A PARENT’S MANUAL 
VOLUME I A PARENT’S MANUAL 
CHILD PROBLEMS 
MENTAL AND MORAL 
BY 
MAXIMILIAN P. E. GROSZMANN 
VOLUME I 
THE CENTURY CO. 
New York and London 
1923 Copyright, 1923, by 
Mart S. E. Groszmaxn 
PRINTED IN IT. 8. A. To Mr Children 
MAXIMILIAN PAUL EUGENE GROSZMANN II. 
AND 
MARY ELIZABETH GROSZMANN 
who by their devoted and loving companionship 
have kept me young with them CONTENTS 
CHAPTER PAGE 
I The Home the Child Enters .... 3 
II Periods of Child Development .... 23 
III Development of the mind and Primitive 
Emotions 67 
IV The Kindergarten Period 87 
V Home and School 106 
VI The School Period 114 
VII Some Types of Mentally Exceptional 
Children 159 
VIII The Endless Chain of Home Problems . 175 
IX Problems of Discipline 231 
X Derailment and Defect 274 
XI Making a Life vs. Making a Living . . 309 
Index 336 A PARENTS’ MANUAL (YOL. I) 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL A Parents’ Manual (Vol. I) 
Child Problems, Mental and Moral 
CHAPTER I 
THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
The Glory of Parenthood 
By what standard is a man’s, or a woman’s, success 
in life measured? 
The usual standard is that of worldly success. If a 
man makes much money, or rises to high office and in- 
fluence, he is called a successful man. Nobody asks 
about, or is interested in, his domestic affairs unless they 
afford food for gossip, or his art treasures or his wife’s 
society movements make good newspaper copy. 
Nobody is particularly interested in his children. At 
least, not in those who have not yet “come out.” 
Oftentimes they are nuisances, to be kept in the back- 
ground. Nurses and governesses must relieve the pres- 
sure of childhood upon the house of a successful man 
or woman. That some of those children do well in later 
life is often an accident. Their success is due, in great 
measure, to the school or teacher or governess chosen, 
often haphazard, by their parents. 
But, if there is any so-called failure in the family, 4 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the parents are pitied by their friends. Had not every- 
thing been done for those children—all that money 
could buy? 
Will the time ever come when we may measure the 
success of a well lived life by the number of well bred, 
useful children a man or a woman leave behind them, 
instead of by the number of dollars and vain “honors’’? 
What do we live for, anyway? Is it social prestige, 
week-end parties, business success; or is it the home and 
the glory of parenthood? 
The instinct of self-preservation is the primal instinct. 
We must bend every effort to preserve our means of 
existence in order to do our full duty by our children. 
This does not imply that we should worship money. If 
we do, we shall sacrifice not only ourselves but even 
those children for whose protection we worked. 
The main purpose of. human life, the greatest glory 
of parenthood, is the rearing of children who can carry 
on the work of the race. It is for them we live and 
labor. We must give them our best so that they may 
not only perpetuate our own efforts but improve upon 
them. We must strive through our children for the pro- 
tection of the race. 
Thus, from the point of view, not of “society,” but 
of human society, the most successful man or woman is 
the one who gives to the race the greatest number of 
children of both sexes who can carry on the banner of 
humanity. 
Matrimony *nd Heredity 
When we marry and assume the functions of parent- 
hood we must face the fact that we do not marry merely THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
5 
a man or a woman but the shadowy host of their pro- 
genitors as well, and that we shall hand down the ghost 
of our heredity to our offspring. This shadowy host is 
not, in the majority of cases, a host of evils. No record 
is absolutely free from taint, but there are usually so 
many advantageous traits inherited that the effect of 
many of the undesirable ones, physical and mental, can 
be counterbalanced by good will, clear vision, and de- 
termined effort. In the love-life of every married couple 
there are unlimited resources for regenerating the race. 
There must be intelligent self-management and self- 
direction on the part of prospective fathers and mothers. 
They must have a full consciousness of what is before 
them—and behind them. Prudishness deceives nobody. 
They must prepare a home, not only for their own hap- 
piness, but for the coming of their children. They must 
direct their own habits and conduct of life, so that they 
may be fit guardians of young lives. They must mate 
because they want to be parents. They must prepare 
for the coming of children with caution and care. 
In the truly inspired family the child is the center. 
IFamily life is primarily for the child, not for the 
pleasure and gratification of the parents. The family, 
as an institution, as the foundation of society, is a child- 
raising agency; its very purpose is defeated if this main 
objective is obscured. 
The more our young parents group their own life- 
activities around the needs and problems of their chil- 
dren, the richer, fuller, and happier will be their own 
days. The care of the baby begins many months before 
it is born. A prospective mother must subordinate all 
her life-habits to the new functions she is about to 6 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
assume. She must secure for herself the most auspicious 
hygienic conditions. 
Too many wealthy women, as well as their poorer 
sisters, are not equipped physically for child-bearing. 
When the young wife will not forego the vanities and 
pleasures of the social whirl, when she fails to give her 
body and mind a chance to function normally and 
actively, the offspring will bear the stigma of weakness 
just as when health is depleted by poverty. 
Proper nutrition, exercise, and rest are as necessary 
to the parent as they are to secure to the baby the 
proper chance for a normal and effective existence. 
The emotional and mental condition of the mother 
during pregnancy plays an important part. Anxiety, 
emotional stress, fears, and other influences leading to 
a neurasthenic condition are likely to disturb the nu- 
tritive process in the mother, but fighting the ordinary 
battles of life is not a handicap. I have seen sunny 
children born to women who had led a cheerless life. 
It is always desirable that the prospective mother 
place herself early in the hands of a reliable physician. 
There are circumstances under which the advantages of 
a well directed maternity hospital should be utilized. 
Even the mother of moderate means can have the serv- 
ices of reliable doctors and hospitals; and it is the 
husband’s plain duty to do all in his power to secure 
for wife and child the best possible care at this critical 
time. 
Birth-Marks 
In the Dark Ages, when people imagined they could 
tell the future from the way the bird flew or the cat THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
7 
mewed, or from the bubbles in a boiling kettle of soup, 
it was not strange that mothers should believe in mys- 
terious meanings of harmless moles and other anomalies 
of growth observable in infants. If they happened to 
have been frightened by a fire, they would surely detect 
on the skin of their baby some fiery mark or be sure 
that the baby would have red hair. Should they have 
been frightened by a mouse or some other fearful ani- 
mal, the picture of the beast would undoubtedly be 
found on the baby’s skin. Even to-day many modern 
and educated mothers hold to the old superstition of 
“marked” children. But the marks really have no sig- 
nificance. They are simply discolorations of the skin or 
peculiarities in the pigment or patches of hair in pe- 
culiar places. Instead of being a cause of fear and 
anxiety, they may sometimes be of real use as a means 
of identification. 
Registration of Births 
It does not seem superfluous to mention the necessity 
of proper registration of the birth of the child. During 
the late war complications were caused by lack of proof 
of births in many cases. Laxness in this matter may 
give rise to serious legal difficulties. 
We would do well to remember also that those vital 
statistics are the ground for all provisions for the chil- 
dren of the nation. 
Maternal Nursing Fundamental 
The greatest and most sinister single factor in the 
causation of infant mortality is artificial feeding. Im- 
proper feeding of growing children is responsible for a 8 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
great many undesirable developments in later life; but 
the life itself of the new-born infant depends immedi- 
ately upon its food. 
Careful statistics have proved beyond doubt that 
breast-fed babies are better protected than bottle-fed 
ones. The condition of one-year-old babies examined 
by the Bureau of Child Hygiene in one of our larger 
cities showed this percentage: condition was good in 87 
per cent, of the breast-fed, 57 per cent, of the partially 
breast-fed, and in only 42 per cent, or less than one 
half, of the bottle-fed babies. It has also been found 
that the generally feared digestive disturbances of babies 
under one year are much less frequent in breast-fed 
babies than in those fed artificially. Only 25 per cent, 
of breast-fed babies in this examination showed symp- 
toms of diarrhoea, while of the others the percentage 
of gastric troubles exceeded one half of the entire num- 
ber ! 
“There is a reason.’’ 
Artificial feeding is dependent upon a modification of 
cow’s milk or upon the use of one or the other of 
patent foods. Both kinds are intended to imitate the 
composition of the mother’s milk. But even if we 
could imitate nature’s provision for babies perfectly one 
element of danger would always remain: uncleanliness. 
Breast-milk has little or no chance of being contami- 
nated. But to keep the bottles, the nipples, the original 
milk-bottles, or the patent food, and the ice-box in which 
they are stored, scrupulously clean and sterile requires 
so much attention and care that loopholes are innumer- 
able. 
But the main factor is this, that under no circum- THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
9 
stances can any substitute for the mother’s milk equal 
the quality of the original. 
Human blood is essentially different from animal 
blood, and the milk of a cow is primarily intended for 
consumption by a calf, not by a human baby. There 
are so-called “enzymes” in the body whose function it 
is to produce certain chemical changes in the food and 
blood-supply. Then, there are the “anti-bodies” which 
afford protection from certain diseases. The milk of the 
modern mother is the result of thousands of years of 
physical adaptation to the human environment as it now 
is; cows’ milk does not represent a similar adaptation, 
and no mixing will give it this property. The same is 
true of patent foods. 
Since we know that the blood of each species carries 
substances which give active immunity and that these 
are likewise contained in the milk, we can understand 
better why breast-fed babies have a greater resistance 
to disease than those who are artificially fed. 
Further, the milk of a baby’s own mother differs as 
much from the milk of other mothers as the general 
heredity of one family differs from that of another. 
This is the reason why the milk of a wet-nurse may not 
agree with a baby, even though, generally speaking, it 
is the best substitute for the mother’s milk, being also 
human. The old adage that a man acquires mental and 
physical characteristics “with his mother’s milk” is 
more than a metaphor. 
Wet-nurses involve further dangers. They may them- 
selves be undernourished, or physically contaminated, 
not to speak of morally unclean habits and attitudes. 
The selection of a suitable wet-nurse is a delicate task. 10 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Statistics show that where work is scant or wages low, 
causing poverty in the home, there is a larger percentage 
of infant mortality than in better situated families. 
This is true. Yet, checking up the results of these in- 
vestigations, it has been found that infant mortality is 
great only in those communities where factory or agri- 
cultural conditions are such that women are employed 
in day labor, and where the young mother who works 
out avoids breast-feeding. It is artificial feeding, not 
economic pressure, which is mostly to blame. The same 
observation is made when the mother shirks her duty 
because she belongs to that group of women whose social 
duties interfere with maternal responsibilities. 
Maternal nursing is the foundation-stone for a safe 
structure of human efficiency. 
Unless there are unusual complications, when the 
attending physician will decide, the mother’s milk, even 
if it has to be supplemented by artificial methods, is the 
best food for the baby. 
It is better and safer for the mother also to nurse the 
child. 
In preparing for the coming of the baby, mother and 
father should jointly become students of parenthood 
problems. The father should not leave his child alto- 
gether to mother and nurse. I know what a privilege 
it is for a father to have his share in the care of the 
baby, watching over him and studying the unfolding 
soul with its many revelations. Even in infancy the 
child receives mental and spiritual impressions to which 
the father should consciously contribute. 
We have, as yet, hardly any opportunities provided 
for the training of parents. Here and there, girls may THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
11 
attend schools of mothercraft or receive some training 
in child-care, but prospective fathers are not considered. 
There are mothers’ clubs and associations in which the 
problems of the child are discussed; of fathers’ clubs I 
have never heard. 
The real educational work of the parents begins on 
the very day the child comes into the world. Mistakes 
made in the beginning are graver than those made in 
later years. It is during these early, most pliable years 
of a child’s life that his future character and career are 
cast in an almost unalterable mold. 
To prevent later disappointment with our children 
there must be well planned educational effort from the 
start. We must not experiment. The child will have 
to pay for our unsystematic handling. Very often first- 
born children, being victims of experiments, carry handi- 
caps through life. 
How beneficial would be an evening spent in a 
mothers’ and fathers’ club, where home problems could 
be discussed in a spirit of serious research, where the 
stern facts of life would replace the personal equation 
and an honest exchange of opinion would smooth away 
many perplexing situations! 
Let us consider. Our twenty-six millions of school 
children spend only one tenth of their time in school, 
and nine tenths at home or under the exclusive respon- 
sibility of their parents. 
True, the four to six hours each day, during the five 
days of the week when school is in session, comprise the 
best time of the daily span. But the other hours of the 
day have their serious importance. Then, there are the 
Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and the vacations; 12 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
there are the days of sickness and convalescence; there 
are the playtimes and the children’s hours”; the hours 
of meals, and of rest and sleep; in other words, there is 
the complex home life of the children, the life which, 
more than the school life, will determine what each child 
will eventually mean to himself, to his family, to his 
nation—where the foundations of motive are laid, the 
driving force which will turn the school efficiency of the 
child to good or evil. 
Complexity of Modern Conditions 
The education of a child is a much more complex task 
to-day than it was a generation or two ago. Formerly, 
parents lived close to their children. Sons often learned 
their fathers’ trade, and daughters were their mothers’ 
helpers in the home. Social life was intimate and moved 
within narrow, easily controllable limits. 
Now we have large cities with a conglomeration of 
nationalities foreign to each other in traditions and sen- 
timents. Competition is so keen that not only fathers 
but even mothers have to work to support the family, 
and the children have much less of the personal atten- 
tion of their parents than those of the past. Worse 
than that, office and factory claim the youth and 
health of ever-increasing numbers of the future mothers 
of our race at an age when they should be gathering 
strength of mind and body. Even their recreations are 
shallow and often noxious. 
Motherhood and the education of children are there- 
fore exposed to many dangers. It is now more neces- 
sary than ever for every mother and father to become 
aware of the factors which enter into the lives of their THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
13 
children and to give them some intelligent preparation 
for the discharge of the real duties of life. 
Earliest Influences 
It is well to know how vitally determinative is the 
handling of the baby’s mind and emotions during the 
early months of his life when he is a helpless bundle. 
The nervous system of the baby receives its first im- 
pressions and carries them to the brain, there to be 
registered as the foundation-stones for the development 
of his mind and character. 
The first three great emotions which develop are fear, 
anger and love. They are the great emotions, the same 
which evolved first in the dawning consciousness of the 
human race. 
Many things produce fright and “fear responses” in 
the child. Often the desire to tease a young child 
elicits such responses, because the baby has, of course, 
no idea of what teasing means. Loud sounds, throwing 
the baby from one person to another, swinging him ex- 
cessively around, pushing, pulling, sudden awakening, 
will cause the baby to catch his breath, to clutch at the 
nearest object, to blink his eyes, to cry; it is easy enough 
for the observant mother to read the baby’s emotion. 
Again, any restriction of the free movements of the 
body, uncomfortable positions which the helpless babe 
cannot change, obstructing the nose, will produce anger 
symptoms which are also easy enough to read. Some 
children are exposed to these unnecessary experiences 
by ignorant nurses, or by older children entrusted with 
their care, who think it is “fun” to see a baby get 
angry. 14 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
These fear and anger responses begin virtually at 
birth. If repeated they will become automatic habits 
and will effect the child’s temper permanently. Thus, 
character is formed in earliest infancy. 
The love responses need not be spoken of; they are 
self-evident. 
Home Life and Home Conditions 
Few homes are real homes for children. Most are 
merely homes for adults in which children are tolerated. 
There are apartment-houses in large cities which dis- 
tinctly exclude families with children. Children are 
considered a nuisance by many. This has been thought 
to be a new children’s age when the child is in the fore- 
ground of public discussion. Of public discussion, yes; 
but not in the practice of our comfort-mad world. The 
tendency to crowd into cities, to create vast centers of 
humanity with resulting economic pressure, has created 
home conditions, especially in the tenement districts of 
our cities, which are radically unsound. But, on the 
other hand, cheap transportation opens up, even to the 
families of the poor, opportunities to live in the country 
where parents can regain some of the old-time com- 
munity with childhood. 
At least during the early years parents should live 
for their children more exclusively than most parents 
do now. Even at the risk of foregoing some of their 
own youthful pleasures, they should surround their 
children with natural opportunities for healthy life and 
growth under direct parental guidance. 
There is an old saying, “Children must be seen but 
not heard.” Many parents and other grown-ups think THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
15 
this is a perfectly legitimate restriction. What it im- 
plies for healthy, normal, noisy childhood is hardly 
realized by these people who have forgotten their own 
youth. 
Let us admit that our large cities contain districts in 
which childhood is denied its birthright. The tenement- 
houses, even those of the so-called respectable class, 
afford no home for children. Families are crowded to- 
gether where there is neither sufficient light and air nor 
space and convenience for a happy brood of children. 
Everybody is in everybody else’s way; there is no pri- 
vacy, no elbow-room. The still child, the quiet child, the 
stupid child may perhaps “get along” in such a place. 
The bright, the active, the constructive child, the child 
with healthful noise and exercise is out of place. 
The baby lives on compromise under such conditions. 
As soon as the boy is able to walk he is thrown upon his 
own resources in the street, which becomes his nursery, 
his playground, his world. Here he learns many of the 
most important and fundamental lessons of his life. 
Here he faces dangers and pleasures, the rawness of hu- 
man conduct, the companionship of desirable and unde- 
sirable children and adults of all descriptions. Often 
enough the allurements of the street are stronger than 
the home ties. 
The “home” is for the convenience of the adults, to 
live and enjoy life in their own fashion, to see and en- 
tertain friends, to rest and recuperate. Legitimate as 
this demand is, it has its dark side for the children. 
That the presence of the child should interfere with 
these comforts is often seriously resented. Where it is 
not, the best we can find is a sort of compromise between 16 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the rights and needs of the child and those of the adult 
members of the family. The child must usually yield to 
the stronger claims of the parents and is made to realize 
that he has to efface himself as much as possible. 
How can cheerful obedience grow up in such soil? 
How can truthfulness thrive? How can the child live 
the life of healthy childhood to grow up into strong, 
sane manhood and womanhood? How can the graces 
of ethical conduct develop ? How can the beauty of life 
unfold in all its many aspects of art, literature, human 
companionship, love, and friendship? How can the 
roots of civic duties be planted? 
Marriage is for the child; home is for the child. The 
communion of parents with their children is a sacred 
thing. It must come first in all considerations. 
Business Methods in the Home 
A busy man by economizing his time and systema- 
tizing his efforts always has time and energy to spare. If 
this art was learned by the housewife and mother there 
would be fewer home drudges. How many women wrap 
themselves up in home duties,—washing, ironing, scrub- 
bing, dusting, darning, and mending,—so that they for- 
get the duty they owe their family, of being the inspiring 
grace of the home. 
They have no time to read good books, to gain a large 
mental horizon, to keep in touch with community con- 
ditions and world problems. They are slaves of their 
four walls. This is not necessary in any home. 
The effect such conduct must have on the father does 
not here concern us. He is a man; he must look out 
for himself. It is different with the children. THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
17 
You may save a dollar and waste your child’s con- 
fidence; you may keep your floor clean and allow the 
soul of your child to become defiled by chance compan- 
ionship. 
If you keep on nagging a child about wiping his feet 
on coming from school or about hanging up his clothes 
immediately, scolding him if his trousers show a tear 
after a little friendly scuffle, or taking your little girl 
to task because she is unready then and there to darn 
a hole in her stocking; you will make them hate the 
very tone of your voice and, always afraid that they will 
be received with a frown and a reproof, they will pre- 
fer the play-land of the street and its promiscuous popu- 
lation to the shelter of the home which ought to be 
their haven of rest and inspiration. 
Reckless childhood, with the care-free abandon of 
primitive instincts, requires much loving forgiveness 
and even indulgence on the part of the mother. All the 
cares and sorrows of childhood should be sobbed out in 
her lap, and the light of understanding and absolution 
without penance should shine from her eyes. She 
should rather leave the kitchen things in disorder or a 
table undusted, and be a companion to her children who 
will learn from her the sweetest and deepest lessons of 
life. 
A mother who does not always think of scrubbing and 
tidying and nagging and correcting, but who plays and 
works with her children—taking them out into the sun- 
shine, telling them the never-dying stories of fairies and 
heroes; one who, from the richness of her own mind, 
opens up to them the glories of heaven and of human- 
kind ; who is their unfailing confident at all times—such 18 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
a mother will appear to her children as the ever-beau- 
tiful goddess of the home. She will reap such a harvest 
of love and of educational success that she will be amply 
repaid. 
When Father Has No Time 
The time-worn story of the little boy who had been 
punished by his father on the report of his mother is 
still indicative of a true enough state of affairs; when 
his mother found him crying and asked why, he an- 
swered, ‘ ‘ Oh, Mother, the man who visits us on Sundays 
hit me.” These Sunday fathers are in the majority, at 
least as far as the youngest children in the family are 
concerned. They leave home in the morning before the 
babies are up and return in the evening when they are 
in bed. 
It may be asserted that such conditions are unavoid- 
able for our average urban population. The distance 
between home and business places is great; transit is in- 
adequate. Our commuting public has its troubles. 
But outside of these congested centers there are millions 
of families where the father can also be a home-maker 
and a factor in the education of his children. If he 
would apply to the management of his domestic duties 
the same system of planning and arranging his time 
and efforts which he is forced to employ in business, 
much could be gained. 
Boys must be trained in “fathercraft” just as girls 
should be trained in “mothercraft.” This does not 
merely imply training in the understanding and proper 
handling of children but also in the management of 
home duties. The home is the training ground for THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
19 
children, and the father must be in evidence here as is 
the mother. 
The Boy Scout movement has brought many young 
and old men forward to devote their time to other 
fathers’ boys as “scout leaders.” That is good, but it 
is a pity that each father should not be the scout leader 
of his own boys first of all. If those men have time 
for other fathers’ boys, why have the boys’ own fathers 
not this time? 
The Boy Scouts arrange opportunities for the fathers 
to go scouting with their boys so that father and son 
may become better acquainted with one another. This, 
laudable as it is, reflects bitterly upon a condition 
which is only too common; the average father knows his 
own boy least of all. 
The Wealthy Home 
A child is like primitive man and lives in a crude 
world of his own understanding. If he is at once placed 
in an environment of hyperculture he loses his chance 
of living through fundamental experiences which may 
serve him as a basis for future growth. 
In the mansions of the rich, an artificial atmosphere, 
an environment of over-refinement,—so foreign to child 
nature,—and indulgence in luxury and self-gratification 
remove the child from the simple natural life which he 
needs, to develop his native instincts. 
The rich child is not necessarily a more spoiled child 
than his “less favored’’ fellow. There are luckily 
many sensible wealthy parents, but the rich child has 
more opportunities for getting spoiled. 
The servile spirit which permeates the household of 20 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the rich corrodes the life of its young members. Menials 
are waiting on them right and left. They are protected 
so much that they cannot get into mischief. Yet they 
ought to get into mischief. They ought to find out for 
themselves. They ought to rub up against natural con- 
ditions. The rich child cannot be rude—except to 
menials—or dirty or noisy; he has to be a “ little gentle- 
man.” He has to learn “manners” from the start. 
He can have all sorts of toys—not merely simple ones, 
make-believe things, but mechanical wonders. 
A short time ago a very rich little boy died by acci- 
dent. He had somehow escaped the vigilance of his 
many nurses and tutors, had run unprotected into the 
street, and was killed by an automobile which he had 
not the experience to avoid. His birth had been her- 
alded by the widest publicity. Among the presents he 
received was a rosewood and gold cradle. On different 
estates he had enormous playgrounds. At five he was 
taught to swim under the direction of his special phy- 
sician. The third Christmas after his birth the little boy 
was given a party at which he received forty thousand 
dollars’ worth of toys. They included aeroplanes that 
would really fly, and a replica in miniature of the 
Panama Canal. His parents had often been warned 
that they were hazarding their precious child’s future. 
They did not understand. Threats of kidnapping in- 
duced them to take extraordinary precautions, so that 
an entire secret service was organized for the rich little 
boy. But death kidnapped him before his time. His 
natural instinct to explore led him into danger for which 
he was not prepared. THE HOME THE CHILD ENTERS 
21 
Governesses 
In wealthy homes, where there is much social life, 
parents engage nurses and governesses to be themselves 
free for their “social duties.” The drawbacks of such 
an arrangement can be minimized if the person selected 
be genuinely interested in children. The employed 
woman must be intelligent, well trained, dependable, re- 
fined in taste and culture. She is worth a decent salary. 
She must be treated as a valued and respected co-worker, 
not as a menial or a servant. As she is placed in 
charge of the children of the home,—the very persons 
for whom a home is founded,—she must be part and 
parcel of that home. 
Spiritual Elements in the Home 
It is an old and threadbare saying that the home is 
the foundation of society. But many of us do not live 
up to the truth of this fact. We act as so many church- 
goers do; we listen to the sacred teachings and are de- 
vout in our professions and then follow the line of our 
own selfish interests. 
The home, to be what it should, must cherish all the 
ideals which alone hold society together. Selfishness 
does not build; it destroys. Human society presup- 
poses human companionship and a community of in- 
terests rather than the clashings of individual interests. 
Commercial and material elements are merely the tools 
by which the ethical and spiritual needs of society can 
be served. Far from being “impractical,’’ idealism is 
the driving force in every community. It has been truly 
said that a sane and sound idealism is the actual realism. 22 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
We must start in the home. From home to community 
ideals is but a step. As the home is, so is the city, the 
State, the commonwealth. The spirit of neighborliness 
must be implanted in the home, by precept and by ex- 
ample. There must be an atmosphere of mental uplift, 
of emotional purity, or ready activity for the mutual 
good. 
When once we find peace and inspiration in our own 
homes we must help our neighbors. Not in the spirit 
of. condescension or of pharisaic self-complacency but in 
the spirit of brotherliness and love. 
We should so devote our energy to community better- 
ment that there may be no more wretched homes, where 
poverty and crime may thrive. By identifying our- 
selves with the problems of the community we shall enter 
into a higher brotherhood of men, and feel the strength 
growing in us to give to our children that ethical equip- 
ment which will carry them through life with the en- 
dowment of higher purposes, of self-sacrifice in the in- 
terest of their fellow-men. CHAPTER II 
PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
If we wish to understand the educational needs and 
possibilities of a child at different periods of his life 
we must realize that he passes through distinct stages 
of development, during each of which he represents 
very different characteristics. These mental growth 
periods mirror, in a way, the stages of historical de- 
velopment in the race of which the child is a part. 
I have divided, somewhat roughly, the life of a child 
from babyhood to adolescent maturity into five periods. 
The first period, from birth to about two or three 
years, is the infant period. It may also be called the 
human animal stage, as animal instincts prevail. In the 
words of Professor James, it may be described as the 
one in which a living thing is thrust upon “a big, 
blooming confusion,” having to make the discovery that 
it is a being distinct from this confusing environment. 
In the next period, the primitive stage, up to about 
six or seven years of age, an important step is taken. 
During this epoch the human species differentiates it- 
self further from the lower creation. Animal traits 
merge into true human characteristics, and the begin- 
nings of human thought and conduct are achieved. 
During the years from six to about eleven the child 
begins to show the characteristics of habit and life which 24 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
distinguish his own race from that of other races. Of 
course, an American baby is from the start rather dif- 
ferent from an African or an Asiatic baby. Yet ba- 
bies of all races have so many things in common that a 
true differentiation of race is rarely observable before 
the beginning of this period. 
In the next period, when the child enters upon the 
age of pubescent development, national traits and ideals 
manifest themselves with great force. Now sexual dif- 
ferentiation sets in; children change into boys and 
girls, with the distinct characteristics of each sex. 
With the fifteenth year, or thereabouts, begins the 
fifth period, which is the period of adolescence. I have 
also called it the individual period, when family and in- 
dividual characteristics and peculiarities will enter most 
forcibly into the fabric of physical and mental evolu- 
tion. Maturity finally shapes a definite life trend for 
the individual. 
The year limits here given are set down tentatively. 
A large amount of margin must be left either way. In- 
dividuals differ in rate of speed, in perspicuity and 
definiteness of characteristics, in hereditary and racial 
endowments, and in a great many other things. Each 
individual mixture is different in a degree. But in a 
general way we may recognize the sequence of evolu- 
tionary periods. 
We must therefore be cautioned against the common 
error that all children of a certain family, or of a cer- 
tain community or race, are essentially alike, and that 
we can make average provisions for their common educa- 
tion. Children differ not only in a general way; they 
differ in speed and force along specific lines of activity. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
25 
All of us are more advanced in certain directions than 
in others, as determined by our own peculiar combina- 
tion of forces, and by opportunities of environment. 
We may be distinctly primitive in some ways and gen- 
iuses in other ways. The artist is a very different man 
from the blacksmith, each being efficient in his own way. 
These differences must and can be detected and re- 
spected even in children. 
The Period of Infancy 
On seeing the light, the baby is just emerging from 
the realm of the unconscious to the assumption of inde- 
pendent animal functions. Heretofore he had been en- 
tirely dependent upon his mother. Now he must 
breathe, nurse, live for himself. The human in him is 
still only potential, not active. He lives, perceives, 
feels, reacts like any young animal. His movements, 
his muscular control, his rudimentary intellectual ac- 
tivity are on the animal level. 
The clinging power of infants has often been ob- 
served. If you care to experiment with your child 
you can make him hold himself suspended for some time, 
carrying his whole weight with one hand. Some can 
support themselves with one finger alone. I have seen 
babies of very tender age stand fearlessly upright on 
their father’s hand lifted up high. 
All this reminds me of the tree life of early man. 
The baby is born with the “monkey thumb”; the hu- 
manization of the thumb, the power to set it opposite 
the other fingers, is a later development. 
The baby’s movements are mostly “reflex” in char- 
acter: they require no thought on the child’s part; they 26 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
are instinctive, a heritage from times long forgotten 
when animal creation developed life-preserving habits. 
They are controlled by the spinal cord, not, as in 
adults, by the brain. These movements concern the body 
as a whole and the limbs as wholes. Aimless kicking 
with arms and legs, dropping things, and later on dig- 
ging, piling, etc., are among the movements of this 
group. All the movements of fingers and toes are simul- 
taneous: there is no control of the individual fingers; 
they move together. It represents a distinct step for- 
ward when the baby learns to move each finger sepa- 
rately and independently. 
How deep-rooted the animal instincts are in the child, 
and how he needs the human environment and inspira- 
tion for the development of his human endowments, has 
been evidenced in many cases when young children had 
accidentally been brought up among animals, without 
human companionship. For that matter, we have in- 
stances even of adults who have drifted into a wild 
life, not always on account of mental derangement, and 
who have reverted to savage life habits. 
Cornish in one of his books tells of a child who was 
exposed in early infancy and was brought up by wild 
animals. When discovered, the child acted like the 
animals with which he was brought up. He ran on all 
fours, ate and drank like a wolf, emitted growls and 
barks like an animal, tore the clothes and the flesh of 
the village children, and behaved in every way like a 
wild animal. Little or no traces of his human an- 
cestry were in evidence. 
This was due to the fact that the older the instincts 
and modes of conduct are, the deeper they are ingrained PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
27 
in the body and soul of every one of us, the stronger 
they are, the more ready to rise to the surface on the 
least provocation, when the higher brain functions do 
not provide a counterbalancing impetus. For in the 
evolution of life on this earth, and of the human species, 
the older periods were vastly longer than the later ones. 
Each new step was a matter of centuries. Thus each 
new trait had ample time to sink deep into the subcon- 
scious life and to weave itself thoroughly into the fabric 
of instincts. 
It is well known that in disease, during mental and 
physical weakness, when the brain functions disorganize, 
the latest acquirements are lost first; long-forgotten 
things reappear in our consciousness, and we revert to 
the earliest experiences. The “second childhood” of 
doting old men and women is but another expression of 
this biological law. 
The child therefore requires the stimulus and guid- 
ance afforded by a well regulated home to develop his 
social heredity as a human being, along with his or- 
ganic heredity. 
When the child is granted this natural advantage he 
will proceed in a normal way. Gradually certain lower 
levels of the brain itself come into activity. The years 
from one to three contain the greater part of all educa- 
tion, taking education in its broadest sense. For it is 
in these years that the fundamental habits of activity 
are acquired, on the basis of inherited animal instincts. 
Awakening of the Sense of Seif 
The awakening of the sense of self marks the transi- 
tion from the period of infancy to what I have called 28 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the “primitive period.” The idea of “inside” and 
“outside,” that is, of “body” and what is “outside the 
body,” begins to dawn upon the child. But let us 
understand that even the baby begins to realize him- 
self as a separate being, in distinction from other, out- 
side things. This process is a slow, laborious one. 
The baby lying in his crib and kicking his legs about 
watches those legs intently but does not know that they 
are his. He does not identify them as a part of his 
own body. 
From the first efforts of the babe to discover the na- 
ture of the queer things dancing before his eyes, which 
he finally learns to locate and recognize as his own legs,' 
a part of his body, by playing with them, by feeling pain 
in them, and in numberless other ways—from these 
baby experiments to those of the scientist who 
weighs the earth and measures the distance of the 
stars, there is a long journey; but the process is the 
same. 
Let us understand how impressions are received and 
how ideas are formed. The sense-organs, eyes, ears, 
nose, skin, tongue, are the gates through which the 
knowledge of the world around us comes to us; but 
the gates only. The mind receives messages from the 
senses in the brain. 
It is there that impressions take place; there our con- 
cepts are formed. We do not really see with our eyes 
but with our brain; we do not feel with our hands but 
with our brain. Light, sound, hardness, etc., exist not 
in reality, but are the forms under which the brain per- 
ceives the world and its messages. If you cut the nerve 
which connects the eye with the center of vision in the PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
29 
brain, there will be no perception of light, no matter 
how perfect the eye may be. 
On the other hand, it has been a very slow and gradual 
process for us to learn to understand the meaning of 
the messages which the natural forces are sending con- 
stantly through our senses, to learn to locate and to 
interpret the causes of sensation. 
The new-born babe has not this knowledge. Few of 
us can fully appreciate that the conceptions which con- 
stitute the adult’s knowledge of the world and which 
seem so simple and self-evident were of such slow 
growth. We have to learn to read the messages sent 
to the brain by our senses just as the telegraph operator 
learns to read the clicking of his apparatus. So we have 
come to call the messages sent through the ear sound; 
those sent through the eye light; those sent through the 
sense of touch hardness or softness, etc. Under cer- 
tain circumstances, adults as well as children interpret 
the messages wrongly; but we are unable to correct the 
mistake in sensation and must take recourse to our 
judgment, which calls the other senses to its assistance. 
In a later chapter we shall come back to these interest- 
ing and illuminating facts. They must be borne in 
mind when we wish to understand how the child ac- 
quires the early sense of self. 
Hands, Mouth, and Feet 
Highly interesting investigations have been carried 
on by psychologists 1 about the manner in which this 
i Many of the facta here recorded were first studied under the 
direction of G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, Worcester, 
Massachusetts. 30 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
sense is developed, and many data have been collected. 
The parts of the child’s self to attract earliest attention 
are his hands and fingers. The mouth, it has been 
found, has known the hand long before the eye has, 
which first regards it as the child himself would regard 
a new toy. Children of four and five months are de- 
scribed as attentively feeling one hand with the other. 
In this process of identification, the hands of other chil- 
dren, even other objects, are mistaken for their own 
hands. 
After the first year, the fingers receive much atten- 
tion. A girl of thirty months angrily heats her fin- 
gers for tearing a tidy, but said, as is common among 
children, that she did not do it, hut her fingers did. 
That her fingers acted for herself was not yet clear to 
her undeveloped mind. 
Two girls of three bit their fingers, one until they 
bled, “to see if it was really me.” 
The mouth is a mental focus to which everything goes 
to be tested in early infancy. It is, at that period, the 
most sensitive of sense-organs. It mediates the first 
sensation of. the hands as part of the self, and is fol- 
lowed in this service by the hands as touch-organs, the 
eyes, and the body as a whole. 
Noticing the feet is the next step. Babies are very 
proud of their feet as soon as they have discovered them, 
and there are innumerable feet games played by them as 
soon as their feet are bared. Some children become 
greatly excited whenever their feet are exposed. It is 
said that fright is the first sensation which signalizes the 
child’s discovery of his feet. Then comes a period of 
toe-sucking and toe-biting, and sometimes the child will PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
31 
cry with pain before he associates the bite and the ache. 
The infant child’s toes are very special playthings, 
regularly so at bedtime, in the morning, and at the bath. 
Foot-consciousness is a distinct step in the evolution 
of the sense of self. It is curious how long this foot- 
consciousness persists. It reappears in the great de- 
light of children even of maturer ages in going barefoot, 
or having new shoes. 
Stubbing their toes against obstacles, walking into 
puddles so that they may feel the wetness of their feet, 
skating, sliding, etc., all the things are reverberations 
of this early joy in the feel of the feet. 
The Ear 
Next, the child makes the acquaintance of his ear. 
But it is at a much later period when he perceives that 
the ear is the organ of sound. Children often think 
they hear with their eyes, feet, or hands. Yet they are 
passionately fond of noises of all kinds, and it is quite 
possible that this noise-hunger is the result of their de- 
sire to experiment for the purposes of learning how they 
hear, until they have located the ear as the organ of 
auditory perceptions. For a long time after, however, 
this noise-hunger prevails, and adults are sometimes 
driven to desperation by the shouting, screaming, drum- 
ming, and otherwise noisy child who blesses their home 
with his efforts to follow the injunction of Socrates: 
“Know thyself!’’ 
The Nose 
The nose comes next. Some children are particularly 
sensitive about their noses; others are more or less in- 32 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
different. The child likes to pull his own nose and that 
of others, and is sometimes quite surprised when he 
finds that it causes pain and remonstrances. It is not 
easy for him to realize that somebody else may experi- 
ence pain when he himself does not, and he cannot at 
first discriminate between his own nose and that of an- 
other. Before a child is three months old he rarely con- 
nects the sensation of smell with this organ. But there 
are many children who then will take incessant delight 
in smelling things, even pretending to smell things which 
have no odor. 
In some children of low mentality this tendency to 
smell persists, and it is an indication of backwardness 
in development. Again, smelling is intimately associ- 
ated with animal instinct. Animals have a keen sense 
of smell, and even savages recognize individual odors 
with surprising acuteness. It is possible that the sense 
of smell assists the young child in distinguishing between 
himself and other persons, and in identifying persons. 
Mother Eyes and Baby Eyes 
The mother’s eye seems to have a great fascination 
for the baby of a few months. The consciousness of be- 
ing endowed with eyes is one of the long steps in the 
development of self-consciousness. But the baby has 
no idea of the open eye as a seeing instrument. He gets 
a touch perception of the eye by putting his finger 
against it only when the eye is closed. The closing of 
the eyelids as the finger approaches them is an invol- 
untary reflex action of which he is not aware. Thus 
develops the touch notion that his eyes are always PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
33 
covered by the eyelids. It is a revelation to the 
child when he sees his eyes open in a mirror and 
discovers that they look like his mother’s, being 
open. 
From then on, the child takes a never-ceasing pleasure 
in the study of his eyes. He never tires of looking 
at them in the mirror. He feels them; he feels the 
eyes of others to compare them with his own. He tries 
to look at the point of his nose, or with one eye at the 
other, until he is in danger of becoming cross-eyed. The 
eyes are moved up and down and sideways to the ex- 
treme limits; they are alternately shut and opened, or 
both are kept closed for a considerable time in imita- 
tion of blindness. Habits of winking and grimacing are 
formed, of “making eyes,” of flirting with the eyes, 
and so forth. All these practices are continued well 
into childhood. They represent an extended system of 
instinctive eye-gymnastics, but are also expressions of 
the fleeting moods of childhood which lead to an ex- 
pansion and deepening of the sense of self. 
The fact that babies are so often frightened by look- 
ing at people wearing glasses, especially spectacles with 
wide, dark rims and colored lenses, may he explained 
by the unusual appearance of the eyes produced by 
these glasses. In making the acquaintance of new per- 
sons, the baby is wont to look intensely at their eyes, 
which are to him the expressive characteristic of person- 
ality, just as his mother’s eyes are his early fascination. 
If the eyes of strangers are hidden or distorted by spec- 
tacles, an element of danger enters into the child’s con- 
sciousness. 34 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
It is unnecessary to be alarmed by the many eye- 
experiments of the child. They lead rarely to trouble- 
some habits if the child is left alone. The danger lies 
rather in noticing the practices and commenting on 
them. The self-consciousness thus produced will change 
the experiment into a fixed habit which it is then diffi- 
cult to eradicate. If you are at any time afraid that 
the practice is going too far, a simple remedy consists 
in merely directing the child’s attention to something 
else. 
The Hair 
In the latter part of the child’s first year, if not 
earlier, the infant develops a consciousness of the hair 
of his own body. Before this time he has learned to 
recognize the hair and beards of other persons of his 
environment, and these persons will bear testimony to 
this recognition on account of the many pulls and twists 
by the baby’s tiny hands, pulls that are often painful 
pleasantries. 
This pulling of the hair of adults has been explained 
as an inherited trait coming down to us from the time 
when the children of our remote tree-inhabiting an- 
cestors clung to the shaggy sides of their parents in 
swinging from limb to limb. With the discovery of the 
the presence of his own hair the baby reaches one of the 
distinctive stages in the development of the sense of his 
personality. He will pull his hair until he cries from 
pain, and then become very sensitive when his mother 
approaches his head with comb and brush, developing 
actual hair-fears which in some children are difficult to 
overcome. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
35 
The Teeth 
In some infants the observation of the teeth in other 
persons first releases an old instinct of fear, inherited 
perhaps from the time when the savage roamed through 
forests inhabited by wild animals with big teeth. When 
the first teeth appear in the child’s own mouth, the pain 
of their coming, although not clearly located, produces a 
consciousness of their presence, and the first promptings 
to bite are due to the blind instinct of helping the 
physiological process of cutting through the gums. But 
soon a new phase of ‘‘mouth-consciousness” appears, 
and everything which formerly was sucked is now 
bitten. 
Many children at this stage bite each other, or even 
toys, suggesting, according to some authorities, that 
along with the coming of the teeth there is also grow- 
ing the strong psychic disposition to use them as weapons 
as primitive animals use theirs. 
The Tongue 
The tongue comes next in the order of the discovery 
of self. Here a new form of experimenting through 
the “mouth-consciousness” appears, in the form of 
licking. Many children “kiss” by licking the face of 
the person they wish to caress. That the tongue is the 
organ of taste no child realizes. Sometimes, in the 
“primitive” stage, a child will connect the tongue with 
speech; but that is an artificial product which often 
comes through the teaching of his elders, who may have 
told him that his tongue must be punished if he tells 
an untruth. 36 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
The Nails 
The nails of fingers and toes are perhaps the last 
single organ which enters into the child’s early con- 
sciousness. Yet the scratching habit of some children 
is an elemental instinct. It is therefore necessary to 
pay attention to the condition of a child’s nails. They 
should never be cut so short that the development of 
those sensations which are inherent in nail-consciousness 
is checked. But also they should never be left to grow 
so long that bacteria may collect under them, thus in- 
creasing the danger from scratching. 
Arms and Legs 
The completion of the first stage of “body-conscious- 
ness” is marked by the discovery of arms and legs, as 
distinct from the trunk of the body. But that is an 
irregular process. To what extent it proceeds can some- 
times be determined when the child begins to draw. 
It is most interesting to observe whether or not, in the 
drawing of human figures, the child puts in the head, 
the various parts of the face, the arms and legs, and 
whether he puts them in the right places. One of the 
tests of the psychological laboratory for children con- 
sists in putting before the child simple outline drawings 
of human beings with either the eyes, the feet, or the 
arms left out. This test is not supposed to be fully 
met by children younger than about seven years. In 
drawings the children themselves produce they often 
omit the arms or legs, or attach them to the wrong 
parts of the trunk, even to the head. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
37 
Outside and Inside 
Self is first conceived by a child as all that is inside, 
and the non-self as all that is outside of the body. The 
enveloping skin is not at first understood as a continuous 
surface; but gradually, by pinching, scratching, and 
pulling it, the child appreciates its presence. He con- 
siders it somewhat in the light of a bag, and wonders 
whether he could jump out of it (a desire not confined 
to children, for that matter), and whether he could 
stretch it, or whether it might shrink. Washing and 
rubbing develop the consciousness of the skin, and the 
most primitive sensations are those of coldness, or 
warmth, experienced directly through the skin. 
What is inside the skin does not interest the very 
young child. The bones are noticed later; that is to 
say, not before the “primitive” period. Generally 
speaking, the child conceives of his inside as a big hol- 
low; all stomach, so to speak, filled with food, and 
drink, and blood. We may be reminded of certain 
fairy-tales, like “Red Riding Hood,” in which the ideas 
of unenlightened people are recorded, and which appeal 
so strongly to the imagination and consciousness of chil- 
dren. Red Riding Hood’s wolf had swallowed whole 
not only the grandmother but the little girl herself, 
and the child sees no impossibility in the hunter’s pro- 
ceeding to cut the wolf’s stomach open so that grandma 
and the girl might jump out unhurt. There is also the 
biblical story of Jonah and the whale. 
Breathing 
When the idea of breathing enters the child’s mind, 
the inside of his body appears to him like a bag of wind. 38 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
It is recorded that some children are panic-stricken on 
seeing their breath on a frosty morning, thinking their 
soul is escaping. Again, we have here a preservation 
of race-consciousness. Ancient people connected life 
with breath. Death meant to them the breathing out 
of the life-breath from within; just as to the present day 
certain traditional expressions, like “to expire,” “to 
draw the last breath,” have preserved this ancient con- 
ception. 
Nakedness and Clothing 
A very important element in the development of self 
is clothing. 
While it is true that clothing has had its origin in 
the desire to protect the body from the inclemency of 
weather and climate, this factor plays only a secondary 
part in the psychological significance of dress. Of 
course, the early skin sensations of coldness and warmth 
lead in a number of cases to putting on clothes as pro- 
tection from the weather. 
The first element in the true significance of clothing 
for the development of the sense of self is its “feel,” 
the pressure it exercises upon the skin and body, the 
sensations which flowing garments, fluttering feathers, 
and swinging accessories produce. All these sensations, 
the psychologists explain, even when they are distinctly 
unpleasant and oftentimes cause bodily harm (like ill- 
adjusted underwear, tight-fitting collars, corsets, and the 
like), add to the completeness of the body-consciousness. 
Again, there is the element of adornment. In fact, 
it has been asserted that clothing the body is in its very 
essence a process of adornment, of producing an “ap- PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
39 
pearance” which often the condition of the body itself 
belies. There are other elements which we do not need 
to discuss here. 
Children have the sense of adornment very early. 
The idea of “modesty,” which so many mothers love to 
inculcate in their children in connection with clothing 
as a hiding of the naked body, does not enter their 
minds at all. They are like the savage chief who is 
dressed in a silk hat and nothing else, or like many a 
modern Venus whose sense of modesty adjusts itself to 
the varying demands of fashion. 
Children really like to be naked, and for the most 
of them it is the happiest time of the day when they 
can strip for their bath or for bed. In many warm 
countries it is customary to let the children of both 
sexes go naked up to their tenth year or so. Their 
modesty, or their elders’ modesty, does not suffer from 
this exposure; it suffers, as suffers their health, when 
“civilizing” efforts provide shirt, trousers, and skirt 
for these children of nature. 
I have no intention of recommending to our modern 
parents to let their children go naked. Conditions, cus- 
toms, attitudes differ. But it is well to know that cloth- 
ing has other meanings to the child besides protection 
or “modesty.” 
Clothes and Cleanliness 
The wearing of clothes has translated and trans- 
formed the primitive body-consciousness of man into 
‘ ‘ clothes-consciousness. ’ ’ 
A child habitually well dressed learns to avoid soil- 
ing his clothes and may become finical and fastidious. 40 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
A child rudely and poorly dressed, however, comes in 
closer contact with the things about him and acquires 
a more real and substantial knowledge. It is difficult 
to determine whose pleasure is greater: that of habi- 
tually well dressed children when on occasion allowed 
to put on old garments that cannot be injured, and to 
bare head and feet, and to abandon themselves to 
natural freedom; or of poorly clad children who hap- 
pen to be given attire that enables them to feel the 
luxury of being well dressed. 
Parents must early learn the lesson that they should 
not confine their children to fashionable modes of dress- 
ing. The young child must come into that close con- 
tact with Nature and her laws which only the freedom 
of the body allows a child to enjoy. Like the savage, 
the young child likes to be dirty; it will not harm him, 
or prejudice his sense of ultimate cleanliness, to indulge 
in his care-free rompish exuberancies. 
Of course, the habit of cleanliness requires cultiva- 
tion. But there is no difficulty in having the two states 
of existence, the dirty one and the clean one, go paral- 
lel. Every worker knows how to discriminate between 
his overalls and his home, or visiting, suit. And play 
is a child’s daily work. 
As the body must be clean, so must the clothes be. 
Home neglect is at once evident in a child with evil- 
smelling, unwashed, unaired, uncared-for clothes. The 
odor of the tenement child is well known to every social 
worker. 
It may be well to emphasize here (although the matter 
will be discussed later in another connection) that the 
kind of clothes a child wears must be adapted to his PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
41 
needs. If his mother wants to make herself a slave of 
fashion, that is not his concern; but he himself must 
never be one. Th tight-fitting, fashionable, unhygienic 
clothes which so many of our boys and girls wear should 
be abolished. Many mothers buy ready-made clothes, 
or make them according to patterns which are for 
“average” children of certain ages. But a ten-year 
size may not fit a ten-year-old boy or girl at all. In- 
dividual measurements must be taken. Even in de- 
tails, as in the relative length of the thigh, or girth of 
the neck, children of the same age or size differ, often 
considerably. And some of the regulation clothes, like 
breeches, as they are usually made, shoes, underwear, 
corsets, etc., are unphysiological and unhygienic gar- 
ments. From babyhood up the child’s clothing needs 
the intelligent attention of the parent. An ill-fitting 
diaper or pair of trousers or drawers may cause the first 
irritation which leads to bodily or moral danger. 
The Looking-Glass 
The looking-glass has a peculiar significance in the 
development of the sense of self. In ancient times, when 
people had to be satisfied with their mirrored image as 
seen in the clear and still water of lakes or pools, or in 
vessels containing the reflecting liquid, this develop- 
ment may have been retarded in children. It is a great 
help to self-identification to see one’s image in the magic 
surface of the mirror. The advent of real mirrors 
played an important part in the consciousness of the 
human race. 
The identification of self in the child through the 
mirror begins with the recognition of the images of 42 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
parent or nurse holding him while he looks into the 
glass. This recognition comes sometimes like a flash, 
and it is interesting to watch the expressions of the 
child’s face. There may be merely surprise, but often 
also fear and shrinking. The baby cannot understand 
the meaning of this strange image. He will try to look 
behind the mirror to see whether perhaps another mama 
is looking through the glass, as if the mirror were a win- 
dow. The stories of “Alice in Wonderland” and 
‘ ‘ Through the Looking-Glass ’ ’ preserve this curiousness, 
which often clings to the child into the primitive and 
later periods. 
It is only when the baby realizes that his own move- 
ments are mirrored that he identifies the actual form 
with the reflection. Touching mama’s nose or eyes 
with his hands, he observes that the same motion is pic- 
tured in the glass. In this manner he learns that there 
is only one mama there; that what he sees in the mirror 
is an image, even though he cannot analyze the sensa- 
tion, or the character of an image. Again, he learns 
that the hand he sees moving is his own hand. Thus 
comes the first great deduction that he sees himself in the 
mirror. Yet, for quite a while, the image has a peculiar 
fascination for him, as if it were something living by 
itself. 
Images and Pictures 
The child never tires of seeing his image in the glass 
when once he has identified it. He will play dramatic 
games with himself and other people he sees mirrored 
at the same time. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
43 
Likewise the child is constantly intent upon endow- 
ing images, in a playful way, to be sure, with the quali- 
ties of real things, somewhat in the manner of the savage 
who clothes images and idols with superstitious powers. 
From the mirror image there is only one step to the 
recognition of the painted or photographed image. Ba- 
bies will learn to recognize the features of their mother, 
father, and other persons in these pictures. Thus an 
important step in the development of the distinction 
between himself and others, the outside world, is taken. 
The child has learned to interpret pictures. As we 
depend to a very great extent upon pictures in the en- 
largement of our mental possessions, this is a step of 
the utmost significance. Now educators may build upon 
this new faculty and gradually surround the child with 
simple pictures which will help him in the acquisition 
of further knowledge. 
It is curious that the child, although ready enough 
to identify “baby” in the mirror, is slow and almost 
unwilling to identify himself in a picture. This may 
be due in a measure to the fact that even photographs 
represent just one fleeting moment which the child 
does not recognize, or his appearance a little while ago 
while he has developed and changed day after day. The 
color and mobility of the mirrored live baby are absent 
from the picture, and so the two do not make the same 
appeal. 
Many children, if held before the mirror when they 
have a fit of temper or are crying, will immediately be- 
come fascinated and stop their emotional outbreak, 
changing to happiness and laughter. 44 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Children’s Names 
Even very young children learn to respond to the 
names given them. It is one of the surest signs that a 
baby is beginning to have the sense of his own person- 
ality, as distinct from others, when he answers to his 
name. He can do that only after this name has been 
spoken to him many times, and after he has learned to 
appreciate that it applies to him. 
This trait is, of course, not specifically human. Do- 
mestic animals know their names very well, and even 
wild animals may be made to. But to the baby his own 
name has the significance of preparing for the recog- 
nition of his own human personality, which is superior 
to mere identity. 
Children often become very jealous of their names. 
They do not like other children to have the same name. 
It seems to them almost as if their own personality were 
thus divided. Out of the confusion of the many pet 
names given them, they will select one by which they 
prefer to be called and identified. It is a matter of 
long development until the child recognizes the family 
relationship through the use of a common name. This 
relationship is a hazy thing to him, even though he 
uses quite early the terms for ‘‘sister” and “brother.” 
Quite in contrast with this jealousy of his own name- 
possession, the child will begin to exchange his name 
with those of friends. He plays he is somebody else, 
and two or three children will in this manner exchange 
their personalities. This happens even between the 
two sexes, although the sexual differences in body are 
but dimly perceived by children, if at all. At any rate, 
they arouse little or no curiosity at first. Yet boys PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
45 
often like to play they are girls, and girls play they 
are boys. 
This is a very important and significant development 
and contributes its share to the evolution of the sense 
of self, as well as of a better knowledge of the world of 
personalities around the child. It introduces the 
“dramatic instinct” which plays such a powerful part 
in the child’s life. 
When Children Begin to Name Things 
The language instinct is the one which differentiates 
the baby from the animal world even at a very early 
stage in its development. This instinct, in fact, asserts 
itself in the second year of a child’s life, and occa- 
sionally even earlier. Sometimes parents are worried 
because their baby does not begin to talk so soon as 
they expect it to, but no alarm need be felt unless this 
retardation is really excessive, and unless observations 
seem to point to deafness as the cause of impairment 
or non-development of speech. 
The baby develops the tendency to “name” every- 
thing with which he comes in contact. He imitates in 
baby way the names he hears. Sometimes he even in- 
vents names of his own. 
In this naming, all actions are named as if they were 
things. The word “go” is as much as are “moo-cow” 
or “dada.” Things and actions arouse the first interest 
of babies, but the recognition of certain qualities also 
enters into the child’s consciousness at an early period. 
Thus words like “pretty,” “cold,” “bad,” etc., are 
among the first acquired in the baby’s vocabulary. 
