Moral education in school and home

Front matter

MORAL EDUCATION

IN SCHOOL AND HOME

ENGLEMAN

Preface

Though there is universal agreement that moral education is the supreme objective in public-school work, the literature dealing with this aspect of the work is not very extensive. Of the few books that have been written, the writer has not seen one that undertakes to analyze the possibilities for moral instruction or training in the everyday activities of the school. It seemed to the writer, therefore, that there is a distinct place for such a book in teachers' reading circles and in normal school and other courses for teacher-training.

The writing of this book was undertaken, however, with a full appreciation of the difficulties involved in saying anything helpful to teachers or parents who are concerned with the problem of character-building in school and home. No claim is made for the discovery of any specifics, or any royal roads to the desired goal. Every child presents a new problem. Individual differences among children are so numerous that successful dealing with one is by no means a guarantee of success in dealing with another. Endless study, tact, sympathy, and charity are demanded of every teacher who would direct, guide, lead, or assist a child into the moral life which should be his.

On the other hand, there are more elements of likeness than of difference among children. On the side of inheritance they all have instincts, impulses, and a psychophysical organism attuned to a world of stimuli to which they must respond. In a given school they find those stimuli in the teacher, their classmates, their books and lessons. The character of the response they make from

v vi PREFACE

day to day, and hence the character of the ideas, ideals, and habits they gradually build up in their own lives, is dependent, in a large measure, upon the point of view, the attitude, and the vision of the teacher. It was with this conviction and its attendant hope that within the book here submitted may be found something that will modify in helpful ways the attitude, the point of view, and the vision of teachers, that this book was written.

The writer's long experience as a teacher in public schools, normal schools, and Sunday schools; his opportunity to observe the work of hundreds of teachers in several states ; and his more immediate concern for the moral growth of his own boys and girls — afford the background for the book, nearly every page of which mirrors some of these experiences.

While appropriate credit is given to authorities consulted and quotations used, it is impossible to acknowledge the extent of the help that has come from twenty years of contact with teachers, ministers, and books. The writer is under an especial debt of gratitude to Dr. J. W. McDonald for encouragement and valuable suggestions given him during the writing of the manuscript.

J. O. E.

Decatur, Illinois August, 1918

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Chapter I PAGE

INTRODUCTION I

Revival of interest in moral education. Cooperation of social forces necessary. The Sunday school's limitations. Reciprocity of church and public schools. The new meaning of correlation. The point of view of the whole book. Its presupposition. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter II THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL n

Bishop Huntington quoted. Ideals of antiquity. Formal discipline, knowledge, citizenship, utilitarianism as ideals. The Herbartians' view. Any modern aim must be composite to be adequate. Importance of character-building as an aim. Intellectual results that can be measured qualitatively and quantitatively. Where scientific tests are still inapplicable. Importance of the parent's point of view. The teaching of religion not in place in public schools. France's experience cited. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter III

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MORAL EDUCATION . . 22 Principles related to perception, formation of concepts, memorizing, judgment, and reasoning all involved. Modern theory of emotional life a factor. The James- Lange theory quoted. Altruistic versus egoistic feelviii CONTENTS

PAGH

ings. Practical methods of developing altruism. The place of instinct in moral training. Establishing habits of a moral sort the task of parent and teacher. Quotations from James et al. Laws of habit-formation stated. The moral will as the highest expression of the moral life. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter IV MORAL TRAINING THROUGH THE EXAMPLE AND

PERSONALITY OF THE TEACHER . . . .37

Conscious versus unconscious tuition. The best thing a college does. Palmer's estimate of the ideal teacher. Hyde on personality. A lesson from Bonaventure. One from Domsie of Drumtochty. Doctor Strong's appeal to the honor of boys. Helen Keller and Miss Sullivan. Arnold of Rugby. The best teachers as seen by high-school students. Ruskin quoted. Important qualities restated. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter V MORAL EDUCATION THROUGH SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 57

