity 
 to see at all. The pretty, open eyes are sightless. 
 But after a few days they distinguish between light 
 and darkness, then, by degrees, between large objects. 
 But this power of vision varies even more than it 
 does in the other senses. Sensibility to strong light is 
 certainly present when the sight is normal. The 
 baby is unpleasantly affected by powerful illumina- 
 tion and ought to be guarded from a glare, either of 
 sunshine or artificial light. The dawn of life has its 
 natural accompaniment of soft and gentle glow of 
 light. 
 
 Kow it is evident that the children of parents who 
 are fortunately so situated that they are able to give 
 their children from the very first, all the care and at- 
 tention, all the scientific training that may be secured 
 by consultation with excellent physicians and that 
 
38 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION" 
 
 conduces so greatly to their welfare, start them off in 
 life with infinitely better chances than can parents 
 who are able to do much less. Infinite are the sense 
 maladies of the children of the poor ! But by special 
 care in the early days of a child's life a mother may 
 confer upon him the rare boon of healthy sense 
 organs, unless there is present from the beginning a 
 defect or weakness ; and in that case timely attention 
 may remedy the trouble. 
 
 With the physical organs in good working order, 
 the next thing is the training of the sense perceptions. 
 Of what use is a superior capacity which is permitted 
 to lie dormant, until chance awakens it? The dif- 
 ference between the ill-cared for child and the shielded 
 one is quickly manifest in the degree of attention that 
 is given to his sensations, those mental accompani- 
 ments of his perceptive organs that he expresses in the 
 language of cries or cooes of pleasure. Out of sensa- 
 tions comes all our moral life. It is a tremendous 
 thought. Hunger unappeased will bring about crime 
 in the adult, in the child, revolt against conditions to 
 the extent of embittered disposition and permanent ill- 
 temper. Eear, the next sensation to develop, too early 
 or too profoundly aroused, may make a coward or 
 
THE BIRTH OF FACULTY 39 
 
 a sneak of a timid nature. Rightly managed it is a 
 force in education that has a distinct value. But it is 
 more abused than any other sensation of childhood. 
 
 Some renowned authors have written feelingly of 
 " the bugaboos of childhood " ; those phantoms of the 
 imagination that were aroused by tales of ignorant 
 nurses or vicious comrades, or even, unhappily, by 
 thoughtless parents, too deficient in imagination them- 
 selves to apprehend the results of terror upon more 
 sensitive natures. As we understand the strength of 
 this sensation, the earliest to awaken, the last to die 
 in a human being, we must be moved to treat it with 
 extreme caution, and shield our child from any frights 
 that might seriously interfere with his mental de- 
 velopment. A severe terror in infancy has been 
 known to bring on convulsions, lasting for years. 
 Many unaccountable mental deficiencies might be 
 traced to such a source, many eccentricities explained 
 by the same experience. We cannot estimate the 
 harm which may arise from one fit of terror, or even 
 from one abnormal idea of fear that gets root in the 
 nature of a young child. 
 
 How profoundly is the child at the mercy of his 
 guardians ! There is, indeed, one salutary check upon 
 
40 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 their powers. The child belongs not only to his par- 
 ents but to his species, his race, his entire family. 
 Heredity has molded him. The efforts of kindly 
 or careless hands can beautify or mar, but cannot 
 change his form. We should not over-estimate the 
 effects of education. Every family, every institution, 
 can show children subjected to the same kind of train- 
 ing who have grown into beings as utterly dissimilar 
 as if they were the products of different nurtures. 
 When we begin to divine the true nature of the little 
 being who seems so receptive we can aid him in the 
 development of that special character which is to mark 
 him out as a separate atom from the great troupe of 
 his generation. And to watch for indications of this 
 individuality and seize upon them as foundations of 
 our best work is something we must constantly bear 
 in mind. 
 
 But happily for us education is a synthetic process. 
 The general should, in the true order, come before 
 the particular. Science has done so much for us in 
 the way of giving us rules, that we need only to apply 
 them. It would be unfortunate indeed, if each parent 
 were obliged to repeat personally, all the experiments 
 that scientists have practised upon their offspring for 
 
THE BIETH OF FACULTY 41 
 
 the benefit of the world ! When Mr. Preyer hurried 
 his five-minutes-old son to the window to note the 
 effect of light upon him, when Malebrance tried the 
 effects of heat and cold upon a tiny stranger and Dar- 
 win that of sounds, the good result followed of giving 
 the world some reliable facts about infant develop- 
 ment upon which may be founded a practical psy- 
 chology. Those infant pioneers suffered in a good 
 cause. But now we may profit by all these experi- 
 ments, without subjecting our own little ones to end- 
 less trials. 
 
 One thing that is generally admitted is that each 
 child passes swiftly through the general phases of 
 racial development; that he is at first more animal 
 than human, later on, chiefly savage, and gradually 
 takes on the nature of his species and his family. 
 But one thing must be noted; all the work done by 
 man for his own mental and moral benefit has borne 
 results. The infant of the twentieth century, coming 
 of an average good family, is not so much a little sav- 
 age as the offspring of the gipsy or Esquimo. Tradi- 
 tions of gentleness and high aspirations have passed 
 into his blood. He is " the heir of the ages " and 
 begins where his predecessors have left off. And the 
 
42 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 child of a modern cultured family is not either on ex- 
 actly the same level as the hereditary tramp or the 
 day laborer. He has an advantage over them. Our 
 little one has gained through the culture of his pa- 
 rents and grandparents a predisposition toward cer- 
 tain pursuits and acts which enables him to leap at a 
 bound over experiences that less advanced natures 
 must slowly fight their way through. But an over- 
 worked field becomes barren. And a family that has 
 persisted for generations in one sort of work uses up, 
 finally, all the energy that is in store of the kind 
 needed for that kind of work; then degeneration sets 
 in. Perhaps this is why pursuits that demand hard 
 brain labor, like music, literature and science, are 
 seldom adopted by many successive generations, but 
 are avoided for a time, and then taken up again. 
 
 The child of good family will naturally be possessed 
 of finer sense perceptions than those of ignorant par- 
 entage. Something more is contained in this expres- 
 sion than the mere ordinary use of the senses. The 
 woodsman, constantly on the alert for sounds, proba- 
 bly passes to his offspring a keenness of hearing that 
 is of the greatest advantage to him in the ordinary 
 affairs of life. But if he turned out of his way to 
 
THE BIRTH OF FACULTY 43 
 
 enter upon the study of music, he would not find that 
 his keen hearing gave him any better apprehension 
 of harmony. The feeling for melody is a distinct 
 thing; a higher development of the sense perception. 
 It is the natural heritage of the musician's child, sur- 
 rounded from the first by an atmosphere of music. 
 To him possessed only of the outer sense organ, with- 
 out the inner accompaniment of sensibility, there can 
 be no understanding of delicate shades of meaning. 
 Sensibility, then, is one of the attributes of faculty. 
 It should not be confused with abnormal sensitiveness, 
 which comes from diseased nerves. It is, in other 
 words, the power to discriminate readily, to detect 
 differences. 
 
 This power should be assiduously cultivated in the 
 small child. Of course a very nice judgment is neces- 
 sary in giving to the awakening intelligence of a mere 
 baby just sufficient stuff to occupy his healthy desire 
 for activity, and not enough to weary his feeble brain. 
 He must be watched, and the instant he shows signs 
 of fatigue, must rest. Perhaps it is best that no 
 actual effort be made to arouse his attention until he 
 shows an interest in his surroundings. Children dif- 
 fer materially in this respect, Some infants of three 
 
44 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 months are restless without a kind of mental occupa- 
 tion from time to time. A wandering gaze about 
 their rooms, a faint endeavor to lay hold of some 
 object near them, a wish to be amused indicates that 
 advanced state of impatience which characterizes the 
 offspring of very active parents, in this progressive 
 age. Whether this sign of interest in the outside 
 world comes at three months, at six, or later, let the 
 parent beware of entering upon silly or exciting pas- 
 times to quiet the child. If his mind is awakening, 
 then let him have something to satisfy his mind ; not 
 be jerked about on a physical pivot. Nurses imagine 
 that a restless infant must be moved about ; must have 
 his body wearied that his nerves may be quieted. 
 Try, instead, hanging three bright downy balls over 
 the baby's crib; one yellow, one red and the other 
 blue. Let them dangle there for some little time. 
 Then, name them to him. Touch first one, then the 
 others, as they are named. Presently, get the baby 
 to pick them out himself. It may take weeks before 
 he can do it. If it should take three months, do not 
 be discouraged. Swing the balls softly about so that 
 he may get an idea of motion without noise. It is a 
 great advantage in education to separate impressions, 
 
THE BIETH OF FACULTY 45 
 
 mating them single instead of complex. It is not 
 generally known that most babies get an untrue im- 
 pression about noise, associating it with rapid move- 
 ment, so that they become frightened sometimes from 
 sounds that they suppose capable of enveloping them 
 bodily. 
 
 The first year of a baby's life must be given over 
 chiefly to his physical functions ; yet, his mental train- 
 ing cannot be left altogether out of the question. 
 Without any urging, he will usually show signs of 
 wanting something beside " bread, cheese and kisses " ; 
 something for his mind to wrestle with. At this 
 early period, and for a long time to come, his train- 
 ing must be entirely through associations. Let cer- 
 tain acts that are pleasant to him, such as giving him 
 nourishment, be associated with certain other states 
 that should be emotionally agreeable. It has seldom 
 been thought of, but is an excellent thing to do, to 
 have a music box in the nursery to play soothing 
 melodies, and set it in motion about meal time. If 
 you want your baby to develop a taste for music, then 
 try this! 
 
 One of the first things to find out is whether your 
 child has begun to seek for the whys and wherefores 
 
46 THE MOTHER W EDUCATION 
 
 of happenings. When he throws his bottle on the 
 floor and looks with interest at the broken glass and 
 spilled milk, do not accuse him of naughtiness; at 
 least, unless he shows signs of temper. If he has 
 merely a casual interest in the occurrence, as any 
 philosopher would have in an experiment, can you 
 not afford a few broken bottles to satisfy his mind ? 
 But when he discovers that his dinner has gone along 
 with the bottle, it may be well to explain to him that 
 he will have to wait awhile until another bottle can 
 be found. If simple words are employed, accom- 
 panied by appropriate gestures, a very young baby can 
 understand many events that relate to his comfort. 
 
 Making a tinkling noise with a spoon against his 
 plate is one of the early pastimes of the baby who 
 begins to sit up in his high chair. If there is some 
 one at hand to explain something about these things 
 to him, saying and showing by example, how such 
 sounds are produced, he will quickly apprehend some 
 very significant facts. The best boon of infancy is 
 an observant mother, ready to note, listen, and aid 
 her small child in all the experimentings he makes 
 with his limited world material. 
 
 One of the mistakes made is careless establishment 
 
THE BIRTH OF FACULTY 47 
 
 of associations. At first, only things that have un- 
 varying relations with each other, snch as a watch 
 with its ticking sonnd, a ball with its tendency to 
 whirl, a bell with its noisy clapper, and other cer- 
 tainties in circumstances, should be brought to the 
 attention of the child. I should rather say, that 
 nothing at all must be brought to his attention; let 
 him attend to what pleases him ; then be ready to show 
 him the inner meaning of what he has fastened upon. 
 A mother's voice is naturally pleasant to the baby. 
 He will listen to it and attend to it, especially if she 
 takes pains to modulate it agreeably, and in this 
 preference of the child resides a meaning that she 
 should not neglect. Tone color, differences of pitch, 
 and qualities in voice, might be made one of the 
 earliest modes of mental and moral training of in- 
 fancy, if parents were careful and intelligent in the 
 use of this power. Long before words are compre- 
 hended tones interest the mind of the child. The par- 
 ent who knows how to employ what is called the " di- 
 dactic " tone, or that of mild authority, will have little 
 trouble about making his reasonable commands obeyed. 
 The mother with the sympathetic cadence developed 
 in her voice may win her little one's heart confidences 
 
48 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 without any effort. While she who is gifted with the 
 sprightly, joyous quality has the natural superiority 
 of the leader, and has only to choose the path she wills 
 to pursue to he followed blindly or at least, happily, 
 which is better. 
 
 A droning voice is sometimes restful but oftener 
 irritating to an intelligent child. The voice full 
 of inflections helps him to understand language. 
 Animals talk by inflections ; the small child tends to 
 use them continually. This is why his little voice 
 constantly runs up to sky-high pitches. Let a mother 
 be wise to this fact, and rather consider a high pitch 
 a sign of nervous energy than of nervous irritability. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Through Play to Work 
 
 "To elicit interested attention in the right objects and 
 actions is the principal problem in the culture of infantile 
 life." — Ladd. 
 
 IN regard to the training of children we are not 
 so much in need of new knowledge as of the 
 disposition to apply what we already know. 
 For even the ordinary old nurse, who has cared for 
 many little ones in her day, will have learned facts 
 that inevitably lead her to the right conclusions. 
 Take the instance of her laying stress upon the date 
 her little charge begins " to take notice." Greatly 
 as this period differs among infants, according as 
 their senses are more or less developed and their 
 muscular systems strong or weak, it is a landmark 
 in their lives. Prom the instant they begin to recog- 
 nize the objects that surround them they become 
 individuals. Por capacity to " take notice " is the 
 
50 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 first sign of mental power. It is inherent and where 
 it is altogether lacking we may be sure that there 
 is some organic defect calling for skilful remedial 
 medical treatment. 
 
 As noted in the last chapter, one of the first things 
 to attract the child's notice is usually his mother's 
 voice, especially as he associates it with being taken 
 up and fed. Then musical sounds begin to affect 
 him. Let all efforts to please him in this matter be 
 of very short duration. It may be hard for the baby 
 to check an inhibition toward fixity of attention if it 
 is too vivid. That will end in emotional excitement. 
 Every one knows that a child whose attention has 
 been overstrained becomes fretful. 
 
 It is a singularly stupid mistake to begin the educa- 
 tion of the child by a series of negations. The de- 
 terring force constantly applied will dull the bright- 
 est wits. Instead, the beginning should be positive. 
 The little one of a year old seeks some active way of 
 putting his fresh knowledge about an associated pair 
 of acts in operation; let him have his chance. He* 
 finds that by pulling on a certain knob he can open a 
 drawer. How absurd it is to immediately make of 
 that act a means of moral training by saying, " No, 
 
THROUGH PLAY TO WORK 51 
 
 no, baby mustn't do that ! " Or he wants to tear up 
 paper and scatter it on the floor. There is no harm 
 in it. But after a sufficient amount of paper has been 
 scattered to satisfy him he may be gently taught to 
 pick it all up. That is relating construction with the 
 natural propensity of destruction and teaching a 
 valuable lesson. 
 
 Sometimes we forget that ideas of conduct are not 
 inherent; that there is no good or bad in the small 
 child's vocabulary, and that these words mean no more 
 to him than yellow or blue. If only we could divine 
 the workings of infant intellects more accurately, we 
 should possibly hear some tiny tot saying to itself — 
 ' What do these grown folks mean by not letting me 
 learn things the way I can learn them ? " One day 
 a mite of two years, perched on her father's knee, 
 reached over to handle an object on his desk, which 
 he detached gently from her hand, saying, " That is 
 one of the things Dot must not touch." Picking up 
 something else, she obseiwed calmly, " That's two of 
 them." She had not begun to apprehend any moral 
 relation between acts and wants. And her parent 
 was wise enough not to enforce it at the time. 
 
 The best means of arousing interest in an occupa- 
 
52 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 tion is just to suggest something to be done, repeat- 
 ing the same suggestion at intervals, until in the track- 
 less waste of the infant's brain a channel is worn 
 along which impressions may easily proceed. Gradu- 
 ally and cautiously we may hold the child's attention 
 for longer and longer periods, observing the effect 
 upon him and gently encouraging him in those efforts 
 toward self-control which must be very often renewed 
 before he attains the power to concentrate his mind 
 upon whatever he undertakes. 
 
 This, which is the greatest of intellectual feats, is 
 the basis of all his future education and development. 
 To be able to attend with all one's mind to the thing 
 that is present, to put aside other and contradictory 
 emotions or ideas and concentrate entirely on a single 
 one is an achievement for an adult. How much 
 greater an achievement for a little child! His act 
 of attention means that he has selected, out of the 
 different things that engage his wandering senses, 
 something whose claim is stronger than those of other 
 matters. But he is incapable of making any such 
 selection. Chance, or suggestion from outside de- 
 cide for Tiim. But if the suggestion is feeble it holds 
 him for a very short time; then his mind wanders 
 
THROUGH PLAY TO WORK 53 
 
 again. How are we to aid him to fix his atten- 
 tion? 
 
 The element of surprise is of the greatest value. 
 A small shock, not sharp enough to be uncomfortable, 
 but distinct enough to cause an immediate separation 
 from more passive impressions, arouses the child's 
 mind to activity in the direction desired. Here we 
 see the truth of the new view of education when it 
 declares that " interest is the life of teaching." Un- 
 less an interest can be created there is no real at- 
 tention, but merely its deceitful counterfeit. There 
 is a great deal of talk at this moment about the neces- 
 sity of " a thrill " in stories to make them interest- 
 ing to adults. We must have " shockers " even if 
 they are also masterpieces. Indeed, nothing is ad- 
 mitted to be a masterpiece now that has not in it this 
 " thrill." Carrying out the hint we may say that 
 a child instinctively demands " the thrill " in his 
 story. He too, wants to be made to wonder, to laugh 
 and to weep. Why not ? The world is a vast won- 
 der-house to the new-comer and all full of marvels. 
 May he not have the pleasure of dwelling upon their 
 singular features for a space, before being made to 
 linger wearisomely on the less interesting ones ? 
 
54 THE MOTHER m EDUCATION 
 
 Now, what is most likely to strike the little child 
 as an unique, startling fancy % He has no conception 
 of the grotesque yet, or of the awful, excepting as 
 he is able to compare a new thing with his few im- 
 pressions of the normal. Eor instance, being habitu- 
 ated to seeing his mother's face in certain relations 
 with her dress he is amused upon her assuming an 
 absurd head-dress, like a paper cap. His father with 
 a toy balanced on his dignified head is a comical 
 sight. He clamors for repetitions of such absurdities. 
 It is because the contrast with his ordinary experi- 
 ences is very marked that his entertainment is made 
 out of it. If his mother had always worn a paper 
 cap or his father a toy horse on his hair, do you 
 suppose master Charles, at three, would find such 
 an exhibition funny? Again, having had a few 
 years' experience of quiet country life, we will say, 
 and being suddenly changed to the city, the contrast 
 strikes him with astonishment, and in every new 
 aspect of familiar objects he sees fresh reason for 
 wonder. It is the start given to his perceptive facul- 
 ties that sets them into activity. 
 
 Upon this hint, that some kind of radical departure 
 from the habitual is the best way of getting the child's 
 
THKOUGH PLAY TO WORK 55 
 
 attention, we may base our efforts to secure his pref- 
 erence for the object in which we wish to enlist his 
 interest. Start out with some novel feature in your 
 little piece of work. If you wish the little one to 
 learn to build with blocks, do not go on in a slow, 
 unmeaning way, methodically planning to get some 
 result about which he knows and cares nothing. But 
 strike at once to the heart of the matter. Say, per- 
 haps, " Look at your little donkey, dear, he has no 
 home to go to and he is tired. See how his head 
 droops. Let's make him a house. What sort of one 
 does he like ? Let's try what we can do." The child 
 will almost certainly set to work with his interest 
 stimulated in the toy donkey, whom he already knows, 
 and reaching forth to an unexplored novelty, a donkey- 
 house, which he does not yet know. This is " pro- 
 ceeding from the known to the unknown," as the 
 great Herbert Spencer would have said, and is sensi- 
 ble. 
 
 Inducing the little child to play for quite a while 
 at a single sort of play, is the right means of helping 
 him to concentrate his attention. And it can be 
 easily done if we start out with the keen stimulus of 
 awakened interest in the unknown. If nursery plays 
 
56 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 proceeded oftener upon the motif of the adult detec- 
 tive story, the child mind would benefit. This is the 
 natural motif constantly present in nature. To dis- 
 cover a mystery, to investigate, to penetrate beneath 
 the surface of things, is the mightiest pleasure intel- 
 lectual men and women can have. And to the 
 smallest child also, a mystery is a shivery delight. 
 Not necessarily a painful mystery. We must spare 
 them that ; but an awakening puzzle. Any play that 
 is too simple in its meaning is tiresome to the child. 
 Yet, simplicity is only a thing of experience, and what 
 is a problem one day ceases to be one the next. It is 
 a happy sign when a child will work patiently at one 
 thing until he masters its intricacies and thereafter 
 loses all interest in it. Long enough is long enough. 
 Never make a pursuit tedious to an active mind. 
 
 It is certainly worth while for us vigilantly to cul- 
 tivate in our young children the power of persistent 
 attention. Yet nothing is ordinarily more neglected. 
 Instead of a training in patience and perseverance our 
 nursery regime usually permits an endless succession 
 of unfinished pursuits, of capricious pastimes. The 
 child of two or three is perpetually amused, and his 
 attention diverted so rapidly from one thing to an- 
 
THROUGH PLAY TO WORK 57 
 
 other that he forms a habit of shifting it upon the 
 slightest occasion. And as he is expected to tire of 
 everything quickly, he supposes that is the proper 
 thing to do. 
 
 Very rarely nowadays do we see a little one amuse 
 himself an hour or so at a time with a single play. 
 And when we do see such a child we may believe that 
 we have fallen upon a genius. " If I in any way 
 excel other men/' said Sir Isaac Newton, " it is in 
 the power of patient thought." But this power to 
 think long and deeply is the most remarkable trait 
 a mind can possess. Superficial people cannot chain 
 themselves for any length of time to hard mental 
 work : merely clever ones dart from one object to an- 
 other with a fitfulness that sometimes seems like bril- 
 liancy but has no lasting quality. But the capacity 
 to dwell for a long time upon one thought involves 
 both intensity of desire and innate ambition to reach 
 right results. 
 
 I have seen this struggle for perfection show itself 
 in an incipient form in a little child but eighteen 
 months old. And how sincerely I respected that little 
 one. He was sitting on his mother's lap beside the 
 library table one evening, when in an idle mood she 
 
58 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 took up a penny and set it on the head of a small 
 gilt image about three inches high and with a head 
 scarcely larger than the coin. Seeing that the baby 
 watched her she said playfully, " Baby can't do 
 that ! " The little one's brown eyes sparkled with a 
 look that seemed to say, " Oh, can't I ? " And taking 
 the penny in his fingers he essayed to balance it as 
 she had done. It fell. " Oh," said baby quietly, 
 and picking it up tried again, with the same result. 
 Without the least sign of impatience or discourage- 
 ment, the little thing tried over and over again for 
 seventeen times, until at last he succeeded in balancing 
 the coin on the head of the image. 
 
 The brave baby! We gave him a round of ap- 
 plause, and he looked from one to the other of us with 
 a curious little glance of satisfaction. The next day 
 he could not be persuaded to undertake the same feat 
 again. Once having demonstrated that he could do 
 it the act lost its interest. Here was a tiny hero in 
 want of difficulties to conquer; an infant Newton, 
 excelling in the ability to concentrate his whole mind 
 upon a single object so long as it was necessary for 
 that object to absorb his attention, and then putting 
 it behind him while he advanced to something beyond. 
 
THROUGH PLAY TO WORK 59 
 
 Few little children, of course, voluntarily set them- 
 selves to overcome difficulties, yet more would do so 
 if parents and nurses were not in the habit of cater- 
 ing to that flightiness characteristic of all young 
 things, which leads them to follow up whatever mo- 
 mentarily attracts their attention. If the stimulus 
 of surprise alluded to above, was accompanied by the 
 strong mental sensation of aroused desire to excel, 
 or at least, to equal an example, the child would much 
 more readily develop power of concentration. 
 
 But education in this respect must not go too fast. 
 To fatigue a growing power is to stunt it. The little 
 one's interest in a new thing may be held by the parent 
 just so long as he does not show signs of fatigue, but 
 after that the persistence in work is an injury to 
 him. Ordinarily, there is a drooping of the body, 
 a shifting of position from one foot to the other, a 
 droop of the eye-lids, betraying bodily languor when 
 the little brain becomes over-taxed. When this oc- 
 curs we must at once change the subject. To rest the 
 mind let the body become active. An out-door play 
 is the right alternative to an in-door pursuit, but even 
 a little game with the windows open is sufficient to 
 change the atmosphere for a child, who happily, re- 
 
60 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 cuperates from fatigue as quickly as he yields to 
 it. 
 
 One of the hest ways of teaching a small child to 
 fix his attention is to enlist his fancy. Upon this law 
 of attraction Froebel built his system of educational 
 plays. When the little one of three or four enters 
 the kindergarten he is pretty sure of some good mental 
 training, although this depends more upon the teacher 
 than is generally known. All kindergarten teaching 
 is not Froebel training, by any means. But the ma- 
 jority of children are spoiled for the best results 
 before they enter the kindergarten because they are 
 not trained from infancy to like anything strongly ; to 
 attach themselves to a single object or pursuit. The 
 baby who shows persistent liking for one toy, for one 
 play over and above all others, is a hopeful object. 
 For this capacity for preference is a sign of the dis- 
 position that has within it tenacity of purpose. 
 
 A mother who has at heart the true interest of her 
 child will leave nothing undone to attach that child 
 very early to some particular kind of activity, were it 
 merely kite-flying. If she can arouse a deep interest 
 in beetles, in machinery, in railroading, in artistic 
 doll-dress-making, in the making of fudge, so that 
 
THROUGH PLAY TO WORK 61 
 
 her boy learns to use energy without stint in con- 
 structing his miniature railroad, her girl develops 
 capacity to make better fudge than any of her little 
 friends, she will have accomplished a great deal. We 
 must rescue the child from the bog of vagueness and 
 lift him on to the sure ground of purpose and design. 
 The only hopeless child is one who cares about noth- 
 ing. His hold on life is so loose that it is like the 
 worst form of pessimism in an adult. But a deep at- 
 tachment to any honest pursuit is a saving grace for 
 the idle, a spur to the able child. 
 
 We should permit our child great freedom in his 
 early attachments if we aim to increase his faculty 
 of persistent attention. At first our only hold upon 
 him is through his desire for immediate enjoyments. 
 Time does not exist for the very young. To defer a 
 reward too long is to discourage their efforts. Let 
 them see a thing near enough to get the flavor of it 
 in their present. Let them get enjoyment out of the 
 thing itself, instead of out of some future result. 
 How the world has changed for all of us in three 
 decades ! We can remember when work was called 
 drudgery and reward held out for its performance, 
 when days were bitter that evenings might be pleasant. 
 
62 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 But the newer, brighter philosophy knows that 
 Shakespeare's beautiful eulogy of effort was an in- 
 spiration that will last forever; and that it is and 
 will always be true that " Joy's soul is in the doing." 
 The child is a diviner. He feels that there ought 
 to be joy in work, and if there is not something is 
 wrong. In fact, because there is not yet any co- 
 ordination in his muscles and nerves, all effort is work 
 and play to him at the same time. He calls throw- 
 ing stones in the water, work. To turn his vagueness 
 into purpose we may show him how to direct his 
 stones toward a certain point. When he learns to 
 aim he has learned to control some wandering im- 
 pulses. The deft, silent but persistent infusing of 
 purpose into the plays of childhood is the best kind 
 of teaching a mother can attempt. The instant we 
 succeed in kindling the spark of ambition within the 
 small breast the rest is easy. We may thereafter di- 
 rect him to occupations that are not entirely agreeable 
 at first sight, as he views them, but promise enjoyment 
 later on, when skill has been gained. And with this 
 we set our child the first great lesson of life; that 
 steady attention to the work undertaken is the only 
 way to gain permanent satisfaction. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 The Mother Tongue 
 
 " There is an easily conceivable state of things that w^uld 
 dispense entirely with school instruction in the mother 
 tongue." — Bain. 
 
 ENGLISH is sometimes called " the grammar- 
 less language " ; but many of us will recall 
 certain dull old text books of a past genera- 
 tion that made spring afternoons disagreeable to us, 
 shut within the walls of the school room, conning 
 over and over again, the phrases that were set us 
 to parse. And what was the use of it all? Only 
 to stuff the memory with a dross that experience was 
 at some pains to cast off. The study of English gram- 
 mar does not impart capacity to speak the language 
 correctly. It merely confirms knowledge previously 
 gained. Unless the child grows up in an atmosphere 
 of culture he will have great trouble in acquiring the 
 fluent use of his mother tongue. 
 
 63 
 
64 THE MOTHER IjST EDUCATION 
 
 The great difference between children of cultivated 
 parents and those whose early surroundings were 
 sordid, is manifest in their capacity for expression. 
 The well reared child uses language with complete 
 ease and naturalness ; even the niceties of expression 
 coming from him with unconscious imitation of his 
 elders at home. He has the advantage of a large 
 vocabulary, being thereby enabled to draw fine dis- 
 tinctions ; than which there is no more important fea- 
 ture of education. I have known children of three- 
 and-a-half years capable of appreciating the delicate 
 shades of meaning in such words as " inclination," 
 " naturally," " temperament " and other less common 
 words. And such familiarity with the mother tongue 
 may come without the least effort if the child is always 
 talked with as if he was an intelligent being, not a toy. 
 
 From feeling and doing, the child passes to speak- 
 ing. For the first eighteen months he will compass 
 little more than the mastery of the elemental sounds 
 — " ba, da, la, ma," etc. And these it has ever been 
 the delight of mothers to teach their little ones. 
 What a proud day it is when baby utters two syllables 
 consecutively, and lisps out unintentionally, that 
 name soon to become the synonym of his earthly hap- 
 
THE MOTIIEE TONGUE 65 
 
 piness — " mama ! " Through the quick response 
 made to this vague call he gets his first lesson in 
 naming objects, or word-teaching. And henceforth 
 he proceeds to give names to everything that interests 
 him, twisting appellatives in his efforts to imitate and 
 so building up that peculiar lingo known as " baby 
 language." 
 
 The temptation to adopt this quaint, distorted dia- 
 lect when talking to babies continually besets lovers of 
 children, who feel a natural impulse to bring them- 
 selves down to the level of infantile understanding. 
 But we should recollect that it is no compliment to 
 the person we desire to please, to repeat his imitations. 
 If there really were such a thing as baby language, 
 originated by infants and founded upon a different 
 plan from our own, we might judiciously adopt it 
 temporarily. But " baby lingo " is merely a strug- 
 gling, incomplete mother tongue, the earnest attempt 
 of the little mind in our midst to adapt itself to adult 
 ways of communication. Is it not unjust to throw 
 this little toiler back on his own resources? True 
 sympathy would impel us to rather aid his toil by 
 teaching him, bit by bit, as he is able to follow, the 
 nomenclature which is to give him power to express 
 
66 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION . 
 
 his own personality and link him to human life and 
 thought. 
 
 How early the child gets a sense of its own identity 
 is a puzzling question. Usually it repeats its own 
 name soon after it can repeat the syllables, with ap- 
 parent reference to itself. At twenty months it is 
 safe to say that the normal child realizes itself as a 
 personage, separate from others. It then begins to 
 make a kind of stand for its personal rights, its ego 
 assuming importance in its own eyes. Some children 
 begin to say " I " about this time, but ordinarily, the 
 habit of alluding to himself by the name others call 
 him by holds for the first two or three years. In this 
 matter, there should be no interference; let the child 
 call himself anything he likes ; let him give any odd 
 name to things that may tickle his fancy; only, we 
 should not aid him in any eccentricity, by helping him 
 to give fancy names to objects. What the little one 
 does of his own accord is not amiss ; his small errors 
 will drop away as he corrects himself by comparison 
 with adults. But if adults themselves talk nonsense 
 with whom may he compare himself for his improve- 
 ment ? 
 
 It is perhaps, hard to adopt the golden mean and 
 
THE MOTHER TONGUE 67 
 
 neither aid too fast nor hinder over much. Our plan 
 must be to let the child learn of his own impulse, 
 rather than to teach him deliberately to talk. He 
 will learn swiftly and surely, through the tendency 
 to imitate, if we are careful to set good models before 
 them. " Did she ever talk baby talk ? " asked the 
 kindergarten teacher, when my three-and-a-quarter- 
 year-old little girl entered her class. A shy, silent tot 
 she was, but her tongue once loosened she uttered her 
 fancies as well as most children of thrice her age. 
 Without any consciousness of her advantage, because 
 she was in the habit of using words as her home circle 
 used them. 
 
 There ought not to be any effort made to " talk 
 down " to little ones. But we should be careful to 
 make every word we use very distinct, clear and per- 
 fect in enunciation. It is probably inevitable that 
 children hear some slang; it is unfortunately, one of 
 the kinds of dross housekeepers do not sweep out in 
 the spring house-cleanings. But the person who takes 
 pains to teach some tot a bit of slang, purely for the 
 fun of hearing the infant tongue lisp the twisted syl- 
 lables, or shout the meaningless phrase, deserves the 
 punishment that he will get from having that phrase 
 
68 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 dinned in his ears endlessly, in season and out of sea- 
 son. I recollect a young army officer who thought it 
 comical to instil into a three-year-old boy an acquaint- 
 ance with some choice army slang, and who was un- 
 able to make a call at that house for months after- 
 wards without feeling the rush of a small body 
 against his own, while the shout rang in his ears — 
 " I'll put a head on you, I'll put. a head on you ! " 
 until he wished he had never been so smart. Now 
 it is certain that our child will learn all the slang 
 that is good for him outside, in the street, or at 
 school; we need not help this side of his training. 
 On the other hand, it is not wise to insist on the ab- 
 solutely accurate pronunciation of all words he uses 
 for the first time. It is discouraging to the two- 
 year-old disciple of culture. It is better to correct 
 his mistakes indirectly, by being accurate in our own 
 pronunciation. Bright children readily accept sug- 
 gestions and do not need perpetual drill. 
 
 Certain quaint idioms grow up in nearly all 
 nurseries and may be tolerated while they last. 
 Children with a spice of originality are pretty sure 
 to invent names for things, either because the names 
 we tell them are too hard for their undisciplined 
 
THE MOTHER TONGUE 69 
 
 tongues, or through some capricious impulse. Eor 
 instance, a small boy always would say " bow-wop " 
 instead of the more usual " bow-bow " for dog, and 
 a little girl of fifteen months invented for her bottle 
 of milk the queer title " bobbetty-ann," which con- 
 tinued as a household phrase for several weeks. 
 
 The child with a musical ear — and Preyer says 
 that no child whose hearing is normally constituted 
 is entirely unmusical — acquires not only words, but 
 accents infallibly. And as the rule is in all ped- 
 agogical codes — Never to teach the child anything 
 he will have to unlearn — it is supremely desirable 
 that the little one be surrounded from the first with 
 persons whose speech is not only free from the 
 grosser errors, but refined. We have advanced so far 
 as to banish the stuttering nurse, although she pos- 
 sess angelic virtues; let us go further and root out 
 the brogue of the " good-hearted " Irish girl, with 
 her supposed attachment to her charge and her un- 
 curbed temper which makes her discipline as rough 
 as her tongue. " Ole mammy " has vanished by 
 natural process, and while we yearn for the graces 
 of manner and juvenility of mind which made the 
 transplanted African an incomparable nurse, we may 
 
70 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 congratulate ourselves that her unforgetable murder 
 of English is a thing of the past. 
 
 How they stuck — those perversions of speech! 
 I recollect how much pains my father — a Northern 
 man married into a Southern family — took with 
 me in my tender years, regarding the substitution 
 of " them " for " those," which is one of the com- 
 monest errors of the African. And how relentless 
 he was in penalties for the employment of the double 
 negative. Thanks to him, I passed unscathed 
 through the language ordeal of a colored nurse and 
 child comrades with a singularly slip-shod vocabu- 
 lary. But the triumph was hardly earned by a won- 
 drous unpopularity and the charge of being a " little 
 miss Dictionary." The school child makes the path 
 of superiority hard. The compensations, however, 
 enable one to bear with some satisfaction the little 
 discomforts of that swift-gliding epoch. 
 
 The careful mother allows no one to care for her 
 little ones whose speech is notably deficient in gram- 
 matical construction. Sprightly Master Charles and 
 little Miss Dora are too much on the alert to add 
 new words to their vocabulary for it to be safe to 
 trust them with any species of ignoramus. Yet, de- 
 
THE MOTHER TONGUE 71 
 
 spite good care, most persons whose lives are passed 
 out in the world, not among books, retain in ma- 
 turity some crude accents learned in childhood. 
 When they speak correctly they are affected. Fluent 
 elegance results from that right usage early in life 
 which makes pure language " second nature." Noth- 
 ing more infallibly denotes the best breeding, for 
 slovenly enunciation and slang terms are so preva- 
 lent even in excellent schools that the young person 
 who speaks the mother tongue Avith a pure accent at 
 once establishes his superior training. 
 
 Professor Charles Eliot has expressed himself very 
 earnestly on the subject of the supreme importance 
 of culture in the mother tongue. He goes so far 
 as to declare that person well educated who has a good 
 education in English, though he may be lacking both 
 in the classics and science. Some sacrifice, some 
 particular attention, is therefore, not too stringent 
 a demand to make upon the parent who wishes to se- 
 cure for his offspring this rare and fine culture. For 
 it is rare. With the general relaxation of all rules 
 of propriety for our young people nowadays, we 
 have lately excused them from the necessity of speak- 
 ing good English. The talk of the grammar school 
 
72 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 child, just dismissed from the class room, is appalling. 
 Everything is apparently, to he learned; the school 
 has been able to do almost nothing in the way of 
 practical insight into the beauties of language and 
 the obligation of a correct use of the mother tongue. 
 Nor does the current literature of the day afford any 
 assistance, such as the older literature, stilted and 
 unnatural as it was in many respects, did afford. I 
 observe that in modern fiction which deals with the 
 talk of upper class children, their talk is far below 
 that of their parents. They say " you ain't " — " as 
 never was," " drawed " for drawn, and so on. It is 
 no wonder, if this is a photograph of life and they are 
 allowed to talk in this way at home, that school 
 teachers find it impossible to convey to their lower 
 grades a practical knowledge of grammar. It must 
 seem to the ordinary child as dead a tongue as He- 
 brew. It is what we hear daily, what enters into our 
 ordinary existence, that gets hold of us. 
 
 It is essential then, even at the risk of making 
 our child what is called " priggish " in the eyes of his 
 unlettered comrades, to impress upon him the abso- 
 lute necessity of using only pure speech. Let it 
 be simple and unadorned when he is with his crowd ; 
 
THE MOTHER TONGUE 73' 
 
 but at least, not faulty. If he finds it indispensable 
 in play, to bring in a popular slang term, let it be 
 as a superficial tag that can be easily dropped again. 
 The use of correct language does not constitute any 
 restraint upon the life, liberty or happiness of a 
 young person. It is as easy to talk brightly and 
 cheerfully in pure accents and with the use of irre- 
 proachable terms as in the foulest vernacular. Chil- 
 dren, however, seek for strong expressions; simple, 
 concrete words with a tang to them. And this is an 
 indication of the superiority of Saxon words for 
 every-day use. How much better is it, for instance, 
 to teach a child to express the idea of living in a 
 house by the respectable word — full of associations 
 — " dwell " instead of the affected " reside " which 
 I have heard little girls fling out with an air that 
 marked them imitators of some " refined " nurse. 
 Only persons with a real gift for feeling word values 
 can appreciate the difference between the sensations 
 evoked in the untaught child mind by various words 
 that have invisible links with certain thoughts. Yet 
 there are magnetic words ; for instance, to tell a child 
 to " rest," brings with the very suggestion something 
 almost irresistible. He may protest that he is not 
 
74 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 tired ; yet the word " rest " is soothing ; it has a 
 concrete meaning and leads to an action. While the 
 phrase that is so often thoughtlessly dinned into 
 heedless little ears — " be quiet ! " is provocative. 
 It suggests a suppression, an inhibition leading away 
 from desire, and is in the nature of a command con- 
 trary to personal wishes. 
 