The clearness of enunciation of a child’s words de- 46 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
pends upon several things. First of all, good general 
health is naturally required for the development of 
language as it is for everything else. Then there is, 
of course, the degree to which a child’s organs of speech 
—tongue, lips, throat, teeth, etc.—are developed. But 
these organs must not be considered merely as ana- 
tomical units. Much depends upon the way in which 
they are stimulated by the motor nerves which con- 
trol them. 
The child’s nervous system has much to do with his 
speech. There are speech-centers in the brain which 
govern the ability of the child to hear and to repro- 
duce spoken language. Defective hearing is more often 
responsible for poor enunciation than is generally 
known. Parents will do well to convince themselves at 
an early date whether their child can hear distinctly or 
not, and to consult a physician as soon as they feel any 
real doubt about it. 
It goes without saying that a child’s speech will be 
influenced by the model he imitates. The parents own 
speech must be distinct and well articulated. 
Language Making 
The language-making age of the child is an intensi- 
fied naming period. 
It is essential to have the child learn to attach the 
right name to every impression. The child must learn 
not only to distinguish between “cows,” “horses,” 
“mules,” and other animals; between “chickens” and 
other birds; but he must be sure to distinguish and call 
red “red” and not “yellow”; must not confuse a 
“cube” and a “brick”; must not call salt “sour,” but PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
47 
“bitter,” etc. He will learn to classify, and must dis- 
tinguish between genus and species; between “animal” 
as the general term and ‘ ‘ horse ’ ’ as one of many kinds of 
animals. 
Language is bound up with thought, which it helps 
to clarify. Things that we cannot express clearly in 
words remain hazy in our minds. Thus the fundamental 
importance of proper language training during this 
period will be at once realized. 
Furthermore, this is the period during which the 
speech-organs develop to proper functioning. This is 
a matter of brain growth. The speech-centers in the 
brain, the centers which control the hearing of speech, 
and those which control the use of tongue, lips, teeth, 
throat, and also the regulation of breathing for the 
production of articulate sounds, are now maturing. 
Exercises stimulating this growth, including the learn- 
ing of foreign languages with their various sounds dif- 
fering from those employed in English, are very help- 
ful. In some European countries it is customary to 
teach children of this age one or more foreign languages 
in addition to their mother-tongue, and they learn them 
without any difficulty whatever. Similar experiments 
in this country have been equally successful. Even if 
the children should later forget this foreign language 
practice, they will have had the benefit of the speech 
training it gave them. 
Children pass through a period when they make up 
languages of their own; they revel in the use of “secret” 
languages. All these aptitudes and tendencies can, as 
we shall see later be utilized in education, at home and 
in school. 48 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Child Language 
This is the actual prattle of a two-year-old. ‘‘Baby 
hungry. Mama tent down there. Mama sleep down 
there. Poor mama sick. Moon is gone. Bad dog down 
there. Baby eat in cottage. Water going down.” 
Translated into the connected speech of the adult 
who understood the child’s meaning, the child had this 
in mind: “I am hungry. But mama cannot give me 
anything to eat; for she is in the tent down at the 
camp. There she sleeps now, for it is night and the 
moon is gone. Poor mama is sick; that is why she 
sleeps there and cannot be with me now. There is 
also a bad dog down there who would frighten me if 
I tried to run to mama’s tent. So I must eat in the 
home cottage.” Then, seeing it rain, with the water 
flowing down the little elevation toward the camp, he 
added: ‘ ‘ The rain water is going down to where mama 
is.” It is all perfectly plain, isn’t it? 
Now compare this with the language of a Bushman 
recorded by a traveler. The Bushman meant to say: 
‘‘I was at first received kindly by the white man in or- 
der that I might consent to herd his sheep. Then the 
white man maltreated me; I ran away, whereupon the 
white man took another Bushman who suffered the 
same experience.” But how did he express this thought 
in words? Thus: ‘ ‘ Bushman-there-go; here-run-to- 
white man, white man-give-tobacco, Bushman-go-smoke, 
go-fill-tobacco-pouch, white man-give-meat-Bushman, 
Bushman-go-eat-meat, stand-up-go-home, go happily, go- 
sit-down, herd-sheep-white man, white man-go-strike- 
Bushman, Bushman-cry-loud-pain, Bushman-go-run- 
away-white man, white man run-after-Bushman, PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
49 
Bushman-then-another, this one-herd-sheep, Bushman- 
all-gone. ’ ’ 
In his complaint the child of nature does not express 
any abstract thought, such as that the white man treated 
him first kindly, then unkindly, but he relates the actual 
events in a perceptual sequence. Everything is strictly 
concrete. He does not speak of himself in the personal 
pronoun of the first person, or of the white man in the 
third person, but uses the name words, the personal 
nouns, every time. Verbal predicates are unformed; 
and connectives, so as to form compound and complex 
sentences, are conspicuously absent. What is really 
presented is a series of concrete images. 
The sequence is dependent entirely upon the associa- 
tion of these separate images which are presented in 
the order in which they are remembered or come into the 
speaker’s mind. 
The same type of language, the same combination of 
separate memory or conceptual images, strictly concrete 
in character, are characteristic of the child. And this 
is the case because the child thinks in the same manner 
as primitive man. He thinks in pictures, with every ele- 
ment of them forming a distinctly separate image. 
There is little appreciation of the differences of the 
parts of speech as we understand them. Our compound 
words have retained some of the earlier processes of 
thought formation and expression; thus the use of 
“schoolman” for “teacher” recalls the method of the 
Togo negro who combines the words “school” and 
“man” to express the idea of “teacher” in this manner: 
“Man-school.” So the child will speak of a “man- 
cow,” “butter-bread,” and the like. All primitive lan- 50 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
guages are uninflected and use the method of putting 
several single monosyllabic words together to express 
a new idea. 
From Infancy to Childhood 
It is impossible to circumscribe in exact terms of 
years any particular period in a child’s mental or physi- 
cal development. It cannot be said too often that chil- 
dren differ largely in their rate of speed of growth, in 
the character and mixture of their endowments, in their 
emotional attitude and intensity, in their power of will 
and application, in their stability, and in their adapt- 
ability to circumstances. 
There are differences in race, in national and family 
heredity, in social and environmental conditions, in in- 
fluences affecting their physical life before and after 
birth, and in a thousand and one other things determin- 
ing various degrees of variations from the so-called 
average. 
The line between the infancy period and the primitive 
period cannot, therefore, be distinctly drawn. It is all 
a matter of how the sense of self develops in an individ- 
ual child. 
Retardation in one or another thing is no more a 
danger-signal than is acceleration an evidence of ex- 
ceptional brightness or precocity. Comparisons between 
infants in different families, or even in the same family, 
are clearly unjust. 
In a general way the completion of the third year may 
be considered as the time when the child enters upon 
the second stage of his career: the primitive period. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
51 
The years from four to six have also been called the 
kindergarten period. 
In a later chapter the period will be discussed further, 
from the point of view of educational training. 
The Race Period 
Children under six, no matter to what race or nation 
they belong, are pretty much alike physiologically and 
psychologically. 
But around the age of six the race traits awaken. 
The human species differentiates itself, in the rising 
consciousness of each young scion of the common stock, 
into racial groups, differing from one another in con- 
sequence of influences that shaped the various primitive 
types. These racial differences are deeply ingrained in 
the souls of the children, and will manifest themselves 
somewhat in the order of their natural succession. Not 
merely do the features assume more and more strongly 
the racial cut, but the expression of the face betrays 
the emotional quality of the race, and the actions are 
commensurate with racial instincts. 
There is a gradual outgrowing of the stage in which 
crude, material symbols helped the nascent mind to de- 
velop the rudiments of thinking. Higher spiritual 
symbols are evolved. Many primitive religious notions, 
such as are reverberations of racial religious lore, crop 
up. Doll fetishism is merging into mythological and 
dogmatical conventions. The child forms for himself 
bodies of mythological notions centering in the fairy 
tales and early ideas of God. This mental process will 
be further treated in the following chapter. 52 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
The early part of this period, which extends to about 
the age of eleven, has little of the democratic spirit 
about it, not even in those children who spring from 
races that were liberty-loving from the first. This is 
the age of submission to authority and implicit belief. 
That is to say, there are even at this age to be distin- 
guished the types of rulers and ruled, such as early 
history records. The masterful self-assertion of even 
a boy of seven, as against the meek obedience of his 
weaker fellow, and the lording it over the girls by the 
average boy, while the girl will loyally take the part of 
her tormentor when the latter is disciplined for his 
rude behavior, are quite characteristic for this period. 
After the age of six, many important developments 
occur in more or less rapid succession. 
At seven, the speech-organs have just completed their 
growth and are still pliant. The interest in “names” 
is still prominent. The period from seven to eleven is 
the prime epoch for language teaching. In school and 
home, in addition to English, it is most advantageous 
to introduce one or several other languages. This prac- 
tice assists them in the broadening, not only of their 
speech-area, but also of their view of life, and lays the 
foundation for later appreciations of literature and his- 
tory. 
Sense-impressions predominate in the movements, and 
the mere reflexes are under control. We should now 
attend primarily to the training of the sensory responses 
in a systematic manner. The introduction of tools of 
greater complexity will help in this process, as well 
as distinct exercises in the training of all the special 
senses. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
53 
In reasoning, there is usually but a beginning of the 
truly logical process, and very little rationalizing despite 
the many questions about the wherefore and how and 
why. The children are as a rule satisfied with any an- 
swer they receive. They are fond of comparing things 
as to their qualities, which is very helpful in laying 
in a stock of valuable concepts. 
In their story interest the eighth year marks a tran- 
sition by the appearance of the question, Is it true? 
The mere fairy-tale gives way to such stories as that 
of “Robinson Crusoe.” The Homeric stage is reached, 
and the awakening interest in history centers in per- 
sons, leading up to true hero-worship at the age of 
pubescence. 
One of the dangers of this period is from overstrain. 
This is the fatigue period of the child who needs careful 
watching as to his heart action. 
Years of Change 
When we speak of certain ages in a child’s life as 
representing a certain level of development we do so 
with a definite reservation. 
In modern methods of psychological testing, the term 
“mental age” appears frequently. Examiners will say 
a child, no matter what his real age is, has a “mental 
age” of so many years, either higher or lower than his 
actual age. This is misleading, as even in the proper 
sphere of mental activities there is no general average 
for any age. A child’s mentality may be very uneven, 
high in some things, retarded in others. His person- 
ality, his individuality, his eventual success or failure 
in life, are determined in part by these very differences, 54 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
not by the mathematical average of his accomplish- 
ments. 
With this reservation, we may say that the eighth, 
tenth, and eleventh years have been found to be years 
of change in a child’s life. Parents will do well to be 
on their guard at these times. 
At the age of eight, as stated before, the brain 
reaches almost its full weight. Up to now, the blood- 
supply has been directed mostly toward the growth of 
the central nervous system. Now it is being diverted 
to the other organs and toward the growth of muscle 
and bone. This change naturally puts an extra burden 
on the heart, temporarily. This period has been de- 
scribed as one in which the anomaly of a dilated heart 
occurs in children, with evidence of cardiac incompe- 
tence, such as shortness of breath and readiness of fa- 
tigue. Physical and mental fatigue signs are both 
present, and the child, instead of needing more exercise 
as some may be inclined to think, should be given op- 
portunity for lying fallow and conserving his strength. 
Choreatic attacks may begin at this age, and the ap- 
proach of danger is so insidious as to merit 
close observation of the child. During the period 
of transition in the distribution of the blood-supply, 
the nervous system is naturally more sensitive 
to injurious influences than it may be at other 
times. 
Only a few years are left for the brain, now with 
much slower growth, to attain its maximum weight, 
which is usually reached in the thirteenth year, hardly 
later than the fifteenth. With the completion of the 
mass development of the central organ of thought, func- PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
55 
tional development begins, and from now on there is 
the possibility of real rational thought. 
The body of the child undergoes a corresponding 
change in its proportions, as has been described before. 
Up to the eighth year the child is more like an an- 
imal in method of adapting himself to his environment. 
His mental characteristic is imitativeness. Imitative- 
ness, or suggestibility, is therefore that mental or 
psychic element which largely shapes the destiny of 
every child. These early years represent the period 
when the fundamental habits of response are formed. 
Early Interests and Occupations 
During the race period, from about six to eleven, those 
primitive exercises and occupations excite the children’s 
interest upon which the life of early man depended. 
Among these are walking, running, rowing, swimming, 
and sailing. A young child is, as a rule, impatient of 
the use of vehicles, unless he can propel one himself. 
He needs and prefers the exercise of his own body. On 
the other hand, he is exceedingly fond of animal pets. 
He becomes exceedingly familiar with these pets, and it 
is singular how the animals instinctively respect a child’s 
attitude and allow him to take liberties with them that 
they would resent from older people. 
The activities of children of this period are mostly 
games of exciting activity, such as red rover, police and 
robbers, or fighting, wrestling, boxing, shooting arrows, 
and rifle practice; they but photograph the early activi- 
ties of the race. The typical naughtiness of children, 
such as stealing eggs, shooting birds, has the same signifi- 
cance. 56 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
The wandering life of the early tribes finds its modern 
counterpart in the runaway, with his adventurous spirit. 
All the activities of this period are impulsive and in- 
stinctive, little amenable to “reasoning” and conscious 
deliberation, thus showing that they are manifestations 
of hereditary influences. Children of this period are 
largely creatures of environment, suggestible and easily 
impressed. 
Children of nine or thereabouts care little for number 
values. They prefer the concrete aspect, form and size, 
and use. At this age, there is a great gain in precision, 
but mature accuracy in hand and finger control is not 
reached until the following year. Application of this 
fact can be easily made upon the traditional methods of 
teaching writing, drawing, and sewing, etc., to young 
children. 
The tenth year, as a rule, is a year of important 
changes, preparing for the radical upheaval of the pu- 
bertal period. The body is getting ready for new adap- 
tations, and the soul of the child for a new birth. Now 
a change takes place from simple belief to doubt and to 
disbelief in superstitions. Children take pleasure in 
thinking out logical sequences, beginning with the simple 
causative series of the order of “The House That Jack 
Built.” They take an interest in classification, marking 
the dawn of abstract thinking. The nomadic, separa- 
tists tendencies give way to tribal inclinations. Boys 
band together in athletic game clubs, in predatory 
societies (eventually leading to gangs), for fishing-trips, 
camping-expeditions, etc. There is a pronounced inter- 
est in Indian life and Indian lore, in adventure, peril. 
The Boy Scout movement has taken advantage of these PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
57 
traits to develop them on the positive side for the pur- 
pose of socializing the boys. 
Games of competition are played and the exultation of 
victory, the delight in teasing and bullying and in ‘ ‘ prac- 
tical jokes, ” are relics of primordial warfare. 
At eleven there is the maximum age of predatory 
societies. It is the colonizing, conquering, adventurous 
epoch of the incipient nation which is here recapitulated. 
Hughes speaks of the age of eleven to twelve years as the 
“most reckless time of British youth.” 
It ought to be self-evident that the traditional school 
work is less adapted to this period than to any other, and 
that at no time does the child, especially the hoy, hate the 
school “prison” more than now. Boys begin to want to 
leave school, play truant, desire to go to work. Sensi- 
tive natures are likely to become morbid. The fifth 
grade, the grade of the prepubertal period, is a con- 
spicuous failure in many schools. The interest of the 
children does not center in nouns and adjectives, but in 
stories of heroes and adventure. 
Sexual differentiation in the physical life and in 
interest begins to set in. Boys from eleven to twelve 
reach their maximum of industrial organizations; girls 
from eleven to sixteen have their counterpart in the 
maximum interest in social clubs. Boys now begin to 
learn the art of community-making; girls, the art of 
home-making. At the age of twelve, broadly speaking, 
the national spirit is born. 
It is only in the eleventh year of a child’s life, gener- 
ally speaking, that he gains a more accurate control of 
his wrist, hand, and finger movements. This is due to 
two things: first, the bony structure of these limbs, and, 58 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
secondly, the freedom of nerve control then attained. 
Some physiologists have suggested to measure the 
“physiological’’ age of a child, in distinction from his 
“chronological” age, by the development of his wrist- 
bones. There aj'e eight such little bones. In the infant 
they are soft, “cartilaginous,” and their turning into 
bony tissue, their “ossification,” proceeds at a certain, 
fairly well established rate. Not before the eleventh 
year, as a rule, is this ossification completed. The 
process naturally affects the fastening and function of 
ligaments and muscles, and the evolution of the corre- 
sponding nerves. 
From ten to eleven the child improves quickly in man- 
ual dexterity. His previous clumsiness and inaccuracy 
give place to better controlled activity. This has, 
naturally, a very decided influence upon all the finer 
adjustments of hand-work. 
We might well postpone (in the light of these facts) 
our efforts to teach children penmanship, drawing, sew- 
ing, playing the piano or violin, or any other musical 
instrument which requires fine wrist and finger adjust- 
ments, until after this period. Not that these exercises 
need be entirely omitted before the eleventh year, but 
they must be discreetly introduced, wfith careful consid- 
eration of the individual development. So employed, 
they may help to stimulate growth, without producing 
an undue strain. 
Children with marked manual dexterity before they 
reach their eleventh year will be found to be “physio- 
logically” older than their “chronological” age; their 
wrist development has been accelerated. It is there- 
fore advisable to have X-ray pictures of the wrists and PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
59 
hands of the children taken at regular intervals to 
follow up the physiological evolution of the individ- 
ual. 
The “prepubertal period,” as this period is also called, 
is a time of impetuous impulses, because of changes in the 
biological condition of the child. There is much surplus 
activity which is liable to get children into mischief and 
to foster objectionable habits. It is therefore necessary 
to lead it into constructive channels. While in the 
period just passed, the “fatigue” period, the child 
needed rest, so now he needs an outlet for steam. 
The child now begins to draw general conclusions from 
isolated facts, and learns to profit from past experiences 
and mistakes. Younger children cannot do that and 
cannot discriminate between kinds and degrees of mis- 
takes and offenses. In an investigation of the children’s 
attitude toward punishment in class, it was found that 
the sentiment that the class ought to cooperate with the 
teacher in the detection of guilt increases from only 39 
per cent, before ten years of age to more than 50 per 
cent, after ten years. Parents may take notice of this 
fact in the matter of home discipline. 
The Great Change 
Not only is the pubescent period the time of sexual 
differentiation but it is also the period of national differ- 
entiation. 
There is such a thing as a national type, fixed as it has 
become through centuries of living under the specific 
conditions of national geography and history. The 
Italian boy is quite a different being from the German 
boy; the Irish lad will show his own distinctive charac- 60 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
teristics as against the Anglo-Saxon or the French. 
Likewise the girls. There is now a maximum of life 
intensity. The upper level of association centers and 
fibers in the brain develops; the “higher” nature of the 
individual gets the ascendancy over the “lower” reflex 
instincts. 
Instead of the reflex, or instinct, responding to every 
impulse, or every impulse being directly translated into 
action, thought intervenes. Control and inhibition 
evolve; the child changes into a thinking, intelligent 
being, learning to manage his affairs with forethought 
and self-restraint. 
It is now that a child has his maximum interest in 
reading; he also shows a maximum interest in puzzles of 
a geometric and mechanical nature. Games of magic 
fascinate him; and he begins to exhibit unexpected 
patience in constructive occupations. There is a 
tendency no longer to accept stories or records and 
statements without critical inquiry into their truth. 
The child wants to know, not merely believe. This 
implies a critical period in the awakening of the religious 
life. 
The organization tendency is at its height. Boys 
rally around a leader and indulge in hero-worship; girls 
will form sentimental friendships and incipient love- 
affairs in which the romantic element predominates. It 
is the time for the idealization of heroes, and for develop- 
ing life ideals. All this, naturally, has a powerful in- 
fluence upon the formation of character. Parents, at 
this time more than at any other almost, need to be in 
closest, touch with their children. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
61 
How Boys and Girls Differ 
The intellectual qualities of the female mind are 
never exactly like those of the male. Especially at 
the period of puberty and adolescence, there is a most 
decided difference of temperament. A girl will easily 
and most graciously follow directions, and be governed 
without much difficulty by persuasive means and by 
appeals to her sympathetic nature. She will, if guided 
with considerateness, conscientiously perform her duties 
and learn her tasks in school. She will take hold of 
them, perhaps, at the period, more in their external and 
emotional aspects than in their bearing upon general 
principles, but with a keen sense of minute details. 
Her power of quick observation is especially strong, and 
she delights in memorizing and reproducing literally, 
in elaborating set forms of conduct as well as of intel- 
lectual work, and in following and applying them 
faithfully. 
The normal boy of this age will dislike all this poetic, 
dreamy sweetness, this lyric tone. His nature is pre- 
eminently epic; he longs to act, to struggle, to conquer. 
He ridicules the exemplary conduct, the fineries, of the 
girls. This is the time when he finds it below his dig- 
nity to have much to do with girls, when he derides 
“sissiness.” Minute details entice him little, and mem- 
ory tasks are a horror to him. He is much too impatient 
and impulsive to have particular regard for set rules 
and forms. 
As it becomes more difficult to discipline him in a way 
which will not have an effeminating effect upon him 
but will develop his truly manly qualities, so he will 62 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
be little satisfied with school work that does not test his 
reasoning powers to the utmost. 
He were not a true boy if he were not always ready 
to ask questions as to the reason why, instead of being 
satisfied with the things as they are or with a merely 
technical solution of the problems with which he grap- 
ples. He would rather forget all the details and for- 
mulae there are than give up finding the underlying prin- 
ciple, and then trying to apply it in ways which are 
his own. This is the time when the boy will construct 
air-ships and wireless telegraph outfits, and the girls 
will enjoy reading love-stories, making embroidery, and 
wearing finery. 
Girls will think slightingly of boys of that age, just 
as boys think nothing of girls, during the period of 
“upper grammar” grades of school work. The boy is 
awkward in comparison with the girl, who develops her 
form and grace and is becoming a woman. They segre- 
gate by natural instinct in this period of differentiation. 
To an observing and careful parent, this is a time of 
most intimate study and delight. 
The New Soul 
Upon reaching the stage of adolescence the individual 
attitude arises, often with much over-confident self- 
assertion, in opposition to heretofore recognized stand- 
ards. At the same time, changes are noticeable which 
bring to light latent heredities of family traits. Family 
and personal characteristics finally combine to form the 
individual. 
A new soul is bom. 
The significant thing in this new birth, as this period PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
63 
has been fitly called, is that so much of it goes on far 
below the levels of consciousness. The individual is 
filled with a mighty creative energy which means the 
pushing of the individual attitude to its limit. This 
creative energy is by no means confined to the sex in- 
stincts of the child; or, rather, the sex instinct mani- 
fests itself not only in individual form but in its social 
aspects: the child has the promptings of self-sacrifice for 
the good of others. 
This is the high-water mark of emotionalism. It may 
lead the child to the realization of the noblest in human 
nature. It may find an outlet in esthetic and creative 
impulses, in lasting affection and human service. Or it 
may degenerate into psychic disease, hysteria, and nerv- 
ous derangement of some kind. The difficulty of guid- 
ance during this period lies in the fact that the child is 
not at all aware of the driving factors, which are sub- 
conscious. This is therefore a time of careful and 
loving study for parent, educator, and physician. 
Boys enter upon this period a year or more later than 
girls, but they pass through the same phases as the girl. 
Yet there is a difference. In a very thoughtful study 
of the adolescent girl recently published, it is shown 
that after all, at this period, while the boy is highly 
individualistic and self-centered in his activities and 
attitudes, adolescence is a period of conflict between his 
individualism and the new impulses of feeling and 
racial emotions. In the case of the girl, the conflict is 
stronger because she must subordinate her self-centered 
tendencies more fully than he. Not only will she have 
less freedom in her individualistic development than he, 
but she will sacrifice much more of herself to conven- 64 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
tions. It is difficult for her to find satisfactory outlets 
for her powerful impulses of love, service, ’and self- 
sacrifice. 
It is during this period, perhaps, more than during 
any other, that human success or failure is determined. 
Boy Ideals 
The first dreams of boyhood are wrapped up in high 
ambitions. The boy wants to be a hero of strength, one 
whom all others follow, fear, worship in his might. 
His ideal is always leadership, if he is anything like 
a real boy. This ideal will often lure him to commit 
actions that are reprehensible in modern society. He 
will, as the leader of a gang, or as a member of a gang, 
set his heart upon deeds of prowess and fearlessness 
which disregard conventions and laws as long as they 
satisfy his desire for bravery and accomplishment. 
Robbing, hurting, subduing were deeds of valor with the 
ancient heroes; they appeal even to their modern coun- 
terparts. 
This tendency must be understood and carefully man- 
aged. We can help our boys to modernize their ideals 
of strength and power and accomplishment. 
Boys will and must fight; only let us infuse the 
spirit of fairness and sportsmanship into their bouts 
of strength. There is heroship in the various games of 
ball and other athletic games of skill, strength, and en- 
durance. A good player among the professionals will 
become a popular idol among the “fans”; colleges are 
proud of their athletic leaders. 
Later the lure of leadership will find more peaceful 
goals. Each boy will some day dream of becoming, in PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 
65 
his time, a leader and hero among men, being elected 
President of the United States or becoming an inventor 
of astounding things or a great writer. 
Sometimes, and often enough, when the boy will learn 
about his limitations, his ideals will be screwed down to 
a lower level. But if he is a true boy he will carry his 
ambition through life. 
A parent may rejoice in the faculty of leadership in 
his boy. But this faculty is a treacherous thing. It is 
at the time of adolescence that the boy’s soul awakens 
and he becomes conscious of his power. There are 
leaders among boys of younger age, but this problem is 
not so serious. But, when the sense of power leads the 
adolescent to self-assertion and an almost instinctive re- 
sistance to established authority, parental leadership is 
most needed—cautious, reverent, appreciative, loving 
leadership, to be sure. For the boy of that age is a 
very sensitive being, easily hurt and derailed. A leader- 
ship is needed which is based on confidence, which is en- 
couragement, not discouragement or suppression. 
The lesson the boy will have to learn is that leader- 
ship, masterfulness, is a constructive thing. One who 
cannot assert himself, who does not have the power and 
determination to stand up for his aims and his choice, 
will for ever be a weakling. But no boy ever need de- 
generate into a weakling. Every one can become a 
leader—not all in the same field, or in the same way. 
Here indeed rests our salvation; let every boy see that 
he who follows where he himself is a master may be a 
master in some other field. It is all a matter of setting 
free the full powers of each individual boy. This will 
teach the lesson of mutual appreciation, as against over- 66 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
bearing self-aggrandizement. As the boy will trust his 
parents’ leadership because of his confidence in the 
parents’ ability to point out the right road, so he will 
learn that his own leadership will be secure only if his 
followers can and will trust him. Napoleon “the Great” 
owed his wonderful success in arms to this great trust 
which he had inspired in his armies. They worshiped 
him as their master because they believed in him. The 
boy will appreciate that he can never safely betray the 
trust of his fellows, that he must live up to this trust 
and justify it. 
The final and supreme test of leadership is service. 
A boy can be a leader only when he expresses in his field 
the common sentiment and ideal of his followers, with 
the singular power of accomplishing, through his mastery 
in this field, what only organized effort can accomplish. 
He must serve all and every one of his followers by his 
mastery. 
Edification for leadership is a big problem. It in- 
cludes, of course, the training of the especially gifted; 
but it also includes the education of all for leadership 
and mastery in their specific individual fields. When 
once this problem shall be fully understood we shall 
have a nation of freemen, each one in his own right, of 
citizens of the mightiest democracy on earth. CHAPTER III 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND AND PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS 
Sense Messages 
From earliest childhood we build up our knowledge 
of the world about us by learning to 4‘read” the mes- 
sages which our senses convey to the brain, in such a 
manner that they may give us correct meanings. It is, 
however, a curious fact that we carry with us through 
life a number of misinterpretations of sense messages 
which produce actual illusions. It is even more curious 
that it is the normal child, the normal adult, who is sub- 
ject to these illusions. This fact will help us in under- 
standing the manner in which children learn about the 
world they live in. Here are illustrations. 
If we move a pencil-point along the groove between 
two fingers so that it touches both at the same time, we 
are distinctly aware of the presence of this one point, 
and one point only, even if we close our eyes. But not 
so when we cross over our fingers. If we then touch 
them with the pencil we feel two points, and even the 
assistance of vision, which informs us there is but one, 
will not dispel the illusion. 
What is the cause of this phenomenon? Experience 
has taught us that one and the same point can touch 
two adjacent fingers in normal position, but that the 
two remote sides of the same fingers cannot be reached 68 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
by less than two points at a time. Crossing the fingers 
is uncommon, because we seldom do it. Consequently, 
our brain has no record of a single point like a pencil 
touching crossed fingers. We have learned to interpret 
sensations reported from the adjacent sides of those 
fingers as coming from one object, and those reported 
from the remote sides as coming from more than one. 
This interpretation has become automatic and instan- 
taneous, and can now no longer be corrected by the mes- 
sages sent from other senses. In one case, the two mes- 
sages received from the two fingers are blended into one 
sensation; in the other, they are recorded separately. 
Again, if we lift with our hands two bodies which are 
equal in weight, but different in size, the material being 
apparently the same, the smaller one feels the heavier. 
This illusion lasts even after we have convinced our- 
selves by actual weighing that the two bodies weigh the 
same amount. 
The explanation is that we have become accustomed to 
an interpretation of the messages we receive, this time 
by what we call muscular sense, so that it corresponds 
to our daily and oft-repeated experience that the larger 
body is usually heavier when compared with other 
bodies of the same material. Automatically, then, we 
expend a greater muscular effort in lifting the larger 
body than in moving the smaller one. Experiencing less 
resistance than we expected from the larger body, we 
have the illusion of its being lighter. For we measure 
weight by the resistance a body offers to our muscular 
effort in lifting. 
It is noteworthy that the illusions fail in the case of 
very young children. They are possible only when DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
69 
sense experiences of many different times are coordi- 
nated. Young children lack these experiences. 
Apperception 
An important element in the process of learning is 
what the psychologists have called apperception. This 
term signifies that the mind takes hold of a “percept.” 
A percept is a single, or simple, impression, like the 
smelling of an odor, the seeing of an object (as, for ex- 
ample, an apple), the feel of a thing—hard, soft, round, 
square, etc. Any one such percept is of little use un- 
less it can be related to other percepts. A single per- 
cept is a message to the brain which it cannot interpret 
without relating it to previous experiences, just as a 
telegraph operator would not understand a message sent 
him in characters, or in a language, of which he had no 
previous knowledge. 
A child may see some object, say, an ash-tray, with- 
out having the slightest idea what it is. A mere odor, 
again, has no meaning to us unless there is, in our mind, 
in our memory, some other impression with which this 
smell can be linked, which it recalls. We may remember 
that an apple we have seen smelled just like this odor. 
Thus, if an object smelling like an apple is held up to us 
while we are blindfolded, we may conclude that we are 
smelling an apple. Any unrelated perception remains 
dead material until it can be utilized in the development 
of true judgments and mental conceptions. 
The mind of a child stores up a great many of these 
unrelated percepts—visual images, odors, feels, tastes, 
etc.—without clear consciousness of their existence, 
until new percepts make connection with the old ones 70 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
and bring them back to life. This process of associating 
previous impressions with new ones for the formulation 
of deductions, of thought, of judgment, is called apper- 
ception. 
If we wish our children to have well-stocked minds 
which are amply supplied with working material, we 
must first contruct an “apperceptive basis”; that is to 
say, a system of sense impressions, of percepts, well re- 
lated wTith one another, upon which new knowledge can 
be profitably built. This presupposes careful training 
of the senses. Much, however, is acquired by the child, 
without conscious guidance or effort, by absorption from 
the environment. But too often we take it for granted 
that a child knows about things when in reality he has 
never had the opportunity of taking cognizance of it. 
We must therefore carefully ascertain what a child 
really knows and thinks before we proceed with our 
efforts of teaching him. Otherwise we take grave risks; 
we may be led into errors, and lead the child into errors 
which can hardly ever be effaced and which form a 
potent cause of misconceptions, bad habits of thought, 
and prejudices. 
Experiments with school children have revealed 
strange facts in this respect. It was found that in no 
case had all the children tested experienced some of the 
simplest phenomena of daily life. They were asked 
whether they had ever seen the sun rise or set, seen fish 
swimming in a brook, been in a forest, seen a shoemaker 
at work, been in church, known anything of God; and 
neither city nor country children could boast of com- 
plete knowledge. 
Only 42 per cent, of the country children had seen the DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
71 
sun rise; only 18 per cent, of the city children and 57 
per cent, of the country children had seen an oak. Only 
51 per cent, of the city children and 66 per cent, of the 
country children knew anything of God. A recent ques- 
tioning of New York school children in regard to forty 
“facts” on the war revealed a similar surprising igno- 
rance. 
This shows that we take too much for granted, that 
our children lack some of the most fundamental con- 
ceptions, that we must be very careful in establishing 
a sound “apperceptive basis” upon which our children 
can erect their edifice of rational thought. 
How the Child Thinks 
While visiting the schools of a Western town I invited 
the pupils of the primary classes in different districts 
to draw a tree for me. The pupils in an outlying dis- 
trict drew nearly without exception pine-trees; those 
living within the town drew ordinary foliage trees. 
The school-house in the outlying district was sur- 
rounded by lofty pines; and the concept of “tree” in 
the minds of these children was intimately connected 
with their first acquaintance with a tree. A pine-tree 
was the tree for them. The trees in the town itself 
were shade-trees, and furnished a different apperceptive 
basis. The influence of the environment is thus clearly 
seen. 
However, when children answer certain questions in 
the affirmative, as, for instance, “Have you seen a cow?” 
it does not prove that they state a fact in our sense of 
the word. It may happen that in reply to the next 
question, “How big is a cow?” they will tell you all 72 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
sizes from that of a butterfly to that of an elephant. 
The truth is they may have seen only the pictures of 
cows. 
The distinction between pictures and real things is not 
readily made in childhood; and to infer from the scale 
of a picture the actual size of an object is not an easy 
matter for minds untrained in the experience of rela- 
tive sizes, of perspective, of ratio and proportion. 
In this process of learning, with which every parent 
should familiarize himself, the old maxims of method 
assume their full significance: 
From the known to the unknown; 
From the simple to the complex; 
From the concrete to the abstract. 
From the objects which are the concrete material in 
the immediate surroundings of the child, from his men- 
tal images of his own house and its surroundings, from 
his mental images of people he knows and of occupations 
he sees carried on, of natural processes, like water 
running down his own hill, of dirt washed down the 
watersheds of his own road, of toy boats floating in his 
gutter—from all these he must learn to construct in his 
mind conceptions of things remote, of mountains, oceans, 
foreign people. Words, names, pictures, even samples 
of materials and exhibits, maps, are nothing but sym- 
bols, meaningless to him unless he can connect them 
with real experiences of his own. 
This illustrates forcefully the value of training in 
proper observation, in making use of the abundance of 
material near at hand everywhere, the importance of DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
73 
sense training, of actual experiences, instead of mere 
book-work. 
Development of Rational Thought 
Some children even of tender age exhibit much 
apparent brightness. This brightness, real as it may be 
in some cases, must not deceive .us into the belief that 
these children have really mature, rational thought, as- 
tonishing as their deductions may sometimes be, or seem 
to be. Actual maturity in young children is of the 
rarest occurrence, and it is hardly to be desired, as it 
is often accompanied by nervous disorders. In some 
cases, it may be so one-sided that in other respects these 
same children appear almost backward. 
Season manifests itself in the ability to understand 
a given situation logically and to adjust oneself to it. 
This the young child of tender age does not possess. 
It lacks the experience which matures thought. There 
are scientific methods of proving this. 
Hodge, in his study of the homing of pigeons, was 
led to investigate the natural logic of search. Be- 
lieving that those animals survive which have developed 
the most exhaustive methods of searching a given area 
for food, he sought to discover how nearly the actual 
procedure of carrier-pigeons approximates the theo- 
retical curve. He devised the following experiment, 
which was chiefly tried with children and adults: 
A ball is so hidden in a large, square, fenced-in field 
that it can be seen when the observer is twenty feet 
distant. From a stake at the center as the starting- 
point, what is the best method of finding the ball? 
The mathematically best method, the one which carrier- 74 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
pigeons employ in their circling flight, is a path of spiral 
shape, the distance between the lines being forty feet, 
showing the field twenty feet on either side. This in- 
volves virtually no re-searchings. 
Another logical method is that of gridironing the field 
by a series of straight paths that are parallel to each 
other. 
Most of the adults tested followed very nearly the 
logical spiral. A boy of twelve, however, started for 
the fence, followed it some distance, then, turning in, 
discovered the ball by accident. Tests of a number of 
children varying in age from three to twelve show sur- 
prisingly little logic. The tracings of a bright six-year- 
old girl resembled the irregular paths of ants with which 
the famous English naturalist Lubbock had experi- 
mented, revealing hardly any system at all. After sev- 
enty-five minutes she still failed to find the ball which 
adults had discovered in from four to ten minutes. 
The experiment can be tried at home in a simple 
manner, using paper and pencil. On a sheet of paper 
mark one hundred dots in ten rows of ten dots each, 
and direct the child to start at one point—at the center, 
or at one corner—and connect the dots with a continu- 
ous line, without re-touching or crossing over. The 
most logical and quickest method is again the spiral, and 
secondly the gridironing straight parallel paths as in 
Hodge’s experiment. But you will find few children 
of tender age who will succeed in making much of a 
logical attempt to solve the simple problem. Not before 
the child reaches the prepubertal age, at about ten or 
eleven, generally speaking, will his tracings show real 
thought and a mastery of the situation. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
75 
Another method of home testing of a child’s ration- 
ality consists in presenting to him a series of pictures 
which consecutively tell a story, such as the Foxy 
Grandpa series. There must be no printed words or 
other helps for identifying the order in which the pic- 
tures, which are first shuffled up, should be arranged. 
Parents will be surprised how difficult this seemingly 
simple task is to the average young child. 
Records of a Child’s Emotional and Mental Life 
If you wish to study a child’s mental and emotional 
life, and for that purpose keep a record of his mani- 
festations, you need great caution. You must culti- 
vate a thoroughly objective attitude in order to do jus- 
tice to your child, and never allow any subjective feeling, 
any emotion of your own, to color your judgment of the 
child’s actions. The child’s soul is a wonderful well- 
spring of aspirations and strivings, and the adult mind 
has only too often forgotten how to interpret the child’s 
method of reasoning and expression. 
Never be really angry with your child; never lose your 
patience in watching and training him. Never express 
disgust or despair. Never let him feel that you have 
lost confidence in him. Never tell him you are ‘ ‘ through 
with him,” or that you cannot do anything with him 
or for him, that you give him up. You will never 
give him up, anyway. 
If you want to make true records, records that will 
mean something to you and, to your child’s training, 
you must live with your children. 
Some of the many things you will record have refer- 
ence to the following questions: 76 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
How does the child’s affection for the members of his 
family manifest itself? Does he abuse their affection 
for him? How does he respond to directions and re- 
quests? Is he considerate of others, or reckless and 
selfish ? Has he the sense of make-believe ? Or does he 
lack imagination? Is he religiously inclined? Has he 
the feeling of wonder and reverence? Does he love 
nature? Has he mercy and sympathy with the dumb 
creation ? 
Does he show self-respect and modesty? Has he the 
sense of responsibility? Is he inclined to respect other 
people’s property? Does he like to appropriate and 
collect things not his own ? Does he tell falsehoods, and, 
if he does, under what circumstances? 
Is he careful with his things, and orderly ? Or is he 
destructive and disorderly? 
Can he be trusted in handling dangerous material, like 
matches? Does he show morbid conditions of fear? 
Does he laugh or cry easily without sufficient or ap- 
parent reason? 
Is he companionable? Does he like to share? Or is 
he self-centered, or retiring? 
Does he easily quarrel, or nag and tease ? Is he peace- 
ful and comforting? Does he fight for his rights? Or 
is he yielding? 
Is he quick or slow? Active or apathetic? Clean 
and neat, or slovenly and dirty? 
How is his memory power ? How does his speech de- 
velop? Has he the power of attention and concentra- 
tion, or is he scatter-brained ? Can he reason out things, 
or does he simply take other people’s word? 
Many more questions might be mentioned, but the DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
77 
few here quoted will show the character of the obser- 
vations to be made. 
Of course, no one observation means anything at all. 
Children change in their attitudes and may be lazy to- 
day and active to-morrow, truthful to-day and telling 
seemingly atrocious falsehoods to-morrow. What we 
want to study is their development, the unfolding of 
their minds and hearts, and whether they grow in proper 
steps, or are retarded, or arrested in their development. 
The interpretation of all these observations can be made 
only with a full understanding of the laws of child 
growth. 
Emotional Development 
In order to understand some of the underlying psy- 
chological laws governing the development of a child’s 
emotional life, we must remember that he passes in effect 
through the same evolutionary stages through which the 
race has passed. 
It is indeed curious to notice how parallel a child’s 
conceptions run to primitive thought. This is seen in 
the fetishisms characteristic of young children. 
A fetish is a lifeless thing which is endowed, by its 
worshipers, with life, even with supernatural powers. 
Fetish worship is one of the earliest superstitions 
of mankind, a crude kind of religion, which, however, 
has left its vestiges behind in some of even the most 
modern forms of symbolism in religion, and even in 
patriotism. The icon of the Russian peasant is not far 
removed from the fetish of the Fiji-Islander, and even 
the excessive veneration of banners and flags has some 
elements of fetishism in it. 78 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
When a young child endows some lifeless thing with 
human personality he does exactly as the “heathen 
Chinee,” who will beat his “god” whose image he has 
set up in his house if this “god” does not grant his 
prayers. He will beat the “bad” corner of the table 
against which he has bumped his head, as having “in- 
tended” to do him harm. He will kick the stone over 
which he tripped. 
It is true enough that at a later period this attitude 
changes into a make-believe play. But a child of the 
infancy and primitive periods is never quite ready to 
distinguish between make-believe and real fetishism. 
The little girl cries over the broken head of her doll, 
not merely because she has lost a plaything, but because 
there is a lurking suspicion in her mind that the poor 
dolly has actually suffered from the break. 
Likewise, the child will select certain other playthings, 
curiosities of various kinds, and attach peculiar per- 
sonal meanings to them. Some special plaything is 
picked out as a particular favorite and treated exactly 
as the owner is treated. That this is not merely an 
empty fancy becomes evident from the actual distress 
which the child feels if the thing is taken away from 
him. There is a distinct element of superstition and 
even fear in these early notions. 
Although many children make up their own super- 
stitious practices, these rarely mean very much to them. 
They exist mainly as mere forms. Nevertheless, irra- 
tional as they are, there appears nothing foolish in them 
to the child, who has not the ability to discriminate be- 
tween the possible and the impossible; therefore, the 
belief in the wonders of the fairy-tale. There is also DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
79 
the charm of the ritual and of the ceremony in these 
practices; delight in rites of all kinds is another in- 
heritance of the child soul from our remote (is it so re- 
mote?) ancestry, and expresses itself also in the child’s 
dramatic instinct. 
These superstitions of childhood must be handled 
very gently. As a rule, they will be lopped off, lost, in 
the natural growth. It is true, however, that in some 
nervous children, and in the children of races which are 
still steeped in ancient beliefs (the American nation is 
a blend of them all), they play a dangerous part in the 
emotional life. They are sometimes preserved a long 
time, even into the adult life. Direct measures must 
be taken to weaken their influence. 
Generally speaking, it is only the tendency to have 
superstitions which the child inherits from the early 
days of the human race. Most superstitious practices 
are the result of imitation, or of direct teaching by 
parents or others. 
Intelligent parents cannot be too careful in control- 
ling the influences exerted in this manner. Usually they 
know nothing about the origin of these notions in their 
children. Besides, even intelligent parents indulge 
themselves in things of this kind, perhaps smiling a lit- 
tle at their own folly, yet parading their superstitions 
before their children. “Knocking on wood,” “han- 
dling a pin,” “dropping a knife,” “rocking an empty 
cradle,” are but a few of the many examples of common 
superstitions. 
Children cannot discriminate between half-jokes, real 
jokes, and seriousness in matters of this kind. They 
wonder and imitate. The belief in these superstitions 80 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
may not always sink deep, but it is a fact, alluded to 
before, that a real doubt in beliefs, a transition from 
belief to disbelief, does not occur in the child much be- 
fore the tenth year. 
As a proof of this danger of imitation, there is a 
gradual increase in the number of superstitions a child 
harbors from year to year, and this increase extends 
even to the pubertal and adolescent periods. 
Children’s Fears 
What has been said about superstitions is equally true 
of the fears of childhood. 
Fear is a fundamental emotional state. It originated 
when the first human consciousness was achieved, and 
man felt himself in the presence of world forces which 
he did not understand. Fear has been called the mother 
of religions. Fear of the devil is, to this day, stronger 
in some than the love of God. Small wonder, then, that 
fear should be a significant element in the evolution of 
the child soul. 
Knowledge of the function of fear in human conscious- 
ness will help us to understand better the needs of chil- 
dren, so that they may become self-reliant, courageous, 
firm in their convictions, progressive. 
With nervous children particular care should be taken 
not to have the emotions of fear and superstition assume 
morbid proportions. There is grave danger to the peace 
of mind in after life from a child’s fear of the dark, of 
thunder, of noises, of strange faces, etc. 
While the tendency to fear is inherited, and while 
children below pubertal age have little discernment as 
to what might cause them to be afraid and as to what DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
81 
is really harmless, most actual fears are the result of 
imitation, of threats, or of injudicious story-telling. 
It is the duty of parents to keep away from the child’s 
mind everything that might excite undue fear, to avoid 
pointing out imaginary dangers. 
Apart from fears which are inherited, the normal 
child is usually fearless; in fact, so much so that it 
passes by and escapes dangers which are very real to 
his elders. For example, a child has no fear of walking 
on a narrow bridge; the thought that he might lose his 
balance does not enter his mind. Consequently he does 
not lose his balance. This is the secret of the acrobat. 
The child’s mother, seeing him in what she thinks is a 
dangerous situation, is likely to frighten him by calling 
to warn him. With the consciousness of possible danger 
fear comes to the child. 
The same is true of a child’s fear of ghosts and 
witches. Joke about them if they are mentioned at all. 
When a child’s nervous system becomes overwrought 
with fear, only the medical or psychological expert may 
discover the cause and suggest the proper relief. 
A Washington physician, who has referred a number 
of his cases to me for cataloguing, shows that a child’s 
fear may be the outcome of some long-forgotten event 
in the life of the child, as, for example, the recital of a 
terrifying story. 
The child is often ashamed of his fears, and so he 
hides his terrors within himself, in many cases to the 
detriment of his mental and physical health. 
A girl of eighteen came under treatment on account 
of the great nervousness which had afflicted her for 
years. She would frequently wake in the night and 82 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
would be very much afraid unless she were soothed by 
some one’s sleeping with her. Thus she could never 
sleep alone. Inquiries showed that a servant had told 
terrifying stories to her sister as a child. The horrors 
this brought ran through a family of three children, 
but they passed away from all except this girl. 
Examination showed that the medical treatment she 
needed was relatively simple. Her mental functions 
were virtually normal. Her fears were either of fire 
or burglars, and they occurred only when she was 
in bed or asleep. Dreams played a part of her dreads. 
Noises terrified her even though she knew there was no- 
body in the house. She wanted to get rid of her fears. 
She felt ashamed of herself and considered herself 
“babyish.” 
As a first step toward cure, the girl was made to ana- 
lyze her fears and their beginnings. She wrote out a 
detailed history of her experiences. As she was old 
and intelligent enough, she was given some lessons in 
the psychology of fear. Then she was given exercises 
in mental concentration so that she might be able to 
fix her mind on other things than the terrifying ap- 
prehensions. Finally she was urged to face and thor- 
oughly examine her night terrors every time she ex- 
perienced them, so as to make them disappear through 
her own will-power. The treatment was entirely suc- 
cessful. 
There is a lesson in the way the formation of a night 
terror was nipped in the bud in the case of a boy aged 
three and three quarters. For several weeks he had 
been visiting a zoological garden in the company of a 
French maid apparently free from the superstitiousness DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
83 
of the ordinary nurse. For a long time all went well, 
until one evening the boy began to cry in bed soon after 
he was left for the night. 
His father, a doctor, inquired the cause of the boy’s 
trouble. The child said there were lions in the house 
and that he did not want to stay alone as he was afraid 
they would eat him. The source of the idea had been 
that the lions had roared more loudly than usual on 
that afternoon, and he had been much impressed, stand- 
ing for some time before the cage, though unterrified. 
The father soon convinced the boy that the lions had to 
remain in their cages and could not get out; hence there 
could be none in the house, and so there was no occasion 
for fear. Of course, it was first necessary to give him 
the feeling of safety gained by embracing his father, and 
secondly, to begin a conversation by talking of some- 
thing else. 
In this way the state of terror was dismissed and the 
feeling of protection was induced before the subject of 
lions was again taken up. Then father and son made a 
joke of the funny roaring lions before they had finished, 
and the child finally lay down with the solemn purpose 
to sleep and to think of the street-cars and motors pass- 
ing outside his open window. It was all a very simple 
substitution, but it was the prevention of what might 
have become serious. 
I may quote the following remark made by a phy- 
sician who has made a study of such cases: 
“If I say to a small boy that a bear will eat him up, 
the effect upon his emotions differs entirely when I 
make the remark with portentous gravity and horror, 
and when I say it with bubbling joviality as evidently a 84 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
huge joke. In the first instance the boy will rush to 
my side in terror and try to be saved from the bear; and 
a ‘phobia’ (fear psychosis) is in course of construc- 
tion. In the latter proceeding the boy will laugh 
heartily, and it would not take much to make him enter 
the cage and stroke the bear.” 
When we speak of fear, we mostly think of the crude 
kinds of dread, like fright, shock, or abject cowardice. 
But there are subtler and nobler kinds of fear which are 
the basis of all sublime sentiments, like the fear of God, 
of failure of purpose, of disgrace, of doing injustice and 
wrong. This kind of fear strikes at the roots of our 
being. It is akin to reverence, worship, religion. 
There is another element to be considered. Fear of 
the right kind is a stimulus to mental effort and self- 
conquering action. It produces in the rightly guided 
child the determination to overcome its paralyzing ef- 
fects. The child’s joy is never greater than when he 
conquers his fear and makes the object of his previous 
fear a part of his mental possessions. 
Fear is an important educational factor. The child 
who does not start on his career of self-determination, 
of the development of strong character, with a whole- 
some fear of the uncompromising majesty of the moral 
law, who does not retain through life a keen apprecia- 
tion of the awe-inspiring presence of powers that will 
ever be beyond his knowledge and to which he must 
bow down in worshipful reverence, will never be a true 
man. 
Beginnings of Religion 
It is the common custom of the majority of parents DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND 
85 
to bring their children up in the religious beliefs which 
they themselves hold. The idea back of this practice 
is noble; its effect, however, is often painful for the 
parent. 
Our religion expresses our highest ideals of the world 
and its mysteries. We have to express ourselves in 
symbols. To the untutored mind the symbol over- 
shadows the conception of the idea it is supposed to 
embody, and a sort of fetishism is the result. 
The mind of the child is not at all capable of under- 
standing a religious symbolism which is the result of 
long ages of culture development in the race. The child 
will take the symbol for that which is symbolized; he 
often will form ideas which will shock the parent when 
they become known to him. 
A mother had been anxious to convey to her little 
boy the idea of God’s omnipotence. He sat thinking for 
a long while. Suddenly he startled his mother by the 
question, “Mother, you mean to say that God can do 
everything ? ’ ’ 
“Yes, my dear,” was the answer. 
After further thinking the question was repeated 
three times. Finally, the startled mother was confronted 
with this question: “Mother, can God see the back of 
his own neck ? ’ ’ This was not irreverent; it was the ex- 
pression of a serious childish puzzle. 
The little daughter of a college professor had been 
taught to pray for the things she desired. It was very 
dry and hot; everybody was looking anxiously for rain. 
Suddenly it occurred to the girl that she could pray 
for rain, and she acted on her impulse at once. Shortly 
after there came a terrific thunder-shower. Streets were 86 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
gullied, trees were blown down, and other damage was 
done. After the shower, the child’s mother found her 
standing at the window looking out, with a rueful face, 
upon the debris, and heard her say in an awe-struck 
voice, “Oh, Lord, what have I done?” 
These stories are funny, but they teach a valuable 
lesson. 
The early stages in the development of the religious 
life of the child are characterized by notions of nature 
worship. The personifying instinct is strong. As a 
matter of fact, the realization of self is bound up with 
the notion of the outside world and its mysterious 
forces. 
To the young child the world is full of mysteries and 
possibilities. A wise parent will make use of this fact, 
and of the child’s readiness to live in a world of ‘ ‘ make- 
believe,” discreetly to develop conceptions which will 
lead to true religious ideas. CHAPTER IV 
THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
Much of Froebel’s wonderful kindergarten material is 
intended for the use of the mother in the home. 
First of all comes the “mother play.” Picture the 
child on his mother’s lap, listening raptly to her sing- 
ing or softly talking. Wonderful tales of knights of 
old, of flower fairies, of talking animals, open up to his 
infant mind impressions of the world beyond. Or she 
may be actually playing with him, building blocks, 
romping, or showing him simple exercises to develop the 
little body. 
Emily Poulssen has written a “finger play” book 
which is a most valuable aid to a mother with a young 
child. 
Many of the kindergarten “gifts” and “occupations” 
can be purchased in neat little boxes in any toy or de- 
partment store; the building blocks, the bead-stringing 
outfit, the sticks for stick-laying, the rings for ring- 
laying, the splints, the sewing cards, paper for folding 
and for color-work. So any mother who will, can have 
play material and use it with her child. But there are 
several cautions to be heeded. 
In the first place, none of these occupations should be 
used without a knowledge of their significance. It had 
been Froebel’s hope that every young girl before marri- 88 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
age should have a course in kindergartening as a pre- 
paration for motherhood. His dream has not yet been 
realized to any extent. But, even if a mother is un- 
trained before, she should surely make every effort to 
familiarize herself with some of the fundamental educa- 
tional principles before she becomes a mother. The pe- 
riod in her child’s life which we are now discussing seri- 
ously requires such training. There are many good and 
simple books which a mother can read for self-educa- 
tion in this respect. However, no books should be slav- 
ishly followed, but adaptations should be made to fit 
individual cases. 
In using kindergarten material, be sure to get the 
largest made. It has been the general notion that little 
children can do best work with little things, and big 
children with big things. This statement should be 
reversed: Little children should be occupied with big 
things (relatively so), and bigger children, as well as 
adults, are better able to handle small and minute 
things. There are several reasons for this caution. 
First, the eye of the young child is more far-sighted 
than that of the older child. It implies a distinct strain 
to young eyes to focus on small things. Thus, sewing 
with a small needle and fine thread, weaving with nar- 
row strips of paper or worsted, even early reading and 
writing which some have endeavored to introduce into 
kindergarten practice, are distinctly injurious. Read- 
ing and writing, in the ordinary sense, may fitly be 
postponed, even in the primary grades, until the child 
has reached perhaps the ninth year of his life. 
Give Children Big Things to Play With THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
89 
Secondly, the muscular development of the child 
makes it inadvisable to have him handle small things. 