Discipline as a means to an end. Its place among the school activities. An illustration. Popular estimate of the good disciplinarian. What constitutes good discipline. Its best guarantee. Teacher must not shirk unpleasant duties. Motives back of acts must be considered. Importance of self-control in the teacher. Punishment should be reformative, not retributive; must be suited to the individuality of the child. Arnold Tompkins quoted. Children profit by seeing their acts universalized. Corporal punishment sometimes necessary. Some forms of punishment to avoid. Spencer on punishment. The teachings of biology and psychology that have a bearing here. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

CONTENTS ix

Chapter VI PAGE

MORAL EDUCATION THROUGH READING AND LIT- ERATURE 75

The heritage of good books. Influence of the teacher's reading. Danger of too much analysis. Three types of reading matter: the immoral, the unmoral, the moral, with examples and discussion of each. Importance of discovering what children voluntarily read. A suggestive approach to the child who dislikes books. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter VII

Opportunity for the exercise of the moral judgment. Old and newer conceptions of history. Moral relationships writ large in the pages of history. Illustrations. Moral elements involved in American history. Significance of personal examples of moral acts. Lecky's stress of the moral aspects of history. Froude quoted. Patriotism an outcome of history-teaching. Chauvinism to be avoided. America and the international spirit. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter VIII

Biography appeals to children who are outgrowing myths and legends. Influence of good men is dynamic. Avoid extreme censorship. History of education learned through lives of its reformers. The Bible made vital by its stories of great men and women. Clara Barton and the Red Cross. Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War. Frances Willard and her influence. Jacob Riis. Helen Keller. Dr. Grenfell. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

CONTENTS

Chapter IX PAGE

MORAL TRAINING THROUGH CURRENT EVENTS 119 Moral qualities of a dynamic sort often characterize current incidents and characters. Discovery and use of the heroic around us. William James tells "What Makes Life Significant." Heroes in unromantic walks. A lesson from the sinking of the Titanic. Hypothetical cases illustrate a point. Cases of arson and bigamy and the lessons they taught. Newspaper accounts of great disasters and calamities an opportunity for the expressive side of morality. Pestalozzi's practical method of developing sympathy. Advice of George W. Childs. Seventh grade children study efficiency. Some lessons taught most effectively upon special days. The occasion of a strike as an opportunity to teach the moral relationships of capital and labor. Objections to the use of current events answered. Teach children to read the daily papers. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter X

Music has social values. It is the language of the emotions. It begets sympathy and understanding. Music a unifying agent among children. Music and patriotism. Music and religious worship. The effect of great oratorios. The function of the phonograph. Music in penal institutions. Danger of intellectualizing music too much. Plato upon the place of music in educating children. The attitude of the psychologist towards it. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XI

Art education rests upon an instinctive love of the beautiful. What makes art education moral educa-

CONTENTS xi

PAGE tion ? The teacher's dress and her personal appearance in relation to art education. The influence of the schoolroom itself. Pictures with a moral content. Religion in art. Art for life's sake. Views of Ruskin, Caffin, and Griggs. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XII MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION THROUGH

NATURE STUDY AND SCIENCE . . .161

The moral aim not the chief aim in a study of nature or science. Reflex influence of their study upon naturalists. Huxley quoted. Love for nature gives wholesome direction to one's pleasures and hobbies. Specific results: higher regard for truth; accuracy of observation and fidelity in reporting; promotion of health; development of humane spirit; independence of character; respect for law and order; appreciation of economic values; recognition of its relation to medicine and the art of healing. War and science. Science in relation to the Deity. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XIII

MORAL INSTRUCTION THROUGH MANUAL TRAINING 179 Meaning of the phrase as used. Reasons for crediting "outside work." Reformatories first to see moral values of work. Appeal to interests of children. A lesson from Tuskegee. Work in relation to sympathy and appreciation. Moral obligation of self-support. Labor a fortification against vice. The chief duty of man to minister. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XIV

MORAL TRAINING THROUGH PLAY, PHYSICAL CUL- TURE, GAMES, AND ATHLETICS . . . .193 Attitude of the Puritans. Influence of the "new psyxii CONTENTS