 Parents should be ca«reful about using two words 
 that are commonly misplaced and lead to mental con- 
 fusion in the child. They are " look " and " see." 
 Some instinct tells the child that he ought not to be 
 required to see everything he looks at. He may be 
 looking, with all his might 'and yet fail to see the 
 thing that his attention is being drawn to. " I am 
 looking ! " the little one cries out, and becomes ir- 
 ritated at being accused of not attending. Seeing is 
 a mental act, yet not one person in many discrimi- 
 nates between observing a thing with the eye, and 
 perceiving the meaning of it, inwardly. If we are 
 so careless in the separation of ide&s how can we ex- 
 pect to make ourselves intelligible to a child ? It is 
 correct to say, when we wish to direct the little one's 
 attention to an object ; — " Look at that dog, dear. 
 Do you see what a nice expression he has ? " While 
 
THE MOTHEE TONGUE 75 
 
 it would be entirely wide of the mark to ask him 
 to " look " at the dog's amiable face, because the ani- 
 mal's amiability is a quality, not an object, and to be 
 apprehended by the mind alone. If a mother will 
 spend a little time in thinking out the significance 
 of the words most in common use when she is con- 
 versing with her child, and clearly distinguishing 
 between those that denote acts and those that refer 
 to thoughts only, she will avoid some of the worst 
 pit-falls of language, and come to an understanding 
 with her child that may seem to her almost mar- 
 velous. 
 
 Many of the unreasonable requisitions of parents 
 arise through a misapprehension between adult and 
 child about language. I heard my grandfather — a 
 wise lawyer — say many years ago, that most of the 
 cases that came into his hands had their origin in 
 some misunderstanding about " terms of speech." 
 He observed that if once persons could come to a 
 complete understanding as to the meaning of the 
 words they employed most disputes could be avoided. 
 If it is difficult for adults to understand one another, 
 is it not much harder for a child to get the mean- 
 ing of words that come crowding upon him before he 
 
76: THE MOTHEB IN EDUCATION 
 
 has had the experience to discern that there are, 
 shades of meaning between every two ? Children 
 who are ambitious of shining as talkers have funny 
 little experiences. I recollect that I heard a pedanti- 
 cal little comrade use a word that struck me as 
 vastly fine — " repeat," when I was about seven years 
 old, and I sought a fitting occasion to bring it in. 
 So, on trying to state that something I knew was 
 too momentous to be put into words, I observed that 
 I could not " repeat " it. The other girl looked at 
 me with a superior air and commented drily, " You 
 mean you can't express it, don't you ? " And I was 
 struck dumb with admiration, nor ventured to try 
 another original phrase on her for many a long day. 
 How many years ago that was, and it seems like only 
 yesterday! Such indelible impressions do these 
 apparently trivial incidents make on the child 
 mind. 
 
 Parents can aid their children materially, not only 
 by using good English before them but by oc- 
 casionally dropping in their presence a hint about 
 some general grammatical rule so simple that they 
 can themselves apply it. What difference does it 
 make where we get our knowledge, so we get it ? Let 
 
THE MOTHER TONGUE 77 
 
 the rule come out of a story, if possible ; it will make 
 the deeper impression. It was from the habit of 
 " browsing in a library " which Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes said was the best of all kinds of education, 
 that I gleaned many a bit of grammatical lore which 
 no one could have forcibly instilled into a dreaming 
 head. A trivial story impressed a certain fact that 
 text-books might have preached in vain, about af- 
 firmatives and negatives. A poem of Moore told me 
 other things more distinctly than Lindley Murray 
 ever did. A mother who takes the pains to clinch 
 a fact with a tale need never repeat her argument. 
 It is easy in this way to make grammar take root 
 in a child's mind without the use of a text-book, and 
 a wonderful saving of time may be accomplished 
 in school education. 
 
 I have seen this ideal carried out in families where 
 conscientious care is bestowed on the nursery. Mites 
 of three converse as fluently and with as faultless a 
 use of the mother tongue as their seniors by many 
 years. One six-year-old boy expresses philosophical 
 ideas in excellent language. " Prigs ? " By no 
 means. Natural, simple, shy children, entirely un- 
 conscious of their own superiority ; knowing no better 
 
T8 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 than to practise daily the culture belonging of right 
 to their condition. 
 
 We owe it to our children to give them the best 
 we have or can achieve at all times. When the tot 
 with head scarce reaching to our knee asks anxiously, 
 " Is that right ? Why isn't that right ? " we ought to 
 answer as truly as if we were on the witness stand 
 in court. Every fairly educated woman ought to be 
 able to train her children in the correct use of the 
 mother tongue. It is merely a question of inclination 
 on her part. The miserable excuse for not making 
 the effort is usually that children " will learn all 
 that after awhile in school." I wish to make it 
 clear that they will never learn grammar so well in 
 school and after six years as they can learn it at home 
 before six. 
 
 If the Socratic method, the verbal method of im- 
 parting learning, is of any value anywhere, it is of 
 value in teaching languages. Especially in teaching 
 the mother tongue. We need not be forever drilling 
 a child and it is not even necessary to be eternally 
 thinking about instructing him. Example is a great 
 deal. And judgment helps. We should realize that 
 some idiosyncrasies are native to childhood. It is an 
 
THE MOTHER TONGUE 79 
 
 infantile tendency to make all verbs regular and to 
 invent adjectives. The' three-year-old often says 
 " roily " for slippery ; " fally " for unsafe, etc. 
 These inventions ought to be treated indulgently, for 
 they will speedily be out-grown. It is more im- 
 portant to help a child to extend his vocabulary by 
 using new terms in his presence, in a way he can 
 comprehend. 
 
 There is an immense difference between children 
 in the number of words they employ at the same age. 
 Some possess about fifteen hundred words at three 
 years, others less, and others again, two thousand. 
 It is desirable for them to get early as large a vocabu- 
 lary as possible, but this will regulate itself. By the 
 time he is four an intelligent child ought to be able 
 to express most that he thinks and feels without much 
 difficulty. And if he has been well taught he will 
 not have the slightest trouble in transferring his flu- 
 ency to paper as soon as he learns to write. Gram- 
 mar and composition and even the elements of 
 rhetoric will have been insensibly acquired during 
 the first six or eight years and the best possible start 
 made toward a good education. Picture books with 
 verses are very helpful, but the mother should 
 
80 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 choose those that are well written ; that is, by authors 
 who know how to write English. One idea clearly 
 expressed is worth twenty that are put forth in an 
 involved, obscure style. 
 
CHAPTEK VI 
 
 Cultivating- Observation 
 
 " Qualities are not inherent in objects ; they are what we 
 have experienced about these objects. Hence, the different 
 ways people have of seeing things." — McLellan. 
 
 DID you ever hunt a needle in a haystack ? 
 Did you ever go to a world's fair with 
 an immense crowd about you and try to 
 pick out the masterpiece in the Italian gallery of 
 paintings and the choicest bit of ivory carving in 
 the Swiss rooms? Or did you ever try to find a 
 friend on Broadway, who had promised to meet you 
 about three in the afternoon, somewhere between 
 Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets! Then you 
 know what it is to be bewildered and made cross 
 by a whirling succession of impressions and a mass 
 of indistinguishable objects all hurtling against your 
 eyes and ears until you are weary of the world. 
 So the big world seems to a little, little child, 
 
 81 
 
82 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 tagging after its parents, trying to find something 
 small enough to get hold of and understand. So he 
 becomes weary and discouraged in the endeavor to 
 pick out single impressions from those that are 
 thronging on his senses. And how much he needs 
 the aid of his parents' experience ; how absolutely he 
 is at the mercy of their candor and sympathy, and 
 fainting for their practical advice ! How rarely is 
 his need understood and ministered to ! There is 
 scarcely a day that I am not made impatient with 
 the abstraction of mothers who take their children 
 abroad for recreation. Their bored air and listless 
 replies depress youthful spirits and discourage con- 
 versation. They perform unwillingly a disagreeable 
 duty, not realizing that while they are exercising the 
 bodies of their charges they are helping to stultify 
 their minds. By refusing to give intelligent replies 
 to the eager, interested questions of the little crea- 
 tures they are simply throwing the children back upon 
 themselves in a way to confuse their faculties beyond 
 recall. 
 
 Yet apart from the value of a mother's explana- 
 tions to her little one I believe that any one who tries 
 the plan can get real pleasure from watching and 
 
CULTIVATING OBSERVATION 83 
 
 helping on the pretty play of childish observations 
 and ideas. We get richly repaid for our slight 
 trouble in the possession of intelligent, well-informed 
 children whose susceptibility to new impressions is 
 keen yet sane, without that unfortunate nervousness 
 that too often shows itself where a shy nature has 
 to recover from rebuffs and overcome too many un- 
 pleasant obstacles in the satisfaction of its legitimate 
 curiosity. 
 
 Every miscomprehension on the part of an elder 
 is a rebuff, and these are deplorably frequent. We 
 are so kind about drawing to the surface the latent 
 virtues and talents of our friends, and so indifferent 
 to the true meaning of our children's stammering 
 exj^lanations ! Do we seriously question ourselves 
 as to the validity of the impressions our children have 
 gained from us about those numerous matters they 
 have laid before us, trusting our. oracular judgment ? 
 Have we been careful, deliberate and definite 
 in responding to appeals and equally prudent 
 in excluding from their eyes and ears things likely 
 to hurt their mobile minds? Nothing is more cer- 
 tain than that the child who is not guarded from 
 evil and supplied with mental food which is whole- 
 
84 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 some and agreeable will find out for himself some 
 sort of nutriment to feed his insatiate hunger for new 
 impressions. The less he digests the more he seeks, 
 like a dyspeptic who swallows masses of food and 
 assimilates nothing. The child who wearies quickly 
 of everything, who longs for excitement constantly 
 renewed, who glances at this and that and cares for 
 nothing, — this is the child who has not been trained 
 to observe anything well, whose eyes wander, whose 
 ears are dull, whose faculties are not awakened to 
 the details of any phase of life, but who simply 
 thinks of everything as a great moving picture show, 
 which he can look at without making any effort to 
 comprehend. 
 
 The first feeling that lifts a human being above 
 the level of the brutes is wonder. Animals are 
 capable of astonishment only; not of awe and ad- 
 miration. The higher we go in the scale of hu- 
 manity the more completely developed we find a 
 feeling which is the beginning of religious and moral 
 ideas, as it is the life of the intellect. Dull and 
 ignorant people have a little of it but in a passive 
 way. They see a thing which is out of the range of 
 their experience, and they recognize, with something 
 
CULTIVATING OBSERVATION 85 
 
 like envious surprise, that it is above their compre- 
 hension. In those southern countries where railroads 
 are still unfamiliar the young darkies will sometimes 
 stand for hours, gazing with vague, dumb astonish- 
 ment at a steam threshing machine, affrighted at its 
 noisy whistle, and ready to flee at the first sign of 
 malignity on the part of the supposed demon. Their 
 wonder is a poor, meager sentiment. They stand 
 like animals, simply stultified. 
 
 But with what tremors a child of cultured parents 
 views new machines! Here is something to investi- 
 gate, to trace to its source. He is charmed at find- 
 ing something not quite simple and which he must 
 labor to understand. The working of the shining 
 wheels and pistons, the dilating, life-like action of 
 the splendid thing enchains his imagination and he 
 could study it forever. It is disappointing to be 
 allowed only a superficial view of what is so full of 
 delightful mystery; to be torn away with his curi- 
 osity only half satisfied, and cut off with a perfunc- 
 tory history of the wonder that has attracted all his 
 admiration. I think the best person to show a child 
 the machinery hall in a museum is a youthful grand- 
 father. He is able to re-live his childish sensations 
 
86 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 and sympathize with the excitement a child feels at 
 sight of wondrous novelties as a jaded father or 
 mother cannot! And then, the grandfather has 
 plenty of time; parents only a limited amount. It 
 must be admitted that to satisfy a child time is 
 necessary. 
 
 The manner in which a child views a great, mag- 
 nificent piece of machinery in action indicates the 
 measure of his general intelligence. The dull child 
 will exhibit merely fright; the born mechanician or 
 the originating, progressive mind is filled with ad- 
 miration, and feels itself stimulated to emulation, in- 
 spired to new flights. Such a child goes home filled 
 with the desire to undertake enterprises of his own; 
 he too, wants to propel boats, drive the great factory 
 wheel, manage the engine, and put in operation that 
 force which seems to him the embodiment of all 
 poetry. In a word, he would become a navigator, 
 an engineer, just as earlier, attracted through lower 
 appetites, he longed to keep a candy shop or sell soda 
 water. 
 
 It is customary to take no account of these fleet- 
 ing and shallow desires which children from time to 
 time betray to us ; but trivial as they seem they may 
 
CULTIVATING OBSERVATION 87 
 
 influence their whole lives. There is no possibility 
 of estimating the effect of a single impression npon 
 the mind of a mere infant. Memory treasures up 
 the most absurd incidents in our past life and neg- 
 lects to register events that we consider of supreme 
 importance. Nor do we know why. We cannot in 
 any way determine what particular impression is to 
 become permanent or what one will fade away. Re- 
 calling our past, we are often vexed to find some 
 trifling incident recur again and again, that we would 
 fain put away, while about the great and stirring 
 occurrence which we are eager to recollect in detail 
 we have the vaguest idea. And it is the little things 
 that return often that influence us most and finally 
 come to have a strong hold on our natures. The 
 ridiculous experiences of which a child's memory is 
 built up ! I remember now with mortification, that 
 for many years a queer old superstition about poison 
 being located in the first finger of the left hand 
 brought me to the habit of avoiding the use of that 
 finger. I would not touch my face with it, because 
 a garrulous neighbor who was in the way of being a 
 favorite with me, once said emphatically — " All the 
 poison in your body is in that first finger ! " I told 
 
88 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 nobody about it but believed the story and recollected 
 it. It is strange but true that the trifling likings and 
 dislikes of our childhood grow into the tastes 
 and prejudices of maturity. Consequently, what 
 a child thinks and prefers is important. He is 
 the master of his own fate, through the very infan- 
 tile preferences of which we so seldom take ac- 
 count. 
 
 Children often seemed to be whirled about like 
 leaves in a high wind, silly in their changeableness. 
 They want one thing to-day and something else to- 
 morrow and there appears to be no reason to 
 suppose that one of their aims or ambitions is of 
 more consequence than another. Nevertheless, there 
 is some little betrayal of character through these 
 flippancies. A certain note sounds once and again 
 as a single strain of melody creeps through the be- 
 wildering crash of Wagner's music. Happy that 
 mother who is gifted with such insight that she can 
 follow this slender thread of personality through the 
 inconsistencies of her child's ideas ! There is always 
 a key-note, a persistent fancy or taste, and if that is 
 wisely laid hold of it becomes the guide to a perfect 
 education of his faculties. The persistent taste will 
 
CULTIVATING OBSERVATION 89 
 
 inevitably give the cast to character, and the stronger 
 it is the more valuable will be the character. 
 
 The strongest impression of all our lives makes or 
 mars us. What brutal men have grown up through 
 a hatred contracted in tender years! What heroes 
 have developed out of a reward wisely bestowed, 
 what numbers of men and women can look back to 
 some episode in their earlier years that changed the 
 current of all their lives for the better or the worse ! 
 A book I am fond of re-reading is one of Cherbuliez' 
 volumes, " Jean Teterolle." There a boy is thrashed 
 unjustly by a baron who employs him to trim his 
 trees, and goes out into the world with the one idea 
 of some day returning to that estate and buying it 
 for himself, and so lording it over the man who has 
 insulted him. And by toiling early and late, by 
 making use of every chance to rise and accumulate 
 money, he does fulfil his vow ; and lives to buy in the 
 mortgaged estate and triumph over the baron's son. 
 Jean is not an ill character, but so rugged and rough 
 that the effect of that injustice so deeply felt, is 
 manifest through all his after career. A single blow 
 from a baron's stick changed an entire life. And it 
 is true to nature. People seldom choose their careers 
 
90 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 in accordance with their natural abilities; they are 
 swept into the current of circumstances by some 
 fortuitous event. But those who do choose, who 
 pursue the careers they are best fitted for have that 
 happiness which is better than riches; the joy of 
 work in the occupations they love. 
 
 Wise guardians who have power over circumstances 
 as well as sagacity, continually open up to children 
 fresh sources of knowledge, so that after becoming 
 acquainted with many different kinds of action they 
 may be sure of finding what makes a genuine appeal 
 to their natures. It is unfortunate when a definite, 
 decisive choice about a career is made prematurely. 
 Eor the taste sticks. Children readily become nar- 
 row in their views. They form attachments on slight 
 grounds, and the fewer attachments one has the more 
 bigoted he grows. 
 
 I would expand the child's mind by showing him 
 from time to time scenes from all sides of life. Take 
 him to-day to studios and let him see how pictures 
 are made; next week to silk factories, to learn the 
 poetry of labor, and afterward to a brick-yard and 
 iron foundry, not forgetting the claims of churches 
 and great monuments upon an elevating education. 
 
CULTIVATING OBSERVATION 91 
 
 The alternation of country and town life is a delight- 
 ful stimulant, and each season has its appropriate les- 
 son. Actual experience is worth a world of book lore. 
 It is not particularly interesting to a child to read in 
 his history that he should be grateful to all those who 
 supply him with the comforts of his daily life ; to the 
 farmer, the baker, the manufacturer, the builder. 
 But when he sees how grain grows and is converted 
 into flour, how furniture is wrought from blocks of 
 wood, and threads woven into cloth, the whole his- 
 tory of the objects about him is revealed. The dif- 
 ferent parts of life become connected and he gets a 
 sense of the thread of harmony that runs through all. 
 We debate about how early a child's education 
 should begin; whether telling him the truth about 
 flowers and stones and the stars is not " crowding 
 his mind " at the age of three or four. But the time 
 to make the earth interesting to him is that instant, 
 be it early or later, that he begins to find the earth 
 interesting. My little girl, at four, began to show the 
 liveliest interest in the sky, and besought her father 
 to talk about it with her. As he was an accom- 
 plished astronomer, he told her some simple little 
 tales that stimulated her curiosity so much that each 
 
92 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 night, as soon as the darkness settled down, she would 
 run for her little coat and hat and beseech him to take 
 her up to the roof to " study the stars." Such a 
 happy occupation could not possibly militate against 
 the health of any child; what the little one is so 
 drawn toward is an indication that the study should 
 be entered upon ; even at the most tender age. 
 
 There is not half so much danger as we apprehend 
 that we will make our offspring too clever ! So long 
 as the little one seeks knowledge he is in a safe way. 
 It is when he believes himself competent to impart 
 it that we may begin to be uneasy! And the best 
 way to keep our ambitious modern children level- 
 headed is to permit them early — very early — the 
 companionship of cultivated persons whom they must 
 recognize as their superiors. American parents are 
 among the best in the world in some respects. But 
 in respect to surrounding their children from the 
 very first with elevating influences, they might take 
 a hint from Philip, King of Macedon, who said 
 to the wise Aristotle, " I wish my son to be saved 
 from making the mistakes I have made, and com- 
 mitting the follies I have committed." 
 
 In every child is the germ of every talent, every 
 
CULTIVATING OBSEKVATION 93 
 
 power. Why do some develop genius, others mania, 
 and others grow to be normal beings? Are there 
 other influences to be reckoned with, beside heredity 
 and education % There must be reasons for the varia- 
 tions from the average that constantly take place, and 
 also, for the peculiarities persons exhibit unwillingly 
 and unconsciously. All of us are moved at times to 
 acts we had not contemplated, and do things out of 
 our plans because we " cannot help it." What gov- 
 erns us ? 
 
 There is a fate in habit; not only in our own 
 habits, from which we depart daily, but in the habits 
 of our forefathers. Without knowing why, we are 
 constantly reverting to some way of doing things 
 that an ancestor practised; and so the pendulum of 
 progress swings backward again, and the world only 
 seems to go forward in the whirl of living. It is a 
 peculiar thing that although the intellect advances, 
 that part of us that governs tastes and preferences 
 changes very little. People of advanced ideas some- 
 times have the most primitive tastes. The most intel- 
 lectual man is drawn to an unlettered companion ; the 
 most highly cultured woman likes to " steal awhile 
 away " from all her up-lifting pursuits and become 
 
94 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 a barbarian again, on a camping-out tour in the hills. 
 But if we take the pains to trace out the ivhy of these 
 eccentric longings for the simpler life, we may often 
 find their source in some early influence. If there is 
 a fate in inheritance there is, also, a fate in the sur- 
 roundings of our childhood — in climate, the views 
 near home, all the sights and sounds that nourished 
 our senses in infancy. And especially do the recol- 
 lections of people who were pleasant to us in those 
 old days govern our sympathies. This woman is liked 
 because she reminds us of our first heroine ; the person 
 whom we looked up to with infantile awe. This man 
 seems familiar and agreeable, for we knew his proto- 
 type when we had not achieved a dozen years, and 
 built ourselves upon the model of his attractions. The 
 things we were habituated to in early childhood all aid 
 in forming our tastes. We rarely rise much higher 
 than the best suggestion made to us then. Even 
 though other ways may afterwards be chosen, there 
 remains at the root of the character some ineradicable 
 preference. The old person who has lived in a for- 
 eign land very contentedly, longs to return to his 
 native land to die. The world-worn man who has 
 achieved success, feels some day the over-mastering 
 
CULTIVATING OBSERVATION 95 
 
 impulse to go " back to the old home " and be sur- 
 rounded once more with all the simple things he loved 
 as a boy. Do our early preferences then, ever pass 
 away ? 
 
 I believe that what is called individuality comes 
 about largely through the action of environment upon 
 natural susceptibilities. There is a force in circum- 
 stances that nobody can resist ; it exerts an influence 
 along the line of least resistance in the character. 
 No one is absolutely callous to his surroundings, but 
 sensitive natures are wonderfully under their influ- 
 ence. Let us not say that the shrinkings or prefer- 
 ences of young children are causeless whimsies. It 
 is a certain indication of a strong, positive nature 
 when a taste that has been persistently discouraged 
 to-day crops out again to-morrow. Observe and re- 
 spect such manifestations in a child. 
 
 A mother should distinguish between fear and aver- 
 sion in her child. The one may be simply momen- 
 tary fright, and be reasoned away ; but the other pro- 
 ceeds from some innate distaste that it may not be 
 wise to attempt to conquer. Sensitiveness to im- 
 pressions is a talent; do not try to dull susceptibili- 
 ties that may be a splendid educative force. The 
 
96 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION" 
 
 capacity to take a great deal of pleasure from a 
 beautiful environment, or be annoyed by some ugly 
 feature of tbe landscape sbows tbat the nature is 
 artistic. There is a morality in landscapes tbat may 
 awaken in us dispositions toward evil or good. Haw- 
 thorne, himself the most susceptible of mortals, bore 
 testimony to the shaping hand of destiny through 
 environment in his story of " The Great Stone Eace." 
 Ideal as it is, the incident is not impossible. We 
 grow to resemble even outwardly, what we love ; and 
 alas ! by some terrible fascination we come to resemble 
 what we hate if we are forced into daily contact with 
 it. Through the very antagonism it excites in us un- 
 lovely feelings are aroused. 
 
 The preferences and prejudices of childhood are 
 strong and intense because the young person is more 
 emotional than intellectual. His tastes grow out of 
 his loves and hates; not out of deliberate choice of 
 what is good over what is evil. And his early tastes 
 are to govern him all his life. 
 
 Now, how is it possible to guide our child wisely, 
 toward what is estimable, and away from that which 
 makes for ill ? I think there is but one way : to edu- 
 cate him in the faculty of discrimination. If we 
 
CULTIVATING OBSERVATION 97 
 
 continually choose for a child what he is to like and 
 what he is to do, he becomes a mere tool in onr hands, 
 his natural inclinations covered and all the power in 
 him for good or ill merely dormant, to break forth 
 unexpectedly, perhaps to his undoing, when he is 
 thrown on his own resources. 
 
 But the child who is trained early in life to see 
 things as they are becomes " as a god, knowing good 
 and evil." The capacity to see was considered by 
 Buskin as the most important faculty there is. And 
 he also pronounced it the rarest. Most people go 
 through the world in entire disregard of details ; they 
 " did not notice " what they passed by, because their 
 senses were heedless. They are incapable of forming 
 a judgment of certain events because they gained only 
 a cursory view of its most prominent features. If 
 they travel they look at rivers and mountains without 
 curiosity and admire or deprecate by rote, following 
 their guide-book. Half the beauties of the world are 
 a closed book to them because the capacity of appre- 
 ciation has never been developed, and they remain to 
 the end of their days like children whose eyes and 
 ears are defective. 
 
 Nothing more clearly shows a trained mind than 
 
98 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 the ability to make a swift, unerring choice of valu- 
 able things out of a mass of worthless ones. But it 
 is a capacity demanding long and earnest cultivation 
 before it reaches perfection. The training of it must 
 be begun very early ; even in infancy. Since all liv- 
 ing is merely an instinctive repetition of a once 
 learned act of estimating values, the earlier the 
 power to make such an estimation can be established 
 the sooner the person will be of use to himself. " I 
 guess you'll never buy wooden nutmegs/' contentedly 
 said a proud grandfather to a little girl whose nice 
 instinct had decided that a certain young man was 
 not a gentleman. " That child will make a lawyer 
 some day/' observed a judge of a small boy who saw 
 through some artful tangle of words that had been 
 strung out to puzzle him. Shrewdness in the young 
 always tickles the fancy of guardians, and they praise 
 the wit of children who are not to be beguiled. But 
 how merciless they are toward those not so happily 
 gifted by nature! Yet with some pains almost all 
 children could become quick of perception. They 
 must be taught to observe details, and not pass by 
 everything with a superficial look. 
 
 " Which one of us will see the larger number of 
 
CULTIVATING OBSEKVATION 99 
 
 different things on tins walk ? " the wise mother will 
 ask, on starting out on the country ramble. And the 
 child thus stimulated will in all probability soon be- 
 come expert enough to rival herself in his descrip- 
 tions. Merely answering questions, without leading 
 up to a knowledge of the whys and wherefores, is of 
 little use. All questions should receive considera- 
 tion, but many of them may be dismissed with a 
 word, while others require exhaustive analysis. A 
 very good plan is to stimulate the child with some 
 little reward to accumulate as many facts as he can 
 about what he happens to be interested in at the time. 
 Let his aroused curiosity be the guide for the exer- 
 cise. It matters little what the thing is he studies, 
 so he studies it thoroughly. Of all things thorough- 
 ness is the one most important. Montaigne believed 
 that the object of education was to fill a boy or girl 
 " with an honest curiosity for information about 
 everything." We are at last coming to understand 
 that any kind of knowledge that the child cares noth- 
 ing about and that he acquires against his will is of 
 comparatively small profit to him. The great success 
 in teaching is to stimulate in the pupil a wish to learn. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 Imagination Plays 
 
 " There is abundant evidence that the visualizing faculty- 
 admits of being largely developed by education." — Galton. 
 
 THE remark quoted above is to be received 
 with a good deal of qualification. The best 
 education that can be afforded the faculty 
 of constructing mental images,- — and upon this fac- 
 ulty depends much more of our practical power than 
 is generally known — is that of self -training. There 
 is danger of a teacher meddling too much rather than 
 giving too little help in this direction. In the ear- 
 lier years a child should be left a great deal to his 
 own untrammeled efforts in the way of building up 
 out of his memories certain new combinations that 
 take the form with him of fanciful plays. Having 
 been taught to observe closely, and to recall easily the 
 details of what he has seen, he may be left alone, in 
 great measure, to work out those ideas which are 
 
 100 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 101 
 
 insistent and stimulating in the healthy young mind. 
 A kindergarten training is an excellent beginning for 
 the after home education, especially as it accustoms 
 the child very early to ideas of community life. 
 But when he is withdrawn from kindergarten and 
 the mother seriously takes his home education in her 
 own hands, she may safely leave him alone to ponder 
 over the things he has learned about plays with his 
 kindergarten teacher, and watch how he reconstructs, 
 out of old material, new pastimes that mean important 
 things to him. 
 
 It has been ascertained that language is not neces- 
 sary to thinking; that much of our thinking goes on 
 without the aid of words, the brain acting sub-con- 
 sciously, using some material less concrete than lan- 
 guage as we know it. A kind of language there must 
 be, but we do not yet know in what it consists. The 
 little child reasons, imagines, and even argues with 
 himself, in a sort of dumb show, before he has ac- 
 quired a vocabulary. His acts indicate that certain 
 mental processes have preceded them that he would be 
 puzzled to explain. When long chains of thinking are 
 carried on doubtless words are necessary. I recollect 
 a period in my childhood when I always whispered to 
 
102 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 myself a correlating narrative with what I was doing. 
 The sound of the words in my own ear seemed to be 
 an essential to the pleasure of the actions being car- 
 ried on. The little dramatic plays enacted with 
 paper dolls thus had a kind of vocal accompaniment 
 that made the plays much more real to me. But ob- 
 servation of other children has led me to suppose that 
 few children converse with themselves during their 
 actual playing. The mere acting out of their fancies 
 is sufficient. People differ a good deal in respect to 
 attachment to words; some being able to act even in 
 important things, in a kind of dumb show, while those 
 who possess natural fluency feel a running commen- 
 tary in their minds about what they see and partici- 
 pate in. But every normally constituted child is 
 capable of some sort of constructive activity in the 
 way of making up plays ; and in this manner he gets 
 a valuable kind of self-training. 
 
 An active, healthy imagination is one of the hap- 
 piest gifts a child can possess. If we watch an in- 
 telligent child of four or iive years, who believes him- 
 self unnoticed, we will probably be astonished at the 
 richness and fertility of fancy which can give life and 
 color to dull, commonplace things, and weave whole 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 103 
 
 stories and dramas around the simple toy that means 
 nothing more to us than what it plainly stands for. 
 But we will perceive that even his wildest romances 
 found themselves upon facts, for free and frolicsome 
 as imagination may appear it is subject to its laws. 
 It deals with real things in a playful way ; it embroid- 
 ers, paints, molds, but it must have its materials ; its 
 basis is actual life. What we call creative ability is 
 really nothing but the power to reconstruct, perhaps 
 to connect several plans or patterns into a whole which 
 seems different from the original. 
 
 The child is an irresponsible artist who daubs 
 on his color boldly, without much sense of the ab- 
 surdities he commits, and so he often produces effects 
 that surprise others as well as himself. Many of the 
 acts that seem so precocious because we suppose them 
 to be the outcome of a well-considered plan are really 
 happy accidents; not devoid of the merit of origi- 
 nality, but neither to be over-praised as works of gen- 
 ius. Childhood is one unbroken series of experiment- 
 ings, and if significant results are frequent it is be- 
 cause so many different things are attempted. The 
 child who is so fortunate as to be left to Nature for 
 the first dozen years of his life, and not forced out 
 
104= THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 of his normal development by wrong training, while 
 getting such education as he puts forth voluntary 
 efforts for, has the best chance of acquiring rich- 
 ness of fancy and power of accurate visualization. 
 His ideas are not then distorted by the endeavor to 
 make them conform to standards that are often arti- 
 ficial. If he has at hand a cultured friend to answer 
 his questions and opportunities to gain every sort of 
 knowledge he needs from actual experience his de- 
 velopment will probably be so far in advance of that 
 of ordinary children that he will pass for a genius 
 among them. The majority of children are made 
 dull, especially in respect to the higher faculties, by 
 the zeal of their educators. 
 
 Over-training and undue restraints cripple the nat- 
 ural grace of the imagination, although, on the other 
 hand, proper education aids its development. The 
 very best is a wide experience. The little one who 
 has the felicity to associate with people of broad cul- 
 ture, who is taken about, on proper occasions, and 
 hears and sees many new things, becomes enriched and 
 self-confident, while the children of the very poor, 
 who know almost no variety in a squalid existence, 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 105 
 
 must use over and over again in their plays, the lim- 
 ited knowledge belonging to them. 
 
 The mental limitations of the average school child 
 are not sufficiently considered. The other day I hap- 
 pened to pass a recreation ground belonging to a 
 large public school, where a troup of kindergarten 
 children were going through a game that should be 
 accompanied by music. The circle consisted of chil- 
 dren far above the average in looks, evidently belong- 
 ing to the class that has the privileges of opportunity. 
 But the listlessness, the dulness and lack of interest 
 apparent through the little circle showed the perfunc- 
 tory nature of this educative game ; the teacher herself 
 looked bored to extinction, and not a single child 
 showed any of the liveliness that one would suppose 
 natural to the occasion. It was merely a drill; as are 
 most of such exercises in public schools; and must 
 have left the effect of penalty rather than of pleasure 
 on the participants in it. Systematized plays have 
 this disadvantage ; that they require unusual tact, ex- 
 perience and originality in the leader or teacher. It 
 is far better for the child to be left free to work out 
 its instinctive ideas of frolic unaided than that he 
 
106 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 should be fettered in the free exercise of his fancy by 
 the obligation of drill. If these plays have a subtle 
 meaning, if they are really work then why not call 
 them work % A natural child is not averse to work ; 
 I think that honest effort is by no means repugnant to 
 him, but he does resent being beguiled into calling 
 work play, and having his amusements made so tame 
 that they might as well be left out, for all the pleasure 
 he takes in them. 
 
 It is instructive to observe the difference between 
 the child who has been gently trained and the one who 
 has been over-restrained in plays with dolls. The 
 one is all tenderness and solicitude, the other harsh 
 and hard in her imaginary maternity. She knocks 
 her senseless infant about in a way that bodes ill for 
 her future real offspring, since the little girl is mother 
 to the woman, and the spontaneous acts of childhood 
 forecast what independent life will become. 
 
 Yet poverty and wealth are of themselves power- 
 less to curb the imaginative faculties. One may be 
 surrounded by the most beautiful objects and have 
 everything to gratify the taste and fancy, yet remain 
 unbenefited by these means of education. Many 
 children being reared in luxurious homes are listless 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 107 
 
 and indifferent instead of being bright and interested 
 in their surroundings, because the one vital spark es- 
 sential to the quickening of their whole natures is 
 denied them. They have no companion who is ca- 
 pable of uplifting them. Their intimate companions 
 are ignorant nurses, who deal in suppression instead 
 of suggestion. No wonder that the dear little child 
 seated in the corner of its beautiful nursery, with 
 this censor and hard critic of the ideal ever present, 
 feels no inspiration to create a wonder-working world 
 out of its abundant material. If the divine fire kin- 
 dles in its heart it shyly stifles betraying signs, and 
 whispers to itself the fancies and ideas that would in- 
 evitably be ridiculed if revealed. 
 
 Happy that little one who, even with a poor home, 
 has a sympathetic, companionable mother; who is 
 patient with his whimsies, and helpful in carrying 
 out the perpetual little plans and wishes that are 
 suggested to him by his observation of what is going 
 on about him. 
 
 In everything concerning the welfare of the child 
 we must go back to the mother. She not only endows 
 the child with her own emotional nature but she makes 
 the home atmosphere in which what is best in him 
 
108 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 will wither or come to perfection. With the right 
 home atmosphere and a loving mother the natural at- 
 titude of the child is that of spontaneous, continual 
 activity, mental as well as physical. His mind re- 
 ceives and stores up an incredible number of impres- 
 sions every day, and as he lives out in his plays what 
 he perceives, his education is gained as rapidly as un- 
 consciously, upon the firm and rational basis of ex- 
 perimenting. 
 
 Now the direction of his experimentings will pro- 
 ceed from the kind of life led about him. If his 
 parents happen to be interested in commercial pursuits 
 and a boy hears frequent talk about " stock markets," 
 banks, or marketable goods, in all probability his plays 
 will take the trend toward commerce. He will " play 
 store " and learn to calculate and bargain. Thoughts 
 about merchandize are his counters and he makes up 
 games to suit. This is not saying that his tastes will 
 ultimately be colored by his childish plays, but merely 
 that his self-training will be so colored. Erom too 
 much familiarity he may even weary of what en- 
 grosses him so early, yet some residuum may remain 
 to influence him in some way, in maturity. The 
 artist's child takes as naturally to the tracing of his 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 109 
 
 fancies on paper as the acrobat's offspring to originat- 
 ing new modes of tumbling; the little one who has 
 been taken often to the theater goes off privately to 
 rehearse some imaginary drama that has been ingen- 
 iously designed from bits of remembered scenes. 
 
 Once I discovered a child of a friend with whom 
 I was stopping, sobbing and going on in a sort of happy 
 hysterical frenzy, all by herself in the attic. Tact- 
 fully questioned she confessed to carrying on there a 
 sort of emotional performance, pieced ont from her 
 little experiences at shows, and once embarked she 
 eagerly went through for my benefit a miniature 
 tragedy that was not without interest and climax. 
 Talent for acting had shown itself in several members 
 of this family, and the child in question went through 
 in her 'teens, that craze for the stage which attacks 
 many bright and versatile girls. However, she out- 
 lived it and became a most practical housewife after 
 an early marriage. 
 
 In the household of an editorial friend a tot of four 
 was found privately accumulating stacks of paper and 
 big envelopes, which she frankly stated were " manu- 
 sc'its " she was going to take to a publisher. " I'm 
 going to write a book and sell it and then write an- 
 
110 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 other book, and the publisher will say, — Mis' 
 Ketcham, we want as many books as you can write, 
 — and I'll write him a lib'ry full of them ! " It may 
 not be amiss to say that this little one also, outgrew 
 the spell of propinquity, and took to other occupations 
 when she grew up. 
 
 The delicate tyranny of the higher faculties is, how- 
 ever, as nothing in comparison with the craving of 
 deprived bodily functions. The child of poor parents 
 who is necessarily stinted in luxuries, is impelled to 
 enjoy in plays the fleshly delights he sees from afar 
 and envies. Nothing charms a meager little child 
 whose daily food is of the commonest quality, than 
 to depict to herself, as well as she can, a splendid 
 mansion where servants constantly minister to the 
 palate. Barmecide feasts they are, that make the 
 poor infant's mouth water and her starved appetite to 
 grow beyond bounds. But for the time being her vi- 
 sions take her out of the suffering present into a fairy- 
 land of pleasure. It is the best thing she knows. 
 
 Dickens, the child-lover, never showed a more acute 
 knowledge of the action of the infant mind than when 
 he told how the " marshioness " buried in her dark 
 cellar, kept herself alive by " making believe." The 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 111 
 
 delicious punch made from bits of orange peel com- 
 forted a soul that longed for luxuries as well as a 
 thirsty body that must drink even wash to keep itself 
 from painful sensations. Sometimes the sole allevia- 
 tion to unpleasant circumstances, when he is misun- 
 derstood and under-rated, is a little one's power to 
 imagine himself in happier surroundings. A too ac- 
 tive imagination is not always a desirable faculty; 
 but the best off-set to it is the cheerful companionship 
 of nice children. An introspective little one would 
 best not be left too much alone. But we must re- 
 member that sensitiveness goes with imagination and 
 that a child ought not to be laughed at nor be sub- 
 jected to the society of those who will be rough with 
 his fancies and "make-believes." What are adult 
 ambitions but an extension of these " make-believes " 
 of childhood ! 
 
 If the child is to get all the benefits that come from 
 an unfettered use of the imagination grown people 
 must refrain from teaching him too early. Eefrain 
 that is, from imposing upon him their own cut-and- 
 dried formulas. Their part is merely to suggest, his 
 own to carry out. 
 