Like the small building blocks of the first gifts of the 
kindergarten, or the thin and small sticks and wire rings 
for the laying of various forms. It is a matter of 
muscle control and coordination. The order of develop- 
ment of control is evidently as follows: body, shoulder, 
arm, forearm, and hand. In the hand control, the in- 
dex finger differentiates before that of the others. Free- 
dom of wrist movement is usually not attained before 
the eleventh year. 
Little children will do crude things, and their scale 
must be comparatively large. 
Every parent will bear out the observation that chil- 
dren of very tender age will be breathlessly busy lift- 
ing heavy things, big things, rather than minute ob- 
jects. Once in a while they will develop an interest in 
small objects, indicating that their visual and muscular 
adjustments vary from time to time. But the rule will 
be that they enjoy large objects most, and handle them 
with best success. 
To insist upon accurate adjustments which require 
hand and finger control will necessarily result in fail- 
ure, or in injury to the child. 
The nervous strain consequent upon the use of small 
things in the occupations of small children has not in- 
frequently brought about distinct nervous disorders. It 
is a well known fact that visual troubles are a very com- 
mon result of early occupations in sewing, pricking, 
weaving, reading, and writing. 
It will, therefore, be well for the mother not to con- 
sider the small-size gifts and occupations as standards. 90 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Fortunately, modern manufacturers supply large-size 
blocks and outfits which are preferable. 
Symbolism in the Kindergarten 
The basic idea of the kindergarten work is symbol- 
ism. Everything the child does has a symbolic mean- 
ing. 
There is much make-believe and symbolism in a child’s 
play, it is true. But this is mostly spontaneous and in- 
stinctive, and takes in an endless variety of objects 
and forms. Even in the picture writing of American 
Indians, in the strange earth structures of the mound- 
builders, and in many other primitive creations, 
geometric forms have their interesting significance, sym- 
bolic in character. A similar use in the education of 
the young child has therefore its justification. But, 
after all, the child lives in a modern environment and 
can employ modern things. His opportunities, his 
choice of material, his horizon, are wider. To confine 
him to stereotyped, metaphysical symbols, in his build- 
ing blocks, in his colors, etc., is unnecessary. 
It is a pretty play to have the “ball” of the first 
gift symbolize all rolling and moving things, and things 
of life; while the “cube” represents all immovable 
things, the things that are lifeless, the mineral world, 
if you please. In this trinity of symbols the “cylinder” 
occupies the middle ground; symbolizing all things sta- 
tionary in position, but growing upward, like a tree. 
If a mother feels called upon to introduce these 
thoughts, well and good. But it is entirely unnecessary 
to confine such comparisons to the regulation gifts. 
There are hundreds of objects in the ordinary environ- THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
91 
ment of the child which can be pressed into service. 
The pet dog is, after all, a fitter representative of life 
than the wooden ball. A real tree or plant symbolizes 
the vegetable kingdom more directly than the “cylin- 
der”; and there are all kinds of building material in 
every child’s environment which can take the place 
of the regulation “cube,” which is as much a geometric 
abstraction as are the sphere and the cylinder. 
This introduces another thought. A mother who 
thinks she cannot afford to buy the regulation gifts and 
occupations need not worry. If she has the kinder- 
garten spirit she can find material all about her to 
serve the same purpose. Any kind of building blocks, 
spools, odd pieces of wire, remnants of cloth and fabrics, 
old boxes of pasteboard and wood, and all the many 
things which even the boy of later years will pick out 
of the scrap-basket and treasure, will answer the same 
purpose. It is the use a mother makes of these things 
which counts. 
The Sand-pile and Its Wonders 
Hills and dales, dams and bridges, roads and houses, 
castles and fairy palaces, built up and torn down in 
endless variety, in fanciful shapes which none but the 
builders would identify, built of the most yielding, the 
most unsubstantial, yet the most serviceable material— 
this is the children’s paradise of the sandy beach. 
What does it matter that shoes and stockings get full 
of sand ? Or that the sand steals into the children’s hair, 
mouths, nostrils? The child brushes these little incon- 
veniences away, only half aware of the annoyance. 
Not all of us may be able to take our children to the 92 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
beach, at least not for more than an afternoon, or a 
few weeks. But we can bring the beach to them. We 
can have a sand-pile for them in our own back yards. 
We can have a sand-table in the nursery. 
Certainly, the more room and open air a child has, 
the better. To be cooped up with only the street for a 
playground, as is the rule in the cities, is the curse of 
childhood. Many of the educational suggestions we 
may make for the benefit of young children are power- 
less when they run up against the dead brick walls of 
the tenement. 
For these districts the public playground, conven- 
iently located and under the direction of educational 
authorities, is the only safeguard for childhood. And 
in the playground the sand-pile. 
But every back yard of the one-, two-, and four-family 
house should be provided with ample facilities for child 
play, and first of all with a sand-pile. The large apart- 
ment-houses—and for that matter even the tenement- 
houses—can be provided with well protected roof-gar- 
dens to serve the same purpose. 
The sand-pile is a world in miniature to the child. 
He can work out most of his problems with it. He will 
build his mountains and rivers, pouring streams of 
water into his lakes, and getting delightfully muddy and 
wet. He will make his mud-pies, using mother’s cake- 
forms recklessly. He will dig and pile up with his lit- 
tle shovels, or appropriate the kitchen coal-shovel when 
his own is absent. 
Dolls and toy animals, engines and wagons, boxes and 
all the collection of odds and ends, of pieces of wood, 
wire, iron, and whatever else has been hoarded, will be THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
93 
dragged upon the pile and disposed of as parts of an 
imaginary whole. Trips across country, to the sea- 
shore, to the circus, will be illustrated in this world of 
sand. He will people this world with the fairies and 
strange beings about which mother told him, or which 
he has seen in gay colors in his picture-book. 
In the sand-pile everything is on a pleasantly large 
scale. 
The sand-table, on the other hand, requires smaller 
scale work. It appeals, therefore, more to those chil- 
dren who are large enough to do smaller things. The 
sand-table lends itself to a greater variety of differenti- 
ated uses during a rather long period of years, develop- 
ing into something in which the sand as such plays a 
minor part. 
On the sand-table there may be built landscapes and 
scenery for illustration of countries, customs, and his- 
torical events. Cities may be outlined. Indian villages 
may be built up. Human figures may be modeled in 
clay or whittled in wood, and dressed in various fash- 
ions. Houses may be built of wood, or clay, or made 
of cardboard. So-called “modeling-sheets” may be 
bought at the stationer’s. Huts and wigwams may be 
constructed of twigs, cloth, and chamois. Mosses, ferns, 
and other plants, rocks and soils, will add to the in- 
structional value. Lakes and brooks may be repre- 
sented by pieces of broken mirror. 
The work can be made to grow with the months and 
years, by adding and substituting. Mechanical de- 
vices and moving things can be introduced: mills, 
waterworks, processions, railroads, driven by sand or 
worked with simple machinery, even electricity. Thus 94 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the sand-pile and the sand-table can be made the center 
of a multitude of child activities, growing and develop- 
ing with the years of his mental evolution. 
Modeling in Mud and Clay 
Sand is the first material in the child’s experience 
(if we omit the undesirable and unhygienic mud) which 
lends itself to another of the fundamental occupations, 
modeling. 
The making of mud-pies is, on the part of the child, 
an expression of that primitive instinct which was 
alive in the oldest of races, of shaping something soft 
and yielding into forms that have some distinct signifi- 
cance. 
At first, this instinct is perhaps little more than a 
satisfaction of the desire to develop hand and finger 
consciousness. The first movements in handling the 
mud or sand, are largely aimless, and shapeless forms 
are the result. But soon there is a clear development 
of intention; the child will make some definite form, 
a “pie” or a ball. His results may be very crude to 
the adult eye, yet we must beware not to criticize or 
discourage. The use of tin forms, such as cake forms, 
marks another step. Then the child has some model 
which can be used without taxing his sculptural skill. 
Finally he succeeds in producing real forms. 
One of the oldest forms of primitive modeling is 
the making of pottery. Even before the use of fire 
was discovered by ancient man, he used clay to make 
vessels of some kind; with the discovery of fire, these 
were made more serviceable by baking and glazing. 
The potter’s wheel was virtually man’s first invention. THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
95 
Little children will delight when using clay to make 
vessels of all kinds, Indian-like, first with, the fingers 
alone, and with finger-marks as their only decoration. 
Later, ornamentation may be made in design and color. 
Almost equally as old as pottery is sculpture. Some 
pottery is so fashioned that it contains sculptural ele- 
ments. Sculpture is as ancient as the race. Clay fig- 
ures of the human form, of animals and other things, 
are found in very ancient graves. Mounds, as those of 
the mound-builders of North America, were built in the 
form of eagles, snakes, and human beings, covering 
acres of land. It is, therefore, not strange that the 
young child in the primitive period of his life delights 
in making a variety of forms in clay or any other suit- 
able material. 
My own researches in children’s work have revealed 
the ability of youthful artists to express themselves in 
clay in a wonderful manner, provided they were left 
to their own ideas and were judged according to their 
own standards. Some of the statuettes they made for 
me were strikingly lifelike and very much like the As- 
syrian and Egyptian statuettes of which collections 
are exhibited in museums. They were the spontaneous 
work of children after they had learned to use the 
material with some facility. 
Other Primitive Occupations 
Every young healthy child loves to dig. A spade 
and shovel give him great delight. In the evolution of 
civilization the transition from the nomadic life of the 
hunter to agricultural pursuits, which required settle- 
ment in fixed places, marked a decided epoch. The 96 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
young child represents this stage in the development of 
each human life. 
Let the child spade and dig, rake and plant, sprinkle 
and weed, and eventually reap his little harvest of 
flowers, vegetables, or grain. Here the back yard, the 
school garden, the public playground, have a most im- 
portant function. 
With the gardening come the household occupations. 
Let the child help in gathering supplies, in washing and 
peeling potatoes, and in preparing simple food. Many 
a dish may be broken, many a failure recorded, but 
out of all this will evolve an experience which cannot 
be given in any other way. The child will industriously 
sweep and scrub, wash windows and doors, dust and 
polish, with increasing skill and happiness, if it is not 
made a drudgery task to him. 
Let the child learn by doing, not so much to produce a 
finished article but to experiment. Any materials 
which may be found around the house may be used. 
Let him in these formative years understand the joy 
of work, the pride in work well done, so that it will 
permeate his whole life and make his later task a bless- 
ing to him and his. If at this period work is made a 
punishment and a toil, he will hate it for ever. 
Boxes of all kinds, cardboard or wood, even packing- 
boxes of whatever size up to the biggest dry-goods box, 
may be pressed into service. Sometimes the child, may 
need help in handling them, but he will fearlessly grap- 
ple with tasks that tax his strength. 
A little boy of three whose play I have studied built 
in his garden a house or ‘ ‘ stable ’ ’ large enough for him 
to sit in. His material consisted of old boards, dis- THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
97 
carded wire screens, and shutters, and, while he needed 
some help in handling it, idea and plan were entirely his 
own. 
In the further development of this work, the children 
may make, of some of the packing-boxes, doll-houses 
which they will furnish with crude carpenter work, us- 
ing hammer, saw, and drill. Some children learn the 
use of the saw very early. 
Never forget two things, however: first, that all this 
work should be on a large scale, to allow whole arm 
movements in the making; secondly, that children differ 
considerably in speed of development along different 
lines and aptitudes; also, that some have the planning 
and leading minds, while others are mere mechanics. 
Team-work may be desirable in a number of cases, in- 
troducing the idea of cooperation and social groups. 
With young children requiring large arm movements, 
weaving with raffia, reeds, chamois strips, torn cloth, 
ribbon, worsted, shoe-strings, should be the forerunner 
of sewing. It should be done on a large scale, using 
simple looms or frames, also correspondingly large in 
size. Mats of all kinds, blankets, hammocks, mittens, 
caps, and a variety of things can be woven in this man- 
ner. Coarse darning and knitting may follow. 
Accurate stitching on a small scale, such as is often 
required even of young children in the making of 
“samplers” and the like, is distinctly injurious to the 
young eyes and to the nervous system of the child. A 
method of “sewing without a needle,” using coarse 
thread and notched cardboard, has been used to advan- 
tage. 
Begin sewing proper with a coarse bone needle (cro- 98 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
chet-needle), coarse canvas and burlap, and large 
threads. Cord and worsted as well as shoe-strings will 
answer the purpose. Cardboard waste-paper baskets, 
boxes, and trays may be made by “sewing” the edges 
together in this manner. Have the child make things, 
in rapid work, without drudgery, also using colored 
thread: bags, doilies, dresses for a large doll, in savage 
or crude fashion, with as few stitches as possible. 
Simple basket-weaving belongs to this class of kinder- 
garten occupations. 
There are many suggestive courses laid out in the 
books devoted to raffia and cord work, basketry, netting, 
etc. No intelligent parent or teacher need complain of 
dearth of suggestions. 
Children’s Drawings 
The study of children’s drawings has revealed many 
interesting facts, but it is hazardous to give a definite 
statement as to how to judge of a child’s performance 
in every given case, as talents differ. 
Every young child delights in using crayons and 
pencils for the “decoration” of whatever surface he 
can lay his hands on, no matter whether it be a papered 
wall or a blackboard or a valuble book. The exploits 
of children with paints are well known. Kecently the 
cover of a popular magazine represented a little boy 
and a little girl smearing red paint by the gallon over 
a patient old white horse—by no means merely an imagi- 
nary scene. 
The first drawings of children are mere scribbles, 
seemingly aimless lines running in all directions, finally 
taking on curved shapes. These drawings, while in the THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
99 
beginning mere exercises of the hand, gradually assume 
a meaning to the child. He wants to express something 
as he has seen his elders express themselves by drawing 
and writing. Indeed, he makes no particular distinc- 
tion at first between drawing and writing—even as 
ancient writing was ‘‘picture writing” the letters evolv- 
ing very slowly out of pictures which were their proto- 
types. 
Thus, a little boy will “write a letter” consisting of 
mere scribbles, saying to himself, or even aloud, what his 
signs mean to him, and being astonished and hurt when 
he discovers that others cannot “read” his writing. 
It is well not to hurry a young child into developing 
his scribble into true letter formation, or writing, as 
this should be allowed to be a slow and spontaneous 
process. 
Perspective is unknown to the young child of this 
early period. He will usually draw everything he knows 
is there, or ought to be there, no matter whether it is 
visible from his point of view or not. The first attempt 
to arrange objects or persons whose relative position is 
behind each other is to draw them above each other, 
each consecutive object, or group, on a separate base- 
line. Here is a distinct parallel between the child’s 
drawings and those of the ancient Egyptians. 
Another interesting fact in children’s drawings (also 
paralleled in ancient works of art) is that they will 
draw the thing that interests them most on a larger 
scale than anything else. Thus the hero of his story 
will stand out disproportionately from his background 
or from his companions. 
In his drawings a child will piece together all he 100 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
knows, in more or less fragmentary style. Drawings 
may therefore be utilized by educators to ascertain, in 
a measure, the extent of a child’s knowledge and under- 
standing of a certain subject. 
It is best to leave the child to his own resources in 
drawing or to help him only by very discreet questions 
and suggestions. It is an unfortunate practice in kin- 
dergarten, primary schools, and homes to teach children 
of this period conventional forms of houses, cats, peo- 
ple, etc., which the child is apt to imitate slavishly, 
thus substituting somebody else’s symbol for his own 
spontaneous creation. This tends to deteriorate his 
artistic evolution. 
Other Occupations 
There are, of course, many other occupations for a 
child of this stage. One or two may be mentioned. 
One of the most important is paper work. There are 
many kinds of paper weaving, paper folding, and past- 
ing. Care must be taken to do it on a large enough 
scale, and to allow crude work. With the introduction 
of scissors comes the cutting out and mounting of pic- 
tures, of which illustrative collections can be made. 
Through folding and, cutting, many forms of beauty 
may be developed, especially with different colored pa- 
pers. Free-hand tearing and cutting of figures and na- 
ture forms is valuable in art representation, and may 
develop into silhouette work. 
Cardboard exercises give opportunity for the cutting 
of forms and for making boxes and trays for seeds, 
buttons, beads, or specimens and collections of various 
kinds, as well as files and portfolios, picture-frames, THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
101 
baskets, ships, and railroad-cars, houses, and a great 
variety of forms. 
Cut-out figures in colored papers may be combined, 
by pasting them in layers on a suitable background, to 
produce compositions of landscapes or seascapes; blue 
paper for the sky, light blue green for water, darker 
green for grass and trees, brown for roads and tree- 
trunks, and the houses and people put in in the proper 
manner. 
How important the hand of a child is under abnormal 
circumstances—which, by the way, may occur in the 
life of any child at any time—is shown by the fact that 
the blind read with their hands, and learn about size 
and form through their hands; that the deaf learn to 
speak, in part, by the use of their hands; and, if per- 
sons are blind and deaf, like Helen Keller, they “hear” 
with their hands, by placing them on the lips and 
throat of the speaker. 
Let us remember that there are twenty-nine little 
bones in each hand. In the arm and hand there are 
more than fifty muscles governing their movements, 
each said to contain more than a million fibers. What 
a wonderful mechanism! Is it not worth being appreci- 
ated and trained in every child? 
The human thumb differentiates the child of man 
from the child of any other living thing on earth, vir- 
tually from birth on. 
The sense of touch with which the human hand is en- 
dowed is keener than that of the paw of any animal. 
The finger-tips are the most sensitive organs of the en- 
tire body. If we add that the nerves of the hand are 
also sensible to heat and cold, we shall realize that in 102 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the hand we have an organ of both perception and ex- 
pression, or execution, such as may not exist elsewhere 
in the universe. 
It has been said that the history of civilization is 
the history of the making of tools, from the rude stone 
hammer of the savage to the astronomical clock which 
measures minute fragments of time. But the making 
of tools, the invention of machines, the construction of 
cities, temples, bridges, etc., are dependent entirely upon 
the skill of the hand, directed and guided by the awaken- 
ing brain, the brain being thus awakened, in a great 
measure, by the very messages the hand sent to it in 
the process of manual experiments. 
Does it need any stronger plea than this to convince 
us of the vast importance of manual and experimental 
studies as compared with mere book-learning? Should 
not parents measure the progress of their children 
much more than they do by their advancement in the 
use of their hands, by the achievements of doing rather 
than the accomplishments of memory and recitations? 
Sense Training 
“There is nothing in the mind which has not come 
through the senses,’’ is the saying of a great philosopher. 
The mind learns, as we have seen, through interpreting 
sense impressions. To the young child the world is a 
great confusion out of which he has to create order. 
The child’s play is his experiment with the forces 
which he wants to explore. It brings to him clearness 
out of chaos. The child learns to observe, to distin- 
guish, to classify. All learning is in its essence the THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
103 
finding of differences out of similarities. The similari- 
ties appeal first to the child. 
All four-footed animals of some size are “ moo-cows ” 
to him if he happens to become acquainted with a cow 
first. All men are “papas,” all women “mamas.” 
Gradually he sees differences, and his world grows 
larger and fuller. 
In this process of observation and differentiation the 
child can be greatly helped by proper sense training. 
The child must be encouraged to observe correctly, 
and must be shown how. He must learn to use his 
eyes, his ears, his sense of touch, of taste, of smell, his 
muscular sense, his temperature sense. He must learn 
to distinguish and match colors, beginning with the so- 
called primary colors and proceeding to tints and shades. 
He must also learn to name them correctly. He must 
learn to appreciate form and size, to judge distances 
and areas. 
A little boy well known to me had extreme delight 
in watching an engine coming from a distance along 
the track, growing bigger and bigger, until it was full- 
size; then, departing, growing smaller and smaller, un- 
til it disappeared in the distance. This observation 
taught him perspective, the relation of apparent size 
to distance. 
The child must learn to appreciate differences in 
weight; in hardhess and softness; rough and smooth 
surfaces; warm, cold, and tepid temperatures; differ- 
ences in quantity (few and many) ; in material (wood, 
iron, glass, etc.) : he must learn the name9 of tools, 
pieces of furniture, etc., and their uses. He must de- 104 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
velop an esthetic attitude and discriminate between 
ugly and beautiful things, between dirt and cleanliness, 
between fits and misfits. He must learn to use his 
hands in a variety of ways to distinguish by touch, 
by the handling of things. He must learn to locate 
himself as to time and place. He must cultivate his 
sense of smell to guide him in case of need. He must 
learn to distinguish by taste what he cannot distin- 
guish otherwise. 
There are endless opportunities in every-day life by 
which these indispensable lessons can be taught. Games, 
attractive and helpful, have been invented to train the 
young child’s ability to use his senses rightly for com- 
plete orientation. 
Counting and Tallying 
The years from five to seven, the transition period 
from the primitive stage of childhood, constitute the 
“counting period,” when children will count anything 
and everything. 
The study of the development of the child’s ability to 
conceive number is very fascinating. Nothing would 
seem to be simpler than to distinguish between one and 
more than one. But it required a long time of mental 
development in the race, and does likewise in the child, 
to take this step. 
Young children form adequate ideas of quantity most 
painfully. They may learn to “count” rather early, 
memorizing the number names and repeating them with 
more or less regularity and even in the right order but 
without connecting any numerical conception with them. 
Some children will use these number names rather reck- THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 
105 
lessly for a long time. They will omit numbers, or go 
back to those they have already given, and the like. 
In beginning to count objects, even after they have 
at last mastered the regular sequence of number names 
up to ten or twelve or so, their difficulty at first is that 
they do not know when to stop—to stop at the last ob- 
ject. Again, in counting, five marbles, they may not 
at all by this process arrive at the idea of real quantity. 
Asked to give you five marbles they may give you the 
marble in the counting which they had uttered the 
word “five”; in other words, they do not think of the 
entire group of marbles as five, but of the fifth marble, 
confusing cardinal and ordinal numbers. 
Number concepts are hazy even with adults. There 
are few who will recognize immediately, without count- 
ing, a relatively small number of dots, for example, 
twenty, if these are scattered irregularly over a page. 
They will not be certain at all whether there are twenty 
or nineteen or twenty-one dots. Some persons may make 
even wilder guesses. Judging the number of persons 
present at some function shows the same difficulty; 
few will be quite sure of their ability to estimate the 
number of guests without counting. 
This confession ought to make us charitable in judg- 
ing of the difficulties children of this period have in 
learning arithmetic. CHAPTER V 
HOME AND SCHOOL 
Before the Child Goes to School 
A turning-point in the child’s life is reached when he 
first goes to school. There are few mothers or fathers 
who do not feel a certain grief when they deliver their 
baby to the new forces that are destined to shape his 
future. Of course this new life is also a life of new 
hopes, new joys, new growths, but often also of dis- 
appointments and estrangements. No longer is the 
child the sole possession of loving parents; they must 
give him up to people to whom their precious baby is 
but one among many, and to an order of things very 
different from the home where family elements prevail. 
Now the community begins to claim the child as a fu- 
ture citizen, to be molded into a being that can bear and 
understand duties and responsibilities towards his fel- 
low-men. 
All this involves a new attitude of the parent to the 
child. He must now, more than ever before, share 
rights and responsibilities with, the authorities of the 
school administration, with the officials of the community 
which maintains the school. This sharing implies, in 
many ways, a restriction of parental rights. In almost 
all the States of the American Union there are laws 
which compel parents to give their children the benefit HOME AND SCHOOL 
107 
of school instruction, not necessarily in the public 
schools of their own community, but in some manner 
of which the authorities and the laws approve. Par- 
ents who try to avoid this duty—a duty which they owe 
their children as well as the community—are subject 
to punishment. We have attendance officers who are 
deputed to enforce these laws by searching out offenders. 
Parents are not allowed to send their children to work 
at a tender age, and before they have acquired a mini- 
mum of school education to prepare them for citizen- 
ship; child-labor laws have been found necessary to 
protect children, not only from the greed of employers, 
but from their own parents, who only too often have 
considered their children their property to be exploited 
according to their own arbitrary will. 
At this point, when the child assumes the new func- 
tion of becoming a school pupil, when new tasks arise 
which demand the expenditure of the child’s full 
strength, it is essential that the parents and the school 
authorities convince themselves that the child is in fit 
condition. The parents, with the help of their family 
doctor, will do wisely in establishing their child’s physi- 
cal and mental health. And efforts are now being made 
to connect with all school systems a chain of “clinics” 
which will follow up the child’s career in his bodily 
and mental development from the kindergarten to the 
high school. 
Home and School 
Many parents think they have done their duty when 
they have handed their child over to the school. 
They hardly know or care what the school is like, what 108 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
their child is really doing there, what influences are 
brought to bear upon him, in the form of methods and 
aims of instruction, of teacher personalities, of school- 
mates and chums. 
A parent should be familiar with the school system 
into which he transfers his child, be it public or private. 
It is a much-discussed question whether a private school 
is preferable to a public school, or vice versa. Often 
the choice is dependent} upon local or personal condi- 
tions. The individuality of the child and his special 
needs at different periods of his life have to be con- 
sidered. 
Many private schools, however, have developed the 
tendency to become select schools for the rich—not al- 
ways select in the sense that they are better managed, 
but that they have a “select’’ type of pupils in matter 
of wealth and social standing. This confines the child 
to acquaintance with representatives of his own “set” 
only and militates against wider experience and demo- 
cratic points of view. 
But, whatever school be selected, the parent must be 
in close touch with management, plan of work, and in- 
dividual teacher, not in the sense of a bothersome med- 
dler, but for the purpose of understanding the school 
life of the child and of cooperating with the school. 
His child’s teacher must be the parents’ honored friend. 
In a practical form, this connection has become ex- 
pressed in the organization of parent-teacher associa- 
tions. In their meetings, common interests are dis- 
cussed, and a better appreciation of individual child 
problems is brought about. 
The wise father and the wise mother will realize that HOME AND SCHOOL 
109 
their child, who to them has been the center of much 
subjective emotion and devotion, is now being measured 
by objective standards, in comparison with others who 
have as much claim upon recognition as their own. 
There will have to be adjustments in a give-and-take 
way. The mother must not imagine that she knows more 
about her child than the teacher because she is a mother 
and the mother of that particular child; for the teacher 
sees the child from a different angle, having studied 
child problems on a large scale, and she observes things 
which were not apparent in the home. On the other 
hand, the wise teacher will appreciate the opportunity 
of learning the home side of the child, which may throw 
light upon many a school problem. 
Ambitions and Disappointments 
It is the fond hope of every father and mother that 
their child will be the honor pupil of his school. If 
all those wishes could come true, there would be no 
tardy ones, no slackers, no holdovers. But there must 
be failures. 
Perhaps, in better organized school systems, such as 
we dream of for the future, failures may be rarer. But 
even now many of the children who become the despair 
of their parents and their teachers are not failures at 
all. They may not progress in the regulation way, but 
meanwhile they store up energies for unsuspected ac- 
tivities. They merely represent a type different from 
what the “average” school-boy or school-girl is sup- 
posed to embody. 
The child who is successful in school may not be suc- 
cessful in business. The child backward in school may 110 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
show unexpected brilliancy in after life. Scholastic 
attainments are not identical with life attainments. Be- 
sides, intelligence is not the only factor of success in 
the best sense of the word. There have been great 
rogues whose intelligence was extraordinary. Charac- 
ter, after all, is the foundation of human life. There are 
to this day illiterates all over the world, many of them 
virtually unable to master the mysteries of the three 
R’s, who are sterling members of society, rude, but sane 
philosophers of life, a thousand times better than many 
of their erudite fellow-citizens. 
Again, the world is full of “distinguished dunces,” 
persons who were not promising when they were chil- 
dren but made their indelible mark. 
Kitchener was thick-headed in everything but mathe- 
matics ; a slow coach, ‘ ‘ climbing the dull hill of duty. ’1 
He grew up to be the idol of an empire. U. S. Grant 
had made a failure of himself until he entered the Union 
Army at the outbreak of the Civil War then he rose to 
the highest distinction. Charles Darwin, the great sci- 
entist, was so lazy and indolent in childhood that his 
father thought he would be a disgrace to his family. 
Henry Ward Beecher stood at the foot of his class, 
and he barely succeeded in graduating from 
Amherst. James Russell Lowell was suspended from 
Harvard on account of continued neglect of his 
studies. 
The rival to brilliancy is stick-to-itiveness; the slow 
plodder often outstrips the swift, as the tortoise won 
the race against the hare. If the parent will under- 
stand his child there will be fewer failures and disap- 
pointments. HOME AND SCHOOL 
111 
The Children and Their School Marks 
While teachers have every opportunity of studying 
and testing their pupils, there is always a possibility of 
making mistakes. This is particularly evident in the 
“marking” of examination-papers. Fortunately, ex- 
aminations are no longer considered the only “proof” 
of progress and readiness for promotion; in cases of 
extreme excellence in scholarship they are entirely elimi- 
nated. The daily work upon which scholarship is based 
in the final summary is “marked” by the teacher, be it 
by the symbolic letters A, B, C, D, etc., or, if a finer 
distinction is wanted, in percentages. This latter 
method has a particularly insidious character. With 
what degree of intelligence can a teacher decide whether 
a paper is worth precisely 75 or 77; or, if there be ten 
questions, each valuated at 10, that one answer is 
worth precisely 9, and another 8? Such mathematical 
exactness is absolutely impossible. But the summary 
counts. 
A school superintendent, endeavoring to test the relia- 
bility of these marks, submitted an identical copy of 
the questions and the answer sheet of a certain pupil 
to one hundred different teachers for marking. When 
he got the papers back there were marks as low as 29 
and as high as 90! These were entirely objective judg- 
ments, uninfluenced by personal acquaintance of the 
judges with the pupil. Now, in the personal knowl- 
edge a teacher has of her pupils, the personal equation 
plays its part. Sometimes without the teacher’s intent. 
That will influence their valuation of papers. 
What, then, can a report mean to a parent if it just 
contains the cabalistic symbols, something like this: 112 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Reading B (or 85), Number C (or 62) ? As a rule, the 
parent (mother or father) signs these reports without 
going further into them, praising or blaming the child 
as the case may be. Yet the report tells the parent very 
little, if anything, of a child’s real efficiency and prog- 
ress. These marks may be interpreted in very many 
ways, apart from the chance of their being unjust. The 
child, at the time of the test, may have been tired or 
excited or ill; the teacher may have been fatigued, nerv- 
ous, irritated, or in a hurry. All these factors play 
their part. 
The time may come when we shall have no marks at 
all. Until then a parent ought to go behind the re- 
turns. He should help the teacher to know his child 
better. He should cooperate with the teacher and the 
school in handling the child to the child’s best interest. 
The parent-teacher associations have done much toward 
this end. They should become an integral part of the 
educational system of the country. 
Cooperation between Home and School 
There are many ways in which parents can cooperate 
with the school authorities in the interest of their chil- 
dren. Home and school should base their educational 
work on the same general principles with mutual under- 
standing, and should not represent to the child opposites 
in policy and aim. The teacher should be the best 
helper of the parent, and the parent the grateful friend 
of the teacher. 
Let us only consider two items of the daily school 
routine; tardiness and truancy, or absence from school. 
Tardiness is an evil, beyond doubt. Perhaps some HOME AND SCHOOL 
113 
parents would consider the matter of a few minutes 
trifling. But a moment’s reflection will convince them 
that a class cannot begin its work in earnest if late- 
coming pupils drop in at odd times. Theater-going 
parents might remember the annoyance caused by those 
inconsiderate persons that come late and squeeze their 
way through the rows. 
But it is not only the immediate annoyance that 
counts in tardiness. Habitual tardiness fosters and de- 
velops slipshod methods of conduct. A disregard for 
order and punctuality is a bad equipment for success 
in life. 
Much of what is called truancy is caused by the 
parents themselves. They will keep a child at home 
for their own convenience, for some trifling reason, or 
because an unwilling and badly trained child wheedles 
them into yielding. Such parents do not realize how 
much they damage their children. Children with whom 
the duty of attendance is not a strong motive of conduct 
will never develop the sense of responsibility. They 
have a responsibility not only toward the community 
but toward themselves as sentient beings in need of 
culture and training. 
Even when there is a good excuse for absence, such 
as illness, parents often neglect to send the required 
notification or “excuse.” This causes extra work to the 
attendance officers which could be avoided, and exposes 
other children to danger in case of unreported infectious 
or contagious disease. Here cooperation even with the 
Board of Health is needed. 
Cases of actual truancy require the particular coop- 
eration of home and school. CHAPTER VI 
THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
What is an Education? 
Many definitions have been given of what we call an 
“education.” In starting out to give to our children 
that educational equipment which will carry them 
through life, we should stop to think what we really 
mean. 
Most parents are satisfied when they succeed in mak- 
ing their children successful breadwinners. Securing 
for them such training and instruction as will enable 
them to compete writh others in the struggle for ex- 
istence seems to them the beginning and the end of the 
educational process. 
It goes without saying that a child who is left helpless 
to make his own place in the world is not properly edu- 
cated. In fact, a British Commission on Feeble-minded- 
ness years ago defined a feeble-minded person to be one 
who cannot manage his own affairs with ordinary pru- 
dence. 
But certainly the breadwinning capacity of a person 
does not suffice to make him an “educated” individual 
in the full sense of the word. 
President Butler of Columbia University gives six 
traits of the educated man. Briefly expressed, they are 
these: THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
115 
(1) Correctness and precision in the use of English, 
or, let me put it, of the language of the country he 
lives in, or his mother-tongue. 
(2) Possession of those refined and gentle manners 
which are the expression of fixed habits of thought and 
expression. Nobody will deny that this requirement is 
sound. If we fail to impart to our children refined and 
gentle manners, we fail to make them human. Coarse- 
ness and brutality do not go well with education. We 
have learned that “manners” are largely a matter of 
early habituation. 
(3) Sound standards of feeling and appreciation. 
This requirement refers to the source from which gentle 
habits spring; namely, truly human emotions and feel- 
ings which must be cultivated in the child from his 
infancy. It includes the appreciation of beauty, of 
truth, of goodness, of ideas and ideals, and the capacity 
to love and cherish. Here we have really the main- 
spring of all truly human conduct. 
(4) Power of reflection; in other words, the power to 
think independently and to control our thoughts by 
reason and sanity. 
(5) Power of growth; that is, the power of constant 
self-adjustment. A man who stands still, who does not 
move with the world about him, degenerates into an ob- 
struction to healthful growth in the community. Ar- 
rested development is a sure sign of abnormality. Pre- 
serve in your children the consciousness that they must 
never cease to grow, to learn. 
(6) The ability to do efficiently without nervous agi- 
tation. Here we have an expression of the most difficult 
of all elements of conduct. To educate our children so 116 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
that they may grow up in perfect self-control, never 
allowing themselves to be the victims of “nerves,” 
always being calm and prepared, meeting every fate 
with readiness and without rancor, is the height of wis- 
dom, and the surest guarantee of their success and happi- 
ness. But it taxes the best that is in the parents them- 
selves. 
Approaching the problem from a different angle, I 
have defined the purpose of education, in my book, ‘ ‘ The 
Career of the Child,” as follows: (1) To mediate to 
the young the experience of the race; (2) to minister to 
the perfection of our race; (3) to place each individual 
in such a position that he may work out his own sal- 
vation and destiny in his own best way. 
The Schools We Ought to Have 
It is refreshing to find the aged wise in matters of 
childhood. Among our retired college presidents there 
is a man whose body has reached a good old age but 
whose mind is still young and whose heart pulsates with 
the heart-beats of youth; this is President Emeritus 
Eliot of Harvard. 
In a recent article he expresses convictions which are 
worth while. He wants the nation protected against 
ignorance. He realizes that the American school does 
not appeal to the individual child. A uniform or 
averaged product, he thinks, should bring emphatic con- 
demnation on any school. He takes exception to the 
common notion that a child will be benefited by the 
study of unattractive or repulsive subjects or practices. 
“In this world,” he says, “stern as well as beautiful, THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
117 
it is quite unnecessary to invent hardness of obstacles 
for any human being.” 
Speaking of the discovery of so many illiterates in 
the United States, he very wisely remarks that the mere 
ability to read or write does not solve the problem of 
citizenship. Most Americans, for that matter, such is 
his opinion, whether they be educated or uneducated, 
rich or poor, young or old, cannot see or hear straight, 
make an accurate record, remember exactly, or draw an 
inference from premises. So it is not a matter of lit- 
eracy or illiteracy so much as of a new conception of 
education. 
The interest of every child in his daily task must be 
aroused so as to get from him hard, persistent, and 
willing work. Every lesson must be related to some- 
thing in the life of the child so that he understands the 
application and usefulness of the lesson in his daily life 
and conduct. All! teaching must proceed from actual 
observation so far as possible, and the power to see and 
hear, and to describe what he has observed, accurately 
and truly, should be carefully cultivated. The child’s 
senses must be trained purposefully every day and all 
the time. Every child should be active, not passive. 
Each one should learn to draw, model, sing, and read 
music. He should learn to express himself in speaking 
and writing on every possible occasion, giving utterance 
to his own thoughts. In other words, each child should 
be encouraged to know and to think for himself. 
The school curriculum would have to be modified con- 
siderably to meet these demands, and the center of 
attention would have to be shifted from the mere scho- 118 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
lastic forms of “literacy” to the more fundamental 
powers of mental attainment. 
To make room for these subjects, President Eliot 
suggests the reduction of class aims and of the size of 
classes, the lengthening of the school day and the short- 
ening of the unduly long summer vacation. All-the- 
year-round schools have indeed already been introduced 
in several communities. They benefit the child physi- 
cally and mentally. Dr. Eliot would aim at individual 
variation, that is to say, variety in attainment and pro- 
motion, and feels that pupils should be much more 
frequently sorted over and shifted into new groups, just 
as their individuality changes and expands. 
This is nothing short of an educational revolution, 
quite in harmony with the best educational thought of 
the time, but unrealized in the practice of the average 
school which strives for average attainments. 
The Need of General Knowledge 
It is becoming more and more recognized that our 
children lack sadly in general education. They may 
pass through the schools and graduate from the grammar 
school, the high school, even the college, and yet have 
only a smattering of real knowledge. They may have 
learned something about broker’s discount, algebraic 
equations, Valley Forge, the capitals of the States of 
the Union, the sad effects of alcohol, qualifying adjec- 
tives, and type-writing, but are woefully ignorant of the 
most essential facts of history and geography and their 
general portent in human civilization. They may have 
no appreciation whatever of the wonderful human ele- 
ments of life, of mental progress and evolution, of the THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
119 
determining factors of geographical environment, of the 
spiritual forces which lead man onward and upward. 
The World War showed the deplorable condition of 
the minds of a majority of our people. They had hardly 
the slightest knowledge, not to mention a real under- 
standing, of the national, international, and historic 
problems with which this democracy was confronted. 
And, to this day, there is to be found a most confused 
knowledge of even the things with which we came in 
contact during the war. There is in point the “enter- 
taining” story a librarian told recently of a young lady 
who wanted to see a large map of France. She was 
writing a paper on the battle-fields of France for a 
“culture” club, and she just couldn’t find Flanders 
Fields and No-Man’s-Land on any of the maps in her 
books. 
There is a fund of general knowledge which every 
human being of education should possess, especially in 
a republic whose welfare depends upon intelligent citi- 
zenship. The experience of the race, handed down 
through the ages, the cultural elements which have pro- 
duced civilization, the fundamental facts and forces of 
human existence, the spiritual entities which determine 
human destiny—all these ought to be common posses- 
sions. 
Perhaps we expect too much if we hold the schools 
alone responsible for this lack of general knowledge, es- 
pecially when we consider that about one half of our 
total number of children leave school when they have 
hardly completed the fifth grade. Of course, the schools 
do not supply the fundamental cultural elements in 
proper measure. But the home is equally concerned. 120 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
What the school does not or cannot supply, the good 
home should, and can. If the spirit of the home is one 
of culture, if the home library, the home diversions and 
recreations, and the communion of the parents with their 
children, will be uplifting and truly educative and uni- 
versal in character, we shall have a nation growing up 
about us which will be able to get the best out of life. 
The First Years in School 
Reading and writing are considered by the many as 
being identical with “learning.” When a teacher hears 
the suggestion that the study of reading and writing 
may be properly postponed till the third grade of the 
school, there is usually consternation. What, then, 
should they teach the first two years? And, with par- 
ents, it is the same thing. 
They want their children “promoted” to the “school” 
from the kindergarten so that they may begin to 
“learn” something. 
In reality, children of six or seven years are not 
physically or mentally prepared for reading and 
writing. They are somewhat far-sighted, as a rule, and 
the fine adjustment of the eyes necessary to the re- 
quirements of the printed page, or of the manipulation 
of writing, are directly injurious. Many of the eye 
defects which we now observe in children are distinctly 
school-bred; that is to say, they are produced by early 
eye-strain. This strain is aggravated by the evident 
lack of muscular control in the eye, and also of the 
hand, at this stage, both for reading and writing. 
These physical facts alone present serious obstacles. 
But there are other facts. THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
121 
To the adult of this enlightened century, reading 
seems such a simple thing that he is unaware of the 
fact that it involves a complex activity of nerves and 
brain. This activity is possible only when mental ad- 
justment has reached a certain maturity. The com- 
bination of thing, name, sound, and printed or written 
symbol into one organized concept is a difficult per- 
formance. Each one of these perceptions has its own 
center in the brain, and it requires the establishment of 
strong concepts for each and a clear association of the 
whole train of concepts to have a connected mental 
image of an object or an action, and of its written or 
printed or spoken name. 
I have observed children of first and second grade 
age, bright and active in every way, in fact of superior 
intelligence even, who would be quite slow in making 
these associations, and would fail to realize the phonetic 
composition of simple words. Yet their associations in 
all kinds of reasoning were otherwise marvelously in ad- 
vance of those of the ordinary child of that age. Again, 
there are mediocre children who learn the art of reading, 
in a mechanical way, in a relatively short time. And 
there are many others who will never become efficient 
in this art and who will painfully spell out their words 
to the end of their lives, yet are leaders of practical 
ability and superior to their lettered fellows. 
In disregard of the plain facts of childhood, the 
schools make all kinds of efforts to teach the young child 
how to read. Method after method has been invented 
to produce this effect, none of them altogether success- 
ful; and thus many hours of tedious school routine are 
wasted on the spelling of cat, rat, mat, which could be 122 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
more suitably and profitably devoted to real study—the 
study of things instead of printed symbols, of senti- 
ments instead of words, of occupations instead of de- 
scriptions. 
The teaching of reading implies the demand upon the 
child that he read aloud to his teacher so that his prog- 
ress in the mastery of the art may be recorded. This 
involves a strain upon the speech-organs of the child, 
who is expected to enunciate carefully so as to pass 
muster. In addition to this, a psychic element enters 
here: the child becomes aware of being under the close 
observation of his teacher and his school-mates, so that 
not one false enunciation or misreading may pass un- 
noticed. This consciousness breeds, in many instances, 
fear of possible failure; this fear causes actual failure, 
and the foundation for a “speech defect” is laid. The 
strain upon the fine adjustments of the speech-organs, 
and the mental strain which leads to a sensitive self- 
consciousness, are among the causes which produce 
stuttering. Investigations have shown that the school 
and its methods are responsible for the development of 
speech defects in a marked degree. 
The Oral Age 
Oral language is learned before written language. 
Learning to speak in articulate sounds is the first acqui- 
sition of the savage and the child. The brain centers 
which govern heard and spoken speech, the auditory and 
motor speech centers, are earlier developed and better 
organized than the writing and reading centers, which 
represent a much later development. 
Consequently, instruction to the young child should be THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
123 
largely, almost exclusively, oral. He does not need 
books at this stage. They convey to him no element of 
culture if he has to wade through them painfully, 
stumbling over every other word, spelling out the names 
and symbols of things, when he is eager to deal with the 
things themselves. His mind is full of ideas and plans 
which need immediate formulation, and cannot wait for 
the formal expression through the written word or the 
printed name. 
He will be interested in books, yes. But in books 
which you will read to him. These are the books he 
will like but would not be able to read in spite of being 
drilled by the best patent method in teaching reading. 
And he should express his thoughts in ordered form. 
Indeed. But that does not imply that he must labori- 
ously write these thoughts down after having tortured 
his undeveloped hand and wrist to draw the letters of 
the alphabet in true penmanship style. The writing 
part of his compositions will prove to be a direct hin- 
drance to the freedom of his expression. His scrawl 
may be pathetic; his failure to do justice to his own 
thoughts and feelings will be more so. He should be 
given ample opportunity of dictating his thoughts, his 
sentiments, his compositions, as far as written records 
of these efforts are wanted. But he should more par- 
ticularly be encouraged to express himself fully, in his 
own language, orally, whenever possible. 
When once the bugbear of reading and writing shall 
he eliminated from our primary grades, much time and 
energy will be set free for the real development of the 
child at that stage. 
The fact should be emphasized that a child mature 124 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
enough in mind and body to grapple with the written 
and printed symbols of words and things, that is, a 
child of about eight or nine years, will learn these arts 
without much effort and difficulty, and indeed in a com- 
paratively short time. There will have been, up to this 
period, a great deal of more or less unconscious absorp- 
tion of literary symbols, and even attempts to print 
some letters and words, of his own initiative, in the 
form of play or sport. Here, as in other branches, he 
learns by psychological, not by logical methods. In 
what is called the third grade of the school there may 
perhaps be some on the formal side of 
reading. 
Rational Introduction to Reading 
The first efforts of primitive man to convey a message 
or record events were by way of knottings on cord, 
bundles of sticks, or symbolic carvings; the totem poles 
of the Indians are examples of this early effort. Then 
man learned to draw, and picture writing is the oldest 
form of real writing. First, nothing but the object 
was depicted, but later abstract thoughts were repre- 
sented by figures that suggested idea by association. A 
bird signified speed; a fox, cunning. The picture in 
later ages became transmuted into letters. 
When we remember the path along which man has 
traveled to become “literate” we may find a solution of 
the problem of how to teach the art of reading and the 
complementary art of writing to young children. Much 
of it can be done in the home, and in a manner which 
will be free from scholastic bias and drudgery: and w« THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
125 
shall be more ready to understand why there i* no 
hurry about the acquisition of these arts. 
We can introduce our children to the arts of writing 
and reading by way of picture writing and picture 
reading. A child draws before he writes. He reads 
and interprets pictures before he reads books. Picture- 
books have been the delight of children ever since there 
were children and pictures and picture-books. Chil- 
dren will remember a story told them with accompany- 
ing pictures literally, hinging their memories to the de- 
tails of the pictures. 
A much more systematic use may be made of these 
picture-books at home and in school, so that the ideo- 
graphic method would lead over to symbolic represen- 
tation, through the children’s own crude drawings; and 
from there to phonetic conception. The rebus, being 
pictorial in character but at the same time phonetic, 
and introducing letter forms as representations of cer- 
tain elementary sounds, may be employed to initiate 
children to the appreciation of the phonetic elements of 
the language. 
Such work as this need not exclude altogether the 
early introduction of a selected number of printed or 
written words, or even phrases as wholes, serving as 
cogs to the memory in connection with the oral work at 
this stage. The children will delight in reproducing 
some of these words in their printed form. The employ- 
ment of large wooden letters, of letter blocks, and of 
letters printed on small squares of cardboard, so that 
they may be put together to form words, will greatly 
appeal to the children at this stage. Even a simple 126 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
type-writer, such as can be bought in the toy-stores, 
may be used profitably with many children. 
Grammar 
The three or four lower “grades” of the public school 
are intended for the child from six to nine or ten. 
When the child reaches the prepubertal years he is sup- 
posed to be promoted to the “grammar grades,” which 
are so called because it is assumed that he is now ripe 
for the systematic study of the theory of his native 
tongue which goes under the name of “grammar.” In 
a way, this is a reminder of medieval times, when the 
“scholar” was known by his knowledge of “grammar.” 
It was not a general thing that the poets of the time, 
the “minnesingers” and troubadours, even the story- 
tellers and writers whose tales have come down to us, 
were at the same time “grammarians” and bothered 
about the structure of the language which they handled 
in so masterful a manner. 
It seems to be the experience of all teachers that a 
child may become proficient in “parsing” the parts of 
speech and the elements of sentences, using intricate dia- 
grams for exact analysis, knowing the grammatical 
terms by heart, and yet remain very clumsy and inexact 
in verbal expression. 
Even in the “primary” grades, children are made to 
study “language,” which term stands for a simplified 
drill in the usage of good speech. While the child may 
learn to do his lessons in “language” well, he will, in 
his spoken language, even in his written forms, invari- 
ably revert to his own vernacular; that is to say, to 
the type of speech he hears at home, from his companions THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
127 
in street and on playground, adding to it, as a sort of 
spice, his own individual, more or less forceful lingo. 
This refers, of course, more to the child that never 
reaches the upper grades or the high school but may 
leave school after dawdling a while in the fifth grade. 
But even the child of more scholarly attainments, the 
high-school girl or boy, although they may be given to 
niceties of expression in their school work, will be found 
to be using rather uncouth language in their games and 
when they are very much at ease. 
This would seem to, show that we may be wasting 
precious time in teaching formal grammar, largely from 
books and in formal language lessons. The preparation 
for the use of good language must be based upon oral 
work principally. We have lost sight too much of the 
vast importance of oral instruction, of “telling” tales, 
instead of reading them. If teachers and parents will 
combine to develop in the children the mastery of spoken 
language they will go far in combating its colloquial 
misuse. Good marks in “grammar” are considerably 
less important than the child’s opportunity to hear, 
from teacher and parent, good, well turned speech all 
the time, to converse with them frequently, and thus to 
gain proficiency by absorption and by conscious imita- 
tion of good usage. It is the use of language, not the 
theoretical study of its structure, which makes for 
mastery. 
The practice of letting children recite is a good one 
if carefully managed. As soon as a child becomes self- 
conscious in such performance, imbued with his own im- 
portance, and eager for praise and applause, the danger 
sets in. But reciting a good poem or other selection will 128 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
spur a child on to study it, and committing it to memory 
will lead him to take an interest in good poetry and 
literature. It will stock his mind with valuable exam- 
ples of human experience, expressed in the most apt and 
beautiful form, just as the memory of many of the fine 
teachings of the Bible furnishes a wealth of comfort in 
times of trial and tribulation. But let us avoid efforts 
of teaching “elocution” and artificial gestures. Let the 
rendering of a recitation (giving suggestions very cau- 
tiously so as not to spoil the child’s originality) be a 
genuine self-expression of the child, no matter if it be 
crude instead of an aping of adult sentiment and acting. 
Early Definitions 
In certain mental tests much stress is laid on the defi- 
nitions children give of the meaning of words. The 
question is asked: What is a fork? a chair? a table? 
a horse? And from the answers the examiners judge 
the “mental age” of a child. 
This method has its use, and its abuse. 
Let us ask ourselves such a question: What is a table ? 
We may, with all our adult wisdom, be in a quandary. 
The Standard Dictionary defines a table as “an article 
of furniture with a flat horizontal top on which things 
may be placed.” This definition may fit other pieces of 
furniture, as a sideboard, a bureau, etc. And when we 
read in the same dictionary this definition: “a utensil 
having a shallow ovoid bowl and a handle, ’ ’ we may not 
be quite ready to recognize a common spoon. 
To define a thing is really to reach the height of logi- 
cal ability. It implies limiting the object or thought in 
such a manner that it cannot he mistaken for any other THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
129 
thing or thought. It is the privilege of maturity to at- 
tempt definitions. 
Such niceties are not expected of a child. But what 
is expected is a definition which implies, after all, a 
generalization; that is to say, a definition which places 
the object or thought in a column by itself, as when we 
say, “A table is a piece of furniture.” A nine-year-old 
child is supposed by some psychologists to give this kind 
of a definition. 
As a matter of fact, such a definition is not natural 
to a child. 
Those of us who have read their Homer will remember 
that his descriptions invariably have the form of a 
story in action, as when he says of Hector brandishing 
his lance “as through the deep shades of a wood a 
raging fire should glance.” In precisely the same man- 
ner, in the definitions children give us they describe an 
object by putting it into action, so as to show its use. 
“A horse is what takes us riding” or “A knife is good 
to cut bread with” are typical answers from children. 
With children of all ages, substance and structure 
are hard to express. Not before the eleventh year do 
they gain ground in the child’s mind. Use and action 
are the leaders even after the eleventh year. It is only 
at about fifteen years of age that a small majority of 
children give a definition using the “larger term,” or 
general category (“A clock is a timepiece,” instead of 
“A clock is to tell time”). 
In our teaching of nature work, for instance, we 
should stress action rather than form and color. In the 
actual study of an apple, we should not start out with 
the superficial qualities, such as college students would 130 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
describe them by (an apple is round, it is covered with 
skin, it has a stem on one end, etc.), but with a dis- 
cussion of what the apple is good for or of some action 
connected with it; as, “The apple is good to eat”; “The 
apple grows on a tree.” 
The Learning of Languages 
In connection with a discussion at Geneva, when the 
League of Nations deliberated about the choice of official 
languages which may be used in the diplomatic inter- 
course between nations, the question of which languages 
are easier to learn than others came up. The difference 
of opinion is based upon the experience of adults who 
have endeavored by conscious effort to familiarize them- 
selves with a foreign language. As a matter of fact, 
no language is difficult to learn when learned in the 
proper manner. 
As a New York daily pointed out very justly, the 
young child learns the mother-tongue with little or noth- 
ing of conscious effort, with none of the parsing, the 
waiting of exercises, and the learnings of paradigms. 
Further, many a sailor on ships touching occasionally at 
Spanish ports has learned, with no other instruction 
than what he got in water-front groggeries, about as 
much of the language of Cervantes as that sailor knew of 
his own, and uses it with equal facility. His vocabulary 
is small, his locutions barbarous, but he can ‘‘get 
along”: and that, the paper asserts correctly, is more 
than can be said of many a student who has labored for 
years over his foreign language books. 
The story of the American soldier who had learned 
French at high school and tried it out in France with THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
131 
the result that he was not understood and felt con- 
strained to write home, “How funny it is that the 
French do not understand their own language,” is to 
the point. 
A young child does not only learn his mother-tongue 
but almost any number of other languages with the 
greatest facility. Of course, some have greater linguis- 
tic endowments than others, but all have some. Among 
the “exceptionally bright” children of whom the news- 
papers have recently published such fascinating reports, 
there are some who had learned as many as twelve 
languages before they had reached puberty. 
The learning of a language depends largely upon imi- 
tation and practice. The “study” of a language is a 
different matter, just as the botanical “study” of a 
plant is a different matter from knowing it, using it, 
loving it. 
A language learned in youth, unless followed up by 
“study” or continued practice later, may be as easily 
forgotten as it was learned. Yet it is very advisable 
indeed that we should give our children the opportunity, 
if we can, to learn different languages in their childhood. 
It gives them a training of the speech-organs, a feeling 
for expression, a basis for further usefulness, which can- 
not be disregarded. “Forgetting” means often merely 
the retraction of what was learned into the realm of the 
subconscious. Future opportunities may recall the 
early possession. 
In our country in which so many languages are 
spoken, and in the increasing intercourse between na- 
tions, commercially and otherwise, the knowledge of 
languages is too valuable to be underrated. 132 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
The Words a Child Uses 
The Standard Dictionary contains three hundred 
thousand words and phrases of the English language. 
Even the abridged Students’ Edition gives the orthog- 
raphy of more than sixty thousand. In the spelling 
lessons that our children have to endure in the schools, 
they are taught thousands of words which they will 
never use, either in reading or writing—certainly not 
in common speech. 
What is spelling needed for? Not for conversation. 
