Systematic moral education

Preface

There appears on all sides a demand for more explicit moral education in the elementary schools. As yet, however, there is no unanimity concerning the subjects to be taught, or the method to be employed. This book is an attempt to solve the problem in a definite and practical way.

Part I outlines briefly the science and art of giving ethical instruction and moral training, with a description of practical work in ethical culture. Part II consists of a series of lessons on ethical topics that concern the every-day life of the child: it is written expressly for his comprehension and from his point of view. The two parts together constitute a work on the theory and the practice of ethics.

Many have been the faithful but little-known teachers who, from time immemorial, have left their impress, both by precept and by example, upon the characters of their pupils. Moral education is therefore no new thing. As here outlined, however, it is systematized into a plan, and made direct and definite.

Suggestions for this work have been gathered from many sources; and materials furnished by others have been selected and utilized. I desire to acknowledge with gratitude my indebtedness to all from whom such aid has come. To none, perhaps, am I more deeply indebted than to my immediate associates in the work of teach-

PREFACE

ing. They have contributed many of the syllabi in Part II; they have labored loyally to present the lessons intelligently and to put into practice the work outlined, thus proving by experiment the worth of the system.

The honest, enthusiastic teacher, a lover of his kind and of his profession, will gladly welcome help and seek light, from whatever source they may come. I trust that the light thrown upon my subject by this work, whether it be direct or reflected, will help to illumine the pathway of those teachers whose aim is the development of character.

Contents

PAET I

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Demand for Moral Education by the School 1

Chapter I The Demand For Moral Education By The School

"The question of moral education is the heart of the modern educational problem.' ' This is the declaration of a committee appointed at a "World's Conference on Moral Education, held in London in September, 1908, and consisting, among others, of the Hon. James Bryce, W. F. Stead, the Bishop of Ripon, Canon Bell, President John H. Finley, the late Richard Watson Gilder, President William H. Taft, and President Nicholas Murray Butler.

What causes this demand for a stronger emphasis on moral education? Are our educational ideals changing? History shows that nations have made their education a training for the attainment of the things they value most. As power, learning, piety, skill, and wealth became in turn the object of desire, so the means of securing them became the subject of study. Athens, valuing beauty, symmetry, and harmony, both physical and intellectual, sought through her great teachers to cultivate a love of the true, the beautiful, the good. Rome, exalting law, authority, and conquest, instructed her youth in oratory, so that they might advocate the claims of law; and skilled them in war, so that they might plant the Roman eagles in the uttermost parts of the earth. The education of monasticism was other-worldly, because the gaze of its votaries was fixed upon the hereafter. Training in arms, loyal and gallant service to the king, and devotion to whatever was noble, brave, and courteous, comprised the education of chivalry, because these were the highest ideals of that age.

The history of our own country, after the first struggle for liberty, shows an eager desire for material success. "We established scientific schools, agricultural colleges, and commercial courses. Money was the treasure upon which the nineteenth century set its heart ; and the surest means of obtaining that treasure became the object of close study and practice. That our education in this field was thorough and effective, is proved by the prosperity of the times.

But material success does not necessarily bring a corresponding advance in the higher achievements of life. Too often, wealth and luxury weaken the moral fiber of a people, and lower the standard of right living. Ancient Rome experienced this to her sorrow. In this country, our self-satisfied equanimity has been disturbed by recent events in the commercial world. We are beginning to ask whether, in our mad scramble for wealth, we have not missed something. Is an education for material success, or even for intellectual culture, adequate to the highest needs of a people? Will it bring satisfaction and happiness to them that seek it?