 Suggestions are indispensable. They are the 
 
112 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 torches that light up his path, the stones from which 
 he constructs his temple. Suggestions may be con- 
 veyed in song, in conversation, in story ; but they are 
 most effectually conveyed in example. The little one 
 who lives with his parents and sees mingled with their 
 daily commonplace acts something of higher thought 
 and feeling, will quickly seize that invisible charm 
 and become imbued with its spirit. Even in his most 
 trifling acts you will find larger motives than ever stir 
 the child whose moral nature is only subject to the 
 development of an intentional discipline. When he 
 builds houses or cars or ships they will not be only 
 for himself, but for those he loves ; his pleasure will 
 consist to some extent in doing things for others. 
 
 I know this from personal experience. I have seen 
 in one family a tot of three years who is perpetually 
 engaged in some occupation that involves the happi- 
 ness of her entire family. She is by no means spirit- 
 uelle, but a healthy, happy, romping little creature 
 whose experiments with things might be called " mis- 
 chief " by uncomprehending people. Yet they mean 
 much to her, and her friends, who love her well, and 
 watch her with interest, tread softly amongst the as- 
 tonishing disorder she makes, lest they should over- 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 113 
 
 turn some arrangement that is beautiful and harmo- 
 nious in her eyes. As she is perfectly unrestrained 
 and confidential with every one, she explains her 
 plans and acts as she goes on. This pile of dominoes 
 that obstruct the doorway is a cake she is " baking 
 for papa " ; this piece of paper on a chair is a pattern 
 by which she intends to cut mamma a dress ; and the 
 books surrounding her piano turn into a horse and 
 carriage, in which she is about to take the entire 
 family for a drive ! 
 
 It is unusual for games which come strictly under 
 the head of " imagination plays " to be engaged in be- 
 fore a child is four or five years of age. But in 
 families where children are the frequent companions 
 of grown people their strong propensity for imita- 
 tion will often lead to an earlier ripening of their 
 dramatic powers. Nor is it undesirable that this 
 should be so. Play is the natural outlet for a child's 
 thoughts, and dramatic plays are the earliest develop- 
 ment of a man's natural ideas. To restrain these 
 movements is to drive back the child's living fancies 
 into the recesses of his mind, and bring about con- 
 fusion and unhappiness. Some children who are 
 forced to be still and passive when they are longing 
 
114 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 to have relief in action, find outlet in whispering over 
 stories to themselves ; but it is an unsatisfactory sub- 
 stitute for dramatic action. And it is also, morally 
 injurious, for the necessity of concealing one's ideas 
 presently destroys the ability for fluent expression 
 and brings about timidity and distrust of our friends. 
 
 The natural instinct of a child is to draw his fam- 
 ily into his plays, and until he is rebuffed and thrown 
 back upon himself he greatly prefers companionship to 
 solitude. Development takes place in the right way 
 when a young child thinks, talks and acts, all at the 
 same time. It is then, highly beneficial to him to 
 feel perfect freedom when he plays, and to go to the 
 limit of his impulses, in order to experience the 
 proper reaction. 
 
 In a healthy, happy child the impulse for play will 
 come whenever play is the appropriate outlet for his 
 energy. The ideal of life is that desire should al- 
 ways precede action. Among unspoiled children it 
 does. Little is gained by urging a child " to go and 
 play." The suggestion may relieve us of a temporary 
 burden in the matter of entertaining him, but like 
 all temporary reliefs it entails future trouble. If our 
 little one leaves his toys and sidles up against his 
 
IMAGINATION PLAYS 115 
 
 mother in that fretful way which is so trying, he ought 
 not to be repulsed. It means that his own small re- 
 sources are exhausted, and that he needs a change of 
 scene, a new fund of ideas or else the refreshment 
 of rest and soothing from mother-love and patience. 
 Periods of dulness and depression come to us all; 
 but they should rarely come to a child. Nature is 
 his proper guide, and herein is the advantage of the 
 home nursery over which a wise mother presides, over 
 any educational institution. She will let the child 
 choose his own plays and carry out his own little 
 plans, aiding and advising but not interfering. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Nature Studies 
 
 " True wisdom is only an interpretation of nature. In 
 nature is found all primary ideas, the principles upon 
 which all knowledge depends, and the models for all the 
 arts." — Marced. 
 
 I HOPE this chapter heading does not instantly 
 conjure up before the mother a vision of tire- 
 some botany lessons. It is a peculiar fact that 
 genuine love of Nature is rare among women, while 
 there is in almost every one of them a warm and deep 
 sentiment for the beautiful in art. Perhaps it is be- 
 cause their initiation into the fields of science is as yet 
 a novel thing, and they look upon acquaintance with 
 science, even in the simpler forms, as task-work. But 
 Nature is simply reality ; that which is about us from 
 the first to the last moment of life, and the mind 
 which contemplates a single fluttering leaf with an 
 eye to its qualities approaches her inscrutable enigmas. 
 
 Agassiz said modestly, that in a whole life-time of 
 
 116 
 
NATURE STUDIES 117 
 
 study he had only found out one fact; that one re- 
 lating to the correspondence between the succession 
 of fishes in geological time and the different stages of 
 their growth in the egg. This was all. But it was a 
 mighty fact. And what a happy, fruitful life he 
 passed! Nothing to him were all the frets of hur- 
 rying civilization, all the envyings, the emulations, 
 the worries of man's ambitious struggle ; he was with- 
 drawn from them through an absorption in the eternal 
 verities. And he lived to be very old. 
 
 That shrewd observer, Samuel Smiles, notes the 
 fact that natural history studies have a peculiarly 
 calming effect on the mind. Naturalists usually live 
 to a great age and are remarkable for their insensibil- 
 ity to the ordinary tribulations and trials of life. We 
 may deduce thence a good lesson for our children: 
 wean them from pettiness by turning their attention 
 to interesting natural objects. If they are scolding 
 the rain that breaks up some plan, show them the 
 beauty of a rain-drop, poised on a blade of grass on 
 the plot beneath the window. If they shrink from 
 a horned caterpillar, make them look at it closely 
 enough to see the singular tips, the curious colors, 
 the remarkable flexibility of its waving appendages. 
 
118 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 If after a little scrutiny the timid child boldly takes 
 the thing in his fingers, try to conceal your own aver- 
 sion, if you have one, and be as diplomatic in your ad- 
 miration as you would be with a friend who told a 
 doubtful story at your dinner table. We all have to 
 " smile and smile and be a villain still " when it 
 comes to hiding natural sentiments on occasion. 
 
 I acknowledge that instinctively I have an aversion 
 to all creeping things. My spontaneous interest in 
 biology begins with the four-footed beast. But when 
 it was necessary, in view of the welfare of children 
 that I should have a lively and absorbing interest in 
 " bugs " I cultivated one. However, at this epoch, I 
 found it a wise policy to accept the suggestion of a 
 broad-minded educator who said that often there is 
 some one near at hand who knows thoroughly the 
 subject it is now desirable for the child to learn, while 
 even our most earnest efforts can only make us medi- 
 ocre teachers in it ; so we should call upon the natural 
 teacher to help us out. 
 
 When in the course of events it became necessary 
 to have at hand an enthusiastic naturalist to help 
 along the education of my children, I looked about 
 and found a young girl who possessed a genuine love 
 
NATURE STUDIES 119 
 
 for entomology and considerable knowledge of the 
 subject. She was engaged to come to the house sev- 
 eral times each week and " play with grubs and 
 things " as they termed it, while I prudently kept to 
 my own affairs. Yet it was essential that I partici- 
 pate to some extent in the plays, in her absence, and 
 a little tragedy arose from my conscientious perform- 
 ance of the duty. A cocoon had been imported by 
 the young teacher, to be kept until the grub should 
 eat his way to the light. A charming butterfly was 
 to then appear upon the scene. I was besieged with 
 enquiries as to the progress of this transformation, 
 and the children showed something of the spirit of 
 the amateur gardener who digs up his seeds to find 
 out if they are sprouting; they must continually in- 
 vestigate the cocoon. Whether these zealous efforts 
 interfered with the natural development of the grub 
 or whether it was from some innate propensity, a per- 
 vert, I do not know ; but one morning as we were look- 
 ing at it the outer cuticle slowly dissolved before our 
 eyes and an ugly, misshapen creature, of about five 
 times the size of the gentle being we had expected, 
 emerged and fell to the floor. " Why don't it fly ? 
 Why don't it fly ? " cried the children ; but the thing 
 
120 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 only continued to drag its length along the carpet in 
 such an ungraceful fashion that I could not help 
 turning my eyes away. There was no doubt about 
 it ; we had a monster among us ! In the end, we sum- 
 moned the maid, who disposed of it by means of a 
 dust-pan and brush, and it probably finished its career 
 in the back yard. But the instructor on " bugs " 
 was exceedingly disappointed next day, when the his- 
 tory was related to her, and contracted, I fear, a 
 contempt for the group that could not tolerate the 
 caprice of Nature in sending forth a departure from 
 the ordinary course of development. Bug monsters 
 are so rare ! 
 
 But aside from the technical knowledge of ento- 
 mology or botany, which is the least part of the 
 subjects after all, there is a vast field for the mother 
 in the way of Nature studies, and one which no one 
 else can cultivate so well. Erom the very earliest 
 time she should accustom her children to the wonder- 
 ful plan of progression in all the manifestations of 
 life. A little private study of botany will equip her 
 with enough elementary learning to enable her to pilot 
 her pupils through the business of analyzing simple 
 plants, and finding out their families and their gen- 
 
NATURE STUDIES 121 
 
 eral structure. Thence, to the subtler idea of the un- 
 folding of family relations is but a step; but how 
 significant a step! To be able to tell your child, 
 simply, without any shrinking or diffidence, that the 
 germ of the plant you are holding in your hand is an 
 egg y fertilized by pollen, carried by an accommodat- 
 ing insect, and that the same principle of develop- 
 ment holds throughout all creation, is to do away for- 
 ever with the false nonsense that will probably be 
 poured into his ears when he begins to associate with 
 the children with whom he will go to school. That 
 there is sex in plants, that they marry and have off- 
 spring, that all the process of sucb child-bearing is 
 respectable, not only in the lower plants but in the 
 higher species, that there is a morality in Nature 
 higher and finer than our ignorance generally allows 
 us to appreciate — what a splendid lesson is there. 
 
 As a means of awakening in the mother a sincere 
 interest in the ways of plants, and of arousing genu- 
 ine amusement at their singularities, I heartily recom- 
 mend Grant Allen's " Story of the Plants." It is 
 at once thoroughly scientific and delightfully dra- 
 matic, and is more entertaining for summer reading 
 than the average summer novel. Besides being very 
 
122 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 brief. With it as a guide I once had the gratification 
 of inspiring in a rather dull girl of eighteen, during 
 a summer's acquaintance, a most remarkable interest 
 in biology. It was at least the beginning of a broader 
 culture than she had ever been led to undertake. 
 
 Younger persons will need to have more elementary 
 instruction, and of an oral nature altogether. In- 
 deed, the more a mother can hide the text-book and 
 make information come from herself at first hand, the 
 more vivid it will be to the child. She should " get 
 up " her facts privately, and spring them forth on 
 her confiding little one without quotation marks. It 
 is a justifiable bit of acting, for if ever books are 
 unwelcome — and they often are — they are out of 
 place as garden litter. Out in the open, with grass, 
 flowers and trees around " Nature studies " are easy 
 and inevitable. Every instant some new interest 
 arises spontaneously and one has only to respond to 
 the invitation to be entertained. 
 
 A wee maiden was taking a country walk with 
 her father and chatting upon things as they attracted 
 her attention, when she suddenly ended a rather long 
 pause with the pensive comment — " Eve'th'ing is 
 Nature — 'cept the houses ! " Which childish aphor- 
 
NATUKE STUDIES 123 
 
 ism contains the truth in a nutshell. Everything 
 about ns is Nature save what has been wrought by the 
 hand of man. Yet there is a cunning art in Nature. 
 The ant's estates, the bird's nest, the bee's cell, are 
 scarcely less complicated or artistic than the Egyptian 
 Pyramids or the Panama Canal. The intricate struc- 
 ture of that wonderful thing, the Australian pitcher 
 plant, which eats insects and sets traps, is a marvel of 
 art, even though a product with which the hand of 
 man has not meddled. To trace the design in Na- 
 ture is something that makes intelligent children 
 breathless with delight. It is not necessary for us to 
 teach them to take an interest in the natural sciences ; 
 it is there all ready for action. The bungling of 
 the adult teacher too often destroys this instinctive 
 attraction. The child does not want a mediator be- 
 tween himself and the objects that fascinate him ; he 
 wants to handle, taste, investigate, all for himself. 
 Simple, unalienated children are as close to the great 
 mother as the mites that cluster in her bosom or as was 
 primitive man before he began to enjoy the luxury of 
 houses. Turn a child loose in the fields or woods and 
 he riots in the wealth of opportunity offered him. 
 Every instant affords some new fact or suggestion. 
 
124 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 Yet presently lie wearies of experiments which amuse 
 but do not enlighten. He seeks a key to mysteries 
 and runs to his mother with questions and prayers. 
 His need is his parent's opportunity. Happy for both 
 if she is not unprepared to help him out. 
 
 Science offers the principles that bind facts to- 
 gether and discover for us the great why of natural 
 wonders. If simply to know facts constituted educa- 
 tion the country child, with free opportunity to be- 
 come acquainted with the plant and animal world, 
 would be much better versed in natural history than 
 the city child, restricted to cabinets of curiosities and 
 domestic pets. But usually their knowledge is of the 
 merely utilitarian sort. They know that milk comes 
 from the cow and eggs from the hen; that you must 
 plant seeds in order to get vegetables ; and also, some- 
 thing of the habits of their woodland neighbors — the 
 birds and squirrels. But ask one of them why the 
 grape-vine sends forth climbing tendrils, or the trap- 
 door spider conceals her nest amid foliage, or of what 
 use is the sweet, fragrant pulp surrounding the cherry 
 or peach pit, and the chances are that to your ques- 
 tions you will get only a vacant stare ; to the last, per- 
 haps, the muttered reply, — " Good for us to eat." 
 
NATURE STUDIES 125 
 
 They never think of the tree, the selfish small 
 utilitarians! Selfish because they have merely been 
 taught to look at everything from the point of view 
 of its usefulness to men. Most of us were so taught 
 before the idea became general that Nature takes as 
 much care of her feeblest children as of her mightiest, 
 and that she devotes all her energies to propagation, 
 improvement in culture being merely an incident — 
 a necessity of the great " struggle for existence." 
 
 A few general principles are better culture for the 
 child than a multitude of unrelated facts. It is cer- 
 tain that the very young child is usually capable of 
 grasping a great, all-embracing truth, if it is lucidly 
 put before him. It is not the principle but the con- 
 fusing medley of nomenclature that often surrounds 
 it that is tiresome. I recollect studying for a very 
 long time in my early years, a series of volumes on 
 physics that were well written, so far as the presenta- 
 tion of principles went, but were over-laden with that 
 cumbersome scientific commentary which was deemed 
 necessary in those days, and to which the teacher paid 
 most of her attention. To " learn by heart " many 
 names, was learning one's lessons well, in the old time 
 school. And many were the dullards made by that 
 
126 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 system. It took me a long time to outgrow the dis- 
 taste for natural science caused by the routine instruc- 
 tion of my conscientious, narrow-minded teachers. 
 When, in the course of a voluntarily undertaken 
 course of reading, I came across Agassiz's delightfully 
 clear relation of the laws of biology it was as if a 
 light shone in a dark place, and a deserted cavern 
 was rendered habitable to thoughts. 
 
 Instead of finding children bored by the unfolding 
 of the mysteries of life I have frequently been sur- 
 prised by their insatiate thirst for knowledge when 
 it is presented to them attractively. It is true that 
 the world must be presented to them as a drama, where 
 everything is alive and acting a part. But is it not 
 so ? To seeing eyes there is no stillness in Nature, 
 no death, only everlasting change. It is a dull child 
 who cannot be brought to comprehend this law. And 
 in so doing he makes greater progress than if he 
 learned the names of twenty different plants or 
 plodded for a month over some lesson in physics about 
 the Ley den jar. 
 
 Physics and chemistry may be left largely to the 
 school days, unless a parent has a passion for the nat- 
 ural sciences. Simple experiments are agreeable di- 
 
NATURE STUDIES 127 
 
 versions, but the labor and expense involved in borne 
 studies of this sort commonly render them imprac- 
 ticable. Far easier are studies about animals and 
 minerals, and children are always interested in zool- 
 ogy, even when they only know it through the stupid- 
 est of books. 
 
 The old-time country circus, where the children 
 were allowed to feed the elephants, ride the donkeys 
 and get intimately acquainted with the monkeys and 
 parrots were, perhaps, better schools of learning for 
 zoology than those that have succeeded them. But 
 " Zoos " are in nearly every city and trips to them 
 within the reach of everybody. If the parent will 
 take the pains to make a little preparation in advance 
 for such an excursion, so as to be able to answer the 
 inevitable questions about the habitats of the kanga- 
 roo and the Polar bear, and not confuse the long- 
 haired goats and the sheep from Australia, he will 
 find a most appreciative small audience for his lec- 
 ture. He may have to protect the animals from a 
 too lively curiosity on the part of his zealous offspring. 
 A certain little boy who was noted for his gentleness 
 with animals was one day discovered deliberately kill- 
 ing a June bug. To the remonstrance of his mother 
 
128 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 lie replied, in a cool, philosophical tone, " But, 
 mamma, it is necessary. We have to find out about 
 these things." To be sure. Was not his uncle a 
 physician, with a hobby for beetles ? 
 
 Unfortunately, there is no text-book ready at hand 
 containing the elements of natural history in a form 
 busy parents may find satisfactory for hurried con- 
 sultation. Such a book is a crying need. For lack 
 of it we may have to cull from many volumes. But 
 in the appended bibliography there will be found the 
 titles of the best that I have discovered in my re- 
 searches, and some that are almost equal to the de- 
 mands mothers naturally make. At least, they will 
 be found very helpful, and if supplemented by real 
 zeal and intelligence on the part of the parent, will be 
 of the most valuable assistance in the education of 
 the child in such an important branch of knowledge. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Poem, Size and Number 
 
 " All intellectual life upon our planet begins with geome- 
 try."— Hill. 
 
 JUST now it is the fashion to rate mathematics 
 low. There has been so much discussion 
 lately about the development of the child's per- 
 sonality in language studies that the once rigid idea 
 that mathematics constitute the basis of all mental 
 training has been succeeded by theories that are easier 
 both for teacher and pupil. As usually understood 
 and taught, arithmetic, algebra and geometry are mere 
 exercises for the memory. Logic enters not into them. 
 So distasteful has the very name of mathematics be- 
 come that to secure toleration for the amount of in- 
 struction necessary in the primary grade the term 
 " number lesson " has been invented. And herein 
 through deferring to popular prejudice, an injustice 
 has been done toward a beautiful and useful science. 
 
 129 
 
130 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 Eor arithmetic is not the science of number, as 
 is so often carelessly supposed, but of valuation. 
 Number is merely the outward sign of the inward 
 grace. Where the feeling — the apprehension of 
 comparative values — is not present the glib tongue 
 which employs itself in counting is as silly as a pendu- 
 lum swinging backward and forward in a clock whose 
 works are out of order. " Unrelated facts are not 
 knowledge any more than the words of a dictionary 
 are connected thoughts. " But knowledge begins the 
 instant there is a dawning sense of comparison be- 
 tween several things, with a view to their relative 
 values. 
 
 It rarely occurs to us how barren this world would 
 be without the constantly enjoyed pleasure of making 
 comparisons as to the value of different things. Much 
 of our ordinary entertainment is extracted from the 
 habit of drawing these comparisons. We habitually 
 say, — " How much nicer, — how much prettier, — how 
 much finer," is this article, or toilet, or show, than 
 some other with which we put it -into opposition. 
 And when some one differs from our opinion we 
 doubt the justice of his standards, and possibly think 
 that his taste or his judgment is deficient in accuracy. 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBER 131 
 
 I should say there really are no " unrelated facts." 
 It is impossible to withdraw a single fact from its con- 
 nections with other matters that belong to it. But the 
 relation is not always apparent at first sight, and the 
 tracing out of subtle associations requires considerable 
 dexterity of reasoning. 
 
 To the child each new fact is, necessarily, separate 
 and distinct from what has been learned before, un- 
 less we are so careful in presenting objects to him that 
 the association will be natural. To some degree, this 
 might be done, with respect to mathematical ideas. 
 We may set out with the assumption that one of the 
 earliest conceptions of the child is that of difference 
 in size. He learns to look up at large objects, down 
 to those that are smaller. The association with these 
 instinctive movements establishes itself in his under- 
 standing with the respective bulks of the things looked 
 at. When the idea of form comes to him is a matter 
 we cannot state much about; but probably some in- 
 definite suggestions are gained with the knowledge 
 that certain things roll about, as his balls, while other 
 things that are differently shaped, stand still. His 
 first idea of differences in shape will naturally be 
 those between square and round objects. It will 
 
132 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 probably be some time before the less remarkable dif- 
 ference that exists between oblong and square things 
 is noted. Therefore, we do not wish to make him 
 go out of his way to observe first the matters that 
 naturally come later on; we will not suggest to the 
 small child the differences existing between long and 
 square things before he has remarked the related facts 
 of squareness as opposed to roundness. 
 
 And before this even, must come the idea of differ- 
 ence in bulk without any connection with shape. 
 Consequently, to show him that one object is larger 
 than another, the two objects presented ought to be 
 of similar shape. This little item, which is impor- 
 tant, is seldom considered. In fact, very rarely is any 
 deliberate attempt made to educate the child in pri- 
 mary ideas of a mathematical nature. He is left to 
 chance, and acquires his notions as they may come to 
 him. And then, we wonder that mathematics are 
 difficult and obscure to the school child. Sometimes 
 parents teach their children " to count," believing 
 that this starts them rightly on the path toward 
 knowledge of arithmetic. " He can count to five, to 
 ten," boasts some thoughtless parent, when the baby 
 tongue has repeated the string of one, two, three. But 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBER 133 
 
 it is very unwise to teach the child to run over the 
 names of numbers without associating the names with 
 any meaning. Nor is the plan of having baby count 
 objects, such as spools or pennies, any better. All 
 this is artificial training, sure to disappoint our ex- 
 pectations in the end. Some day when baby is display- 
 ing his little accomplishment he makes sad blunders. 
 He puts five before two; leaves out four altogether 
 and when questioned states that three is more than 
 six, and shows utter ignorance of any power of gen- 
 uine counting. The words one, two and three mean 
 absolutely nothing to any one until there has grown 
 up in the mind a sense of quantity. When he realizes 
 the distinction between a little of a thing and more of 
 it, between a few objects and many of the same kind, 
 he begins to grasp the great generalization implied in 
 the power of measurement. 
 
 Before we can be exact about any matter we must 
 have an approximately correct impression of it — a 
 general idea. Suppose a barbarian, newly landed in 
 New York, were asked for his opinion as to the su- 
 periority of cement over cobble-stones, for pavements ? 
 Having no knowledge at all of pavements, how could 
 he compare one sort with another? But if he first 
 
134 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 had the meaning of pavements in general explained to 
 him, he might soon be prepared to enter into the ques- 
 tion of their relative values. Based upon simple no- 
 tions of practical worth, irrespective of vexing tempta- 
 tions of contracters, such an opinion would have an 
 unique veracity. 
 
 Erom a general idea, obtained first, a clear, definite 
 understanding of any situation can be deduced. Most 
 people err in their beliefs about great questions be- 
 cause their particular ideas come too soon; before 
 the ground-plan of a generalization that is correct is 
 laid. It is absurd to attempt to be exact about any- 
 thing that has not been first apprehended in a gen- 
 eral way. Ignorant children talk in very ridiculous 
 fashion about going to war. But the child of a soldier 
 of the line, who has seen a single actual battle, has 
 a conception of the meaning of war that makes his 
 talk strikingly different in point of details. We speak 
 sometimes of " striking facts/' but we are struck by 
 single facts because they confirm a general principle 
 previously known. Otherwise, they would not strike 
 us in the least. 
 
 Now, the child's mind must go through the same 
 mental process as that of the adult, and develop the 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBER 135 
 
 power of reasoning after the same mode; from gen- 
 erals to particulars is the rule. He must get an in- 
 definite sense of the difference between large masses 
 and small masses, many objects and few objects, be- 
 fore he can comprehend that there are definite and 
 precise degrees of value. The loose notion must come 
 before the compact one. Intelligent children take 
 pleasure in comparing one thing with another. They 
 love to measure and weigh articles in miniature 
 scales; they continually note differences between ob- 
 jects, and although their distinctions are always crude 
 and sometimes absurd, they occasionally show sur- 
 prising sharpness in finding points to contrast. 
 
 A practical and feasible means of teaching the small 
 child the primary mathematical notions is to furnish 
 him with a well made toy scale, that will balance 
 very correctly. Then, give him a few — say, six 
 weights, — each one doubling the value of the other, 
 that is, the first one weighing an ounce, the second 
 two ounces, and so on. They will all be of the same 
 shape and so will not distract his mind from the one 
 object in view, which is, to discover their relations 
 in weight. Weight will soon become related to size. 
 After he has learned the values of his six tools, an- 
 
136 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 other half dozen, relatively heavier and larger, may 
 be given him. With these well understood counters 
 in possession, he can begin to play the game of judg- 
 ing weight values, or measuring. Eirst, the mother 
 may direct his attention to the fact that one weight by 
 itself pulls down his scale so much ; then, that added 
 weights pull down so much more. By degrees, all the 
 weights being added, the little scale is weighted to 
 its capacity. Then, the marvel of deducting may be 
 entered upon. Eirst, a single weight removed enables 
 the scale to rise slightly, another makes it still more 
 buoyant ; until finally, by rapid, pleasant experiment- 
 ing, the child learns the mysteries of adding and sub- 
 tracting according to values, before he has been both- 
 ered with the merely arbitrary names of a single num- 
 ber. 
 
 If we could only practise what we really know — 
 that objects come in human understanding before their 
 names ; but we concern ourselves too much with teach- 
 ing the pupil the outside aspect of knowledge, and far 
 too little with the natural, inner meaning of it. The 
 faculty of discerning differences is closely allied to 
 what is called the mathematical faculty, yet few 
 people appreciate this. How many parents will ap- 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBER 137 
 
 plaud the child who shows readiness to repeat num- 
 bers, and frowns down the " nonsense " of curiosity 
 as to relative weights and sizes. The old-fashioned 
 idea that " doing sums " as country children say, is 
 mathematical education, still prevails among us. We 
 can scarcely get ourselves to believe that a child might 
 become firmly grounded in the principles of arithme- 
 tic and geometry by merely being helped to interpret 
 his surroundings correctly, even if he never handled 
 a slate or saw a pencil. But it is, nevertheless, true. 
 We speak of a thing being done with " mathematical 
 exactness " when there is no fault in its proportions. 
 Whenever a child is trained to notice the admirable 
 proportions of a symmetrical building he is being 
 educated in mathematics. When he is required to 
 point out faulty measurements, to observe that one 
 side of a thing is smaller than the other, that lengths 
 are unequal, that an object that should be completely 
 round has become flattened on one side, — all these 
 points make for his accuracy and help him in the 
 power of calculation. 
 
 The two essentials to mathematical exercises are 
 abstraction and generalization. Eirst the thing is ex- 
 amined as a general object, and afterwards it is ex- 
 
138 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 amined in its relation to other objects more or less like 
 itself. The child notices a particular chair in the 
 room; then he observes other chairs, differing from 
 the first in certain details, bnt still, enough like it to 
 be classed with the order. In concentrating his at- 
 tention on a single chair among several, he has un- 
 consciously performed the act of abstraction, and in 
 grouping several together again because of their re- 
 semblance, he generalizes. 
 
 At first all his inferences are vague and meaning- 
 less. He is blindly obeying a natural instinct in 
 noting his surroundings. So long as he has no use for 
 the objects he sees they are as unrelated to himself as 
 are the sun and moon. But the instant a purpose con- 
 nected with them comes into his head they assume 
 definite shape and value. Say that he wants to build 
 a train with the chairs. This chair shall be the loco- 
 motive — no, it is too small ; this other is larger. It 
 is too large. But this other one is just large enough. 
 Perhaps he asks mother if she will please move to some 
 other one and let him have that chair to play with. 
 " What a silly child," perhaps she returns, and chides 
 him for being inconsiderate. The inventor always is 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBEK 139 
 
 inconsiderate. Pallisy burned up the furniture to 
 keep his fires going. Small John might be required 
 to bring mother another comfortable chair from some 
 place, since she is requested to resign the one she oc- 
 cupies. But if I were that mother I should investi- 
 gate all the circumstances before I saw in the seem- 
 ingly rude demand a matter for family discipline. 
 The way in which a thing is done should count more 
 in such cases than the thing itself. Even the child 
 — if he has a well ordered plan in mind, deserves to 
 have it considered, since we permit trees to be de- 
 stroyed by builders of apartment houses. It takes ten 
 years to grow a shade tree, and but a minute for 
 mother to change from one chair to another ; 'provided 
 little John positively cannot find another chair with 
 exactly the proportions he requires for his locomotive. 
 But have him look well first. 
 
 How the child's senses become sharpened as he 
 needs to measure things with a view to their useful- 
 ness to his own plans ! As Professor McLellan justly 
 observes, the child and the savage get their first ideas 
 of quantity and value when they come to construct 
 something out of sticks and stones. All building in- 
 
140 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 volves measuring, and it is through measuring that 
 the idea of numbers is obtained. Which brings us to 
 our point. 
 
 Form and size, as mathematical ideas, should al- 
 ways precede number. Geometry naturally comes be- 
 fore arithmetic. Do not let us be satisfied with 
 merely stating this point; let us insist upon it. I 
 recollect that when I heard Eobert Ingersoll lecture 
 once, he observed, whenever he reached a doubtful 
 point in his discourse, " I'll not only prove this point ; 
 I'll demonstrate it." And then he related some lit- 
 tle anecdote that fixed it in his hearers' minds. The 
 only anecdote that occurs to me in the connection of 
 a child's apprehending size with an ease that appears 
 almost instinctive, is this: A certain tot of three 
 years, whose mother is quite slim and not tall, was 
 sitting in the lap of the colored cook, an enormous 
 personage weighing about two hundred pounds, when 
 the mother called her little daughter to her. " No, 
 mamma come here," was the answer. Coming to the 
 kitchen door, the mother looked reproachfully at 
 her offspring, and said, " Little things come to big 
 things." 
 
 " Mamma's a little thing," roguishly responded the 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBER 141 
 
 tot, cuddling against the ample bosom of the cook; 
 " mamma come to — Yiza ! " 
 
 There is no doubt that if left to itself the child 
 begins to measure everything quite naturally, thus 
 training his judgment long before any idea of number 
 takes hold of his mind. Yet, for years I have vainly 
 sought the primary school where this principle, now 
 acknowledged in theory, is carried out in practise. 
 However enlightened the teacher may be she has to 
 satisfy the parents. And parents think their children 
 are playing when they are handling blocks shaped into 
 geometrical forms and that they are working when 
 they " do sums " with numbers written out on the 
 blackboard. 
 
 But the necessity for building a shelter for himself 
 from the beasts and from cold made man a reason- 
 able, thinking being. Architecture is the father of 
 all the sciences, and building with materials shaped 
 and measured for the purpose is the operation that 
 calls into play both our primitive instincts and our 
 trained artistic perceptions. The little child is there- 
 fore, getting his best education when he is naturally 
 and unconsciously constructing houses out of blocks. 
 With a box containing numerous blocks, all shapes 
 
142 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 and sizes, and having near by a patient, intelligent 
 parent to throw in a casual word of explanation from 
 time to time, the child may familiarize himself with 
 the great principles of science, and with those abstract 
 terms which to many persons remain dread symbols of 
 mysterious quantities to the end of their lives. Ac- 
 customed to hearing his blocks spoken of as cubes, 
 spheres, cylinders, triangles, squares, oblongs and 
 circles, these terms greet his ear as naturally as doll 
 and breakfast. I recollect with what awe I heard a 
 school mate, whose father was an astronomer of great 
 renown on two continents, casually mention such 
 frightful things as isosceles triangles. She was not 
 even afraid of quaternions. As I saw her from day to 
 day, going along the prosaic streets, her head slightly 
 drooping, as one buried in thought, I reflected what a 
 privilege was hers, in dwelling in a learned atmos- 
 phere ! 
 
 Scientific formulas are like ghosts — awful from 
 a distance but harmless when investigated. The 
 child who learns in the security of his home the na- 
 ture of figures and the meaning of form may go to 
 school bravely and defy the pedagogical rule which 
 keeps pupils laboring upon three until it is thoroughly 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBER 143 
 
 understood and then proceed to five; by no means 
 permitting any thought of ten until seven is mastered, 
 and so on through all the limitations of the Grube 
 method. 
 
 At a little country school which was kept by " a 
 gentlewoman " in New England, many years ago, 
 there entered a bright child of eight years, who had 
 learned many things of her mother. There was no 
 arbitrary grading there, but the pupils were divided 
 according to their ages and general abilities. Each 
 morning slates were given out, with examples written 
 out in beautiful figures by the conscientious teacher, 
 ready to be worked out and returned to her. The 
 lowest class had examples in addition, the next in 
 subtraction, and so on, the highest being something 
 mysterious in long division. The first day Dolly 
 soberly worked her baby " sums " and nothing was 
 said, excepting the usual mark for perfection. She 
 observed that she had been put in the lowest class and 
 burned for advancement. The next day it happened 
 that a boy whose slate contained examples in subtrac- 
 tion was absent ; so she managed to obtain possession 
 of his slate, worked out his examples and sent up the 
 slate with her own. " Dolly will be in the subtrac- 
 
144 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 tion class after this," announced the teacher, after she 
 had examined the day's work. The week went by and 
 the ambitious mite watched for another chance. It 
 came soon and she did the same thing with multiplica- 
 tion that she had accomplished with the lower grade of 
 work ; gaining a step of promotion. The teacher was 
 just enough not to keep her in the rear of a class she 
 could easily keep up with. Luckily, this was not a 
 modern school with hundreds of pupils. Erom the 
 second to the third class in arithmetic was easy for 
 the home-bred child, to whom calculating was merely 
 practising a familiar art, and when, in the course of 
 a month, she was able to demonstrate to her teacher 
 that the " four rules " were each equally easy to her, 
 and not separated by that harsh line of demarkation 
 which ordinarily breaks their continuity she was 
 looked upon as a phenomenon. But it was nothing 
 but a natural development of a mind trained to ap- 
 preciate values. 
 
 The idea of keeping a child to one thing until he 
 is well drilled in it is much the same as if we were 
 to forbid him to notice the sun and stars until he had 
 exhausted the subject of his nearer neighbor, the 
 moon. On the contrary, let us give him broad, bold 
 
FORM, SIZE AND NUMBEK 145 
 
 views from the beginning; not crowding knowledge 
 upon him but furnishing information as fast as he 
 shows curiosity. It is easy to teach the three-old 
 architect that joining two triangles of equal size 
 gives a perfect square ; that a circle cut exactly in half 
 gives him two halves or semi-circles, etc. No formal 
 lessons, but all done in play and as he needs the 
 knowledge for his building purposes. 
 
 In the course of conversation we should cultivate 
 the child's observation of the relative size and form 
 of all objects, aiming toward general correctness of 
 view rather than toward accuracy in trifling details. 
 It is much more important that he should really know 
 what things are than that he should be able to describe 
 them in set terms. The one knowledge is his own, 
 the other ours. Hugo Goring, an authority upon 
 psychology applied to teaching, desires that the child, 
 in his early studies, shall not first learn what has been 
 learned by others, but shall be led to understand what 
 he has himself experienced. In this brief sentence 
 is contained a great philosophy of life. 
 
 Youth has more capacity for exactness than it is 
 given credit for. Are we not sometimes surprised 
 at finding a little child a stickler for truth in details ? 
 
146 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 With this characteristic there usually goes capacity 
 for sound reasoning, and a good mathematician is 
 perhaps before us. By sensible training we may lead 
 him peacefully along the path that is so often made 
 unnecessarily thorny. 
 
 It is not necessary to divide all knowledge into 
 small doses ; making the child add up thousands be- 
 fore he subtracts two from three. With a " numeral 
 frame " to help us we may give him an understand- 
 ing of the four rules of arithmetic long before he 
 knows what a figure is. And when he comes to deal 
 with figures they will not be hateful tools of an 
 obscure science, but merely the signs of what he al- 
 ready knows. 
 
CHAPTEE X 
 
 Mother Wit — ajst> Humor 
 
 "We should not attempt to turn what is essentially se- 
 rious into fun; that is corrupting both to taste and judg- 
 ment. But to discover the funny side of things and por- 
 tray it gracefully is both pleasing and instructive." — La 
 Bruyere. 
 
 POSSIBLY the famous Haroun-al-Raschid 
 of Bagdad was the only monarch who really 
 ever became acquainted with his subjects and 
 knew them as they were. Wandering about in dis- 
 guise, he jested with them, he played their games, 
 he entered into their intimate companionship. Ste- 
 venson gives us a revival of the Arabian Nights in his 
 tales, and has brought the intrepid old fellow to life 
 again in more sophisticated form. And here too, 
 we see the meaning allegory of humoristic knowledge 
 of mankind, and the importance of it in governing. 
 It is impossible to deal with an unknown quantity in 
 
 human nature. Even Jove was compelled to descend 
 
 147 
 
148 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 from his throne in the skies to see the foibles and 
 follies of mortals near by. Modern monarchs have 
 exchanged their crowns for hats on ordinary occasions 
 and gone about to learn the lay of their land with the 
 vernacular npon their tongues and all their dignity 
 put aside. And if they do not learn what they want 
 the drama teaches them. " What state and power 
 are impotent to achieve humor shall win." 
 
 I think that an hour spent in play with children 
 gives us better insight into their characteristics than 
 many hours of study of psychology. Not that I 
 depreciate a science I have furrowed over during years 
 of conscientious effort after methods; but the living 
 is ever better than its shadow, and the veritable child 
 more enlightening than the skeleton in a book. All 
 depends on the spirit we bring to the work, however. 
 Unless a mother can enjoy intercourse with her chil- 
 dren and be young with them, she will never under- 
 stand them nor they her. The ability to drop care 
 and responsibility and frolic for a little space is 
 a natural talent possessed by the born teacher, who 
 is also the splendid mother. It is not the pedagogue 
 who is most valuable to the intellectual world but the 
 one who contributes new items to the fund of knowl- 
 
MOTHER WIT — AND HUMOR 149 
 
 edge about human nature. And it is not the learned 
 mother who is most competent to instruct her children 
 but the mother who understands them. There is 
 nothing in the world that brings mother and child 
 nearer together than mutual enjoyment of fun ; noth- 
 ing more appreciated by the young person than that 
 maternal sense of humor which can find the funny 
 side of life at every turn, and color dull times with 
 the prismatic hues of optimism. 
 
 The philosopher Renan began life under austere cir- 
 cumstances and his early years were full of labor and 
 self-denial, but they were brightened by the joyous, 
 elastic disposition of his mother, a Gascon woman who 
 possessed the vivacity and buoyancy of her race, and 
 who set him the example of bearing hardships with 
 cheerful good-humor and hopefulness. The humble 
 house at St. Gres and the little garden planted with 
 fruit trees where he played with his sister can still 
 be seen. From his father he inherited a dreamy, 
 sensitive nature which gave him the gravity that al- 
 ways distinguished him ; but it was happily balanced 
 by his mother's cheerfulness, to which he believed 
 himself indebted for much of his happiness in life. 
 The early idea that obtained lodgment in his mind 
 
150 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 that life is good and effort worth while never left him. 
 Probably he could have repeated in his old age the 
 very jests he had heard in his infancy from those 
 beloved lips. 
 