We need to know the spelling of words which we employ 
in writing letters. Only a small number of people com- 
pose essays or books for publication. These latter may 
have to be provided with a larger knowledge of orthog- 
raphy, each one in his own special field. 
It has been figured that the child in the elementary 
school studies about twelve thousand words. Yet it has 
been shown that the bulk of letters written by the aver- 
age man or woman is made up of a list of about fifty 
simple words. The words used the most are the follow- 
ing, given in the order of their frequency: the, and, of, 
to, have, not, with, be, your, at, we, on, when, time, 
some, any, can, what, he, by, send, them, more, week, 
night, their, good, say, could, make, write, thing. 
It is certainly not a task of great magnitude to teach 
the spelling of these humble words to the child. Three 
hundred words make up three fourths of the letters we 
write. A vocabulary of two thousand words would 
cover the contents of the business letters and private 
correspondence of ordinary life, treating of hundreds 
of different subjects. 
The most difficult of the words thus used, statistical THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
133 
researches have shown, are: judgment, recommend, 
allege, decision, principle, accommodate. There are 
only thirty-six words altogether which appear to give 
special difficulty. 
But it is interesting to observe that there is such a 
difficulty. In teaching spelling, the attention and en- 
ergy of our children is dissipated. If they were allowed 
to confine themselves to practice with the words which 
they will actually need, there would be no such deplor- 
able lack of ability to spell as is found among graduates 
of our schools and complained of by employers. 
The Child and His Spelling 
Spelling, like reading and writing, is introduced into 
the school curriculum at too early a stage, before the 
child’s mind and interest are ready for it. As stated 
before, the young child has little conception of phonetic 
values of written symbols. 
It may be remembered that the phonetic alphabet is 
a very late accomplishment of the racial mind. Even 
bright children are slow in appreciating that a certain 
symbol or letter stands for a certain sound, even in the 
matter of such simple, phonetically spelled words as cat 
and man. The same observation can be made with 
children of other nations whose native tongue is more 
phonetically written than the English. 
But, of course, the English language, with its bewil- 
dering contradictions in the phonetic values of symbols, 
is particularly unfit to allow the teaching of spelling 
upon anything like a rational basis. The scholar can 
appreciate the historical development of English words; 
the child cannot. English spelling must be taken on 134 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
faith. It was the great Professor Max Miiller of Ox- 
ford who is credited with saying: “A child who be- 
lieves his teacher that e-n-o-u-g-h spells ‘enuf’ is ready 
to believe anything the teacher may say.” 
English spelling is best learned from reading and 
writing the words in common use in connection with 
lessons in reading, as by the reading of books, and with 
lessons in all those other branches in which written sym- 
bols help in fixing the subject-matter upon the mind. 
The child who reads most usually spells the best. Terms 
in natural science, in geography, in historjr, will come in 
for their share of attention, and it will make no differ- 
ence whether the word studied and spelled is long and 
complicated, like hippopotamus or Vladivostok, or short 
and simple, like rose; as soon as the mind of the child 
fixes itself upon its content, its spelling will be retained. 
Practice and repetition will help; that is why fre- 
quent copying, or the writing of essays in which these 
words are employed, is of much higher value than the 
confusing oral spelling of words—confusing because it 
substitutes misleading names of letters for the mental 
word-image, which is visual, based on having seen the 
word often in its letter-combination. The old-fashioned 
spelling-bees have never produced good spellers. 
The word-image is largely visual, true. But there is 
another element: the motor element. Copying and fre- 
quent writing of a word impress its form, also, upon 
the motor memory, which is too little thought of. But 
it is a fact often observed that when we cannot seem'to 
remember the spelling of a word we succeed in writing 
it correctly if we allow our pen to write without the THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
135 
guidance of conscious will; the motor memory in hand 
and finger muscles does the trick. 
Poor Speech 
Carelessness in enunciation is a fruitful source of or- 
thographic inexactness, and we, as parents, should be 
careful to cultivate correct talking if we expect our chil- 
dren to be accepted as educated. 
Poor speech is not merely a speech incorrect or care- 
less in enunciation. It is the result of poor and inexact 
thinking, leading to loose and vague construction of 
sentences. 
Here are a few examples of utterances of this kind, 
recorded from compositions written by college graduates 
and students of teachers’ training courses: 
“At the age of six my mother died.”—“When I 
climbed the hill I went down again.”—Now, it is plain 
in these cases what is really meant, since these examples 
are simple. This looseness of expression shows plainly 
an untrained mind. One who has disciplined himself 
rigidly in clear-cut thought will not allow himself to be 
shiftless in the use of language. 
There are often linguistic obscurities encountered that 
make it next to impossible to trace the actual meaning 
of the writer. The English language, with its peculiar 
organization in which almost any word may be used as 
a noun or adjective or even verb, requires perhaps 
greater care than some of the other languages which are 
more thoroughly inflected. 
Written language is also dependent, to be clearly un- 
derstood upon correct punctuation. When you say a 136 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
thing in spoken words the expression you give your ut- 
terances, the pauses you make, and the play of your 
features, will contribute much to the proper understand- 
ing of your meaning. In writing, punctuation must 
supply these helps. A misplaced comma, or sentences 
run together without clear punctuation, may lead to 
complete misunderstanding of the intended meaning. 
The examples quoted are, as stated, from compositions 
written by students of higher schools. This may induce 
us to think that younger pupils should not be judged 
too harshly for similar mistakes. But, unless the habit 
of scrupulous accuracy is acquired early, it will be an 
elusive accomplishment in later years. 
The Child and His Numbers 
All kinds of methods have been devised to make 
numbers palatable to the infant mind, just as there have 
been different methods for teaching reading in the pri- 
mary grades. 
Some children seem to have smooth sailing. They 
count and add and subtract and multiply and divide 
with apparent lightning facility. They are considered 
bright and normal. One might become a trifle uncertain 
in this judgment when one learns that such rapid cal- 
culations are not uncommonly found among the feeble- 
minded, the idiots. In fact, there have been spectacular 
performances by “idiot savants,” lightning calculators, 
who were able to manipulate numbers of amazing big- 
ness in all sorts of operations. 
In an institution for the feeble-minded, I met a feeble- 
minded boy of about twenty, stupid and inefficient in 
every other way, who had the uncanny faculty of telling THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
137 
you the day on which your birthday would occur. Just 
tell him the date, say, July 3, and he would immediately, 
without stopping to think or figure, tell you the day of 
the week this date would occur, this year, or last year, 
or next year, or any year, including the year you were 
born. It was somewhat of a shock to me to discover 
that an unusually bright boy of seven whom I had 
occasion to examine had the same surprising faculty. 
The question then arises: Where does the intellectual 
value of these operations come in? Do they depend 
upon a conscious application of a normal mind? It 
would seem that there is a mechanical element in these 
operations which is entirely independent of conscious 
processes and which is of a more or less unexplored 
kind. At any rate, it would be difficult to explain in 
popular form the theories that have been advanced in 
the effort to understand these things. 
But might it not be, that those of our school children 
who happen to make rapid progress in number work do 
so without proof of superior intelligence ? If it were not 
so, how could it be that so many really intelligent pu- 
pils, boys and girls of mental strength, progress often so 
slowly in arithmetic? Yet the average teacher, school 
official, and parent will assume that failure to do well 
in school arithmetic is proof of a child’s mental defect. 
Snags in Primary Arithmetic 
The late President Hunter of the New York Normal 
College once told me the story of an Italian boy who had 
been picked up from the street by the attendance officer. 
He had been peddling apples and had done well. Now 
he was forced to go to school and to learn his numbers. 138 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
It was a hard task for him to understand the rudiments 
of arithmetic. Yet this same boy was perfectly able 
to buy apples and sell them again and count his profit. 
He thought, as President Hunter expressed it, in terms 
of apples. 
What was really in his way was not so much his in- 
ability to understand numbers as the fact that his num- 
ber conception was bound up with concrete things and 
concrete operations. Again, he was expected to write 
his numerals and thus to deal with symbols. He had 
possibly worked out his problems with the help of his 
fingers. The average primary teacher looks upon the 
use of one’s fingers in counting as a rank heresy and 
crime. 
I know a little boy, now between seven and eight, who 
is exceptionally bright in many ways, but has never gone 
to school. Being placed with the ordinary run of pri- 
mary pupils, he would be entirely out of gear, as he 
is up to the reasoning power of much older boys, and 
has a great fund of knowledge and self-determination 
which primary children lack. On the other hand, he is 
so much of a real child, and so little advanced in some of 
the so-called “primary studies” which have been care- 
fully kept away from him, that he would not fit in with 
older classes. 
This boy, although he has only now begun to write 
his figures, has learned a good deal of arithmetic by ab- 
sorption and observation. He began, as all do, by count- 
ing. At first, of course, the sequence of number names 
was not firmly implanted in his memory, and he recited 
them in fanciful confusion. When he was able to say 
the big number names, like one hundred or so, even when THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
139 
he was very small, he took great delight in mixing them 
into his speech. He had a hundred marbles, or five hun- 
dred and six blocks. A few hundred more or less made 
no difference. These words were symbols for “many.” 
But finally this little boy settled himself down to hard 
facts. True, he proceeded, in a general way, from the 
simplest numbers; the larger numbers, as quantities, 
were hazy to him. He began by knowing to distinguish 
“few” and “many.” Then he knew clearly about two 
and three things. After he had mastered the quantity 
of three, his progress was faster. Yet he was not al- 
ways sure about the difference between four and five 
or so. He usually clung to concrete things, the number 
of his playthings, or of people; but, being somewhat of 
an advanced thinker, he was not always tied down to 
concrete objects. He arrived at the larger numbers by 
addition, adding one or two or three at a time. He de- 
fied the schoolmaster’s theory that he should not pro- 
ceed to four until he had exhausted the possibilities of 
three; or to five until he had exhausted those of four. 
He jumped. He performed acrobatic feats on the arith- 
metical slack wire. He turned around and went back- 
wards; he twisted things around, wound them up and 
unwound them. It would make you dizzy at times, and 
no set and fast rule of method would have reached him. 
He taught himself multiplication and division by such 
questions as: Isn’t two threes six? Isn’t twelve two 
times six ? And so on. Subtraction is to this day diffi- 
cult for him, although he has mastered, all by himself, 
such quantities as the dozen, the dollar, and their divi- 
sions, and has a very fair conception of mathematical 
relations, usually expected only of much older children. 140 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
But don’t be too sure of him. Sometimes he will sur- 
prise you by seemingly having lost his knowledge, and 
asking old questions over again; and soon, after, he will 
make a big jump forward and solve, all by himself, an 
amazing bit of calculation, going to the stores, for 
instance, buying different things, and making change, 
selecting bargains and telling the storekeeper what’s 
what. I want to see the school method that can keep up 
with this boy’s development. 
Ideas of Space and Time 
“Once upon a time”—this delightfully indefinite 
statement with which we introduce our fairy-tales is 
much more pleasing to a young child than more clear- 
cut expressions, such as “many years ago,” or “last 
year,” “last week,” “yesterday,” and the like. 
To the children, yesterday is a long way off, and to- 
morrow a mysterious future. Their ages are undefined 
terms, and, even when they have learned to state them in 
numbers, the years mean nothing to them. This is true 
not only of very young children, but throughout the 
greater part of their school period. 
An hour often seems much longer to a child’s con- 
sciousness than a day to us. His standard of measure- 
ment, of time as well as of space, is not only more hazy 
than ours but is on a different scale. It is well known 
that rooms, houses, places, which we knew in our child- 
hood, look surprisingly small to us when we return to 
them after a lapse of years. Our own size has grown, 
and the dimensions of our childhood dwellings have 
proportionately shrunk. In the same manner, a year is 
a long space of time in the life of a child; the days, THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
141 
months, years, seem to fly faster the older we grow. 
Time and space, truth and fiction, are relative terms, 
differing in our consciousness through the years of our 
lives. 
Historical facts and fairy-tale fictions do not impress 
young children as different things at all, and they place 
them indiscriminately in about the same time level. 
In a letter, apparently a fond father’s confession, we 
read: 
In spite of her devotion to history and love of truth, I fear 
W. V. cannot be counted on for accuracy. Her perception 
of the lapse of time and the remoteness of events is altogether 
untrustworthy. It is incomprehensible to her that “every 
one” should have died so long ago. She does not understand 
that even I, venerable as I am, did not know the Druids, or 
the Saxons, or any of those “old Romans.” “You are very 
old, aren’t you, father?—thirty-four?” “I am more than 
thirty-five, dear.” “That is a lot older than me,” somewhat 
dubiously. “Nearly six times . . .” 
Young children manipulate time denotations with a 
most unconcerned levity. They will talk about staying 
with their grandparents for “eight weeks,” or going on 
a trip “for a whole year,” when they have no concep- 
tion of what they are talking about. What they mean 
is simply “a long time.” They employ indiscriminately 
expressions which they have heard their elders use. 
This, however, is again but a reverberation of primitive 
conceptions or methods. Ancients would use the expres- 
sion “a thousand years” with the same unconcern, mean- 
ing merely a long time, as the child speaks of “eight 
weeks.” 142 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
First History Teaching 
It would be folly to teach a child history in the man- 
ner in which an adult studies it. The adult strives for 
a logical order of development from crude beginnings 
of civilization through tho ages, looks for causes and ef- 
fects, and wants to draw lessons for the present from 
the experience of our forebears. 
The child has no such interests or strivings. To him, 
history is a wonderful fabric of adventures in strange 
lands, with mysteries and heroism abounding every- 
where; sequence of events or cause and effect play a 
minor part. 
When we study nature, botany, for example, we do 
not first teach the child one genus of plants, one type 
of leaves, or one type of seeds and fruits, before we 
approach another. No; we let the whole world of vege- 
table life surrounding the child in all its beauty of 
foliage and flower envelop him and penetrate into his 
consciousness indiscriminately. Classification, system- 
atic order, come later; some never will have it or care 
for it. 
Thus detached bits of history will reach the child 
at odd times. Most of his interest will center in the 
heroes of the tale, be it fairy-tale or history. Fairy- 
lands will gradually merge into the conception of true 
geographical discoveries; the heroes of the fairy-tale, 
or of the myth, the prince who wakes the Sleeping 
Beauty with his kiss, Seigfried, Sindbad the Sailor, 
will gradually give place to the admiration of real 
makers of history. 
First, there is no distinction made by the child be- 
tween the possible and the impossible. He takes an THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
143 
intense interest in the wild fancies that satisfy his desire 
to probe into all the possibilities which his mind can con- 
struct. Some of the stories he delights in are like the 
fanciful dreams the “sandman’’ brings him in his 
slumber. This is the time of “Alice’s Wonderland,” 
of the “Arabian Nights,” of “Gulliver’s Travels.” 
The child will revel in legends, myths, and fairy-tales. 
They afford him a real training in the beginnings of 
historical conceptions. Creation myths will lead over to 
the present conception of the earth as a globe. The 
stories of Columbus and of Robinson Crusoe will mean 
much to the child of this period. 
Of course, the school curriculum, when wisely 
planned, will provide much of the actual material, and 
will supplement it with illustrative matter of all kinds, 
including museums, collections, moving pictures. The 
child himself will make collections of stamps, of coins, 
of pictures, of arrow-heads, and the like. He should 
be greatly encouraged and helped at home by his parents, 
who ought to follow the unfolding of his mind, and 
who should cooperate with the school efforts to develop 
a true sense of time and historical development in the 
child’s consciousness. 
The Wonders of Heaven 
“0 dear God, I thank Thee for giving us back the 
sunshine!” exclaimed a little three-year-old, extending 
his arms to the heavenly light, after he had been shut 
up at a seaside resort for several rainy days. 
Even when a tiny baby, he had noticed the moon, and, 
like all children, had stretched out his little hands to 
grasp it. And, when he had visual discrimination 144 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
enough to discover his first star, his delight knew no 
bounds. Night after night, he would search for the 
first star to twinkle in the shadows. 
Children shut up in narrow city streets have little 
chance of developing this consciousness of the wonders 
of heaven in a normal way. But we must not deny 
them this privilege. On the contrary, we must, as 
parents, as teachers, as municipal officials, do all in 
our power to bring the heavens to them. 
It is the heavens that proclaim the “glory of God!” 
It is from the observation of the stars that our fore- 
fathers had their first inspiration of religion. True, 
trees, rocks, rivers, were also endowed with divine quali- 
ties by the ancients; but it was the sun, the moon, and 
the stars to which they looked as their principal deities. 
To this day, the constellations bear the names of deified 
heroes and other divinities which were given them by 
those who first looked up to the heavens as the abode 
of supernatural powers. Astronomy was one of the 
first sciences developed by the ancients, carefully con- 
fined to the caste of priests; and the architecture of 
their temples and tombs points to their adoration of 
the heavenly bodies. The silent grandeur and unchange- 
ableness of the starry firmament inspired them with 
awe and reverence, while the mysterious movements 
of the “wandering stars,” the planets, furnished an- 
other element of religious veneration. 
And now we know that our own earth is but a star 
in this same firmament, that our mighty globe, with its 
oceans and continents, upon which the human race 
lives, swings in gigantic revolutions about itself and 
around the sun and will till the end of time. THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
145 
Do you think that all this is beyond your child? 
Perhaps he has not, all at once, a conception of it as a 
whole, but he feels it. It is your business to interpret it 
to him in proportion to his growing mind. As a matter 
of fact, it is not so much a thing of the intellect as of 
the emotions. When all is told, we adults know little 
more of the mysteries of the heavens than the child. 
We can express some of the facts in mathematical terms, 
but that is all. There will perhaps always remain the 
fundamental riddle of the universe. But what we can 
feel, the child can feel. 
Nature Worship 
As shown in the preceding paragraphs, one of the 
oldest forms of religious sentiment was nature worship. 
The ancients deified the sun, the moon, and the stars, 
the sea, the rivers, and the springs; each tree had its 
dryad, each watercourse its naiad. The seasons had 
their presiding geniuses; the harvest its divinity. 
Our children pass through the same mental period. 
Out of the observation of Nature’s wonders, from the 
love of her flowers, her trees whose foliage rustles in 
the wind and drops in autumn in colored showers to 
cover the sleeping earth; from the admiration and awe 
inspired in the child by the lightning and thunder of 
heaven, and the sun breaking through the threatening 
clouds—from these the child gradually derives his first 
notions of the powers of the universe which keep the 
heavenly orbs in their prescribed places. 
Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 146 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Little flower—but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is.—Tennyson. 
Nature work has now found a place in the schools. 
But it is not always adapted to the needs of the child. 
It is either too “ scientific, ’ ’ too abstract, too realistic, 
or too dry; or it is too slushy, as in some of the songs 
and games of the kindergarten. 
The course the race has taken in developing a truly 
religious attitude shows us the way. There was, first, 
observation of phenomena, which filled the simple minds 
of the primitives with wonder and reverence for the 
mysteries of the abounding life about them. They em- 
bodied their conceptions in the form of mythology and 
legends, many of which have come down to us, as part 
of our own folk-literature, as fairy-tales. 
Of course the people of old lived in the open, sur- 
rounded by the primeval forest, and little removed from 
the benign or destructive forces of nature. Our chil- 
dren, especially those living in the large cities, have an 
artificial environment, hardly ever coming in contact 
with the throbbing life of the earth. To bring frag- 
ments of nature into our homes and school-rooms helps 
a little. But we must take the children out into the 
fields and forests, to the lakes and streams and seas. 
They must see the fairy colors of sunrise and sunset, 
the scintillating sheen on the moonlit water, the un- 
folding of the tiny blossoms of spring; they must hear 
the mysterious sounds of the silent night. Through 
their eyes and ears, and with all their senses alert, na- 
ture’s mysteries must enter into their very souls and 
stir them to wonder and reverence. THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
147 
Science Teaching 
The child whose mind is awakening to true reasoning, 
to an understanding of cause and effect in natural 
phenomena, delights in experimenting. For that mat- 
ter, the child’s entire career from babyhood up is one 
long series of experiments with the world about him. 
But a more serious aspect of nature’s laws does not 
come to the child before the age of eleven or twelve. 
Yet it would be a mistake to think that the child of 
that age is altogether interested in the abstract facts 
of nature, of physics, of chemistry, etc. He is inter- 
ested in the use of these scientific discoveries, as contri- 
butions to human comfort. He likes to find out about 
electric lights and bells, and to make his own little 
circuit, to learn about telegraphy, so that he can make 
his own wireless outfit; and he is vitally interested in 
the stories of the man who made these inventions. 
Back of all this is the psychological fact that to the 
young child these forces of nature appear somewhat 
like human forces with whom he wants to be acquainted, 
whom he wants to conquer. 
The primitive mind, we know, endows all natural 
forces with personal qualities. To the savage and the 
child the recognition of a difference between the self 
and the non-self, between things that go on outside of 
him and those that are activities of the mind within him, 
is hazy. This is how the ancients peopled the earth with 
divinities symbolizing the life about them. The modern 
child has not this particular conception, at least not 
at the pubescent age. But, like his younger brother who 
has the poetizing quality of the kindergarten type, he 
looks for the human element in nature. Science is to 148 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
him not a matter of pure cognition and research for 
the sake of truth and the establishment of abstract laws. 
It has a very strong emotional quality. Therefore, he 
will shift from one line of experiment to another, and 
explore the wide realm of realities with an enthusiastic 
abandonment. He is trying his own strength, his own 
possibilities, and is so sure that he can conquer the 
world of things about him that he dreams dreams of his 
own prowess as an inventor, as a constructor, as a leader, 
as the great genius of his age. Do not let him be dis- 
illusioned. For all we know, he may actually become a 
savior and a leader. And, if he is not so destined, his 
disillusionment will have to come out of his own mind, 
and we may then have to help and encourage him to 
find himself again within his limitations, to do his 
life’s work as he can do it. 
Thus the biographies of discoverers and inventors, 
the story of their struggles, disappointments, failures, 
sacrifices, limitations, and successes, must be closely 
coordinated with his scientific study. 
Observation the Basis of Invention 
The normally bright child has the inventive faculty. 
If we consider that the progress of civilization has de- 
pended upon the innumerable inventions made by suc- 
cessive generations, we shall appreciate the fact that 
the inventive faculty is one of the fundamental endow- 
ments of the human species; so much so that you may 
measure the normality of a child by his ability to use 
his mind in inventive procedure. 
Invention is based upon imagination. The mind 
must picture to itself that which is not, but may be. THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
149 
Yet this power of imagination were weak, indeed, with- 
out the safe basis of observation. A few references 
to the development of some of the best known mechanical 
inventions may exemplify what I mean. 
Man acquires the habit of absorbing ideas relating 
to his business. He sees, as one clever writer expressed 
it, how beautifully some mechanical device in nature 
accomplishes its purpose, and unconsciously stores these 
ideas away in his mind to draw from them when needed. 
The hypodermic syringe is a pointed application of 
the principle of the sting of the bee. A suspensiom- 
bridge is the adaptation of a spider’s web to man’s re- 
quirements. Of all pumps, the most common, the most 
reliable, the most efficient, is the heart, and there is a 
significant similarity between its form and the designs 
of modern pumping apparatus. 
Machines have bodies, feet, arms; they are provided 
with wrist-pins, knuckle-joints, and elbows; and occa- 
sionally they break a rib or a leg. This shows the effect 
of natural designs upon human inventions. 
The final result in the evolution of a machine is 
sometimes the outgrowth of a long series of observa- 
tions and experiments, and the perfect machine has had, 
in the course of its evolution, many less perfect fore- 
runners in the ages gone by. The task is handed down 
from one generation to the next, and it is our duty to 
equip our children to carry out the unfinished tasks of 
the past. 
To accomplish this, we must minister educationally 
to the free development of their inventive instinct and 
base it securely upon careful training in observation 
and the rational use of their faculty of imagination. 150 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Geography 
The map work of the ordinary school does not con- 
vey much real knowledge. It is largely mechanical. 
It consists in mere copying, as a rule, with very little 
opportunity for actual construction such as transfer- 
ring the lay of the land upon paper or board with the 
help of pencil or putty. It is commonly to be observed 
that a child will not recognize a certain geographical 
division, like a peninsula or a State of the Union, if 
the map of it is presented to him upside down, or side- 
ways up, yet in traveling through the country we ap- 
proach different localities from very different angles. 
That geographical knowledge must be intimately co- 
ordinated with the conception of direction—with the 
child’s learning to locate himself—is not generally ap- 
preciated. 
Some schools have instituted the method of taking 
the children on outings. Parents can add to this; they 
have many an opportunity of supplying what the 
schools do not offer, and they should be very quick to 
avail themselves of all such opportunities, since “ge- 
ography,” in its real meaning, has a tremendous signif- 
icance for the human mind and for human existence. 
The development of the human race cannot be under- 
stood without a thorough knowledge of the geographical 
conditions under which the different peoples lived. 
The vegetation of their geographical environments, its 
rivers and mountains, its animal life and its products, 
determined in a large measure the type of civilization 
they achieved. Changes in climate, exhaustion of nat- 
ural resources, and similar causes, brought about migra- THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
151 
tions of peoples, conquests, mixtures of races, the build- 
ing up and the destruction of empires. 
How a Child Forms Geographical Ideas 
Do you think the maps in a geography or the little 
pictures that may accompany them will give the child 
a conception of the big and fascinating realities of the 
earth’s wonderland? That it means anything to him 
if he learns that Chicago has so many inhabitants and 
that the Amazon River is so and so many miles long? 
What conception has he of what a thousand people mean, 
not to speak of millions; and of the length of a river 
when he has never experienced by walking, or traveling, 
somehow, what in time and efforts one single mile or 
ten miles may signify? 
The child lives in a fairy-land where cause and effect 
have no logical coherence, and where the impossible is 
possible. He sees no objection to big things being in- 
closed in small compass, e. g., a giant shut up in a small 
jar; or to little things extending over vast space, as 
Hoy-o’-My-Thumb covers space in his seven-mile boots. 
We, as adults, may appreciate the symbolism of these 
tales; the child does not. 
From the images of his own house and its surround- 
ings, of people he knows and occupations he sees carried 
on, of natural processes like water running down his 
own hill, of toy boats floating in his gutter—from all 
this the child must learn to construct in his mind con- 
cepts of things remote, of the Alps, the oceans, of for- 
eign peoples. Words, names, pictures, samples of 
material even, maps and the like, are meaningless to 152 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
him unless he can connect them with real experiences 
of his own. 
Here the parents can do much. They will find a new 
delight in their walks and excursions in pointing out to 
their children the wonders of nature about them, so that 
the children may learn to observe, to understand, to 
admire. Children thus inspired will transfer their con- 
cepts into their play, and through play they will, in 
their sand games, in their Indian sports, building wig- 
wams and making bows and arrows, live the lives of 
the distant and strange peoples they learn about. 
Fortunately, in the moving pictures we have at this 
time a valuable adjunct to the parent and to the geog- 
raphy teacher. A moving picture is much more realistic 
than a mere woodcut or engraving. It gives almost the 
illusion of actual travel. So schools and parents should 
make the most of this opportunity to help the child see 
the human spirit in his geography. 
Gardening 
Planting should be an integral part of every child’s 
education. It implies out-of-door activities, observing 
and braving the weather, fresh air and exercise in the 
open. It has been shown that not only sunshiny air 
but falling rain or snow produce radioactivity such as 
is really basic in all open-air treatments. 
The child between nine and eleven, if not younger, 
develops a great fondness for digging and planting. 
This is in part a physiological reaction; he wants to use 
his big muscles, his limbs as a whole, in a big, swinging 
motion, without much accuracy of detail. But it is also THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
153 
a reverberation of the early civilizing efforts of the 
race. 
Gardening places the child in communion with Nature. 
He learns to observe and study her secrets. He learns 
to understand plant life and the forces that are favor- 
able and unfavorable to it: weather conditions, the sea- 
sons, climate, wind, moisture, sunshine. There is a 
multitude of lessons to be learned in the garden. There 
is the lesson of growth and procreation, of seeds and 
fertilization, in its purest form. 
There are form and color in the thousands of insects 
with their strange life, partly helpful and partly de- 
structive. There are the birds, with the charm of grace- 
ful beauty and of mysterious flights in the air. 
There is another element of esthetic enjoyment: the 
freshness of the morning breeze which greets the young 
worker if he is conscientious in his garden tasks, the 
perfume of the flowers, the fragrance of the new-mown 
hay and of the ripening fruits in the orchard. 
The work in the garden requires regularity of at- 
tention if it is to produce results. This will develop 
in the child the appreciation of regular application, for 
the final outcome of his efforts will be a palpable result: 
a flower that he can enjoy or give to those he loves; a 
dish of lettuce which he can contribute to the family 
table. Gardening, like few other occupations, teaches 
the child quite directly the human element in the re- 
lation of cause and effect. 
There are intimate connections and correlations with 
nature lessons, with arithmetic. 
The child may have his little garden on the home 154 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
plot. Again, there are vacant lots and outlying dis- 
tricts which can be utilized by the community. There 
are public parks and squares which offer opportunities. 
Public school grounds should be so arranged that there 
are not only playgrounds for the children but garden 
plots. Planting these grounds will beautify them and 
at the same time allow of real gardening. 
School gardens will add the special feature of inten- 
sified nature study in practical form. School planta- 
tions, as well as those in public squares and parks, may 
assume the form of botanical gardens. All kinds of 
decorative and fruit trees from many lands and differ- 
ent types of vegetables may be planted for demonstration 
and study. The possibilities of this work and the 
pleasure which it will give to the children can hardly 
be exhausted. 
Work of this kind is a wonderful safety-valve for the 
nervous, high-strung, psychopathic child, for the rest- 
less, venturesome child who might drift into delinquency, 
and for the manual-minded child who is averse to book 
study and may be lost for constructive citizenship un- 
less saved through occupational methods. 
After School Hours 
Through community work, parent-teacher associa- 
tions, mothers’ clubs, an organic connection has been 
established between the home and the school. 
In this way, many improvements have been effected. 
One of the most helpful results has been the abolition 
of teachers’ habitually keeping children after school 
for purposes of discipline or scholarship. An occa- 
sional conference between pupil and teacher after school, THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
155 
lasting a few minutes, for special help, may be under- 
stood. But school hours are too long as they are. 
It has been argued by educators that really efficient 
teachers can accomplish in from two to three hours a 
day precisely as much as is now done in from four to 
five hours, even in the matter of book study. This 
statement is based upon the same principle which has 
taught employers to realize that their workmen can do 
as much, and better work, in eight hours, or even less, 
than they did before in ten. It is all a matter of fatigue, 
of fresh air, of recuperation, of change, of nerve tone. 
True, some of the school time is now given to manual 
work and to physical training, so called. But we have 
not yet reached the point when the daily program offers 
these changes and opportunities at the right time. These 
“lessons”—and they are taught as lessons—are usually 
sandwiched in according to the exigencies of the teachers 
and hours available, the claims of the “main” features 
of the program (reading, writing, numbers, etc.) being 
considered first. We may look forward to the time when 
physical training, at least, will be given outdoors at the 
right time of the day, giving to each group of children, 
even each individual, this training when needed. 
The place of the child, after the necessary time spent 
in the school-house, is at home and in the open air. 
That is why “home work,” especially the amount 
given and when done as night study, is pernicious. 
Besides, it is unnecessary. Children whose minds are 
refreshed and free from the cobwebs of nightly worry 
over their tasks will in the long run outstrip the pe- 
dantic bookworms among their fellow-students. At the 
high-school age when the adolescent body and mind pass 156 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
through a period of serious readjustment, the bad effect 
of overstudy is particularly distressing. For then enters 
the elements of conscious competition, when the young 
student, especially the girl student, will be tempted to 
do things which ought not to be done with all the ex- 
citements and worries of examinations, promotions, 
graduations, and the exhibition of the awakening ado- 
lescent instincts in social aspirations, comradeship, and 
jealousies. These harmful emotions exhaust the energy 
of the physiological apparatus and prepare the way for 
nervous breakdowns. 
Skipping a Grade 
The graded course of instruction in most schools is an 
iron-clad structure which hampers the free movement 
of the child through his school career. A certain pro- 
ficiency in all studies is required to allow a child to pass 
from a lower to the next higher grade. If a minimum 
requirement in any one or several “studies” is not satis- 
factorily reached, the pupil is either retained in the 
lower class and made to do the whole thing over—losing 
an entire year, or a half-year, whatever the arrangement 
may be—or he is forced to pass an extra examination in 
the studies he failed in. 
Differences in mental attitudes and aptitudes are not 
taken into account. The “system” does not consider 
that there may be temporary resistances toward one or 
the other branch of instruction,—changing interests, 
etc.,—and that a pupil may be stimulated by being placed 
in a higher grade even if he should not have met all the 
requirements. 
It is just the other way with children who learn easily THE SCHOOL PERIOD 
157 
and fast. Little investigation is made whether this 
ability of slipping along is due to a quick-working and 
retentive memory, or to deceptive brilliancy, or to real 
mental power. The usual method of helping such a 
child along is to have him skip a grade or two. This 
method is a tacit acknowledgment on the part of school 
authorities that they have no special provisions for the 
fast-learning or exceptionally bright child. They simply 
squeeze him through the mill the best they can. 
This skipping of a grade is a risky thing. Grades are 
usually so constituted that each represents a certain 
measure of information in a graded sequence. If a 
grade is skipped and the information which the skipped 
grade was supposed to furnish the pupil is missed, the 
pupil will have to apply himself in some way to make 
good what he has lost. This puts an extra strain on 
him, and eventually upon the teacher of the class to 
which he has been promoted. He has to accomplish this 
in addition to acclimatizing himself to a new grade, 
with maturer and older pupils as class-mates, and often 
with an entirely different scholastic atmosphere. 
The quick-learning child is not always an equally 
quickly maturing child, either physically or mentally. 
To be obliged to measure up with a maturer and much 
more worldly-wise group of children in the new grade 
may have a disastrous effect upon his standards and his 
psychic reactions. He may become altogether confused 
in his conduct, in his attitude toward his social environ- 
ment. 
Skipping a grade is a poor and ill-advised substitute 
for provisions which will give the quick and bright child 
his proper opportunities. It is well for parents not to 158 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
be satisfied with such a substitute but to insist that their 
child be given his due. 
As long as there are no special classes for such chil- 
dren, parents will do better to take their child out of 
school and place him under private tutorship until he 
is ready for the higher grade—ready in every way, 
physically, mentally, and socially, or morally. CHAPTER VII 
SOME TYPES OF MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
What is a Normal Child? 
If a parent wants to know whether his child is doing 
the normal thing in school, he should free himself from 
the idea that ordinary school progress or retardation in 
school work have in themselves a decisive significance. 
The standards of school work are artificial and are 
based upon a vocational selection—vocational in the 
sense that the ordinary school courses are in reality not 
preparations for life but for the learned professions. 
They are founded on the scholastic tradition of the 
Middle Ages when schools were for the education of the 
clergy and other learned occupations. To be a “scribe,” 
that is to say, to be able to read and write, especially in 
Latin, was a special calling. 
The mass of the people as well as their active leaders 
—the kings, the nobles, the builders, and the doers— 
were mostly innocent of the arts of the scribe. They 
could not even write their own names and usually made 
the sign of three crosses in place of them, even on state 
documents. Yet the work of the world has ever been 
done by the doers, not by the scribes. 
When education was popularized the same standards 
were retained that had been employed in the schools 
founded for such professional training. The fact that 160 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
public education was to serve an entirely different pur- 
pose hardly dawned upon the reformers. 
Only now do we begin to realize that reading, writing, 
and arithmetic are not all there is of education, that a 
man can be educated and successful in life without being 
a good speller, a fluent reader, or an expert at figures. 
School education, with its bookishness and one-side- 
edness, does not appeal to all children. The great mass 
of people is more work-minded than book-minded. I 
choose the word “work-minded” in preference to “hand- 
minded” because the latter word is oftentimes used to 
designate a type of mind less intellectual than that of 
the book-minded person. But a book-minded person 
may in reality be much more stupid than a work-minded 
one. 
Is a good blacksmith subnormal in comparison with a 
physician? Perhaps he could not become a good physi- 
cian, but he does make an excellent blacksmith. Does 
the university standard determine normality of mind? 
There is a trite saying that we have many a bad doctor 
who ought to be a blacksmith, and many a bad black- 
smith who ought to be a doctor. This does not indicate 
a difference in normality, or a comparison of an inferior 
and a superior type. It simply indicates difference in 
type. 
Parents need not worry because their child does not 
aspire, or is not fitted, to be a doctor if he grows up to 
make a good blacksmith and an honorable man. 
A renowned teacher of mathematics in a higher in- 
stitution of learning was teased by his colleagues on 
account of the many failures in his class work. MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
161 
“I have not so many failures in my class,” remarked 
the instructor in psychology. 
“Well,” said the mathematician mournfully, “you 
have the advantage over me that you have a clear field. 
No one tried to teach your students psychology in the 
primary grades. The trouble with mathematics is that 
we force it upon the baby mind before it is ready to 
receive it, before the child cares enough for it. The 
result is mental confusion, a confusion so confounded 
that it can never be straightened out.” 
Here we have it. Under the spell of scholasticism, 
with the false notion that learning means primarily 
scholarship, reading, writing, and arithmetic, first, and 
last, we actually sacrifice true scholarship. The primary 
grade is no place for such forcing, not only in number 
work but in reading and writing as well. 
A child has a great number of things to learn before 
these studies can mean anything to him. He has to ex- 
plore and experiment with nature about him, to study, 
and enter into the human forces which shape his life. 
He has to acquire habits of thought and action. 
Instead of submitting our children in the early grades, 
and in the home estimation of their development, to 
formal studies, we should give them the fullest possible 
opportunity of measuring their minds by tasks of the 
manual and objective type so that they would learn to 
place themselves in their material environment; and we 
should develop in them a feeling of human relationship, 
of social mutuality, of rational thought and considerate 
action which will fit them for their real life tasks. 
In the family, there is the first field of reconnoitering, 162 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
experimenting, and “learning”; the school can and 
must supplement this opportunity by extending the field 
of social experience and of the study of the environment. 
It is, after all, a social being that we wish to educate- 
Reading, writing, and arithmetic will almost take care 
of themselves. The child will want to have and use these 
tools in his own time, and then he will take hold of them 
quickly enough. He will learn their use as he learns the 
use of knife and fork, as he learns to walk and talk, un- 
consciously, by imitation, absorption, and finally by his 
own rational effort. 
Backward Children 
In recent years, through the efforts of psychological 
experts, attempts have been made to standardize school 
results on a scientific basis. These efforts have led to 
the establishment of so-called norms for each school 
grade or each age. The trouble has been that these meas- 
urements were themselves based upon the artificial scho- 
lastic standards which our traditional school systems 
have favored, while there are vast numbers of children 
who do not fit this standard at all without being in the 
least mentally inferior. The result has been not only 
that many children have left school before they have had 
the full measure of school education of which they were 
capable (provided the right kind had been administered) 
but also that many have been branded as backward, and 
even stigmatized as defectives, who were able to make 
their mark in life. 
I know of a boy, now eight years old, who is just be- 
ginning to take an active interest in reading and writing. 
He does not yet accomplish much in these lines, not MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
163 
seeming to have quite the phonetic idea. What he does 
write is very neat, indeed. But is this child “ back- 
ward? ” He is, in the matter of reading and writing. 
But not in anything else. In fact, he is an exception- 
ally bright boy, who will compete with any child, older 
than himself, in mental arithmetic, which he has taught 
himself by reasoning and experimenting. He can buy 
and get his change; he knows much about machinery; 
his ability to work out things and affairs in his mind is 
almost beyond belief. He is a natural leader. But he 
is not scholastic—at least, not now; he may be, some 
years later, and then perhaps outstrip others who went 
the regulation way. 
So we need not worry about backwardness as such. 
A child may be slow generally, or slow in some things 
only. The school standard is not a true one for every 
child. We must give each child a generous margin of 
time, in one direction or another. 
If certain babyish traits of reasoning and conduct per- 
sist,‘the matter may be different. Even then, we need 
not altogether despair. Children in the same family 
may reach very different heights in mental development, 
Some may remain for life “manual minded”; that is, 
they may make better blacksmiths than lawyers. Others 
will develop the dramatic instinct of childhood to be- 
come actors and dancers. Others may be the victims of 
sense defects or other physical impairments the removal 
of which will set them right. Here the physician plays 
his part. 
But if dullness and lack of reasoning do not disappear 
after all such allowances have been made, if the children 
remain unreliable, with anti-social and dangerous traits 164 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
of conduct persisting, the proper thing to do is to con- 
sult a child expert. Such a child, if found really 
wanting in common sense and ordinary educability, 
should be placed in experienced hands. To keep him 
under ordinary home and school influences will do him 
little or no good; it may even hazard what chances of 
fair development the child may have. 
Unfounded Elation 
Just as the parents are easily alarmed when their 
children seem to be slow and stupid about learning the 
three R’s in the elementary grades of school, so there are 
others who are highly elated when their children excel 
in them at an early age. Boys and girls who learn a 
number of different languages when they are still in 
their swaddling clothes, who read books and write out 
long-division examples before they are of school age, who 
rush through the grades and enter college in their early 
teens, are hailed as wonder-children, and a glorious 
future is presaged for them. 
This elation is as unfounded, in most cases, as is the 
alarm about the seemingly unsuccessful child. 
We have, at present a large crop of such “exception- 
ally bright” children. The “genius” of these young- 
sters manifests itself in various forms. Some of our 
great universities boast of boy freshmen of twelve or 
fourteen years of age who are reported to be marvels in 
literary and mathematical erudition. We hear of the 
case of a girl who was asserted to have passed the en- 
trance examinations to a large Western college at the 
tender age of nine; and of a young man who addressed 
college professors on the fourth dimension when he was MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
165 
eleven. Then, we have a five-year-old poetess who pro- 
claims herself as the reincarnation of Sappho. There 
are artists in short skirts and bare knees, and musical 
wonders in knickerbockers. Quite recently we have read 
about a juvenile chess wonder. The list can be multi- 
plied. 
A study of these “wonders’’ may reveal that their 
brilliancy is often very spurious. There are children 
who grow fast in body and mind. But this speed is not 
necessarily brilliancy. It is just speed. Many give out 
before they reach maturity; for, let us remember, 
speedy growth is not identical with maturing. Or, if it 
is maturing, it is likely to be of the ephemeral type. 
Real worth is slow in growing, and rapidity in develop- 
ment frequently demands a penalty by causing defect 
in other directions. 
Many of these promising children grow up to be very 
ordinary; others develop tensions in the spheres of 
emotion and social relationship, and become grave prob- 
lems when they reach the age of adolescence. All of 
them are in need of the greatest care and study and are 
more of a problem, burden, and responsibility than a 
joy. 
Of course, there are gifted children who will grow up 
to be a joy for ever. They do not always manifest their 
gifts plainly at an early age; in fact, nature disguises 
them so often that these children are misjudged. But, 
even if they are properly recognized, the worst that can 
be done to them is to make them aware of their gifts, 
to take open pride in them, and to exploit them. They 
need very wise guidance, indeed, to bring their gifts to 
maturity. 166 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Handicaps of Precocity 
The case of a twelve-year-old Columbia freshman sug- 
gests the problem of precocity in its many aspects. We 
have begun to pay some attention to our bright children 
and their needs after having spent too much of concern 
trative effort upon the defectives. 
Now, it is a strange thing that the old proverb, “Ex- 
tremes touch/’ expresses a vital truth in the case of 
many of our precocious children. Their advance along 
certain lines of intellectual activity seems to drain their 
mental fountain heads so unduly that they show defects 
along other lines of mental attitudes and aptitudes. 
They may be very scholarly and yet exceedingly helpless 
in practical things. They may speak a dozen languages 
and not be able to read their environment correctly. 
They may be marvels of mathematical calculation and 
fail utterly in reasoning out a common problem of con- 
duct. They may be shining lights in physics, astronomy, 
and philosophy and yet be inferior in adaptation to hu- 
man tasks. 
One of the difficulties in the way of precocious chil- 
dren is that we have really no provision for them. In 
our schools and colleges they must mingle with students 
who are in age and bodily and emotional maturity their 
superiors, unless we keep them at home and under the 
disadvantage of lack of companionship and wholesome 
competition. This absence of the companionship of 
fellows who are on their own general level is a serious 
thing. It is largely responsible for emotional derail- 
ment, and for the exaggeration of their judgments of 
themselves. It includes the necessity of adjusting their 
young years to really adult tasks, and reduces them often MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
167 
to the companionship of adults only, which is not the 
best thing at all. 
Precocious children should be as much as possible 
grouped together so that they may meet their fellows on 
something like common ground. But, as a matter of 
fact, little or nothing is being done for them in our 
public institutions. A world-metropolis like New York 
has only one solitary class in one school building on the 
lower East Side for exceptionally bright children. It 
is true, in the newly established intermediate schools, 
which are really junior high schools, classes for rapid 
advancement have been instituted, so that quick pupils 
may complete the course in two years instead of three. 
But all this does not meet the emergency. 
Different Types of Precocious Children 
Not all bright children are alike in their precocity, 
and parents will do but simple justice to their educa- 
tional problems if they endeavor to ascertain what type 
of rapid advancement their seemingly bright child repre- 
sents. They will save themselves much future unhappi- 
ness and disappointment, and their children much 
occasion for making a failure of their lives, if they do 
not entertain too ambitious hopes at the start. The 
really intellectual child will have to assume a burden 
of responsibility when he grows up to do his task among 
men which he rarely anticipates in the early years. 
There are a number of children whose brightness is 
merely the gift of a good memory and of ready speech. 
These two are treacherous. They may carry a child 
through the school grades with apparent success by en- 
abling him to pass written and oral examinations with 168 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
ease. With our book-study methods of teaching, a re- 
tentive and ready memory will carry a pupil far; but he 
will at once begin to fail when real thought and judg- 
ment are required. 
Even the rapid learner is not necessarily a bright 
child. He simply can walk faster in intellectual pur- 
suits than his neighbors; he will cover more ground in 
a given time. This is a quality not to be despised. 
But the pace may be exhausting, and fatigue may over- 
come the runner. Again, in his rapid pace he may 
overlook some of the finer and more intricate wonders 
of his intellectual environment. The rapid child may 
arrive sooner than his competing school-mate. But 
after arrival he may be no better than the slow one, and 
the slow one may after all have gained greater and more 
enduring strength in his slow progress than he. The 
dull and slow in school often distinguish themselves in 
after life. It is, therefore, not altogether wise to rejoice 
too readily in the rapid progress of our child. 
Real brightness rests on the faculty of sane judgment 
and quick decision, of locating oneself in one’s environ- 
ment, and of proper readjustment to changes. 
The Curse of a Good Memory 
A good memory is a very valuable possession when 
everything else is normal in the person possessing it. It 
helps us immediately to connect past experiences with 
new ones. It makes us understand new situations and 
problems in the light of those we have encountered be- 
fore. It gives us the pleasure and advantage of quickly 
placing and recognizing old friends, of calling up useful 
information when we need it. MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
169 
In order to help people to strengthen a weak memory 
many devices have been suggested. 
Why should I then call a good memory a “curse”? 
Often parents have brought children to me who had 
failed in school or in other ways, the parents blaming the 
schools, the tutors, almost anything or any one except 
the child. “He is so bright, really,” they will say. 
“He remembers everything—every place he has ever 
been to, every name, every face. You cannot fool him 
on his memory.” Thus memory passes for brightness. 
As a matter of fact, I have met individuals in insti- 
tutions for the feeble-minded who possessed the most re- 
markable memory-power but were otherwise distinctly 
defective. At the California State Institution, years 
ago, I had met a young man, mentally defective, for 
just a few minutes. When I visited the same place two 
years later, he not only recognized me immediately, but 
recalled my name and the exact time and conditions of 
my previous visit. 
High-school pupils in a certain metropolis, when psy- 
chologically examined, gave evidence of mental defect 
and soon failed in their studies. How did they ever get 
up to the high school? 
Because they were, on account of their good and re- 
tentive mechanical memory, able to absorb the book- 
knowledge which was required in the grades, and to shine 
in the oral and written recitations and examinations 
upon which their marks were based. When it came to 
the exercise of real rational thought in the high school, 
they failed dismally. 
It is here that the “curse” comes in. A good memory 
is a deceptive thing. Of course, I mean in this con- 170 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
nection a “mechanical’’ memory—one which has no ele- 
ment of thought in it, which is not a mental reconstruc- 
tion, but a mere echo of past impressions. Such a 
memory may help a child to get through his school work 
with relative ease and to show a semblanceNof perform- 
ance. This prevents him from being recognized and 
diagnosed at an early age, when special attention can 
still save him from mental deviation, as one needing a 
different kind of training. As it is, he may, growing 
up, fall by the wayside. 
The child with a good mechanical memory who. also 
possesses mental power often uses the former, letting the 
latter lie fallow. Thus he will lose his opportunities for 
real training. In this way, he will become mentally 
lazy and unorganized, unable to face real problems when 
he grows up. A good memory is a valuable tool worthy 
of careful handling, but it must be handled by a skilful 
mind. When it prevents the mind itself from acquiring 
skill it is a great curse. 
The Non-Talkative Child 
There are children who seem to be like babbling 
brooks; they are talking incessantly, sometimes real 
sense, sometimes nonsense, never satisfied until they have 
poured out all that is in their minds. 
There are others who hardly ever tell what is in their 
minds. They will be slow to answer a question, simply 
staring at you, or even hiding their faces. They seem 
to live an inner life that never finds expression. They 
are difficult to fathom; their motives seem far away from 
the understanding of their elders. They shut them- MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
171 
selves up within themselves and care nothing for what 
the others think. 
Children of this type are a problem in handling. 
Their silence may, but often enough does not, indicate 
depth of thought or feeling. They may be shallow for 
all their mysterious secrecy. They may even be under- 
handed and untrue. In some rare cases, it is well to 
leave them alone, if we are otherwise convinced that they 
are upright, pure children. But, in most instances, it 
is well to find out what causes their reticence and to 
unlock their lips. 
Some may have been the victims of tactless speech 
corrections. If an elder is constantly on the lookout 
for faulty expressions, a child may be easily silenced, 
not wishing to be criticized all the time, especially when 
he is more or less timid. In the development of the 
child’s language, great care must be exercised not to dis- 
courage him. Besides, a child may have rather pictur- 
esque expressions of his own, very unconventional, per- 
haps, and not to the taste of the regulation grammarian, 
and it is really worth while to leave him alone in using 
them, as they will reveal much to his own deeper con- 
ceptions, or misconceptions. 
Then, there are children who have not the gift of con- 
versation. Their thoughts are not quickly formulated 
in words. They can often express themselves better in 
the form of a drawing or model. They must be encour- 
aged to do so, and a friendly talk about their work will 
draw them out. 
Some children are likely to be self-conscious, and too 
much aware of the possible impression they may make. 172 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
The less we notice them, the better for their peace of 
mind, or for the toning down of their exaggerated sense 
of self. They must learn by our action that their talk 
or non-talk is a matter of relative unconcern to us—not 
in reality, but as far as the child can notice. This will 
gradually cure their trouble. 
There are, of course, children whose trouble is direct 
stubbornness. But that is another story. In a measure, 
the same method which we may employ with the self- 
conscious child can be tried with them. 
Camouflaged Talents 
When a famous American dramatist who died a few 
years ago while earning an annual income of two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars, so it is said—this latter 
circumstance, may make his talent assume special sig- 
nificance to some—was a boy, he was declared to be an 
absolute impossibility among other boys. He was 
affected, dandified, a mollycoddle of the first order; in- 
stead of playing rough games with the other fellows, he 
would sit indoors writing honeyed letters to the girls, 
who were fascinated by him and wrote him letters in 
return. It is asserted that in this manner he really 
learned much about feminine nature, the driving 
power behind human affairs, and thus equipped him- 
self for his life success. But nobody would have sus- 
pected that he was to amount to anything at any 
time. 
Real talents absorb so much of the inner life of a child 
that the outward appearance is often very deceiving. 
Not that the child is aware of this process; he simply 
follows the lead of his instincts, He cannot understand MENTALLY EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 
173 
why he should or could be otherwise. That he should be 
blamed and even punished for doing what his innermost 
promptings make him do, or for not doing what others 
want him to do when he shrinks from doing it, is a sad 
mystery to him. He may see beauty where the others 
only see rubbish; he may be shocked by what appears 
ugly and horrid to him when the others consider it per- 
fectly right. He may be affected in his feelings, when 
nobody else feels anything; he may feel nothing when 
everybody else is in ecstasy or horror. 
The characteristic of true talent is that its possessor 
is very individualistic, that he sees the world with his 
own eyes. He is in closer touch with elemental emotion; 
all talent has its base-rock in the field of emotion. He 
is, therefore, more primitive, conventional. He may 
appear morose or inattentive. He may give the im- 
pression of stubbornness, when there is only the budding 
of a strong will and character. He may represent an 
accumulation of hereditary traits of excellence of which 
his parents are entirely unaware. He may, therefore, 
have a very unhappy childhood; misunderstanding— 
the desire of his parents to conventionalize him, to make 
him live up to their standards of Philistine success— 
may accompany him through his entire period of de- 
velopment. 
His secret ambitions, which he himself may not fully 
understand, may lead him far away from the worldly 
ambitions of his environment. Instead of help such as 
might make it possible for him to find himself, to under- 
stand himself, he encounters antagonism and misjudg- 
ment. So he is never properly adjusted; there is a gulf 
between his inner self and his environment, and he may 174 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
drift into inefficiency, even perversion, instead of living 
a life of service to humankind. 
The story of the ugly duckling, which has been a 
household tale for centuries, has not yet penetrated into 
the hearts and minds of those who tell it. 
The talented child, just because of his difference from 
the “ordinary” child, needs loving understanding and 
help on the part of his parents. We must assist him in 
finding himself, in adjusting him to his environment, in 
having the budding time of his soul one of peace and 
undisturbed growth. CHAPTER VIII 
THE ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
It is not difficult to make a child happy. Some new 
simple toy, some new interest, a word of encouragement, 
something new to do. The secret of keeping, or making, 
a child happy is to keep him busy, to arouse his activity, 
to make him observant, so that he may use his eyes and 
ears, his hands and his brain. 
But it is equally easy to make a child unhappy. If 
there is no new interest coming into his life; if there is 
nothing to do -which appeals to his senses and his in- 
tellect ; if there is no kind word, no caress, no encourage- 
ment, nothing to lift him up, he will stagnate, and he will 
be miserable. Nothing big is needed, only the many 
little things of daily life. His great power of imagina- 
tion will supply the rest. He will people his world with 
the fairies and heroes you tell him about, and he will 
not be lonesome. 
If he is made fearful by unkindness or unnecessary 
fright, he is hurt more than you are, for he has not yet 
the perspective of things; his emotional response is im- 
mediate and direct. An adult knows the passing of time, 
and of the healing power of time; he has the comfort of 
his religion; he can look forward to his work, which will 
take his thoughts away from the hurt—and he can value 
the intent of the one who hurt him, and make allowances 176 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
for emotion and accident. The child cannot do that. 
He lives in the present; his circle is small; his experi- 
ence limited. 
An idle child is less able to rescue himself from the 
mental torpor, the emotional stagnation, the irritation 
of enforced tedium, because he cannot choose his field, 
he cannot go out into the world to conquer his obstacles, 
he is dependent upon those into whose life he is born, 
he lacks the inner life of contemplation, of reasoning, 
of mental construction. 
Thus, while the task of education is really of para- 
mount importance, its tools are simple: 
Be kind to the child, so that he may have an implicit 
trust in you. 