Engrossed by the pursuit of wealth, and madly strenuous in enjoying it, we Americans, suddenly grown rich,

DEMAND FOR MORAL EDUCATION 3

find little time or desire for the pursuit of nobler aims. Our churches are poorly attended; and religious and moral instruction is neglected in the home. Our people are seized with an inertia, caused partly by skepticism, and partly by reaction from Puritanical or priestly domination. Our ideals are sinking in consequence. Moreover, the changing character of our population, due to the heavy immigration from Southern Europe and Asia, renders the problem of the moral regeneration of the people still more complex. This seems a pessimistic view of conditions; but let us ask ourselves: Is it not true that the virtue of our forefathers is no longer held in its former high esteem?

The fact that we are awakening to a knowledge of our moral weakness is a healthful sign. That something must be done to improve our condition is evident, if we are to continue a great nation. This demand, made by thoughtful people, is being met by the educators of the country.

In 1906 the National Educational Association appointed a committee to report on the best plan of teaching ethics in the elementary schools. In 1908, the same association put itself on record as approving "the increasing appreciation among educators of the fact, that the building of character is the real aim of the schools, and the ultimate reason for the expenditure of millions for their maintenance. There are in the minds of the children and youth of to-day, a tendency toward a disregard for constituted authority, a lack of respect for age and superior wisdom, a weak appreciation of the demands of duty, a disposition to follow pleasure and interest, rather than obligation and order. This condition demands the attention and action of our leaders of opinion, and places important obligations upon school boards, superintendents, and teachers. " An association of principals in New York City has taken action "to the end that some plan may be devised for teaching morals in the schools.' ' The Brooklyn Teachers' Association, through a committee, intends to study the problem. It is their purpose to enlist the co-operation of clergymen, physicians, and other professional and philanthropic men and women in the work.

The demand for moral education is not confined to our own country. England requires moral instruction in her national and church schools, on the plea that it is necessary in order that "she may maintain her commercial supremacy." In its 1908 code of regulations for public elementary schools, the Board of Education states: "Moral instruction should form an important part of the curriculum of every elementary school. Such instruction may either be incidental, occasional, and given as fitting opportunity arises in the ordinary routine of lessons, or be given systematically and as a course of graduated instruction. The instruction should be specially directed to the inculcation of courage, truthfulness, cleanliness of mind, body, and speech, the love of fair play, consideration and respect for others, gentleness to the weak, kindness to animals, self-control and temperance, self-denial, love of one's country, and appreciation of beauty in nature and in art. The teaching should be brought home to the children by reference to their actual surroundings in town or country, and should be illustrated as vividly as possible by stories, poems, quotations, proverbs, and examples drawn from

DEMAND FOR MORAL EDUCATION 5

history and biography. The object of such instruction being the formation of character and habits of life and thought, an appeal should be made to the feelings and the personalities of the children. Unless the natural, moral responsiveness of the child is stirred, no moral instruction is likely to be fruitful. ' '

Emperor William of Germany appeals to his people for moral instruction in the schools "for the sake of the Fatherland.' ' France, realizing that the safety of the state and the preservation of the home are in peril, has gone farther than any other nation in moral education. Through her department of education, she has devised an elaborately graded course, and daily syllabi on selected morals topics.

While municipalities, states, and nations are thus trying to meet and solve the problem, purely for selfpreservation or for economic ends, much literature on the subject has been put forth. The trend of public sentiment, therefore, seems also to be in the direction of improved moral education.

With the changing ideals of the twentieth century has come a corresponding change in its educational creed. Our country, now having attained material prosperity and territorial expansion, recognized now as a leader among the nations in science, commerce, manufacture, and even in the means of education — having, in short, realized her former ideals, our country must inevitably seek higher ones ; and, passing from material and intellectual spheres, must step into the moral realm for more worlds to conquer.

The twentieth century seems likely to be an epochmaking one in the educational world. There is unrest, dissatisfaction, over the present school training. We are reaching out for better things; and what is of greater value than the moral enlightenment of the youth of the land?

Granted the necessity of greater attention to moral education, the question arises: By whom or by what agency should it be conveyed ?