 Who does not recollect with extreme pleasure the 
 funny stories his father told at the dinner table ? Or 
 perhaps it was a grandfather who was the wit, and 
 made the family party merry by the hearth in the 
 evening. Eor my part I would not sell for cash the 
 cheerful memories of my father's old tales, with all 
 their concomitant circumstances of fun and good 
 times in the family circle. There was a tradition of 
 a certain ancestor who had a remarkable wit, and some 
 of her little stories were contributions to certain 
 evenings. I recall my childish sense of loss in not 
 having known her personally ! 
 
 I have a fancy that when the inscrutable fate which 
 appoints our earthly lot was busy separating good and 
 bad qualities that one escaped her before she had 
 placed it and so became forever free to go where it 
 would. And it has chosen to go where it is most 
 needed — now lightening some toilsome pathway of 
 poverty and sorrow, now turning to joy the trials of 
 a soul unfitted to battle with affliction — everywhere 
 
MOTHEE WIT — AND HUMOE 151 
 
 drawing all eyes with delight and lightening human 
 woe by an instant's laughter. Surely, humor is Na- 
 ture's best gift to mortals! Blessed among women 
 the mother whom it possesses, who is swayed by it so 
 that she is compelled whether she will or not, to be 
 drawn away from contemplation of whatever is un- 
 pleasant by the irresistible propensity to see its hu- 
 morous side. 
 
 To have a keen sense of the ludicrous is not neces- 
 sarily to be shallow. Some of the greatest humorists 
 unite with that sprightly gift a deep tenderness and 
 broad sympathy. Their lips smile at sight of an 
 absurd spectacle while their eyes overflow in recog- 
 nizing the pathos that is its so frequent accompani- 
 ment. It is this quick perception of a situation as 
 a whole, this power to see all aspects at once, that 
 gives us just judgments tempered by mercy; se- 
 verity lined with leniency, that acts as a saving grace 
 to culprits. " Faith," said Pat, when comforted with 
 the assurance of having a just judge ; " 'tis not that 
 I want so much as one that'll lean a little ! " 
 
 The gentle humor which flows like a May shower 
 on some arid spot can make pleasant even the dry-as- 
 dust talk about " populations " and the census reports. 
 
152 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 There are people who make everything dull the 
 moment they touch upon it; while others render the 
 same topics interesting by approaching them from a 
 new point of view. And as " interest is the life of 
 teaching " it is the running commentary of a piece 
 of task-work that is often best remembered; the rest 
 fading from the mind like a blot scratched by the 
 sharp point of Time's ruthless eraser. 
 
 Few in number are those among us whose genius 
 is of this cast ; w T ho are essentially human in their 
 altruism; who carry in their breasts an innocent 
 merriment, infectious, enjoyable. How eagerly is 
 such a person welcomed in any company ; how people 
 admire him ; how little children flock about him ! A 
 parent blessed with humor has about him a magnet 
 that subdues rebellion and charms away ill-temper; 
 that wins spontaneous affection, ensures confidence, 
 and opens the path to mutual comprehension, so that 
 knowledge may be imparted with complete natural- 
 ness and ease, and many a thing " learned in suffer- 
 ing may be taught in song." 
 
 We all know the good mother who is zealous for 
 her child's welfare, devoted and painstaking but nar- 
 row and stiff and solemn; believing merriment a 
 
MOTHER WIT — AND HUMOR 153 
 
 sort of absurdity and seriousness the proper course 
 in life. As soon as her fledglings can travel they 
 flee from her society to seek the genial atmosphere 
 of some place where they can frolic and jest at their 
 pleasure and never be called idiotic when they are 
 inclined to be playful. They also find it difficult to 
 have for her the measure of affection that her real 
 worth deserves. " A good mother," says the weary 
 son or daughter, " but — " a sigh completes the sen- 
 tence. A little less goodness and a little more cheeri- 
 ness would increase the attraction of the parent who 
 moves through the nursery with a severe eye upon 
 lapses from propriety and with a strange aloofness 
 from the children whom she loves well but has never 
 understood. 
 
 Heaven help the dignity which is ice-bound in its 
 own self -righteousness ; which is never self -forgetful, 
 and loses the very best of life through a bigoted 
 adherence to the one side of existence that relates 
 to duty! This kind of conscientiousness, which is 
 a disease of our New England blood, is slow in yield- 
 ing to the remedies suggested by the science of the 
 twentieth century. We could all have more sense of 
 humor if we believed it a good thing to have and cul- 
 
154, THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 tivated it carefully instead of trampling it down. 
 True humor is not coarse wit at another's expense; 
 that vaudeville apishness which passes for it among 
 the crowd of thoughtless amusement-seekers. It is a 
 finer thing, a more delicate and lovely quality, which 
 is tinctured with fancy and brightened by imagina- 
 tion. What made Charles Lamb the idol of his 
 circle? There were twenty others as wise, as tal- 
 ented, as versatile; but not one who had his inimita- 
 ble gift of drawing out from every subject the 
 unnoticed trait of the pleasantly fantastic that makes 
 a bon mot stick forever in the memory of the hearer. 
 The few witty sayings of all great men and women 
 are treasured by the world and recollected when their 
 actions become involved in the mists of the past. 
 Their biographers hunt for such anecdotes with 
 pathetic eagerness and to find a new one is a triumph 
 that brings happy tears to their eyes. The genuine 
 humorist, in real life and in literature, is the veritable 
 hero, beside whom the hero of melodrama is as a 
 dancing jack, without any permanently interesting 
 quality. The whole world is grateful to its fun- 
 makers. Is the child less appreciative of the rainbow 
 that relieves the gloom of work? For all mental 
 
MOTHER WIT — AND HUMOR 155 
 
 work has its essential periods of gloom and dis- 
 couragement; the spirit is oppressed as if the drizzle 
 of an autumn afternoon settled down upon it. The 
 adult, aware of the good result to follow, often gives 
 out half-way. The child, to whom the future means 
 scarcely anything, needs still more to have his labor 
 brightened. Why should labor be rendered so hard ? 
 I wish that all text-books could have some funny 
 things in them; that not only history and rhetoric, 
 but algebra and geography, physics and grammar, 
 could be lightened and brightened by the humoristic 
 quality. This is where the dull conscientiousness I 
 alluded to above, comes in to discourage any attempt 
 at novel departures. What would a school board 
 say to a geography full of anecdotes and containing 
 information running over with fun and wit % Kin- 
 dergarten stuff! 
 
 Well; up in a certain dear old garret there used 
 to be heaps of ancient books, coming down from dis- 
 carded family libraries ; and a little girl curious and 
 eager after printed things found among other matters 
 a small volume entitled " Countries of Europe/' by 
 A. L. 0. E. In it there were stories about all the 
 people in the world, or so it seemed to the charmed 
 
156 THE MOTHER m EDUCATION 
 
 little reader, and during the hours she spent humped 
 up in the garret, pursuing these old-fashioned tales, 
 she learned to appreciate something of her relations 
 with other races, to know the world she lived in; 
 and the facts in that hook stayed by her when formal 
 lessons, learned at school in dignified geographies, 
 containing hideous maps full of " chief cities " and 
 rivers to be placed according to tiresome rules of lo- 
 cation, took flight and never came back. That book 
 is lost, unhappily, and it has been out of print for 
 ages, or I should certainly put it among the list of 
 books to be studied by mothers despite the antiquity 
 of its facts. It would show them how to make knowl- 
 edge interesting, and that is better than to make it 
 completely — perfectly, exact. Of a truth, there is 
 no such thing as perfectly exact knowledge. All of 
 it is approximately correct. Why, then, fear a little 
 embroidery of interest that enhances its importance 
 and keeps it fresh in the mind ? 
 
 One should be careful not to give a child erroneous 
 information. But to give him general, loose and 
 somewhat indefinite ideas at first is perhaps a better 
 thing than to try to impress him with certain distinct 
 facts. A good general knowledge of any subject is 
 
MOTHER WIT — AND HUMOR 157 
 
 an excellent preparation for the filling in of details 
 later on, at school. So the mother who has the gift 
 of infusing joy into her instruction is sure to have 
 her instructions remembered, while the teacher's more 
 formal imparting of the same subject will probably 
 pass from his mind. 
 
 One of the beauties of liveliness in teaching is that 
 it sets children at their ease, banishes constraint and 
 allows their minds to act freely. And the adroit 
 instructor may add variations to his topic as his 
 observation leads him to see the need of changes. 
 We cannot develop the best characteristics of our chil- 
 dren until we learn to know them well, and in order 
 to do this we must meet them on their own ground, — 
 see them completely at ease and without any affecta* 
 tions of grown-up manners. When the child has ab- 
 solutely no fear of his parents and feels free to act 
 out all his little whimsical impulses without incurring 
 ridicule no frolicsome kitten is so funny as the 
 youngster who is not trying to be funny at all. The 
 sympathetic mother sees pathos and humor posing side 
 by side in the living child groups in her nursery, 
 and she reads in the queer sayings and doing of her 
 miniature men and women many deep, earnest pur- 
 
158 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 poses that throw a flash-light over ahiding aims of 
 their growing natures. 
 
 With children we may say, instead of " many a 
 true word is spoken in jest " — that " many a jesting 
 word is meant seriously." A child's humor is often 
 merely earnestness. To understand it thoroughly 
 one must he for the nonce, a child at heart. The 
 mother who keeps her child at a distance, even when 
 she tolerates an amount of impertinence that makes 
 outsiders suppose her upon terms of rather absurd 
 intimacy with him, will never be able to get into his 
 inner nature as the mother who knows how to interest 
 him will. Eespect never yet was inspired by the per- 
 son who insisted upon receiving it, but it flows out 
 spontaneously toward those whose characters make the 
 claim they never think of suggesting. 
 
 The mother who wants respect and merely that, 
 will do well to keep her children at a distance and 
 neither tolerate familiarities nor a frank disclosure 
 of their ideas and fancies. Her amour propre will 
 not then suffer. But the mother who appreciates the 
 beauty and value of a close attachment between her- 
 self and her younger selves, and who aims to estab- 
 lish relations that neither time nor absence can 
 
MOTHER WIT — AND HUMOR 159 
 
 weaken, must be prepared to make some sacrifices 
 in order to attain them. She must first of all, culti- 
 vate cheerfulness in her daily intercourse with them. 
 Optimism is the glossary that explains hardships. 
 The parent who has it ready at hand to pass on to 
 the children may put formal authority by. The 
 mother with a blithe and ready humor possesses a 
 fascination that makes her companionship sought and 
 her instructions received with avidity. And added 
 to the present satisfaction of congenial relations with 
 her children will be the assurance that she will dwell 
 always in their memories like " the shadow of a 
 great rock in a weary land." 
 
 " Mother had the quickest sense of humor of any 
 one I ever met/' said an elderly man with pride. 
 And one could see that in his heart followed other 
 thoughts. " How happy that mother made me, and 
 how I loved her." 
 
CHAPTEK XI 
 The Eight Method in Reading 
 
 " It is necessary that in the impressions brought to the 
 child by instruction there should be sequence^ so that the 
 beginning and progress of his learning should keep pace 
 with his mental development." — Pestalozzi. 
 
 IF there is one part of education that especially 
 demands individual instruction more than other 
 sorts, it is instruction in the art of reading. 
 Yet parents usually consider that this is the par- 
 ticular function of the school. Methods have 
 changed greatly since we were ourselves children and 
 there may be danger of our proceeding in ways that 
 are contrary to advanced theories upon the subject. 
 But in truth, the schools are all merely carrying on a 
 system of experiments that may succeed or may fail. 
 The very same methods that are now looked upon 
 with admiration may within a short time fall into 
 disfavor. 
 
 Meanwhile it is certain that many of the most 
 160 
 
THE RIGHT METHOD IN READING 161 
 
 brilliant persons of our generation are the products 
 of what is called old-fashioned methods in education. 
 So may it not be that any method is good which ef- 
 fects the right results ? " Whatever policy has long 
 received the sanction of the wise and good is likely 
 to have some element of truth in it," said a profound 
 philosopher. The belief therefore, that learning has 
 an element of drudgery in it which cannot be escaped 
 cannot be overturned by the rather frantic efforts of 
 advanced theorists to convert primary schools into 
 kindergartens. The best teacher in the world is not 
 able to avoid the introduction of labor into intellectual 
 work. It is well for this to be frankly admitted. 
 There are dull spaces over which the child must be 
 enticed by the prospect of pleasanter times to come. 
 It is necessary for him to become used to a little 
 hardship, since work is the law of life. But our ideal 
 is to make the subject in hand more and more inter- 
 esting, so that difficulties will be encountered near the 
 beginning, while interest is fresh and energy at its 
 highest point. Then, after weariness has begun to 
 set in the encouraging suggestion may come that the 
 worst is already over. Has not every one observed 
 that it is always at the outset of a new thing that the 
 
162 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 child's courage and enterprise are at their height? 
 A new suggestion is a sort of " dare " which he takes 
 blindly and recklessly, poor innocent, and it is by 
 working along this line of capturing a fortress by 
 storm that the adroit teacher scores a success. 
 
 Now, if we wait until a child is seven or eight 
 years old to teach him how to read, or even until he 
 is six, which is the period at which children who 
 have no home training usually enter the primary 
 class he will probably have already acquired a fear 
 of the drudgery of learning the alphabet. A dull 
 and lifeless way of imparting this essential knowledge 
 has long since brought it into extreme disfavor. One 
 of the older domestic novels contains a picture of a 
 primitive country school taught by a talented young 
 teacher who " wearied herself the whole afternoon 
 telling Johnnie and Emma that the round letter was 
 O and the crooked letter S." She probably wearied 
 her small pupils almost to death also. 
 
 To do away with this bugbear modern teachers have 
 adopted the " sight reading " method. Words are 
 recognized as " wholes " and when a sufficient num- 
 ber of words have been recognized " reading follows." 
 But spelling does not. And the kind of reading 
 
THE EIGHT METHOD IN READING 163 
 
 that " follows n is a very shallow and superficial sort. 
 Sight reading exercises one part of the mind exclu- 
 sively, and that the one which is apt to be over- 
 exercised at every point, — the memory. The system 
 is good when conjoined with a knowledge of letters 
 and sounds, thus enabling the child to perceive why 
 certain combinations of letters form words; but not 
 where he has no such basis to reason from. Spelling 
 taught through " word building " is less to be banned 
 as rote learning than sight reading, for it develops 
 the child's reasoning powers at every step, and gives 
 him material to go on indefinitely. 
 
 But the alphabet naturally and logically takes 
 precedence. in a sound knowledge of reading. And 
 it may be taught to very young children in a way to 
 make it exceedingly easy and agreeable. One bright 
 young mother of my acquaintance devised a plan that 
 must meet with the warm approbation of every one 
 who tries it personally, and will doubtless succeed 
 with other children as well as it did with her own. 
 
 She realized that the natural tendency of the child 
 is to carry into all activities the idea of family life; 
 to make people out of inanimate things. You may 
 make a drab stone fascinating to an infant by imagin- 
 
164 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 ing it peopled by a race of stony mites. So, instead 
 of answering her little one's eager inquiries about the 
 symbols on her painted blocks by a mechanical repe* 
 tition of their names as letters, she made up a play 
 which should familiarize the child with letters as 
 individuals. 
 
 First, she bought a large box of plain blocks, all 
 shapes and sizes, such as come under the name of 
 " building blocks." Then, selecting twenty-six small 
 cubes, she painted the letters of the alphabet on them 
 and put them all in a box by themselves. Showing 
 this to the child she told him that these persons all 
 belonged to one family called the Alphabet family. 
 There were Mother A and twenty-five children, and 
 the father, &c. who was away on a voyage and would 
 not be back for some time. The child's fancy seized 
 upon the idea with avidity, and on the first day he 
 learned with ease, the names of the mother and her 
 first four children, who were introduced by the teacher 
 with due formality, in their proper sequence. Upon 
 the introduction of each new member of the family 
 they used the other building blocks to build him a 
 house, just the shape of himself, after which they 
 drew his likeness on paper, to stand in front of his 
 
THE EIGHT METHOD IN READING 165 
 
 door, as his name plate. With the four letters they 
 played games for an hour or so, the little one amusing 
 himself alone for a long time after the mother had 
 .withdrawn. She promised to resume the play the 
 next day at the same hour, and then the child was 
 taught the names of the two succeeding letters of 
 the family. He was limited to learning two letters 
 each day, so as not to eat more rapidly than he could 
 digest. Every letter had a pretty tale of his adven- 
 tures to relate, and in this way the child received 
 an excellent training in language. Many were the 
 evolutions they put the letters through; all sorts of 
 dramas were enacted, and the familiar intercourse 
 became so natural, that the rapidity and ease with 
 which the three-year-old • child proceeded to spell was 
 surprising. 
 
 It was necessary to hold him back to prevent his 
 going too fast. In twelve days he had learned the 
 entire alphabet, and there was not the least apparent 
 effort about it. John Burroughs' "Little Nature 
 Studies " was taken up for sight reading, and I 
 should be afraid to tell how quickly this child mas- 
 tered its contents. In truth, he was an able child, 
 with a thirst for knowledge. 
 
166 THE MOTHER IN" EDUCATION 
 
 Yet children with very ordinary abilities might be 
 led by similar devices to learn " to read without 
 tears " as the old copy-books say. I do not recom- 
 mend teaching a child to read at three or four, ex- 
 cept where the desire shows itself persistently. In 
 homes where the atmosphere is bookish children will 
 naturally be desirous of sharing an occupation their 
 elders find so agreeable, and from entreating to have 
 stories told them, will advance without urging to try- 
 ing to read for themselves. 
 
 Eor some reason there was a theory in my family 
 that I was to be kept from books as long as possible. 
 I probably learned the letters with the aid of a nurse, 
 from blocks, for they were mine by a sort of natural 
 right. But my mental activity was forced to be satis- 
 fied with small doses of spelling; lessons I detested, 
 but took in default of any others. And when at seven 
 years, I still found the printed page a closed show 
 to me I took the matter in hand desperately, myself, 
 and learned to read by my own efforts. I found that 
 the spelling tasks had enabled me to pick out a cer- 
 tain number of words in a book, and there was one 
 little book that had been used to read stories from 
 for my amusement until I had it almost by heart. 
 
THE EIGHT METHOD IN READING 167 
 
 By dint of considerable hard labor I mastered its con- 
 tents, bit by bit, and then the field was won. My 
 elders thenceforth had a hard time answering my pur- 
 suing inquiries, — " How do you pronounce L-i-m-b ? 
 T-h-i-m-b-1-e ? " and so on. I must have been worse 
 than old Pumblechook, with his dreadful lessons in 
 addition to poor little Pip. When I could get no- 
 body to answer me, I read on, supplying my own 
 pronunciation according to the sounds of the letters. 
 And some queer mistakes I make in our illogical 
 language. One name in a book, Stephen, I called 
 throughout the entire volume, as it was written, 
 Step-hen, making two syllables of it, and thinking it 
 a singular name for a man, without associating it 
 in the least with the same word, spelled as I supposed, 
 Steven, which was my father's name. But by digging 
 my way thus through the mazes of elementary learn- 
 ing I made a foundation that went rather deep into 
 the soil of perseverance, and rendered me hardy, at 
 least. 
 
 Most modern children, however, require the ap- 
 pearance of ease. They are impatient of long and 
 difficult tasks. If we can find out any way to shorten 
 the long path of learning to read it is desirable 
 
168 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 to do so, and there are some improvements that it 
 is well to adopt. Perhaps the easiest way for the 
 child to familiarize himself with printed words is 
 for him to learn to recite a well-known little story 
 or poem with the book in his hand. Long before 
 " sight reading " was advocated this appearance of 
 reading off the printed page was a little trick be- 
 loved of children. Give a small child a newspaper 
 and see how quickly his face will assume an absorbed 
 expression as his eyes seem to follow words down a 
 column, and he proudly tells you he is " reading like 
 papa." Advantage may be taken of this taste to 
 induce him to " read " from his picture book a se- 
 lected bit of verse, printed in large letters ; gradually 
 the familiar words will begin to mean something to 
 him. They will change from abstractions to objects 
 with histories, and instead of the slow process that 
 used to go on with primer lessons, where the pictures 
 really were the sole things of interest, the words 
 themselves will become imbued with life. 
 
 The importance of good elocution in reading is at 
 present too little regarded. Perhaps rhetoric was 
 over-done in the olden time and we are suffering 
 from a reaction in its disfavor. But the mere pro- 
 
THE EIGHT METHOD IN READING 169 
 
 nounciation of words is not reading; bringing to light 
 the thought words carry is reading. How can that 
 be accomplished if all words are pronounced in the 
 same tone, with equal vehemence, and without in- 
 flections ? Such exercises are the dull droning of the 
 vocal apparatus only, without the accompaniment of 
 the brain. 
 
 What are words unaccompanied by thoughts, to 
 any child? Mere bits of task-work, to be slid over 
 and forgotten as soon as possible. But take any 
 little story in prose or verse, and bring out its inner 
 meaning by the right emphasis and it becomes dra- 
 matic, spirited and interesting. Half a dozen sen- 
 tences so read are worth as a lesson many pages gone 
 over without interest in their contents. Emphasis 
 rightly applied is the very soul of words, and no 
 reading is comprehensible without it. Comparatively 
 few people are accomplished in the fine art of read- 
 ing aloud, and busy mothers usually put aside the 
 idea of attempting to instruct their children in even 
 the rudiments of elocution, believing a thorough 
 knowledge of the subject out of their line. This is 
 another thing mostly left to the school; and ordi- 
 narily, very badly taught there, because by the time 
 
170 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 the child arrives the teacher finds all his time taken 
 up with the correction of faults brought about by 
 careless habits. But if mothers could be convinced 
 that it is easily within their powers to give children 
 excellent elementary knowledge of the use of the 
 voice in reading aloud, surely they would not shirk 
 a task that becomes with a little practise a real pas- 
 time ? 
 
 I can only give here the briefest outline of a short 
 course of such lessons, trusting that the little volume 
 in preparation on the subject 1 from which it is 
 taken may be read with some interest by those who 
 care to have a more thorough acquaintance with a 
 beautiful art. The first business in reading is to 
 bring out meaning. Previous to bringing it out we 
 must discover it. There is always a leading idea in 
 every sentence, or series of sentences ; the other words 
 being used simply as make-weights, to carry on the 
 work suggested by the chief agent. Suppose the 
 mother means to have the child read a certain little 
 poem aloud, both for the practise in word recognition 
 and for mental improvement. She will run over the 
 
 i Our Mother Tongue; speech and reading lessons for home 
 and school practice. Florence Hull Winterburn, B.E.A. 
 
THE EIGHT METHOD IN HEADING 171 
 
 verses herself, privately, and find their import, then 
 tell the child what the subject is that he is going 
 to read about, and suggest to him that he think about 
 that while he reads. With his mind engaged with 
 the more important matter he will naturally not be 
 taken up with trifling details and give atrociously 
 wrong emphasis by making minor words louder and 
 stronger than others. Emphasis is naturally pro- 
 duced in these ways : by an increase of strength in 
 the voice, or by either a lowering or a rising in the 
 pitch; that is, by a distinct contrast with the sur- 
 rounding words. This is what is meant by bringing 
 out meanings. The important word is separated from 
 its companions, sometimes by a pause before and after 
 it, sometimes merely by a rising or falling inflection 
 of tone. 
 
 It will be well for the mother to keep in mind, al- 
 though not to bother the little child with such regula- 
 tions, the three principal rules governing emphasis : 
 
 First, that the leading idea of a new thought must 
 be brought out. 
 
 Second, that the important words that appear re- 
 quire some emphasis. 
 
 Third, that words which merely carry forward the 
 
172 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 thought or are explanatory, are not to be emphasized, 
 but casually used, as one would deal with unimpor- 
 tant words in conversation. 
 
 This will be made clearer by analyzing a little set 
 of verses. We will take an old poem, called 
 
 Aunt Tabitha 
 
 whose subject is the difference between girls in the 
 olden time and modern girls. The words suggesting 
 the leading idea are here emphasized, the others being 
 merely slid along without marked inflections of the 
 voice. 
 
 " Whatever I do, and whatever I say, 
 Aunt Tabitha tells me that isn't the way; 
 When she was a girl (forty summers ago) 
 Aunt Tabitha tells me they never did so." 
 
 Now, the tendency of the child will be to bring out 
 constantly, as an important word, the name of the 
 aunt, which is, however, told in the title and remains 
 in the mind, so that it does not require repeated em- 
 phasis. Things that have been once told and are no 
 longer new, are not to be emphasized. What we are 
 now interested in is what the aunt says and thinks. 
 The next verse goes forward a little, bringing in the 
 
THE EIGHT METHOD IN READING 173 
 
 ideas of the niece. So, the first introduction of this 
 personage will require emphasis. 
 
 " Dear aunt ! If I only would take her advice ! 
 But I like my own way, and I find it so nice! 
 And besides, I forget half the things I am told; 
 But they will all come back to me, when I am old." 
 
 Observe how the few emphatic words carry the entire 
 meaning along, so that all the others may be slid 
 over. The last verse contains the gist of the whole, 
 and the child will be pleased with the roguishness of 
 the implication of the aunt's absurdity. His atten- 
 tion may be drawn to the meditative tone of the 
 phrase, " I am thinking " and the successive emphatic 
 words referring to this aunt's progenitor. 
 
 " I am thinking, if Aunt knew so little of sin, 
 What a wonder Aunt Tabitha's aunt must have been ! 
 And her grand-aunt — it scares me — how shockingly sad 
 That we girls of to-day are so frightfully bad ! " 
 
 The little child of four or five enjoys scarcely any- 
 thing so much as recitation ; and the period when this 
 taste is at its height is the mother's opportunity to 
 train his voice in speaking and reading. Let her begin 
 by teaching him how to manage his breath, a point in 
 
174 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 which the ordinary school child is wholly at fault. 
 Children are apt to waste breath by mingling it with 
 their tones, producing what is called the " aspirate 
 tone." Aspiration, or a half whispered tone is un- 
 pleasant and irritating to the vocal organs. It arises 
 often from bashfulness, and the best way to cure it 
 is by exercising the voice in the " pure tone." Who- 
 ever once masters this beautiful tone will not need 
 much further instruction in the fine art of reading 
 aloud. Management of the breath is most important ; 
 and in addition to the benefit to the voice knowledge 
 of correct breathing has a decided effect on the health. 
 The first thing is to train the child in breathing as 
 deeply as possible with his mouth closed. Then, have 
 him open his mouth and draw in breath through his 
 nose at the same time. Next, have him pronounce 
 a sentence, letting out all the breath with the words, 
 and breathe in again, entirely through his nostrils, 
 while his mouth is open. After some practise he 
 will acquire the difficult art of breathing entirely 
 through the nose while reading, and be on the way 
 toward the acquisition of the pure tone, which is 
 entirely free from nasality and aspiration. 
 
 The pure tone is one of kindness and sweetness. 
 
THE RIGHT METHOD IN READING 175 
 
 Our old professor of elocution used to call it " the 
 Sunday afternoon tone," with a sly hit at girls' habit 
 of putting on a beautiful voice with their glad rags, 
 when they expected company. Where the home at- 
 mosphere is what it should be and children hear 
 pleasantly modulated tones from their elders they will 
 fall naturally into the use of this harmonious tone. 
 
 Harsh, shrill notes are with children the result 
 either of disease, excitement or imitation. Their 
 bright, thin little voices lend themselves readily to 
 depicting happy moods, and the literature we select 
 for them to read should deal with agreeable incidents 
 and be full of variety and interest. A poem I have 
 found very attractive is " Robert of Lincoln " which 
 is full of dramatic effects without tragedy. The 
 little bird notes at the end of each verse may be imita- 
 tive, lending additional sprightliness to recitation. 
 
 As far as possible, let the child discover the author's 
 meaning for himself. When he has learned to recog- 
 nize most of the words in ordinary reading matter of 
 a simple class, he may be encouraged to tell you the 
 tale, just as if he were talking. This is in fact, the 
 secret of good reading; to make it conversational. 
 My mother was a beautiful reader, and had had fine 
 
176 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 training in elocution after the old method, which did 
 not involve the knowledge of any rules that would en- 
 able one to impart knowledge to another ; but the one 
 suggestion she did make was very useful : " Always 
 read just as you would talk." For ordinary reading 
 there is no better rule. Get the child to make the 
 meaning of something plain to you; he is to explain 
 what he himself knows. And this brings us to the 
 great point which is so much neglected: training in 
 articulation. 
 
 The utterance of little ones even in the best 
 families, is usually thick ; the words running together 
 instead of standing out separately and distinctly. 
 The beauty of the English language is its distinct- 
 ness, and its lack of that slurring which is a sort of 
 melody in the Latin tongue but spoils our stronger 
 Saxon. But beautiful pronunciation does not come 
 without training. Children must be taught to shape 
 their mouths to pronounce different words, some re- 
 quiring the flat, some the round and others, the long 
 shape. One little exercise is useful, and is a popular 
 one with school-teachers, but much more beneficial 
 when taught in the earlier years, before children be- 
 come self-conscious. 
 
THE EIGHT METHOD IK READING IVY 
 
 Have the child pronounce the three sounds " 00, 
 AH, EE," with the mouth in the three different 
 shapes, first in the round shape, secondly, in the 
 broad shape, then in the long or flattened shape, al- 
 ways taking a. deep breath before beginning and 
 letting out all the air with the words. He may pro- 
 nounce the three words consecutively, then backward, 
 thus;— " 00, AH, EE,— EE, AH, 00." And as 
 many times as he wishes, only provided that he does 
 not become careless and make his mouth take a wrong 
 shape. That can be easily avoided. The next thing 
 to be done is to draw his attention to those words 
 taking the round, the broad or the long shape of 
 mouth, and train him to adjust his lips in pronouncing 
 them. 
 
 Yes, all this requires care and some time. But it 
 is only one little lesson at a time, and soon over. 
 What we have to do in education is to get our child 
 in the way of self -training. When a mother has done 
 her very best she is not responsible for the way a 
 thing turns out for an offspring who neglects to profit 
 by advantages that have been generously offered. 
 But she will never regret the effort bestowed on any 
 one of her children, even if the result is not strikingly 
 
178 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 successful, since no one knows where or how the seed 
 sown in infancy will germinate and grow to the per- 
 fect fruit, perhaps generations after. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 Seef-Expeession Through Drawing. 
 
 " I wish you to be persuaded that success in your art de- 
 pends almost entirely on your industry; but the industry I 
 recommend is not that of the hands but of the mind." — Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds. 
 
 THE eyes, unaided by reason, give us very 
 false impressions of things. Each instant 
 we correct our first impressions by an 
 amended idea of what is possible and probable; ac- 
 curacy and certainty depending to a great degree upon 
 the range of our experience. The extent to which we 
 are dependent upon experience is proved by our def- 
 erence to those persons who know localities, sur- 
 roundings and scenes to which we are strangers. At 
 sea we place little reliance upon our own vision and 
 much upon the judgment of the sea-going man whose 
 eyes are not bewildered by the dazzle and shimmer 
 of moving waters. On mountain tops we estimate 
 
 no distance without consulting the guide who is fa- 
 
 179 
 
180 THE MOTHEK IIST EDUCATION 
 
 miliar with the land. When in art galleries and 
 cathedrals we walk softly, venturing few criticisms 
 until we have heard the wisdom of better judges, and 
 can adjust our understanding according to theirs. We 
 know in our hearts, that our unaided senses play us 
 strange tricks; that much touching, handling, meas- 
 uring, must corroborate the testimony of eyes and 
 ears before we dare accept what they give us as 
 truth. 
 
 And if adults are thus helpless before novel fea- 
 tures of an ever changing world, how much more 
 helpless are little children, whose imaginations are not 
 yet controlled by reason, and who have no experience 
 to fall back on as a corrective of the grotesque ! As 
 soon as possible we ought to put in their hands a 
 weapon with which to combat riotous fancy which con- 
 stantly leads their wits astray. We must teach them 
 to measure, weigh and calculate so that they may be 
 able to judge with confidence in their own senses. 
 We should train them to reproduce in some form, 
 things they see and hear, then compare their first ideas 
 with the experience of others, to get the knack of 
 critical observation and the power of making a good 
 judgment. 
 
SELF-EXPKESSION 181 
 
 The ordinary parent usually corrects a child's 
 wrong impressions by a simple contradiction of his 
 mistakes. " It is not the way you think, but this 
 way." Without having to exercise his mind at all, 
 the young person merely turns his ideas somewhat to 
 suit another point of view, and philosophically comes 
 to think most things of little importance, after all. 
 One way of seeing is as good as another; and saves 
 trouble. There *are an astonishing number of people 
 in the world whose judgment is worth nothing be- 
 cause they have never been accustomed to look at 
 things with a single eye to their relations with other 
 things : they see what they like to see, that is all. 
 
 Now, the best way to initiate the child in the diffi- 
 cult art of judging values — without which knowl- 
 edge men and women are helpless when it comes 
 to dealing with business — is to let him experiment 
 very early with plastic materials which he can turn 
 and twist at his pleasure. The infantile pursuit of 
 making mud pies is a rich experience in dexterity if 
 it is played as a game of competition. Which one 
 can make the pie that is roundest? One little one 
 compares his pie with that of his neighbor, sees 
 something to amend and shapes his bit of mud over 
 
182 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 again more cunningly. Sea sand offers another means 
 of getting self -education in artistic values. Caves 
 and houses are built and rebuilt with endless patience, 
 the youthful architect continually improving on his 
 methods, yet scarcely perceptibly, since sand is wil- 
 ful and limited in its capacity to be manipulated. 
 Snow is better, but in winter the " peptic stimulant " 
 of biting wind converts all action into sport, and 
 fewer pretty forms are constructed than forts. 
 
 But the instinct of a child to manipulate some soft 
 stuff, like dough or putty, leads him to chase every 
 will-o'-the-wisp of opportunity and get into trouble 
 with his unsympathetic family. Old time cooks were 
 indulgent with this infantile frenzy and allowed a 
 little space in ample kitchens and generous bits of 
 cake dough; but there is very little baking at home 
 nowadays, and less room for kitchen chemistry and 
 the plastic arts. Sweet heaven grant that home 
 kitchens and the dear home atmosphere may not be 
 altogether swept out of sight by certain iconoclasts 
 yclept reformers ! The children would be the losers 
 by any scheme that lessened the wholesome labors of 
 individual homes, whatever the advantage to their 
 novelty-seeking elders. 
 
SELF-EXPRESSION 183 
 
 Dough is a good material for modeling. I taught 
 my own little ones to make dough dolls and animals 
 before they were old enaugh to appreciate the real 
 use of their craft and merely thought of eating their 
 creations after baking them. But they were scarcely 
 out of the kindergarten before I set up a modeling 
 table, with a goodly supply of white putty, and we 
 began to have great times making things. In due 
 course followed a visiting teacher from the Academy 
 of Design, who supervised them in their plays and 
 adroitly turned games into work. Three weekly 
 lessons from her with the aid of my Own small knowl- 
 edge, gave us all a start so that modeling began to 
 be a real delight, and we fashioned flowers, fruits and 
 objects, like vases and cups and quaint boxes; making 
 some very nice things and constantly gaining accuracy 
 of perception and confidence in our own judgment. 
 The modeling table was an experiment station where 
 every one had to demonstrate his ideas. If one be- 
 lieved that the vase to be modeled was of such and 
 such a height and shape, he made it so, and only 
 learned his mistakes after he realized that somebody 
 else had worked according to a better idea and pro- 
 duced better results. The referee was always Ea- 
 
184 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 ture ; that is, the flower or object itself, not a second- 
 hand view of it through the eyes of another person. 
 Erom modeling to drawing was the most natural of 
 transitions. We first began to draw things we had 
 shaped, and found this quite easy, familiarity hav- 
 ing been gained with the forms in question through 
 creating them in the rough, as it were, with clay, so 
 that the finer use of the pencil seemed only pleasant 
 progress. As the fanciful one of the group observed 
 — she was five — " First we have the thing, and then 
 we make its shadow." It was absolutely the right 
 idea, for drawing is but shadowing forth reality. 
 " The art of seeing nature, or in other words, the art 
 of using models, is in reality the great object, the 
 point to which all our studies are directed," said 
 Reynolds. By preceding drawing with modeling 
 these children learned to use models easily and deftly. 
 Moreover, the pencil became a treasure to be appre- 
 ciated, for everything had to be shaped first, draw- 
 ing it being the reward of previous efforts. There 
 was no tiresome reiteration of faulty pictures — 
 endless chains of distorted creatures such as had been 
 transferred from their baby brains to big sheets of 
 brown paper in the days before they learned some- 
 
SELF-EXPRESSION 185 
 
 thing of " the true and the beautiful " in Nature. 
 They laughed now, at those treasured sheets of waste 
 paper; yet they had served a purpose, too. Amuse- 
 ment comes naturally before planned work. Prim- 
 itive man must have gambled with his rough ma- 
 terials for a long time before he took genuine in- 
 terest in what he was accomplishing by chance. I 
 believe in freedom with the pencil as with all other 
 tools of art and crafts. As soon as a little child 
 is old enough to keep it out of his mouth and off the 
 walls, a pencil should be put in his hands to experi- 
 ment with. When he tires of making aimless marks 
 and begins to try to shape objects one general direc- 
 tion may be given him: to try to draw everything 
 just as he sees it. Don't tell him that the table has 
 four legs nor that trees must be rooted in the ground ; 
 let him find out these facts for himself. At first, 
 doubtless, he will have groves of trees flying in the 
 ambient, and clouds lying on the earth. But he will 
 come soon to laughing at himself and get around to 
 truth by making mistakes. Self-criticism is more 
 valuable than any teaching, and a person must feel 
 his own imperfections before he aspires to better 
 things. I think a child of genuine sense is seldom 
 
186 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 satisfied with his own work, but he puts the best face 
 upon it in order to be taken seriously. To be laughed 
 at is a childish horror, and every one should be very 
 careful not to bring this humiliation upon him. It is 
 hard to realize that a little thoughtless ridicule of any 
 of their first weak attempts at art may result in for- 
 ever blighting the personality and originality of the 
 coming man or woman. But the initial efforts of a 
 mind toward independence are feeble and cowardly; 
 industry is not so persistent but that any young person 
 may easily be persuaded to desist from a pursuit that 
 is made to appear beyond his powers. It must be 
 confessed that children's little drawings tempt to 
 mirth, but Mr. Sully has taught us to regard youthful 
 caricatures with respect. 
 
 Probably nothing is held in higher estimation 
 now by enlightened educators than drawing; as a 
 means of developing the mind. Teachers use the 
 pencil constantly to illustrate their subjects, and the 
 child uses it in rude but graphic fashion to reproduce 
 his impressions. The aim is to train children to ob- 
 serve closely and remember truthfully, and nothing 
 could more admirably further this purpose than the 
 habit of calling upon them to describe by a few 
 
SELF-EXPRESSION 187 
 
 strokes of the pencil objects that have been brought 
 to their attention. Picture making is an occupation 
 natural to man in his simplest, most untaught state, 
 and it is likewise o'ne of the earliest voluntary pur- 
 suits of all children. 
 
 Until a few years ago drawing was taught as an 
 accomplishment, and was looked upon somewhat as- 
 kance by teachers of sterner branches. The school 
 boy who, like poor Tommy Traddles, was addicted to 
 solacing himself after discipline by producing shoals 
 of skeletons on his slate, did so at his peril; and the 
 mechanical genius who simply could not resist filling 
 all the paper he could borrow with engines and boats 
 was restricted to that enjoyment during his recess 
 only. 
 