Give him new interests and experiences all the time. 
Give him something to do, so that he may test his 
faculties and learn to express himself as an active, con- 
structive, progressive being. 
Boomerangs 
Many parents manufacture boomerangs for themselves 
in the early education of their children, with this differ- 
ence, that the returning weapon invariably deals its 
blow to the parent who has thrown it. 
One of these boomerangs is the habit of frightening 
children, by telling them stories of witches, of the bogy 
man, or ghosts or wolves that lurk in the darkness. 
Such stories may, at the start, succeed in frightening 
children into obedience, so called, but they implant the 
horrible ghost of fear in the young and trusting heart, 
a ghost which may never be laid. 
Children thus brought up in fear of the unknown and ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
177 
mysterious of the terrible and the weird, will grow up 
arrant cowards. They will see specters everywhere. 
They will be afraid of the dark, of fleeting shadows, of 
strange places, of the rustling of the trees in the night. 
They will hear strange sounds and cover their ears in 
fright, or run away, terror-stricken, from an imagined 
danger into a real peril. They will develop nervous 
conditions, fear psychoses, which may jeopardize their 
happiness and peace of mind and make them a burden 
to themselves and to all about them. 
Perhaps the most severe forms of this effect of “edu- 
cating by fear” may not be observed in all cases. For- 
tunately, many children have natural powers of resist- 
ance. But in most instances the parents will have many 
difficulties while the fearful child grows up, and will 
more than once have reason to repent their mistaken 
policy pursued while the child was young. For it is 
not all true that these early impressions are easily lost 
or thrown off when the child grows older. They may 
change their form of expression. They may show them- 
selves in weakness of character, in ready yielding to 
threats and punishments, in cringing hypocrisy. Or 
the child may become distrustful of the love and verac- 
ity of his parents, and turn against them. 
Children Love Fun 
Children love fun; they love to laugh. The parent 
or teacher whom a child likes most and will mind most 
readily is the one who can “stand some fun.” 
Parents will do well by entering fully and unre- 
servedly into a child’s fun, allowing themselves to be 
treated as if they themselves were nothing but happy 178 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
children. Teach the children to be good-natnred and 
patient when teased, by being good-natured and pa- 
tient yourself. Children’s fun is likely to be a little 
rough at times; they do not always consider conse- 
quences and may hurt without meaning it. Then do 
not rise in ire, but, if you have any control over them 
at all, restrict gently. The best method is always to 
divert a child’s attention from the immediate pursuit, 
and then, wThen there is quiet or a pause, call the child’s 
attention to his mistake. 
Children enjoy jokes, even when they degenerate into 
practical jokes of questionable character. Let us not 
be angry with transgressions of this type, but rather 
prevent them. It requires much forethought and also 
much companionship with children to guide the fun- 
loving spirit of childhood into harmless channels with- 
out stifling it, or repressing it to such an extent that 
it will seek and find an outlet in secret perversions. 
If we do not play with our children we give them over 
too much to outside influences which we do not control, 
and which they seek because they offer them what we do 
not give. 
It is significant that our children rush for the “comic 
Supplements” of Sunday papers as soon as they ar- 
rive. This craze is partly due to an otherwise unsatis- 
fied desire. Much of what these sheets offer is trash, 
even objectionable trash; stories like those of the “Foxy 
Grandpa” type, which are enjoyable and harmless, 
are rare. As long as they get these things, we as 
parents, must take the sting out of them by reading 
them with them, with discreet comments. But there 
is a wealth of real child jokes which we can find if we ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
179 
only look for them, jokes and funny things that are 
commensurate to a child’s experience and mental need, 
jokes that will do for him what adult jokes do for us, 
liberate the mind from the yoke of every-day plati- 
tudes and harassing routine. In this sense, even stories 
like “ Peck’s Bad Boy” and some of the Charlie Chap- 
lin pictures can do some good, always provided the 
parent is with the child, and laughs with the child, 
helps the child to find the right perspective. 
Tickling and Laughing 
The baby’s first smile is one of the greatest delights 
of every parent. It is really an evidence of normality. 
The sad or sour looking baby needs looking after. I 
have seen babies smile during the first week of their 
lives. If the first smile is delayed until after the third 
month, it is a danger-signal. 
Laughing is a safety-valve, even for the adult. It 
is not enough to say that a laughing child is a happy 
child. The laugh may be caused by a pleasant sensa- 
tion which is not altogether a matter of individual 
happiness, which even may not be desirable. 
A child will respond to tickling with a laugh. This 
is a reverberation of the ancient skin-consciousness. 
The sense of touch is the oldest of all senses, out of 
which all the others have been developed. Originally, 
the touch of the skin meant danger; that is why the 
child shrinks even when tickled. 
But the tickling is, after all, pleasurable, because it 
is a playful touching of the skin, the old danger-signal 
turned into a joke. This feeling, more or less instinc- 
tive, makes the child enjoy the tickling. 180 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Inasmuch as the nerve arrangement of the skin is 
very elaborate and there are many connections between 
it and other nerves, the ticklish sensation often spreads 
over a wide area. 
The sense of touch is intimately related to sensations 
in the reproductive organs. Tickling a child therefore 
may cause excitement which should be avoided. 
The turning of fear into a joke is the fundamental 
condition of laughing. It is well known that a child, 
when relieved of some anxiety or fear, will break into 
a hearty laugh. In the handling of frightened children 
it is essential to lead their thoughts from the frightful 
aspects of their imaginings to the cheerful and ludicrous 
phases. 
Laughter of joy will succeed crying from fear. 
Laughing without cause in later stages is a danger- 
signal; it may indicate the onset of nervous disorder 
and hysteria. 
Habit Formation 
Habits of obedience, cleanliness, and truthfulness 
must be acquired in the early months and years of a 
child’s life. As habits, these faculties have no normal 
significance; but, unless the foundation of a well regu- 
lated life is now laid in the form of fixed modes of con- 
duct, the character of your child will lack strength. 
The “virtuous” habits are after all not yet human, 
but essentially animal in kind. We expect similar re- 
sponses from our domestic animals. 
The early training in right habits of response implies 
that the child be accustomed to strict regularity from 
the start. His feeding, his bath, his change of clothes, ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
181 
and all the details of his daily toilet must be subjected 
to this regularity. He must wake up and go to sleep 
at definite hours. He can be trained at an early period 
to attend to his functions in regular rotation. 
The older he grows, the wider is the scope of these 
regular performances. The periods of play and rest, 
of outdoor and indoor occupations and responsibilities, 
and of everything that makes up the child’s life, must 
lead to the formation of proper habits and application, 
of execution, of hygienic regime, of endurance, etc. 
This training in regularity is possible provided the 
parents have trained themselves in the recognition of 
its importance and in the ability to regulate their own 
lives. Example is the most powerful agent in the early 
years of unconscious absorption and imitation of the 
rules of life. 
Of course, the parents must be sure that the regu- 
larity they endeavor to establish is the right one, one 
demanded by the child’s needs, not one suggested by 
their own convenience. 
If there are exceptional conditions, such as are pre- 
sented by children of unusual physical and mental dis- 
positions, they suggest their own regular routine. The 
training in proper habits cannot follow a certain set 
method with all children alike. Each child has his 
own needs, and we must discriminate. 
We need not fear that such training will make the 
child a pedant, a slave of habits, rather than a man of 
decision and individual choice. The power of deci- 
sion can come only with the wisdom and experience of 
the years. Besides, as soon as his individuality de- 
velops, the child will claim and have his own freedom. 182 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
The early training refers mainly to those laws of life 
which are fundamental. These ordinary laws of life, 
all through nature, are laws of strictest regularity. 
Parents and educators in general have the function 
to interpret to the child, from early infancy, these 
laws of nature. To be able to do that, parents should 
be students of nature, aware of the wonders of na- 
ture’s laws. 
Carelessness 
We have been shocked by the great losses our young 
manhood sustained in the World War, but in one year, 
in this country, eighty thousand were killed and two 
hundred and fifty thousand were seriously injured by 
accidents, as many as the number of casualties in the 
two years of war. True, many of these accidents were 
caused by the absence of safety-devices and thus by 
criminal neglect. But carelessness is the real source of 
most accidents, personal carelessness—not necessarily 
gross carelessness, but often merely lack of forethought 
and prudence. 
One of the most important duties in the education 
of children is training in carefulness, forethought, and 
prudence. 
Children are naturally careless, without regard for 
consequences, living only in the present. In fact, chil- 
dren under the age of preadolescence have great diffi- 
culty in learning their own mistakes. They will commit 
the same error over and over again. To learn from 
one’s own mistakes is the privilege of the mature mind. 
It is, therefore, a difficult task to induce the child to ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
183 
take caution, to think of consequences. He will forget 
from one instance to the next. Again, if you succeed 
in making him cautious, you run the risk of making him 
at the same time self-conscious or timid. At times the 
very warning you issue will act as a suggestion to him 
to do precisely what you have warned him against. 
Tell him of the danger of playing with matches, and 
he will try to find out what that danger is, and per- 
haps set fire to the house. 
Caution, forethought, is a matter of maturing. Give, 
first of all, the good example of prudence without 
cowardice yourself. Let the child learn gradually what 
it means to look ahead and count the cost. Be very 
gentle and avoid destroying the child’s confidence in 
his own powers. He will learn his own limitations soon 
enough. Be with the child as much as possible so as 
to share his experiences, and guide him without mak- 
ing him aware that you are protecting him. Let him 
have his own experiences, even at the risk of a scratch 
or a bump or two. The principle of vaccination holds 
good in education: a small danger braved and endured 
will make the child immune against the greater danger. 
How to Teach Thoughtfulness 
The naturally reckless and careless child will learn 
the wisdom of thoughtfulness very slowly. He will 
impetuously run his head a thousand times against a 
wall before he will stop to think that it is folly to hurt 
himself unreasonably and unnecessarily. The young 
child’s actions are not deliberate, but instinctive, im- 
pulsive. 184 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Yet he has in him the germs of rational thought. To 
make these germs grow to fruition is really the civiliz- 
ing process. 
There are two steps which the child must take to 
learn to think before he acts. 
The first is that he must realize each act results in 
something that cannot be undone. The second, that 
he must understand the meaning of making good, of 
restitution, where that is possible. 
He picks a pretty flower in the field. He may crush 
it under his feet: it is gone. Or he may pull off its 
dainty petals: its beauty has vanished. There are more 
flowers, and so he does not at once feel that he has de- 
stroyed something precious that he cannot replace. But 
gradually he will begin to grasp the idea of lasting 
destruction following even a seemingly trifling momen- 
tary act. 
When, for instance, it comes to his own possession,— 
a balloon that he carelessly allows to explode or float 
away, a cherished toy that he breaks, a pet bird that he 
neglects, a birthday flowering plant that he loves but 
forgets to water,—he will wake up to the fact that he 
must think in time before it is too late. It would be 
unwuse, in our love for the child and in our pity for 
his suffering, to minimize his loss by quickly replacing 
it. We may help him by kindliness, and comfort him 
by making him aware of his own power of avoiding such 
losses in the future; but we must insist upon the lesson’s 
being learned in its fullness, that what is done is done. 
He may further find that he can replace his loss, at 
times, by his own effort and sacrifice. If he has the 
opportunity of earning his pocket-money, he may buy ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
a new balloon or a new bird. This will bring home to 
him the value of the loss, the measure of sacrifice and 
endeavor which is needed to make good. 
Through his own experience, he will learn what it 
signifies when he carelessly or wantonly gives pain or 
sorrow to others. The same process will follow here: he 
will become aware, first, of the irreparableness of the 
loss he caused others by his thoughtlessness, and, 
secondly, of the duty of making good as far as his 
power may go. 
Orderliness 
Orderliness is one of the great safeguards of life. 
It saves time, it saves labor, it saves temper, it saves 
life. If we always have our things where we can find 
them, if we can dispose of our regular duties without 
having to give special thought to every detail each time 
we start, if we are ready at any moment for any 
emergency through being always aware of put- 
ting our hand on the things necessary, if orderliness 
in thought and action has become a well grounded 
habit with us, we shall escape many a worry and 
danger. 
It is, therefore, quite important to train our children 
in this habit of orderliness. No parent will grant that 
this is an easy task. It requires much patience, consist- 
ency, and unceasing alertness and resourcefulness on 
the part of the educator. 
Too much order is painful. The main thing is that 
we are able to locate our things. Too much mechanical 
regularity is inartistic. Beauty does not consist in 
straight lines. A mere mathematical perfection lacks 186 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the human personality. There is no perfect symmetry 
in nature. 
Some children have a natural tendency to arrange 
their things in neat rows and piles. A certain type of 
child will continue for hours to put blocks or beads or 
other playthings in a certain order, doing it over and 
over again. This suggests an automatic mind and calls 
for expert diagnosis. It is well enough to have a child 
wTho is naturally orderly, but the order fiend, and the 
mind in which orderliness is a mechanical perfection, 
are both abnormal. 
But the normal child is not by nature orderly. That 
is to say, the really active, busy child hates to put his 
things back in the proper place when he is through play- 
ing with them, or to hang up his clothes neatly folded 
when he goes to bed. He is too tired, perhaps, or full 
of new impetus. 
This is perfectly normal, and not a fault. If we 
are his companions we shall observe when he tires of 
one thing and when his interest takes a flight in an- 
other direction, and will cooperate with him to make the 
transition an easy one. And we shall not be too pe- 
dantic and insistent at any time; rather let a few blocks 
lie where they are, or stumble over a forgotten doll 
in the dark, than make a child disgusted with his chang- 
ing interests, or fretful when he is tired. Unpleasant 
memories may impress themselves upon his plastic mind, 
producing negative emotions which may crop up at un- 
expected times. 
Bedtime Problems 
When the atmosphere at home, at the time a child ii ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
187 
supposed to go to sleep, is surcharged with excitement, 
this sleep will be long in coming. It will be superficial 
as well as disturbed. 
A mother impatient to be free for other things, who 
wants to get her child to sleep in a hurry, will 
often find that the more haste will mean the less 
speed. 
A child who goes to bed with tears in his eyes may 
sob himself to sleep, only to dream of unhappiness and 
lose the value of his rest. 
It is not only his own unhappiness—an unhappiness 
caused by parental “discipline” and misunderstanding 
—which affects the child. Emotional storms which 
sway the parents darken the child’s soul as they darken 
the sky of his home. 
On the other hand, where there is calmness and re- 
pose, harmony and refinement, confidence and respect, 
the home atmosphere will wholesomely penetrate to the 
depths of the child’s mind and soul, and give him poise 
and restfulness. 
Remove from the child’s experience, when night draws 
near, if at no other time, all unhappiness; let cheerful- 
ness and good will be around him. 
Much can be accomplished by what has been called 
“positive suggestion.” You can assure to your rest- 
less child a sound and sweet sleep by suggesting to him 
that he can and will sleep, that the dream fairies, or 
the dear angels, will soar around his crib and watch 
over him, that he will sleep without waking until the 
sun peeps over the roof in the morning. Bedtime stories 
of the right kind can be usefully employed under such 
circumstances. You can make your child experience 188 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND "MORAL 
what you suggest to him. Talk to him in a quiet half- 
whisper, in a soothing, cheering voice. 
There are, however, many “bedtime stories” which 
are much too elaborate and exciting to be commendable. 
In fact, unless your child is very restless, stories should 
be avoided at this time. Short, significant suggestions 
should be enough. Even a loving smile, a hearty, cheer- 
ful good night, and a parting kiss may be sufficient. 
Lingering too long at the child’s bedside is as unneces- 
sary as it is disturbing. 
The Child at Play 
A little child, primitive by instinct as he is, is hap- 
piest without clothes. He loves to play in the mud, 
to expand himself in breathless activity, running, jump- 
ing, shouting, pounding, making as much noise as he 
can. 
This is not naughtiness. It is his way of learning 
and growing. We should understand that play is the 
child’s work, is experiment, is school; play is life. The 
child learns more in play than in school. When we 
think he is destructive he may be learning an important 
lesson. 
A broken toy is often more valuable than a whole and 
a new one. It teaches the boy much about the construc- 
tion of the toy, about the natural forces which made it 
possible, about the physical properties of wood, metal, 
paper, etc. It can be observed in thousands of instances 
that a broken doll or a smashed toy engine affords just 
as much pleasure to the child as the perfect article. It 
represents so much more experience. 
The very orderly child who keeps his toys in good ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
189 
condition and puts them carefully away for safe-keep- 
ing is not necessarily a model child. He may be devoid 
of natural activity, curiosity, desire for exploration, 
and ability to grow. 
It is a mistake to think that a child should drop his 
toy or stop his play the moment we call him or want 
him to do something else. The mind of the child at 
that moment may be in deep study of some problem. 
If we force him to stop, a precious experience or mental 
stimulus may be lost for ever. 
The idea of regularity which we have tried to im 
press on parents does not imply a ruthless interruption 
of a child’s activity. We must prepare for our regu- 
larity at long range, allowing ample time for adjust 
ment. If we wait until the last minute we should not 
be surprised if the child is not ready for us. 
It is not always easy for us to grasp the meaning 
of a child’s play or fancy, because we have become re- 
moved from the directness of a child’s ways and are in- 
volved in a web of conventions. 
To enter into our children’s lines 
of thought and emotion means that we grow young 
again. 
The Toy-Land of the Modern Child 
While we may deplore the fact that the simplicity of 
old has vanished from the toy-land of our modern 
children, there is some good reason for introducing into 
the consciousness of those who grow up in the world of 
to-day some of the elaborate contraptions which char- 
acterize the modern toy-shop. 
The times have changed. We are no longer living in 190 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
the world of yesterday, when we decorated our Christ- 
mas trees with real apples and gingerbread, and lit them 
up with wax-tapers. We are surrounded by mechani- 
cal wonders on all sides; so much so that we have ceased 
to wonder and that we take every new invention as a 
matter of course, using its advantages without often 
having the faintest idea of the wonderful giants of force 
which human ingenuity has chained for the betterment 
of human life. 
In this world, which is itself really a fairy-land, if 
we only knew it, our children need a different awaken- 
ing than their parents and grandparents did a genera- 
tion or two ago. 
The electric trains and aeroplanes of the toy-shops, 
the manifold mechanical toys, the various ingeniously 
constructed building toys which enable the boy to erect 
complicated structures in imitation of actual buildings, 
bridges, machines—all these fulfil a very special mis- 
sion in the modern world. They are the toy counter- 
parts of that school instruction in science which ought 
to be given every modern boy and girl, so that they 
may understand the new life of their race. 
These toys will introduce them into the wonders of 
science. They will give them practical and joyful op- 
portunity of learning by doing, of mastering the myster- 
ies of electricity and magnetism, of steam and light and 
heat and of all the elemental powers in their own play- 
ful sport. Thus they will be initiated into the com- 
panionship of the knowers, of the sages, whose high- 
est wisdom consists in the appreciation of man’s re- 
lationship to the divine powers that rule the universe. 
Still, some educators have struck a warning note ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
191 
against too much perfection in toys. This protest has 
some justification; a plaything that leaves nothing to 
the imagination is not a real plaything. The little girl 
will leave her beautiful talking and walking doll and 
go back to some ancient ragged friend. The boy will 
soon tire of his marvelous mechanical toys and play with 
old pieces of wood and rusty nails, and run an old pipe 
along the road as if it were a train while his electric 
train lies forgotten. A child must have the oppor- 
tunity of creating his own playthings, of endowing with 
life the lifeless thing, of changing the drab reality of 
his environment, through the magic power of his imagi- 
nation, into a thing of beauty, into the scintillating 
glory of fairy-land. 
Children are Born Actors 
Children are born actors. In their dramatic fancy, 
which they are not always able or willing to distinguish 
from actualities, they may appear to be lying and per- 
forming, and are often condemned as liars and deceivers. 
But, if parents will enter into the dramatic world of 
their children with intelligence and sympathy, it would 
help much toward a safer development of the young 
souls. 
They play at being other people, act like them, talk 
like them, and make believe they experince what those 
others experience. They do not only love to ‘ * dress up ’ ’ 
like other people, but they assume their names, their 
manner of speech, their modes of conduct. It is more 
than a mere funny disguise when the little boy puts 
on his father’s hat and big coat and struts around with a 
stick of wood in his mouth, pretending to smoke, or 192 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
when the little girl will trip herself up wearing the 
long skirt of her mother. 
Never laugh at these antics in a discouraging manner. 
To the children these games are very serious and serve 
a very serious purpose; they are an attempt to gain 
all the experience they can from the world about them. 
If adults see their own conduct caricatured, more or 
less grotesquely, by the child, let them beware of ridi- 
cule. They would not only spoil, perchance, the child’s 
process of self-realization but miss a valuable lesson 
for themselves. 
It is, however, not merely human experiences which 
children explore. The very young child will imitate 
his pet animals, playing he is a dog, or a cat, or a horse, 
walking on all fours, barking, meowing, neighing, pick- 
ing up food with his mouth, pulling a wagon. 
The child will even assume the “personality” of life- 
less things. He will be a chair, a table, an engine, a 
train, endowing these inanimate objects with life. This 
is an expression of the personifying instinct which has 
led to many religious forms and beliefs, notably in the 
pagan forms of nature-worship and in fetishism. 
All this is an exploration of possibilities to the child. 
It widens his mental horizon. It gives him experience. 
It enlarges his own personality by endowing it with 
the feeling for other personalities, and by the recog- 
nition of individual differences. 
Imaginary Playmates 
One form in which the dramatic instinct appears in 
young children is that of creating for themselves imagi- 
nary companies. In children who play much alone, ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
193 
or who have a particularly strong imagination, this 
tendency of surrounding themselves with non-existing 
playmates may persist into the adolescent period. 
The child will be found to speak apparently to the 
air or to the wall, and parents may fear he is out of 
his mind. In reality he has created for himself a com- 
panion, a playmate, out of his own fancy. He speaks to 
him, attributes to him an imaginary personality, an 
imaginary space into which he himself cannot step. 
He may warn you not to walk to a certain place because 
his playmate is standing there. 
He calls this creature of his fancy by name and en- 
dows him with qualities which he either admires in a 
playmate or would like a playmate to possess or which 
he dislikes, thus giving himself an opportunity to punish 
imagined offenses in his childish, cruel way when he 
could not do that to a real playmate. 
This game does not remain a single incident. Often- 
times the child creates for himself distinctly defined 
images which accompany him through many days, even 
weeks and months of his life. He may develop a regu- 
lar life story, dramatically, in this manner. 
In some cases the imaginary companion is the child’s 
own other self. That is to say, the child splits his or 
her personality in two, perhaps into the good and the 
bad Paul or Mary; then will have conversational argu- 
ments with himself or herself. 
These arguments frequently help the child to clear 
his thoughts and to set himself right with his surround- 
ings. Or the child merely pretends he is two people 
instead of one, the idea of two in one, of a double per- 
sonality, dimly pervading his consciousness. 194 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
These performances have their great significances in 
the evolution of the child’s individual personality. To 
interfere rudely with such vivid mental projections 
would be unwise; to ridicule them, more so. 
Parents should study these phenomena of mental de- 
velopment most carefully. They will reveal many 
otherwise hidden emotions of the child’s longings, dis- 
appointments, resentments, loves, even hates. 
There is also a danger side to these fancies. If they 
persist too long, or become too passionately vivid and ex- 
citing, they must be counterbalanced by careful meas- 
ures so that they may not degenerate into mental dis- 
turbances. This checking cannot be accomplished by 
violence. Directing the child’s attention into other 
channels, giving him healthful and interesting exercise 
and play, will usually suffice. Otherwise a physician 
must be consulted. 
The Boy and the Spirit of Things 
There is a Japanese tale of a little boy who was very 
wise. He seldom played with other boys, for he had 
playmates of his own whom nobody else could see. He 
talked to them and loved them better than all the chil- 
dren he knew. “My friends are the spirits of things,” 
he explained. “I cannot tell you what they say, but 
the spirit of the pine-tree whispers to me the things 
which the spirit of the north wind tells to him. The 
birds and blossoms speak to me of the world’s beauty; 
even the common things have spirits, and they tell me 
many things.” He told his father one day that the 
spirit of an ax, which his grandfather had used but 
which his father had thrown away, was grieving and ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
195 
angry for having been so neglected and ill-treated. The 
boy grew up to be a man, and he was very wise, for the 
spirits of things spoke to him and told him many things 
that were hidden from other men. 
There are strange children among us to whom the 
spirits of things are speaking. They are not like other 
children, but will commune with nature in all her 
forms, often in silence and in solitude. They will not 
easily romp with playmates but have playmates in their 
fancy; and the flowers and the clouds and the stars and 
the insects crawling on the ground or the birds flying 
in the air speak to them their various languages, but 
even the common things are not dead to them. They 
see meanings and beauty in the objects they handle, in 
the polish of a china-closet, in the curve of a vase, or 
the cutting edge of an ax. Everything to them is alive 
and has its message. 
Of such stuff our dreamers are made, those who see 
what we do not see and hear what we do not hear, the 
poets, the singers, the prophets, the seers, the philoso- 
phers, the scientists, the inventors, the leaders of men in 
thought and spirit. 
Some may lose themselves and their souls in these 
dreams and never find the firm ground on which their 
feet may stand while their heads are in the clouds. 
Others will tell what the spirits of things confide to 
them, so that their neighbors may hear if they will, and 
they will tell it to us in their own way, with words that 
stir, or burn, or stimulate. Still others will rise above 
their fellows, urged on by the spirits that speak to them 
only, and lead the world to higher planes of culture; 
they will be not merely dreamers but grow to be doers 196 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
of great things. But the dream always comes first. 
These children with whom the spirits of things com- 
mune are like sensitive plants. They need much love 
and forbearance, and most of all understanding. 
When the Child is Absorbed 
The very keynote of human success is the faculty to 
concentrate, to be so absorbed in a vital problem that 
everything else is shut out from consciousness. He who 
cannot so concentrate, who cannot focus his attention 
upon the problem in hand, so as to rally all his mental 
forces in its solution, is likely to make a fizzle of his 
life. 
The mother’s call may remain unheeded by the child 
without his giving any suspicion of deafness or hardness 
of hearing. Neither may the child be disobedient or 
sullen. He may be simply absorbed. His attention 
may be so concentrated on something else that the world 
about him has ceased to exist as far as his consciousness 
is concerned. 
He may be reading a book that fascinates him. He 
may be playing with his mate in a boisterous game out- 
doors which absorbs all his attention and on which he has 
focused all his powers. may be playing some im- 
aginative, make-believe game of his own in the nursery, 
which shuts out completely the world of reality for him. 
The little girl may be at the moment of her mother’s 
call the devoted mother of a little doll baby, telling it 
stories or putting it to sleep. Or there may be some 
grand experiment in physics or chemistry going on in 
the juvenile laboratory in the attic: the newly erected 
wireless telegraph may just then be receiving its first ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
197 
message, or the chemical reaction for which the young 
experimenter has been working during hours of effort 
may be just taking place. At any rate, the child is so 
wrapped up in what he is doing that he does not hear 
the mother’s call. Or, if he hears it in a semiconscious 
sort of way, he has a painful sensation and feels a strong 
desire to ignore it. He feels he has a right to be unin- 
terrupted at that moment. And he surely has that 
right. Each child has to win his own kingdom. In 
fact, he has to conquer many a kingdom before he can 
be the sovereign master of himself: the kingdom of 
nature, the kingdom of knowledge, the kingdom of hu- 
man efficiency and service, the kingdom of wisdom and 
kindliness, the kingdom of his own soul. That means 
much concentration in successive stages of conquest. 
He can gain strength only by his own efforts. 
In calling a child to mind the business we have in 
store for him, let us be careful not to interfere with his 
own business. 
Games and the Social Instinct 
The social instinct arises in a young child’s desire to 
have playmates. Not only does he crave companionship, 
but there are games which he can enjoy better when 
another child enters into them, and still others which he 
cannot play at all without becoming a member of a 
group. 
As soon as he becomes one of two or more,—at home, 
with brothers and sisters, or in school, or in the street, 
—the socializing process begins, and it will curb his 
original self-centeredness and selfishness. Play becomes 
a matter of give and take. The child will have to share 198 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
his precious possessions and give up many of what he 
formerly considered his rights. He will have to toler- 
ate other persons, often with tastes and habits quite 
different from his own. He will have to merge into the 
group to accomplish group results, as in marching, line 
formation, circle games, and the like. 
This is the time when the child should be allowed to 
enter, away from his home, into a larger circle, as the 
kindergarten, wThere he may meet his peers and take his 
first step into the social life about him. 
The spontaneous desire of the child to imitate adult 
institutions and occupations has led to the introduction 
of such games as that of the carpenter, the shoemaker, 
etc. There are also nature games and songs, illustrating 
bird life, the seasons, and a variety of other things. He 
will enjoy all of these immensely and glory in repre- 
senting the various occupations, animals and plants. 
But the main function of these games is this, that they 
awaken in the child the consciousness of the social group, 
of his responsibilities toward others, of team-work, of 
fair play. 
Expert Direction of Children’s Play 
To preserve and prolong the precious years of forma- 
tive childhood, children must be won over anew to doing 
childlike things in the right spirit. They must relearn 
the lost art of play before the play interest is absorbed 
in competitive sport. 
Even story-telling, that fascinating thing which has 
kept the children of all ages spellbound, has lost its 
force. Few are the mothers or fathers or grandmothers 
who have and take the time to tell the old stories to their ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
199 
youngsters. So story-telling has been developed into a 
professional art and is dispensed by itinerant experts. 
And yet who can measure the vast influence a story and 
the way it is told have upon the forming mind and 
character of a growing child ? All these precious oppor- 
tunities must be saved; and, if the parent cannot under 
present circumstances give the old-time attention to 
these educational necessities, they ought to be supplied 
in some systematic manner by the school authorities. 
Likewise, the play of the child whose play activities 
are curtailed through the conditions under which he lives 
—and few children have their full swing in that direc- 
tion nowadays—should be systematically encouraged 
and developed. Some cities have provided public play- 
grounds under expert leadership. These, however, are 
largely devoted to gymnastic exercises and games, 
swimming and wading pools, with occasional additions 
of sand-piles, swings, etc. All this is very welcome. 
But play conditions must have a much wider scope and 
include all of the child’s play activities, even make- 
believe play, dramatics, doll’s play, manual expression 
in its various forms, romps and chasing games, etc. 
What is now in a measure left to the Boy Scout and 
Camp-Fire Girl movements should be made the common 
opportunity of all. The school grounds should be so de- 
veloped that they will be available for much of this 
activity during and outside of school hours. Play can 
be organically coordinated with the school work itself. 
And there should be a systematic connection also with 
the home life of the children. Just as we now have, in 
cooperation with health departments and medical school 
inspection, the organized service of district nurses, we 200 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
may some day hope to have district play teachers who 
will connect the educational effort of the parents with 
that of the school. 
Choosing Children’s Books 
Both book-stores and department-stores, even toy- 
stores of limited stock, abound in book offerings. But 
the choice of books is by no means easy. 
A good book is mental food to the child; a bad book 
is poison. An indifferent or inane book is as sawdust 
mixed with the wheat from which the child’s bread is 
baked, a load to mental digestion. 
The child wants live books, of course. He is not 
looking for moral precepts or dry-as-dust information. 
The studious child will want such books as will teach 
him things in which he is interested, but even he will 
prefer the subject-matter presented in a form which 
appeals to his fancy. There are children, wholesome 
ones, and fortunately a good many of them, who love a 
book which inspires them to noble thoughts and noble 
deeds. 
Whatever the ultimate purpose of a good book may be, 
—information, inspiration, elevation,—it must not fling 
its lesson right into the child’s face. We know that it 
is not what we preach but what we live which impresses 
a child most wholesomely. The lessons of goodness and 
uprightness, of devotion and study, of perseverance and 
scholarship and what not, are best taught, as far as books 
are concerned, by the life stories of our great men and 
women, of the examples they have set, of the things they 
have accomplished, of the service they have rendered. 
These life stories must not be told in a sanctimonious ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
201 
manner, or with overdrawn unction and preachiness, 
but as naturally as possible. They must be told as life 
adventures so that they may hold the attention of the 
young reader, and the “lesson” part should be mainly 
incidental. We can trust our children to draw their 
own inferences. Too many of us forget that our chil- 
dren, just as they grow teeth to masticate their food at 
an early age, have the power of masticating their mental 
nourishment quite well; they do not need mental pap 
or predigested book-stuff. We shall only ruin their 
mental digestion if we fail to give them books which 
require their full power of assimilation. 
Story-Books 
The child is hungry for stories; he can hardly hear 
or read enough of them. His first stories come to him 
through the medium of speech; they are told, not read. 
There is a never-ending fascination to a child in the 
announcement: Now I will tell you a story. He can 
sit still for hours at a time—much longer than he would 
under other circumstances—listening to the teller of 
stories. 
The young child lives the life of the oral age of man. 
He wants the story-teller. The story must be epic, full 
of action, of adventure, of strange and wonderful hap- 
penings. These stories form his first ideals of life and 
life’s tasks. He or she who tells these first stories has 
a power of molding the. child’s, mental attitude of which 
few are fully aware. 
Likewise the books the child will read, as they will 
continue the work of the story-teller and mold the 
growing child’s budding aspirations, have a peculiar 202 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
significance. It is stories he wants, stories of men, of 
course, but also stories of animal life, of the forests and 
mountains, of storms and seas. All nature is to the 
young mind a big story-book. The life of nature in- 
terests the child only in its epic aspect, as a world where 
things are doing all the time. 
So, in selecting books for our children, this element 
of action must be considered. Even the finer develop- 
ments of the soul life, when a child begins to take notice 
of them, will have to be presented in their active ex- 
pressions rather than in their psychologic aspect in 
order to be appreciated by the child. 
Pictures 
The picture-book is the first book of a child. There 
may be nothing else in the book, just pictures. Indeed, 
the pictures need not be bound in books at all but may 
be in loose sheets. And some of the first conversations 
and story-tellings by the fireside of the home will be 
with the medium of picture-books. The child, even, 
will tell his first stories about pictures; they will develop 
his power of discernment and differentiation of single 
elements in a picture composition, his grasp of the situ- 
ation represented by the picture and of the story element 
which it suggests. Sometimes there are series of single 
pictures which, in their completeness, tell a story which 
is divided into single picture chapters, as it were. 
The first words may be introduced by printing the 
names of the animals or things represented on the 
pictures. This reading-matter may be increased. Grad- 
ually we shall have a real reader, but always with the ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
203 
picture element very much in evidence. Indeed, few 
children’s books can do without pictures at any time. 
Is n’t it true that we grown-ups look for the picture, the 
illustration of a story or a magazine article, first? It 
gives us the key to the situation. Likewise, in much 
greater degree, does the child depend upon the picture. 
And one of the methods to prove that a child has grasped 
what he has read is to induce him to illustrate the story 
by a drawing of his own construction. 
Much has been said and written about the quality of 
pictures for the young. Of course, it is well to surround 
a child from the start with true art productions. That, 
however, does not mean that his pictures must be of the 
kind that will grace an art museum. They must be well 
drawn and true, but may be simple and even crude. It 
is best if they are colored, and we may remember that 
the color sense develops slowly in a child; he needs 
strong colors and few at first. His sense of perspective 
is not keen, and the composition must be free from com- 
plexity, so that' the composing elements can be easily 
discriminated. There should be no coarseness, but there 
need be no fear of hurting his feelings by portraying 
primitive occurrences in realistic manner. The child’s 
sense of the ludicrous must also be satisfied. 
And the pictures must portray action. More than 
that, they must represent the main features of a story. 
Too often, when the illustration of a book is left to the 
fancy of an artist, he will select some minor situation 
which appeals to his own personality but does not satisfy 
the interest of the child. All illustrating must be done 
in a strictly educational sense. 204 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Color and Good Taste 
Children love color. A colored picture impresses 
them much more pleasantly than one in black and white. 
They love colored things of all kinds, in their dress, in 
their toys; the more vivid the color the better; blended 
effects are hardly perceived by them. 
It is most probable that the child’s eye develops the 
power of distinguishing color slowly, through the proc- 
ess of physiological evolution. It is well to help him in 
this process by giving him ample opportunity for seeing, 
naming and using color, with paints, tinted papers, and 
the like. This attention is helpful also for this reason, 
that not all children develop the color sense alike; some 
remain ‘ ‘ color-blind. ’ ’ 
But the training of the child’s color sense has another 
aspect. While there are natural differences of concep- 
tions of color combinations among individuals, the color 
sense of all can be educated just like any other faculty 
of the child. 
This can be done by studying good pictures and 
models, by introducing the child to the science of color 
contrasts and harmonies and to the art of pleasing color 
combinations. The result of such an education will be 
good taste in color. 
Tact and How it is Acquired 
Tact is good taste translated into rules of conduct. 
It is the sense of fitness and proportion applied to our 
relations with other men. 
A tactless child is a thousand times worse than a rude 
or boisterous child. For even rudeness in a child may 
be but a momentary forgetfulness, or a crude expression ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
205 
of a legitimate emotion. But tactlessness indicates lack 
of feeling. Its roots are deeper. 
Tact implies that we know our own limitations. It 
is the result of a realization that we are quite far 
from perfection and have much to learn. It shows 
that we respect in the other fellow a common human 
nature, and understand the covenant of human fellow- 
ship. 
Lack of tact is the outward manifestation of in- 
grained selfishness and self-aggrandizement. It is a 
stepping in front of everybody else without consider- 
ation of the other fellow’s rights. 
Under the pretext of being frank the tactless person 
will say and do the most unkind and untimely things. 
He will be unreserved to the degree of being brutal. 
Tactlessly frank persons will certainly dwell with delight 
on a fellow’s faults and overlook the good. They will 
be destructive in their criticism, not constructive, help- 
ful, and kind. 
Few things are more important for a child to learn 
than the lesson of tact. This lesson, well learned, will 
make him modest, respectful, kind, loving, and lovable. 
Politeness and Good Breeding 
There is an old rime which our children learn in 
school: 
Politeness is to do and say 
The kindest thing in the kindest way. 
Unless politeness is based upon true kindness to our 
neighbor, it is a hollow sham. True politeness is the 
form in which genuine consideration for others, for their 206 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
feelings and weaknesses, expresses itself. It implies 
thoughtfulness, presence of mind, understanding for 
another’s attitude and needs; it means putting oneself 
in another’s place. 
Of course, a young child cannot have a full under- 
standing of these requirements. Therefore, in training 
him, we may have to teach him the outward form before 
we can make him realize its meaning. Nevertheless, it is 
quite possible to give him an early clue to the significance 
of these forms of conduct. We must given him the ex- 
ample of kindliness in our own actions, in fact, in our 
relations with himself, respecting his own feelings every 
time, even when we have to teach him a bitter lesson, so 
that he may appreciate the loving intention behind our 
acts. When he begins to realize that there is good will 
toward him, he will, almost without voluntary effort, 
show his good will in return. A child responds in this 
regard like house plants do, which grow so much better 
for those who love them than for those who just water 
them as a matter of routine. 
With a child whose training has been for kindly con- 
sideration of others, politeness will not be a ceremonial. 
It will be the expression of his desire to make others 
feel happy, at ease, safe, and respected. Then the in- 
credible crudenesses of every-day life, in the streets of 
our cities, in the public conveyances, in the shops and 
offices,—the rude disregard of others’ rights and just 
claims, the brutal self-assertion which marks the conduct 
of the selfish person,—will cease to offend us. Good 
breeding in the best sense is based upon the maxim of 
“good will to men.’’ ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
207 
A Course in Manners 
The teachers’ council of an Eastern metropolis has 
recently considered a recommendation to introduce into 
the schools of the city a course in manners. Twenty 
minutes a week, it is said, might be devoted by the 
teachers to a talk to the pupils on this subject. The 
course should be graded to suit the age and under- 
standing of the pupils. The recommendation was partly 
based upon actual experience with such a course which, 
it was said, had worked wonders among a small group 
of children, the results being in some instances almost 
phenomenal. The necessity for such instruction was 
very apparent, one speaker said, to any one who travels 
in the subways in the morning hours. 
If an experience in teaching “manners” in school by 
a twenty-minute talk each week has had the phenomenal 
result reported by the school principal quoted, it would 
show that a great deal of the unmannered conduct of so 
many of our children (and grown-ups) must be due to 
plain ignorance and thoughtlessness. When once the 
attention of the reckless urchin is called to the danger, 
inconvenience, or discomfort he produces by his lack of 
consideration; if he is taught to think before he acts; if 
the relation of cause and effect are explained to him, he 
will, in many instances, mend his ways. If it were 
otherwise, we might despair of human nature. A child 
or grown-up who does not respond to judicious teaching 
of this kind is clearly deficient in common sense and 
human emotion and needs to be under control, or he may 
be the victim of vicious influences which must be traced 
and eliminated. 208 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
After all, “manners” are only the outward manifes- 
tation of a social attitude which has its mainsprings in 
character. And the “teaching” of manners is not 
merely a matter of a twenty-minute lecture or discussion, 
but of example. 
But the sad thing that comes to our mind in this 
discussion of teaching manners at school is this: why 
should it be necessary to make this teaching a school 
lesson at all? Why is it that manners are not taught 
at home where there is the daily opportunity, at all 
hours, under the most varied circumstances, while the 
school has only a limited field? The discussion in the 
teachers’ council really means a very serious appeal to 
the parents of the school children whose influence should 
be such that school lessons in manners would be super- 
fluous. 
L’Enfant Terrible 
Wliat is an enfant terrible? 
Is he a “terrible child”? Often enough the em- 
barrassed or outraged mother will call him so when he 
makes one of his unvarnished and uncompromising ut- 
terances. But he is not a terrible child at all. He is 
the theme of many an ill-advised joke in the funny 
papers. But he is not funny. He is a perfectly natural 
child. He speaks as he feels; he tells what he sees or 
thinks he sees. He is not aware of social conventions. 
He cannot understand why his mother or father tells con- 
ventional lies, or why he should be made to tell them. 
A woman who wanted to avoid seeing an unwelcome 
visitor instructed her little girl to tell the woman, whom 
the mother had just seen walking up the stoop, that she ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
209 
was not at home. Wonderingly, the child did as she 
was bidden. When the visitor had expressed her regret 
at not finding the mother in, she asked when she would 
be home again, as she might call later. The child, in 
her innocence, called up the stairs: “Mother, when 
will you be back?” There was consternation on both 
sides, and the little girl immediately ranked as an enfant 
terrible. Can we wonder why she did not understand 
her mother’s scolding? 
Uncle, much beloved by his many nieces and nephews, 
was once put out of countenance by the question of one 
of his little men who had been trying to study out the 
reason why uncle, bald-headed as he was, had such a full 
beard. “Oh, I know now,” he said, “your hair slid 
down from your head to your chin.” The mother chid 
the child for being so rude as to call attention to uncle’s 
“soft spot,” but what would have been an indelicacy in 
an adult was here the simple reasoning of a child who 
was a seeker after cause and effect. 
Dr. X., a famous but also expensive attorney, called 
at the house of one of his clients. The little son of the 
family was observed to hide himself away from the dis- 
tinguished caller. The lawyer, who really liked children, 
endeavored to win the confidence of the child and asked 
him why he did not come to him and shake hands. 
“I am afraid of you,” stammered the boy. 
“But why?” asked the gentleman in astonishment. 
“Do I look so frightful?” 
‘ ‘ No, ’ ’ answered the little man,1 ‘ but you are a doctor, 
and papa said only this morning that you skin the 
people.” 
If a child annoys in this manner, or blurts out things 210 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
which would have better remained unsaid, the parents 
are mostly to blame. If they do not want him to reveal 
family secrets or to repeat unpleasant remarks, they 
should avoid discussing them before the children, or 
making remarks before them which do not bear the light. 
The enfant terrible is often enough but a mirror in 
which his parents may see their own images. 
A home in which there dwell truth and good will, peace 
and sympathy, will never need to fear the indiscretions 
of an enfant terrible. 
If parents are wise they will heed the lesson. But 
the poor child is often punished for his innocent word 
or act; he is punished for the sins -of his elders. 
The Middle of the Road 
Some years ago I attended “commencement” exercises 
in a rural school. Among other numbers on the program 
there was a chorus, ‘ ‘ Keep to the Middle of the Road! ’ ’ 
The rest of the words I have forgotten, but the burden 
of it is still ringing in my ears. 
There was a lesson which the teacher had tried to 
impress upon the minds of her pupils. The middle 
course—keep to the middle course! 
This lesson has a helpful side. It may be interpreted 
as meaning that the child should learn early to be 
careful in his judgment and his actions, not to plunge 
blindly into one-sided prejudice. It is only from the 
middle of the road that we can contemplate with safety 
and clearness the two sides and the general environment; 
it is always a little higher than the sides. The traffic 
officer has his stand there. The lesson implies a warning ENDLESS CHAIN OE HOME PROBLEMS 
211 
against partiality. There is always a safe middle ground 
to which we can retire when we are confused about an 
issue. So far, it seems a good thing to impress this 
caution upon the young child as a guiding principle in 
life. 
But do we really wish to counsel our children to keep 
to the middle of the road, to stay there for ever? 
Keeping to the middle ground in our actions involves 
much danger. To teach our children that this is the 
“safest” way is to teach them indecision, hesitation of 
judgment, cowardice in forming convictions, and un- 
willingness to follow the promptings of their conscience 
and their courage. 
Certainly there are “two sides to everything,” and 
we may learn early not to judge hastily but to weigh 
seriously the pros and cons. But, after all, there is, in 
the final decision, only one side which is the right side, 
at least as far as human intelligence and prudence can 
see the right and judge about the right. Truly what 
seems right to one may not seem right to another. 
There are things in which the individual temperament, 
the individual need, decides. Our children must learn 
early not to be prejudiced in defending their own side, 
their own convictions and course of action. They must 
learn tolerance, to form their own judgment and to 
defend it bravely, unhesitatingly, even at the risk of 
unpopularity, of defeat, of suffering. The big things 
in history have not been done in “the middle of the 
road” but by taking boldly to the right side. If each 
individual will keep to what is right to him, there will 
be fewer clashes and fewer disasters: for the real right 212 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
side is also invariably the side of justice, of human love 
and tolerance, of mutual recognition and brotherly co- 
operation. 
Self-Help 
A girl of eight was brought to me for reeducation. 
She was one of the most helpless creatures I had seen. 
She was by no means a child without brains, or sense. 
In fact, she was a very ordinary child. She had been 
somewhat sickly in infancy but had long ago recovered 
and was healthy at the time she came to me. During 
her illness the parents and nurses had done all they 
could for the child, and, as it was just at that period 
when a child has to learn the simple fundamental ac- 
tivities of self-help, she was considerably spoiled, so 
much so that even when she was perfectly able to take 
care of herself she refused to do so. She insisted upon 
having herself dressed, washed, fed, etc., without mov- 
ing a finger herself; and, when her demands were not 
complied with, she screamed. Her parents were actu- 
ally afraid of her, thought she was really in need of 
help, or still too weak to put on her clothes or button 
her shoes or perform whatever the task might be, and 
so they gave in to her every time. 
The child’s conduct became so unbearable that they 
asked for help. It was not an easy task to strike bottom 
in the child’s consciousness. She tried the same tricks, 
screaming at the top of her voice and keeping it up 
for hours, when she found we would not follow the ex- 
ample of her parents. But, as soon as it was ascer- 
tained that there was no earthly reason why she should 
not learn to do for herself, she was consistently treated as ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
213 
a child of her age perfectly capable of doing without 
being waited upon. Persistent treatment of this kind, 
not unfriendly but firm and unrelenting, brought her 
about in a few weeks, and she finally took great pride 
in doing everything for herself. 
This is an extreme example. But all our children 
are bom into a world in which there are so many con- 
veniences that they are relieved of much self-help. Our 
modern conveniences have made our children’s way a 
very easy one. 
They are so thoroughly surrounded by mechanical 
helps, not to speak of others, that they have very hazy 
conceptions of the inwardness of the life they live. They 
lose contact with the realities of human necessities, of 
human life conditions, and in that way lose many of 
the incentives for self-activity. 
In our educational efforts we must try to lead them 
back to first principles. They must be brought face 
to face with primitive needs. They must be prepared 
for exigencies which would force them to rely upon 
their own resources and their own ingenuity in place 
of the conveniences with which they are surrounded. 
They must reconstruct the process of human civiliza- 
tion in their own practical experience. They must 
learn to make a fire without matches, to find and pre- 
pare their food without turning to the nearest grocery 
or meat-shop, to sleep soundly without mattress and 
pillow, to make their own beds, mend their own clothes, 
perchance to discover how to make some for themselves, 
etc. 
In other words, they must learn what it means to de- 
pend entirely upon themselves, wherever they are, and 214 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
however deprived of ordinary comforts and even tools 
they may find themselves. 
This is the advantage of camping trips, of the Boy 
Scout movement, of the Camp-Fire Girl organization, 
etc. But every boy and every girl, through their home 
education, should learn these things, as it is not every 
child’s opportunity to enjoy the special privileges which 
these organizations offer. 
Education for Action 
It is the privilege of adults to request counsel, to 
listen to it, and not to follow it. But when a child does 
not immediately follow a bit of counsel volunteered by 
the parent, yet not asked by the child, the parent feels 
aggrieved. He overlooks the fact that words do not edu- 
cate. The child, like the adult, learns by experience. 
The child has no power to think ahead, and is thus 
even less benefited by advice than his parent. 
It is our function to let the children learn by ex- 
perience, providing for them opportunities to do things, 
rather than have things talked about. This will not 
only give them the consciousness of actual facts and 
truths, and a sense of their own power to accomplish, 
but it will make them doers instead of talkers. It is 
conduct that counts. Conduct is life. 
One of the most unfortunate practices of educators 
is to deprive children of opportunities of doing things 
for themselves. In the desire to make things easier 
for their children, to “protect” them, they make life 
harder for them in the end. A parent will wash his 
child’s face, or dress him, or even brush his teeth, tie 
his shoe-laces, when the child is old enough to do all ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
215 
these things himself. Nurses may have to accompany 
the child to the park or on visits to other children, or 
the parent himself or herself will do it, always in the 
fear that something might happen to the child if not 
safeguarded. Of course, under certain circumstances 
much safeguarding is necessary. But the tendency must 
be to free the child as soon as possible of this guardian- 
ship, so that he may learn to trust his own caution. 
Perhaps the child does meet with accidents and un- 
pleasantness: that is his share of the world’s experi- 
ence. We cannot protect him from everything. And 
the less he relies upon others, the more he learns to 
rely upon himself, the better for his success in life. He 
can become an independent personality, a power in 
his own right, only by being allowed to learn his own 
lesSons. 
Another substitute for self-thinking which is only 
too often given to children is books. A parent glories 
in a child’s absorption in reading. Such a child is 
readily called a studious, promising, intelligent child. 
He may be nothing but a bookworm, a devourer of 
words without thoughts, an anemic, bloodless brooder 
or sentimentalist, evaporating his substance in dreams 
without action. The books tell him “everything”; he 
is satisfied with what others have experienced, be it in 
romance, or in science, or in philosophy. He may be- 
come a hero-worshiper when he might have become a 
hero himself. Such a child should be snatched away 
from his world of words and fine phrases. He should 
be sent into the current of life experiences, in field and 
forest, on playground and in the workshop. If he 
does not learn to “rough it” while his growing mind 216 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
and body are shaping his destiny, life will take him in 
hand later and treat him roughly enough. A leader in 
thought must be a leader in deed; or else his thought 
will be as untrue and illusory as his life will be a fail- 
ure. 
Self-Education 
This is a paragraph from Jean Paul Richter’s writ- 
ings: 
Every man has two educations—that which is given him 
and that which he gives himself. Of the two, the latter is by 
far the more valuable. Indeed, all that is most worthy in a 
man, he must work out for himself. It is that which con- 
stitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely 
taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach 
ourselves. 
No one who reads this, if he thinks it over carefully, 
will deny the truth and wisdom of these words. 
But, if it is the truth, why do we need teachers of 
children at all? Why is there any parental function? 
There are a few children, mostly of low mental capac- 
ity, who delight in being taught, in being given things to 
do and to learn. To most real children, set tasks and 
forced school labor are burdens which must be borne 
but which are foremost among the hard tasks of life. 
They will go through the routine of school and home 
life, more or less conforming. Yet their real joy will 
be in their self-active play. The routine work is done 
by them in a routine way, so as to get through with it; 
following their own impulses, they will be eagerly and 
untiringly active and joyful, creative and progressive. ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
217 
We teach children too many things in which they 
have no earthly interest. We do not follow, either at 
home or in school, their natural interests. We try to 
“teach” them instead of helping them to grow. The 
growing itself, physically as well as mentally, the chil- 
dren have to do for themselves. We can give them 
nourishment, we can lead them, we can stand by them, 
we can assist them to find themselves. But they have 
to see with their own eyes, grasp with their own hands 
and minds, hear with their own ears, feel with their 
own hearts. What we as teachers and parents can do, 
and must do, is merely to place them in a position, as 
far as we can, where they can work out their own salva-< 
tion. 
Encouragement 
A prominent educator wrote of a little girl of four, 
Susan, who was sweeping the room with her little broom, 
not very well, perhaps. Mother said, “Oh, Susan, you 
are in my way; and you don’t do it right, anyway.” 
What was the result? At four Susan enjoyed working 
for her mother. When she graduated from high school 
at eighteen she still had the power to work and to help, 
but she had lost the joy of service. Who robbed her 
of that elemental moral power? Mother did. 
I know a little girl of four and a half. She loves not 
only to sweep but to help in all kinds of housework, 
dusting, putting things in order, washing clothes and 
dishes. Her standard of accuracy and perfection is 
not high, and she often delays the work by her assiduity. 
Some of it has to be done over again by mother after- 
ward when Betty does not see it. Yet it happens often 218 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
enough that she even invited the “finishing’' of the 
work by her mother, whose patience and wisdom had 
encouraged the little child in her good intentions and 
practice, never correcting her. The child became aware 
of her own shortcomings without bitterness or disap- 
pointment, and had learned the first great lesson of 
the world’s work: willingness to cooperate for the pro- 
duction of the perfect service. 
It is by allowing, by inviting, the children to live 
closely with us, and by our living with them in com- 
munion of effort, that we can give them our best, and 
that we can develop the best that is in them. 
Children must learn from the start that there is joy 
in work, that work is not a dreary task. They have 
naturally the instinct of occupation, of testing their 
powers of accomplishment. They are driven from their 
paradise of childhood by thoughtless parents who have 
given themselves over to the dreary sense of drudgery, 
and who convert a child’s natural instincts into resent- 
ments. 
The unwilling child is the doomed child. The child 
will not shirk the most arduous task if he can measure 
his powers of conquest by overcoming its difficulties. 
Accomplishment will then be to him the heaven of bliss. 
When degraded into a drudge, accomplishment will mean 
nothing more to him than the getting rid of one enemy 
to be ready to face another. 
Whimsicalities of Children 
Some children will turn day into night and night 
into day. They will sleep while the sun is up and 
everybody is busy, and will want the attention of their ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
219 
elders during the dark hours of night when everybody 
longs for rest. 
I remember a little girl of two who did just that. 
She would lie awake nights, teasing her father to play 
with her; and when he was ready to go to his office 
in the morning she would peacefully go to sleep. It so 
happened that a little brother was born into the family 
so that she simply could not have the attention she 
craved nights. After a few nights of the new experi- 
ence and some futile rebellion on her part, she sweetly 
went to sleep and never again turned her little world 
upside down. 