Many maintain that it is not the business of the schools to give moral instruction. This, they say, is the function of the home, or of the church and Sunday-school. There is no question as to the value of home training, provided the home is an ideal one, and provided the parents not only feel their obligation to give such training, but are able and willing, because of their own views of life and manner of living, to discharge it.

But this century witnesses a standard of living and conditions very different from those of the last. A hundred years ago, only five per cent, of the population lived in cities. According to the last census, over fifty per cent, live city lives or are under city influences. "With this removal to the cities come increased temptations and allurements from the old-fashioned path of virtue. Family life loses its unity and power. In the mad rush of city existence, family interests are divided or lost. Electricity, automobiles, air ships, and lightning transit destroy the opportunity for reflection, and for the cultivation of the finer as well as the nobler sentiments. The effect of all this is not only pernicious to children, but even more disastrous to those who are supposed to lead these children in the way they should go.

Too often, life in the city means life in the street.

DEMAND FOR MORAL EDUCATION 7

With children, this is true almost of necessity : crowded apartments and lack of play space compel them to seek recreation out of doors. Parents also find home somehow not "the dearest spot on earth"; and many families scarcely ever meet except at meals. All this results either in no opportunity or in no desire for instruction in the things that make for right living. In short, the home should not, perhaps cannot, be depended on for the training that it once gave.

In the churches, probably the best work is of a negative character. By providing gymnasiums, clubs, and the other features of the modern institutional church, they attract children and youth from objectionable resorts. The Sunday-school does an important work; but it cannot be expected to accomplish in one hour a week, even under ideal conditions and instruction, all that is to be desired. Its best work, also, is probably indirect. In short, though there is not the least question of the sincerity and effectiveness of the church and the Sunday-school, it is indisputable that they cannot and do not supply the neglect of the home.

To provide definite, adequate instruction in right living; to afford inspiration and impulse to choose the right; and so to strengthen will-power, and give opportunity for the execution of right desires — these are preeminently functions of the schools. In fact, these should be regarded as their very raison d'etre. To neglect the instruction of the child in the principles and laws of right living is to deprive him of nis best and highest birthright.

Chapter II Direct And Indirect Moral Teaching

Assuming that the schools should undertake the work of moral education, we find two methods of giving the necessary instruction: the indirect method, and the direct method. The former is advocated by much the larger body of educators. But an increasing number are beginning to see that, if we want definite results, we must have direct and purposeful teaching.

We must differentiate the two terms, moral training and ethical instruction. The former has a much larger content, and indicates development through association, example, observation and practice. Those who declare for indirect teaching confine themselves to these means, and avoid what they call moralizing or preaching. In distinction from this, ethical instruction means systematic teaching of moral lessons, and the pursuit of some prescribed course on selected moral topics.

What is known as incidental ethical teaching is that which is given as occasion arises. Some happening of the day is used to afford material for a lesson in ethics, as are also the subjects of history and literature. This is not ethical instruction in the sense in which that term is here used.

Of the value of indirect or suggestive teaching there can be no question. But more than this sort of teach-

MORAL TEACHING 9

ing is necessary. The child is supposed, of course, to grasp intuitively the lessons to be conveyed. As a matter of fact, however, many children are not quick enough to catch the thought suggested. And the failure is not due to obtuseness alone. Frequently the pupil lacks the mental content or capital from which such lessons may be drawn. He represents a case, not of immorality, but of unmorality. His moral insensibility is the result of lack of cultivation and his moral nature merely needs development. He must be cured of "moral blindness. ' ' This is the work that ethical instruction, by giving him the fundamentals of morality, must accomplish. It is to be feared, moreover, that those who would "point a moral' ' as occasion arises often forget to do so. The great objection to such a haphazard manner of instruction is that this teaching, like everything else done without method or aim, would be slighted. Hence the wisdom of having stated periods for lessons, and some logical order of presentation. This can only be provided for by systematic teaching.