 In schools for girls an hour or so a week was given 
 to copying the model drawings contained in Warren's 
 books, and after hundreds of hours spent in this 
 spirited employment the young person became expert 
 enough to make a faulty copy of the drawing propped 
 upon her desk, and then threw away the thing with 
 relief; having conceived a real distaste for the very 
 name of drawing as an art. A few years later it is 
 probable that she found it impossible to comply with 
 
188 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 the entreaty of her little one to draw him the picture 
 of a horse and wagon, or even a flower ! 
 
 When " drawing from the round " became popular 
 much was hoped from it, but here too, the free-hand 
 course was a perpetual copying of something put be- 
 fore pupils. They were shown what to look at and 
 how to look at it: the master judged for them; they 
 had no choice either as to subject or treatment; their 
 faults were pointed out, and they learned to see with 
 the eyes of the teacher instead of with their own. 
 The result was servility in treatment and a deaden- 
 ing of original power. Even the avowed purpose of 
 making good artists was frustrated by this poor 
 method. An observing spectator has not put it too 
 strongly when he declared : — " It is the fault of all 
 current systems that they limit the youthful mind to 
 small inventions. All who propose to teach or learn 
 art in any form should seriously consider free-hand 
 as the true key to all its practise. It is a great 
 stimulant to quickness of perception." 
 
 The aim of the new education is not to make artists 
 of all children but to give them command of the pencil 
 as of the pen, to use as a mode of self-expression. 
 The mechanical arts are closely allied to drawing, and 
 
SELF-EXPRESSION 189 
 
 modeling, wood-carving and bent iron work are de- 
 lightfully taught in the manual training classes that 
 now follow the kindergarten in really fine schools. 
 But all schools that put forth the claim to be consid- 
 ered excellent have not genuine merit, and it is even 
 more necessary now than it used to be before systems 
 were so complicated, for parents to use great discre- 
 tion in selecting schools and teachers. Even where 
 the children have the privilege of attending an ideal 
 kindergarten and passing on in due course to manual 
 training classes, much remains to be done at home by 
 the mother's instruction and encouragement. I repro- 
 duce here a few paragraphs from the pen of Mrs. May 
 Lillian Dean, who contributed several valuable arti- 
 cles on the subject of " Handicrafts in the Home " 
 to my magazine Childhood some years ago. She 
 worked out a most excellent system of home instruc- 
 tion for her own children which might be copied with 
 advantage by other mothers. 
 
 " A true conception of the reality of form," ob- 
 serves Mrs. Dean, " can only be gained through mod- 
 eling in the round. Modeling should therefore at 
 least go hand in hand with, if not precede, drawing, 
 in the teaching of children. Handling the clay and 
 
190 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 an interest in its convertibility into known forms may 
 precede instruction. One little boy not yet three de- 
 lights in the horses and dogs that are roughly modeled 
 for him. He is too young to attempt them yet for 
 himself but is beginning to show familiarity with the 
 method, by altering the shape of those already made 
 and mending those which meet with mishaps. 
 
 " Modeling in the round aims at producing the ac- 
 tual forms in their true relations to one another, as in 
 a bust, statuette, statue or group. Modeling in relief 
 aims at producing the appearance of the round ob- 
 tained by preserving relatively true proportions in 
 the projection or thickness above the background." 
 
 This is, I believe, much more difficult, and properly 
 comes after considerable experience has been gained 
 in round modeling. Making flowers and fruit on a 
 plaque of plaster is exceedingly pretty and interesting 
 work, and my own little daughter produced several 
 of such plaques at the age of six years, which are 
 creditable to her industry and skill. 
 
 " Clay," continues Mrs. Dean, " is the universal 
 material used for modeling. The common gray clay 
 which costs from two to three cents a pound, is all 
 that is necessary for the purpose. It dries crumbly 
 
SELF-EXPRESSION 191 
 
 and cannot be baked, but for round, bulky subjects 
 such as an apple, where there are no thin edges to 
 crack away, it may be allowed to dry, and will last 
 until some accident happens. It is used by artists 
 for work which is to be cast in plaster, and must be 
 kept well moistened with water as long as the work is 
 in process, and cast before it has been allowed to 
 harden. The clay should be kept in a stone crock, 
 so it will retain its moisture. 
 
 " Thumbs are the best tools, but it may be necessary 
 to supplement them with some small wooden tools, 
 to secure effects. Poor tools cannot give satisfaction, 
 so choose those of firm boxwood." 
 
 The three or four essential small implements may 
 be purchased at any art store for a trifling sum. 
 
 " Choose bulky objects for modeling in the round, 
 and for relief work subjects which are broad in char- 
 acter, by which I mean surfaces not too much cut 
 up. Very young children enjoy making marbles. 
 They break off a piece of clay, press it between the 
 first fingers and thumbs of both hands and then roll 
 it round and round between the palms. No two mar- 
 bles are alike and the children find a charm in the 
 variety of size. The next step may be to an apple as 
 
192 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 a subject to be copied in clay. This may be given to 
 children of six and upwards, and the lesson should be 
 conducted in the following manner : Place the apple 
 on the table in front of the child and a small board 
 on which is a lump of clay. Then say, ( Look at 
 this apple and tell me what shape it is ? ' i Kound,' 
 will be the prompt reply. ' Is it quite round ? ' you 
 will ask, and he will then be led to discover how and 
 where it differs from a sphere and why. When the 
 form has been well studied he may begin by breaking 
 off a piece of clay about the size of a walnut, and then 
 add smaller pieces to it until it begins to look like 
 the apple. When it is nicely rounded it is better to 
 hold it in the hand instead of letting it remain on 
 the board. The hollows for the eye and stalk can be 
 fashioned by means of the fingers, and the eye itself 
 finished by the help of a small stick or tool. Eor the 
 stalk a real twig is best, just poked in where it ought 
 to be, after the hollow has been nicely smoothed and 
 rounded by the fingers. In precisely the same way 
 let the boy proceed to make clay copies of similar 
 objects, — a pear, lemon, potato, musk melon, a bunch 
 of three or five bananas, a bunch of grapes, and so 
 
SELF-EXPRESSION 193 
 
 " Small plaster casts are very inexpensive, and good 
 copies of small animals, heads in relief, profiles and 
 grotesques can be bought for twenty-five cents and up- 
 wards." 
 
 Mrs. Dean most sensibly observes that continual 
 comparison with one's model is necessary for good 
 work, and the child should be admonished not to be 
 satisfied with anything less than really good results. 
 " Encourage your children always to press on, in hopes 
 of better results and higher attainments." 
 
 After some skill has been attained in modeling 
 drawing naturally follows, as the modeled objects of- 
 fer excellent subjects for copying. Unless the child 
 is gifted with some talent in this line he will not be 
 enthusiastic at first about the use of the pencil after 
 the livelier practise of modeling. In that case it will 
 be well not to urge him, but to win his interest by 
 holding out a reward for nice work with the pencil. 
 Where competition does not enter in, I believe in 
 the idea of appropriate reward for hard, earnest work. 
 Drawing especially, is too beautiful an art to be made 
 a task ; it should be associated with pleasure. 
 
 Violet-le-duc, one of the best modern authorities 
 in this field, lays great stress upon geometry as the 
 
194 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 foundation for drawing. To carry on the education 
 of a child in the way he suggests a parent would need 
 a profound knowledge of science and art. But his 
 principles are valuable and some of his exercises are 
 simple enough for use in all homes. The child of six 
 years — some at a younger age — may he taught to 
 make cubes of paper and then to copy them; first 
 singly, then all together. He can collect leaves of 
 different shapes and draw them ; also, disks cut from 
 a rubber tube, pressed into the form of a honeycomb, 
 and he will thus learn why Nature teaches her bees 
 to construct their cells in this compact form. The 
 question he should constantly be led to ask is, — why 
 does this thing have this particular shape instead of 
 some other ? By perceiving that function is every- 
 where the first consideration he will become imbued 
 with the deepest truth of art, that beauty is harmony 
 between inward purpose and outward form; an ex- 
 pression of the perfection of these two. 
 
 I myself, incline greatly toward the geometrical 
 basis for drawing, and some of our best schools of 
 design use it; but justice compels me to allude to a 
 system which has much vogue in France and is en- 
 dorsed by Delacroix. It is said that it enables all 
 
SELF-EXPRESSION 195 
 
 parents, without understanding drawing themselves, 
 to teach their children. It is the Calve method of 
 drawing from memory, and this is the starting point 
 of the system ; — A piece of gauze is placed over a 
 cast and on the gauze a faint tracing made of the 
 object beneath, exactly reproducing it. Then, this 
 tracing is set up as a model and copied, the copy 
 being constantly measured against the original and 
 faults corrected ; the pupil learning both outline and 
 perspective by this continual comparison. The third 
 step is to put aside the copies and draw the object 
 from memory. 
 
 The system may do all that is claimed for it, but 
 although it offers possibilities in the way of a fas- 
 cinating pursuit to girls and boys of genuine artistic 
 talent, I doubt its usefulness to the general student, 
 and it is manifestly unsuited to children under ten 
 or twelve years. Any one wishing to know more of 
 the method may be referred to Madame Calve's charm- 
 ing books. 
 
 Drawing from memory is one of the most difficult 
 things in the world to do. Even professional artists 
 find that they must rely largely upon hasty jottings 
 made upon the spot, as suggestions for pictures. 
 
196 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 They keep memorandum books, as most people do, but 
 their artistic short-band is only comprehensible by 
 themselves. Those who are not artists need to look 
 closely at what they wish to recollect, for they must 
 depend upon their memory to bring back details to 
 them. It is an excellent corrective of superficial 
 observation to sketch a scene as we think we saw it, 
 and afterward return to that scene and take another 
 view. It is a training both in accuracy and humility, 
 for we learn how easy it is to deceive ourselves as to 
 what we believe we have observed. 
 
 The smallest child should be encouraged to try 
 to use the pencil, if merely to scribble at first. Fa- 
 cility in using the fingers is valuable, and if awk- 
 wardness can be overcome very early so much the 
 better. I think that previous to any formal instruc- 
 tion little ones should be let alone to depict their 
 own fanciful ideas. Sometimes they accidentally 
 strike out curiously correct outlines of objects, in 
 their free and spontaneous efforts. But we must keep 
 in mind that the use of drawing to people in general 
 is not so much to teach art ideas as to train them in 
 accuracy and precision. Scientific precision results 
 from habitual use of the pencil to illustrate ideas. 
 
SELF-EXPKESSION 197 
 
 Photography has to some extent replaced the older 
 habit of sketching scenes and countries travelers wish 
 to remember, and the camera is a delightful com- 
 panion on a journey. But the camera cannot snap a 
 thought, and the skilful pencil can. Language can 
 be loose and vague, and the listener's mind get but a 
 faint conception of what is meant, but a few bold 
 strokes of the pencil brings the whole matter quickly 
 before one. Here is another important factor to the 
 child. Finding that what he draws means just what 
 it represents and not something else, he learns not 
 to put down anything he does not intend to show. 
 He becomes truthful, as art is truthful. Imaginative 
 drawing, or romancing with the pencil is a fascinating 
 pastime which sensitive children will usually indulge 
 in for their personal amusement only. When joined 
 with some knowledge of outline, it is useful to the 
 young person, as accustoming him to depict the 
 thought that possesses him, and so make it clearer to 
 himself. Let the child draw at his good will and 
 pleasure, without fearing that he will turn out an 
 artist. If he gains mastery with the pencil he may 
 turn out a man of acute common sense. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Eajrly Social Ideas 
 
 " The most general statement that we can arrive at is that 
 geography deals with men in their whole physical and so- 
 cial environment. The whole man with the sum total of 
 influences brought to bear upon him is the subject of geog- 
 raphy." — McMurry. 
 
 THE broad general culture which the child 
 can get by right home training will have the 
 great advantage of preventing a certain nar- 
 rowing of his mind by the reiteration of a catalogue of 
 facts that are the essential equipment of school routine. 
 One of them is the insistence upon attention to im- 
 mediate surroundings to the detriment of interest in 
 those that are more remote, but of equal if not greater 
 importance. There has come about recently a spe- 
 cial kind of method of teaching geography and his- 
 tory, meant — with the best intentions — to imbue 
 the pupil with the sentiment of patriotism, and give 
 him a practical knowledge of the earth in its com- 
 
 198 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 199 
 
 mereial aspect ; to lead him to believe, in a word, that 
 his native land is the most wonderful, unique, mar- 
 velous earth country, and that his own state, his 
 particular place of residence, the buildings that hap- 
 pen to belong to his town, are the most engrossing 
 subjects of interest that can engage him. 
 
 Now, considering that schools are very largely 
 made up of pupils of foreign origin, who should grow 
 into liking for their adopted country and learn to un- 
 derstand her political institutions, this policy is en- 
 tirely sane and wise; but from the point of view of 
 assuming that the mind of a child is naturally more 
 interested in details than in generals, in what is near 
 at hand than in what is far away, and consequently, 
 more able to concentrate its attention on New York 
 city, for instance, than on Athens or London, I think 
 it is erroneous. If present day children are deficient 
 in imagination and in sympathy with past civiliza- 
 tions the fault lies with our excessive zeal to make 
 them practical. We clip the budding wings of their 
 idealism and later on, wonder why they cannot fly. 
 
 There is an element of the Gradgrind system in 
 modern schools which it is almost hopeless to attempt 
 to alter at present; consequently, we must look to 
 
200 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 home training to correct its narrowing influence. By 
 following out a course of instruction that is natural 
 and in accord with methods that have been found to 
 favor breadth of mind and generous culture mothers 
 may fortify the characters of their children against 
 a too prevalent egotism. Contrary to prevailing 
 opinions I contend that to all unspoiled children the 
 remote has a fascination ; that big, general ideas take 
 more hold on their minds than trifling facts ; that an- 
 cient history, picturesquely presented, explains the 
 present to them ; that the idea of the earth as a whole 
 is as acceptable as the offer of a boulevard vista, end- 
 ing in a flat-iron building; and that they grasp with 
 more alacrity the suggestion of a scheme of creation 
 in the universe than of a spool manufactory. 
 
 All kinds of knowledge have their time and place. 
 It is an excellent plan to familiarize a child with 
 every form of mechanism; to show him watch fac- 
 tories, mints and banks, all the baby streams of his 
 native town, mills and logging camps. The out-door 
 excursions which progressive schools have substituted 
 for more formal geography lessons are useful, but 
 chiefly as a means of developing the child's perceptive 
 faculties and memory. I doubt but that he will after 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 201 
 
 so much time spent in similar studies, lose all interest 
 in geography in its larger aspect; the mind clogged 
 with a multitude of details becomes unable to general- 
 ize. 
 
 Indeed, I have found that some very bright young 
 persons, graduates of our best high schools, have an 
 intimate knowledge of many matters that have never, 
 in the course of my life, had any bearing on sociology 
 as I know it, but they have the vaguest ideas about 
 the people of eastern lands and could not tell you, 
 to save them, what is the chief city of Poland or who 
 Zoroaster was. Not material items, of course, but 
 sample facts of their lack of interest in what has not 
 come under their immediate observation. That is, 
 their understandings are restricted ; their sympathies 
 contracted to what they have been taught to consider 
 useful. It does not matter to them who founded 
 Carthage; but it is exciting that Bryan refuses to 
 disclose his views on the Mexican situation. Again, 
 politics have their right and proper place ; the privi- 
 lege of hearing the daily news discoursed in the home 
 is enlightening and edifying ; but all this is not geog- 
 raphy in its higher aspect. 
 
 Macaulay declared — " All the triumphs of truth 
 
202 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 and genius over prejudice and power, in every coun- 
 try and every age, have been the work of Athens." 
 Is it not something to be able to trace back to its 
 source the forces that have molded civilizations and 
 developed modern intelligence? Is not the WHY 
 of life more important than the mere IS ? The child 
 would say, if he could explain, that it is more impor- 
 tant ; and to him much more deeply interesting. He 
 will not be able to help learning, by mere propinquity, 
 most of the facts about his immediate environment 
 that are essential to him; when he goes to school he 
 will be obliged to study all these material things. 
 But probably he will scarcely hear the name of Athens 
 or of Mesopotamia, the cradle of the race, for many 
 long years, until he is far along in his course, and 
 his early zeal for the picturesque features of history 
 has changed into a jaded dislike of everything that 
 does not help him to pass his "exams." It is to be 
 able to pass " exams " after all, and not to gain cul- 
 ture, that the child studies at school. And after 
 he has passed them, what then ? " Examinations," 
 said Guyot, "means permission to forget." 
 
 Will not the mother see to it that her child, likely 
 to starve away from home, for opportunity to know 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 203 
 
 mankind in his social relations with the universe, 
 gets, early in his career, nourishment for his natural 
 interest in his race? The awakening of the feeling 
 of kinship with mankind, the pleasure of discovering 
 the beginning of things, as revealed in ancient history, 
 even so far back as the story of the wanderings of the 
 Israelites in the wilderness, and the satisfaction of 
 comprehending something of the bigness of the earth, 
 will be owing to her. Warm and living from his 
 mother's lips fall those suggestive words that are 
 to make the basis of all the child's knowledge of 
 the richest of the sciences — sociology. From her 
 he learns to love or to hate mankind; to become in- 
 terested in others, or to grow wrapped in himself, in- 
 different to humanity. How powerful then, is her 
 influence over his future ! Upon her intelligence and 
 kindness depend to a large extent, the attitude he 
 will maintain toward people and to the future as 
 well as the past. No other study is so intimately 
 connected with family life as geography, including 
 its correlative, history of races ; no other so essentially 
 the province of parents. 
 
 What an incomparable advantage it is to a child to 
 hear from his father's lips tales of his forefathers, 
 
204 THE MOTHEE IIST EDUCATION 
 
 when the country was young! The innate desire to 
 grasp some spot on earth as belonging to and identi- 
 fied with one's own family, is thus satisfied. Here 
 our grandsire cleared the forest and built his house, 
 here his sons hunted bears and defended themselves 
 against the revengeful Indians. Proud and happy 
 are the small descendants of the early settlers when 
 later on, they come across the names of Kevolutionary 
 heroes that they knew as ancestors. But with finer 
 altruism unperverted child nature thrills with joy in 
 the contemplation of greatness wherever exhibited. 
 It needs only the right touch to set flowing the springs 
 of enthusiasm and sympathy. 
 
 Let the mother read the page of Greek history 
 which tells of the heroic Spartan boy silent and smil- 
 ing under pain of the foxes' bite and see if it is not a 
 salutary lesson in endurance. Let her dwell upon 
 the dangers and difficulties overcome by the early set- 
 tlers of our land, and point out how all our ease and 
 prosperity is built upon their wise and courageous 
 plans. But do not neglect to tell them that when 
 America was fighting for her freedom it was not her 
 mother country she was fighting but the perverted 
 laws of England's selfish rulers. The best and most 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 205 
 
 devoted Englishmen were friends of their American 
 brothers who sought to carry out in the new land the 
 noble ideal of Anglo-Saxon government. It will 
 charm the children to learn that our New England 
 town meetings only repeated the " folk-meet " of old 
 Britain ; that even the dissimilar custom of our south- 
 ern states merely carried out the newer ways of the 
 mother country in their different idea of parish and 
 county government. The cultivation of this feeling 
 of inter-relationship of the nations of the world, while 
 starting him out in a broad view of life, will in no 
 wise lessen his love for his own country, any more 
 than knowing that he has uncles and aunts and grand- 
 parents and cousins of all degrees of removal lessen 
 his affection for his father and mother. 
 
 Women will need to renew their knowledge of 
 general history a little in order to be prepared to 
 answer the eager questions of their children about all 
 the interesting facts suggested by such studies, but 
 a short course of reading should be all that is neces- 
 sary, for the chief thing is to give the young mind 
 principles and ideas to work on; the facts can be 
 studied out later on. The history of the world's de- 
 velopment is a wondrous story, full of romance and 
 
206 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 excitement, if presented from the standpoint of evo- 
 lution. I am not at all certain about the moving 
 picture shows being the best sources of information 
 as to the habits of the early cave-dwellers. But I do 
 know that Sir John Lubbock's tiny book on primitive 
 man is valuable and appropriate as nursery lore. 
 And then, apart from all religious signification, what 
 is more extraordinary and impressive than certain 
 portions of the Old Testament, to bring before the im- 
 agination realization of the early struggles of man- 
 kind ? Erom that to the beautifully simplified tales 
 of Herodotus, taking in a slight reference to crude 
 forms of Pantheism and idol-worship, is but a natural 
 step. " History is philosophy teaching by ex- 
 amples," and also, it is the purest lesson in the broad 
 religion of humanity that we ever get. I am not so 
 zealous an advocate of biography as are some educat- 
 ors; to me it appears that a single individual, taken 
 out from his environment and into the lime-light, 
 sheds his racial relations. Absorbing interest in per- 
 sonalities is something not to be too much encouraged 
 in children. They have that by instinct. We 
 should constantly have for an aim the lifting them 
 out of the narrowness ; the extending of their limita- 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 207 
 
 tions of view and opinion. That is the especial rea- 
 son for beginning the study of geography with refer- 
 ence to astronomy rather than to the most adjacent 
 canal. The child who is early habituated to look 
 up rather than down, for his insight into reasons for 
 existing things, who is early trained to conceive of 
 design in the universe, beyond the scope of that ma- 
 terial government which proscribes, prohibits and 
 commands matters relating to parks and buildings, 
 will never get mistaken notions of God as a gigantic 
 policeman; nor have a contempt for those who wear 
 different complexions, outside or within. 
 
 The great lesson of history is that of tolerance and 
 love for all mankind. And geography merely ex- 
 plains its sister science, and makes concrete its great 
 principles. Nothing better has been said about edu- 
 cation than the saying of Herbart, the most incorrigi- 
 ble idealist, as he was the most practical of tutors: 
 " The final aim of instruction is morality. But the 
 nearer aim which instruction in particular must set 
 before itself in order to reach the final one is, Many- 
 sidedness of interest." 
 
 In its variety of interest geography and history 
 are unsurpassed. I speak of them together, for they 
 
208 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 are one and inseparable. One cannot think of a be- 
 ing without a habitat; nor of a habitat without a 
 possible creature belonging to it. If, as the baby said, 
 " Everything is Nature excepting the houses/' we 
 may aver that everything is geography excepting 
 what is history. Place and time are all of living. 
 
 How early should we begin to teach the child geog- 
 raphy and history ? One authority says, at the end 
 of the first year ! It must be something then, as our 
 French cousins express it, that " teaches itself." But 
 the authority in question merely meant that the 
 mother may then begin to tell Grimm's household 
 tales to the baby. That is very well, but I cannot 
 exactly agree with this writer in calling fairy tales 
 real history. They have their place, but the first 
 strong impression upon the child's tender mind should 
 be made with sturdier stuff. Perhaps with stories 
 from the classics. The Odysseus may be tried upon 
 the child of four or five, if parents are prepared to 
 meet all the questions which will assail them about 
 the heathen gods. The natural method is to begin 
 with primitive man and with the earth as it was in 
 his day. It has some difficulties, in the way of 
 geographical description, but they may be easily over- 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 209 
 
 come by avoiding detailed relations. Make the story 
 anecdotal ; continually bringing in unexpected bits of 
 odd lore, such as can be gleaned from any good nat- 
 iiral history, and which serve to fasten the hearer's 
 mind on the subject. Recollecting the illustration 
 will help him to recall the fact. I think we have 
 to wrap up almost every idea that is not immediately 
 related to our own interests, in sugar. The most ac- 
 complished preacher sweetens his sermon with illus- 
 tration; the successful lecturer does not despise the 
 funny story that hits the mark. And an audience 
 goes away pleased with the wit of a lecturer when it 
 would otherwise be indifferent to the wisdom. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the earlier lessons in geography 
 begin in the kindergarten; at that time when little 
 ones puddle in the sand, building roads and rivers 
 and mock cities. They get concrete notions then 
 which may be supplemented when they leave kind- 
 ergarten to spend several intervening years at home 
 under their mother's training, before returning to 
 an advanced grade of school. At four or five years 
 they can be instructed without formal teaching, by 
 stories and games, and especially by conversation. 
 Trumbull, who wrote an interesting treatise upon 
 
210 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 training the mind in infancy, says : " It is by conver- 
 sation upon actual objects and feelings that the parent 
 first calls forth the glimmering intelligence of the 
 child. By this method alone it is possible to give the 
 child a stimulus to attention; for it interposes noth- 
 ing between the child and the living voice of his in- 
 structor to prevent the full play of that mutual sym- 
 pathy which is the very breath of school life." 
 
 It is astonishing how much information can be im- 
 parted to children simply by conversation. The 
 privilege of being admitted to the family circle, when 
 by good fortune it happens to be composed of culti- 
 vated persons who have had considerable experience, 
 is an inestimable piece of luck for the child. Such 
 bare, cold facts as the habits of the people in Alaska 
 or India take on vivid interest when coming fresh 
 from the lips of a traveled uncle or cousin; a single 
 curious occurrence that may have happened to them 
 suffices to fix a dozen correlative circumstances that 
 might have otherwise never been learned. Every- 
 thing that can be learned outside of books is a boon. 
 That mother is wise who reads for herself and talks 
 out with her children what she has studied for their 
 benefit. 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 211 
 
 I believe in little ones having a sand pile out in 
 the back yard, not only for play but for educational 
 purposes, but every one has not a back yard, nowa- 
 days. A sand table in the kitchen or nursery an- 
 swers the purpose, and may be used to illustrate many 
 ideas gleaned from the talks on geography and his- 
 tory. The child must be taught the points of the 
 compass sometime; the sooner the better. He must 
 learn the relation of the sun and moon to the earth, 
 and why not let him learn while the fun of represent- 
 ing these sons and daughters of the universe affords 
 him spontaneous amusement % 
 
 A little collection of minerals and foreign curiosi- 
 ties is valuable as a means of inspiring interest in 
 strange lands and people. What the child can see 
 and handle has an actual importance to him, yet never 
 should there be neglected the truth that the concrete 
 is not the whole thing to any natural child ; he craves, 
 as a lover the moonlight, an artist the sight of purple 
 clouds, the atmosphere of fairyland thrown as a glis- 
 tening veil over the too bald facts of the near-by 
 world. Romance in history is eagerly welcomed by 
 every intelligent adult and it is received with enthu- 
 siasm by children. Since it is so human to crave the 
 
212 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 unusual and wonderful it is well that there is so much 
 of both iu Nature and life. We have only to find 
 and appropriate it. The gift of finding it does not 
 belong to all; but even the prosaic woman may cul- 
 tivate in herself something of fancy and liveliness so 
 that her instructions may not be flat and common- 
 place. A few visits to the best primary schools will 
 give her food for thought, and furnish suggestions 
 that she can enlarge upon. I attended a geography 
 lesson recently given in one of the finest schools of 
 New York by a talented young teacher. It was rapid 
 and brilliant in its transitions as a scene from vaude- 
 ville. Her enthusiasm carried the class along in- 
 terested and eager to the end. Like a trained actress 
 she was fully up to her part and the pupils had little 
 more to do than follow her line of thought. Every- 
 thing was made beautifully clear and facts were 
 dovetailed into each other in a way to excite my ad- 
 miration, when I recalled certain wearisome hours 
 once spent in hunting up obscure towns on badly 
 printed maps and boundaries that were utterly useless 
 as knowledge and related to nothing elsa But — not 
 long afterward, having occasion to be with several of 
 these same young pupils and converse with them 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 213 
 
 about some of the things contained in that brilliant 
 lesson I found them singularly vacant of all ideas on 
 the subject. The whole thing had passed, like a 
 dream. I think the reason was that they were merely 
 passive spectators at a show. They had no part to 
 perform, no active w r ork to arouse their energies. It 
 is not by tail's to pupils but by conversation with them 
 that the best results are effected. And here is one 
 decided advantage of home teaching. It is not 
 formal ; it allows scope for that give-and-take of facts 
 and fancy which not only interest at the time but be- 
 come associated with some finer feelings which have 
 the faculty of permanent life. 
 
 In her little geography lessons the mother should 
 always weave in some story that will serve to show 
 up the background of an essential fact. The salient 
 features should be illustrated so that the child cannot 
 think of the kite without glancing also at its tail. 
 Literature teems with books written for children 
 about strange lands and people. Du Chaillu's books 
 are fine, Kipling's Jungle Books charming and " The 
 World and Its People " nearly all that can be desired. 
 But there are in every good public library quantities 
 of smaller volumes, specializing places and races, 
 
214 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION" 
 
 which the mother can readily run through previous to 
 her general talks about certain countries. History 
 makes a running accompaniment to geography les- 
 sons, and cannot be left out. It is always wise to 
 strike while the interest of the child is fresh in a 
 particular topic and give him all that he asks for. 
 Avoid needless details, especially those that lead away 
 from the broader side of the subject. I think that 
 the child is perhaps, to be rather than the teacher, 
 the leader in selecting his material. At least, his 
 especial interest in a particular thing may be taken 
 as a guide. Eor instance, if there has chanced to be 
 a conversation at the dinner table the day previous, 
 alluding to the Arabian mode of traveling, is there 
 any reason why the next day's lesson may not hinge 
 upon that topic? As well Arabia as China or the 
 state of Kansas. Geography may be discursive and 
 jump all over the known world at an instant's notice. 
 The important thing is that the little pupil learn the 
 facts that he wants then and there. That is the 
 knowledge that will stay by him longest. Eirst 
 arouse his interest, or if it has already been accident- 
 ally aroused, then follow up his awakened enthusiasm. 
 Dear me, — an aroused enthusiasm is a very valu- 
 
EARLY SOCIAL IDEAS 215 
 
 able thing, and not to be neglected! How many 
 weary college professors would give anything for that 
 spark of genuine interest in a subject under discussion 
 which it is the happier fortune of the magnetic mother 
 to strike out without much effort. 
 
 It is not easy to suggest anything like a formal 
 schedule for lessons in geography at home. Each 
 mother can best lay out her own plan, according to 
 her general knowledge and her children's needs. But 
 she may put aside diffidence and hesitation and go 
 on boldly with this work, because it affords her the 
 largest latitude. Probably she will accomplish most 
 when she thinks to do least. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Children's Literary Life 
 
 " Education is not an apprenticeship to a trade ; it is the 
 culture of moral and intellectual forces in the individual 
 and in the race." — <Fouillet. 
 
 AN" extraordinary instance of what can be done 
 by self-training, without the assistance of 
 schools has just come under my notice. A 
 young woman whom unfortunate family circum- 
 stances had caused to " tumble up " rather than to 
 be rightly and regularly educated, passed her college 
 entrance examinations with remarkable eclat, with- 
 out any other preparation than her own earnest ef- 
 forts could achieve. By pouring over elementary 
 grammars and text books she gained enough knowl- 
 edge of their contents in a single month to supplement 
 the lack of years of consecutive study, and after hav- 
 ing been but two years at school during the whole 
 
 of her life she entered college and made all her terms 
 
 216 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 217 
 
 without any one suspecting the lack of systematic 
 training that had preceded this final course. 
 
 This is not an example to be held up for emula- 
 tion. It merely shows what concentration and ear- 
 nestness can do, and incidentally, how much time is 
 ordinarily wasted in long years of " college prepara- 
 tory " reading. The girl in question came of a liter- 
 ary family ; books were her playthings from infancy 
 and she had absorbed the contents of a library with- 
 out any formal study. Her mental energy was of a 
 high order and she brought to each subject she at- 
 tacked the ripe faculty of judgment and a memory 
 not worn out by long years of drudging over unim- 
 portant details. " It is intellectual power that is 
 transmitted from one generation to another," observed 
 a French critic, " and not the knowledge acquired." 
 But to all intents and purposes the inheritance of 
 power is even better than a heritage of mere learning, 
 since the important factor is undiminished energy, 
 not out-of-date facts about living. 
 
 " Browsing in a library " did for Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes what his Alma Mater could scarcely have ac- 
 complished alone. It gave him an unquenchable love 
 of literature, apart from the mere technicality of book 
 
218 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 work. And the two things are very different. The 
 child who grows up looking npon books as things con- 
 cealing lessons, who hears of Shakespeare and Tenny- 
 son for the first time from the lips of his teachers ac- 
 companied with admonishment about strict attention 
 to the notes at the end of the volume, and who reads 
 with an eye to examinations ; gets almost none of the 
 beauty out of the poems and less of the moral worth. 
 But if he has been familiar with these poems from 
 his earlier years, and learned to love them for their 
 own sake, neither " notes " nor questions can dull his 
 interest in them. And he will probably be in need of 
 no such spur ; where culture has entered into the blood 
 medicaments have no work to do. 
 
 I have often been surprised at the slight knowledge 
 average girls of the high school age have of general 
 literature and how little their cursory reading helps 
 out their course in the college preparatory studies. 
 Between the English classics and what they usually 
 call interesting books, obtained from the libraries and 
 eagerly devoured for amusement, there is an immense 
 gap. On the one side all the wealth of our rich lit- 
 erature, and on the other a sea of trash. No wonder 
 that the business of reading the books required for 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 219 
 
 college is considered a heavy task, since there is so 
 little preliminary training at home. In a normal 
 education nearly all that is now " required " and 
 " crammed " should have been slowly and uncon- 
 sciously acquired in the course of a childhood passed 
 in the atmosphere of hooks. Where the habit of re- 
 ferring to dictionary and encyclopedia to help out in 
 difficulties has been the rule from infancy and where 
 conversation in the home has been intelligent, the 
 child does not have to be taught by his school teacher 
 how to learn, and scarcely what to learn. When his 
 interest in the subject on hand has once been excited 
 he will work without needing to be driven along the 
 path under the lash of a threatened " examination." 
 He will work because he wants to know. And the 
 only knowledge that stays by us is that which has 
 been gained to satisfy our curiosity. 
 
 There are children who have an honest indifference 
 to books, but want to know what is useful and nec- 
 essary for their occupations. They will read when 
 they want to find out facts bearing upon pursuits that 
 interest them, such as machinery, electricity or some 
 craft, but their enjoyment is in the fact mastered, not 
 in the way it is presented. Books are their servants, 
 
220 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 not their friends. That they thus miss the most in- 
 tense pleasure in life is not a distress to such practical 
 temperaments: frank, shrewd, bustling minds are 
 these, to whom the universe is a mechanism and 
 themselves mechanics. They are usually cheerful, 
 insensible and self-satisfied, but not sympathetic nor 
 winsome. Dearer by far is the creature who with all 
 the faults, perhaps, of frequent impetuosity and in- 
 consistency yet unites to capacity for action an en- 
 thusiasm for the ideal. Such an one will be esti- 
 mable as a man, adorable as a woman and as a child 
 at once perplexing and tantalizing, satisfactory and 
 attractive. 
 
 The natural child has a vein of romance in him 
 as the wild flower has a faint woodsy scent, unlike 
 the perfume which is cultivated in garden blooms. 
 His fancy dwells in a world where beauty is a right 
 and love the law ; he revels in the impossible, believes 
 devoutly in the improbable and fixes his ambitions 
 high above the power of mortal attainment. But if 
 he did not, if he simply desired what is easy and 
 common, he would win less from life than even the 
 average man and woman do. It is by aiming high 
 
CHILDKEN'S LITEEARY LIFE 221 
 
 that we get a little nearer a lofty mark than if we 
 followed the level of our understanding. 
 
 Between the simplest child and the great genius is 
 a natural sympathy and attraction. " And still to 
 childhood's sweet refrain the heart of genius turns," 
 sang Longfellow. The mind that is passionately sin- 
 cere strikes fire from the child nature. Nothing is 
 so repellant to it as an affectation. Eew grown peo- 
 ple know what literature they like until they have 
 been told by somebody they respect what they ought 
 to like. Their admiration or disapproval results from 
 a deliberate deference to rules and standards, or, in 
 the case of the uneducated, from that emotional stam- 
 pede which draws an entire mass onward after a 
 leader. 
 
 But children receive from their first acquaintance 
 with a book the effect the author intended, free from 
 the prejudice of contemporary opinion of its worth. 
 The ideas they may form have the sincerity of a con- 
 viction reached by independent reasoning; more re- 
 liable than the impressions of adults who rarely ap- 
 proach a book with unbiased minds. And not only 
 will an unsophisticated child pass judgment upon an 
 
222; THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 author according to Lis own impressions about him, 
 but he will state these in a straightforward manner. 
 He makes no apologies or explanations on finding a 
 famous writer dull or a popular idol unnatural. It is 
 instructive to hear the candid criticisms of a young, 
 unspoiled mind, but an understanding which is wholly 
 natural in its processes is not by any means character- 
 istic of all children. Although there is a period in 
 the life of every child when he is intellectually 
 honest it is often brief ; cut short by his introduction 
 to school. Here the sharp edge of originality quickly 
 grinds away against the machine constructed to turn 
 individualities into averages. 
 
 So quick and sure is the change under school dis- 
 cipline from impulsive frankness to calculated effects, 
 that I believe the data recently contributed by school 
 libraries concerning children's literary tastes can 
 scarcely be considered good evidence of their natural 
 inclinations. It is the product of a cultivated soil, 
 not a spontaneous growth. And the determination 
 to accept these contributions as proofs of a child's 
 mental bias reveals the prejudice in favor of engraft- 
 ing adult opinions upon the tender shoots of young 
 instinct which is constantly leading us away from a 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 223 
 
 real understanding of child nature. We cannot as- 
 certain what a child thinks by starting ont in our 
 inquiry with a fixed idea of what he ought to think. 
 Little is gained indeed, by attention to his purely 
 mental processes even when they are honestly studied. 
 We gain more by considering his emotional expres- 
 sions. 
 
 I believe that every normal child has an instinctive 
 appreciation of the good and the beautiful at least 
 equal to the guiding light of our own adult experience. 
 There is in fact, a curious likeness between the pure 
 impulse of a simple understanding and the aspiration 
 of a mind broadly cultured. A little child's estimate 
 of literature which is at all within the realm of his 
 comprehension is usually more than respectable; it 
 is often acute, searching, just. What he likes is apt 
 to have some claim to excellence, even if of a simple 
 kind. And his dislike for complications closely re- 
 sembles the preferences of truly esthetic minds for 
 something that touches the heart. 
 
 Whoever will take the trouble to win the confidence 
 of a child who is just beginning to get an acquaint- 
 ance with literature, chiefly as yet, through having 
 stories read to him, will probably find some positive 
 
224, THE MOTHER IS EDUCATION 
 
 inclinations already aroused. Out of a dozen books 
 one will be eagerly praised and others listened to with 
 indifference. And although this indication of prefer- 
 ence or aversion may seem like a caprice, study of the 
 child's tastes in other matters will show that he has 
 reasons for his criticisms. Cold, somber or subtle 
 things do not attract him. It is his part, as a reader 
 or listener, to respond, not to dig deep for hidden 
 meanings, and art may ask much from his feelings but 
 no new effort from his mind. The dividing line be- 
 twixt pain and pleasure is much sharper in youth 
 than in maturity, and clearer, truer. Work is called 
 work and play is known as play. A book that de- 
 mands hard thinking cannot delude infantile fancy 
 by any over-lapping pleasantry above dulness. The 
 demand a child makes of a story is that it shall have 
 vitality, warmth that can kindle interest. Humor, 
 pathos or a lively bit of talk stir him more than older 
 readers because his susceptibility has not been dulled 
 by abuse. 
 
 There are children, I am told, who take a kind of 
 pleasure in tickling their ears with the sound of 
 rhythmical phrases ; a baby of two years who listened 
 with delight to Tennyson's " Sweet and Low," and 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 225 
 
 other precocious mites who sigh over " Thanatopsis," 
 out these are rare infants. Most intelligent young peo- 
 ple under a dozen years, when childish taste begins to 
 change, have a hunger for what is vivid and present; 
 choosing, if one may so phrase it, the legs of plain 
 prose, not the wings of verse ; liking rhyme very well 
 but insisting on the story. 
 