Firmness on the parent’s part will do wonders. But 
of course there are sometimes reasons for actual sleep- 
lessness. There may be indigestion; there may be in- 
testinal worms; there may be some nervous disorder, 
or incipient disease. It may be the result of fear of 
the dark, superinduced by injudicious stories. As a 
symptom, the child’s restlessness at night should be con- 
sidered. But when eventually, with the physician’s 
help, all real symptoms have been carefully studied and 
all real causes have been eliminated, the rest is merely 
a matter of habituation. 
Some of the strangest phenomena are those “ naughti- 
nesses” of children which camouflage quite a different 
sentiment. Suppose a child is obstreperous or noisy; 
immediately he draws his mother’s attention to him. 
She tries to cajole him, or to calm him, or to reason 
with him. But he really needs none of these things. 
While he seems quite unhappy and in distress, he is 
really enjoying himself,—although we may grant he is 
not altogether aware of his emotional mechanism. The 220 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
fact is, the child simply craved attention and care. He 
may have been an only child, and a little brother or 
sister had come into the family so that he no longer 
was the center of interest. Or he had been ill, with 
all the loving solicitude surrounding him which such a 
condition would call forth; now he is well again, and 
the solicitude ceases. Under such circumstances he 
feels like one forsaken; he misses the attention. To 
arouse attention, to become again the center of attrac- 
tion, he has recourse to such conduct as will concentrate 
the parent’s solicitude upon him, no matter in what 
form. 
Even a particular fondness for one or the other 
parent may masquerade under such disguises. He 
wants that parent’s companionship and solicitude, be- 
cause he cannot, or thinks he cannot, be without him or 
her. So he starts some kind of excitement or scene, 
or exposes himself to danger, gets into trouble of some 
kind, and is greatly pleased when the beloved parent is 
lured to sympathy, even carried away by anger at him. 
For all he wants is attention; he will endure the anger of 
an irate parent if he can only have him or her turn to 
him. 
Cases of this kind require a rather careful parental 
diagnosis and fine adjustments. They need not alarm. 
A pleasant word, a joke, some distraction, will break the 
tension and get the child back to normal. 
The Changing Affection of Children 
It is a sweet thing for mothers or fathers to have 
their little ones cuddle up to them, and love them, and 
make confidences to them about all their little inter- ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
221 
ests and secrets which seem so big to the young hearts. 
Oftentimes there is even a rivalry between father and 
mother as to whom the child loves more, and the foolish 
question is asked of the child, “Whom do you love best, 
daddy or mama?” 
Such a question only raises in the child the thought 
of a possible difference between kinds and measures of 
love, when his actions and feelings at this age are 
largely instinctive, impulsive, unthinking, unpremedi- 
tated, at the same time suggesting to him a self-impor- 
tance which he ought not to cherish. 
The child’s environment should be one harmonious, 
well blended communion of interests. Each element, 
will contribute its share to the formation of the budding 
mind and soul, and should be satisfied with that, with- 
out looking for individual returns in the coin of ar- 
fection. 
As a matter of common observation it may be stated 
that the child’s affection is a more or less shifting 
thing. Not that he will, if properly handled, lose his 
fundamental affection for those nearest and dearest to 
him; but the degree of attention will vary. 
A medical friend of mine tells me that his little daugh- 
ter, when she was in the early years of childhood, abso- 
lutely worshiped him and had little outward concern for 
her mother; all of a sudden, her attention concentrated 
on the mother, and the father was cast aside for the 
new ideal. This is perhaps a more or less extreme case, 
but developments like that are not infrequent. 
Children pass through many stages; different in- 
terests evolve out of the subconscious and come to the 
front in consciousness; and these interests and stages 222 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
have all their different demands. The persons of a 
child’s environment represent so many different influ- 
ences, formative elements, points of view, experimental 
opportunities, outlets for self-expression, etc., that it is 
natural that the child will now turn to one and then to 
another to find the satisfaction of his needs of the mo- 
ment. Some persons will for ever represent to the child 
a definite element of interest or need. 
I know a little girl of four, very fond, passionately so, 
of her mother and father, but who will turn away from 
them every time when she is ill or out of sorts, to seek 
comfort in the arms of a relative who is a physician 
and who had happened, from her babyhood up, to attend 
to her when she was ill. 
These outward signs of shifting affection do not indi- 
cate deeper changes in the child’s conscious and sub- 
conscious relations to his dear ones. They mean, as 
was said before, merely the satisfaction of immediate 
needs. 
Changing Personality 
How differently children impress their parents and 
teachers has become a matter of curious record. There 
was the case of a boy whose power of memory was re- 
ported very weak by one teacher and very strong by 
another. The former was a teacher of history, teach- 
ing in the old-fashioned way; the other, a teacher of 
natural science. In history, in the learning of dates 
and names, the boy was weak because he lacked the 
“mechanical” memory, as this type of memory is some- 
times called; but he could well remember, in a logical ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
223 
way, the sequence of experimental tests in laboratory 
work. 
In my testing of children I have found that some were 
weak in remembering a series of words or numerals, 
or even a story, while they surprised me by remember- 
ing a string of a dozen or more simultaneously given 
directions for doing things without making the slight- 
est break in sequence or execution. 
In teachers’ records, some children were called dull 
by one, only shy by another; a girl was “coarse” with 
one, having fine emotions with another; another shy in 
the presence of one, insolent with another. And so I 
might give a long list of apparent discrepancies in the 
valuation of a child’s personality. 
It is even more surprising to learn how different a 
child’s attitude may be at home and in school. It is 
instructive to compare the reports of parents with those 
of the teachers. Here are a few examples from my note- 
book: 
Child as reported from home Child in school 
Conscientious 
Brilliant 
Full of application 
Depraved (!) 
Passionate 
Careless 
Well meaning, but back- 
ward and rather dull 
Lacking application 
Very good and reliable 
Self-controlled 
It may seem difficult to reconcile such contradictory 
statements. Yet they indicate conditions which are 
well worth considering. 224 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
There is, of course, one outstanding reason for the 
misapprehension of a child’s personality and response: 
the lack of judgment and experience on the part of the 
observer who is really not an “observer” at all but 
“judges” from appearances. 
Again, there is the difference of environment which 
produces a difference in the child’s reaction and re- 
sponse. Where there is oppression, misunderstanding, 
coldness, be it at home or in school, the child will not 
show himself so much to his advantage as he will in an 
atmosphere of good will, appreciation, stimulation, love. 
Parents do not always understand their children 
rightly, despite their love for them. When the child 
comes in contact with the personalities of outsiders, 
teachers and principals of schools, the complication is 
sometimes worse. The teacher has one advantage: he 
has had pedagogical training and, coming in contact 
with many different children, is more objective than the 
parent. But are there not instances too numerous when 
pupil and teacher did not understand each other? 
When opposite natures are thrown together? Each 
teacher will judge a child from his or her own point 
of view, and from the angle of his or her branch of 
study; the truly generous and impartial judges are few. 
The personal equation plays a very great part in the 
“changing” personality of a child. 
Only by a close cooperation of home and school can 
these difficulties he brought under control and can the 
child find justice. 
Parental Self-Sufficiency 
As a rule, we are quite ready to take our children ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
225 
up for every little mistake, for breaking a dish or say- 
ing a swear-word or messing up things, forgetting or- 
ders, and so on. 
What kind of an example are we offering them ? Are 
we blameless? A child’s faults may be many. So are 
ours. If we are wise, we shall admit that. Over the 
gate of an ancient Greek temple, the words were carved: 
“Know thyself!” Burns says: 
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us 
To see ourselves as others see us! 
as our children see us for example. 
But we always pose as their moral preceptors. There 
is trouble if a child uses a slang word, or what is called 
“bad language.” Maybe the neighbor’s children will 
be blamed; but the possibility that the child merely had 
overheard us is often side-tracked. 
A little boy once asked his mother, “Mother, is it 
true that we cannot go to heaven if we tell a lie?” 
“Yes, indeed,” said the mother, quite unctuously. 
After a while, the boy asked again, ‘ ‘ Mother, did you 
ever tell a lie?” 
After a time of hesitation, the mother finally admitted 
faintly that she might have, when she was a little girl. 
Pondering again for a while, the boy at last spoke 
up and said, “Mama, do you think papa ever told a 
lie?” 
Mama became more embarrassed and haltingly an- 
swered that she did not know him when he was a little 
boy. The child, more and more puzzled, questioned 
her about her grandparents, his other relatives and 
friends, until mother became so exasperated that she 226 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
told him to—keep still. The boy, rather taken aback 
by his parent’s heat, was silent for a long while, but 
apparently thought deeply. 
At last he broke out, ‘ ‘ Mama, Mama, I do not want to 
go to heaven; I’d rather go to the other place!” 
“But, Tom!” cried the horrified mother, “what are 
you saying? How can you say such a thing??” 
“Well,” said Tom, “I ’ll tell you. It must be ter- 
ribly lonesome in heaven.” 
“But why?” asked the puzzled mother. 
“Why?” said the boy. “Well, you see, in heaven 
there is only God Father, God Son, the Holy Ghost, and 
—George Washington.” 
Filial Gratitude 
As a reward for their care and training, their many 
sacrifices and self-denials in the interest of their chil- 
dren, parents expect filial gratitude. 
But what have you given your children that your 
own parents have not given you? Are you sure that 
you, when a child, were always aware of a debt of grati- 
tude? Did not the realization of your parent’s devo- 
tion come to you only when you had children of your 
own and experienced the great care they involved? 
Children accept parental care as they accept the 
light of the sun, the breezes of the air, the water from 
the spring, the fragrance of the flowers, and the breath 
of the forest. It is their natural life condition. It 
is theirs without the asking, as their life itself became 
theirs without their asking. 
What you now give your child, this child will some ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
227 
day give his child. That is the course of events. Na- 
ture looks forward, not backward. 
True gratitude consists in the harvest of growth you 
reap in others in whom you have planted the seed. 
Only selfish people think of being thanked for every- 
thing they do, as if they expected interest on invested 
capital. 
The education of children is not a financial transac- 
tion in this sense. Children do represent human as- 
sets, created by you as parents, but your reward, your 
“interest,” consists in the human service they render 
when they emerge from your hands. 
As parents, our function is service. Service in the 
highest sense. Not that we are to stoop to become our 
children’s slaves, as so many parents demean themselves 
to become. Parental slaves produce human failures. 
Parental service must be directed toward making the 
children self-reliant, independent, not dependent upon 
the work of their parents for them. 
But does this imply that there should be no intimate 
relation of affection between parent and child? that 
the child should not cultivate a deep sense of apprecia- 
tion, respect, and even worship for his father and 
mother? Not at all. But this sense is to grow from 
within the child; it is not a “duty”; it cannot be 
forced into and upon a child. This relation must be 
established by you, and can be established by you only. 
Handle your children from the first day of their 
birth in such a manner that they feel you consider them 
precious things, things to love, to cherish, to respect. 
Respect their individual life, win their confidence, so 228 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
that they will look up to you, rely upon your judg- 
ment and counsel, while they know that you will not 
trespass upon their rights and special endowments. 
Why the Young Do Not Understand the Old 
Why is it that so often when our request or advice 
seems so very simple, plain, and evident to us, our chil- 
dren do not respond as we expect them to? Why is it 
that they cannot see what we see, and hear what we 
hear, and reason as we reason ? What appears so abso- 
lutely palpable to us is often lost entirely upon a child. 
One answer is that the child lives in the present only. 
He is preoccupied with every little interest and prob- 
lem as it comes to him. His faculty to grasp is still 
weak. What seems little to us is big to him. We have 
a past behind us and have learned to measure the 
future by the standard of the past. The child has no 
past, and the future is a dim beyond. He does not 
understand us. 
Indeed, he cannot understand us. For what does our 
past mean to us, which it cannot mean to him ? 
Our past involves a host of experiences, discoveries, 
illusions and disillusions, errors and corrections of 
errors, hopes and disappointments, realizations and fail- 
ures, impressions and actions, frank self-assertions and 
dissimulations, adaptations and adjustments, loves and 
hates, friendships and animosities, trials, sorrows, 
griefs, and a small measure of joys. Out of all this 
wealth of past feelings, desires, and activities has risen 
our present individuality, or rather our manner of re- 
acting upon the world about us. 
We do not, as the child does, see only one thing at a ENDLESS CHAIN OF HOME PROBLEMS 
229 
time. The images of a thousand other things are deeply 
engraved upon our soul and affect our judgment of 
what is before us. We do not hear only the one sound 
that strikes a child’s ear. As in the timbre of a musical 
instrument, there are overtones giving to our percep- 
tions a different harmony than the same perception 
gives to the child. There is for ever, in every experi- 
ence, a complex of old conceptions which enter into 
the new one, coloring it, giving it a different meaning. 
This the child cannot have. 
In fact, many of our old impressions have been lost 
to our own consciousness. They have sunk below the 
threshold of consciousness into the realm of the sub- 
conscious, the unconscious. Yet they strongly influ- 
ence our judgments and our actions, so that we often 
react in manners obscure and puzzling to ourselves. 
We act intuitively without conscious judgment and 
self-directed will. 
All this the child has not. He cannot have the com- 
posite judgment that we have. He does not see all we 
see. From our past, without effort, we judge the pres- 
ent and the future. The child cannot fathom what is 
in our mind, or understand our reasoning. At best, he 
can follow us blindly, from a habit of trustful obedi- 
ence which must be imparted from early infancy. 
We older people must resign ourselves to being 
misunderstood even by our more mature children. They 
have first to learn their own lessons. All we can do is 
to inspire them, while they are young, with confidence 
in us so that they may trust our judgment. And we 
must not forget that it is increasingly difficult for us, 
the older we grow, to understand them. For, reflective 230 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
and deliberate as we have grown to be, the impulsive, 
frank, and immediate activity of youth, with its sublime 
trust in its own powers, is as foreign to us as our 
thoughts are foreign to them. So we must learn to bear 
and forbear. CHAPTER IX 
PROBLEMS OP DISCIPLINE 
The Disappointing Child 
It often happens that one child in a family turns 
out to be a constant care and disappointment. He does 
not seem to progress in school, or is hard of discipline, 
stubborn, inclined to be untruthful, causing incessant 
worry and even grief. 
The despairing parent will say: “How can it be that 
this child should disappoint me so when the others are 
so good and fine? He has the same parents, the same 
home. I have given him the same advantages as I 
have given the others, and yet—” 
The fact is that the parent, in making this state- 
ment, is under an illusion all too common. 
The troublesome child, indeed, has the same parents 
his brothers and sisters have. But the parents were 
not the same beings at his birth that they were when 
the other children were born. They were either younger 
or older, more or less experienced in child rearing, 
more or less preoccupied with business or social duties, 
more or less affluent or economizing, in different states 
of health. The child himself was more or less welcome. 
Each child is born into a very different immediate 
environment. There is the element of housing and the 
1 neighborhood in which the child’s home is situated. 
Many parents move from place to place in the same 232 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
city almost every moving-day; some remove their entire 
household to another city. This signifies great changes 
in the life influences of the environment. The adults 
may not observe them so keenly, or may be strong 
enough to intrench their own individualities against 
any insidious onslaughts of the environment. The plas- 
tic body and mind of the child cannot do this. 
This change of environment implies a phange of 
schools, of teachers, of schoolmates and playmates, of 
social atmosphere. 
Further, in the home, each child has a different 
family companionship. There are, or are not, more or 
fewer brothers and sisters. A change of residence may 
bring a child nearer to the companionship and influence 
of relatives, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, or it may 
remove him further away. The circle of friends in the 
parents’ home will assume different complexions in the 
changing years. 
All these things affect the growth of the child, in its 
spiritual, mental, and physical aspects. Wise is the 
parent who learns to control these influences for his 
child, as far as they are controllable; but wiser still is 
he who does not blame his child for the effect of in- 
fluences which he, the parent, was unable to control. 
To trace the first planting of a seed of evil in a child’s 
mind to its source, then to root it out and give the child 
plant a new start, is a difficult and delicate problem 
which often requires the close cooperation of the parent, 
the teacher, and the educational and the medical ex- 
pert. It may be nothing worse than a disease germ 
which attacks the physical well-being of the child-- 
and, again, it may be an insidious attack of degenera- PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
233 
tive forces which poison the very heart of the grow- 
ing human bud. 
In either case, the child is the victim, not the culprit. 
The Crooked Tree 
In a garden there stood two little sprnce-trees. One 
was straight, with its branches well distributed around 
the slender stem, and with a pointed top which looked 
boldly up into the sky. Next to it stood its brother, 
planted at the same time, and at the same age. Both 
looked alike when they were first planted. But this 
brother of the first was crooked: the top had been broken 
off by the storm, and the other branches had been twisted 
here and there until the tree had lost all its beauty. 
The first tree had had, not only strength within itself, 
but also the care of the gardener, who reinforced the 
stem with a pole when the first sign of bending was 
observed. He had left the other to the wilful play of 
wind and rain and storm. Now it was too late to bend 
it back to normal growth. 
Thus it is with our children. The storms of passion, 
of emotions, of whims, the clouds of laziness and ob- 
streperousness, will pass over them and bend them here 
and there. Gently but firmly you must keep them 
straight by early habituation; if they have once grown 
crooked, it is difficult to right them again. 
Keeping the children straight is a matter of thou- 
sands of little details, day in, day out—giving them the 
right example in everything, and being insistent in 
having them do the right thing every time. 
These many little things are often despised as being 
too insignificant to notice, and parents will avoid in- 234 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
sistence as being too much of a task. Their worry will 
be a hundred times greater when they find later that 
their children have not acquired the habit of right 
conduct as an instinctive thing. 
A friend was visiting Michelangelo in his studio when 
the master was putting the finishing touches to one 
of his great statues. The visitor watched the sculptor 
in his work, as he was chiseling off a minute speck of 
marble here, and changing a line in the profile of the 
figure there. The friend could not at all understand 
these minute changes. 
“Why are you taking such pains with these little 
changes?” he asked. “I cannot see that they are of 
much account.” 
“You think so?” said the master. “But the nose 
has a little hump here which made it less exact than it 
should be, and the smile of the lips did not seem to 
me quite natural. So I tried to change it.” 
“But these are such little things,” exclaimed the 
friend. 
“True,” said Michelangelo, “they are little things. 
But put together they make perfection, and perfection 
is not a little thing!” 
Take a little habit as that of gargling. If a child 
learns to gargle, every morning and night from his 
earliest days, he will not only relieve present accumula- 
tions of phlegm in his throat, and stimulate the im- 
portant mucous membranes there to normal reaction, 
but he will be prepared for the time when, in an at- 
tack of diphtheria or other throat trouble, he should 
gargle with medicated waters. If he has not learned 
this little thing, if he has not acquired the habit of PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
235 
gargling, he will have great difficulty in an emergency. 
The little habits which make perfection are legion. 
Washing the feet regularly before retiring may not 
only be a precaution of cleanliness, or prevent all kinds 
of foot troubles, but also will induce sleep. Lacing 
the shoe-strings carefully every time may prevent trip- 
ping, may forestall an unhappy time to the over-tired 
child at night. These are little physical habits which 
illustrate the point; there are mental and moral habits 
as well. Every mother and father can add to this list. 
Who is to Blame? 
A number of years ago, a great English philosopher, 
Herbert Spencer, suggested as the fundamental princi- 
ple of discipline that the punishment for anything 
wrong the child had done should be symbolic of the 
natural consequence of the undesirable act. 
Nature’s laws are inexplorable, and if we wish to 
teach our child the lesson of life we must imitate na- 
ture, or interpret her laws to him. If a child touches 
a hot stove, the stove will burn the child’s fingers, with- 
out an attempt at arguing whether the child did it 
with good or evil intent. There is no moralizing by 
the stove. Thus, if a child deliberately breaks his 
drinking glass, he should simply go without it or be 
given a wooden or metal tumbler, less attractive, in the 
place of the destroyed glass. 
This principle, applicable as it may be in many cases, 
was carried out ‘‘with a vengeance” in the punish- 
ment of a little boy by a juvenile court judge in New 
England. This little boy, ten years old, was wearing 
a sore right arm and an angelic face the day after his 236 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
“ punishment. ’ ’ The arm was wrapped in bandages 
and the face in smiles. He had thrown a stone at a little 
girl, and was sentenced to throw one thousand stones 
in a gravel-pit while the probation officer looked on. 
He began his task with considerable “pep” and de- 
fiance and got away with the first twenty-five stones 
without any trouble. Then he admitted, as the report 
went, that it was something of a job. He began to use 
an underhand motion, throwing at a rock and tin can. 
When the lad had reached four hundred he wanted to 
quit. At nine hundred and twenty five, with tears 
rolling down his face, he begged to be allowed to stop, 
saying he would never throw another stone. Urged on 
by playmates, he staggered through the final seventy- 
five. Perhaps he was “cured.” 
But there is another side to this disciplinary experi- 
ment. How did it come about that the boy threw a 
stone at a little girl? Was it just in fun, or was he 
vicious? thoughtless or of evil intent? If the punish- 
ment is to fit the offense, such motives or conditions 
must he taken into account. And who was responsible 
for his thoughtless or evil intent? 
There is a little story which may answer this ques- 
tion. 
Margaret, aged five, had been very rude to a little 
guest, and after the child had gone home Margaret’s 
mother told her very feelingly how grieved she was 
at her rudeness. 
‘ ‘ I ’ve tried so hard to make you a good child, Mar- 
garet, to teach you to be polite and kind to others; and 
yet, in spite of all my efforts, you are so rude and so 
naughty. ’ ’ PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
237 
Margaret was deeply moved, looked sadly at heir 
mother, and said, “What a failure you are, Mother!” 
In meting out punishment to our children, should we 
not stop to consider whether their failure to do the 
right thing is not evidence of our own failure to bring 
them up properly? of our failure to read their prompt- 
ings and motives aright? 
Naughtiness 
We are outgrowing the old notion that we can handle 
and mold a child at will. The entire idea of discipline 
and punishment is undergoing a change. “Naughti- 
ness” in a child may be simply a warning to us that all 
is not well with the child, that we failed to understand 
him at one time or another. 
Apparent disinclination on the part of the child to 
obey may be due to imperfect hearing, just as aversion 
to reading and writing is often caused by imperfect vi- 
sion. When a child is ugly and irritable the oculist may 
detect that the child suffers from astigmatism or other 
difficulties of ocular adjustment. These conditions, in 
turn, produce eye-strain and persistent headaches. 
A lazy child is not necessarily a bad child; he may 
suffer from insufficient nourishment, lack of sleep, poor 
ventilation in his bedroom, or even from physical 
troubles, like anemia or neurasthenia. Fretfulness may 
have its cause in a great number of conditions, among 
which indigestion is prominent. 
When you see a child who makes strange faces or is 
inclined to giggle or babble, do not become vexed at 
once. These manifestations are quite often symptoms 
of nervous troubles. Restlessness, the inclination to 238 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
whisper and to twist around, to cough in a forced man- 
ner, are expressions of the same difficulty. Some of 
these symptoms assume the form of a habit and are 
then called “habit tics” or “habit spasms.” Among 
them may be here mentioned twitching, shrugging of 
shoulders, shuffling, grinning, sighing, yawning, and 
talking to oneself. 
A child’s momentary absent-mindedness and inat- 
tention may result from a very serious physical con- 
dition, and should therefore not be punished inconsid- 
erately. He may be suffering from a mild form of 
epilepsy. The child of ugly temper, who breaks out 
in passion and destructiveness, even violence, suggests 
the need of an immediate consultation with a doctor; 
there is every reason to suspect the presence either of 
serious digestive trouble or of nervous disease. 
Many delicate children are prone to attacks of chorea 
(St. Vitus’s dance), perhaps in a mild form, yet need- 
ing treatment and rest. There is also such a thing as 
youthful hysteria, which shows itself in manifold forms, 
such as instability of will and a highly emotional tem- 
perament. Young girls especially are subject to these 
conditions; unless they receive the benefit of early at- 
tention, they may develop true and chronic hysteria. 
Fault-Finding at Fault 
It is the customary method in every school to “cor- 
rect” essays, problems in arithmetic or geometry, and 
other test papers, by marking the mistakes, the incor- 
rect answers, the faulty diction. 
No doubt, there is some need of showing up the mis- 
takes, so that the child may learn why a certain thing PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
239 
is wrong, and how it can be improved. But this method, 
exclusively employed, has a very serious drawback. It 
makes the child aware of his mistakes and errors only. 
It is likely to induce the slow child, the child who is 
easily led into making mistakes, to become desperate 
about his own imperfection and hopeless as to his prog- 
ress. It is a negative method. 
Would it not be advisable to mark, with equal clear- 
ness and prominence, the correct answers to problems, 
the happy forms of expression, the excellence of a 
thought ? The very fact that these successes are pointed 
out will inspire the child to live up to the ability which 
they evidence in all his performances. That would be 
a constructive, a positive method. The method of 
marking mistakes often degenerates into a mere me- 
chanical, arithmetical system of marking, while the con- 
structive method here suggested would lead to a more 
rational valuation of a child’s mind and progress. 
Likewise, in the home education of our children, are 
we not dwelling too much upon their shortcomings? 
Should we not be charitable, knowing that children can- 
not possibly come into this world with all the conven- 
tions of polite society and all the knowledge of the 
ages at their fingers’ ends? They do not grow their 
wisdom-teeth before about the twentieth year of their 
life; can they attain wisdom when they have not yet 
outgrown their baby-teeth? 
We are too ready to find fault with our children, to 
scold, to upbraid, even to punish, thus discouraging 
them, estranging them from us in many cases, losing 
their confidence and respect. They are aware of their 
inability to come up to our expectations; they cannot 240 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
help making mistakes and blunders; and they are re- 
sentful when they try to do their best and still are 
criticized. 
It would seem preferable to adopt a constructive pol- 
icy toward them in the matter of their manners and 
morals, or of their daily performances of whatever kind, 
by our being ready to acknowledge and to praise their 
successes. If you call a boy a roughneck, he will de- 
generate into one; if you call him a fine boy, he will 
strive to be one. 
Be it table-manners, be it weeding the lawn, putting 
his clothes away for the night: a little praise, instead of 
the detective method which looks for a culprit, will do 
wonders. After once having expressed within the hear- 
ing of your boy the realization that you owe it to him 
that your front yard looks so tidy, he is unlikely again 
to be found remiss in weeding. 
The same principle is applicable to his school reports, 
or to his home study. Be charitable with his failings. 
Be enthusiastic over his progress, be it ever so slight. 
If a little boy or girl is given a chance now and then 
to show off his or her knowledge, it will mean such an 
encouragement to him or her that it may be the start- 
ing-point for a studiousness which may give a new turn 
to his or her life. 
A child that is given the privilege of thriving under 
such encouragement will seldom develop dangerous traits 
of character, provided this encouragement is not dic- 
tated by parental vanity, arousing the child’s vanity in 
response. Even of a good thing, there can be too much, 
and temperance is best in all matters. PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
241 
Don’t Say Don’t 
The child runs counter to a hundred and one 
“don’ts.” These “don’ts” are a veritable bogy to the 
child and, as a method of discipline, of very doubtful 
value. 
Even Genesis demonstrates that a “don’t” is really 
a temptation. The very fact that of the tree in the 
midst of the Garden of Eden the Lord had said, “Ye 
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,” brought 
sin into the world. 
The other day I looked idly over the pages of a thea- 
ter program. At the bottom of one of the pages was 
printed, in large letters: “PLEASE DO NOT TURN 
OVER! ” Of course, I did turn over and found on the 
reverse side the advertisement of a certain soap manu- 
facturing firm. The firm had played a neat psycho- 
logical trick on me, and on hundreds of others, for I am 
sure every man, woman, and child in the audience fell 
a victim to the “please don’t” just as I did. For ex- 
periment’s sake, I had the program, with the “don’t” 
legend in plain sight, on my office table for a while. 
Every comer, of course, saw it and turned the page 
over, to read and laugh. Some looked a little ashamed 
of their weakness, if weakness you would call it, but the 
firm had skilfully impressed the existence of its brand 
of soap upon many possible buyers. 
Might we not pardon our little ones if they gain 
slight strength of resistance to temptation when we hold 
this temptation up to them, and remind them of forbid- 
den things by forbidding them? 
Forbidden fruit—the thing most sought! Who is 242 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
most to blame, the one who forbids, or the one who 
transgresses ? 
One of the oldest and most pernicious of pedagogical 
mistakes in the school-room, for instance, is the method 
of placing before the child misspelled words, badly 
punctuated or ungrammatical sentences, with the direc- 
tion to find the errors and to correct them. A few 
clever boys and girls, those who have knack in this line 
of work, may succeed fairly well in the mastering of 
this trick. But even upon their plastic minds the er- 
rors before their eyes were engraved at least as indelibly 
as the correct forms. The effect is worse with those 
whose standards of correctness are still vague. The 
very mistakes which the misguided schoolmaster wished 
to guard against became perpetuated in the pupils’ 
memories and spooked around for many a year to 
come. 
If we want our children to avoid the pitfalls of in- 
correct or unwise things, let us give them positive sug- 
gestions of what they may do, not warnings as to what 
they should not do. They will become more interested, 
then, in their opportunities of right activity than in 
the dark province of evil. 
The Wet Blanket 
A wet blanket is a useful institution when you want 
to put out a tire. When you employ it to dampen the 
flames of youthful enthusiasm and ambition, it is a 
cursed thing. 
A writer recently said, “It takes vision to back a 
development project, and a banker has no imagination; PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
243 
his is just plain suspicion.” It is the same with par- 
ents, quite often. They suspect every flight of fancy 
on the part of their children as being foolish, unprofit- 
able. The merchant will measure his boy’s ambitions 
with the standard of commercial success: will it pay? 
Many a young poet or artist or musician has been spoiled 
by being fettered against his will to a desk in a count- 
ing-room. The laboring man will laugh at his child’s 
dreams of being a teacher; his girl or boy can make 
more money as a steel-worker than as a professor in the 
university. If little Abe had had the ambition of be- 
coming President of the United States in his humble 
Kentucky cabin, he might have been laughed at by his 
parents; yet his dreams of better things, his indefatig- 
able ambition to learn and to improve his mind, brought 
him to the White House. 
We laugh at our children’s simple faith in their abil- 
ity to become anything they take a fancy for, and in 
this foolish narrowness of vision we often destroy the 
best that is in them. We want to mold them according 
to our own notions, and to make them see the world 
with our own disillusioned eyes. That is like a blight 
on their fresh and blossoming hopes. For a child can 
do anything he wants to do, if he wants to do it hard 
enough; and it is our function as parents to give him 
that unconquerable desire for victory over all obstacles. 
If we do not do this, we may estrange the young heart 
from us. Not infrequently, the discouraged boy will 
take his fancies where they may be better appreciated, 
to his “pals,” who will encourage him in his secret 
plans and imaginings. He may run away from home; 244 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
he may try his notions in shady pursuits; he may drift 
into the byways of life, when his parents might have 
shown him the straight path. 
I remember the story of a little girl of ten or twelve 
who lived with her parents in the country. One day 
she wandered into the woods, and made believe she was 
a fairy, flitting about from tree to tree, from brook 
to pond. To make the illusion seem more like the pic- 
tures in her fairy-tale book, she had taken off her dress, 
and her bare armg and shoulders and the white, em- 
broidered petticoat, which to her was a shining fairy 
dress, made her feel that she lived a life of poesy and 
song. Running back home, forgetting to put on her 
dress, she was seen by her father, who scolded her for 
being so immodest. Immodest! What a sordid thought 
in a father’s mind! The little girl was shocked and 
made ashamed. But she never felt the same toward her 
father afterward, always fearing he might misconstrue 
her actions; and the blossoming of her poetic soul had 
been checked. 
Bribing and Coaxing 
Among the faulty methods which we are apt to em- 
ploy in securing our children’s obedience or compliance 
with our wishes is the coaxing and wheedling habit. 
“Oh, dear, won’t you do it for me? Mama will cry 
if you don’t!” is a very poor way of approaching a 
child. 
Even some teachers try to win the “affection” of 
their pupils so that these might be more easily governed 
through moral suasion, as it is called. Such a course 
is one of weakness, and is beset with failures. A child PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
245 
recognizes the weakness very quickly and will take full 
advantage of it. 
As a matter of fact, you have no right to expect a 
child to do anything just “to please you.” It does not 
really matter one bit whether mama cries or not. 
She has no business to cry. The path of duty which 
the child must learn to find and to read is not one in 
which sentimental motives like these should decide. 
Sentimentality of this kind may often lead the wTrong 
way. 
The motive of love, rightly applied, refers to much 
bigger things and greater sacrifices than are in the mind 
of the coaxing mother when she wants her boy to put 
his playthings away or to wash his face. It must not 
be degraded by abusing it as a method of “discipline.” 
A child must learn to do the right thing because it is 
the right thing, not because it will please mother. 
Another bad method is that of bribery. It makes lit- 
tle difference whether mama offers a piece of candy as 
a reward of obedience, or promises a trip to the coun- 
try, a new suit, or a theater-party. Bribing has a 
distinctly deteriorating effect upon the moral conscience 
of the child. He will learn to value his own actions by 
gain that will accrue to him by doing them. He will 
become essentially mercenary. 
These early impressions will last through life and will 
make a sordid creature of him, one who will always 
measure his obligations by external standards, one who 
will never be ready to do a good and right and noble 
thing for its own sake, one who will ask: “What good 
will it do me? What can I make out of it?” 
Furthermore, it will stimulate greed in the child. 246 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Soon he will not be satisfied by what is promised him, 
but he will bargain with you and make his own terms. 
These terms will become more and more exacting, until 
the parent will give up in despair. 
Threats and Punishments 
Another method to which parents take only too fre- 
quent recourse is that of threatening a disobedient or 
otherwise unruly child. Sometimes this threat stops 
right there; that is to say, it is nothing but a threat, 
never seriously meant. It is merely used to frighten 
the child into compliance. 
To frighten a child is in itself a dangerous thing. 
There may be children so impenetrable to threats that 
they are not much affected by this objectionable parental 
conduct. It is doubtful whether they will then be 
prompted by it to yield readily. The meek or the nerv- 
ous child is more liable to be so frightened. But who 
will defend the employment of a nerve-shock—and 
fright is a nerve-shock!—with children of this kind? 
The clever child will soon discover that the threat, 
so skilfully wielded against his meeker brother, was vain, 
a mere pretense of force. Then, naturally, the threat 
will fail of its object as far as he is concerned, and the 
parent will either have to abandon his course, being 
rather defeated in his policy, or he will have to employ 
the forceful measure he had half-heartedly threatened. 
Really, he will have to appreciate, inwardly, the child’s 
point of view. And; if he does carry his punishment 
into effect, be it the denial of some coveted morsel or 
treat, of some pleasure or privilege, or be it the more PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
247 
brutal application of main force, he will at once erect 
a barrier between himself and his child. If he applies 
his punishment in anger and with heat, the barrier will 
be so much higher. 
There are excuses and even justifications for the em- 
ployment of corporal punishment under certain very 
definite conditions. It can never be more than a last 
resort in exceptional cases, and its use must be restricted 
to the minimum. It is like a surgical operation which 
requires great caution and deliberation. 
There are very obvious sad results of indiscriminate 
punishment. The child is most likely to become deeply 
resentful. He loses that intimate and precious rela- 
tion of confidence which is the sweetest blessing of filial 
affection. If, on the other hand, he takes his punish- 
ment in a business-like way, he may reckon thus: 
“Well, if I am willing to take my punishment I may 
disobey again.” 
So he will learn to measure, and balance up, the 
relative amount of pleasure to be derived from his dis- 
obedience as against the amount of discomfort which 
the punishment may imply. Paying his bill eventually, 
he may sin as often as he pleases. This commercial 
view cannot possibly lead to a moral conception of the 
question involved. 
Conflicting Rights 
He was only three and a half years old. With his 
mother, he lived for a while in a small hotel room, 
awaiting the return of father from abroad. He was a 
very active boy who took great delight in his railroad- 248 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
train. In his room he would lay out imaginary tracks 
along which his engine and cars would speed to distant 
cities and unexplored lands. 
One evening his mother had a visitor. The lady was 
by profession a teacher and might have understood a 
child’s way of thinking and feeling. But she did not. 
She took a chair and moved it just where the little fel- 
low had laid out his railroad tracks. Of course, the 
room was small, and she could not see the make-believe 
tracks. Somewhat rudely, she thought, she was re- 
minded by the little boy that she was in his way, that 
she spoiled his tracks. He did not mean to be rude, 
to be sure: he was distressed and aggrieved; to him the 
tracks were real, and he could not at once grasp the 
fact that they were not real to everybody else. To him, 
they were as inviolable as real railroad-tracks are to 
the locomotive engineer, to the train despatcher, or to 
the track-walker. 
The visitor frowned, and the mother scolded the child 
for being so impolite. But the boy fought for his rights 
and, as he was the weaker, lost his fight. 
Now here was a clear-cut clash between the rights of 
two individuals, mother and child. The mother was en- 
tertaining a visitor, and was embarrassed by her child’s 
interfering with that visitor’s comfort. On the other 
hand, this was the child’s only room to play in, and 
he had organized a perfectly legitimate game which 
was a serious thing to him. 
What would have been the solution? Of course, one 
would have been that the two ladies, appreciating the 
child’s perplexity, could have good-naturedly entered 
into the child’s spirit, accommodating him without much PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
disturbance or argument, and without causing any one 
any unhappiness. The other solution would have con- 
sisted in forestalling possible complications. So long as 
the room had to be the child’s play-room, and so long as 
his mother knew that the railroad game meant so much 
to him, she might have avoided receiving visitors in the 
same crowded space. One cannot serve two masters, 
and the child’s rights are supreme in such things, as he 
is dependent entirely on the arrangements made by his 
elders and cannot choose his own environment. Be- 
sides, his play is his life, his education. Chats, social 
diversions for parents, can be differently arranged. 
This story tells a very common tale. Such conflicts 
of rights occur all the time, in one way or another. We 
are quite ready to blame our children for being in our 
way, when in reality we are in the children’s way. The 
management is ours, not the child’s. The child is help- 
less ; he will invariably lose out, being a child; and the 
effect upon his mind will be quite unfortunate when 
he realizes that his rights are interfered with unduly 
for reasons which he cannot understand even if they 
were tenable. 
It is difficult for all of us to appreciate the other 
side when our owTn convenience is involved. But it is 
well that we train ourselves to see the child’s side before 
we scold or punish or interfere. 
Habits and Impulses 
Even the young child will blink his eyes or close his 
eyelids on the approach of sudden light or some dis- 
turbing object. This action is not voluntary, but in- 
stinctive. We have a great number of such instinctive 250 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
actions, such as frowning, smiling, trembling, shrinking, 
blushing, etc. It is extremely difficult if not impossi- 
ble to control some of these actions; yet, under the in- 
fluence of a strong wflll, you may eventually learn to 
resist the prompting to frown, or to smile, or to shiver. 
This is the triumph of thought and will over instinct; 
it implies, however, a presence of mind and amount of 
self-control which are rare. All these “instinctive” 
reactions (including those we perform in our sleep when 
we unconsciously try to ward off a disturbing influence) 
have been inherited by man from his earliest forebears 
at the dawn of civilization, when they were defensive 
in character. Age-long practice in the race has deeply 
ingrained the impulse to perform them on the least, even 
subconscious, provocation, as a matter of habit. 
Yet it can be understood that even these simple re- 
actions were first learned by conscious effort to serve a 
distinct purpose. Likewise, the young child learns to 
perform certain actions in response to certain impulses. 
Scientists who have studied primitive man are con- 
vinced that the average man, like the primitive one, in 
by far the majority of cases, does not determine his 
actions by reasoning, but that he first acts, and then 
tries to explain his acts by conventional reasoning; in 
other words, that most of our behavior is involuntary, or 
habituated. 
This proves the enormous importance of the habits of 
action which the child forms in the early years of his 
life. A child, however, forms his habits without much 
conscious knowledge and without a great effort of the 
will, sometimes even despite his desire for the contrary. PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
251 
We may have a better understanding of the mechan- 
ism of acquiring habits when we think of the manner 
in which the child learns his mother-tongue, or, for that 
matter, several languages at virtually the same time. 
Voluntary and involuntary imitations of the words and 
expressions he hears are the basis. Wise parents, while 
not suppressing original forms of speech in their chil- 
dren, will pay a great attention to the early mastery 
of correct enunciation and the proper use of words, and 
of sentence formation. 
The child learns to walk as he learns to talk. Of 
course, there are the physiological promptings of the 
speech-organs and the brain speech centers in the one 
case, and of the motor impulses in the other. 
Talking, walking, attending to bodily functions, dress- 
ing and undressing, using table utensils properly, etc., 
are only so many developments of a habit-mechanism 
which depend upon close attention by the educating 
parent. But it is just as true that conduct-habits, early 
moral and emotional responses, evolve in precisely the 
same manner. They imply an education of the nervous 
mechanism which determines future conduct. 
Obedience 
What is usually meant by obedience? 
To some parents it means that the child does what he 
is told without hesitation, without) questioning, cheer- 
fully, at once and exactly. 
This attitude reduces the child, in a measure, to the 
condition of a slave; it suggests mastership, ownership. 
But the child is his own master. Our function, as 252 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
parents, is to give him every chance to grow up as an 
individual with force and character, self-reliant, full of 
initiative. 
The child will follow our lead, if our attitude is cor- 
rect, and especially if in our directions we avoid the 
appearance of giving orders which make for our own 
arbitrary convenience. 
Children are not so helpless as some of us seem to 
think; often we do not give them sufficient credit for 
independent effort. 
Whenever a child does not respond in the manner in 
which we expect him to respond, we should not first of 
all ask the question: What is the matter with the 
child? but rather: What have I done or neglected to 
do that has caused this disappointment? 
To train ourselves in the detailed study of danger- 
signals we must develop an observational attitude. We 
must accustom ourselves to consider as a symptom 
everything which we cannot readily explain. For every 
symptom we must learn to try, impartially and unemo- 
tionally, to discover a cause. The greatest difficulty 
with parents in this careful work is that there is too 
much emotion. They feel a disappointment too keenly, 
as if it were a personal misfortune and affront. 
In studying symptoms we must further learn to dis- 
tinguish carefully between the facts observed and the 
explanation we may give them. It is a very common 
error to substitute our interpretation of a fact for the 
fact itself. We may say, for instance, The child dis- 
obeyed me wilfully, when in reality we simply observed 
that the child did not react upon our words or direc- PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
253 
tions promptly. This failure on the child’s part may 
be due to the fact that he did not hear or that he did 
not understand. But we were too ready to interpret 
his action as wilful disobedience. 
Thus a child is misunderstood, even in his early 
years; and often his confidence is lost for ever. 
Observation of symptoms must begin at the very earli- 
est age of the child. There are certain danger-signals 
for which we must be on the lookout. In fact, most of 
our troubles with children are either in themselves 
danger-signals or the result of our neglect of danger- 
signals. Parents should begin on the first day of a 
child’s life to keep a careful record. 
The Method of Substitution 
“I want to play with this ink! I want to write! I 
want to make pictures!” cried the little man with a 
high-pitched voice, struggling for the possession of a 
small bottle of ink standing on the writing-desk in a 
hotel lobby, while his embarrassed mother was endeavor- 
ing to take it away from him. She knew he would 
only spot another of his pretty white suits, and she 
dreaded the attention which the little scene attracted. 
The child was just growing through his fourth year, 
and had, of course, no use for ink. But he held on to 
it. I knew of other little boys who had done the same 
thing over and over again, to the despair of their elders, 
sometimes painting the entire neighborhood black, spill- 
ing the ink here and there. 
It was a pity that the ink-bottle was within the reach 
of the child. But in a hotel you cannot always avoid 254 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
such complications. Seeing other people write, he 
wanted to imitate them—a rather natural impulse. But 
ink is a treacherous medium for unskilled hands. 
Observing the little fellow’s and his mother’s predic- 
ament, I ventured to step up, and to divert the child’s 
mind from the object of his desire. “I think,” I said, 
“ink is an ugly black stuff. I am sure you would like 
some bright colors better. I have some colored crayons 
in my room. If you will come with me I will let you 
have them, and you can paint some nice pictures with 
them.” Immediately the boy let go of the ink-bottle 
and, with bright eyes, followed me, and was soon quite 
absorbed in “making pictures” with the harmless cray- 
ons. 
This is what may be called the method of substitu- 
tion. That is to say, if we find a child has set his heart 
on something harmful or undesirable, it is best not to 
argue with him about the matter, but immediately to 
divert his mind by substituting another train of thought 
which will lead him into some harmless and even help- 
ful pursuit. This is a method which also holds good 
in cases of outbreaks of youthful temperament, just as 
it is employed in mental disease, when reasoning will 
not avail. A young child is not easily open to reason- 
ing when his impulses are involved; at least, not at the 
moment of his immediate insistency. He must first be 
put into a state of mental equilibrium, of happiness and 
contentment, before he can be talked to. Even then, 
the effect may be only temporary, and his willing as- 
sent, “Yes, Mother!” will perhaps portray his imme- 
diate state of mind but will not prevent further evidences 
of a similar impulse. PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
255 
The method of substitution requires resourcefulness 
and calmness on the part of the parent, a mastery of 
the situation. If we get excited or embarrassed, we 
have lost the battle. Quarreling or fighting with a 
child is about the worst thing we can do. Surmising 
sinister motives in the child, as if he just wanted to vex 
us, is foolish. 
A parent needs presence of mind and an immediate 
control adaptation of many devices and contrivances 
just as much as an enginer needs them in constructing 
a railroad, or a Wall-Street speculator in steering clear 
of the pitfalls of a changing market, or a scout in ex- 
ploring a dangerous piece of woodland. 
The Self-Willed Child 
Mary Louise was a very self-willed child. When she 
was to go to a party and could not wear a certain dress, 
she would make life miserable for her mother, would 
sulk and threaten not to go at all. Again, if she played 
with other children, and she could not impose her own 
will as to the game to be played upon the others, she 
would stand frowning in a corner and not join. 
Of course, her sulkiness was perhaps the result of 
spoiling. She had had her own, often unreasonable 
way so often that she did not know any better. The 
best cure in such a case would be to have her suffer the 
consequences of her sulkiness, cut out the party and 
give her some work to do, keep her away from the other 
children and let her sulk it out by herself. She will 
soon learn. 
Maybe she was never really taught what the finishing 
of a dress meant. Maybe she has been allowed to lord 256 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
it over her younger brothers and sisters so long that 
she considers it her privilege to rule everybody else. 
Maybe she does not understand that each child has as 
much right to his own opinion and preference as she 
has; for the ability to place oneself into another’s posi- 
tion is achieved slowly and requires a good deal of in- 
sight. 
It is a matter of proper training on the part of the 
parents. 
But this training must not tend to suppress the selfr 
willedness. For it appears that Mary Louise was pos- 
sessed of strong will-power, that she “knew her own 
mind.” This is a precious thing. Let her never de- 
generate into a mollycoddle, a weakling who can never 
assert herself, who cannot stand by her own convictions 
and preferences. 
But she may be taught that others have the same 
rights that she has; that children are different, in 
strength, in ambitions, in desires, in choice and prefer- 
ences; that it is fair to give and take, tit for tat; that 
it is best to take turns so as to give every one a chance 
in his or her own way; that her own wishes can be rec- 
onciled with those of others by making the wishes of 
others her own; that is to say, that she can gain a 
greater happiness from making herself attractive and 
lovable than by insisting upon her choice. It is well 
for every child to acquire that “gracious and sunny 
amiability which is the essence of pleasant social inter- 
course. ’ ’ 
In fact, the dramatic instinct can be called into play, 
the joy in impersonating others. Mary Louise may 
learn to consider it great fun in playing the part of PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
257 
the other child who opposes her wish, and to disarm 
that child by doing so. She will learn what it means 
to conquer by sweetness and kindness, and to be the 
most admired and beloved leader of her crowd. Ethi- 
cally speaking, she may learn to understand that won- 
derful passage in the Bible where we read of Jacob’s 
wrestling with the angel: “I will not let thee go ex- 
cept thou bless me.” 
The Flighty Child 
“Mollie, will you go and find your hair-ribbon!’’—• 
“What did you do with your cap again, Peter?’’ The 
distracted mother will ejaculate frantic admonitions like 
these hundreds and thousands of times, usually without 
any result whatever. Her young hopefuls will keep on 
losing their hair-ribbons, misplacing their caps, rushing 
from one day to another, forgetting to put away the 
toys in which they had been engrossed just a moment 
before, and doing a myriad of things of this sort without 
being, it would seem, the least conscious of the moral 
infractions they commit or of the annoyance they cause. 
The mother’s shouts: “Mollie, Mollie, Mollie!” or 
Peter, Peter, Peter! ” in endless repetition, will only try 
her speech-organs until she is hoarse, and her nervous 
system until she collapses. It will not cure the flighty 
child. 
Within limits, this flightiness is natural to childhood. 
We must not measure the child’s sense of orderliness 
and response with that of the adult; for that matter, 
there are many adults who are trying the patience of 
those they live with or work for. But the child is a 
creature of the moment, and we have to plan his or her 258 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
plays and occupations with a full realization of this fact. 
You may, by injecting the fear of the rod into 
the consciousness of the young soul, subjugate its spon- 
staneity and “train” the child to be orderly: at least 
seemingly so; the good behavior will last as long as your 
presence or power lasts. When once freed of the fear, 
the child will break loose with a vengeance; his training 
is not a training to last, to become a part and parcel 
of his character, an accomplishment of which he is proud. 
He will shed it at the earliest possible moment. 
Some children will never outgrow a certain amount 
of flightiness. They represent a type of what may be 
called “Bohemianism,” an artistic type whose standards 
of convention and order are very individualistic and 
liberal. Their attention is pivoted in a different world, 
where light-heartedness and beauty and self-satisfaction 
bordering on license are the watchwords. Others rep- 
resent a type that is defective or has an impaired sense 
of responsibility. These require special methods of re- 
demption, as far as redemption is possible; but there are 
few of them. 
The nervous child, the child with little physical stam- 
ina, the child with psychopathic tendencies, will also be 
quite reckless in his personal habits. Here, medical 
advice and a physical reconstruction are indicated. 
But the great majority of cases are just light-hearted 
children who do not bother themselves much about little 
things. Their training is not easy and means much 
patience and forethought. 
Much of the flightiness can be forestalled, and much 
of the destructiveness which goes with it can be avoided. 
But let us understand that the mere distraction of the PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
259 
mother or vengeful punishment by the father will not 
avail at all. 
How to Train the Flighty Child 
Many children are actually driven to flightiness by 
their own parents. In the first place, they are given too 
many things. They are dressed up like young ladies 
and gentlemen before they have completed the period of 
primitive life, before they have achieved a valuation of 
the pretty clothing with which they are adorned. How 
can they be expected to have a natural tendency to take 
care of these baubles? 
Many of these toys, cheaply bought, are cheaply made. 
They break, or get out of order, as soon as you leave the 
place where you bought them. So the child is quite 
ready to throw them away, or at least to value them 
lightly. He cannot make the distinction between costly 
and cheap toys. He only thinks of the temporary 
amusement a toy affords him, and he is satisfied that if 
one toy will not do the next one will. All this a direct 
training for flightiness and carelessness. 
A child who has only a reasonable amount of toys and 
ornaments and has been taught properly to play, to 
occupy himself, to fill his time and attention, under 
parental guidance, with helpful interests, will not easily 
incline toward flightiness. If he does, there is one 
simple method of relief. 
As he will value his possessions in proportion to the 
smallness of their number, he will feel their loss more 
keenly if they are not at once replaced. 
In other words, we may follow the method of natural 
consequences. If the girl is careless with her hair- 260 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
ribbon, let her go without it; if the boy soils his best 
suit through carelessness, he may lose the chance of a 
party pleasure. And so on. 
There need be no harshness, no scolding, no punish- 
ment other than making the child feel, with suitable 
discretion, what the loss of cherished things means. 
Truthful Parents Make Truthful Children 
A parent who gives his child the persistent example 
of uprightness and honesty, who never allows himself 
to be tempted to prevaricate, who keeps his honor bright 
even in seeming trifles, in his statements and promises, 
not only in business, but also in the home, toward his 
life-partner, his children, and his friends, will never fear 
to have liars for children. The idea of wilful deception 
will never enter his children’s minds. 
Such education in honesty begins early and should be 
associated with all efforts in training. We are wrong in 
thinking that children do not realize it when tricks and 
deceptions are played on them. Even a young child 
will readily discern the difference between an untruth 
and a make-believe play. Just because make-believe 
plays such an important part in the games of children, 
they are very keen in resenting an abuse of their 
trust in the honesty of their elders, in whom they had 
faith, and whom they had a right to trust implicitly. 
It has been truly said that a child in the first three 
years of his life learns more than in his entire school 
and university career. For this reason we must be 
careful about the kind of stories we tell our children and 
tb? manner in which we tell them. The stories about PROBLEMS OF DICIPLINE 
261 
Santa Claus, some of the religious symbols we may in- 
troduce, as well as the fairy-tales, play an important 
part in the moral education of the child, and we must 
handle them with a full knowledge of their significance 
and influence, and of how the symbol may be successfully 
turned into a realization of the underlying ideas. 
Sometimes a very simple story, seemingly trifling in 
significance, may make such a deep impression on a 
child that its influence will be felt all through that 
child’s years of development. We may not be able to 
trace it, but the bent of the child’s mind, his sexual life, 
his ambitions, are bound up with what seemed to be a 
trifle in those vastly important first few years of life. 
No rule can be made for the presentation of sym- 
bolical fiction. It depends on individual cases. But 
one thing must be borne in mind: these stories should 
never be allowed to appear to the child as intentional 
deceptions. Let him perceive that they are symbols,— 
fairies, Santa Claus, and all,—and carefully guide him 
out of the symbolical sphere to the truth which thely 
symbolize. 
The parent should be cautious in judging a child’s 
moral attitude, must try to understand the motive behind 
an apparent misstatement. A child is likely to say a 
good many things which are contrary to facts, and which 
yet are not lies. 
A child cannot be expected to be a close observer, or 
clear in discrimination between essentials and unessen- 
tials. He therefore makes erroneous statements, dwells 
on the less important parts of a story, even twisting its 
meaning, or distorting facts, without intent of deception. 262 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Cheerful Liars 
Some of the child’s actual lies are caused by fear—of 
punishment, of displeasing his parents, of disgrace, 
perhaps. These lies we may rule out of consideration 
entirely. They constitute a weapon of defense that we 
may do well not to dispute violently. 
But a great many untruths which are not inspired by 
fear, are likely to be told by children in whom there is 
no trace of wickedness. 
One fruitful cause of misstatements lies in the fact 
that children cannot always discriminate readily between 
actual experiences and things they have read about, or 
heard about, or seen pictures of, or which have come to 
them in their dreams. 
Similar experiences are not at all foreign to adults. 
Many of our own impressions and even judgments are 
affected, more or less subconsciously, by our dream-life, 
by the books we read, by the stories we hear,—rumors, 
gossip, etc.,—and our judgment of persons is so seri- 
ously bound up with influences the origin of which is 
confused in our minds that we should be very slow in 
casting stones at our children. 
