CHAPTER XIV

RESULTS OF MORAL TRAINING

A TREE is known by its fruits, a system of moral training by its effects upon character. All teaching is judged by results; though the manner of proving these differs. In purely intellectual teaching, results may be tested by oral and written examinations; in technical training, by the products of the hand; in music, by artistic execution. The effects of character training, however, are not subject to such methodical or practical tests: character is too large, and it does not show uniform development. Sometimes seed that has been sown remains a long time apparently dormant. Often a teacher loses heart because he fails to see signs of awakening conscience or moral power. But let him not weary in well doing. He must labor on, often unmindful of immediate results, and satisfied with bearing witness, in word and deed, to the truth. For he knows that, somehow, the truth must touch the child and move him.

As a matter of record, where moral training has been made the chief part of school work, changes have taken place that are almost marvelous. For example, where a forceful, skillful person has taken charge, chaos has been made into order. But this growth by control from within is vastly different from mere order imposed from

without.

In a western city, a school located in the slums had

been regarded as beyond the control of anyone. A lady who believed in a system of direct moral training assumed charge. Her first effort was to enlist the interest of the pupils in the power of thought, by showing them that the boys and the girls who wanted to do something worth while, must give care to their thoughts. At the same time, she took pains to furnish them subjects for better thinking, and gave to them through word and suggestion, her own best thoughts. This seemed such a novel way of appealing to them, that it aroused their curiosity, and later caused them to see the reasonableness of a better way. In a short time, it seemed as though seven devils had been cast out of that school.

Corresponding in some small degree to the poorschools of London, are the schools of the Children's Aid Society of New York. In one of these the principal became converted to the doctrine of direct ethical instruction; and the children became like clay in the hands of a potter. In a school in the so-called Tenderloin District of New York, a teacher took charge of a class composed of fourteen-year-old boys of the worst type: boys who habitually went to bed after midnight, stole, drank, smoked, and led the lowest kind of life, because they lived in the wickedest part of a great metropolis. This teacher, too, believed in the all-conquering power of directing thoughts and activities into right channels. His first work was to give boy who was the leader of a rough gang the office of governor of the class. The governor was asked to preserve order, and to help those who were behind in work. The effect upon him, as well as upon the rest of the class, was magical. On one occasion the teacher was detained at home for three days, and the

class sent their representative to the principal, to ask that they might take care of themselves. The request was granted. During the day, the principal looked in upon them: the governor was at the teacher's desk hearing the lessons, and the order was perfect. So great was the ultimate change in the governor's conduct, as wel! as in his appearance, that when he left school to go to work, he received the strongest of testimonials, and was started on an honorable career.

Reference has already been made to the benefit of the system upon the teacher. Teaching is no longer regarded as drudgery, but is looked upon as a labor of love. The artisan has become an artist, and his work fascinates him with its charm. It is the experience of Pygmalion and Galatea repeated.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Note. The bibliography of ethical instruction is an extensive one. Edward Howard Griggs, in the volume mentioned below, devotes forty-three pages to it, and does not by any means exhaust the list. When, however, one attempts to select from this great number the books of practical value to the elementary school teacher, the list is surprisingly small. After excluding all purely abstract works on the science of ethics, and all that merely emphasize the need of instruction in the subject, I find after careful selection that of those which are available for immediate practical use the following are the best:

Moral Education. Edward Howard Griggs. B. W. Huebsch, New York, 1906.

The Brownley System of Child Training. Jane Brownley. Holden, Springfield, Mass., 1906.

Morals and Manners. William J. Shearer. Macmillan, New York, 1905.

Ethics for Young People. C. C. Everett. Ginn & Co., Boston, 1891.

Conduct as a Fine Art. Gilman and Jackson. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1891.

Primer of Right and Wrong. J. N. Larned. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1902.

Moral Instruction of Children. Felix Adler. Appleton, New York, 1902.

The Heart of a Boy. G. Mantellini. Laird & Lee, Chicago, 1899.

The Boy Problem. William Byron Forbush. Pilgrim Press, Boston, 1901.

Youth, its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene. G. Stanley Hall. Appleton, New York, 1909.

Duty. J. H. Seelye. Ginn & Co., Boston, 1892

School Management. E. E. White. American Book Co., New York, 1892.

Children's Rights. Kate Douglas Wiggin. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1892.

Moral Instruction and Training in Schools. Edited by M. A. Sadler. Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1909. Ethics of Success. Readers I, II, III. Siver, Burdett & Co., New York, 1907.

Practical Ethics. William DeWitt Hyde. Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1892.

Lessons on Morals. Julia M. Dewey. Hinds & Noble, New York.