 Eolk lore makes no mistake and is permanently 
 satisfying. " Mother Goose " holds her place in our 
 nursery because in such thrilling narratives as " Lit- 
 tle Jack Horner " and " Mary and the Lamb " there 
 is an immediate answer to the child's wish for reality. 
 A living person with an identifying name is at once 
 projected on his attention. He is given a playmate. 
 Then there is something given him to do that is both 
 curious and interesting; something one would not 
 mind doing one's self if the chance offered. The 
 laugh comes with the discomfiture of somebody or 
 something that is not especially cared for. Favor- 
 ites must be protected and extricated from their dif- 
 ficulties before the tale ends, if there is to be peace. 
 
 There is a natural difference between the tastes of 
 boys and girls. Boys want the excitement strong 
 and sustained; girls prefer something more subtle. 
 
226 THE MOTHER IE" EDUCATION 
 
 They would have a heroine continually doing agree- 
 able little things, like Miss Alcott's " Jo " who is, I 
 believe, the most popular character in any book writ- 
 ten for children. She is so altogether human ; spicy 
 yet high-minded, and above all, impulsive, like them- 
 selves. If we would get at the secret of what gives 
 the charm to character I think it is this : the showing 
 of lively impulse. A real child is always swayed by 
 caprices, stopping scarcely one time out of a hundred 
 to calculate and study consequences, and if he avoids 
 all dangers it is after personal experiences has taught 
 him what they mean. When an author presents a 
 cool, far-sighted young creature who pauses before 
 every attractive caper to decide whether he will get 
 his feet wet or lose his chance of getting to heaven, 
 one cannot blame a sensible reader for throwing down 
 the book. 
 
 There are bits in some novels that children recog- 
 nize as faithful paintings and like better than any tale 
 written down to their understanding. Give them the 
 school day experiences of Jane Eyre, the chapter from 
 " The Caxtons " about Pisistratus and his flower pot, 
 or that picturesque and too little known genre bit 
 from Mrs. Stowe's " Poganuc People " where Dolly 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 227 
 
 goes to the illumination, if you would learn whether 
 children appreciate excellence of description. Dick- 
 ens' stories about " Poor Jo," Harry Walmers, Jr., 
 and Little Em'ly, pleasantly narrated in the volume 
 brought out by Dickens' daughter should be in the 
 child's library. Every well read woman can how- 
 ever, make appropriate selections from the best au- 
 thors to suit the taste of her little hearers. It is one 
 of a mother's privileges to introduce her children in 
 this manner to what is best in literature and not send 
 them forth utterly undeveloped, to have their opinions 
 formed by any teacher into whose charge they may 
 happen to fall. " Education is rescuing children 
 from the play of chance." 
 
 Old books, especially those meant for adults, con- 
 tain treasures not to be found on modern juvenile book 
 shelves. Indeed, the majority of books written for 
 children are an affront to their taste. They are 
 mostly fantastic, exaggerated and lacking in a true 
 perception of child nature. They deal with life from 
 the point of view of the adult trying to seem young, 
 and have a sort of mocking humor that teases and re- 
 volts. An unsophisticated child dislikes magicians 
 and goblins who talk satirically, animals tbat 
 
228 THE MOTHER IJST EDUCATION 
 
 philosophize, and young persons who are made to 
 pose for the purpose of acting out the author's idea. 
 To succeed with them a writer must be sincere and 
 have no ulterior object in view. And this is why 
 the child characters wrought by the masters strike the 
 chord of youthful sympathy. They are usually writ- 
 ten in the author's best and most earnest vein. 
 When an author presents his hero or heroine as an 
 infant he knows that he works to win or lose all. If 
 he does not succeed in making him live all is over. 
 We may waste one perusal on his book but we will 
 not return to it. If readers universally abided by 
 their better impulses there would be a great weeding 
 out in our literary fields. 
 
 Mrs. Wiggins, who has done so much to protect 
 children from misinterpretation, says : — " One of 
 the vices of to-day is that we are publishing too many 
 books for young people. The child's attention is be- 
 ing diverted from the best channels by the newspaper 
 interest which the schools require. We are envelop- 
 ing rather than developing the young mind. Here 
 is my educational creed : Provide the best conditions 
 for mental growth and then let the child do the 
 growing. " 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 229 
 
 This eminent author was one of the children who 
 " browsed in a library " ; reading in childhood such 
 books as " Undine," " The Arabian Nights/' " Scot- 
 tish Chiefs," "Ivanhoe" and Thackeray's " Book 
 of Snobs." " Gulliver was very real to me," she 
 averred, " and I don't think I was the worse for not 
 reading Shakespeare in expurgated editions. We 
 expurgated as we read, child fashion, taking into 
 our sleek little heads all that we could comprehend 
 or apprehend and passing over what might have been 
 hurtful at a later period. I suppose we failed to 
 get a very close conception of Shakespeare's colossal 
 genius but we did get a tremendous and lasting im- 
 pression of force and power, life and truth." 
 
 It is a thousand times more important, this — than 
 pedantical knowledge of every word the seventeenth 
 century authors made classical. The telling truth 
 Mrs. Wiggins lightly refers to, that when very young 
 children get beauty and truth from literature, and 
 slip over the allusions to evil that later on they will 
 be curious about — is too little understood. I read 
 Don Juan when I was but ten, and dreamed over the 
 unparalleled grandeur of Byron's melancholy music. 
 I swallowed whole such volumes as Chateaubriand's 
 
230 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 Travels, passed a warm summer without fatigue 
 by the help of a wonderful time-yellowed book en- 
 titled " Poets and Poetry of America," containing 
 " The Culprit Fay " and many odes to Napoleon, 
 and devoured without hindrance or check, between 
 seven and seventeen many works of our greatest 
 English writers, holding doctrines and anecdotes that 
 were more than doubtful material for the reveries 
 of maidens, but of which I kept only the beauty and 
 remained entirely innocent of the vice. 
 
 The child does cull sensibly if he is allowed a 
 free hand. He chooses the volume which strikes a 
 true note; that appeals both to his imagination and 
 to his sense of reality at the same time. He likes 
 realism in romance. This may be why Grimm's 
 Tales are usually preferred to later embroideries 
 upon the plain old reel of simple folk lore. The de- 
 sire to continue adventures of a favorite hero leads 
 the child to love long stories, related in sections, and 
 continued for many sequent days. If he could be 
 made sufficiently attractive there is a possibility that 
 a single hero would last a child during the term of 
 his nursery existence. Such a character is the 
 worthy Tuflongo, in Holme Lee's Fairy Tales, In an 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 231 
 
 obscure corner among some old papers I found the 
 other day that ancient volume, worth from its as- 
 sociations, more than its weight in gold to me. On 
 the day that my eyes opened to the light of this world 
 my mother, whose imaginative nature bordered upon 
 superstition, recalled a certain legend to the effect 
 that if a book, a ring and a piece of money were 
 placed within the reach of the new-born infant its 
 choice would show its future destiny. If the money 
 was touched it would become rich; if the ring a 
 happy marriage was presaged, while the selection of 
 the book foretold a literary career. My father, in 
 the gratification of this whim added romance to it by 
 purchasing a new book for the occasion. It was 
 Holme Lee's Eairy Tales, a thick book in a bright 
 red and gold binding, fatally attractive; and the 
 blind, misguided baby put its wavering little hand on 
 the volume, thereby sealing its fate, as well as estab- 
 lishing an inalienable right to its first lawful piece 
 of property. 
 
 The plaything of my first year, the victim of my 
 early penchant for pencil marking and the treasure 
 of my whole childhood, this old book has served me 
 many a good turn, and perhaps — who knows ? — an 
 
232 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 ill turn or so in its time. I learned to read in it, and 
 learned too, from it, to live for half the time in a 
 beautiful ideal world where virtue and happiness 
 went hand in hand and where " love was law." 
 
 There are worse things than a vein of romance. 
 It naturally thins to a mere thread as we grow old, 
 but in early life it should be a full, abounding cur- 
 rent, influencing to some extent all the thoughts and 
 acts of youth. An old French proverb says, "A door 
 must be either open or shut." And a child must be 
 one of two things; credulous, confiding, hopeful, or 
 else sordid and distrustful. Shall we wish our little 
 ones prematurely worldly wise? 
 
 It is a fair and happy period where the boy and 
 girl meet each other's eyes frankly and squabble and 
 make up in true brotherly and sisterly fashion. Out 
 on some haunt in the woods wanders one of those 
 girls whom Mrs. Stowe says are happy with " three 
 apples and a book," and with her a frank, saucy boy, 
 intent on fishing but with a weather eye to teasing. 
 He too, has a book in his pocket ; a Life of Somebody, 
 and he and she exchange confidences, and thrill 
 mutually over the heroic deeds of Coeur de Lion and 
 Lloyd Garrison. Their mingled enthusiasms kindle 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 233 
 
 feelings that even after dying down a little, leaves 
 something which makes future trust in human good- 
 ness easier and heroism possible. Who shall say 
 from what secret source of memory is drawn that 
 power to endure and suffer for faith and freedom 
 that makes our boy and girl go gayly forth to hard 
 duties when country and humanity call ? Only 
 lately a thrill went through many of us when a well- 
 known woman whose beauty and social power had 
 made themselves felt on two continents quietly re- 
 nounced every privilege of her position to become 
 a nurse to lepers. But yesterday we unfurled our 
 flags and scattered flowers over the biers of a score 
 of young soldiers who were the pioneers in a dan- 
 gerous campaign against a threatening foreign foe. 
 Does this spirit spring up in a night, like a mush- 
 room ? Impossible. It takes years of up-lifting fan- 
 cies and thoughts to make a hero. But the most 
 potent factor in a good life — after a good mother — 
 is good literature. Surround the child from infancy 
 with books that contain the great lessons of life ; that 
 thrill with earnestness and enthusiasm; that are 
 vigorous and deep and call for response from his 
 mind. To the child who opens his mind to the deep 
 
234 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 truths of poetry, which is the forerunner of science, 
 life looks simple and easy, and he learns to attach 
 himself to duty before duty assumes that complicated 
 and distasteful aspect it often presents later on. It 
 is the child who is averse to books, who is inimical 
 to study, that is the intractable child, who rebels 
 against law and order because his nature is inhar- 
 monious with its own laws. Books in themselves — 
 mere print and paper — are only trash except as they 
 are symbols of the life of thought and imagination. 
 But in our day they are symbols almost inseparable 
 from it. And so the child who naturally forms an 
 early friendship for books shows that the trend of his 
 mind is upward, along the higher paths of life. 
 
 A child's literary life is a secret no adult can 
 ever wholly penetrate. If he seldom talks of what 
 he reads he thinks the more. The memories garnered 
 from his reading enter into his dreams, and pursue 
 him when awake. His development is helped on per- 
 haps more by his voluntary reading than by any formal 
 studies. But the mother may tactfully guide his taste 
 often without his knowledge, by speaking in praise of 
 fine books. There should be within easy reach, such 
 attractive volumes as Arabella Buckley's " Fairyland 
 
CHILDREN'S LITERARY LIFE 235 
 
 of Science," for children over seven; and Haw- 
 thorne's Wonder Book must be in every home. But 
 even without any book especially adapted to his age 
 a child will find nourishment for his taste in bits 
 culled from great authors. The time to cultivate 
 literary taste in children is before they can read. 
 Stories told by the mother or father, when the little 
 ones are cuddled about their knees in the twilight are 
 the treats which young things look forward to with 
 the greatest pleasure. One of the prettiest sights in 
 the world is a flock of bright, eager children gathered 
 around some gentle, sympathetic woman who has for- 
 gotten all her cares and important duties to enter 
 into their enjoyment. It is surprising that mothers 
 ever neglect this function of story-telling, which is 
 one of the best means of impressing important les- 
 sons. A " ballad-making " parent holds his child 
 a willing captive and although he may sometimes 
 feel, as Emerson says, that he " is the slave of his 
 power," and wish he had less gift of entertaining, 
 he can teach his audience moderation in its demands. 
 A child will concede almost anything for the sake 
 of that charming hour " in the gloaming " when he 
 is taken a journey into fancy's kingdom and made 
 
236 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 to forget all his little troubles and disappointments. 
 Story-telling is doubtless, a natural gift, but it can 
 be cultivated, and the result is well worth effort. 
 There are numbers of books at hand nowadays, fur- 
 nishing the outline of classical tales, which the 
 mother can glance over and master easily. Her per- 
 sonality is an essential quantity in the fascination 
 of the twilight hour tales, though, and the more she 
 can infuse herself into her stories the better they will 
 be liked. Even after they read a good deal for 
 themselves children prefer to hear tales related by 
 a living voice. They take to books for company 
 when the more vivid presence of loved friends is 
 lacking. But once interested in a favorite volume 
 society solicits them in vain. The true book-lover 
 becomes immersed — buried, and has to be dug out 
 with hoes ! But one should be cautious of interrupt- 
 ing a vision of the beautiful by the intrusion of 
 rougher actualities; when the reader is young. 
 Subtle influences of potent worth may be at work 
 within them. Most of us who have lived much with 
 books are influenced more than we should probably 
 like to acknowledge by reminiscences of our childish 
 literary life. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Foreign Languages 
 
 " Conversation has always been considered by the great 
 educators the best means of instructing children; especially 
 in languages. Socrates, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Fellenburg 
 and many others have been earnest advocates of it. It is 
 above all, in the family that this method is useful as a 
 means of preparing children for classical studies, and for 
 giving them fluency in living tongues." — Marcel. 
 
 IT is of inestimable advantage to any one to grow 
 up knowing two languages so well that he can 
 at will pass from one to the other, without the 
 necessity of conscious translation from his mother 
 tongue into that which is the less native. It is almost 
 like possessing a spiritual passport that might enable 
 the intelligence to take a vacation whenever it de- 
 sired an extension of its experiences. Apart from 
 its practical value to those who are to pursue com- 
 mercial careers, or to the traveler, the complete pos- 
 session of one or more foreign languages is an ex- 
 
 237 
 
238 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 tension of mental power that no one can afford to 
 neglect. A mere " smattering " of a language is 
 entirely useless as an aid to intellectual develop- 
 ment, and the complete acquaintance with one im- 
 plies such facility that one may express all his 
 thoughts in it with as much readiness as he can in 
 his mother tongue. 
 
 How many of our young people grow up with this 
 mastery of the French, German or Spanish over 
 which from five to ten years are usually spent during 
 their school and college years? They may, after 
 great effort and much drudgery get a reading knowl- 
 edge of these foreign languages ; more rarely, a writ- 
 ing knowledge. But it is seldom indeed, that the 
 knowledge includes the anility to converse fluently 
 or to think in it. Mastery of a foreign language can- 
 not be got from text-books. One must live in the at- 
 mosphere, work, play and breathe in it just as he has 
 done with his mother tongue, before it enters into 
 his composition and becomes an integral part of his 
 existence. 
 
 The idea of using text-books to impart a knowl- 
 edge of languages is a pedantical method which 
 was first adopted by a set of monks; the Jansenists 
 
FOREIGN LANGUAGES 239 
 
 of Port Royal ; and has come down to us. But it has 
 been meeting with disfavor for a long time, and 
 will, it is to be hoped, sometime be superseded by 
 the original method of the living voice of the teacher. 
 In the more cultured families among us there is 
 often a singular neglect of languages as a part of 
 education. They are regarded as the special office 
 of the school, where there is 'a great show made of 
 teaching them. How thoroughly this is done may be 
 inferred from such circumstances as this : In Paris 
 I met at a certain pension, or boarding house, about 
 thirty young women from all parts of the world, but 
 especially from America, who after graduating from 
 our large colleges, were beginning at the beginning 
 as pupils at the " Ecole Internationale " to learn 
 French. Not one could speak the tongue studied 
 for from five to seven years, and scarcely one could 
 read the simplest book without the help of a diction- 
 ary. At St. Germaine I encountered a melancholy 
 Harvard student going through the same routine by 
 himself, to supplement the deficiencies of his early 
 training ! Everywhere throughout Europe one meets 
 Americans struggling with tongues which they are 
 supposed to have studied long and seriously, but with 
 
240 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 which they have no intimate acquaintance. After 
 years of delving through grammatical rules the 
 traveler is forced to turn to an interpreter to explain 
 the simplest facts relating to everyday needs. Nor 
 is this lamentable deficiency singular to English 
 speaking people. In France English is very poorly 
 taught in the schools and only those children who 
 have English governesses learn anything at all of 
 our tongue. And in English boarding schools a two 
 years' term is considered insufficient to get even the 
 slightest reading and writing knowledge of the Eng- 
 lish tongue studied at home since infancy! Be- 
 cause it is taught from books. A Erench girl of my 
 acquaintance who has had excellent advantages, fin- 
 ished by two years at a celebrated English school and 
 cannot write a note of one page in English without 
 making errors a six-year-old child laughs at. But 
 during our own residence at Paris I had the good 
 fortune, in an exchange of conversation with a Erench 
 girl, to give her a start in English that enabled her 
 to go on easily after we left there, although she had 
 perhaps less than thirty lessons. I took with her the 
 real kindergarten method, talking about objects 
 around us, and passing gradually to other matters; 
 
FOKEIGN LANGUAGES 241 
 
 not undertaking to confuse her understanding by 
 immediate reference to " the knife of the gardener's 
 son." Yet some rules of grammar did come in 
 incidentally, and were remembered as being explana- 
 tions of certain " drolleries " of the singular English 
 language. 
 
 The kindergarten method is the right one; even 
 when the pupils have reached an advanced age. In 
 learning a language we must all go back to child- 
 hood. Is it not then, a singular absurdity to teach 
 children by methods that are too advanced for the 
 adult who is a beginner ? Language is an outcome 
 of man's emotional nature and is not to be acquired 
 by an effort of the intellect working by itself. Gram- 
 mar, the colorless reflection of speech, may be coolly 
 studied, but to know grammar is not to know how to 
 talk but how not to talk. It no more imparts the 
 power of expression than knowledge of the chemical 
 properties of colors makes an artist. After some 
 facility of expression has been gained it is desirable 
 to begin the study of grammar, if French or German 
 are being studied, because these languages depend 
 upon grammar for correctness of construction much 
 more than our own tongue does. But the grammars 
 
242 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 should be of the most primary character and written 
 in the language that is being studied. It is a mon- 
 strous error to study any foreign grammar written 
 in the mother tongue. 
 
 ~No one should he appalled by this statement and 
 anticipate insuperable difficulties in the way of home 
 instruction of children in foreign languages. If 
 French is to be taught, buy at any French book store, 
 or send to Paris and get it, the " Premiere Annee 
 de Grammaire" published by Librarie Armand 
 Colin, and use it as an aid to the conversations about 
 grammar. Conversation, and above all, conversation, 
 is the essential method of instruction. Consider the 
 method of Nature with her children. In the first 
 place, we perceive, then we want, and express our 
 wish; then, we claim what we want. First observa- 
 tion, then emotion, lastly, expansion of our ideas. 
 In the most primitive stage the language is wholly 
 that of emotion, and is conducted by gestures. 
 Therefore, in teaching children, make use of gestures 
 to help out. Little songs, accompanied by gestures, 
 little games that are actively spoken, ^.x words in the 
 minds of the players. Out of feeling springs ex- 
 pression as flowers grow from the vital substance in 
 
FOREIGN LANGUAGES 243 
 
 the plant. The more intense our feeling the more 
 vivid and picturesque our expression. In building 
 up a method for the learning of a foreign language 
 we must analyze the way we learned our mother 
 tongue and proceed along similar lines. That was 
 the vehicle of our earliest wants and thoughts; simi- 
 larly, the newer tongue must first endeavor to depict 
 our simpler wishes and ideas, gradually progressing 
 to those that are more complicated. 
 
 One of the most absurd things ever attempted was 
 setting children to learn languages from books. 
 Even the conning of words was stupid enough, but 
 when it came to memorizing rules of syntax, the di- 
 vergence from common sense was at its highest point 
 of departure. Yet what countless thousands are still 
 pursuing this road to nowhere! And how disre- 
 garded are the warnings of those who like Monsieur 
 Gouin, relate their sorry experiences of the classical 
 methods of learning a language and advise the aban- 
 donment of books and the use of a system that is in 
 accord with Nature. Against a deeply rooted preju- 
 dice our mighty philosopher, Herbert Spencer, made 
 but little headway, when he showed the world its 
 error, half a century ago. But the labors of Jacotot, 
 
244 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 Gouin and Marcel have prepared the way for the 
 adoption of a rational method; and although it is 
 little known or practised now, there is hope that in 
 time it will entirely drive out the classical or monk- 
 ish method. 
 
 Monsieur Marcel, whose clear and concise little 
 manual on " The Study of Languages " well trans- 
 lated lately, should be read by every mother, divides 
 his method into two parts ; the practical, which asso- 
 ciates ideas and their signs directly, as when a child 
 plays in German and French with native nurses and 
 so acquires both languages at the same time that he 
 learns to speak his mother tongue from his parents; 
 and the comparative, where a foreign language is 
 learned by translating the signs of our native tongue 
 into the strange one. The first plan he thinks the 
 only proper one for young persons under twelve; 
 while the second, calling for judgment and reflec- 
 tion, is an aid to the mental development of riper 
 years. The practical method is however, in my 
 opinion, not only superior to translation, but is the 
 only way that a foreign language can be learned so 
 as to afford a ready means of communication with 
 
FOEEIGN LANGUAGES 245 
 
 others, or the power of expressing one's own thoughts 
 through written words. 
 
 When an adult and a child visit a foreign country 
 the little one learns to speak the new language far 
 more rapidly than his older fellow student because 
 he gets his knowledge at first hand; not by saying 
 to himself for instance, that a certain word in Ger- 
 man stands for a certain word in English, but that 
 das Kind is himself, der Hut the thing upon his head, 
 and so on. His mother meanwhile, labors by the 
 comparative method to think from one set of symbols 
 into another set, instead of immediately associating 
 objects and their symbols. 
 
 The child's way is the living way, the other a 
 colorless imitation. Translating has so long been the 
 regular routine, that many persons are shocked by 
 the suggestion of discarding it in favor of the ap- 
 parently puerile method of Nature. How pernicious 
 the translation method ordinarily is has been proved 
 to me by many instances of children losing all in- 
 terest in foreign languages after some drudgery at 
 this dull work. One child who had lived abroad 
 long enough to become proficient in French — speak- 
 
246 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 ing, reading and writing it quite well at twelve years, 
 not only lost all her fluency after four years at an 
 American high school, where she was put in the ad- 
 vanced class and set to translating, but acquired such 
 a distaste for the language she constantly heard 
 mutilated that she can now scarcely be persuaded to 
 read a line or speak a word of the tongue that was 
 once as familiar to her as her mother tongue. 
 
 A reading acquaintance with a language can be 
 gained by translating, or the comparative system. 
 But even here its inferiority is evident. How slow 
 and tedious is our progress when every sentence in a 
 book must be re-thought in our own tongue. And 
 what proportion of men and women who have studied 
 languages by the classical method in their youth are 
 able after leaving school, to read the literature of 
 those languages fluently enough to enjoy it ? 
 
 As a means of mental discipline translating has its 
 advantages. Classical teachers deny that the natural 
 sciences have an equal claim. But no humanist how- 
 ever enthusiastic over study for its own sake, will 
 refuse to admit that the professed object of studying 
 a foreign language is to learn it; and if it can be 
 learned better by one system than another, the prac- 
 
FOREIGN LANGUAGES 247 
 
 tical plan should be chosen. Now, the only practical 
 plan is to live the language we wish to learn. To 
 act through it, think in it, understand by it and speak 
 it until it has become dissolved in our blood and is as 
 much part of us as our mother tongue. One lan- 
 guage learned thus is worth for mental discipline 
 twenty gotten superficially. Under exceptionally 
 favorable circumstances, as when several languages 
 are spoken in a family which is composed of two or 
 three nationalities, it is possible to learn all of them 
 very well. But only persons with a special gift for 
 languages ever get a thorough knowledge of more 
 than two. And for all practical purposes, as well 
 as for mental discipline, two are enough. 
 
 An allusion must here be made to the exceeding 
 carelessness and short-sightedness of parents about one 
 matter. I know many Germans living in New York 
 who send their children to American schools, anxious 
 that they should learn their adopted tongue, but ab- 
 solutely neglectful of the privilege that is easily 
 within their reach of mastering two languages con- 
 secutively, through home conversation in German. 
 Some parents who speak German between themselves 
 always speak broken English when talking with their 
 
248 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 children! It is incredible that when it is so diffi- 
 cult to learn a language through the medium of school 
 instruction that so ready a means of acquiring mas- 
 tery of both the inherited tongue and the adopted 
 one should be neglected. 
 
 I know one little girl of ten whose acquaintance 
 with three languages was a marvelous thing to her 
 teachers and playmates. Of Dutch origin, she had 
 learned that tongue in infancy from her parents; 
 then, her grandmother being German, she had ac- 
 quired a good knowledge of that language through 
 constant association with her. But she had also, 
 lived some years in France and had gone to school 
 there, so she could speak and read French with fa- 
 cility. Entering an American school at the age of 
 ten, and keeping up, in obedience to her wise parents, 
 her acquaintance with the tongues learned in her early 
 childhood, she was able to add English to her former 
 languages without any trouble at all, and in a couple 
 of years spoke it without any objectionable accent. 
 This shows what may be done by using the proper 
 means with young children, of mixed races. It is 
 much easier for the child of parents who have come 
 to America from foreign lands to recollect their na- 
 
FOREIGN LANGUAGES 249 
 
 tive tongue and acquire English than to learn their 
 mother speech afterwards, as a foreign language. 
 This truism should not need to be said, but it is 
 so ignored that it is necessary to impress upon par- 
 ents their absurdity in sending their children to 
 school here to learu from books their native — or that 
 which is native to their parents — speech. I have 
 known this to be done in many instances. Some 
 young women whose father was a learned German 
 physician, and never, during his thirty years in this 
 country, forgot his native accent, absolutely sent his 
 three daughters to a German tutor when they were 
 grown, to learn in a class composed of Americans, 
 the tongue that should have been theirs by heritage. 
 
 If a child acquires German or French before he is 
 twelve he may then give a couple of years to the study 
 of Latin in the preparatory school, and if he has 
 the good fortune to learn it as he should, as a living 
 language, he will know it pretty well by that time. 
 According to the old-fashioned method it will take 
 him seven years to get even the slightest reading 
 knowledge of it. The term " dead language " is a 
 strange misnomer. If it is dead it is no longer a 
 language, any more than a corpse is a person. Were 
 
250 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 I to undertake to teach Greek, of which I know 
 nothing, I should take my young pupil to Athens and 
 accompany him in his sports with his young com- 
 rades, so that what we both learned together we might 
 practise with ease and naturalness. There are a few 
 schools where Latin and Greek are taught as living 
 tongues, and under gifted, enthusiastic teachers the 
 pupils make almost incredible progress. The Ger- 
 man professors have the advantage over us in a corps 
 of thoroughly trained special teachers, but before long 
 we shall probably equal them in this respect. 
 
 It is an open question whether study of the classics 
 for the general student is worth while. Spencer and 
 Bain say not. But Monsieur Eouillet utters these 
 trenchant words : " If boys, on leaving the lyceum, 
 forgot all their Greek and Latin immediately, the 
 cerebral development and the tendencies acquired 
 would be enough to prove the utility of classical 
 studies." But in any event, the classics should not 
 be entered upon before the thirteenth year, and may 
 be learned in school; unless one of the parents 
 chooses to take the trouble to dig up his neglected 
 lore and be the assistant of his young son or daugh- 
 ter. My own mother who had been an excellent 
 
FOREIGN LANGUAGES 251 
 
 Greek scholar in her youth, could not recall more 
 than enough to start me on the alphabet when it came 
 my turn to learn! And I know one very studious 
 girl who lived the life of an anchorite for five years 
 to keep at the head of her class in Greek, but who, 
 after passing her examination, straightway proceeded 
 to bury all her knowledge of Greek fathoms deep un- 
 der more useful things, so that within a year she 
 could scarcely construe one page of the " dead 
 tongue." I cannot think as Fouillet does, that so 
 much effort and so little result is worth while. For 
 mental discipline I believe that the thorough knowl- 
 edge of a living language, like German, French or 
 Italian, is more than equivalent to years of drudgery 
 in Greek which is to be forgotten at once after pass- 
 ing an examination. 
 
 The case is different with Latin, of which every 
 educated person must possess some knowledge. Un- 
 fortunately very few parents recollect enough of their 
 badly learned classical language to impart it to their 
 children. We must as a rule, depend upon the 
 schools. But modern languages are essentially the 
 business of home teachers, for they are to be learned 
 by the comparative method, that is, by object teach- 
 
252 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 ing instead of text-books. Erom four to say, ten 
 years, the child is at its best period for learning 
 languages by the natural method. If the mother 
 is not proficient in French or German she will do well 
 to call in native tutors, insisting upon object teaching, 
 and attending the lessons in order to see that her 
 ideas are carried out. At certain hours every day 
 — for it is highly important that no lapses occur, the 
 mind easily taking on the habit of looking for cer- 
 tain activities at regular hours daily, and lending it- 
 self to them with pleasure — there may be " Erench 
 plays " or " German plays " which consist in banish- 
 ing English for the time and carrying on the games 
 entirely in the foreign tongue. The child learns 
 phrases by the help of gestures and accents ; the new 
 language appeals to him in the same way that his 
 native one does, through his emotions, and the great 
 object is gained that his ear gets trained and he under- 
 stands it when spoken. We say that we wish our 
 child to learn to speak Erench, but that amounts to 
 nothing unless he can understand it when others 
 speak it. We must recollect that the most important 
 point is to train the ear and not the eye ; for it is the 
 ear which is the organ of understanding language. 
 
FOREIGN LANGUAGES 253 
 
 And one of the prime difficulties of an adult who tries 
 to read French or German after a course of classical 
 instruction in them is that he sees word but does not 
 feel them as he would if he had learned his language 
 orally. They should be vibrant and full of melody, 
 just as English is to him. There must be no sense 
 of a medium between the author and himself; they 
 should be en rapport. Facility in reading can 
 scarcely be gained until at least twenty volumes have 
 been carefully read. 
 
 I had a happy experience once in giving children 
 active lessons in French. It was down in Virginia, 
 in that region Amelie Rives has made classic, the old 
 county of Albemarle, where when it rains, the en- 
 tire soil becomes a river of red mud, and people must 
 find occupation within door for consecutive after- 
 noons during rainy spells. There were six children 
 in the house, and it rained hard. I coaxed an oblig- 
 ing young woman to play light airs on the piano, and 
 getting all the youngsters together, taught them some 
 calisthenics in " Grace," with the explanations given 
 entirely in French. The motions were gone over 
 several times, always accompanied by the same words, 
 until even the dullest had them impressed on his 
 
254 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 brain. Then we played games in the big hall, and 
 spoke our directions for " cache-cache " — I spy — 
 and other simple little games entirely in French. It 
 was all a lively play, with no mention of intended 
 instruction, but the children learned all the num- 
 bers, up to twenty, in a couple of afternoons, be- 
 sides many words and several phrases. Was not 
 that quick work ? 
 
 As soon as the child becomes somewhat familiar 
 with the language we are teaching him through play, 
 we should begin to read simple tales to him; prose 
 rather than poetry. The same tale may be read over 
 and over again, for children are, happily, pleased 
 with repetition. When they know the little story we 
 may have them tell it to us in their own words. We 
 may adroitly direct their attention to the verb rather 
 than to the substantive, getting them to describe ac- 
 tion rather than things. Eor the verb is the objec- 
 tive point of that language and to know a single one 
 so thoroughly as to be able to apply it in every ad- 
 missible way is better than to commit to memory 
 any number of nouns. 
 
 Ebr children who had gained a fair acquaintance 
 with the tongue in question I devised something that 
 
FOEEIGN LANGUAGES 255 
 
 had excellent results. There were but two of us to- 
 gether at one time, as the idea was scarcely applicable 
 to more. We took turns in reading from a well 
 written French book of fiction, in which there was a 
 good deal of conversation, and each was provided with 
 note-book and pencil. As one read, at first slowly, 
 the other jotted down rapidly, all the words she could 
 catch, the reader never pausing to repeat or give any 
 light on obscure points. The reporter had to do just 
 the best she could to get her phrases as they fell from 
 the reader's lips. Then she in turn, took the book 
 and became the reader, reading the same page that 
 had been read to her while the other wrote down rap- 
 idly all she heard. Then, the same page was read by 
 each in turn, but more rapidly. The third time it was 
 read it was read as fast as a person ordinarily speaks 
 and the reporter had to stir herself to get down the 
 phrases, as she had not the privilege of referring to 
 what she had previously written but was obliged to 
 depend entirely upon her memory and ear. 
 
 The competition was lively, and each became 
 very ambitious to excel in this reporting busi- 
 ness. As the book was interesting, we did not weary 
 of it until it had been pretty well exhausted as a 
 
256 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 medium of study, and as we were obliged to con- 
 tinually think in the tongue we were using, English 
 being thrown almost aside even in our minds during 
 this lively work, wonderful facility resulted in the 
 use of French in the course of one winter. But the 
 difficulty with a language as with music and paint- 
 ing, is that it cannot be neglected with impunity. 
 Practice must be assiduous and faithful, for the lapse 
 of a few months makes a sensible falling off in fluency 
 and knowledge. 
 
 However, there is one comfort; knowledge once 
 acquired can be renewed at but little expense of brain 
 power. Persons have been known to recall a language 
 once known but long since forgotten, after many 
 years of disuse, when mingling with people of the 
 race among whom the tongue is spoken. And there 
 are singular instances of a long-forgotten language 
 coming back to a dying person; showing that what 
 the brain has once carefully registered stays there ; al- 
 though a life of occupations leading apart from the 
 accomplishment appears to have completely driven 
 it away. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Accomplishments 
 
 "But if all the useless ornaments of our life are to be 
 cut off in the process of adaptation, evolution would empov- 
 erish instead of enriching our nature." — George San- 
 
 TAYANA. 
 
 IN the days when there was a wide swath be- 
 tween education for girls and for boys, it was the 
 custom for parents to be ambitious of making 
 their daughters " accomplished " women. A little 
 music, a little painting, a little knowledge of embroid- 
 ering and burnt wood work entered into the equip- 
 ment of all gently-bred girls. But colleges opened 
 their doors to women; Vassar was built; new ideals 
 sprang to life in the breasts of mothers ; their daugh- 
 ters were to be trained for life, not merely varnished 
 and finished. And all the softer pleasures of the 
 intelligence were kicked out of sight by the hoof of 
 sport. 
 
 For it is necessary for minds that work hard to 
 257 
 
258 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 relax in some way. Recreation is a recognized fac- 
 tor in health. After many hours spent indoors it 
 seemed the only ' rational course for girls to go to 
 the golf-fields, to the tennis courts, to the archery 
 fields and basket-ball grounds and spend all the time 
 they could spare in active exercise in the open. 
 This sane practice has given us a new race of women ; 
 hardy, fearless, practical and — wholly opposed to 
 sentiment in every form. No one is more apprecia- 
 tive of the splendid physical endowments of modern 
 American women than I. Reared in boy-fashion my- 
 self, while very young, that period of " running 
 wild " probably tided over much subsequent im- 
 prudent bookishness later on; and I wish that the 
 out-door life had lasted for a much longer time. Yet, 
 may there not be an excess of physical recreation in 
 a girl's training? If, for the sake of our general 
 evolution, we are forced to " cut off all useless orna- 
 ments " as S ant ay ana says, will we not lose something 
 precious out of life? 
 
 Sport is a delightful and exhilarating pastime ; yet 
 the mind does not particularly benefit by it. Mental 
 recreation is necessary for the complete development 
 of our nature, and nothing affords a better variation 
 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 259 
 
 of intellectual occupations than what are called ac- 
 complishments. It is said that a man is better for 
 a hobby of some sort ; likewise, a woman is much the 
 better for an accomplishment. A cultivated taste for 
 a fine art is a resource against dulness and unrest; 
 it keeps the heart sound and satisfied, the mind sane 
 and well poised. Parents should not then, cut off 
 accomplishments from their schedule of education, 
 but ought to give a child every opportunity to prac- 
 tise such a safe and agreeable mental game as an out- 
 let to emotional energy. Making education wholly 
 " practical " and conducive to the work of life stifles 
 instincts that break out later on in various sorts of 
 wild excesses. As mechanical musical instruments 
 replace the harp, piano and violin; and moving pic- 
 ture shows replace home entertainments that require 
 mental effort, so in proportion will " feminism " drive 
 out those old-fashioned womanly graces that once 
 made home a place to be remembered with tenderness, 
 and family relations something indescribably sacred. 
 A number of years ago there appeared in a popular 
 magazine one of those cartoons which by a few bold 
 strokes depict the folly of an epoch. It represented 
 a poor woman on her knees scrubbing the kitchen 
 
260 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 floor while in the parlor her pretty daughter prac- 
 tised her voice to the accompaniment of the piano. 
 In the mother's uplifted eyes, gleaming out of a 
 wrinkled, care-worn face, was an expression of pride 
 and satisfaction; by self-immolation she had made 
 her daughter a lady. Was it such absurd travesties 
 upon proprieties as this that brought upon music as 
 an accomplishment the reproach that it is a mere 
 pandering to the vanity and idleness of young women 
 who do not choose to be useful \ There is a terrible 
 excess in natural readjustments of social follies, and 
 education suffers for every craze that takes possession 
 of the public. What is right and proper in itself 
 falls into disfavor through the stupidity cf those who 
 do not know how to be moderate in anything. 
 
 Now, wherever the parents' position justify such 
 a course — but not otherwise — children should be 
 taught music, dancing, painting and kindred ac- 
 complishments as an essential part of their home 
 training. Education has doubtless been improved 
 to some extent by making it conduce to knowledge 
 bearing upon the kind of careers that are in view for 
 young persons, but too much zeal here inevitably leads 
 to an oversight in another place; the proper outlet 
 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 261 
 
 for emotion. Concentration only upon the objective 
 side of living will develop in our young people a kind 
 of ruggedness similar to that of plants whose blossoms 
 are continually cut off by the gardener so that their 
 whole vitality may be given to growth. They present 
 a fine appearance of health and strength but no sug- 
 gestion of that grace and beauty that accompany a 
 fulfilment of the function that is at once tender and 
 potent, delicate yet eternal; the stretching out of 
 fibers toward that spiritual realm where sentiment 
 and feeling make the joy of life. 
 
 If adjustment to the ends we are trying to realize 
 in this scientific age compels the surrender of every- 
 thing not distinctly useful, we shall become erelong 
 a poverty-stricken nation despite our vast material 
 wealth. The fine arts cannot flourish in an atmosphere 
 of bustle; the finer feelings develop best where there 
 is leisure to throw out those little mental tendrils 
 which cling about old associations and traditions. 
 Much to be pitied is the man or woman who because 
 of too great devotion to the practical has lost the 
 faculty of meditation on the beautiful. Who can de- 
 fine the limits to the happiness occasioned by the 
 merely picturesque? 
 
262 THE MOTHER IJSF EDUCATION 
 
 Too much earnestness drives one mad. Let lis 
 then, admit recreation into our lives as a recognized 
 necessity; not merely physical recreation, which re- 
 pays us for our time in relays of health, quite as 
 tangible as any other purchasable article, but mental 
 recreation, which is the satisfaction of impulses 
 reaching out toward the beautiful in nature and art. 
 We need frequent transitions from big tasks to little 
 ones, from those that exercise reason to those which 
 make distinct call upon the imagination. We gain 
 in cultivating as accomplishments those things we 
 may never be able to do very well, but like to 
 do. The ambition to excel does not then draw heavily 
 upon our resources, limiting the free sweep of our 
 enjoyment. The sense of not being too serious is 
 an agreeable variety. 
 