The child may tell you he has seen an elephant wThen 
he has seen only a picture of one. His errors as to the 
size and colors of objects, animate and inanimate, are 
intelligible from this cause. Children, in answer to the 
question how large an elephant is, will vary in estimates 
from two inches to a thousand feet. As long as the 
sense of exact measurement of space and time is unde- 
veloped, they will attach no particular significance to 
wild statements of this kind. Besides, it will depend PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
263 
upon the scale to which the picture they saw was drawn 
whether they will give a smaller or larger size. In a 
picture an elephant may be drawn to a much smaller 
scale than a dog. 
Again, children like high-sounding words and are very 
eager to use whenever they can the biggest words in 
their vocabulary, even when they do not understand their 
full meaning. This will give their stories a fanciful 
character. Also, they love exciting events, stories about 
them, and the dreams in which they themselves will 
pose as the heroes. They will regale you with 
these fancies in full measure. Sqmetimes they tell 
stories as facts when they had only wished they were 
true. 
A child’s imagination is often so vivid that it will 
color all that he actually sees and hears. In his con- 
structive fancy, which is something like a poet’s dream, 
he will manufacture incidents and tell fairy-tales so that 
his elders will put him down as a cheerful liar when 
he is only experimenting with his growing faculty of 
mental creativeness. He enjoys it. And often he per- 
suades himself that he has actually experienced what he 
fabulizes about, believing his own stories. It is essential 
to know that he is quite sensitive about being believed. 
If you criticize and analyze his myths, he is easily 
offended, .and calling him a liar may estrange him alto- 
gether for years. 
This type of fanciful fabrication must be handled 
very carefully. It requires a loving and sympathetic 
understanding of the child’s motives, and of his growing 
mind at this stage. 264 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Lesson in a Nervous Girl’s Letter 
A nervous little girl who was under my charge said 
in her first letter to her mother: 
I am so homesick, I cry for you, dear mother. I cannot 
sleep. I am very unhappy. 
When she showed me the letter I said to her, “Mar- 
jorie, you are writing a letter of lies.” 
“Why,” she said, rather offended. “I am homesick; 
I do cry; I do lie awake at night; I am unhappy.” 
“Perhaps so,” said I. “But let us see. Take yester- 
day’s experience, for example. I saw you play with the 
other children very happily for hours; you were not 
homesick or unhappy then. You worked at your lessons 
with great interest. You laughed and sang with the 
others. When I came to your room at ten o’clock you 
were fast asleep. So we will figure out the time. You 
were homesick during the day, say, one hour altogether; 
you cried, perhaps, one half-hour; you felt unhappy, a 
few minutes at a time, let us say another hour, to make 
it a maximum; and you could not go to sleep, lying 
awake perhaps an hour in the evening, thinking of home. 
Out of the twenty-four hours of the day, then, there were 
three and one half hours, all told, of which your letter 
speaks. It does not mention the other twenty and one 
half hours during which you were perfectly happy, busy 
at work with your lessons, and content, or enjoying your 
meals; and, finally, your good sound sleep of seven hours. 
You omitted to tell your mother of these pleasant things 
and would have given her an entirely wrong idea of 
your real condition by not telling her the whole truth, 
but merely a small part of the truth—by writing her PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
265 
only of incidents, not of your complete experience.” 
The child was sensible enough to realize the truth of 
this analysis, and from that time on she began to under- 
stand the difference between the essential and the unes- 
sential things in life. Of course, the process was a slow 
one, but the beginning had been made. 
This actual experience may teach us an important 
lesson in judging children’s statements. They may 
give us an entirely distorted idea of the actual facts of 
their experience. They have not the sense of propor- 
tion, of values, of the proper relations of one part of an 
experience to another. All his impressions are colored 
by fleeting emotional states. The child will report on 
a day’s experience in the mood of a moment’s emotion, the 
moment in which he tells or writes about the day. Thus 
“the end of a perfect day” may be shrouded in gloom, 
from physical exhaustion or a momentary disappoint- 
ment and such things. His report, given at such a mo- 
ment, may blacken the memory of a day of real joy. 
The Temper of Children 
“Temper” has its roots in the baby years of a child. 
The little tyrant of the nursery becomes the selfish, un- 
compromising cad and ingrate of later years. Of course, 
there are certain nervous disorders predisposing for 
emotional outbreaks; these deserve medical attention. 
Consistency and regularity point the way by which 
such tendencies can be forestalled and eventually curbed. 
Also, the wise parent will remember that he should never 
be angry with his child no matter how badly the child 
seems to behave. He will for ever consider causes. If 
he has convinced himself that there is no real physical 266 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
pain or discomfort behind an outbreak of temper, and 
that there is no actual psychopathic condition to be held 
accountable, he will first of all have to admit that he, 
the parent himself, may have produced an excitement in 
the child which it becomes his business to reduce to nor- 
mal dimensions. The less tragic we are, the less we let 
our child feel that he is vexing and disturbing us, the 
sooner we shall succeed in turning the tide of mental 
effervescence into harmless outlets. He can change his 
violence into playful activity cheerfully accepting his 
“temper” as a good bit of acting, or as the joyful and 
joking expression of a simple exuberance, Thus the 
storm will pass away. The child will finally laugh at 
himself and enter into the parent’s spirit with enthu- 
siasm, very happy, indeed, that nothing serious came of 
his foolishness, and usually rather repentant inwardly. 
One caution: Never make fun df a child’s temper. 
A child hates to be ridiculed. Just because he is not 
certain of himself, and is often enough afraid of making 
mistakes, he feels it keenly when his elders belittle him, 
his efforts, and his feelings. It is better to show him 
that you take him seriously and that he hurts your own 
feelings than to make him crushingly aware of your con- 
tempt for his sentiments and emotions. Even in the 
most distressing hour let him always be aware of your 
deep love and consideration for him; he craves this love, 
be sure of that. Make him feel that his troubled head 
may find a place of comfort at your breast any time and 
all the time, that you understand him, that you do not 
hold anything up against him, that you will forget the 
momentary tension; and help him to find himself and PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
267 
to make a man of himself. Never harbor resentment 
even when your child has seemed to hurt you very 
deeply; your heart must for ever be his home. 
I am using the masculine pronoun as if I were 
speaking only of boys. What I have said fits the girl 
children as much as the boys, of course. But it is im- 
perative to remind parents that boys, under an armor 
of rough manners, have very sensitive hearts, indeed. 
What has here been said does not fit only the child of 
maturer years. It fits the baby of six months as much 
as the child of six years, the infant of sixteen weeks 
equally with the youth of sixteen. 
Fighting 
I am a peaceful man by nature. When it comes to 
a show-down in the matter of principle or conviction I 
can be quite stubborn and ready to fight in the open, and 
when my own personal honor or the honor of mine or 
of my country is concerned I may be unpleasant. 
Fighting, however, is not my choice. I do not love war, 
or quarreling. 
But I remember very distinctly that when I was a lad 
of seven or eight I was the leader of a gang of boys 
from my own school, and that we had a deadly feud 
with a gang from another school. Why there was a 
feud, I do not remember; perhaps I did not know even 
at that time. But wTe stood up in some way for the 
honor of our alma mater. I had made for myself a 
formidable armor, after the pattern of what I fondly 
thought was a knight’s coat of mail, fashioned out of 
pasteboard, with shield and a wooden sword of some 268 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
length. One day we had appointed a battle royal be- 
tween the two gangs, to be fought out on the drill field 
after school hours. 
The battle came off. I led my battalions to victory. 
But I went home a sadly battered specimen of knight- 
hood, bespattered, begrimed, my armor torn, my sword 
broken; and something was bleeding—my nose or my 
mouth; it does not matter. I am not saying that I cried; 
if I did I have forgotten it. I must have looked rather 
forlorn. Mother did not scold; she was too wise for 
that. She was the nurse to the hero returned from the 
battle-field; she soothed and washed and mended, and 
her sweet smile, betraying, after all, her pride in the 
courage of her boy, was reassuring to a degree. 
Since then I have fought many battles, not with armor 
and shield and sword, but mightier and far more serious 
than the battle of my childhood on the drill field. Even 
when I thought I had come out victorious, there were 
hurts, there were battered things and broken weapons. 
There was bleeding, too, for the heart is a sensitive 
thing. But there was no mother to soothe and comfort 
and nurse. 
Had it not been for the undying memory of that 
mother love and mother pride that came to me at that 
hour when I dragged back my weary limbs and carried 
my broken sword of wood and my torn shield to the 
home over which she presided as the guardian angel, I 
might not have braved the battles of life so readily, my 
heart might have been broken a thousand times as my 
wooden sword was when I was a lad of eight. 
Boys will fight. They must fight. Bo not scold them 
when they do. Do not tell them they should be little PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
269 
gentlemen. They must store up courage for the fight 
of life. They must have the assurance that their first 
crude efforts to stand up for what they think is right, 
for their honor, for their convictions, will be understood 
by their first and best friends, their parents. Give them, 
these young heroes of humanity, a kindly pat of encour- 
agement, bind up their wounds, mend their battered 
armor, and smile on them benignly with that smile that 
will never be forgotten. Forsooth, the memory of that 
smile, of that motherly or fatherly pride, will make a 
man of your boy, and will strengthen him when he is 
downcast and discouraged by the endless strife to main- 
tain his manhood in adversity‘and under the stress of 
disillusionment. 
Romance of the Young 
A modern poet has advanced the theory that we have 
got beyond the old romantic ideals of those poets who 
reveled in ancient mythology and in the glorification of 
the heroes and grand figures of antiquity and the Middle 
Ages. To him there is need of poesy and glorification 
of the new heroes of finance and world commerce, and 
he thinks modern man is out of sympathy with the pre- 
tenses of traditional glory. 
Now, it is true enough that this view is expressive of 
the longings of many parents, who hold up to their 
children, in these times of stress and merciless compe- 
tition, the achievements of those who began as poor 
errand-boys and landed in mahogany-furnished offices, 
from which they directed the affairs of the world, 
financing war and peace with the same impartial eyes 
whose glance was immutably turned toward gain in 270 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
wealth. No doubt there is an element of romance even 
in this. But a closer inspection may reveal much of 
what is sordid and mean and small, quite far away from 
the great humanitarian idealism which leads the race on- 
ward and upward. 
No doubt, also, much of what we have endowed with 
the halo of glory in the traditions of the past was, at 
the time of its actuality, quite devoid of romance. King 
Arthur was really a barefoot Celtic chief with rather 
primitive habits. We might dismantle the picturesque 
edifices and monuments which the poets have erected in 
honor of ancient heroes until little is left, even in our 
own stories about the Pilgrims and Washington and 
Franklin. 
But that is not the point. Those heroes are dead. In 
the living, we see their human frailties together with the 
heroic setting. Of the dead, the poet has retained the 
heroic setting, omitting the human frailties. The dead 
have become symbols of the spirit of their times, of the 
struggles and emotions which have carried the race 
through the ages and have established civilization. The 
historic personage was simply, so to speak, a lay-figure 
which the artist clothed with the fabric of his fancy, re- 
creating him or her to be the image of the human soul, 
ever striving for perfection, for better things, for con- 
quest of evil, of anti-human forces. These idealized per- 
sonages are as typical of these strivings as the giants, 
dwarfs, and ogres of mythology and the fairy-tale 
typify the powers which obstruct human progress, and 
which had to be outwitted or slain to secure the victory 
of the human mind and of human power. 
That is why these romantic traditions are inspiring PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
271 
to our young, who are closer to the secret springs of 
human endeavor than we adults are, who have been too 
long face to face with sordid realities. That is why, 
as a recent writer expressed it, the average boy becomes 
a king when he reads the “Morte d’Arthur,” when his 
soul comes under the influence of creative literature. 
Outwardly, he may be the same poor boy in rags, but 
inwardly he is not the same. In his soul he experiences 
the wonderful call to do the big thing, the “kingly” 
thing. He wants to slay the giants and ogres and be a 
hero in his own right. 
That is why the young need the inspiration of classic 
literature, not in the parsing, formal, and schoolmas- 
terly manner in which it is treated in so many schools, 
but so that the children receive the message of eternal 
truth which it must convey to them. We, as parents, 
must do our share to kindle the flame of enthusiasm in 
our children by being sympathetic with their aspiring 
emotions. 
When Parents Should Take Notice 
Parents are often unnecessarily alarmed when chil- 
dren give evidence of undesirable habits. The young 
child mirrors in his feelings and activities those primitive 
instincts which were characteristic of savage life. The 
child who is wise and self-controlled and “good” before 
his time needs watching. He may be sick, or abnormal. 
The normal child of tender age wants to be dirty and 
noisy. He is outspokenly self-centered and selfish, and 
has little regard for the rights of others. He may tell 
untruths and may even appropriate things not belonging 
to him; for the distinction between actual facts and 272 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
fancies, between right and wrong, is hazy in his mind, 
and the idea of property is undeveloped, especially as 
the savage desire of seizing everything in sight is very 
strong. 
When these primitive habits and manifestations per- 
sist beyond their legitimate period there may be danger. 
It would mean that strong primitive instincts prevail, 
which will prevent the evolution of higher brain 
functions. 
It has been asserted by some students of cancer that 
the cancerous tissue is really infantile or even fetal 
tissue which has not been absorbed in the growth proc- 
ess and changed into normal tissue. Others have 
disputed this explanation of cancer. Be that as it may, 
there are examples of the danger of unchanged tissues 
in the body of man, and of organs which represent an 
older period of development and which have persisted 
through the later periods. They invariably constitute 
an abnormality and an eventual source of danger. The 
same principle is applicable to mental habits. 
A child who will suck his thumb after the main 
teething period has passed, who makes incoordinate 
movements with his fingers and hands and fails to grasp 
things firmly after the second year, who is backward in 
sitting, standing, and walking and in the development 
of articulate speech even when he has reached his third 
year, should be carefully examined. He may have de- 
velopmental weaknesses which are likely to spell sickness 
or defectiveness somehow and at some time. 
Parents are often inclined to think that conditions of 
this kind will be ‘ ‘ outgrown. ’ ’ This is mostly a delusion. 
Never wait until it is too late. The child expert should PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE 
273 
be called in for advice as soon as parents have made 
their clear-cut observation. 
The same is true of mental and emotional character- 
istics. A child who remains selfish and bullying after 
he has entered school and the companionship of other 
children, who will persist in telling untruths and in dis- 
regarding the difference between mine and thine in later 
childhood, whose early childish spells of obstreperous- 
ness develop into attacks of real temper, who persists in 
being cruel, unreasonable, headstrong, or underhanded 
and secretive, careless in person and dress—such a child 
is in danger of derailment. 
It is often the case that the source of danger is in 
the home, that the child’s parents have made serious 
mistakes in handling him. It is also possible, however, 
that there is incipient nervous disease, lurking epilepsy, 
mental or moral derangement. The expert physician 
and child expert, perhaps even the psychiatrist, should 
have an early opportunity to prevent, if possible, the 
drifting of such a child into true abnormality. CHAPTER X 
DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
The Angel and the Demon 
An Italian artist, many years ago, happened to see a 
little boy of such exquisite beauty that he wished to pre- 
serve his features for all time. So he painted the 
charming face upon a canvas and hung it upon the wall 
of his studio. In his saddest hours that gentle counten- 
ance was like an angel of light and comfort to him. 
“If ever I find,” he said to himself, “a perfect con- 
trast to this beautiful face, I will paint that also and 
hang them side by side, as ideals of heaven and hell.” 
Years passed. At length, in a distant prison he saw 
the most hideous object imaginable, a fierce, haggard 
fiend, with glaring eyes, and cheeks deeply furrowed with 
lust and crime. The artist painted a picture of this 
loathsome face, to hang beside the lovely boy. The con- 
trast was perfect. But what was the surprise of the 
artist, inquiring into the history of the derelict, to find 
that he was once that lovely boy! The demon had once 
been an angel: the innocent beginning and the sad 
ending of a tragic romance of life. 
Was this evolution inevitable? Is Schopenhauer 
right in maintaining that education could only have 
mitigated, but never changed, this course? Was the 
angel predestined to degenerate into a demon, to end his 
life as a convict? DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
275 
There are several explanations of the apparent change. 
Was there a mistake in the first judgment? The boy’s 
face was that of an angel, the artist thought. What do 
we call angelic? Features that are merely beautiful in 
outline ? Blue eyes, rosy cheeks, ringlets of golden hair ? 
A child’s face is as yet untouched by life. But does 
such an untouched face imply that behind it there dwells 
an angelic soul? Indeed not. A child’s is an untried 
soul; his possibilities are as yet unawakened. It re- 
quires a knowledge of the character, rather than a mere 
appreciation of childish beauty to understand a child. 
For the development of an angelic character there is 
often need of a long life of trials and self-conquest. 
The features of a ripe old man or woman, rugged as they 
may be, are often more truly angelic than those of a 
budding child. 
Or were there bad influences, an unwholesome envi- 
ronment, which ruined an originally well disposed heart ? 
Or had the child inherited the sins of his forebears, and 
did his life but paraphrase the truth of the biblical 
saying that God will visit the sins of the fathers upon 
the child unto the third and fourth generation ? 
Or is it possible that a good child, endowed with fine 
qualities of character, can suddenly and without appar- 
ent cause change and become a different being? We 
may find that such reverses are not altogether impossible 
during the pubescent period when atavistic traits are 
likely to manifest themselves and alter the course of a 
child’s life, unless great care is taken by the parents. 
Home Measures to Prevent Moral Derailment 
Parents must understand the youthful instincts which 276 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
make a child vulnerable to temptations in order to guide 
him wisely toward constructive morality and away from 
vice. 
We are likely to forget our own youthful follies and 
childish pranks. Whenever parents have come to me for 
advice about their apparently wayward children, I have 
employed the methods of psychoanalysis in ferreting 
out their own childhood histories. There have been 
many surprises in store for us when they have begun to 
recall what they did before they had a full sense of re- 
sponsibility. I am not speaking only of boys and their 
fathers, but also of the girls and their mothers. Few 
of them were meek and decorous when they wore 
knickerbockers and short frocks. 
The knowledge that they have the sympathetic under- 
standing of their own parents, that they will not be 
misjudged, but are trusted and will be forgiven if their 
childish ignorance and impulsiveness should lead them 
into trouble, will be the firm rock upon which the chil- 
dren’s moral responsibility will rest. They will confi- 
dentially turn to their parents with the assurance that 
these will be the first to show them the way when they 
have gone astray. 
Many a child has lost his moral balance because there 
was some physical irritation which made him restless 
and excitable. Even children suffer at times from cer- 
tain forms of mental disease, like hysteria, or the begin- 
nings of epilepsy, which are likely to cause undesirable 
moral reactions. 
Parents should be comrades and chums of their chil- 
dren, so that they may never lose them to the doubtful 
influence of others. Of course, they should help in find- DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
277 
ing for their children suitable companionship, allowing 
them, however, to choose for themselves and decide ac- 
cording to their own needs and preferences, even at the 
risk of an occasional unwise choice. Under proper guid- 
ance the child will learn to realize his mistake. Teach 
the children to depend upon themselves as much as pos- 
sible. 
The child’s natural tendency to be active and venture- 
some must be given outlet. There should be physical 
training and exercise with competitive games and sports, 
open-air tramps and sports with the delights of camp 
life, experiences with unknown animals and plants, walks 
in the dark, with the mystery of the night about them. 
There is many a thrill in these excursions and under- 
takings. 
There must be good books for the child to read, not 
exactly goody-goody books, or classical literature of the 
elevated kind, but real children’s books, with lots of 
“pep” and adventure in them. 
Dangers of Recreation-Time 
When your boy is busily occupied with his school 
work, or with cheerful jobs about the house, he is out 
of danger. Even when he plays with his brothers and 
sisters or with friends in the shelter of the home there 
is nothing much to fear. 
But when his recreation is found in places away from 
home, when he finds chance playmates and companion- 
ship among the uncontrolled elements of the street, the 
public highways and parks, danger begins. 
This is one of the reasons why some parents are over- 
anxious about letting their children out of sight. In 278 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
this manner, however, they weaken their children’s power 
of resistance, of self-control, of decision and initiative. 
Most parents, however, are careless. They feel relieved 
when their children run off so that they may be rid of 
them for a while. They also feel the same relief when 
the children are at school, and take no further concern 
in their doings except when bad reports are brought 
home. 
There are always some children more daring than 
others. They will become leaders and examples. Even 
the weak characters will feel proud when they can 
meekly imitate their bold fellows; or, if they cannot 
equal their prowess, they will glory in following them 
as sheep will follow the ram. That is the way gangs 
are formed. 
The child is naturally active. He wants to do things, 
explore possibilities, and to test his own strength, his 
own mental powers, his cunning, his daring. Danger 
attracts the normal child; the coward is despised by the 
normal boy. Girls, in their companionship with boys, 
will have little admiration for the shrinking, timid fel- 
low who runs away from a dare; they will adore the 
self-asserting, bold, venturesome boy even if he be a 
bully and brute. They love his audacious smile. 
Even children who are watched over carefully will 
have opportunities of eluding the protective hands of 
their elders and of following the “call of the wild.” 
The more normal they are, the more they will chafe 
under the well meant restrictions the full meaning of 
which they cannot understand and which they only sense 
as a curtailment of their personal liberty. 
How dangerous these promptings are has become evi- DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
279 
dent by a study of the conduct of the pupils in many 
of our best regulated private schools, including boarding- 
schools. It requires very wise ‘ ‘ masters ’ ’ indeed to lead 
boys along wholesome lines of youthful activity and 
self-assertion. Sad to say, it is hardly less perilous for 
our young girls. 
We must equip our children with rational moral prin- 
ciples and habits from the very start. Having these, a 
good foundation is laid for their power of resisting 
temptation. 
Games and Crime 
Several men, interested in detective work, were chat- 
ting together. Most persons, one of them declared, are 
more interested in the pursued and his efforts to escape 
than in the officer who tries to capture him. 
“When we were kids, and playing hide-and-seek,” 
another one said, “the excitement lay in being sought, 
and it was dull sport indeed to be ‘it.’ In the gather- 
ing dusk, crouched down behind a rain-barrel, our 
hearts thumped wildly at the nearing approach of the 
boy who was ‘it,’ while he, stolid and calm, went stum- 
bling about, certain that sooner or later he would find 
us.” 
The men did not all agree, but it was finally admitted 
by all that the pursued one is, after all, “a creator,” 
the one who creates the situation and all the accompany- 
ing circumstances which the pursuer endeavors to trace, 
who creates all the mystery which baffles the hunters be- 
fore they can lay their hands on the culprit. And the 
creator is always an interesting character, no matter 
what part he plays in life. 280 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
This discussion is significant. It is a grave mistake 
to think that the criminal is necessarily a mentally de- 
fective person, that only defective children will be lured 
into delinquency. The “creative” criminal is one with 
an active mind and a restless soul, whose craving for 
excitement has not been satisfied in the ordinary way; 
and he begins his career almost invariably in youth. 
At that time his cravings are becoming defined, although 
years may pass before some potent cause breaks down 
the barriers of his resistance to the promptings within 
him. 
Somehow, the plunge into what we call criminality 
is a lapse into primitive modes of action, a reminder of 
the time when society had not yet built its edifice of 
moral precepts and conventional restrictions, when in- 
dividual self-assertion was dominant. 
These promptings live in every normal, active child. 
To civilize them, to lead them into constructive rather 
than destructive channels, we must satisfy them in a 
legitimate form. Much, in after life, will depend upon 
the kind of daily existence which the individual is al- 
lowed by circumstances to shape for himself, upon his 
chances to express his individuality fully in socialized 
pursuits. But the foundation for socialized activity 
must be laid in childhood. 
The child must be given the fullest opportunity to 
live his own life of breathless activity and creative 
imagination. It is through the games of childhood that 
this can be done. If he so plays games, such as the 
men quoted mentioned, that he can throw his whole 
soul into them, the dangerous tendencies will be “lopped 
off.” Games like hide-and-seek, fox and geese, all those DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
281 
that imply skill and competition, allowing individual 
creativeness to assert itself in competing with the other 
fellow; later on, sports of all kinds, in proportion to the 
boy’s age—all these activities will give an outlet to the 
adventurous spirit of youth and prevent a storing up of 
perilous emotions which may break through the outward 
shell of civilized habits at the most unexpected time. 
The “Movies” and the Child 
At a moving-picture show that depicted the sorrows 
and sufferings of women who have sinned and the 
troubles of the eternal triangle, as well as the tempta- 
tions of the gay life of the white lights, I observed a 
large number of children under twelve. That there 
were also young women in their early teens, is another 
matter. But the parents of the first-mentioned young- 
sters had brought them along because they themselves 
desired to see the “problem” picture and could not 
leave their children behind. 
The enormity of this mistake was equaled only by an- 
other experience I had at a meeting of the Florence 
Crittenden Mission for unmarried mothers. I noticed 
an “elegant” lady, apparently sincerely interested in 
the grave problem, who had with her her fifteen-year- 
old daughter. The facts discussed were instructive to 
the social reformer, but not proper food for thought for 
a young girl of that immature age. 
We may wish to give our children the opportunity 
of studying human situations, and may use the theater 
and the moving picture to help. There is a reason in 
this. The novel and the drama have been defined by 
thinking men as mediating “vicarious” experience. 282 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
This is true: by watching the experience of others as 
depicted by a master hand we learn a lesson which 
may save us bitter grief in our own lives. 
But such lessons must be learned when they are needed 
—at the proper time in a child’s psychic evolution. 
And they must furnish not only information—which is 
often of a seductive or depressing nature—but inspira- 
tion, the desire for the pure and the right. 
The moving pictures have come to stay, and they have 
a useful purpose. But in the education of children 
they must be used with great care and discrimination. 
Parents must know beforehand what a show will offer 
and what lesson or inspiration or pleasure their chil- 
dren may derive from it. There are wonderful films 
as well as much trash, and it is merely a matter of wise 
choosing on the parents’ part. A woman who will be 
particular about matching a ribbon which is to adorn 
her dress, or a man who is fastidious in the selection of 
his cigars should not grudge the time it may require 
to choose the right moral color or the proper brand of 
pleasure for their children in taking them to public 
places. 
Do the “Movies” Further Juvenile Crime? 
In the after-war discussions of the so-called crime 
wave which was supposed to be sweeping all through 
this country as it did over the rest of the world, the in- 
fluence of the “movies’’ was widely considered. And 
as, with other forms of crime, there was also a rather 
large crop of juvenile delinquents, the question was 
raised: Why are there so many children in their early DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
283 
teens, yes, even some of more tender age, among the way- 
ward? 
May it be that the “movies” with their blood-and- 
thunder stories and their crime pictures have had a per- 
nicious influence upon the young minds so that they are 
tempted to imitate the screen examples in their own 
experience? The result of this fear has been that in a 
number of cities the police have strictly forbidden the 
portrayal of crime on the stage, and plans are under 
way to forbid the attendance of children at commercial- 
ized “movies.” 
But, as a matter of fact, we know little or nothing 
about the actual effect of the “movies” on the juvenile 
mind. The screen pictures have become a very potent 
factor in visual instruction even in schools, and it has 
become universally recognized that they mean much 
among the educational influences in child life. 
In order to understand more fully the real significance 
of this influence, we must undertake careful studies. 
In the investigation of children’s reaction to the 
“movies” we must be careful not to let our adult im- 
pressions interfere with our record of those made by the 
pictures upon the children themselves. What may affect 
our sophisticated minds unpleasantly may leave the child 
soul entirely untouched. Here are a few of the ques- 
tions we might ask parents to consider: 
Do the children talk much to you or among them- 
selves about the scenes they have witnessed? Do they 
reproduce scenes in their play? What seems to be 
their favorite kind of scene to act or reproduce in some 
form? What seems repulsive to them? Do they re- 284 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
member their film experience for a long time, or do 
they readily forget? Or do the memories of the scenes 
reappear in their consciousness, or in their conduct, 
after a lapse of time ? Is their conduct affected by the 
scenes they have witnessed? What is the effect upon 
their sleep, their dreams, their temperament? Is there 
an effect upon their readiness of fatigue, or in the pro- 
duction of restlessness, nervousness, etc.? How were 
your children affected, in particular, by adventure and 
blood-and-thunder stories; criminal acts and their pun- 
ishments; comic pictures, illustrated puns and jokes- 
sex information pictures; fairy-tales and stories from 
classic literature; instructional pictures on travel and 
geography, industrial pictures, scientific demonstrations, 
historical dramatizations ? 
There is a great mass of information needed, and we 
must record the voluntary and unconscious reactions 
on the part of the children rather than their answers 
to direct questions. If parents will have their eyes 
open, much good can be accomplished. 
The Child and the Juvenile Court 
Many parents read the stories in the daily papers of 
children who have committed misdemeanors and are 
brought before the children’s courts with the smug self- 
confidence of the Pharisee. Such a thing could not 
happen to their children, they reassure themselves. 
Some psychologists have tried to make us believe that 
juvenile delinquents are tainted with a mental or moral 
defect, and the average parent has a lurking suspicion 
that this is so. Consequently, as his child, of course, 
has no such defect, he looks down with pity or contempt DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
285 
upon those who transmit to their children a taint which 
will bring them into conflict with the law. 
What happens to-day to the child of some other unfor- 
tunate parent, may happen to his child to-morrow. 
Let us not forget that we are quite apt to excuse, and 
even defend against others, our own children’s short- 
comings when we would indignantly denounce them in 
other people’s children. 
It has been shown that there are physical resons for 
delinquencies of children: under-nourishment, impaired 
digestion, poor eyesight, rheumatic disorders, nervous 
strains. Are we all quite aware of our children’s physi- 
cal condition and dangers? 
Generally speaking, the evidence of impartial ob- 
servers shows that the children who drift into the juve- 
nile courts are little different from those who never 
find their way there. The juvenile court child differs 
from the child who is not picked up by an officer or 
referred to the police authorities in that the latter is 
better sheltered and protected by his environmental con- 
ditions. 
The offense of stealing an apple from a push-cart is 
hardly greater than that of stealing a glass of jam from 
mother’s cupboard; in a sense, neither of the two acts 
is criminal. Proper educative regimen will regulate 
these manifestations of developmental promptings easily. 
If the child goes on doing wrong things, there is, of 
course, the possibility of some inherent defect which 
has to be studied. But, in the vast majority of cases, 
the fault lies with the education and handling the child 
receives. Training in proper habits is one of the ele- 
ments which make for constructive education. 286 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Passing over and neglecting the many little things 
which make up a child’s life—his instinctive reactions 
to impressions and impulses, his temptations and crav- 
ings—will lead to much damage and unhappiness later 
on. Again, there is the scolding parent wdio arouses the 
resentment of his child whose most innocent and legiti- 
mate pleasures and occupations are interfered with. 
The lack of a loving relationship, or over-indulgence 
without rational firmness, on the other hand, will work 
mischief in a child’s soul. 
At any rate, don’t let us be too sure of ourselves if 
we see our neighbor’s child go astray. And, if our own 
child should cause our heart to grieve, we will not cast 
him out of our heart as an ingrate, but say with the 
ancient Roman father, “Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!” 
“It is my fault, my own very great fault!’’ 
The children’s court is a place where the self-suf- 
ficiency of parents is often sadly illustrated. Recently 
five boys were brought under the charge of a probation 
officer for stealing. He investigated the case, as all 
five came from good families. Two had lost their 
mothers and had kept company with a third boy who 
had lured them from the straight and even path. Why ? 
His mother was a faultless housekeeper and did not like 
his littering up the house, and so she virtually drove him 
into the street and its temptations. When he did some 
wrong, she and his father were merely scandalized and 
whipped him. They thought he was queer, and he 
thought the same of them. 
Another boy had a fierce temper and delighted in 
playing pranks on a much disliked prospective step- 
mother who antagonized him all the time. And so on. DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
287 
The parents of these boys considered themselves fault- 
less and were much put out by their children’s “unac- 
countable” conduct. 
The Boy and the Law 
The * ‘ law ’ ’ is a dim thing in the boy’s consciousness; 
he has no real idea of social covenants, of the obliga- 
tions and privileges of citizenship. To the average 
boy, the “law” is personified by the “cop”; and his 
antagonism against laws which restrict his activity and 
his liberty expresses itself practically in a fight of wits 
with the “cop.” 
The first “offenses” which a boy commits are rela- 
tively harmless. They are simply the result of buoyant 
spirit, of recklessness, of daring. He will play ball, 
not where he should, but where it is convenient to play; 
his ball may go astray and break a window or a street- 
lamp ; he may get into a fight with some other boy who 
tried to bully him. Or he may play “hooky” in his 
eagerness to get out into the fields and woods to play, 
or because his teachers had been cross with him, or he 
had lost interest in his studies. 
The consciousness that he did something which was 
out of the ordinary, while it may give him an exciting 
sense of guilt and fright, will also quite delight him. 
There is a delicious charm in doing forbidden things. 
The spirit of adventure is rampant in the young soul. 
Many a criminal has no other excuse for his fight against 
the law than that it is more exciting to do the forbidden 
things than to live a regular, harmless, colorless life. 
Just so, to outwit the “cop,” to enjoy all the enchant- 
ing risk of daring to do forbidden things, to measure 288 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
his own cunning and resources with those of the guardian 
of the “law,” to experiment with danger, to gage and 
test his own strength—all that means something of a 
victory to the youthful outlaw if so we may call him. 
It is the same with the boy’s attempt to smoke. Just 
because it should not be done, he will do it. He may 
have seen another boy smoke, without realizing that the 
other fellow did it despite the nausea it made him feel. 
At any rate, he will try it, suffer as he may, to ‘ ‘ show he 
is a man.” 
All these things mean little if they are a passing show 
of youthful bravado. It is wise to treat them as such 
when we come across them, be it at the home or in the ju- 
venile court. It is different when the cigarette or cigar 
becomes a habit with the boy, when he does not outgrow 
his venturesome habits of recklessness and outlawry 
but allows them to become his masters. 
Truancy 
Our rigid school laws, beneficial as they are in their 
general import, have tended to ostracize truancy as a 
distinct transgression. In fact, some psychologists have 
ventured to assert that truants, in a large number of 
cases, are defective. 
I am not arguing against truancy laws. They are 
mostly intended to reach out to parents who are care- 
less or do not wish to give their children the benefit of 
a good school education. But by no means can we say 
that truants are mainly defectives, transgressors, or 
delinquents. 
Children of all ages have a tendency to chafe against 
strict regularity. To them, the hours of sweet free- DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
289 
dom are worth more than those in which they are chained 
down to ever so useful schooling or occupation. Toward 
the age of puberty and adolescence, the migratory in- 
stinct manifests itself. A neglect to recognize this in- 
stinct is likely to breed mischief. 
Studies of truancy have revealed the fact that most 
of the truants went to the wTater to fish, skate, swim, 
or play. The water has always a great attraction to 
children. Next in order come the woods and fields, the 
playing of ball and other games, or the viewing of 
parades. Many are described as having an immoderate 
love for sight-seeing, excitement, and outdoor experi- 
ence. 
When these tendencies reach a morbid degree and as- 
sume excessive form, we may suspect nervous conditions, 
even psychopathic disorders. But ordinarily the crav- 
ing is natural. Who has not read Whittier’s “Barefoot 
Boy” who gains 
Knowledge never learnt of schools, 
Of the wild bee’s morning chase, 
Of the wild flower’s time and place, 
Flight of fowl and habitude 
Of the tenants of the wood . . . 
For, eschewing books and tasks, 
Nature answers all he asks; 
Hand in hand with her he walks, 
Face to face with her he talks. 
Why can we not make all this element of enthusiasm, 
of joy, part and parcel of our school and home educa- 
tion? 
Sight-seeing is a very legitimate right of the child. 290 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Excursions through the city streets, the fields the for- 
ests, the brook-side; visits to the museums, zoological and 
botanical gardens, aquaria, factories, machine-shops, 
etc., will furnish an inexhaustible opportunity for con- 
crete experience and an outlet for the spirit of truancy. 
The Thieving Child 
Few things worry a parent more than a thieving 
propensity in a child. The first impression such a child 
is apt to produce is that he is vicious and needs severe 
punishment. This is a mistake. 
Honesty is not a virtue which is born with us. It is 
the result of the civilizing process which has been going 
on through the ages from the time that aboriginal man 
lived in caves and trees, a prey to fear and craving for 
sustenance. Even in our modern half-civilized races 
and peoples, honesty is not so current and self-under- 
stood as we might wish. If we should take the time to 
study the natural conduct of some of the strange na- 
tions with which the war has brought us into sympathetic 
contact, we would be surprised how common horse- 
thieving, cattle-stealing, and similar habits are among 
them. 
Stealing is an impression of primitive warfare, get- 
ting the best of your neighbor. In the frontier areas of 
our own American civilization, when the trapper and 
the settler made history, horse-stealing and cattle-rust- 
ling were the order of the day, and the horse-thief 
and cattle-rustler, although they were hanged when dis- 
covered or shot down on the spot, were not altogether 
less characteristic figures of the plains than their ‘ * legiti- DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
291 
mate” competitors. Stealing in high places, in the 
stock-market and in profiteering, is not condemned very 
seriously by our virtuous contemporaries. 
Many influences are at work to rear children from 
primitive promptings into the realm of modern civi- 
lized conduct. Some are hereditary, others are environ- 
ments, still others are directly educational. But it is a 
very subtle and often slow process to train children in 
a proper regard for mine and thine. Let us understand 
that “honesty” is not an inborn trait even in children 
of “good families.” 
It needs no special injunction to impress it upon 
parents that education for honesty is a very important 
part of the child’s upbringing. But they must not be 
too impatient, or to harsh with their children, if this 
process is a slower one than they would like. Often a 
child’s physical and mental health is at fault, and the 
help of the family physician or child specialist will have 
to be asked. Some children are merely slow in develop- 
ing the modern attitude toward property, just as they 
may be slow in acquiring other accomplishments, like 
reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar. 
As in the case of constitutional backwardness in other 
things, persistent indulgence in thieving on the part 
of a child is a danger-signal and must be carefully 
studied as what we call a “conduct disorder.” Only 
the expert student of child nature can help here, and 
there are rare cases when even he cannot help in any 
other way than to advise custodial care to protect the 
morally defective child from the consequences of his 
own misfortune. 292 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Unsafe Examples 
A little boy went with his mother into a store to buy 
a remembrance for a friend. It was only a ten-cent 
aluminum tray, but to the little fellow, who bought it 
with his own money, it represented a thing of material 
as well as of sentimental value. The mother handed 
the tray, with the money the child had given her, to the 
saleslady to have it-wrapped up. The boy had not no- 
ticed this, and after having given up his money he took 
one of the trays on the counter as his purchase; he had 
never cared much for having his purchases wrapped. 
The error was only discovered after mother and child 
had left the store, when the mother handed the wrapped 
package to her little son to carry. When she saw the 
extra tray in the child’s hand, she did not tell him to 
go back and give it up, as she might have done, but con- 
sidered the thing a good joke, laughing heartily. The 
child had more sense of embarrassment than she had, 
and blushed with shame. But, as his mother seemed to 
think the performance all right, he did not act as he 
himself felt prompted to do. The people were of the 
educated class, let us remember. 
The money value of the purloined article was only 
ten cents. But values are relative, and, for that matter, 
honesty or dishonesty are not discriminated from one 
another by considering the dollars and cents involved. 
The law may make an artificial distinction between petty 
and grand larceny; morally speaking, there is only 
either honesty or dishonesty. To give a child the idea 
that he may keep a purloined article, even when he had 
not intended to steal it, is to invite loose thinking in DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
293 
matters of ethics, and to lay the foundation for future 
derailment. 
But many children are made daily witnesses of their 
parents’ deviations from the straight and narrow path. 
To save a nickel in the payment of street-car fare, a 
mother will brazenly lie about her child’s age, not con- 
sidering that she is, by this act, not only lying, but 
actually stealing from the street-car company, which 
is entitled to full fares. And the same mother will 
insist upon a seat for him even when adult passengers 
have to stand in the aisle. The same dubious practice 
can be observed in railroad-trains, in attending theaters, 
the circus, and in numerous other instances. 
The child, seeing all this, must wonder at his parent’s 
attitude when he is so often admonished that lying and 
stealing are deadly sins. 
Mine and Thine 
Young children cannot and will not distinguish care- 
fully between what belongs to themselves and what does 
not. Parents should teach their children to share their 
possessions. The idea of sharing interferes with the 
child’s jealousy in guarding what he wants to consider 
his very own. These two ideas, that of private owner- 
ship and that of sharing, are constantly warring against 
each other in the mind of a child. 
An only child, who has little or no opportunity of 
sharing with others, is apt to become selfish and queer 
about his possessions. On the other hand, those chil- 
dren who grow up in a large group of brothers and sis- 
ters, with whom they, from necessity, will have to share 294 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
most of their things, the older children often bequeath- 
ing their clothing to the succeeding ones, may have a 
longing for having things all their own when they 
grow up. In a higher mental state, the idea of private 
possession unites with that of privacy in general, the 
freedom of being an individual, not being obliged to lose 
part of his identity in making common cause with others. 
A child cannot quite understand why he, when hungry, 
may not help himself to mother’s cake or jam; isn’t 
it, after all, a family possession? Occasionally, money, 
as a means for satisfying some instinct, will be as al- 
luring to the child as a cake or a glass of jam. The 
display of fruit and other wares in public stores does 
not immediately awaken in a child’s mind the idea that 
they are other people’s property which must be re- 
spected, and a hungry child will even invade a neigh- 
bor’s orchard to steal his apples. There are few chil- 
dren who have never been guilty of such transgressions. 
Of course, with tactful teaching, the growing mind of 
the child will learn to understand those social conven- 
tions which refer to what we call private property. 
It is, in fact, an evidence of some mental twist in a 
child if he does not respond to such teachings when he 
is mature enough. But parents must not be too much 
alarmed when this process of learning to distinguish 
between mine and thine is a slow one, beset with pit- 
falls, and leading into strange and tortuous byways 
where our reasoning cannot always follow. 
To Teach Property Rights 
Moral precepts, reiterations of the Mosaic command- 
ment, “Thou shalt not steal,” and the like will avail DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
295 
little with young children if you wish to teach them 
the sanctity of personal property. This teaching must 
be undertaken in a more practical manner. 
To eliminate the temptation to help himself to for- 
bidden supplies, it is best to see to it that the child’s 
meals are adapted to his age. Up to a certain age, small, 
luscious bites at specified times between meals will do 
wonders. 
Have a plate of fruit, or a little harmless candy in an 
easily accessible place, with the understanding that the 
child may help himself to it at his pleasure after meals. 
That will do away with a lot of little temptations. The 
child will cease to crave when he has open access to 
things. 
Take him or allow him to go with companions to mov- 
ing-picture shows, on little trolley trips, and the like, 
often enough to minimize the longing for this form of 
amusement. He will then have less inclination to help 
himself to money from an open drawer to satisfy his 
spirit. Give him an allowance out of which he may 
treat himself or his friends at times. 
The less “forbidden things” he encounters the less 
temptation will be in his way. Take an active interest 
in his ideas and longings, and lead them gently into 
proper channels. Make him feel you trust him, and 
remove opportunities for illegitimate recreations and 
occupations by furnishing plenty of wholesome and con- 
structive ones. 
His instinct for personal possessions should be grati- 
fied. Make him feel at an early age that his clothes, 
his various utensils, his playthings, etc., are his very 
own, but also that such ownership entails a responsi- 296 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
bility, tbe responsibility to keep them in good order 
and preservation. 
Training in orderliness will help greatly in making 
him realize the responsibility of private possessions. 
If he learns to avoid heedless damage to his own things, 
whether he himself or others bear the blame for this 
damage, he will appreciate his responsibility toward the 
property of others. 
In case his playmate should break or damage one of 
his possessions, the primitive instinct of revenge may 
prompt him to retaliate—not a very ethical thing to 
do, but quite natural. Do not worry too much over it; 
he will outgrow this stage. He will learn to know what 
it means to respect the rights of the other fellow, and 
that the possession of property and its defense pre- 
supposes the recognition of the inviolability of the 
other fellow’s possessions; in other words, he will under- 
stand that there is a mutuality in this arrangement, a 
sort of social contract. He will not see the full meaning 
of this social contract, but he will grow into the habit 
of living up to it. 
Of course, as soon as possible, parents will appeal 
to the child’s sense of honor when he slips from the path 
of honesty, showing him how he exposes himself to dis- 
trust and to being shunned by those he wrongs. Such 
appeals will rarely miscarry altogether. If they do, 
and do permanently, the child cannot be considered 
normal. 
Some Things that Make for Delinquency 
Not long ago a mother came to see me with a tale of 
woe. She was a poor widow, with two sons. The elder, DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
297 
a lad of nineteen, had been to a reform school and then 
had married a rather worthless girl, with whom he had 
quartered himself in his mother’s home, living on her 
small income, doing nothing himself. 
The younger boy, she feared, was going the same evil 
way. He had been before the juvenile court, being im- 
plicated in some small robberies committed by a gang 
of boys, but was dismissed because he was apparently 
more misled than anything else. In school he had made 
no progress, having been for some years enrolled in an 
“ungraded” class, in company with others who were 
thought to be mentally defective. Outside of school he 
roamed the streets, did odd jobs, and was generally a 
good-for-nothing, although not altogether a bad boy. 
What should she do? 
A mental examination revealed nothing unusual ex- 
cept decided backwardness. He was apparently a boy 
with normal though perhaps not highly developed 
intelligence who ought to have made good in school like 
any ordinary fellow. His demeanor showed some sul- 
lenness and distrust, but was not that of a tough boy. 
He seemed to have a fear of being “put away.” 
Further investigation showed that he was rather dull 
of hearing, and had suffered from a running ear. His 
eyesight was deficient in both eyes, so that reading and 
writing required special effort, and his results were in- 
exact. He had a fair number concept but was backward 
in arithmetical processes. His posture was sagging, and 
he showed unmistakable signs of malnutrition. 
No wonder that the boy had no great happiness in 
school where his handicaps were not observed and where 
he made little progress and could take but indifferent 298 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
interest. He had little mental energy, and effort was 
distasteful to him. So he followed his primitive in- 
stincts and idled away his time in the streets with com- 
panions who did him no good. Not being understood 
at home, he did not care to be there. 
With the help of charitable friends, the boy was first 
placed under treatment. He had suitable glasses fitted, 
underwent an operation for inner ear inflammation, and 
massage was given to his spinal column. A general 
physical training soon corrected his posture; and he was 
given nourishing food, his mother being instructed what 
to prepare for him at the least expense. 
In a remarkably short time, he picked up. The 
world looked entirely different to him, and he began 
to take an interest in normal things. At the right time, 
a teacher gave him private lessons in the subjects he 
had missed, and after a while he was transferred to an- 
other school and into a regular class. It was a fourth 
grade only, to be sure, and he was at first a little awk- 
ward with his younger schoolmates. But, under en- 
couragement, he plodded on; his behavior improved and 
in his studies he became more and more proficient. His 
school record, while elementary, became very good, in- 
deed. 
This boy, who might have drifted into inefficiency 
and delinquency, was a perfectly normal boy merely 
needing to be understood in his troubles. There are 
many thousands of these, and many mothers and fathers 
are puzzled and worried just as this mother was. 
About an Incorrigible Boy 
In some school systems there exist special classes or DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
299 
schools for the so-called “ incorrigibles. ’ ’ I have al- 
ways disliked this term; no hoy is incorrigible, and it 
is wrong ever to stigmatize a boy who is difficult to 
handle by such a name. True, a difficult boy may even 
drift into criminality and get into the juvenile court. 
What of it ? He may in truth be a better, more promis- 
ing boy than his meek neighbor who never comes into 
conflict with organized authority. 
A careful and sympathetic study of “incorrigibles” 
reveals the fact that much can be said in their favor, 
and that the problem of discipline, of socializing the 
boys, of saving them from falling from grace, is a much 
more intricate one than most people imagine. It will 
not do merely to put a boy down as “bad” when he 
gives you trouble. There may be a score of reasons 
and causes. 
Just let us hear the story of one such boy. John is 
now nine years old and an “old-timer” in crime. He 
is the son of very respectable people. His father is a 
hard-working artisan; his mother is proud of her five 
other children, and deeply worried over that one black 
sheep of the flock. When he was seven, he became a 
habitual truant; was arrested by a truant officer, was 
placed on probation, and promised to reform—with a 
twinkle in his eye. The next opportunity he ran away 
again. 
Then began his criminal career. He became a regular 
thief, and broke out of the house of detention. When 
asked why in the world he did such things, he answered, 
with an angelic smile, “I don’t know.” He degener- 
ated into a regular burglar, breaking into jewelry-shops, 
stealing a thousand dollars’ worth of goods from a sta- 300 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
tionery-store, etc. Arrests, detentions, forced escapes, 
and new crimes followed each other in rapid succes- 
sion. No “grilling,” no persuasion no incarceration, 
made the least impression upon the little boy. Mind 
you, he is only nine now. 
Before you condemn the boy, however, listen to 
these facts about him: When he was five years old, he 
had a very severe attack of typhoid fever. Soon after 
his recovery he almost lost his life in an accident. While 
playing on the bank of a river, he happened to step on 
quicksand and was nearly swallowed up by the treacher- 
ous pit before his terrified cries reached the ears of his 
aunt, who ran to his assistance and held him up until 
an alarm reached the fire-department. The two were 
saved by means of ladders laid on the ground. The 
fright left him in a very nervous condition, which he 
did not seem to outgrow. Later, he fell against the 
sharp edge of a table, breaking his skull, and the scar 
which resulted from this accident is so large that the 
finger of a grown-up man can be placed in it. 
This boy is not a criminal. He suffers from a nerv- 
ous disease which experts must diagnose and treat. 
Whether he is curable or not is another matter. But 
“incurability” and “incorrigibility” are two different 
things. 
Runaway Girls 
Police records show that in the year 1919 no less than 
sixty-eight thousand girls were reported missing in the 
United States. In New York City alone four thou- 
sand disappeared. Most likely, the real number is 
larger, as not all cases are reported, DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
301 
Fortunately, some of these lost girls are found by 
the agents of the Travelers’ Aid Society at the railroad- 
stations of the big cities before much harm has come to 
them. But the country-wide search for many others, 
futile as it often is, must convince us that the danger 
is great. 
Why do these girls leave home ? Who is to blame ? 
Is it venturesomeness on the part of the girls? Yes, 
in many cases this element plays its part. In the ado- 
lescent period, strange longings evolve in the hearts of 
our young, and strange impulsive actions are the re- 
sult unless great care is taken by school and home to 
give them a less dangerous outlet. 
Is it the lure of the great cities which are fancied 
by the young, as full of glamour and breathless excite- 
ment? Yes, indeed. The stories which reach the quiet 
towns and farms on the byways of the world’s traffic 
appeal to the imagination of the untutored and inex- 
perienced. 
Is it love-affairs which draw the girls from their shel- 
tered homes? Yes, in many cases. 
But at the bottom of it all there is one fundamental 
cause. And that is found in the home itself. 
Think of it: the youngest girl who came to the atten- 
tion of the Travelers’ Aid Society was only ten years 
old; the oldest was twenty-three, the average being 
seventeen; so that it appears the majority of them were 
still in their teens! 
Be it venturesomeness, be it the lure of the city, 
be it a love-affair, in any case the girl has lacked the 
proper guidance at home. And the agents of the aid 
society found that in general the girls left home because 302 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
they did not think themselves well treated by their 
families, or because they wanted to earn more money, 
or have more pleasure than their home environment 
gave them. 
Why should they not have pleasure ? Why have they 
no right to be treated as individual beings? One four- 
teen-year-old girl went to school from nine to three, 
then studied her home-work, and slept from six till mid- 
night, when she had to get up to help in her father’s 
bakery. As her mother worked outside the home, a 
thirteen-year-old girl had to do all the housework and 
was scolded frequently. In her “leisure time” she 
scrubbed the floors for neighbors, saved the money she 
earned, and ran away to New York to see the sights. 
The dreary monotony and drudgery of the life of 
many girls cannot but arouse resentment in the hearts 
of the more independent ones. Economic pressure is 
not always a good excuse. 
A girl whose individuality and natural emotions are 
recognized at home, whose home is sweet and cheery, 
whose mother can enter into all her little and big in- 
terests, joys, and sorrows and has her daughter’s con- 
fidence all the time and in all things, whose father is 
the best male friend she has or can ever have, such a 
girl will never run away from home. 
Wayward Girls 
It has been asserted that the great majority of way- 
ward girls are mentally inferior. But this is not true. 
There is a percentage among the delinquent and way- 
ward girls in whom evidence of mental defect can be DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
303 
found; but this is true also of boy delinquents, and in 
the same limited sense. 
The main cause of waywardness among girls is found 
in the home and general environment. Some of them 
were rather bright, indeed, and had been holding good 
positions as clerks, stenographers, salesgirls, secretaries, 
etc. Most of them had a so-called ordinary home en- 
vironment, with brothers and sisters and relatives. 
But here is the main trouble: In a study of female 
delinquency made recently in New York State, it came 
to light that only 3 per cent, of the delinquent woman 
of all kinds had had what could be considered good 
supervision while they were growing up! And do not 
for a moment suppose that the rest of the women came 
from dilapidated or disorderly homes; far from that. 
Only 10 per cent came from really poor and morally 
bad homes. Forty-five per cent, of the girls were the 
offspring of families which were self-supporting and 
generally fair, while 20 per cent, of the homes were 
classified as really good. Thus, about 65 per cent, of 
the families represented had a fair to good standing 
in the community. 
Incidentally, it may be stated that less than one fifth 
of 1 per cent, of the girls had received any kind of in- 
formation from their parents about their most vital 
functions and the meaning of womanhood. 
We may not console ourselves with the thought that 
it is the “ignorant’’ foreigner whose class furnishes the 
greatest number of girl delinquents. The great ma- 
jority, on the contrary, were American born. 
These figures are not pleasant, and the average parent 304 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
does not like to bother with statistics and investiga- 
tions of this kind. Yet they bring home to us certain 
truths and indisputable facts which we must consider. 
Parents know too little about their children, even 
about their bodily development, not to speak of their 
mental and emotional evolution. They battle, at times, 
only with outward manifestations which displease them. 
There is no careful watching of growth and disposition. 
A mother, and the father, too, should know when, as 
Judge Ben B. Lindsey put it, “their girls are young 
women in children’s dresses.” They ought not to be in- 
different to the kind of company they keep, to the places 
of amusement they frequent, to the hours when they are 
at home or away from home. 
The great cities, the manufacturing centers, are 
great crystal mazes in which the individual is easily 
lost. Parents must be the principal companions of 
their children at all times; the family should be the 
trysting-place for the young folks; and great care should 
be taken under what circumstances our young girls— 
not to speak of the boys—find their own companionship 
away from the parental hearth. Present-day develop- 
ment in the matter of occupations for girls outside the 
home has complicated matters. So much greater must 
be the solicitude of parents, not nagging and fault- 
finding, but guiding with kindly firmness. 
What the Community Can Do to Prevent Delinquency 
Boys and girls who have good homes may escape the 
danger of delinquency. But, under present conditions 
of economic life, a large number of children are not so 
blessed. Their home-life is irregular, to say the least, DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
305 
and their parents lack the opportunity and education 
to give them their full chance of sane and healthy de- 
velopment. 
Not only do these children suffer, hut they may be- 
come a danger to others, better sheltered than they, 
whom they meet in the school-room or street, or on other 
chance occasions. They grow up, often a danger to the 
social order for which they have developed little or no 
understanding or respect. 
Delinquency develops in youth, often in childhood. 
Falling from grace in advanced life is rare, except when 
there has been a slumbering waywardness, born in 
youth, and covered up in a conventional manner until 
occasion calls it forth. Delinquency almost always de- 
velops in the leisure hours of the child, when temptation 
to do wrong lures like an enchanting fairy. 