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chology." 1 eachings of Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian. Froebel's influence. Play and a physical basis for a sound morality. Play as a medium for the exhibit to teachers and parents of the fundamental strength or weakness of character. The playground a cradle of democracy. "Teamwork" in play as moral training. Moral and hygienic habits fostered by competitive games. Supervised playgrounds a necessity. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XV MORAL EDUCATION THROUGH VOCATIONAL DIREC- TION 208

Modern schools undertake to train for life work. Various methods used to give vocational direction. Basic moral requirements common to all vocations and professions. Temperance in relation to industry. Truthfulness and honesty essential everywhere. Courtesy a profitable virtue. Smoking in relation to success in life. Ethics of the medical profession. Secretarial requirements. A teacher's supreme need. Where initiative counts most. Industry as an asset. The ethics of work. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XVI

THE TEACHING OF THRIFT AS MORAL TRAINING 219 Reasons for teaching of thrift. The duty of the schools. Relation of money to spiritual values. Practical suggestions to teachers : investigation of motion picture habits; teaching the value of waste products; establishment of school savings system ; promotion of home and school gardening, corn clubs, tomato clubs, pig clubs, calf clubs, etc. ; encouraging household budgets ; showing the financial value of an education ; teaching the economic value of health; using biography as an example of thrift. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

CONTENTS xiii

Chapter XVII PACE

SEX INSTRUCTION IN RELATION TO MORALITY . 241

Consequences of sex-perversions. Changing attitude of parents and teachers. Shall mothers explain the origin of life ? Simple biological facts pertaining to reproduction. Sex hygiene for early adolescents. Personal honor to be developed. The testimony of physicians. Who shall give lessons in matters of sex ? Some accepted principles of sex instruction. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XVIII BOY SCOUTING AS A FACTOR IN MORAL EDUCA- TION 256

Illustrations of cooperation between the schools and other educative agencies. Recognition of the Scout movement by the N. E. A. Relation of Scouting to formal school work. What Scouting means. The Scout Oath. The Scout Law. Illustrations of "good turns." Scouting as an example of expression in education. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XIX

MOTION PICTURES AND MORALS ... .268 Question must be faced. Two types of pictures. Decatur's three experiments. Cooperation of commercial houses. Conclusions. Questions and suggestions.

Chapter XX

The Bible as literature. Its influence upon literature. Objections to its use as a textbook. Examples of lessons that may be used without giving offense : the importance of wisdom ; respect for parents ; industry and xiv CONTENTS

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laziness contrasted; sin of intemperance; mutual relationships illustrated ; who is my neighbor ? Biblical biographies. Method of use illustrated. Use of quotations. Lessons from the life of Jesus. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Chapter XXI MORAL LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN WAR . 300

The value of physical preparedness. Sex-morality in relation to patriotism. Beneficent results already achieved : sacrifice, service, unity, revival of fundamentals in religion, breaking down of sectarian barriers. The duty of the school. Questions and suggestions. References for further reading.

Index 311

Introduction

Morality is not something added to man; it is the man; and so morals is not a part of the course; it is the course. True moral teaching seeks to affect conduct indirectly by the general elevation of life. Whatever brings out the features of the soul, develops fully and harmoniously its powers and faculties, directs the aspiring self to the highest claims of manhood, frees and stimulates the ethical passion among the forces of man's nature, reveals to the individual the beauty and worth of character, and inspires the soul with a passion for truth and righteousness that shall press towards absolute satisfaction, is moral teaching.

With this view of the question it is easy to see how instruction in morals may find a place in the course of study; or to see that it matters little if it have no place; for the teacher who tones all his work to the moral key can afford to refuse it space on the program.

Tompkins, Philosophy of Teaching, p. 267.