It has frequently been stated that the child dislikes direct moralizing, and that as a consequence the aim of the moralizing is never reached. This argument has been met by Edward Howard Griggs, 1 who says: "Children love directness, and object to beating around the bush. Indeed, next to insincere moralizing, grown people and children alike resent most of all being bribed into listening to ethical instruction in the guise of something else. Since ethical problems are more deeply interesting than any other, the ethical element can stand alone, and does not need adventitious adornment. " President G. Stan-

i Moral Education, p. 218.

ley Hall states that, especially at the age of puberty, the child should be treated as a moral being, capable of being ethically instructed and trained.

If rightly presented, ethical instruction is in reality far from distasteful to children. Of course, if it is forced upon them in and out of season, in a dismal, forbidding, or authoritative manner; and if the teacher dwells upon the awful consequences of violating the moral code, children cannot be expected to like the instruction or receive any benefit from it. On the other hand, lead them, in a tactful, sympathetic, wholesome way to see the "sweet reasonableness" of the moral order; present to them the positive, constructive value of right living; and you can interest them as deeply in this subject as in any other.

Chapter III Morality And Its Sanction

How far morality can be taught without the sanction of religion is still an open question. President S. Stanley Hall says : "So closely bound together are moral and religious training that a discussion of the one without the other would be incomplete. ' ' To be sure, we have always been so fearful of violating the idea of the separation of church and state that we have hardly dared urge the necessity of moral teaching in our schools, lest we seem to antagonize that time-honored sentiment. But we can avoid hurting religious sensibilities by assuming no more than that a wise, beneficent, allpowerful Being is directing us toward "that far-off divine event to which the whole creation tends.' '

Those who steer clear of all theistic implications in moral training ascribe prudential reasons both for the individual and for society. It is true that such subjects as Cleanliness, Obedience, Industry, and Self-control may appeal to the selfish, personal welfare of the child ; and they are also closely bound up with the welfare of society as a whole. Even in themes of larger relation, like Honesty, Courtesy, and Generosity, motives of social ethics may be employed. But here is the difficulty: if the race, with all its enlightenment, has been so slow in learning the lesson that "man does not live to himself alone," and that "all are parts of one stupendous whole," how can we expect children, whose civic ideals are necessarily limited, to be influenced by such appeals?

"When a command is presented to children, their immediate question is, "Why should I?" The first answer must be that of someone 's authority ; it should be followed later by an appeal to reason, founded upon a moral code. But just here we face the question of the authorship of that code. As yet, materialistic science has given no certain answer. Sir Oliver Lodge, one of the foremost scientists of the age, implies in his "Substance of Faith" that the aim of moral progress is "man's development into conformity with the will of God." It is almost impossible to eliminate the religious sanction of morality in dealing with children. They have a strong, deep religious instinct which easily responds to appeal. "Man," says Sabbatier, "is incurably religious." "William James states that in all races and ages there has been and is an irrepressible and unquenchable religious sense that seeks, by sacrifice, petition, or aspiration, to satisfy the demands of a higher Infinite Being.

These spiritual demands have in the past, it is true, been made the subject of controversy, persecution, and proselytizing. Shall we therefore ignore them? What we must rather do is to break away from the obstructing traditions of the past, and try, as Dewey says, to reach "that type of religion which will be the fine flower of the modern spirit's achievement." With this broad religious sanction, the most effective moral teaching must result.

Looking to the practice of other countries, we find the

MORALITY AND ITS SANCTION 13

English schoolmasters among those who maintain that morality and religion cannot be divorced in the teaching. They make the Bible their moral text-book, and give lessons from the Church of England catechism. The close union of church and state has caused this ; and we must not be too severe in our judgment of this practice, fostered by generations of God-fearing people. France has gone to the other extreme : a complete scheme of ethical instruction is prescribed, on the authority of of the goddess of ' ' Eeason. ' ' In like manner, Japan entirely ignores its national religion in a system of moral instruction introduced in 1890 into the state schools; and the sanction substituted for religion is, reverence for the person of the Mikado. A Japanese baron says that the endurance, courage, and self-control shown by the soldiers in the Russo-Japanese War were the result of this ethical instruction.