It is an established fact that gangs die out as soon 
as a community plants a public, well-regulated play- 
ground in the place of vacant lots and dark alleys. 
I have never been able to understand how a civilized 
community can tolerate the many back alleys with their 
filth, the vacant lots which are used as dumping-grounds, 
and the many ugly spaces which the average city 
contains. Filthy and unwholesome tenements still 
exist despite boards of health and building inspec- 
tors. 
It was an amazing thing to observe recently in a 
world-famous sea-resort that the annual “ cleaning-up- 
week” was ordered by the mayor. A cleaning-up week 
once a year! These dark and filthy places not only 
offend the eye,—and the nostrils,—but they accustom 
the dwellers in the neighborhood to the presence of 306 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
filth and litter. Disorderly habits are thus encouraged; 
the standard of life is lowered. 
This in itself has a bad effect upon the children grow- 
ing up in such environment. But these places also 
afford opportunities for unclean play, for stealthy 
gatherings, for gang-infested haunts. 
It is the function of every community to organize 
its own child-welfare work as effectively as possible. 
It may cost money, but it will save posterity. There 
must be playgrounds, with sunshine, clean air and water, 
swimming-pools and shower-baths, gymnasiums and li- 
braries, organized play and story-telling. 
There must be “hikes” and excursions under the 
leadership of trained men and women, in connection with 
the school authorities, as well as such private agencies 
as the Boy Scouts and the Camp-Fire Girls. 
There must be clean and helpful moving pictures, in 
the open—not goody-goody ones, but those that are 
full of real fun, of adventure, and thrill, such as reach 
the child; not those that tell the lurid stories of adult 
crime or unhappiness. Educational opportunities can- 
not be confined to the public school; they must embrace 
the whole life of the community’s children. 
Dangerous Defectives 
It is not pleasant to read the crime columns of our 
daily papers. Yet at times they offer valuable educa- 
tional suggestions. Here is a case in point. 
A tragedy occurred on a lake near Meriden, Con- 
necticut. Two boys, who were out fishing with their 
father, were murdered by him; he afterward killed 
himself. It is reported that the boys had been living DERAILMENT AND DEFECT 
307 
with their father, who had neglected to take proper care 
of them, so that he had been placed under probation. 
This seemed to have rankled in his mind. Yet father 
and sons seemed to be fond of each other. It was fur- 
ther stated that the father, although having a paying 
place, spent half his time away from his -work, roaming 
through the country and living a care-free outdoor life 
like the nomads of old, shirking the confinement and 
impositions of a settled life with its harassing responsi- 
bilities. It is quite possible that his neglect of his 
boys was the outcome of this roaming disposition rather 
than of intentional neglect. 
Such a roaming disposition is not necessarily a symp- 
tom of mental disease. There are other possible ex- 
planations. Yet, the suspicion is justified that the man 
was the victim of primitive impulses which, in our 
modern life, constitute a grave danger to mental health. 
Any one who has any knowledge of the pathology of 
the mind will recognize in the type represented by this 
murderer a “psychopathic personality.” No father of 
sane mind will slay his children and commit suicide. 
The man may have recognized his inability to man- 
age his affairs adequately and have committed the deed 
in a fit of depression; but this would only strengthen the 
diagnosis of mental disease. 
There are many people of ill-balanced mentality liv- 
ing in our midst, unrecognized by their families and 
friends. The point is that even children show evidence 
of mental disturbance and disease. It is the function of 
the parent to look out for such disturbances in the 
mental and emotional life of his child. Some parents 
are ashamed of acknowledging to themselves that their 308 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
children are mentally abnormal, as if it were a disgrace. 
Mental disease is as little a disgrace as is bodily dis- 
ease. The disgrace comes from the neglect of these 
symptoms. Each child should have the benefit of regu- 
larly repeated medical and educational examinations, 
so that danger-signals may be observed. In many cases, 
in the majority of them, evil developments may be pre- 
vented if proper treatment is afforded in time. But, 
when a child is recognized to be a psychopathic per- 
sonality, he ought to be under careful supervision and 
training, so that mischief may be avoided and a possible 
criminal career may be forestalled. A small percent- 
age of delinquents is feeble-minded; a much larger 
percentage is the victim of mental disease. CHAPTER XI 
MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
Training a Child for His Life’s Work 
Naturally, if we wish to prepare our children for their 
life-work we must train them for work. Work is man’s 
real mission in life. It is his true self-expression. Idle- 
ness has never brought out the best that is in a man. 
We are known by our deeds. The habit of work must 
be developed early. 
It has been said that man is by nature lazy, that he 
works only because he must, that necessity alone makes 
us shake off that delicious slothfulness which we relish. 
The story of paradise still lingers in the minds of 
many, and the idea is still prevalent that work is the 
punishment God has inflicted upon Adam after the fall. 
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” 
But this is hardly in accord with human facts. It is 
true enough that we enjoy leisure, and in times of un- 
rest the leisure curve swings high, but such a tendency 
is invariably a symptom of disturbed condition. In 
normal times, man wants to be busy, wants to let him- 
self out through work, wants to produce. 
It has often been observed that men, after a long life 
of strenuous activity, crave rest and leisure, only to 
find, after a short period of self-gratification, that they 
are not happy. They either plunge themselves into new 310 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
forms of activity, of a charitable or civic kind, or re- 
turn to their old occupations. Many have been the 
surmises as to why our American business men are not 
in the habit of retiring after having made their “pile.” 
This has been, by unpsychologic critics, attributed to 
greed which is never satisfied. In reality it is the na- 
ture of a normally healthy and strong man that he 
wants to stay in the harness until he must give way to 
physical inability. Even the recreation of an active 
man consists in taking up another form of activity, not 
in idleness. And it is this kind of men who make suc- 
cesses of their lives and are of most use to the race. 
It has also been shown that activity makes for a health- 
ier and longer life than idleness. 
The healthy child, certainly, is not an idler. Even 
though a child’s activity manifests itself in the form of 
play, he indeed works hard at his play. To enforce 
rest, sitting still, idleness, on a child, is the greatest 
punishment you can inflict. He wants to be doing 
something all the time, to express his innate needs and 
instincts. He must create, experiment, discover, ex- 
plore, whole-heartedly, incessantly. 
This being so, it would seem to be a simple thing for 
parents to develop the innate childish tendency into a 
true habit of application to productive work. In a way, 
it is a simple thing—if you know how. But the active 
child has only too often degenerated into a useless adult. 
Home Training for Work 
A child must play. Never allow him to degenerate 
into a drudge. Does that mean that he should never 
do a real piece of work while small? that he should MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
311 
never be taught to do a thing which may be distaste- 
ful to him? that he should never learn what is meant 
by “earning an honest penny” during these early form- 
ative years? 
This would be a sad error. 
Character building includes the education for serious 
work, but this need not be made a drudgery. The joy 
of work can be felt even in performing unpleasant tasks, 
■when there are pleasant anticipations connected with 
them. The tedious preparations for a party may not 
particularly appeal to an impatient boy or girl, but they 
will gladly plunge into the seeming drudgery knowing 
what it will mean in the end. Practising on the piano 
is usually distasteful to children, but when the prac- 
tice leads to the satisfaction of having their efforts ap- 
preciated, or to some performance before their friends 
they will practise to exhaustion. It always depends 
upon the way in which you approach the child. Arouse 
his interest, and you have won. 
But there is another and more serious or spiritual 
form of approach. No child likes to be a coward, to 
seem afraid of anything. If you show him that diffi- 
culties are like enemies which he must conquer and that 
it is cowardly to be afraid of difficulties, he will look 
at them in a different light. To overcome obstacles is a 
test of strength. With every new conquest he will feel 
added power. His own sloth is one of the worst of the 
obstacles in his way; show him what a fine thing it is 
to conquer himself. 
Home duties are among the best opportunities to teach 
a child the true meaning of work. With his increasing 
years and growing maturity, each child can be given a 312 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
greater share in the making and keeping of the common 
home. These duties must be made as constructive and 
educative as possible. The parent must indeed share 
in the work until the child feels his own responsibility 
and enjoys it. And with growing responsibility the 
child should enjoy a proportionately increasing confi- 
dence in the home circle; he should be taken into the 
family council with the right to express his own views 
and hopes, according to his growing maturity. In this 
way, his wTork will have a real meaning to him, and he 
will learn to appreciate what it means to “make his 
life” as a trusted member of a little community. This 
will spiritualize his work and prepare him for citizen- 
ship. 
Under certain conditions, always with the view of 
giving him an educational opportunity, the child may 
be allowed and encouraged to do some work outside of 
the home. He may even earn money, so as to learn the 
value of this commodity and the wisdom of saving. 
The money ought to be his own, though his parents 
should teach him the wisest way of spending it. So 
long as there is a relation of mutual confidence there 
will be fewer difficulties. 
The Futility of Drudgery 
Parents who train their children in daily drudgery 
may not always meet with the disappointment they de- 
serve. They may succeed in squeezing all joyfulness out 
of their children’s lives and in making them slaves of 
the grind. The children will go to school and come 
away again, only to plod on and on until they lie down 
to sleep—the dreamless sleep of utter tiredness when an MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
313 
undeveloped imagination fails to weave fairy-tales into 
the dreary experiences of the daily round. 
Such children will grow up to be for ever slaves of 
the daily task that somebody sets before them. They 
have never known the joy of work, and so they derive 
no joy from the occupation they may have fallen into; 
for even in the selection of their job they had no sense 
of preference. They do what comes to them, somehow, 
somewhere. They never experience the exhilaration of 
having to choose, to think for themselves, to create some- 
thing independently. They dread the uncertainty of 
employment, being unable to make a new berth for them- 
selves. If unemployment comes to them, they are lost, 
and swell the hosts of the sleepers on park benches, of 
the tramps, of the frequenters of cheap lodging-houses. 
Not having learned in childhood what innocent enjoy- 
ment is, they cannot now appreciate the simple pleasures 
of life. What they seek is forgetfulness of their misery, 
or, when passions swell in their breasts, the satisfaction 
of crude, vulgar instincts. So it is to drink, to the 
dance-halls, to the burlesque they turn. And, when 
they lose their hold on their job, they quickly sink to 
the abyss of despair, of self-abandonment, of self-debase- 
ment. The annals of crime and pauperism are full of 
stories of these helpless, joyless, ambitionless drudges 
who turn out to be failures in life. 
Failures of this kind are often thought to be the re- 
sult of mental defect. It cannot be denied that there 
are some defectives among the number of human dere- 
licts. But I venture to maintain that the great majority 
of the poor wretches, if the history of their early days 
were studied, would be found to be the victims of an 314 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
unhappy, unenlightened, unrelieved childhood. Too 
many children lead such dreary lives that their future 
is shrouded in gloom and disappointment. 
Not that a number of these drudges may not learn to 
fill a modest corner in life with a certain degree of suc- 
cess. Having their noses to the grindstone all the time, 
they may render service of a certain kind, under certain 
conditions. A friend of mine, manager of a big concern, 
was himself rather backward in handling figures; this 
was a strange defect in his mentality, which otherwise 
had a strong executive quality. When I asked him how 
he could get along in his big business without enough 
arithmetic to keep his books, he said, smiling, “Why 
should I worry about these details when I can hire a 
bookkeeper for sixty or a hundred dollars a month?” 
This was characteristic. The bookkeeper was the 
drudge; he was efficient as far as that goes. But he 
would never be anything more, and, in case of illness or 
misfortune, he would be helpless in anything else. My 
friend was the man with power, with imagination, with 
a vision, a builder of things, an organizer. He could 
never fail without getting on his feet again, if he ever 
did fail. 
Parents may do well to consider carefully in what 
manner a child must be trained to make his way in life. 
Life as a Playhouse 
Man is wholly man, a great poet has said, only when 
he plays. It may indeed be claimed, by way of a broad 
statement, that all that is great in the world has been 
done, not by labor that was drudgery, but by efforts 
which correspond to the play instinct, that is to say, MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
315 
such as were made spontaneously, out of the fullness of 
the heart, as an outcome of natural instincts, powers, or 
talents. 
Let us observe a child at play. He is active and joy- 
ful, his eyes shine, his attention is fully absorbed, he 
concentrates so absolutely upon the thing he does, or 
plays with, that he forgets everything else—hunger, 
tiredness, himself. He may exchange his personality 
for another one which he imagines himself to be. He 
may pose as a wolf, a bear, a blacksmith, a king, or 
wThat not. Present, past, and future merge into one. 
Space and time are without limit. He transposes him- 
self in a moment into foreign lands. The magic wand 
of his imagination makes impossible things possible. 
He has the courage of the explorer, the faith of the 
crusader, the hope of the dreamer. His existence tran- 
scends into the realm of the sublime. 
Perhaps, without sane curbing, he may lose himself 
in a fanciful world and cut himself away from real 
values for ever. But this danger is not very great in 
our materialistic world. The realities of life spare few 
children. On the other hand, a child who cannot carry 
a great deal of this wonderful paradise of childhood 
into the barren waste of utilitarianism to which he will 
have to sacrifice his youthful dreams will make a sorry 
failure of his personality. 
The man who wants to make good, not merely as a 
money-maker but as a man, must transform this world 
into a playhouse, so to speak. Not that he should play 
at things, or play with the serious problems of the race 
and of human existence; but the spirit of play, of joy- 
fulness, of youthful ambition, of dreams, of creativeness, 316 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
of spontaneity, must pervade all his work. Ilis work 
must be of absorbing interest to him, whatever else it 
may be. Just as a physician finds a case of illness in 
which he may have to do much menial service, or an 
operation which will soil his hands, a “beautiful case” 
if it appeals to his scientific instinct, so there is beauty 
in the lowliest of occupations if it is approached with 
the vision of better things. The street-cleaner helps to 
promote the better sanitation of our metropolitan cen- 
ters; the coal-heaver makes international commerce pos- 
sible; and the steel magnate is no more a factor in the 
great fabric of modern civilization than the bricklayer, 
the contractor, the welder—each one in his place, each 
one interested in his share of the world’s work, accord- 
ing to his abilities and opportunities. It is through the 
power of imagination that we have the vision of the part 
we play in the mechanism of human endeavor, that we 
understand our place in life. It is “play” to the archi- 
tect of a great viaduct to construct his imaginary pic- 
ture of the structure that is to be; it is “play” to the 
‘ ‘ captain of industry ’ ’ to lay the foundations of a world 
trade. “Man is wdiolly man only when he plays.” 
Let us, then, as parents, understand our children’s 
play and help them to grow up so that their play may 
become sublimated into the life-work of the man or 
woman that is to be. 
Child Labor: The General Problem 
It is a sad commentary upon our civilization that 
great efforts were necessary to have laws enacted for- 
bidding the employment of children under fourteen 
years. These laws are still imperfect, but they signify MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
317 
at least the beginning of true protection of children of 
tender age against exploitation. It is bad enough that 
such protection is needed to curb the greed of employers 
who wish to make use of cheap labor of immature chil- 
dren ; it is worse to realize that this exploitation is pos- 
sible only by the consent and greed of parents. 
Quite apart from the often dangerous and unhealthy 
conditions under which they have been forced to work,— 
in mines, even, and glass factories (the findings of the 
National Child Labor Committee are appalling),—any 
kind of child labor which interferes with the schooling 
and education of the child is evil and robs him of his 
first right. 
We are now speaking of the years in a child’s life 
which are controlled by the compulsory education laws. 
Even these laws are not yet universal in this country. 
In several of our States none have been enacted, the 
prevailing idea being that it is the parents’ right to 
decide about their children’s school education. This is, 
of course, a preposterous idea. The children themselves 
are helpless. If their parents neglect their educational 
duty the children will pay the penalty. 
But there is still another aspect of this neglect: 
These children are to grow up as citizens of a republic. 
They will have civic responsibilities. If they are not 
properly schooled, the commonwealth will suffer the 
consequences of unenlightened citizenship. It is for 
this reason that the state has a right, for the sake of 
self-protection, to pass laws to secure for each child 
the benefits of at least a minimum of school education. 
Let us understand that exploitation of a young child’s 
labor will stunt his growth, in body and mind; will 318 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
leave him unprepared in many ways for the exigencies 
of life; will put him at a disadvantage toward his better 
schooled competitors in life’s battle; will inevitably 
reduce his earning capacity of later years. For growth 
to real maturity is a slow process. Each year counts 
just so much. Our children should not be allowed to 
grow up like weeds which wither soon and can be used 
only to fertilize the soil for more useful plants. Give 
them a chance to grow up slowly and safely like the 
oaks which give shade to the many for generations, or 
like fruit-trees whose gifts nourish the multitudes. 
Immediate Dangers of Child Labor 
Many children are allowed to sell papers, or to do odd 
jobs in ten-pin alleys, as errand-boys, as helpers in 
butcher-shops and groceries, in their school-free hours. 
Even well-to-do parents fail to see any danger lurking 
in this exposure to baleful influences. 
But there are real dangers of direct injury to the 
body and mind of the child. In some cases, it is a 
matter of overstrain at hours when the child should 
rest, play, read or sleep. It means irregular eating, 
with temptation to buy of the street venders, and even 
to take without any idea of payment. In the case of 
the newsboy, there is the constant knowledge he obtains 
of the happenings in crime, in accidents, in political and 
other graft—things of which he would better be in igno- 
rance. They not only fill his mind with images unwhole- 
some to his mental growth, but they give him wrong 
ideas of proportion: in the newspapers events are dished 
up in proportion to their “news-value,” in a sensational MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
319 
sense, not in reference to their cultural, historical, or 
human values. 
The bootblack exposes himself all the time to the 
disease germs which swarm in the dust and dirt with 
which he deals. The ordinary store, the ten-pin alley, 
and all the other places where the young worker makes 
his few pennies show so many of the sordid features of 
modern life that he cannot but absorb false standards 
of right and wrong. There is wrangling and cheating, 
narrowness and jealousy. 
And there is danger to life and limb. Any one who 
has seen the little newsboys and bootblacks run after 
pedestrians or street-cars, dodging automobiles, horses 
and bicycles must wonder what their parents at home 
must be thinking when they leave their children exposed 
to such perils. There is perhaps a small measure of 
self-dependence attained in this manner, but it is bought 
at too great a risk. 
There are accidents happening all the time. True, 
they happen even when the children merely play in the 
street, instead of having the right kind of occupation 
and play opportunity. But the danger to these little 
workers is much greater. And there are many falls and 
bumps which at the time may be overlooked which not 
infrequently are the causes of unexpected develop- 
ments later on, such as illness, mental defect, moral de- 
linquency. 
Children should never be idle, but their occupation 
must be adapted to their needs. 
If they desire to earn money, try giving them tasks at 
home for which they are paid. If they must go else- 320 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
where let it be only to such places as permit of your 
own supervision. 
Making a Life vs. Making a Living 
Under the stress of war industries, cases have been 
reported of young boys, less than sixteen years old, who 
were earning a weekly salary of more than fifty dollars. 
At a public convention, the United States commissioner 
of education gave a drastic account of the educationally 
deplorable results of these conditions. 
Boys, attracted by these high wages, left the schools 
in droves, sacrificing their chances of a better educa- 
tion. They became, through the fact of their transi- 
tory earning capacity, economically independent of 
their parents, whose educational influence upon these 
immature souls was at once curtailed. Not having yet 
reached the age of discretion, these youngsters spent 
their easily made money freely and unwisely. Thus, 
large juvenile strata were more or less disorganized. 
These exceptional war conditions, however, were not 
so exceptional as they may have seemed. They merely 
accentuated a state of affairs which is chronic in our 
commonwealth. 
Too many children of school age, mainly boys, become 
restive under school restraint when they reach the 
pubescent years. They want to get out “into the 
world” with “the other fellows” and make their own 
living. Their parents, with a mistaken idea of economic 
necessities of relations, think it a welcome addition to 
the family budget if their children earn something that 
will pay for their clothes and other needs at the earliest 
possible moment. MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
321 
With girls, it is the “commercial school” which 
sets legions of stenographers and office assistants upon 
the public highway. A “commercial school,” however, 
or even the commercial department of a regular high 
school, is not an educational institution; it is a trade 
school, a drill school. 
But there are other observations. Throwing 
those young people on their own resources at an im- 
mature age creates conditions that demand serious at- 
tention. 
It is a common thing to see young girls of from four- 
teen to seventeen years of age, or even younger, dressed 
up in the flimsy fashion of the day, with powdered and 
painted faces and with hair puffed up ludicrously, 
promenading along the streets and through the 
parks, arm in arm, or at least side by side, with 
boys of not more mature ages. Opportunities for danc- 
ing and flirting are given everywhere. Nerve-racking 
jazz music lures the youthful spirits; gaily decorated 
dance-halls attract with their cheap gaudiness. 
Far be it from me to deny youth its fling, to set up 
a hypocritical standard of sham morality. Nothing is 
sweeter than the abandon of youth. 
But if this youthful effervescence drains the cup to 
the dregs, if the springtime budding is insidiously at- 
tacked by the poisonous worm of destruction, the har- 
vest to come is spoiled before its time. 
The gaiety of these young people is not as innocent as 
it looks. They have knowing faces. Their giggles 
betray impure suggestions. They have too little educa- 
tion rightly to know the things of life; they mingle, 
without ripe judgment or wise guidance, in the pursuit 322 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
of momentary pleasures. They do not think of to-mor- 
row. 
They are mostly employed away from home during 
the day, and have no patience with home conditions. 
They travel their own path, and this path leads only 
too often downward instead of upward. 
The blame is with those who are responsible for 
them, with their parents first of all. These have al- 
lowed their influence over them to wane, or have 
made home life too dreary and unattractive. They 
have, perhaps, in order to obtain part of their chil- 
dren’s wages, or to be relieved of paying for their 
clothes, encouraged them to seek employment when 
they ought to have encouraged them to go to school. 
No wonder that the girls will choose clothing to suit 
their immature fancy, and that the boys will spend 
their money in a way to please themselves. 
Youth, when deprived of its opportunity to grow into 
strong and sane manhood and womanhood, degenerates 
into weakness and folly. A psychological census of 
American citizenship has revealed an alarming per- 
centage of inferior personalities. Parents are in need 
of realizing their share in the burden. 
The Working Certificate—and After 
Child-labor laws at present reach out mainly to the 
child below sixteen or so. But even the child of work- 
ing age must first give satisfactory evidence of his 
physical and mental fitness for work. There is a medi- 
cal examination, and a school statement has to be pre- 
sented showing that the child has reached and com- MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
323 
pleted at least a certain school grade, usually the fifth, 
before a certificate is granted. 
Even these tests are not altogether satisfactory. Too 
wide a margin is left in the matter of physical fitness; 
and the school grade requirement does not guarantee 
a child’s mental fitness for work in the outside world. 
There are plans under way to base these tests upon a 
true scientific foundation of mental and physical 
valuation. 
But, even if a child may obtain, with every show of 
fitness, a working certificate, is it quite proper that he 
should use it to go out into the world to try and earn 
“his own living”? 
There may be exceptional economic conditions when 
the earnings of a child are necessary for the support of 
the family. A discussion of such conditions is not 
the function of this book. But they are exceptional. 
Even poverty does not justify altogether the employ- 
ment of children in so-called lucrative work. 
There are, it is true, numerous “self-made men” 
who boast of the fact that they had to go to work in 
their teens and have made good. But if they tell the 
whole truth they will admit that they themselves be- 
came soon enough aware of the lack of an education 
which would have enabled them to fight their life battle 
with less bitterness. Those who are wise do their best 
to give their own children a better chance through giv- 
ing them a better education. 
Vocational Education vs. Vocational Training 
We hear a great deal nowadays about vocational 
training. There are schools for vocational training, 324 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
and a great federal effort is being made to promulgate 
the right ideas about the subject and to further its 
development. But, strange to say, these efforts are con- 
fined mostly to training for manual labor, for trades, 
including, perhaps, schools for commercial employ- 
ment, like stenography and type-writing, bookkeeping 
and the like. As if schools of medicine, of law, of 
divinity, were not also schools for vocational training. 
The distinction is invidious. 
Many parents think it sufficient if they give their 
children the opportunity for “vocational training” in 
one of these schools. 
But they have a greater duty than this. They must 
prepare their child for his vocation by character train- 
ing, not technical training alone. 
The soul powers of a man have as much to do with 
his success in life as his technical skill; more, really. 
The talented man may fail from lack of application, 
of will-power, of endurance, of the sense of duty and 
responsibility; the less gifted may run a winning race 
with him if he possesses these sterling qualities. 
The training in these fundamental qualities rests 
mainly with the home, with the parental influence and 
example. The parents must teach their children to be 
punctual and conscientious, objective in sizing up tasks 
and human relationships, in the relation of employer 
and employee, of employees among themselves. The 
children must learn to be willing to accept leadership 
until they can be themselves leaders; they must not 
be over-sensitive, must not be satisfied with superficial 
results, must always be ready to do their best. 
And, above all, they must be taught that a vocation MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
325 
is not a necessary evil, not just an unpleasant means 
to earn a livelihood. There are thieves who ply their 
trade from the same motive. The mere mercenary 
idea may lead to all kinds of temptations; at any rate, 
it does not produce the best type of work. Too many 
girls, for instance, select a “vocation’’ for reasons of 
convenience and false pride; they will become a teacher 
or a bookkeeper, because that seems to be more “ gen- 
teel” than being a household helper, although they 
may be endowed with the ability for making good cooks, 
while they are very poor teachers or office helpers. 
Vocation, in the best sense, must be self-expression. 
In the selection and preparation for a profession, 
false standards must disappear. And it is the home 
which must set the right standards. 
Vocational Guidance 
The haphazard manner in which most of our boys and 
girls enter business life is appalling. Hardly one in a 
thousand knows what are the requirements of any par- 
ticular occupation, or what type and quality of perform- 
ance are needed. They take the first chance offered, 
not caring whether it leads them into the byways of 
side streets and dark alleys, or into the highways of the 
canons flanked by towering office-buildings, if it prom- 
ises immediate wages. 
Many care not into what conditions of urban life, 
of companionship, of leadership and training, of work- 
hours and travel, of lunches and weather, of outlook 
for the future and chances for development, the posi- 
tion accepted may lead them. Only too often, this 
reckless diving into the mass of wage-earners brings 326 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
disappointments, cause-s frequent changes of employ- 
ment, leads into blind alleys, wrecks chances of real 
growth and happiness for ever. 
At no time is careful guidance so imperative as at 
the time a young person enters upon his own life career. 
In recent years some efforts have been made to supply 
to parents and children such information as will en- 
able them to judge more correctly what course would 
best be taken. Commercial and manufacturing firms 
have issued pamphlets setting forth the conditions of 
work in their different lines of employment, so that ap- 
plicants may know what to expect. To this they 
have, in some cases, added examinations of appli- 
cants, not merely as to their knowledge and prepara- 
tion, but as to their general fitness for the particular 
line of work in which there is a vacancy. 
Not every girl, for instance, no matter whether she 
has learned stenography and type-writing, will make 
a success in this branch, and, if employed, she may 
soon be discharged and thrown out of employment. 
One of the most important steps that have been taken 
in the matter of “vocational guidance,” as the term 
goes is the institution of bureaus of testing and ex- 
aminations, connected often with institutions of learn- 
ing, whose purpose it is to ascertain the actual mental, 
physical, and emotional qualifications of children start- 
ing out for their life’s work. These tests are still 
imperfect, and sometimes lay too much stress upon 
mathematically measurable endowments. Yet they are 
a step in the right direction and do much good. Parents 
ought to learn to appreciate and encourage the work of 
these agencies. Naturally, if they have their children MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
327 
examined in a truly scientific manner they will be better 
able to choose the best course for their future. Again, 
by their knowledge of their own children’s minds, ac- 
tivities, and propensities, they can materially assist the 
examining prober in understanding the individual child 
problem. 
Different Vocational Types 
Not every child is fit to undertake any kind of work 
that may offer itself to him. There are, of course, 
many kinds of unskilled labor in which almost any one 
may succeed to a certain degree. Setting up pins in a 
bowling-alley, peddling newspapers or chewing-gum in 
the streets, being an errand-boy in an office, or some- 
thing of that sort may not seem to require much special 
mental or physical equipment. 
But, as a matter of fact, even these humble occupa- 
tions are not without their differences, and the success- 
ful salesman of the future may evince his talent as a 
newsboy, while hundreds of other boys may utterly fail 
in so humble a task as setting up ten-pins. 
The truth is that every one of us, our children in- 
cluded, is fitted more particularly to do some specific 
thing or group of things, better than another. The 
cause of so many failures in life is that too many chil- 
dren have been put in the wrong place in the beginning. 
As the old saying goes, square pegs have been forced 
into round holes, and round pegs into square holes. 
That meant friction and maladjustment right along. 
Sometimes they do not “stay put” and find their way 
out of the wrong setting; more often not. 
To illustrate: 328 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Let us consider an interesting psychological difference 
in the matter of attention. There are different kinds 
of attention. Some psychologists distinguish, among 
other kinds, the distributive and the concentrative type. 
These are not necessarily found simultaneously in the 
same person. A floor-walker in a department-store will 
need the power of distributive attention. He will have 
to possess the faculty of seeing many things at the 
same time, watching over a fairly large area, and being 
always aware of what is going on in as many corners 
of his domain as his vision can control. 
Concentrative attention is required, on, the other 
hand, where minute work is being done. A man con- 
trolling a machine which performs one single opera- 
tion at regular intervals, as threading a needle, or 
filling a bottle, or driving in a cork; or one who is set to 
watch a single person in his activities, like a policeman 
on his beat or a type-writer operator, must have the 
faculty of excluding all other sense impressions in the 
interest of the one in which he is concerned. 
Such concentration upon the one thing is not every- 
body’s talent. Consequently, one type of person is 
fitted to do this kind of work, while the mental type 
of the floor-walker lends itself to the control of large 
areas and differentiated tasks, being of the kind which 
we may call executive. And, while it is true that all 
of us have, in a measure, need of both kinds of atten- 
tion at different times, it is also true that we differ in 
the intensity of this endowment, so that we represent 
in our complete mentality different combinations or 
types. These types must be considered in choosing a 
vocation. MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
329 
Continuation Schools 
To overcome the sad effect of premature relinquish- 
ment of school opportunities, which shows itself in the 
character of the work the early breadwinners are able 
to do and in the frequent failures to which they ex- 
pose themselves, a number of provisions have been insti- 
tuted, which, sad to say, are sometimes regarded with 
distrust and disfavor, not only by the children and 
young people for whom they are intended, but even 
by their parents. 
Manufacturers, heads of department-stores, and 
other large employers have established schools in their 
places in which their employees are required to study 
so many hours a week, drawing their pay just the same. 
In these schools those who are deficient in the ‘ ‘ common 
branches” are given a chance to rectify their deficien- 
cies, and courses in salesmanship, study of raw ma- 
terials and the like, all of a specific professional order, 
are added. 
One of the most notable movements in this direction 
is the establishment of the so-called “continuation 
schools” connected with the regular school systems of 
our larger cities, often under state laws. The system of 
compulsory education is the basis. So, in New York, 
boys and girls who have not attained the age of eigh- 
teen and who have not been graduated from a four- 
year high-school course, must attend a continuation 
school for not less than four hours a week, and if tem- 
porarily out of employment they must attend every 
day of the school week. Evening school attendance 
will not be considered a sufficient substitute. 330 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Attendance at the continuation school is not merely 
a lengthening of a child’s school term. It offers more. 
It is, as the New York Board of Education expresses 
it, a social laboratory in which the vocational, mental, 
moral, social, and physical equipment of the working 
boy and girl is analyzed, with a view to the develop- 
ment of such special abilities as are revealed and the 
correction of deficiencies. Its special strength will con- 
sist in its relationship to life. 
The continuation school exists not so much to convey 
information as to afford an opportunity for one to re- 
veal himself in the light of his failures and successes, 
vocationally and otherwise, so that he may make the 
most of himself, as an individual and as an American 
citizen. 
Parents should be eager to cooperate with the authori- 
ties in furthering this laudable object. 
Parents and the Wages of Their Children 
When children have become wage-earners the first 
thought of many parents is thaX these wages should 
come to them for the support of the household, so as to 
make the burden of family support lighter. The wage- 
earning children, mostly those of adolescent age, are 
perhaps allowed a fraction of their wages for their own 
disposition; but the main part is to be delivered to the 
parent. 
There is some injustice in this arrangement. If the 
children are old and mature enough to have any earn- 
ings of their own, and if these wages are proportionate 
to their real ability, they have a certain right to the 
possession of them. Of course, there is an argument MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
331 
for the other side. The parents are supposed to have 
given their children, often at a sacrifice, the opportunity 
and training for their vocation; consequently, they may 
claim to have a right for some return. This is the 
flimsiest argument of all; for it is the parents’ bounden 
duty to do all in their power to set their children upon 
their own feet, inasmuch as they are responsible for 
having brought them into the world. 
It is a different matter with some other facts. As 
long as the children are of tender age, protection should 
be offered by the parental roof. It is not infrequently 
a great misfortune, especially for a wage-earning girl, 
to be away from home in these important adolescent 
years. This protection implies home life and home 
comforts, maintenance and other opportunities. The 
wage-earning child should share in the financial respon- 
sibility for this home. But the parents must give some- 
thing in return which is more important than a roof and 
protection, which they owe their children anyway: they 
must make their wage-earning children a part of the 
family council. They must give them increased re- 
sponsibility and independence; they must treat them 
more and more like equals and give them a proper share 
in the family and home government. 
In this wise the wages of their children will indeed 
contribute their full share to the maintenance of the 
home, not in the form of an enforced tribute or sur- 
render, but in the same form in which the father’s in- 
come secures the comfort of the family. The children 
will be proud to help, to share in the responsibilities of 
the main breadwinner of the family. 
There is one other point which parents should teach 332 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
their* children—the right appreciation of wages. Wages 
have a relative value. They mean on the one hand the 
power to buy, and this power to buy depends in its 
turn on the relation of a dollar to a piece of merchan- 
dise. If the advance of wages increases in proportion 
to the increased cost of necessities, or vice versa, this 
advance means only a delusion. And such advance 
usually does not strike all with equal force. The mid- 
dle class, the wage-earning class, usually loses more 
than it gains. 
Again, wages mean the power to make your life. 
That, in turn, implies a man’s ability to judge the man- 
ner in which to employ the purchasing power his wages 
possess. When a boy of fifteen, under the stress of 
war conditions, earns as much as fifty dollars a week 
or more, such wages are rather a danger than a blessing. 
Using your wages properly requires self-constraint, 
foresight, the ability to size up your situation, the wis- 
dom to organize your life. Otherwise, your wages may 
be degraded into the wages of sin. It is the privilege 
of the home, by example and precept, to teach the chil- 
dren the meaning and use of the money they receive in 
exchange for their vocational service. 
Danger in Saving for Children 
Most parents will practice frugality and save up 
money, even after they have laid by enough to be 
safe for emergencies and old age, for the purpose of 
being able to leave to their children a competence which 
will “provide for them.” They have the idea that 
their children should start out in life with enough MAKING A LIFE VS. MAKING A LIVING 
333 
property so that their struggle for a place in the sun 
would not be so hard as the parents’ had been. 
Within limits, this foresight is laudable and need- 
ful. But it is a common mistake for parents to deny 
to themselves, and, for that matter, to their growing 
children, many comforts and necessities so that the 
pile left after their death might be big. 
It is not wise to make the start in life too easy for 
the children as far as money is concerned. The very 
stamina required by the parents’ struggle is thus 
stunted in the children. 
The comforts and embellishments of life which they 
deny themselves and their offspring during the latter’s 
childhood would go far, in many cases, to equip the 
children with higher and nobler aspirations. The thea- 
ter, concerts, art pieces in the home, the generally 
comfortable and refined atmosphere of the home, trips 
to the shore or the mountains, a cheerful enjoyment of 
life’s pleasures, will ease the mind, give it a simple 
assurance, and broaden the horizon. Wisely managed, 
it will teach moderation and the enjoyment of simple, 
genuine things. 
Too much frugality stunts the soul. It is also a 
frequent observation that children brought up in a 
too economical, cheerless home atmosphere will cherish 
secret desires to which they will give unbridled rein 
when once they are “free.” 
Even the parents’ effort to provide for their sons 
and daughters easy jobs is a hazardous thing most 
times. Lincoln tried to obtain a government job which 
would have paid him a moderate but sufficient income. 334 
CHILD PROBLEMS, MENTAL AND MORAL 
Fortunately, he failed. He would perhaps never have 
become President of the United States if he had suc- 
ceeded. The easy berths into which we let our chil- 
dren drop before they even have a chance of trying 
their strength in fighting difficulties and overcoming 
obstructions, or before they can discover their own 
best abilities, are often their undoing. They will stag- 
nate, forget all ambition, and lead a humdrum, tedi- 
ous, and ever unsatisfactory existence, never aspiring 
to higher things. They will degenerate into Philis- 
tines. The uselessness of government clerks, if they 
lose their jobs, is proverbial. 
Train your children so that they can stand on their 
own feet, so that they are proud of their strength to ac- 
complish things despite obstacles, so that they have ac- 
tive and progressive minds and sincere hearts, so that 
they have vision and forethought. Then they will not 
need a patrimony to boost them up, and you will secure 
their future happiness more firmly than if you should 
leave them untold millions. 
Such an education may change the face of the world. INDEX 
Absorption, 196. 
Actor’s child, 191 f. 
Adolescence, age of, 63. 
caution in, 65. 
Adolescents, 62 f. 
Adventure, spirit of, 287. 
Adventurousness, 301. 
Affections, changing, 220. 
Age, chronological, 58. 
experience of, 278 ff. 
mental, 53. 
physiological, 58. 
Ambition, 65. 
of parents, 109 ff. 
Anger, 13 f. 
Antibodies, 9. 
Apperception, 69 f. 
Apperceptive basis, 70. 
Arithmetic, difficulties in, 104 
f, 137 ff. 
Arms, consciousness of, 36. 
Artificial feeding, 7 f. 
Associations, parent-teachers’, 
112, 154. 
Astronomy, 144. 
Automatic mind, 186. 
Baby, prenatal care of, 5 ff. 
Backwardness, 163 f. 
indications of, 32. 
Banners, veneration of, 77. 
Bedtime problems, 186. 
stories, 187. 
Beecher, Henry Ward, 110. 
Biological condition, changes in, 
59. 
Birthmarks, 6 ff. 
Births, registration of, 7. 
Blanket, wet, 242 ff. 
Board of health, 113. 
Bohemianism, 258. 
Books, 200 f. 
Books, picture, 125, 202. 
Boomerangs, 176. 
Boys and girls, difference be- 
tween, 61 f. 
Boy ideals, 64 f. 
Boy Scouts, 19, 56, 199, 214, 
306. 
Bravado and crime, 288. 
Breathing, consciousness of, 37 
f. 
Bribery, 244 f. 
Brightness, 73. 
Bureau of Child Hygiene, 8. 
Butler, Dr. Nicholas Murray, 
114, 
Calculators, lightning, 136 f. 
Camp-Fire Girls, 214, 306. 
Care, prenatal, 5 ff. 
■Carefulness, 182. 
Carelessness, 182. 
Change, the great, 59 ff. 
Change, the years of, 53 ff. 
Changing personality, 222 ff. 
Character, 110. 
Child, development, 23 ff. 
differentiation, 24 f, 336 
INDEX 
disappointing, 231 f. 
flighty, 257 f, 259. 
labor, 316 ff. 
language, 48 ff. 
rights, 247 ff. 
spoiled, 19 f. 
Children a nuisance, 14. 
differences in, 24 f. 
malajusted, 173 f. 
marked, 7. 
misunderstood, 173 f. 
Childhood, second, 27. 
Chronological age, 58. 
Clay modeling, 94 f. 
Cleanliness, 39 f. 
Clothing for children, 40. 
psychological significance of, 
38 f. 
Clubs, fathers and mothers, 11. 
Coaxing, 244 f. 
Collections, 143. 
Comic supplement, 178. 
Color training, 204. 
Color-blind, 204. 
Commercial schools, 321. 
Community ideals, 21 f. 
Companionship, 197 f, 276 f. 
Concentration, 196 f. 
Conceptions, lack of, 71. 
Conditions, modern, 12. 
Conflict, adolescent period of, 
63. 
Consciousness of arms, 36. 
breathing, 37 f. 
foot, 31. 
hair, 34. 
legs, 36. 
nails, 36. 
skin, 37. 
teeth, 35. 
tongue, 35. 
Continuation schools, 329 f. 
Control, muscle, 89. 
of hands, 57. 
Coordination, 89. 
Copying, 134. 
Cornish, 26. 
Counting period, 104. 
Corporal punishment, 247. 
Cowardice, 177. 
Crime and bravado, 288. 
prevention of, 279 ff. 
Crowding, tenement, 15. 
Danger-signals, 179, 194, 253, 
272, 291. 
neglect of 253. 
Dangerous defectives, 306 if. 
Dangers, imaginary, 81. 
Darwin, Charles, 110. 
Defectiveness, 272. 
Definitions, abuse of, 128 ff. 
Delinquency, juvenile, 284 ff. 
physical handicaps in, 297 f. 
prevention of, 305. 
Development, emotional, 27 ff. 
child, 23 ff. 
infant, 25 ff. 
Derailment, danger of, 273. 
possibilities of, 274 f. 
prevention of, 276 f. 
Dexterity, manual, 58 f. 
Differentiation, 103 f. 
Differentiations, national, 59. 
(Digestive disturbances, 8. 
Digging, 95. 
Direction, concept of, 150. 
Disappointing child, the, 231 f. 
Discipline, home, 59, 235 ff. 
school, 59, 154. 
Disposition of earnings, 312, 
330 f. 
Double personality, 193 f. 
Doubts, 80. INDEX 
337 
Dramatic instinct, 44f, 78 f. 
Drawing, time to teach, 58. 
Drawings, 98 ff. 
Dreamers, 194 f. 
Drudgery, home, 16 f, 218, 302, 
313 f. 
Dunces, distinguished, 110. 
Duties, home, 311 f. 
Ear, 31. 
Earnings, disposition of, 312, 
330 f. 
Education, definition of, 114. 
Dr. Eliot on, 116 ff. 
principles of, 176. 
Eliot, President, of Harvard, 
116. 
ideas on education, 116 ff. 
Emotional development, 77 ff. 
life, 79. 
Emotionalism, 63. 
Encouragment, 217 f. 
Enunciation, clearness of, 45 f, 
135. 
and hearing, 46. 
Environment, influence of, 71, 
151. 
Epilepsy, 238. 
Esthetics, 153. 
Examinations, 111 f, 156. 
Excursions, value of, 152. 
Experience, teaching by, 214 f. 
of age, 228 ff. 
Experiments, 147. 
Extravagance in toys, 190. 
Eye habits, dangers of, 34. 
Eyes, 32 f. 
Failures in school, 109 f. 
Fairy-tales, 78, 143. 
Family, purpose of, 5. 
traits, 62. 
Fashions for children, 40 f. 
Father, 10. 
a home-maker, 18 f. 
Fatigue period, 53. 
Fault-finding, 238 f. 
Fear, 6, 7, 13 f, 78, 81 f, 176 f, 
180, 258, 262. 
an educational factor, 84. 
morbid, 80. 
Feeble-mindedness, definition 
of, 114. 
Feeding, artificial, 7 f. 
breast, 8. 
bottle, 8. 
Feet, 29 ff. 
Fetishism, 77 f, 85, 192. 
Fighting in boys, 267 ff. 
Firmness, 219. 
Flightiness, 257 f, 259. 
Foot consciousness, 31. 
Forbidden fruit, 241 f, 295. 
Forethought, 182. 
Frankness, 205. 
Friendships, 60. 
Fright, 13. 
Froebel, Friedrich, 87. 
Fun, 177 f. 
Games, 197. 
and crime, 279 ff. 
Gangs, 56, 64, 278, 305. 
Gardening, 96, 152 f, 154. 
Geography, 14, 150. 
Ghosts, 81. 
Gifted children, 165. 
Girls and boys, differences be- 
tween, 61 f. 
love-affairs of, 301. 
runaway, 300 f. 
wayward, 302 f. 
Glass, looking, 41 f. 
Good breeding, 206. 338 
INDEX 
Governesses, 21. 
Gratitude, filial, 266 f. 
Habit tics, 238. 
Habits, 34, 59, 180 ff, 233 ff, 
249 ff. 
training in good, 180. 
Hall, G. Stanley, 29. 
Habituation, 233. 
Hair consciousness, 34. 
Hand, importance of, 29 ff, 101 
f. 
Hands, control of, 57. 
Handicaps in delinquency, 
296 ff. 
Happiness, creating, 175. 
Health cooperation, 199. 
Hearing and enunciation, 46. 
Heredity, 5, 56, 62. 
Hero-worship, 60. 
History, teaching of, 142 f. 
Home, business methods in, 
16 f. 
conditions, 14 ff. 
drudgery in the, 16 f. 
duties, 311 f. 
life, 14 ff. 
spiritual elements in the, 
21 f. 
training for work, 310 f. 
the wealthy, 19 f. 
work, 155. 
Honesty, 260, 292 f. 
parent’s deviation from, 
292 f. 
Honor, sense of, 296. 
Hospital, need for maternity, 6. 
Household occupations, 96. 
Hughes, 57. 
Hunter, President, N. Y. Nor- 
mal College (dec’d), 137 f. 
Hygiene, Bureau of Child, 8. 
Hysteria, 238, 278. 
Ideals, 60. 
Ideals, boys’, 64 f. 
Ideals, community, 21 f. 
Idleness, 176, 310. 
Illiterates, 117. 
Imaginary playmates, 192 f. 
Imagination, 148 f, 175, 193, 
263. 
Imitativeness, 55, 80. 
Impressions, 28 f. 
Impulses, impetuous, 59. 
Incorrigibles, 299 f. 
Individual, development of, 
62 f. 
Infant development, 25 ff. 
mortality, 10. 
period, 23, 24 ff. 
reactions, 25 ff. x 
Instinct, 26 f, 60. 
dramatic, 44 f. 
evolution, of, 27. 
language, 45 f. 
sex, 63 f. 
Instinctive reactions, 249 ff. 
Instruction, oral, 122 f. 
Inventive faculty, 148 f. 
Jokes, 178. 
practical, 178 f. 
Joy of work, 96. 
Juvenile court, 284 ff. 
delinquency, 284 ff. 
Keller, Helen, 101. 
Kindergarten, 51, 87. 
home materials for the, 91. 
Knowledge, need of general, 
118 ff. 
Labor, child, 316 ff. INDEX 
339 
Language, learning of foreign, 
47, 130. 
making, 46 ff. 
of child, 48 f. 
proper use of, 126 f. 
training, 47 f. 
Laughing, 179 f. 
Leadership, 64 ff. 
education for, 65 f. 
Legs, consciousness of, 36. 
L’enfant terrible, 208 f. 
Lies, 262 f. 
Lindsey, Judge Ben. B., 304, 
Looking-glass, 41 f. 
Love, 13. 
affairs of girls, 301. 
Lowell, James Russell, 110. 
Lubbock, Sir John, 74. 
Machines, 149. 
Make-believe, 77 f, 86, 90. 
Maladjusted children, 173 f. 
Manners, 115, 207 f. 
Manual dexterity in sewing, 
58 f. 
penmanship, 58 f. 
Manual training, 102, 161. 
Maps, 150. 
Marks, 111 f. 
Maternity, 6. 
Memory, advantages of good, 
168 f. 
disadvantages of good, 168 f. 
mechanical, 170. 
Method, negative, 238 f, 241. 
of substitution, 253 ff. 
Michelangelo, 234. 
Milk, mothers’, 8 ff. 
Mirror in child training, 41 ff. 
Misunderstood children, 173 f. 
Modeling clay, 94 f. 
Modern conditions, 12. 
Modesty, 39. 
Moral suasion, 244 ff. 
Motive, foundations of, 12. 
Motor’memory, 134. 
Mortality, infant, 10. 
Mouth, 29 ff. 
Moving pictures, 152, 281 ff, 
284, 306. 
Mud pies, 94. 
Muller, Max, 134. 
Muscle control, 89. 
Myths, 143. 
Nails, consciousness of, 36. 
cutting of, 36. 
Nakedness, 39. 
Names, children’s, 44. 
National spirit, 57. 
type, 59 f. 
Nature work, 146, 153. 
worship, 86, 145. 
Naughtiness, 237. 
Negative methods, 238 f, 241. 
Nervous child, gardening for, 
154. 
child, 258. 
conditions, 177. 
disorders, 73, 89. 
Night-terrors, 82 ff. 
Norms, 162. 
Nose, consciousness of, 31. 
Numbers, 136. 
Nurse, wet, 9. 
Nursing, maternal, 7 ff. 
Obedience, 251 ff. 
Objective training, 161. 
Observation, training in, 71 f, 
103, 149. 
Occupation, 95 ff. 
early, 55. 
household, 96. 
material for, 96 f. 340 
INDEX 
Oral, instruction, 122 f. 
response, 123. 
Orderliness, 185 f, 296. 
Overstudy in adolescence, 155. 
Paper cutting, 100. 
folding, 100. 
Parent-teachers’ associations, 
112, 154. 
Parenthood, standards of, 3 f. 
purposes of, 4. 
Parents, rivalry of, 221. 
self-sufficiency of, 225. 
training of, 10. 
Partiality, 210 f. 
Patience, 178. 
Penmanship, time to teach, 58. 
Percept, 69 f. 
Period, counting, 104. 
fatigue, 53. 
infant, 24. 
kindergarten, 51. 
prepubertal, 56 ff, 59. 
race, 56 ff. 
Personality, double, 193 f. 
changing, 222 f. 
Perspective, 163. 
Pets, 55. 
Physical training, 155. 
Physiological age, 58. 
Piano, time for teaching, 58. 
Picture books, 125. 
reading, 125. 
writing, 125. 
Pictures, 43, 203. 
Play, 188 f, 314 ff. 
direction of, 198 f. 
in geography, 152. 
Playgrounds, public, 92, 199, 
305 f. 
roof-garden, 92. 
Playmate, imaginary, 192 f. 
Playthings, size of, 88 f. 
Politeness, 205 f. 
Positive suggestion, 242. 
Pottery, 94. 
Poullson, Emily, 87. 
Poverty, 10. 
Precocity, 166. 
different types of, 167 f. 
Pregnancy, 6. 
Prevention of crime, 279 ff. 
juvenile delinquency, 305. 
Property rights, 294 f. 
Prudence, 182. 
Psychoanalysis, 276. 
Psychopathic personalities, 
306 f. 
Primitive stages, 23, 27 f. 
Prison, school as, 57. 
Puberty, characteristics of, 59 
f, 147 f. 
Punishment, 246 f. 
corporal, 247. 
Race period, characteristics of, 
56 ff. 
traits, development of, 51 ff. 
Rational thought, 73. 
Rationality, tests of, 73 ff. 
Reactions, instructive, 249 ff. 
of infants, 25 ff. 
Reading, 124 f. 
dangers from early, 120 f. 
Reason, 73. 
Reciting, uses of, 127 f. 
dangers of, 127 f. 
Records, emotional, 75 ff. 
mental, 75 ff. 
Recreation time, dangers of, 
277. 
Reeducation, 212 f. 
Religion, beginnings of, 84 f. 
Religious symbols, 85. INDEX 
341 
Resistance, 9. 
Response, oral, 123. 
Reticence, 170 f. 
Richter, Jean Paul, 216. 
Ridicule, 266. 
Rights of children, 247 ff. 
Rivalry, parental, 221. 
Roughing it, 215 f. 
Routine, 216 f. 
Runaway girls, 300 f. 
Sand-pile, 91 ff, 152. 
Sand-table, 92 f. 
suggestions for, 93 f. 
Saving for children, 330. 
Scholarship, 111. 
Scholasticism, 161. 
School, attitude of parents to, 
108 f. 
gardens, 154. 
hours, length of, 155. 
period, 107. 
prison, 57. 
private, 108. 
standards archaic, 159. 
Schools, continuation, 329 f. 
commercial, 321. 
Schopenhauer, 274. 
Science, 147. 
Scouts, Roy, 19, 199, 214. 
Sculpture, 95. 
Search, experiments in, 73 f. 
logic of, 73 f. 
Seashore, 91. 
Second childhood, 27. 
Self-aggrandizement, 205. 
Self-consciousness, 171 f. 
Self-control, 116. 
Self-education, 216. 
Self-help, 212 f. 
Self-sufficing, 225, 228 f. 
Self-will, 255 f. 
Sense honor, 290. 
experience, 67 f. 
illusions, 67 f. 
messages, 67 f. 
self, 27 ff. 
training, 70, 72 f, 102 ff. 
Service, 66. 
Sewing, dangers in, 97. 
Sex differentiations, 24, 57. 
instincts, 63 f. 
Sharing, 293. 
Skin, consciousness of, 37. 
Skipping grades, 156 f. 
Sleep, 187 f. 
Spelling, relation to backward- 
ness, 32. 
Smoking, 288. 
Social instinct, 197 f. 
Space and time, 140 f. 
Speed, early habits of, 251. 
Spelling bees, 132 f, 134. 
difficulties in, 133 f. 
Spencer, Herbert, 235. 
Speech defects, 122. 
Spirit of adventure, 287. 
Spoiled child, 212, 255. 
Square pegs, 327 f. 
St. Vitus’s dance, 238. 
Standardizing, 162. 
Stars, 144. 
Statistics, vital, 7. 
Stick-to-itiveness, 110. 
Story-books, 201 f. 
Story-telling, 198 f, 201 f. 
Streets as playgrounds, 15, 92. 
Suasion, moral, 244 f. 
Substitution, methods of, 
253 ff. 
Suggestion, positive, 187 f, 242. 
Sulkiness, 255. 
Superstitions, 78 ff. 342 
INDEX 
Symbols in religion, 85. 
kindergarten, 90 ff. 
Tact, 204 f. 
Talents, camouflaged, 172 f. 
Tardiness, 112. 
Team-work, 97. 
Teasing, 13. 
Teeth, consciousness of, 35. 
Temper, 265 f. 
Tenement crowding, 15. 
Tests, 36. 
Thieving, 290 f. 
Thought development, 60. 
rational, 73 f. 
Thoughtfulness, 182 ff. 
Threats, 246 f. 
Thumb-sucking, 272. 
Tickling, 179 f. 
Tics, habit, 238. 
Time, space and, 140 f. 
Tools, aid to development, 52. 
Tongue consciousness, 35. 
Toys, 189 f, 259. 
Training, home, 310 f. 
for work, 309 f. 
sense, 70, 102 f. 
Travelers’ Aid Society, 301. 
Truancy, 113. 
Truthfulness, 260 f. 
Typewriter, use of, 125 f. 
Violin, time to teach, 58. 
Vital statistics, 7. 
Vocational education, 324 f. 
guidance, 325 f. 
tests for, 326. 
Wayward girls, 302 f. 
Wealthy homes, 19 f. 
Wet blanket, 242 If. 
-nurse, 9. 
Whims of children, 218 f. 
Witches, 81, 177. 
Work, joy of, 96. 
minded, 160. 
training for, 309. 
home training for, 310 f. 
Working papers, 322 f. 
Wonder children, 164 f. 
Worship, nature, 86. 
Writing, dangers of early, 
120 f. 
Wrist-bones, development of, 
58. 
ossification of, 58. 
X-ray of, 58. 
X-ray of wrists, 58. 
Youth, self-sufficiency of, 
228 ff.