Revival of interest in moral education. — One of the promising characteristics of the times is an awakening of interest in the moral and religious training of the child. To be sure there has always been more or less of interest in it, but too long it was sporadic, vague, and abortive. Here and there throughout the ages have been men and women with clear vision, keenly conscious that the moral habits and ideals of the child of today are the necessary precursors of the moral acts of the man and woman of tomorrow. But it has remained for the present day to witness an interest and a movement that are taking hold of the social conscience and social consciousness, and resulting in more definite and more purposeful steps in the formulation of a scheme of instruction and training that will leave less to accident and chance in this paramount phase of child development. A casual study of the programs of educational meetings, national, state, and local, will show that within the past five years more time and attention have been given to a consideration of this topic than had been given it within the score of years preceding. Books and monographs, as well as addresses, have multiplied ; and leading social workers in church and Sunday school have taken hold of the problem with teachers in the effort to blaze a trail and find a way to make moral training dynamic and effective.

Cooperation of social forces necessary. — At this point probably lies the key to the success which may be reasonably expected in the difficult social task that confronts all who try to solve this problem. The duty is one which devolves upon the home, the church, and the state as well as the school. Cooperation and coordination of social forces and social efforts are necessary. No one

INTRODUCTION 3

organization and no single institution has a monopoly upon the child's life. No one of them can assume the whole responsibility ; and no one of them has a right to shirk its portion of the responsibility. The child's life can not be sectioned. It does not develop in watertight compartments. The whole child goes to school, to play, to movies, to church, in time to work, and always to its home for certain hours of every day. Its life is subject to influences every hour which leave their imprint upon it. Experiences in each of these situations may reenforce the growing moral life of the child. Experiences in any one of them may tend to neutralize the good effects wrought by the others. An irreverent, irreligious teacher may do much to bring to nought the zeal and the devotion of a pious mother. Vulgarity and profanity on the playground may easily offset the wholesome influence of much moral instruction in church and home. Uncensored films in motion picture shows may poison childish imagination beyond the antidotes offered by the best literature taught in the public schools. An undeveloped social morality revealing itself in city ordinances that take little note of the pitfalls of boys — saloons, wine rooms, brothels, pool rooms, Sabbath desecration, etc., and in the appointment and continuance in office of officials who wink at law-breakers and law-breaking — all of this makes infinitely more difficult the task of any individual or institution striving to teach and train children in habits and ideals of moral life.

The strength and limitations of the Sunday school. — Since the establishment of the Sunday school as an almost universal adjunct of the church in America there has been a sort of tacit assumption that the moral and religious education of children could safely be left to it ; but there are two excellent reasons why the Sunday school can not justify such confidence. First, there are even today thousands of children who never go to Sunday school at all. They must, as a result, miss most of the wholesome influence radiating from this center. Unfortunately, the children who seldom or never go to Sunday school belong to homes in which the parents have but slight interest in the moral habits of their children. Thus it often comes about that homes which need most the help the Sunday school can give, get nothing from it.

But second, the Sunday school of the past has been far less effective as a moral and religious instrument than it was thought to be. It was founded upon excellent faith with the best of intentions, but rested upon a poor psychological foundation. The thousands of children who were fortunate enough to come within its portals got less than their deserts because it did not adapt its teachings to their needs and their interests.

It may not be in place to point out here the shortcomings of the Sunday school, but its best friends today admit its relative failure in the past because its teachers lacked pedagogical insight; its course of study was ill adapted to the interests of children ; and its rooms and equipment were almost wholly unsuited to the requirements of good teaching. All of this is slowly changing today. The most progressive schools are demanding teachers who

INTRODUCTION 5

not only know the Bible, but know children as well. Sunday-school teaching, to be effective, needs to be done in the light of child psychology, and by teachers who can bring to their task the same sort of methodology that has a place in the best public schools. Graded lessons, adapted to the interests of children of different ages, with different dominant instincts and tendencies, are finding more and more favor. Church edifices are rapidly changing to afford separate classrooms, in which the attention of the pupils will not need to be distracted by a confusion of voices. Blackboards and maps and charts and other helps are being utilized to make possible more visualization in the process of teaching and learning. In other words, the Sunday school of this day is powerfully influenced by the secular schools, which have been away in advance of the churches in their ready application of the principles of psychology and pedagogy to their teaching processes.