 There is a tendency at present to pretend that 
 everything must have an excuse for being; that it 
 must make money or bring health. We dance be- 
 cause it is a fine exercise ; motor because being in the 
 air is excellent for the nerves; sing to expand the 
 lungs ; go to moving picture shows to get information 
 about countries we have not visited. It is not frank ; 
 this disguise of preference. We do all these things 
 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 263 
 
 because we crave amusement; because they seem to 
 us agreeable things to do. If passing a little time 
 at home in the occupations which are now out of 
 favor could be made popular we should once more 
 see young persons going about with sketch books 
 under their arms in summer, and hear a little music 
 and conversation at home in the evenings; perhaps 
 even have some moderate dancing in our own little 
 drawing rooms instead of a mad stampede to cabarets ; 
 with consequences that threaten the foundations of 
 society. 
 
 Let us nourish our children's souls. By the ex- 
 penditure of a little time and money we can develop 
 their natural tendencies along the line of musical and 
 artistic expressions so that their minds may expand 
 harmoniously, not grow up dwarfed and imperfect. 
 If our girl has no decided talent for music we should 
 not enforce the harsh decree that excludes music en- 
 tirely from her education, should she like to learn 
 something of the piano or violin. Only positive 
 aversion ought to excuse her from some application 
 to an art that will be a resource to her; if not an 
 occupation bringing in return in money or fame. 
 Every creature has need of the privilege of making 
 
264 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 a little melody. A small voice may give happiness 
 to its possessor; a little flexibility of finger comfort 
 her when loneliness or misfortune overtake her. The 
 person who adds to his vocation in life an avocation, 
 becomes independent of the world. 
 
 In a good scheme of education there is a full and 
 complete preparation for life's serious labor kept 
 constantly in view, and also, indulgence of the tastes 
 and inclinations that brighten life. Accomplish- 
 ments have the same relation to the mind that pets 
 do to the affections. They keep up kindly currents 
 of feeling that conduce to the welfare of the whole 
 nature, and without which we are hirelings to life's 
 business; joylessly fulfilling a prescribed task. 
 
 In the arts as in science, the beginning is every- 
 thing. A bad beginning may do more damage than 
 can be later on repaired by a fine master. If it can 
 possibly be done, have the child who is to learn to 
 play the piano, be under the instruction of a real 
 artist in music for the first year ; preferably a woman. 
 The primary object is not technique; that will come 
 later on, if there is enough taste in the pupil to justify 
 a long and severe training; the primary object is 
 development of a love for melody, as opposed to 
 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 265 
 
 noise. The natural instinct of the child will lead him 
 to play " tunes." Let him. But teach him to make 
 the tunes true to their measure of time and pitch. 
 Make him familiar from the beginning, with the 
 principle that music is a measuring of sounds, so 
 that certain spaces intervene between them; that 
 unless the right spaces interpose the result is un- 
 bearable noise. Is this often explained to the child 
 who is required to " keep time " as a task ? It was 
 not explained to me by the stiff English governess 
 who kept my young body in prison on a hard stool 
 while she droned out her everlasting and meaningless 
 — " one, two, three, four," until I nearly lost all my 
 natural love for music under the infliction of " keep- 
 ing time." 
 
 But the child who is made to understand that time- 
 keeping means measuring distance between sounds 
 will become interested in following out a principle 
 that brings results. Give it an example between 
 something drummed out regardless of harmony and 
 the same thing measured; there can scarcely fail to 
 be an appreciation of the difference. If there is we 
 must infer a lamentable absence of correctness of ear. 
 A poor ear can be cultivated, however, where there 
 
266 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 is present a real taste for music. When that too, is 
 absent, one must decide whether any amount of musi- 
 cal education is worth while, or whether efforts should 
 not be directed toward some other form of art. 
 
 While there ought to be opportunity given for some 
 knowledge of all the arts, time and energy should be 
 chiefly spent on that especial one for which an early 
 liking is shown. No child should be made an intel- 
 lectual prisoner. Seven years is about the right age 
 to begin piano lessons and an hour each day is as much 
 as ought to be required for practise. If the mother 
 is herself a good musician there is no better or more 
 patient instructor; yet, the more of an artist she is 
 the less likely is she to give the lessons willingly. 
 Perhaps she may be able to effect the exchange of les- 
 sons with another mother, helping an advanced pupil 
 in return for primary instruction for her own daugh- 
 ter, for it is notable that those who are gifted in music 
 detest the drudgery of teaching the young. Happily, 
 there are born teachers, in music as in other branches, 
 so that one can scarcely fail to find the right teacher. 
 It is really important that the beginner should be 
 well taught. I have seen too many instances of 
 wasted time and money on poor teachers not to advo- 
 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 267 
 
 cate this most earnestly. Of all things expression 
 should be sought in the beginning. When there is no 
 technique to make sounds melodic, the dependence 
 must be placed upon feeling. Even a simple exercise 
 can be played by a young child so as to be agreeable 
 to people, if she has learned to put into it the expres- 
 sion native to its spirit. Consequently, we may dis- 
 courage pounding on keys and unsympathetic render- 
 ing of airs, even when the child is at a very tender 
 age. The object is music; not noise. 
 
 Dancing is now " a craze." It is scarcely neces- 
 sary to suggest that it be taught to children. Eut 
 there are right and wrong ways. One of the sanest 
 is the method that prevails in the smaller towns of 
 France, where little classes are organized for after- 
 noon dancing two afternoons a week, and the mothers 
 or chaperons sit along the wall watching, while a 
 couple of teachers put the little girls and boys through 
 their steps to the music of a piano exceedingly well 
 played by the third assistant. It is simply an in- 
 formal little ball, amusing and innocent, affording op- 
 portunities for companionship of a peaceable and 
 well-bred character, with a good deal of sensible in- 
 struction thrown in. The French dances, — the 
 
268 THE MOTHEE IE" EDUCATION 
 
 " Berlin/' the " minuet " and the world-known " lanc- 
 ers " are very pretty ; but the adaptation of our " Bos- 
 ton " is less happy, being a sort of wild jump, after a 
 fashion that is called the " American method." We 
 do not like to own it. 
 
 Dancing may be taught in small classes, better than 
 in large ones, and every neighborhood should have its 
 organized class for children, at prices low enough to 
 allow every one to become a member. Unfortunately, 
 prices for good instruction are often prohibitive. In 
 that case, the mother who knows how to dance pretty 
 well, should invite some other little ones to share 
 the privilege of her own child, and give them all 
 home lessons at least twice a week. Make it a little aft- 
 ernoon function, with light refreshments afterwards. 
 No child under the age of twelve years should be 
 allowed to go to a dance held after night-fall. I state 
 this with more rigor than I usually state any sugges- 
 tion, for most parents are now relaxing the old sane 
 rule for young people of " early to bed and early to 
 rise/' and letting them stay up until all sorts of 
 hours. It is why so many of our young girls look 
 faded at sixteen and our boys take to cigarettes to 
 " calm their nerves." If only we could get ourselves 
 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 269 
 
 to emulate the fashion of our sensible German friends 
 who make the afternoons the time for recreation, and 
 sit out in gardens during the early evenings, sending 
 their children to bed when the lights are lit. Not the 
 American Germans, however, who have learned our 
 ways. 
 
 In a recent book * I have described children's enter- 
 tainments, especially lawn parties, which are among 
 the pleasantest of summer recreations for young peo- 
 ple, and ought to be more popular among us. They 
 are exceedingly popular in France. 
 
 i Novel Ways of Entertaining, by Florence Hull Winterburn. 
 Harper & Brothers, New York. Price $1.00 net. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Infant Politicians) 
 
 " Complete living is the aim of all education." — Trum- 
 bull. 
 
 THERE is always a great run on packing boxes 
 at the time of an election. The boys want 
 them for bonfires. All the months during 
 which the heads of families are soberly laying in ad- 
 ditions to their stock of fixed opinions and theories by 
 the aid of their favorite newspapers our boys are mak- 
 ing secret preparations for a timely outburst of en- 
 thusiasm. The zeal they display in collecting barrels 
 and other lumber, the parsimony with which they^ 
 hoard and the ingenuity with which they secrete their 
 ill-gotten plunder are simply astounding to older 
 heads. 
 
 I watched from my window lately the making of a 
 prodigious bonfire to celebrate the last presidential 
 election. A swarm of boys, ranging from four to 
 
 eighteen, buzzed back and forth from the middle of 
 
 270 
 
INFANT POLITICIANS 271 
 
 the street to the rear cellar of a corner grocery kept 
 by the father of one of the young* patriots. Each 
 time a pair of panting fellows emerged bearing aloft 
 a huge hogshead or pile of boxes they were greeted 
 with a triumphant shout, and twenty hands assisted 
 in hurling their burden into the center of a pyre which 
 was already sending what seemed a dangerous column 
 of smoke toward the heavens. The supply of fuel 
 was apparently inexhaustible and the fun grew mad- 
 der each instant. Joining hands the youthful fire- 
 fiends were dancing around and almost into the fire 
 when a giant policeman hove in sight with all canvas 
 spread and a howl of indignation. Presto ! The en- 
 tire street was alive with little flying figures, and 
 the cry of " Ginger ! " echoed from one end of the 
 block to the other, as the youngsters scurried about, 
 watching the officer's attempts to put out the con- 
 flagration, throwing an occasional box under his very 
 nose, and uttering groans or shouts as the policeman 
 or the flame appeared to be momentarily in the as- 
 cendant. The end did not come for a long hour and 
 when the representative of law and order finally 
 stamped on a handful of embers and turned away — 
 the fire was re-kindled within ten minutes. 
 
272 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 "Boys will be boys!" ejaculated indulgent on- 
 lookers ; and there is no possible way to keep young- 
 sters from celebrating great occasions in tbeir own 
 particular fasbion. They will steal grocers' barrels 
 and boxes and they will defy parental and official au- 
 thority when their time comes, and devote the whole 
 of their little souls to " painting the town red." 
 
 The truth is some laws are meant to be broken, 
 for Solon, who knew how to make the laws which 
 " were not the best he could devise but the best that 
 Athens could bear" was dust and ashes at that 
 prejudiced epoch when America borrowed from her 
 Saxon forebears some good and other absurd regula- 
 tions for the everlasting discomfort of her states. 
 The lawyer clan study that they may help us escape 
 penalties of a code too strict in many things. Not 
 long since I heard the son of a great corporation 
 lawyer explain that his father wished him to study 
 law so that he might help the firm when his time 
 came — to " get along easy." This is more serious, 
 but the children are not far wrong in believing that 
 at times of great national excitement a little rioting 
 will not be charged against them very heavily by the 
 elders who themselves go about on election nights 
 
INFANT POLITICIANS 273 
 
 tooting horns and springing watchmen's rattles. 
 Next day these playthings are contemptuously thrown 
 aside and the fathers go to their business with cus- 
 tomary sobriety. A president is elected; one party 
 is satisfied, the other accepts defeat philosophically; 
 the country settles down, and the children go back 
 to their lessons. But nobody questions them as to 
 the meaning of last night's frolic; nobody uses it to 
 impress on them their own future responsibility in 
 government. 
 
 It is incomprehensible how parents can let slip such 
 favorable opportunities to instruct their children in 
 fundamental matters, ordinarily tame and dull to 
 their young spirits, but at such instants thrilling with 
 interest. The time to impress any lesson in morals 
 is at the moment that the child is awake to the idea of 
 morality and its significance; not at those other 
 periods when he is indifferent to any aspect of the 
 question. With great adroitness and tact should 
 general ideas be suggested, and then left to ripen 
 in the hearers' minds. Most of the very slight po- 
 litical education children receive at home consists 
 in disconnected prejudices about individuals. They 
 believe that certain men are " bad for the country " 
 
274 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 and others " good." Why or wherefore they could not 
 possibly explain excepting that " father says so." 
 They are seldom given precepts of conduct, founded 
 upon sociological laws, and aided to solve problems for 
 themselves. In this respect how inferior is our 
 method of training from that of the ancient Persians ! 
 Xenophon's history of the education of the boy Cy- 
 rus, is full of illuminating suggestions. One of the 
 lessons early impressed on this future ruler over a 
 great nation was that he should so manage his govern- 
 ment that " the citizens should not be capable of any 
 act that was base or vile." Nor should be punished 
 for vile acts, but should not be capable of them. Oh, 
 what an ideal realm, where government was merely 
 preventive of wickedness and rule was benignant and 
 paternal! Cyrus became so enlightened that one of 
 the most profound thoughts on justice that ever was 
 expressed by mortal emanates from him : — " No one 
 has any business with government who is not better 
 than the governed." In all these centuries have we 
 advanced beyond the careful training of the Persian 
 youths, who were taught to do well two things ; — 
 draw the bow and speak the truth? Courage and 
 honesty; absolute courage, uncompromising honesty. 
 
INFANT POLITICIANS 275 
 
 Are they not all of political virtue ? No, — we should 
 add one more — modern society has developed this 
 virtue through the evolution of generosity. We now 
 believe in succoring the weak. 1 
 
 History may be made to bear upon moral training. 
 Children get deductions from concrete examples much 
 quicker than from bare facts. Even in the epoch of 
 their folk-lore tales the prudent mother will find sug- 
 gestions from fairyland to point her great morals. 
 The fairies are kind, generous, helpful; they submit 
 to proper laws and revolt only against tyranny. 
 Primitive people are simple in their ideas, needing but 
 little supervision, but they too, must obey certain 
 regulations that safeguard the general community. 
 Prom history of the ancients, with their out-breaks of 
 oppression, grounded on narrowness and religious 
 bigotry, to the narrations of our own times, rich les- 
 sons may be borrowed and endless interest stimulated 
 in noble deeds. But the mother should recollect that 
 the best lesson she can give her child of justice and 
 equity is the practice of those virtues toward him- 
 
 i As this book goes to press the most dreadful war the world 
 has known annihilates the optimistic hopes of the Hague 
 Peace Treaties. Alas, " Man's inhumanity to man must make 
 the angels weep." 
 
276 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION" 
 
 self. The mother whose ideas of political govern- 
 ment are perverted by the frenzied pursuit of one 
 particular end — which may be premature, unwise, 
 unimportant — whose mind is warped and distorted 
 in all its process by fanatical adherence to a single 
 idea, so that more general ideas, greater principles, 
 are subordinated to the insignificant item, — is un- 
 worthy to direct the moral education of her sons and 
 daughters. There are misguided mothers who are 
 at this instant making scape-goats of their children, 
 catch-traps to inveigle into their maws the one morsel 
 on which they have set their appetites, and who have 
 concentrated all their efforts on inspiring in baby 
 breasts a hatred of laws that seem partial to men over 
 women. Have they any conception of the rancor, the 
 bigotry, the unwholesome feelings they are exciting in 
 hearts so young that they should be shielded from 
 every suggestion of partisanship on any question? 
 May wisdom come to these mothers before it is too 
 late. 
 
 We are still under the old prejudice that young 
 minds cannot grasp a general principle, and that 
 philosophical reflections are unwelcome to them. But 
 in reality even very young children are by nature 
 
INFANT POLITICIANS 277 
 
 philosophical and they delight in a broad, general 
 view. Indeed, to generalize is their especial tend- 
 ency. It is very easy to give them right ideas about 
 government, if a little pains are taken at the right 
 time ; that is, when they are interested in the matter. 
 A very small minority of thinking teachers have re- 
 cently grown to a recognition of the need of some in- 
 struction for young people in the science and art of 
 politics. Some books have been written for their en- 
 lightenment ; notably NordhofFs " Politics for Young 
 Americans." But I should not advise parents to de- 
 pend upon it as a means of complete instruction. 
 Politics in the abstract make but dry reading, and 
 very few children have such a thirst for knowledge 
 about government that they will delve into a mass 
 of mere words for elusive ideas. A parent who has 
 himself a clear understanding of the principles of 
 government and is moderately free from prejudices, 
 can readily give all necessary instruction to his chil- 
 dren. Bright young people catch up suggestions 
 here and there which stimulate their desire for sound 
 information. Over-hearing arguments and disputes 
 they beseech you for " the truth." Too often they 
 are given scraps and rags in place of clean, whole 
 
278 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 fabric. It is not very easy for a person who is in 
 the habit of thinking rather loosely himself to classify 
 his ideas and reduce them to a clear, strong formula. 
 This is going at once to the bottom of things, and 
 not every one can do it. But nothing less satisfies 
 children, and nothing less should satisfy us. 
 
 We find out for the first time how shallow is our 
 knowledge of some fundamental matters when our 
 small one puts the question, — 
 
 " Mother, what is government % " 
 
 Through our startled mind creeps an old formula, 
 " by the people, for the people," and we reply with 
 decision, " The people, my dear." The child hesi- 
 tates. He will not ask what " people " means, for 
 any baby knows that ; but he goes forth with a sense 
 of mystification. Thrown upon his own resources he 
 thinks of the personality most commonly associated 
 with public events and concludes that as a matter of 
 fact, government means police. Many, many little 
 ones have a general impression to this effect, and 
 their love of the laws of their country is in ratio 
 to their love of those functionaries whose aim in life 
 seems to be to restrict the natural liberties and enjoy 
 ments of the young. When these young people attain 
 
INFANT POLITICIANS 279 
 
 their majority it is not probable that it will seem to 
 them a matter of vital importance how they vote. 
 They will no doubt cast their vote where it will be of 
 most benefit to themselves. 
 
 It is dangerous to let our children form their ideas 
 of politics on the basis of street experiences. The 
 public schools earnestly undertake to inculcate sound 
 ideas regarding politics, and do so to a very large 
 extent. Yet before I would entrust this part of my 
 child's training to any school I should want to be 
 very sure of the character of the teacher. It is highly 
 improbable that he will present cool, calm truths, un- 
 colored by his own preferences. He cannot. His 
 tones and emphasis betray him. If he is popular 
 with his pupils they will judge as he judges ; if they 
 dislike him they will go contrary to everything he 
 advocates even though his utterances are as worthy as 
 those of Khadamanthus. 
 
 Who is to be trusted to teach impartial ideas of 
 politics or of religion ? " We" said my Sunday 
 school teacher, the niece of the bishop, " are the 
 church. All others are denominations ! " And it 
 was only through the providential intervention of a 
 tattered edition of a patriotic history of the United 
 
280 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 States, describing in graphic manner the sufferings 
 of our soldiers during certain campaigns of the Revo- 
 lution that I was enabled to offset the bigoted rela- 
 tion of colonial history by my opinionated English 
 governess, whose thin cheeks used to burn as she 
 almost called George Washington a traitor ! 
 
 There is too much emotion and too little reason 
 in the way we deal with politics. We talk too much 
 of parties and persons and too little of principles. 
 Our children know little beyond the fact that they 
 are huzzahing for some one leader in opposition to 
 another. Americans are very good-humored and 
 bear no malice. The day after a presidential elec- 
 tion I heard a street lounger hail a passing acquaint- 
 ance in this fashion, " Hullo, Jim, how's T. R. 
 now % " And the friend rejoined with the most ami- 
 able of accents, " He's all right, my boy ! " 
 
 This is pleasant, but " life is real, life is ear- 
 nest," and a deep responsibility rests upon us to give 
 our children a keener insight into the great principle 
 upon which government rests than they can gain by 
 listening to flippant repartee and idle campaign talk. 
 
 I think we scarcely take enough account of the 
 vagueness and misapprehension of the child mind 
 
INFANT POLITICIANS 281 
 
 toward some abstract matters that we might make 
 plain to them by taking a little pains. When I was 
 very small I used often to accompany my father 
 to the public buildings in Washington city. Looking 
 with awe and love at the marble dome of the Capitol 
 I would ask to whom it belonged. 
 
 " To everybody." 
 
 " To me ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then/' I would rejoin, after a period of silent 
 pondering, " why can't I have my own part to take 
 away ? " 
 
 The answer to this was only a vague smile, for he 
 apparently did not find it worth while to enter into 
 even a simple explanation for the enlightenment of 
 a little girl who was only seven years old. Yet, 
 through all these years I have kept a vivid recollec- 
 tion of my wonder and my earnest desire to under- 
 stand. I should have remembered equally well, per- 
 haps, a simple and succinct reply to my question. 
 
 We never know what part of the day's experience 
 will register itself indelibly upon a little child's 
 brain. A parent should let no single opportunity 
 slip of implanting useful ideas. And what he says 
 
282 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 to-day he may have to repeat to-morrow in another 
 form. No matter; it is by adding bit to bit that 
 the idea finally grows solid in the little one's mind. 
 In the midst of hurried and absorbing occupations we 
 should pause to answer a searching question ; not in a 
 roundabout, careless fashion, but in a manner that 
 will enable the child to carry on the train of thought 
 for himself. Give the little, perplexed thing a start ! 
 It is necessary for the mother to read and digest one 
 or two authoritative books in every department of 
 knowledge, so that she may get from a large store 
 of facts a sound and genuine principle that she may 
 offer as a beacon light to her child. There are fine 
 opportunities now for women to gain acquaintance 
 with the laws of their country. " Societies for Politi- 
 cal Study " abound. Before long every mother should 
 have learned enough, either from taking sides in de- 
 bates or from reading reports of lectures, to be com- 
 petent to instruct her child in the science of govern- 
 ment. I wonder how many mothers are intending 
 to apply their knowledge to this purpose? 
 
CHAPTEE XVIII 
 
 The Advantages of Teavel 
 
 " I should like to have the pupil begin to travel in his 
 infancy, especially — thereby killing two birds with one 
 stone — -into neighboring countries where his tongue, while 
 it is yet supple, may be formed to new languages." — Mon- 
 taigne. 
 
 WE are truly a nation of travelers. It is 
 said that the first thing an American 
 does when he settles a new piece of 
 country is to build a railroad. Almost simultane- 
 ously goes upward the smoke from the chimney of 
 a school-house. The smoke stack of the locomotive 
 offers greater attractions to the lad racing along with 
 his carelessly held pile of books than do the desk 
 and bench with their suggestions of knowledge. He 
 loiters to observe the engineer descend at a station 
 to oil his machinery and notes critically the condi- 
 tion of wheels and pistons. What a nuisance it is to 
 have to spend hours in-doors, over dull lessons ! 
 
 283 
 
284 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 There is reason for this instinctive preference. 
 The one thing breathes the fulness of actual life ; the 
 other is but a preparatory step toward action. Book 
 knowledge is, compared with actual experience, as 
 " moonlight unto sunlight, as water unto wine," in 
 its effect upon character. What we read influences 
 our thoughts but what we see and hear quickens our 
 blood and stirs our feelings. Pedants become narrow 
 in their sympathies, while travelers naturally grow 
 tolerant, excusing much because they have an oppor- 
 tunity to compare men with their neighbors and to 
 understand the limitations of natural environments. 
 All except dreamers are natural explorers. The 
 more civilized a nation is the more adventurous are 
 its citizens. In all times it has been the policy of 
 enlightened rulers to send its wisest, most responsible 
 men to visit other countries for the purpose of study- 
 ing their social conditions. In olden times the sons 
 of kings passed certain terms among neighboring 
 people, not more to establish friendly relations than to 
 discover the reason for their prosperity or^ their 
 poverty, and return to put their new wisdom in prac- 
 tise for their own benefit. Increase of knowledge 
 and a broader understanding of human nature have 
 
THE ADVANTAGES OF TEAVEL 285 
 
 been the avowed reasons for traveling, but there are 
 unacknowledged reasons that exert even a. stronger 
 influence. 
 
 There is a certain spirit of restlessness that seeks 
 vent in mere change of place, without regard to any 
 intellectual advantage that may come of it. Ger- 
 mans call it the " wanderlust." Erench people are 
 singularly free from it, because they are intensely 
 patriotic and exceedingly occupied with their per- 
 sonal development. When they go abroad it is with 
 a set purpose; either to accumulate money or ideas. 
 But they always intend to return home to let their 
 native country get the advantage of whatever they 
 may have gained. The Americans, however, often 
 travel aimlessly; because it is the fashion; because 
 they have money to squander ; because they are tired 
 and want variety, of any kind whatsoever. There 
 are bureaus that now take charge of these restless 
 people and give them a little education in art and 
 geography at so much per mile. Eailroad guides 
 indicate what they are to admire, and sight-seeing 
 vans meet them at stations to prevent their getting 
 lost and wandering around to look at the wrong 
 things in strange cities. I think all this must do a 
 
286 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 good deal of good. But there are a few people who 
 like to make up their own itineraries ; who plan long 
 in advance of a trip, and arrange successive journeys 
 so that in the course of time they may go over a great 
 deal of space and get varied impressions of scenery 
 and industries. Their notebooks are very unortho- 
 dox, but they gather in impressions that broaden 
 their general views. 
 
 How many parents, though, consider that sys- 
 tematic travel, undertaken deliberately and with a 
 definite purpose, has an important part to play in 
 education? It has long been customary to add the 
 finishing touch to the education of a son or daughter 
 by a term of foreign travel. But often it is a costly 
 and disappointing experiment because it is under- 
 taken without any true feeling of its object and aim. 
 The young people go merely for pleasure and from 
 the desire of increasing their social importance. 
 They wander through cathedrals and picture galleries, 
 gape at Constantinople, shudder over Egypt, and on 
 the whole, wish, as did poor Caddy Jellaby, that 
 " Africa was dead " ; since it only exists to bore and 
 weary. But their return home is a triumph, for 
 
THE ADVANTAGES OF TEAVEL 287 
 
 they " have heen abroad for six months, you know ! " 
 And until they go again, and get shocked out of their 
 egotism by a wider view of something seen hurriedly 
 and miscomprehended, they talk learnedly of Paris, 
 London and Rome, which they do not know in the 
 least. 
 
 Superficial sight-seeing is not travel. Old Doctor, 
 Johnson remarked that foreign travel added little to 
 the facilities of conversation in those who had been 
 abroad. But then he was critical as to what con- 
 stitutes conversation ; it really does afford themes for 
 talk. But very few travelers in the Old World give 
 their stay-at-home friends anything worth having 
 when they come back. Usually they seem to have 
 been jaded, confused, satiated with variety. Their 
 impressions have not been classified and remain per- 
 manently incoherent. 
 
 It is deeply true that anything which is under- 
 taken without a moral impulse for its basis cannot 
 enlighten us, but merely satisfies the instinct of su- 
 perficial curiosity. There is a vast difference be- 
 tween the mass of rubbish brought back from over the 
 seas by the newspaper reporter who " does " the globe 
 
288 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 within a limited number of days, on a wager, and the 
 calm, well digested views of such travelers as Bayard 
 Taylor and Paul Bourget. 
 
 The one made the voyage to Europe while he was 
 young, under circumstances of extreme deprivation, 
 which few young persons would now think endurable. 
 " An enthusiastic desire of visiting the Old World 
 haunted me from early childhood," he says in 
 " Views-a-Eoot." And he observed with simplicity 
 in the introduction that such a journey allowed him 
 greater opportunities than could be enjoyed by richer 
 tourists for the study of human nature in every con- 
 dition of life. Bourget, journeying luxuriously 
 through America, avowed the same aim. Somehow, 
 I like the Erench critic better, warmly as my sym- 
 pathy goes out to the brilliant young American. 
 Bourget succeeded in more completely placing him- 
 self en rapport with the country he visited. To un- 
 derstand other people well it is necessary to efface 
 oneself to a certain extent in their company, and 
 get their point of view. 
 
 And this is where our young people are generally 
 at fault. They go away from home to be seen and 
 heard; they carry their egotism, their little bundle 
 
THE ADVANTAGES OF TEAVEL 289 
 
 of prejudices with them. It is wonderful how 
 deeply imbued even a little child can be with feelings 
 antagonistic to people whose customs are different 
 from those that prevail in his OAvn home. It is par- 
 ents who create this inflexibility. They too often 
 provide for their children's entrance into the world 
 by painting that world as bad. " My dear, beware 
 of wandering beyond the gate," warned a Kussian 
 mother when her young son reached the age of curi- 
 osity. " The people will dynamite you if you go 
 out of the park." 
 
 Is it better to be dynamited young or grow up to 
 hate and fear mankind ? 
 
 Eew mothers have the self-restraint to keep their 
 opinions concerning other people to themselves, leavi 
 ing to their children the valuable training to be got 
 by the constant correction of hasty ideas, through 
 experience. Childhood should be adaptable, but in 
 our country it seldom is. With the true American 
 temperament the wax of infancy hardens quickly 
 into the marble of maturity. There is therefore, 
 great need of leaving to children as long as possible, 
 their natural credulity and confidingness. It is sad 
 to hear a young skeptic criticise his elders; to see a 
 
290 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 sneer on baby lips. I should rather watch my child 
 closely, so that no harm might come to his innocence, 
 and let him believe a little longer that the world is all 
 good, true and beautiful. Detestable is that doctrine 
 of preparing the young for life by showing them its 
 uglier side first. It is dangerous to hold up the ex- 
 amples of evil before children, for from this time 
 they will look for it and expect to find it everywhere. 
 Let us train them to right standards and let them do 
 their own comparing. When they go out among 
 strangers it should be in the mental attitude of respect 
 for their peculiarities. " Doubtless," we should sug- 
 gest, " you appear as queer to them." 
 
 If upon childish simplicity there has been grafted 
 a broad interest in other people and other lands, 
 journeying will become a valuable part of education 
 during the earlier years. Babies should not, ordi- 
 narily, be taken on journeys, with a view to their 
 intellectual advantage. At the bottle age the 
 jolting of cars while encouraging to repose of body 
 is often provocative of spleen and unreasonable 
 prejudices against strange countries f Seven years at 
 least, should have been attained by the young person 
 before his mind will be in a state to appreciate even 
 
THE ADVANTAGES OF TRAVEL 291 
 
 the more general aspects of foreign lands. It is 
 quite doubtful if children get much permanent bene- 
 fit from trips to Europe. For the purpose of learn- 
 ing modern languages residence abroad for a few 
 years, between the ages of seven and twelve, is of 
 great advantage. But otherwise than for the sake 
 of the languages, these tours are rather detrimental 
 than useful. To see many things which cannot be 
 understood, and which there is no real wish to under- 
 stand, brings about an indifference toward what is 
 strange. Afterward, when the proper age to appre- 
 ciate such things arrives, the edge of curiosity will 
 have been dulled, and the cream of the first impres- 
 sion skimmed away. The youthful tourist often 
 shows in his face that he is confronted with greater 
 wonders than he can take in. He gets blase with 
 the extraordinary. He has begun at the wrong end, 
 and it is doubtful if he can ever get back the fresh- 
 ness, the enthusiastic curiosity which has been 
 quenched. 
 
 All this is unnatural. The young are eager ex- 
 j)lorers when they are journeying toward that which 
 has interest for them. But their sympathies are more 
 with the present, with the near-by. For this reason 
 
292 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 we should be ruled by the axiom of our greatest 
 philosopher and " proceed from the known to the 
 unknown." Eamiliarize a child early with his im* 
 mediate surroundings and so prepare him gradually 
 for extended journeyings. Show him all the inter- 
 esting features of his native place, the haunts which 
 strangers come to see, but which probably you have 
 yourself, never taken the trouble to visit. How 
 often I have heard elderly men and women say that 
 they always meant to go to see such and such a 
 place, within easy access of their homes, but haven't 
 got there yet ! 
 
 Journeyings with little ones should always be 
 leisurely, not hurried. The parent should be an in- 
 telligent, patient guide, ready to explain matters that 
 arouse the child's interest; ready to lead him on to 
 fresh scenes with increased power to understand them. 
 Alas, mothers mostly love their children's bodies 
 more than they love their intellects. They are so- 
 licitous for their souls, but know comparatively little 
 about the working of their minds. They often seem 
 to have no conception of their vast intellectual re- 
 sponsibility. Look at the average mother, leaning 
 back in the day coach of a Westward-bound express. 
 
THE ADVANTAGES OF TRAVEL 203 
 
 She is absorbed in her paper-backed novel. She left 
 home determined to leave all her cares behind her; 
 to see new things that will rest her by their variety. 
 She reads persistently. Nevertheless, there is her 
 child — a bright-faced, rather wistfnl looking little 
 creature of half a dozen years. 
 
 She turns from the window. " Look, mamma, 
 what river is that ? " 
 
 " That, child — oh, that is the same river we saw 
 awhile ago." 
 
 " Mamma, quick ! What is that great building 
 showing against the sky % Such a queer shape ! We 
 are in another town." 
 
 " So we are, child. I don't know ! Amuse your- 
 self. Don't bother me!" 
 
 An elderly man in the rear catches the child's dis- 
 appointed gaze as the mother settles back to her book 
 and shrugs his shoulders with a cynical smile. Is 
 she ignorant or careless ? Something of both. The 
 fathers are a little better, because it is more of a 
 novelty to them to hear their children's questions. 
 Then too, they are more objective. Their business 
 keeps them in touch with the outside world. I have 
 heard a man say that one should never ask a direction 
 
294 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 of a woman; ten to one, she will make a misleading 
 mistake. However, there are charming exceptions; 
 when a woman does know the way she will often go 
 far out of her path to help another. But children 
 usually prefer taking trips with their fathers. Be- 
 sides being more interesting, they are usually allowed 
 more personal independence, and they learn to take 
 care of themselves. 
 
 There are very few ideal guardians, such as Mr. 
 George in the " Rollo " books. He trains his young 
 nephew to take charge of little excursions, and to 
 make his own way, unaided, among strangers in a 
 foreign country where a tongue unfamiliar to the 
 lad is spoken. Many valuable hints can be gleaned 
 by thoughtful parents from these little books, which 
 are meant particularly for children. The idea of 
 permitting a lad or even a girl, to organize and take 
 charge of small trips is not a bad one ; provided they 
 know the ground somewhat. There could be less 
 benefit if the ground to be gone over is altogether 
 strange. In that case a mother ought to be cicerone, 
 and study up her itinerary a little in advance, so that 
 no chance of thorough observation may be lost. Bet- 
 ter for any child to know well one landscape, one 
 
THE ADVANTAGES OF TRAVEL 295 
 
 county, one state, than to have been a superficial globe 
 trotter. 
 
 I do not say that one should see the whole of his 
 own country before going abroad; but he should see 
 its characteristic features. Is there anything su- 
 perior to Niagara in Europe? I think not. And 
 the Rocky Mountains are beyond description in 
 words. All the Western continent is rich in surprises 
 and marvels. And our land is the land of the living. 
 Offering astounding contrasts, presenting in little all 
 the races and something of their life, it yet deals 
 with what touches ourselves at every point, and there- 
 fore is the more comprehensible by young minds. 
 It is most interesting to them, because they are nat- 
 urally in sympathy with it. Life, progress, fresh 
 creative forces at work everywhere, make of America 
 the land of vigorous youth, while Europe, full of dead 
 interests, mingled at every turn with suggestions that 
 appeal to a mature, cultivated mind, may well be 
 reserved as the cap-sheaf of a complete education. 
 
CHAPTEK XIX 
 
 Talented Children 
 
 " Tell me what you admire and I will tell you what you 
 are; at least, as regards your talents, tastes and character." 
 — Sainte-Beuve. 
 
 IE we would know whether our child has any kind 
 of ability that is likely to bring him to distinc- 
 tion it is necessary for us to understand the 
 signs that indicate the presence of talent. 
 
 The first and most positive sign is a strong taste 
 for some particular kind of effort. Many and various 
 as tastes are they are all based upon one single founda- 
 tion, so that where that is present we may be sure 
 that capacity is present. I do not allude to mere 
 fancies, or likings for artificial and trivial things ; but 
 to those preferences that seem to be rooted in char- 
 acter. One may have a taste for every sort of 
 frivolity, but that is merely a passion of the senses, 
 not of the mind. It is curious that every great ca- 
 
 296 
 
TALENTED CHILDREN 297 
 
 parity has its ignoble satellite, a kind of trailer that 
 often puts on the cast-off garments of its leader and 
 deceives the unwary on-looker by its flaunting airs. 
 A child under the influence of one of these mock 
 talents will exhibit, perhaps, some signs of the genuine 
 capacity before sinking down to his natural level; 
 such young people are precocious, and frequently 
 surprise and delight their parents by exhibitions of 
 superiority that soon disappear. It is well known 
 that the lower the species, in general, the earlier its 
 specimens come to maturity. Little negroes are 
 extraordinarily wise at four years and dull at four- 
 teen. Nervous and volatile children of superficial 
 parents sometimes present an appearance of youthful 
 brilliancy that induces high expectations of their fu- 
 ture; but they seldom fulfil these hopes. Tallow 
 sputters more than wax, but wastes sooner. 
 
 One should be very fearful of encouraging " smart- 
 ness " in a child. In fact, the more assurance he 
 exhibits the more one may doubt the possession of 
 any real ability. Precocity is often but the rapid 
 response made by very malleable natures to unusual 
 stimulus of circumstances. An ambitious and adroit 
 parent, wholly intent on pushing his offspring to an 
 
298 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 exhibition of remarkable feats may readily have a 
 " phenomenon " in his family ; before it tumbles down 
 to mediocrity or stupidity. But the natural develop- 
 ment of an intelligent being demands time as an es- 
 sential element of normal growth, and if the begin- 
 ning is encouraging there should be no urging of ca- 
 pacity. One of the best authorities on psychology 
 of the will states that we should not absolutely teach 
 the child anything except in response to his curiosity ; 
 that we should be guided in educational methods by 
 his pace. With some modification I believe this to 
 be the correct theory: if the surroundings are what 
 they should be the child's intelligence will be the 
 normal guide to his education ; he may be instructed 
 at the rate he seems best able to proceed. Scientists 
 now acknowledge that education has most effect on 
 mediocre minds. It can do a great deal with them, 
 less for those that are highly endowed, while talented 
 persons, even though they may receive all the usual 
 courses of schooling, usually educate themselves. 
 They gain their most valuable education through the 
 exercise of their strongest faculty. Work is their 
 tutor and self-directing energy their college. 
 
 Parents and tutors need to have a care that their 
 
TALENTED CHILDREN 299 
 
 efforts to be helpful to their children do not inter- 
 fere with the natural development of their faculties. 
 Sometimes such an interference comes about through 
 a mistake about their tastes and capacities, but oftener 
 because a parent is anxious to direct the career of 
 his son or daughter from some conventional standard. 
 But no preference of our own should make us exert 
 an undue influence over the future of the individual 
 who must live out his own destiny after parents have 
 passed away. " True education/' said Guyot, " is 
 disinterested. It rears the child for himself, for the 
 world, above all, for humanity." There is now a 
 broader view of personal liberty in the choice of a 
 life pursuit than obtained in the days of our forebears. 
 Puritan ministers dedicated their most promising 
 sons to the work they considered divine, irrespective 
 of any contrariness on the part of the " chosen ves- 
 sel." A departure from that fixed destiny was sor- 
 rowfully disapproved. One of my relatives tells a 
 story of how his father — a notable pillar of the 
 church — rebuffed the efforts of a visiting cousin, 
 who was a commodore in our navy, to advance the in-? 
 terests of his young son. " Jim," he observed, " I 
 can do something for the boy. I'll send him to West 
 
300 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 Point" " Isaac," solemnly returned the father, " I 
 hope to see him on the walls of Zion, preaching sal- 
 vation to the heathen." Years afterward the young 
 man enlisted in the army. He would better have had 
 the easier start, since his fate was so fixed; but the 
 father could not think so. 
 
 We should study the individuality of our child 
 from his birth, so that we may avoid a wasteful em- 
 ployment of his energies in pursuits that are alien 
 to his disposition and foreign to his needs. The par- 
 ticular development of any special faculty should 
 always rest upon the basis of broad general culture, 
 and even where there are unmistakable signs of talent 
 this should not be dispensed with. The mother 
 ought to be zealous in affording to her child every 
 opportunity for broad culture; for the tendency of the 
 day is toward specializing, and unless we gain in our 
 earlier days a good general knowledge of literature 
 and science the probability is that there will never be 
 time for it afterwards. However, the child of marked 
 ability not seldom exhibits extreme restlessness under 
 any kind of instruction that has nothing to do with 
 the subject he prefers, and we must not keep him too 
 closely to the beaten track. Pegasus cannot be har- 
 
TALENTED CHILDREN" 301 
 
 nessed to a plow, but will insist on flying, even 
 if he provokes scandal by bis escapades. We may 
 bold out to original young persons as inducements to 
 the fulfilling of distasteful tasks, the incentive of a 
 privilege of afterward devoting themselves to what 
 they like better. 
 