In our own country, the problem is complicated by the cosmopolitan character of the population and the consequent variety of religious creeds. Recently, in New York City, a petition was presented to the Board of Education for such instruction in the public schools as would remove cause for the imputation that we are bringing up a race of sturdy but lawless children, by our total lack of moral teaching. A committee of clergymen, representing the different denominations, was appointed, and held several meetings. They entirely failed, however, to agree on what should constitute the cardinal points in the scheme to be presented.

But in this practical work of moral education, the careful, tolerant teacher need not wait for a common basis of religious teaching. It is enough if he refers to the Deity merely as a wise, loving, ever-present Father, a power "in whom we live, and move, and have our being."

There is but one other assumption to be employed; namely, the origin and destiny of what I have called the real-self. By this we mean the higher self, the inscrutable ego, the soul, "that which" as Augustine has said, "will not find rest until it finds rest in God." Call it what you will, something in man differentiates him from the brute. To lead the child away from the bondage of his lower self, we must constantly impress him with the fact that it is this soul, with its almost infinite capacity for enlargement, that concerns him most vitally. God and the soul — surely the number of persons is negligibly small who would object to the employment of these concepts, shorn of all theological implications that might fetter the mind of the child.

It is, of course, possible to appeal to the personal or social sanction of morality: and this appeal is better than none at all. But such an appeal lacks inspiration. If we wish to touch the innermost chord of the child's being, that spiritual chord which is most responsive at the ages of puberty and adolescence, we should not hesitate to speak reverently and strongly of at least two of the great verities, God and the soul. To give religious sanction to our moral teaching does not necessarily imply that we shall cite divine authority for all our moral acts. Still less desirable is any instruction about God and the soul that might seek to be dogmatic.

A mother does not stop to explain her authority when she asks a child to obey her. If the habit of cheerful, willing, and prompt obedience has been cultivated from

MORALITY AND ITS SANCTION 15

the first, lier authority is never questioned. So our ethical instruction should unconsciously, indirectly point to some divinity back of all the higher moral demands. Better still, let reverence for things divine be more a matter of feeling than of teaching ; lest, by too frequent mention, the divine idea lose some of its sanctity and force. Scarcely any direct reference need be made to the Supreme Being, if the teacher is for any reason reluctant about introducing that subject. In the course of lessons later outlined, the name of God hardly occurs at all.

And yet, the teaching of morality is by far the more effective if it is permeated with a spirit of reverence. Personality is the thing that counts; and of this spirituality is a great element. Similia similibus curantur. It takes the spiritual to reach and draw forth the spiritual. If, then, we would make the spiritual nature triumph over the animal in the child, we must arouse his deeper nature by some subtle power within ourselves, — a power which can speak to the child's higher nature in a language which he understands, the mystic speech of the unseen divinity within the teacher 's own heart.

Chapter IV Character; The Subconscious Mind; The Power Of Thought

If our business as teachers is to build character, it is necessary for us to know something of its wonderful structure, to examine the materials of which it is built, to study its method of construction, and then to adopt some working plan. Only then may we rear a building that will possess strength, symmetry, and beauty, and will serve adequately the purpose for which it was designed. This work requires a knowledge of psychology, philosophy, and ethics. Since this knowledge is presupposed in a thorough preparation for teaching, I shall treat the growth and formation of character only in the briefest possible manner, and only so far as it concerns the subconscious mind and those thoughts which largely make the mind whatever it is.

Character is formed by a series of thoughts and acts which, by constant repetition, become habitual, until the factor of thought, which at first prompts our every act, retires or becomes a silent partner. But should our conduct at any time be at variance with previously adopted principles, thought comes forward, and protests its right to be heard. This protest we call the voice of conscience. Adequately to define conscience, and to trace its origin and growth, would involve us in a dispute with the philosophers, who are not themselves agreed upon the nature and source of the ultimate imperative.