Reciprocity of churches and public schools. — But even this is not enough. The past two or three years have developed the well-defined belief that ways must be found for standardizing the moral and religious instruction of public school children, and for reaching all of them who are reached by the public schools. The North Dakota plan, the Colorado plan, the Gary plan, and the Indiana plan are all plans looking towards the standardization and universalizing of this phase of the child's education. Their significance lies in the fact that they indicate a growing sense of the importance of this teaching; and a no less growing recognition of the need of cooperative effort upon the part of church and home and public school in doing it effectively. In so far as the public schools have become the leaders in this movement, they have become so because their leaders have become actuated by the same high aims and purposes of the Sunday school, and have come to see that the life of the child is " more than meat " and its " body more than raiment." In other words, while the church and Sunday school have recently become debtors to the public schools for methods, principles, teachers, and even classrooms and equipment, the public schools have become or are becoming debtor to them for lofty purposes and high moral aims in the accomplishment of their tasks. Such reciprocity and exchange augurs well for both, and for the child that needs the tuition of both.

New meaning of correlation. — Two decades ago the watchword of pedagogy was correlation. The same idea was expressed by the term concentration and by coordination. The idea was to correlate all schoolroom teaching around some central or pivotal subject which was considered by its advocates to be the one subject of supreme importance in child development. Some found in history, some in literature, and some in still other subjects, the backbone of all important curricula. No such scheme succeeded in accomplishing all that was claimed for it, and there has long since ceased to be any such correlation of subjects as was once urged ; but the idea of correlation has survived. Today, however, it is a correlation of institutional efforts that demands our attention. How to join hands

INTRODUCTION 7

with other agencies and utilize all that they can contribute in furthering the work of the public schools is a problem for all concerned in their administration. Parent-teacher associations, associations of commerce, factories, department stores, physicians, dentists, art leagues, musical societies, farmers' institutes, libraries, churches, Sunday schools, women's clubs, old settlers' associations — all of these and many more are capable of touching the life of a child in helpful ways, and the school of the future will do its best work only as it learns how to appropriate and to correlate the educational assets of these agencies and institutions. The effort to expand the scope of moral instruction of school children, and to coordinate the teachings and influences of those agencies and institutions which have a bearing upon the morals of children, is but a part of this larger present-day movement.

But while we are witnessing, and even sharing in, such an extensive movement, the school is compelled to intensify its own endeavors as a part of the larger program. This is a logical outcome of the new dignity and new responsibility which schools everywhere must bear as the school day and school year grow longer, and as " all the children of all the people " are being brought into the schools and kept there, not only throughout a longer school year, but through more years than they were once kept.

The point of view of the whole book. — Indeed, the schools are passing through a stage in which not only their organization and methods are being challenged, but they are being asked to justify the content of their courses of study. That which can not be justified must be banished. Subject matter is being weighed in the light of its possible contribution to the needs of the child. These needs are being analyzed as never before. Certain of them are physical, others are intellectual, some are spiritual. Again, it is recognized that a child's education involves a certain minimum fund of information which experience has shown to be universally desirable; it involves the formation of a number of habits which give poise and balance and stability to character, and insure reaction of the desirable sort to most situations of life ; and finally it includes ideals which ennoble and attract and inspire, and do much to insure that his life will be lived on a high moral plane, not guaranteed at all by intellectual training alone. The good teacher finds it necessary in every subject and every lesson to consider the limitations and needs of her class, and to ask herself what a proposed lesson has to give along these lines. Inasmuch as few needs are more pronounced than development of moral fiber, it is important for teachers to realize the fact itself, and then to see, as clearly as they may, just how to utilize to the maximum for moral ends the various lessons and other school experiences which may be employed for other purposes. In other words, since our curricula are necessarily crowded, and since there is by no means general agreement that a specific course in moral training or ethics would be the surest means of influencing character, it is well to see what can be done for character with the ordinary subjects of instruction and the common experiences of the elementary school. Assuming that character is a

INTRODUCTION 9

by-product, and one most likely to be secured when something else is made the school's objective point, it may still be lost, in large measure, as valuable by-products were long lost in processes of manufacture until their value was at last recognized, and ways discovered whereby they might be secured without neglect of the products of earlier major concern.