 There is scarcely anything in which we have so 
 much need of caution as in the matter of influencing 
 our child's activity. Indeed, with children who are 
 able and clever advice and influence must be indirect 
 rather than personal. Put opportunities in their way 
 and then leave them alone. In order to test their 
 talent and develop their power of persistency it is 
 well to interpose slight obstacles in their path once in 
 awhile. Tenacity of purpose is the bed-rock of suc^ 
 cess in any career, and we w r ant to find out whether 
 our child has it. If he returns again and again to 
 a thing from which he has been distracted and pa- 
 tiently conquers difficulties we may be sure that 
 he is made of the right stuff. It augurs well for 
 the destiny of a child if he dries his tears after a 
 mishap and sets to work to repair the disaster. 
 When he grows- up and fronts the greater failures of 
 life he will not be one of those who are continually 
 
302 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 calling out upon their " bad luck " instead of at- 
 tempting to mend it. 
 
 The one unmistakable sign of superior ability is 
 concentration. " Concentration/' said Emerson, " is 
 the secret of success; in art, in war, and in fact, in 
 all the affairs of human life." It exhibits itself so 
 early that we may detect signs of it in the youngest in- 
 fant. The baby who grasps your finger in a tentative, 
 inquiring manner and holds it fast with a gradually 
 increasing pressure, while his eyes regard you 
 steadily, is an embryo personage to be some day 
 reckoned with. When, later on, he sets his little 
 heart on a certain toy and is not to be weaned from 
 his preference by the display of other attractive ob- 
 jects ; when he shows precocity in realizing differences 
 and manifests both likings and dislikes strongly, re- 
 joice over this little one, for he doubtless possesses 
 some of that singleness of purpose which is the essence 
 of all genius. 
 
 Between genius and talent there is a great gulf. 
 Genius is a fusion of the emotional and intellectual 
 natures which gives to ability the heat of a passion; 
 the object of its preference is loved like a mistress, 
 sought through the world, suffered for, died for, with 
 
TALENTED CHILDREN 303 
 
 enthusiasm, with joy. The work itself is the absorb- 
 ing idea, not the end and aim, and all other con- 
 siderations are lost sight of while the way is torn 
 through incredible obstacles. Genius disdains any 
 other mode of self-development than its " idea " ; be- 
 ing wholly one-sided and just a little mad. 
 
 The history of genius is one of struggle against 
 adversities and we should not be sorry that there is 
 slight probability of our finding a real genius among 
 our children. Galton observes that there have never 
 been more than four hundred great geniuses ; but he 
 leaves out Americans. Assuredly, however, genius 
 is not a gift to be craved, although just a touch of it 
 lends romance to life. Where it exists in supreme 
 degree it subjects its owner to some of the most dis- 
 tressing sufferings ; where it is present even to a high 
 degree, but is accompanied by limitations and a tem- 
 perament that hinders and aborts its development, 
 we have a spectacle of frailty so disheartening as to 
 make us turn with relief to more robust and practical 
 specimens of humanity. 
 
 One of the happy features of talent is that it is 
 practical. More of the head than of the heart, it 
 prudently looks to the results of action as it is not 
 
304 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 dominated by an instinct that defies reason. A young 
 person who has talent and no trace of genius is likely 
 to have a successful career in any pursuit he chooses 
 to follow if he stands to his choice and with all his 
 mind and strength wills to succeed, undaunted by 
 obstacles. 
 
 Strength of will is inseparable from talent, and is 
 one of its earliest indications. A vacillating, very 
 tractable child may grow into a lovely character, but 
 scarcely a great one. Do not let us confound strength 
 of will with wilfulness; they are entirely different. 
 The one is the outcome of a distinct purpose conceived 
 in the person's own mind and adhered to in obedience 
 to some inward behest that speaks louder than authori- 
 ties ; the other is revolt against restraints to impulses 
 or whims. When a child shows determination to have 
 or to do a certain thing, let us find out the mainspring 
 of his conduct ; whether, in the old-fashioned phrase, 
 he has " a strong will or a great won't." In the one 
 case he needs only guidance, in the other more 
 careful, anxious training. I rejoice in a child who 
 shows early a strong bent for something; who is 
 resolved to do that particular thing even if he is torn 
 away from it and punished. It is a good dog who re- 
 
TALENTED CHILDKEN 305 
 
 turns to the scent, after being punished for his ob- 
 stinacy. Often he proves to be in the right and his 
 master in the wrong. There are false scents, but 
 should we for that reason make a child distrust his 
 own instinct ? 
 
 Zeal in work is another sign of real ability. But by 
 zeal, I do not mean necessarily, the plodding habit. 
 I mean the innate interest in effort that impels one 
 to go on after the required amount has been finished. 
 There is a nature that makes requirements of itself, 
 higher than any that outsiders would dare suggest. 
 " I have a standard," averred Flaubert, " above other 
 standards. I seek not so much to please the world 
 as to satisfy myself." The child who plays heartily 
 when he plays and works with all his might at what- 
 ever he undertakes has no need of persuasions to be 
 industrious or commands to make progress. All his 
 parents should do is to keep careful oversight of him 
 and advise him when he is puzzled. A tendency to 
 be desultory, such as is often exhibited by children 
 before they know themselves, should be gently checked 
 and steadiness encouraged. Teach the little one to 
 finish what he has begun if it is worth finishing ; but 
 as many infantile pursuits are trivial enough to weary 
 
306 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 their young projectors it is injudicious to make them 
 continue what they have grown tired of during the 
 process of creation. 
 
 Every man or woman who has amounted to much 
 has heen distinguished hy the power of working hard ; 
 and usually this determination has betrayed itself 
 very early in life. Genius alternates periods of 
 frantic effort with spells of idleness in which spent 
 forces recover tone. But talent proceeds more 
 steadily and smoothly. Its rests are regular and its 
 work more methodical. Without method it is lost, 
 and I believe that there is no more certain sign of 
 ability in a child than an innate tendency to methodize 
 his labors and the disposal of his time. Some girls 
 and boys fret at the arrangement parents or teachers 
 make of their hours, sensible that they need some other 
 method, but scarcely having the logic to explain 
 their intuitions. Wherever there is a persistent dis- 
 content with regulations imposed by authorities I 
 think it would be a wiser plan to let the young person 
 re-arrange his time to suit his own supposed needs. 
 If the young daughter wants to study before day- 
 break and repose herself later on, there may " be a 
 
TALENTED CHILDREN" 307 
 
 reason," as the slang of the hour runs. Let her ex- 
 periment a little with herself. And if the boy insists 
 upon learning his lessons at midnight, after the family 
 has retired, saying that his mind is brighter then, 
 absolute prohibition should have a better foundation 
 than the extra gas-bill. After physiology has given 
 its enlightenment he may change his mind. If not, 
 then he really does know his own nature better than 
 his guardians. 
 
 But in order to bring to fruition the beautiful germ 
 of talent regular habits should be inculcated in the 
 plastic days of early childhood. The little one should 
 be taught not only to have a particular place for his 
 belongings, but a particular time for every special 
 duty. When the time has once been chosen it should 
 not be lightly changed. Professor William James 
 had something to say upon this point which is marked 
 by great wisdom : " The great point in all education 
 is to make automatic and habitual, as early as possi- 
 ble, as many useful actions as we can, and to avoid 
 growing into ways that are likely to be disadvan- 
 tageous to us as we should guard against the plague. 
 The more details of our daily work we can hand over 
 
308 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 to the infallible and effortless custody of automatism 
 the more the higher processes of mind will be set free 
 for its own proper work." 
 
 We may set this rational advice off against the 
 airy theory of Kousseau that " the child should form 
 no habits." I believe that the more good habits, espe- 
 cially relating to his mental activities, a child can 
 form, the better for his progress. " The habit became 
 a need with me," remarked the brilliant but self-willed 
 George Sand, referring to her self-imposed discipline 
 in regard to fixing hours of work ; " and the need bfr 
 came a faculty." 
 
 This is something that ought to be writ large, irt 
 letters of light : that the fixed habit of certain occupa- 
 tions at certain hours each day confers a positive 
 ability to pursue the work undertaken. The mind 
 looks for its work as the body for food and digests 
 what is given it. Every mortal must eventually find 
 out for himself what is the best system, so I should al- 
 low even a young child a good deal of liberty, if it 
 shows preference. Let it experiment with itself and 
 then the defects of any system that is poor will be 
 found out and another can be arranged that is better. 
 
 No other discipline is so good for any one as the 
 
TALENTED CHILDREN 309 
 
 constant measuring of oneself against a high standard. 
 The mother's part is to place before her child's eyes 
 beautiful ideals; then leave him to Nature. If she 
 has succeeded in teaching him to admire truly worthy 
 things she has educated him as well as she can. Our 
 ideals in early life become our principles later on. 
 
 To have bright, talented children is the laudable 
 wish of every father and mother. But let us recollect 
 that while talent promises it is character that fulfils. 
 Any talent is worthless that has not its roots deep in 
 integrity. " A little integrity," said the Sage of Con- 
 cord, " is worth any career !" Before we build upon 
 our child's ability let us be sure he has in him the 
 strength to be true and the courage to hold fast to 
 the truth. The honest child is the strong child, for 
 he is capable of seeing things as they are, of describing 
 them as he sees them, and of rightly judging their 
 values. 
 
CHAPTEE XX 
 
 Esthetic Education 
 
 The one true fountain of beauty is feeling. Feeling re- 
 veals to us true ideas." — Schlegel. 
 
 LOVE of beauty is a different thing from love 
 of the beautiful. The first is so habitual 
 in man as to have become almost an instinct, 
 but the latter must be continually developed in each 
 generation by proper culture. ~No item of education 
 is more important ; no one more neglected. That par- 
 ents have small sympathy with this branch of a prac- 
 tical education shows how far we all are from 
 recognizing the intimate relation of art to morals and 
 business. 
 
 Were it not for the sense of the beautiful in man 
 we should have no buildings, no factories, no ma- 
 chinery, no trades. We should be without enthusiasm 
 or ideals. All our intellectual energy originates in 
 the instinctive choice of the thing best suited to our 
 
 310 
 
ESTHETIC EDUCATION 311 
 
 own preservation, and through the habit of selecting 
 what is congenial to ns taste comes into being. What 
 then, is taste but an enlarging of our instinct for 
 life and happiness ? " Much of our happiness," elo- 
 quently says Edward Griggs, in his book " The 
 Philosophy of Art," is in appreciation ; imagine life 
 denuded of it; how intolerably barren our existence 
 would be ! " 
 
 How foolish it is then, to neglect the training of 
 a faculty that controls our thoughts and guides all the 
 acts of our lives. " It is a mere matter of taste," we 
 say lightly to the person who differs from us in some 
 matter of conduct, politics or religion; as if taste 
 were a trifle, and not the unfailing indicator of the 
 whole character. 
 
 All our judgments in affairs and in morals are 
 founded upon an idea of relative values, and we never 
 get beyond choosing the thing that makes appeal to 
 our permanent sense of fitness ; that is, to our strongest 
 feeling. Every one reaches out after what attracts 
 him ; he sees good in it and in nothing else. But the 
 feelings can be educated, so that mere glitter shall 
 not be taken for true gold, and liking may be trained 
 to wait upon understanding. It is through education 
 
312 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 of our 'preferences that all progress is made. The un- 
 taught child naturally chooses the thing that has a 
 superficial attraction; his senses lead him toward 
 beauty, and not toward the beautiful. Many per- 
 sons remain children all their lives in their inability 
 to perceive qualities which only reveal themselves to 
 careful seekers. A true feeling for beauty, an in- 
 stinctive preference for the pure and lovely over that 
 which is merely satisfying to the casual glance, is a 
 talisman in a labyrinth of falsehood. There are 
 people with such nice perceptions that they cannot 
 be deceived even about art values respecting which 
 they have received no instruction; their taste revolts 
 against what is gaudy as certainly as it appreciates 
 what is delicate and refined. But they are in the 
 small minority. Most of us go astray easily in this 
 bewildering world and need standards to guide us 
 aright. It is therefore, our duty to develop in the 
 child-soul not only a love of the good and beautiful but 
 an enthusiastic purpose to look for it everywhere and 
 not to be content with anything that does not satisfy 
 his highest demands. 
 
 What is the essential element of the beautiful ? 
 Harmony between outward appearance and inward 
 
ESTIIETTC EDUCATION 313 
 
 purpose. Nothing that has something patched on by 
 way of ornament, that can be pruned without de- 
 stroying its symmetry, that can be altered with benefit 
 to its looks is really beautiful. There are few perfect 
 objects in Nature, almost none in the world of art; 
 but there are millions everywhere about us that have 
 the spirit of beauty to such an extent that our minds 
 and hearts are not only satisfied but exalted by con- 
 templation of them. One can contemplate forever a 
 single oak tree, laden with its rich, dark leaves and 
 baby acorns, without exhausting its possibilities for 
 gratification. The music of a mountain streamlet, 
 winding downward through rocky crevices has enough 
 melody in it to set one dreaming endlessly. What 
 nature can gaze at streaks of forked lightning racing 
 through pitch-black clouds and not feel awe-struck by 
 suggestions of deeper, wilder harmonies in Nature 
 than any the mechanical works of man afford ? 
 
 In natural phenomena the ignorant find only sub- 
 jects for superstitious fear ; in the most splendid mani- 
 festations of harmonies in color and shapes, merely 
 means of gratifying some practical need. An exacer- 
 bated old maid whose story was related by Mrs. Stowe, 
 awoke one autumn morning and saw in the sky the 
 
314 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 pale moon of dawn attended by its mysterious star, 
 then swiftly overwhelmed by the wonderful tide of 
 purple and rose that Aurora throws before her arriv- 
 ing car, and all she could find to say was — " It's a 
 good day to kill the hog !" 
 
 I dare not think how much training in childhood 
 such a nature would have required before it might 
 have been rendered susceptible to the meaning of 
 beauty in the world. But something might have been 
 done, perhaps. With the average child much may 
 be accomplished to increase the possibilities of hap- 
 piness and enlarge the whole character to an appre- 
 ciation of all the sources of harmony and truth. 
 
 I realize the inconveniences that attend such a 
 training. When we make our child attentive to de- 
 tails, sharpen his perceptions so that he analyzes his 
 enjoyments and compares all objects with the per- 
 fect standard we have given him, then we shall find 
 it hard to live up to the ideals we have encouraged him 
 to maintain. He may find the things we are com- 
 pelled to support about us insupportable to his ultra- 
 refined sensibilities ; he may become hyper-critical of 
 appearances, before he gets beyond the stage of fault- 
 
ESTHETIC EDUCATION 315 
 
 finding into that of larger tolerance. But it is a 
 necessary ante-chamber to the realm of peace, this of 
 carping at what is distasteful. There are two great 
 opposing laws before which all must bow ; possibility 
 and actuality. We stand between what we want and 
 what we can have and either lament or smile, accord- 
 ing to our pluck. It seems to me the right thing to 
 teach the child that " noble discontent " with the 
 makeshifts of life which does not consist in disdain- 
 ing, but in accepting them with eyes open to their 
 defects but recognition of the necessity of getting 
 along with them until he can by his own efforts at- 
 tain to something better. 
 
 " It is but a chromo, my dear, and the collection 
 of paintings in the Morgan gallery are wonders. But 
 there is a true spirit in this little thing, do you not 
 see its meaning 9 Some day, when you have made a 
 good deal of money and can have what you love best 
 perhaps you may buy a wonderful picture. Mean- 
 while, see how much beauty you can discover in 
 this poor little thing which is the best we have." 
 No true-hearted child will fail to respond nobly to 
 such appeal to his right instincts; he will preserve 
 
316 THE MOTHER IS EDUCATION 
 
 the larger out-look his educated tastes give him, but 
 will appreciate too, the little thing that helps to make 
 home beautiful. 
 
 With the young good and beautiful are convertible 
 terms. Aristotle declared that " Youth loves beauti- 
 ful rather than useful conduct/' and despite the latest 
 revelations of philanthropists who labor in the big 
 American cities to train children, as to their extraordi- 
 nary devotion to what is altogether utilitarian, I be- 
 lieve that instinctively, youth does appreciate the 
 essence of the good in the beautiful. It is pleased 
 with fair appearances and cannot divorce them from 
 what satisfies moral ideas. The small child always 
 finds its mother's face lovely when she is good to 
 him ; later on, he deifies his favorites everywhere, not 
 believing faultiness possible. Leave him his illu- 
 sions! Yet they are not inconsistent with develop- 
 ment of that artistic conception of worth which meas- 
 ures and scrutinizes, while it admires. If one knows 
 how to look for truth he must with equal precision 
 discern falsehood, even if found at home. But so 
 long as there is no attempt made to deceive, so long 
 as there is frankness, neither physical nor mental 
 asymmetry will repel even the critical taste of the 
 
ESTHETIC EDUCATION 317 
 
 well-balanced child. Nothing but a moral disorder 
 can make the beloved parent un-beautiful. 
 
 By giving our children right education we impose 
 a rigid obligation on ourselves to walk along the same 
 path we point out for them, or else we incur the 
 penalty of losing their esteem. " You don't do it," 
 the young person will say pointedly, when admonished 
 on the virtues of moderation and simplicity. Youth, 
 severe and uncompromising, is moved by a strong 
 impetus, and from young persons trained to keen 
 observation we must expect some startling comments 
 now and then. " A chieFs among ye takin' notes," 
 and a bluff, free tone marks that person young or old, 
 who believes that his own opinion is in accord with 
 right standards. The critical faculty is the basis and 
 accompaniment of sound judgment. Without it a 
 person may be temporarily an agreeable companion, 
 but he will not be a profitable one and his individual 
 life will be a failure. Eor fixity of purpose is essen- 
 tial to success, and the purpose which is not chosen 
 deliberately, wisely, with a full realization of its 
 ultimate rewards, is merely obstinate persistence in 
 a weak, shallow fancy. 
 
 It is then, right and necessary for us to develop the 
 
318 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 critical faculty in our children. Close, careful per- 
 ception is the beginning. We may appeal to his 
 preference about the colors he sees in flowers, in 
 all natural objects, then in such art objects as in- 
 terest him in his home. Show him symmetrical 
 forms and bid him compare these with others that 
 lack symmetry. Contrast the garish and gaudy with 
 the lovely and refined in color schemes, and get his 
 instinctive ideas. Then, induce him to give his rea- 
 sons. State that a mere whimsical " I like it be- 
 cause I do," is a silly foundation for a preference, 
 and that a reasonable person should be able to recog- 
 nize his own reasons. Gradually, he will advance 
 beyond that stage when coarse masses of color and 
 the big and massive are more attractive than the deli- 
 cate and dainty. People of crude taste are seduced 
 by what is overwhelming; they like the sensation of 
 being stunned by loud music and whirling motions, 
 knowing little of pleasure beyond the sense impres- 
 sion of delicious coma. We do a great deal if we can 
 rescue our child early, from the chance of his being 
 made to come under such demoralizing influences as 
 may be exerted over him by the brutal forces that 
 
ESTHETIC EDUCATION 319 
 
 wait about us everywhere, when we go out from the 
 seclusion of home into crowds. 
 
 It would scarcely be worth while to spend time 
 on the training of the sense of the beautiful in chil- 
 dren if it were not inseparable from an education 
 of the moral sense. That child who learns to ap- 
 preciate beauty, to criticise all departures from it, in 
 Nature, in art and in conduct, will not fall an easy 
 victim to any debasing temptation. His taste is bis 
 bulwark. Esthetic education consists in training the 
 mind to perceive and the heart to feel, not only the 
 greatest amount of beauty that resides in any object 
 or condition, but the greatest amount of moral sym- 
 metry ; which is truth. 
 
 We should distinguish between sentiment for what 
 is beautiful, and a real appreciation of it. The one 
 is superficial, the other discriminating. Yet, there 
 is a possibility of general appreciation without knowl- 
 edge. Many persons whom opportunity has never 
 visited, have an almost passionate appreciation of the 
 beautiful. But we find that they usually have the 
 moral nature very highly developed. They are capa- 
 ble of love; in its highest, purest form. I wonder 
 
320 THE MOTHEE IK EDUCATION 
 
 whether any nature can love deeply and consistently 
 that has not a very strong instinct for the beautiful ; 
 as opposed to that superficial liking for the merely 
 pretty, which I called before, beauty-love, and less 
 worthy than love of the beautiful ? Into the purest 
 taste there enters an austere conception of the pure 
 and true. It cannot tolerate a lie. 
 
 General impressions naturally come before dis- 
 criminating sensations. Young persons fall into rap- 
 tures with what they like, because they are not yet 
 trained to recognize details and they mistake flights 
 of imagination for artistic enjoyment. Without the 
 development that comes from training in observation 
 and in comparison they must always remain insensi- 
 ble to the finer manifestations of beauty. Esthetics, 
 as a branch of education, has three notable stages, 
 corresponding to the natural progression of our minds 
 from the simple to the complex; from what appeals 
 to a single sense, as the eye or the ear, to what arouses 
 and satisfies all the impulses of our emotional nature. 
 
 Eirst comes love of beauty of material, making ap- 
 peal to us as rich and dazzling color; afterward, as 
 harmoniously blended tints and symphonies. A 
 child's earliest feeling for beauty is admiration for 
 
ESTHETIC EDUCATION 321 
 
 vividly colored objects, and we must minister long 
 and wisely to this yearning before leading him on to 
 the next step — which came to our rude fore-fathers 
 of the forest — appreciation of form. Much observa- 
 tion of Nature is necessary before there comes recog- 
 nition of symmetry, of appropriate arrangement. 
 And for a really intelligent, sympathetic comprehen- 
 sion of beauty of form I believe a logical mind is 
 necessary as well as good training. Some degree of 
 understanding of it may be developed in almost 
 every one. The child who revels in a wild waste of 
 confusion may be taught to " bring order out of 
 chaos " by adjusting his toys into some pleasing com- 
 bination, for instance, and by arranging the furniture 
 of a room. If his arrangements are in the highest 
 degree eccentric, it is only what can be expected at 
 first. By practice he will come to an appreciation 
 of symmetry in arrangement. And that is a great 
 gain. 
 
 The word " artistic " has been so misapplied that 
 most people suppose that it means something rather 
 disorderly and hap-hazard. How often literature 
 gives us the prim, precise maiden aunt, with her nar- 
 row, intense love of exact outline, and the art-loving 
 
322 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 niece all on fire with raptures over " color har- 
 monies " and contempt for everything that is not pic- 
 turesque! Let us give our sympathy however, to 
 the derided aunt. Craze for color is a lower degree 
 of the sense of beauty than appreciation of sym- 
 metrical arrangement. Sculpture is a finer achieve- 
 ment of the intellect than painting. Savages and 
 ignorant children can take pleasure in color display, 
 but only an educated mind is moved through effects 
 of form. 
 
 Exaggeration sways masses, so the appearance of 
 an artistic sensibility usually carries more weight 
 with it than the real power, for it rants and poses 
 and makes the world gape. So it comes to pass that 
 the tuppenny rhymer and the bold dauber in color are 
 more valued than the man of magnificent scientific 
 imagination, working out results that will influence 
 millions, while he is by his age forgot. 
 
 Only sound training in esthetics, which implies a 
 sense of true values, can lead us to the highest de- 
 gree of enlightenment. The true artist, though he 
 may at times indulge in reverie, is not a dreamer, 
 but a keen, accurate observer. Patient study of the 
 realities in Nature is the basis of all worthy art. 
 
ESTHETIC EDUCATION 323 
 
 Through this we arrive at the third and highest de- 
 gree of attainment of the sense of beauty — appre- 
 ciation of associated values, of degrees of perfection. 
 To lead our child onward toward this high goal 
 we must train his moral nature patiently, Avisely. 
 We must teach him to be keenly observant and ac- 
 curate in representation; to be true and simple; to 
 love virtue, for the good and the beautiful are one. 
 Every one cannot learn the gospel of beauty in the 
 same way. Different temperaments are alive to dif- 
 ferent effects. One child will find the delight of his 
 life in music; another in color combinations; more 
 rarely there is one who shows preference for form 
 and expression and is sensitive to the beautiful as 
 exhibited in architecture and in those highest symbols 
 of thought — words. The wise parent will minister 
 to each child according to its deep, individual need. 
 
CHAPTEE XXI 
 
 Children in Society 
 
 " Breadth and nutrition are to be constant factors in our 
 ideal course of study. Enrichment in its true sense does not 
 come by adding more formal studies anywhere, but by sup- 
 plying a more full and complete social life in the home and 
 in the school. Any studies which minister to this point are 
 legitimate." — Dutton. 
 
 ONE of the most marked differences between 
 the training of children in the Old World 
 and in our country is in the preparation 
 given for social life. Over there it is a distinct aim of 
 education to enable a young person to enter the world 
 well; to bear his part wisely and gracefully among 
 others ; to understand what is demanded by his posi- 
 tion and pay due consideration to those with whom he 
 is brought in contact, according to the measure of his 
 social importance. 
 
 Such a training is necessarily regulated by a per- 
 vading recognition of caste. The infant peasant is 
 
 324 
 
CHILDREN IN SOCIETY 325 
 
 imbued with the sense of deference ; the young noble- 
 man with that of dignity. Each punctiliously per- 
 forms his part. The well reared child of the higher 
 class early learns to control his temper, because any 
 display of ill-humor is " bad form " ; to be courteous 
 because courtesy is a bulwark against rudeness from 
 his inferiors and a passport among his equals. 
 While the child of humbler class is obliged to prac- 
 tise the self-restraint as a means of winning favor 
 and " getting on." Each grows up with a shrewd 
 apprehension of the importance of forming desirable 
 connections, and turning to advantage the chances 
 of acquaintanceship. The boy is sent to school forti- 
 fied with certain precepts against " low associations " 
 and in favor of cultivating those likely to further his 
 interests in life. The girl acquires almost from in- 
 fancy, notions of " caste." 
 
 There is no denying that such systematic training 
 in conduct with a continual view to self-interest has 
 a tendency to develop what we call flunkeyism. In 
 any nature in which selfishness and meanness over- 
 rule the impulses of the heart, there is a ready made 
 snob, only needing occasion to manifest the strong 
 bias of his character. It is true that any system 
 
326 THE MOTHEE IN EDUCATION 
 
 which exhibits the differences that incontestably exist 
 between the rank and file of society seems to offer 
 a sort of sanction to a snobbish estimate of people. 
 But is it by any means certain that if these differ- 
 ences are not openly declared they will not be found 
 out anyway ? If we strive to rear our child in igno- 
 rance of all class distinctions, will he continue blind 
 to them when, after years have passed, he comes to 
 observe the usages of the world ? 
 
 There was a certain young man of high connections 
 and undoubtedly " blue " blood, who in the pioneer 
 days of our western civilization, threw away all his 
 opportunities, to become a missionary among the 
 Nebraska Indians. Marrying a southern heiress 
 whose possessions consisted mainly of slaves, he re- 
 fused to " own " them, and let them all drift off, 
 wherever they chose to go. He reared his six chil- 
 dren in ignorance of their relationship with notable 
 personages in England and in the States, curtly telling 
 them, in response to any questions, that " our family 
 is like a potato, the best part is under ground." But 
 despite the most rigorous repression of instincts of 
 family pride those same boys and girls grew to 
 maturity burning with desire to find out all they 
 
CHILDREN" IN SOCIETY 327 
 
 could about the representatives of a name often ap- 
 pearing in their histories. Ultimately, they discov- 
 ered their claims to belong to certain distinguished 
 societies, to which their associates belonged, and made 
 it the business of years to hunt up the records that 
 saintly minister had taken pains to hide. Every item 
 that was encouraging to their desire for social eleva- 
 tion was hailed with enthusiasm ; valuable energy and 
 time were consumed in research that should have 
 been needless, and more thought was bestowed on a 
 comparatively trivial matter than would ever have 
 been, but for the mistaken efforts of the father 
 to repress natural and irrepressible instincts of 
 family dignity. 
 
 " Noblesse oblige." The heritage of intellectual 
 elevation that has been hardly earned by some worthy 
 ancestor should not be ruthlessly torn to shreds when 
 he dies, but pass down the ages. Qualities are, after 
 all, the only inheritance that stands the test of time. 
 Wealth gets dissipated, but honors shine through the 
 tarnish of the world's forgetfulness. If a child has 
 not the happiness to number a hero among his pro- 
 genitors, then we can at least teach him to become 
 one himself; to found a family; which is one of the 
 
328 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 noblest of ambitions, and one inspiring to the true 
 American spirit. But it is a poor policy to affect 
 a humility about life which we really do not feel, 
 and assure our young people that it makes no dif- 
 ference what sort of society they go into, so they 
 achieve success in affairs. 
 
 As a matter of fact, we are continually classifying 
 people ; not so much by tbeir merits, which we know 
 only through personal experience, as by their appear- 
 ance. There are stages of refinement, and we in- 
 stinctively choose for friends those belonging to our 
 own level. And we have a right to so choose them. 
 If our worldly circumstances are below our worth we 
 need not associate with persons whose only likeness to 
 ourselves is in the amount of their income. Must 
 we take for bosom friends an illiterate sign painter 
 because he earns with his hands the same income we 
 earn by our brains, and lives as well, so far as ma- 
 terial circumstances are concerned ? One blessed ad- 
 vantage of this country is that a person who is mani- 
 festly " gentle " in virtue and taste belongs by right 
 to the highest society. There is no possibility of 
 realizing an ideal " social equality " so long as there 
 exists great differences in the capacities of indi- 
 
CHILDREN" IN SOCIETY 329 
 
 viduals. In our inmost hearts we do not believe in it, 
 nor want it. Why then, keep up the pretense? 
 
 It is of very little use to be hypocritical with our 
 children ; to call public schools " great social level- 
 ers," and allow them to choose their playmates from 
 the street. Our preferences, our innate sense of pro- 
 priety break through the thin crust of determined 
 virtue at the first alarm of an undesirable friendship. 
 We cannot have Clarence inviting Mike Dolan into 
 the house, nor let Beatrice bring Susan Eooney to 
 dinner. Why not ? They are undeniably good chil- 
 dren in their way; truthful, good-humored, amusing. 
 But certain unmistakable traits, certain little defects 
 of manner, certain tendencies toward lower standards 
 of thought and principle, set them apart from us. 
 The gulf may be bridged by the development on their 
 part of remarkable talents and energy, at some future 
 time, — such opportunities our country affords — but 
 at present our good sense bids us desire for our chil- 
 dren companions whose social status is similar to their 
 own ; whose education and training swing along par- 
 allel lines. It is necessary that those canons of so- 
 ciety which exact deportment, refinement of manner, 
 pleasing appearance, be obeyed by ourselves, even if 
 
330 THE MOTHER m EDUCATION 
 
 we do not wish them recognized by our children. 
 And notwithstanding all our superior, highly demo- 
 cratic talk, we enforce them. It seems to me that 
 we should have the honesty to talk and act alike. 
 Either make our theories fit our practice or our 
 practice suit our theories; and acknowledge both 
 frankly to our children. 
 
 The difference between theory and practice leads 
 to misunderstandings between the elders and juniors 
 in our families. The children are at first honestly 
 all for equality. They take us at our word. Bit by 
 bit, shame-facedly, we are compelled to acknowledge 
 the hollowness of our axioms; little by little permit 
 them to see into the unalterable laws that govern hu- 
 man intercourse, and understand that while worth is 
 worth and " a man's a man for a' that " yet prac- 
 tically, we may not dine with the gardener nor in- 
 vite the Italian fruitman's pretty little girls to our 
 parties. 
 
 Well? Then the children begin to learn some- 
 thing about class distinctions. We may keep the 
 facts concealed, but they come to the front at length 
 because they are facts, like the rotation of the earth. 
 I submit the question whether all the preliminary 
 
CHILDREN IN SOCIETY 331 
 
 humbugging was worth while ; whether we might not 
 better do as they do in the Old World and candidly 
 admit the existence of social degrees and prepare the 
 children from the first to take their proper place in 
 society. With the one distinct advantage peculiar 
 to Republican governments, that while we are born 
 to certain spheres and only evil-doing degrades us, 
 great talents or merit may raise us to the highest 
 position. 
 
 There are two points in favor of the European 
 system of training. It is rational, insomuch as it 
 does not try to do what cannot really be done, and 
 break down in the attempt; and it conduces to an 
 excellent end — self-restraint and self-control. It 
 must be confessed that in this respect we are weak. 
 With us the individual is over-prominent. Our chil- 
 dren are not taught that right and beautiful conduct 
 consists in constantly recognizing and deferring to 
 the rights of others. They hear little of the claims of 
 society, much of their own privileges and liberties. 
 By nature and example they are energetic and ag- 
 gressive and they carry the impulsiveness of child- 
 hood into the acts of mature life. So they form ties 
 of the most sacred nature without at all comprehend- 
 
332 THE MOTHER IN EDUCATION 
 
 ing that the destinies of other individuals are bound 
 up with their own, and that it is not possible to sepa- 
 rate one's personal interest from that of others. 
 
 Our young people seem to the better poised and 
 more self -restrained Europeans young heathen. Fas- 
 cinating because innocent and frank in their monopoly 
 of attention; but for all that, of the nature of sav- 
 ages who know no law but their will, no negations 
 save the limit of opportunity. It must seem to 
 thoughtful people that it may be expedient to change 
 all this. If the claims of society are real, permanent 
 and governed by fixed laws, why should not an un- 
 derstanding of them become a feature of home train- 
 ing in every household? Without false shame, we 
 may tell our children, as English parents unhesitat- 
 ingly do, that one of their prime duties is to learn 
 to get on well with the world ; that one should preserve 
 his own self-respect, yet give deference where it is 
 due. We may develop in them those faculties that 
 give strength to character and still diligently cultivate 
 at the same time those minor graces which are the 
 passports to good society. 
 
 Emerson, our saint and prophet, the simplest of 
 men as he was one of the wisest, bore witness to the 
 
CHILDREN m SOCIETY 333 
 
 importance of manner and tone. " Manners," he 
 said, in one of those wonderful passages that remain 
 to us as beacons in the dark places of worldly dis- 
 illusionment, " are the happy way of doing things ; 
 each, once a stroke of genius or of love, now hardened 
 into usage. They form at last a rich varnish with 
 which the routine of life is washed and its details 
 adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dew 
 drops which give such a depth to the morning mead- 
 ows. . . . The power of manners is incessant — an 
 element as unconcealable as fire. The nobility can- 
 not in any country be disguised, and no more in a re- 
 public or a democracy than in a kingdom. No man 
 can resist their influence. There are certain manners 
 which are learned in good society, of that force that 
 if a person have them, he or she must be considered, 
 and is welcome everywhere, though without beauty, 
 or wealth, or genius. Give a boy address and ac- 
 complishments, and you give him the mastery of 
 palaces and fortunes wherever he goes. He has not 
 the trouble of earning or winning them, they solicit 
 him to enter and possess." 
 
 However wise or talented a person may be we do 
 not care to have much to do with him unless he is 
 
334 THE MOTHEK IN EDUCATION 
 
 agreeable. Diogenes did not have to refuse many 
 invitations. Many very great men are admired at a 
 distance and their absence from scenes of pleasure 
 sustained with cheerfulness. Doubtless there are 
 times when they long to come down from their heights 
 and mingle with their fellows but they have never 
 learned the art of pleasing and they suffer the nat- 
 ural result. Very few persons can be happy isolated 
 thus from their fellows. Superiority is meager 
 satisfaction for the heart. Eor one person who can 
 afford to isolate himself and live wholly on his own 
 mental resources there are thousands who feel the 
 need of sympathy and affection which is constantly 
 passing round among people who are even casually 
 thrown together. There are comparatively few times 
 in our lives when we crave or can respond to intense 
 love. If it was constantly proffered us it would ex- 
 haust the heart. The sweet, homely courtesies of 
 everyday life, a smile that is given without a thought, 
 a pleasant phrase that is uttered merely through the 
 habit of politeness, are as a wholesome, refreshing cur- 
 rent that flows gently through society, free to all who 
 can pay the little price that entitles to its advantages. 
 Every one is naturally in society, whether he 
 
CHILDREN IN SOCIETY 335 
 
 chooses or not. He is born into it. During a life- 
 time a person may pass from one clique to another, 
 like a rolling marble ; there are so many cliques that 
 he must find his requirements met at last. But 
 whether he has little or much to do with others he 
 cannot escape some contact with them. And it is 
 essential for his satisfaction and for his worldly suc- 
 cess that he should know how to make a good impres- 
 sion. I would tell a child even this much : that it is 
 policy to learn the accomplishments that are expected 
 from him in the place he is by birth entitled to oc- 
 cupy. Certain things are due to society from him. 
 If he chooses to go beyond them it is well. He will 
 naturally rise to the level of his talent. But the 
 little amenities of life he must know; how to bear 
 himself, how to dress, — whether richly or plainly, 
 at least, with good taste; how to converse and above 
 all, how to restrain his impulses and act with dignity 
 and self-possession. 
 
 This ease, accompanied by modesty, is the most at- 
 tractive demeanor a young person can practise. For 
 the world always regards with considerable interest 
 the person who mingles with it gracefully and still 
 gives an impression of reserved force. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Letters and Lectures on Education, Johann Friedrich 
 
 Herbart 
 How Gertrude Teaches her Children, Pestalozzi 
 Herbart and the Herbartians, Charles DeGarmo 
 The Meaning of Education, N. M. Butler 
 Infant Mind, W. Preyer 
 The Psychology of Number, McLellan 
 Glimpses of the Animate World, Johonnot 
 Story of the Plants, Grant Allen 
 Methods of Study in Natural History, Agassiz 
 Learning to Draw, Viollet le Due 
 Drawing from Memory, Mme. Calve 
 Topics in Geography, Nichols 
 Countries of Europe, A. L. 0. E. 
 Study of Language, Marcel 
 
 Art of Teaching and Studying Languages, F. Gouin 
 Special Methods in Geography, Charles McMurray 
 The Wide World, Issued through Ginn and Company 
 Geographical Nature Studies, Issued through Ginn and 
 
 Company 
 Trotters' Lessons in the New Geography, issued through 
 
 D. C. Heath and Company 
 Hall's Methods of Teaching History, published by 
 
 D. C. Heath and Company 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Household History of the United States and Its 
 
 People, Edward Eggleston 
 Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them, Richard 
 
 Thomas Wyche 
 Heroes Every Child Should Know, Hamilton W. 
 
 Mabie 
 Stories and Story Telling, E. P. St John 
 The Story of the Greeks, H. A. Guerber 
 Picturesque Geographical Eeadings, Chas. F. King 
 Stories to Tell to Children, Sara Cone Bryant 
 How to Tell Stories to Children, Sara Cone Bryant 
 Days and Deeds a Hundred Years Ago, Gertrude L. 
 
 Stone and M. Grace Fichett 
 Everyday Life in the Colonies, Gertrude L. Stone and M. 
 
 Grace Fichett 
 Merrie England, Grace Greenwood. New edition issued 
 
 through Ginn and Company 
 Heroes of Everyday Life, Fanny E. Coe 
 About Old Story Tellers, Donald G. Mitchell 
 Our Young Folks' Plutarch, edited by Rosalie Kaufman 
 Historic Stories and Ballads, Rupert S. Holland 
 Peeps at many Lands; Italy, Sweden, France, England, 
 
 John Fennimore 
 
 VAIL-BALLOU CO., BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 021 331 446 4