Let us, however, venture to state briefly that conscience is a habit of thought about conduct. It is a product of gradual growth, receiving its first impressions from our early instruction. Professor Royce 1 says: "We all of us first learned about what we ought to do, what our ideal should be, and in general about the moral law, through some authority external to our wills. Our teachers, our parents, our playmates, society, custom, or, perhaps, some church, then taught us about one or another aspect of right and wrong." In other words, our conscience came to us bit by bit through teaching, till we formed a habit of right thinking. This is the doctrine of experience, in spite of the doctrine of Spencer and his followers as to the prudential origin of conscience.

The word habit carries with it the idea of automatism or of unpremeditated act. If, then, we define conscience as a habit of thought, how can we explain the paradox of a habit of thought which is without thought ; in other words, of an unconscious conscience. Some writers, among them no less an authority than William James, have tried to explain this by maintaining that man possesses a dual consciousness. They say that underneath, or parallel with, our conscious life is another, subconscious life. Perhaps this is only a new name for what we have always known as memory. But whether we call it memory or the subconscious mind, we need to know something of its workings. For, reduced to its lowest

i Philosophy of Loyalty, p. 24.

terms, character is only subconscious memory of right principles of conduct. In a measure at least, then, we shall solve the problem of character building by rearing a memory of right conduct, a memory that will respond automatically to any question of right and wrong.

With the aim of applying more directly this principle of character building through thought-habit, let us call that habit the subconscious mind, and then inquire somewhat into its nature.

Every percept, concept, and related thought which comes to us goes into what may be called a mental reservoir. Our passing conscious life first falls upon, or comes to, the surface ; then it sinks into the lower, or subconscious, part of the reservoir. And as the surface of a deep reservoir is only a small part of the whole, so is our conscious life small compared with the subconscious. The former is called by James "the stream of consciousness." But carrying out our own metaphor, we may better call it, the moving, wave-like surface of a reservoir, not passing on as a stream to be lost in the great sea of oblivion, but sinking below, and being ever replaced by a new surface. Into the subconscious mind flow all the experiences that impinge upon the mind from without, and all the thoughts, feelings, and determinations that arise within. All our desires come to the conscious surface from these depths. Thence also come, when least expected, instincts and impulses out of the mysterious region of heredity. This subconscious, or subjective, mind is constantly reinforced and affected by the conscious, or objective, mind; and it is itself directing and affecting the objective mind. "While in a way it constitutes a distinct entity, like all complex mental activities, yet it is so closely bound up with the objective mind as to appear at times merely another phase of the latter.

A striking characteristic of the subconscious mind is that its activities are largely emotional. "Waves of feeling and impulse come out of it (either unbiddeD or called forth only by the remotest suggestion) that too often override the bounds of cooler judgment, and spend themselves either in generous self-sacrificing deeds, or in careless, criminal acts which are later regretted. The newly-coined word "brain-storm," behind which so many recent crimes have sought refuge, is only another term for partly subconscious activity.

As a result of this spontaneity of action, the subconscious mind is weak, or wholly lacking, in the volitional element, if it is uncontrolled. This volitional element must be supplied by the higher mental life, the judging and willing consciousness; and when the subconscious mind receives into its depths thoughts and experiences that have been the result of choice and volition, its own character becomes changed. It is the possibility of this change that furnishes the problem set for solution in this work. Our task is to mold for the better the character of the subjective mind; to build up a strong and effective subconscious life; or to recur to our former figure, to pour into this reservoir of thought-life, purifying streams of impressions, suggestions, ideas, admirations, and desires — so that whatever mental acts of knowing, feeling, or willing may rise to the surface, shall be such as will establish and strengthen character.