Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

advanced state of self-love — begins to be displayed. But, if a truly religious system of education were pursued, children would pass insensibly from sympathy to charity, and to the love of others; and rude pride, or irritable vanity, would be unknown.

It is thus that the qualities which are the happy fruits of early habits blend with those bestowed by nature, and are invested with nearly equal charms. Children possess them unsullied by any feeling of vanity, for they are not aware that they could have existed without them. Yet, could we trace them to their source in our own minds, we should acknowledge them with gratitude as the greatest and most indisputable blessings of education.

NORMAL

INSTITUTIO

CHAPTER II.

ON OBEDIENCE.

Of all the habits which we should be anxious to impress on very young children, there is none so absolutely necessary as that of obedience; for it is only by means of this that we obtain the power of forming or repressing others. At present I speak of obedience merely as the result of habit, though it may be regarded in a much higher point of view, as a moral obligation; but at the early age which we are now considering, the habitual practice of obedience gradually awakens the idea of duty, though the idea of duty would not yet be sufficient to produce obedience.

If we observe children attentively, we shall find that they possess an innate instinct of independence; and at the same time an equally natural feeling which prompts them to yield their own will to ours; so long at least as our conduct towards them is governed by regularity and firmness. They often adopt our ideas from sympathy- they find it is useless to resist us;

[ocr errors]

and above all they belong to us, and they rejoice in belonging to us.

A little girl of three or four years old no sooner possesses a doll than she regards it as her child, taking for granted that this affectionate connection renders it more completely

her own.

Children soon understand that they are our most beloved and valued property; we show this by our love, and by our anxiety about them; and hence it is that, even when they have not formed any very distinct notions on the subject, our forbidding certain actions appears to them quite natural. As our prohibitions are generally dictated from a regard to the safety either of the children themselves, or of something belonging to us, they are not surprised at them, though they are continually forgetting them. But the case is different with respect to commands. These, children have more difficulty in understanding, and are less willing to obey. Yet they are often more agreeable to their dispositions, inasmuch as a command requires action, while a prohibition forbids it. If the action be such as will please them, merely mentioning it may be sufficient; but imperatively to command a little child to do something, which we know to be disagreeable to him, is only uselessly compromising an authority as yet hardly established.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Such a distinction, however, cannot long be allowed, since the principal end for which power is confided to us the safety of the child requires that we should be able effectually to command as well as to forbid; but it seems as if the difference with respect to submission in the two cases arose from a certain subtle discernment of the rights of a free being. The child is weak and feeble; personally, he is entirely in our power, for he has no means of resisting us; but his mind is independent. We cannot force him to act against his will; he is astonished at our attempting it. This feeling is, in some degree, worthy of esteem; it is the germ of a dignity of character which should not be destroyed by force. To combine respect for this firmness of character in children, with the necessity of exacting obedience from them, is, perhaps, though not an insurmountable difficulty, one of the greatest which occurs in education.

Long before the age when children analyse their own motives, we may, without having recourse to the aid of fear, simply by engaging their sympathy, and making use of a little foresight, give them the habit of obedience; and thus, in spite of the turbulence and changeableness which, with our imperfect wisdom, we cannot at all times prevent, we may generally acquire an authority, of which we must be very careful to make a good use.

It is astonishing that, on this point, any distinction should ever be made between our own interest and that of our children. This interest must ever be the same. An excess of severity as certainly causes the unhappiness of both parents and children, as the exercise of a just and gentle authority produces peace and happiness.

We are sometimes told that, as children are not destined to yield at all times, and to every one, obedience is only a temporary good, and does not in itself deserve the name of a virtue. To a certain degree this is true; but yet they must always obey in some way or other. Man, as an infant, obeys his parents; afterwards he yields the same obedience to the idea of duty, as imposed upon him by the force of habit; and at last he obeys the simple idea of duty itself, which has then assumed an independent existence in his mind. It is only the motive of his obedience which changes; the virtue remains the same.

And even should we allow that obedience is not really a virtue, but merely a necessary condition by which the benefit of education is to be obtained, still this condition must be fulfilled. Without the complete possession of authority parents could never accomplish their sacred task. Tell them, if you will, to use this power with moderation, with justice; but, if you dispute their right to it, all responsibility is taken away.

« AnkstesnisTęsti »