Discipline As a School Problem

ment of life, is gained only through growth. Growth depends upon experience and training. We do not expect the two-year-old to reason incisively as to mathematical relationships, ?we have no greater right to expect him to reason cogently as to moral relationships. We can no more demand that he judge infallibly as to moral standards than that he work out a problem in an indirect case of percentage. We wait until a child is well along in years before we ask him to solve indirect problems in percentage, but we frequently act as though he ought, at an early age, to solve indirect problems in morals. The intellect, then, as the regulating governor of the moral machine, must be brought to a constantly increasing state of reliability. The child must become acquainted with the accepted standards of right. These he may learn, to a certain degree, as the result of formal instruction. But he gains them chieflythrough a long series of experiences in rendering judgments upon the various situations that arise in his own life and in the lives of others. Thus it happens that teachers, and others charged with the duty of placing moral values before children, stand before them not only as instructors but also as patterns. In either capacity they are in danger of failing in two directions: they may set forth standards that are (1) false and arbitrary, or (2) beyond the comprehension of the child-mind. False standards. Only too frequently are false standards imposed upon chi...