Presupposition of the book. — The chapters of this book are therefore written to direct the attention of the young teacher to ways and means of utilizing as largely as possible the potential moral values of the school as an institution ; and to exhibit, so far as we can, the moral aspects of the conventional subjects of instruction, and of the various activities comprising the life of the school. A presupposition of the whole book is that there is a rich moral content in literature, history, and biography; that discipline, study, manual training courses, and playground activities may be made to contribute largely to the moral development of pupils; and, in fact, that the school needs to be thoroughly moral in its every aspect, and the teacher needs to see how to make its several phases of study, recitation, work, and play minister to the unfolding moral life of the child without the necessity of adding a specific course in morals to an already overcrowded curriculum.

1. What evidence can you cite that there is greater interest in either moral or religious education than there was years ago ?

io MORAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND HOML

2. Distinguish between moral training and the teaching of morals.

3. List the organizations of your community which are cooperating more or less fully with the schools, and show wherein they are influencing the moral life of children.

4. What has the legislature to do with moral training ? Can you cite any act of your last legislature that has a bearing upon the moral life of children ? If so, show its bearing.

5. Distinguish between moral instruction and moral training.

6. Assuming the supreme importance of the moral training of children, what reasons can you assign for not giving it a specific place upon the daily school program ?

Carlton, Frank Tr\cy : Education and Industrial Evolution :

The Relation between Educational Advance and Industrial

Progress, chapter ill. Macmillan Co. DeGarmo, Charles : Moral Training through the Common

Branches, in Proceedings of the N. E. A. 1894, pp. 165-173. Dewey, John : Democracy in Education : Theories of Morals,

chapter xxvi. Macmillan Co.

McMurry, Charles A. : Conflicting Principles in Teaching,

chapter xm. Houghton Mifflin Co.

Peabody, Francis G. : The Christian Life in the Modern

World. Macmillan Co.

Strayer and Norsworthy : How to Teach : The Development

of Moral Social Conduct, chapter xi. Macmillan Co.

Chapter II

To rear men fit and ready for all spots and crises, prompt and busy in affairs, gentle among little children, self-reliant in danger, genial in company, sharp in a jurybox, tenacious at a town meeting, unseducible in a crowd, tender at a sick-bed, not likely to jump into the first boat at a shipwreck, affectionate and respectful at home, obliging in a traveling party, shrewd and just in the market, reverent and punctual at the church, not going about, as Robert Hall said, "with an air of perpetual apology for the unpardonable presumption of being in the world ", nor yet forever supplicating the world's special consideration, brave in action, patient in suffering, believing and cheerful everywhere, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Huntington.

Ideals of antiquity. — Different ages and different nations have had many different educational ideals, as any study of the history of education will easily show. The Chinese ideal was long one which almost deified the past. Ancestor worship, walking in the beaten paths, conservation of the practices and customs of antiquity, were all factors in it which determined the content and the methods of Chinese education. The Hebrews had an ideal much akin to it; but believing themselves a peculiar people, especially favored by Jehovah, with a deeply religious consciousness, a quality that has indeed characterized still other Semitic peoples, their ideal was essentially religious. It, too, left its mark upon everything connected with the education of their children. The Greeks, and especially the Athenians, held to culture as the worth-while mark of a free people. No other people, therefore, whether in ancient or modern times, have done more to develop a capacity for intellectual and aesthetic enjoyment of leisure than they. When the dark ages began to give way before the light of the Renaissance in art and letters, it was the Greek ideal that once more began to shape the life of Middle Age Europe. Law, order, strength, and efficiency were factors in the early Roman ideal which found expression and support in Roman life and Roman schools.