THE TRAINING OF THE CHILD'S WILL.
By Frederick Griggs
IN speaking to a class of young teachers, James A. Garfield once said, "Study the child rather than the book." No greater truth concerning child training was ever uttered. Children are never studied enough by their parents or teachers. One reason for this lack of observation lies in the fact that the child possesses a mind, and that the study of the child involves the study of the workings of this mind. The child's mind is entirely different from the mind of the adult, but the parent or teacher is very apt to look at the mind of the child through his own, and to deal with the child as tho he were years in advance of childhood days. James Whitcomb Riley beautifully touches this point:— "The child heart is so strange a little thing—
So mild, so timorously shy and small,
When grown-up hearts throb, it goes scampering
Behind the wall, nor dares peer out at all!
It is the veriest mouse
That hides in any house,
So wild a little thing is any child heart!
"Child heart! mild heart!
Ho, my little wild heart!
Come up here to me out of the dark,
Or let me come to you!" It certainly takes effort and study on our part to comprehend what passes in the mind of a child. He is observing phenomena on every hand that are absolutely unaccountable to him. Here is one cause of childhood fears, and if, instead of becoming impatient with the foibles, fears, and alarms of childhood, we would take time to explain to them something about the objects of which they are afraid, they would, instead of having developed an unreasonable fear of these objects, become interested in them. which a child has to do, in order to develop properly, is to learn to distinguish himself from that with which he comes in contact, and to discover his proper relation to that with which he associates. A little babe does not recognize its hands and feet as a part of itself, but is as much or more amused with them as it is later with its dolls and toys. Remarks of children are continually showing that this is true. The most effective way to enable a child to properly discover his relation to the world is to show him what there is in the world, and to give him the philosophy of all that is taking place around him. By this I mean to show him the God that animates and moves all. Perhaps not the least feature of child training is that of controlling and directing the will. It is the will of children that perplexes instructors and parents, for they are full of it; in short, wilful, and it is well for every child that this is so; for the will is the controlling element of one's nature. But the will itself is capable of education, and the way to control the will is to educate the will. The will of the child should never be broken, for a child with a broken will is worse than one who is halt or maimed or blind. He is like a bird with a broken wing. The way to break the will of the child is to take away his power to choose; for, in one sense of the word, this power of choosing is the child's will. We should deal with children as God deals with men and women. He gives them The Right to Choose between Good and Evil.
So the child should have this right. I do not mean by this that we should set him in the midst of an environment in which evil abounds, in order that he may develop sterling qualities of character there, for under these circumstances he will most certainly fail to develop such a character as we should wish. There is enough of evil in his young nature, and in the midst of any environment that he can be placed in, in this world, to give him continually opportunities to choose, be this environment the very best that could possibly be selected. The child may be given to understand that if he does wrong he is to suffer the consequences of this wrong, and this is the very way that God deals with us. When, for illustration, the parent says to the little boy, when he is inclined to be stingy with his sister, that he is to be liberal or be denied certain things himself, that parent has set before the child the privilege of doing right and enjoying such benefits as right-doing will give him, or of doing wrong and suffering its consequences. But after the two roads are placed before him he needs line upon line and precept upon precept to encourage him to do right. The training of the will, of the power of choice, constitutes the strongest feature in the training of every child. The Will is to Direct and Control
the desires and whims of every individual. A properly developed will gives to every boy and girl a feeling of noble independence, which constitutes true dignity. Such a sense of independence is a virtue. It is this that gives him a just appreciation of his relation to the world and all therein. Bishop Vincent very aptly illustrates this point in speaking of "Tom." "Tom" is the average young boy or girl. Mr. Vincent says:— Now for the radical lessons which Tom must learn. He must be taught to consider himself a person and not a thing, a cause and not an effect. There is current an idea which receives its support from weak fiction, cheap lecture platforms, and even from shabby pulpits—the idea that men are the creatures of circumstances and environment, that evil tendencies are the result of the choice of a great-grandfather. Tom must learn that he is in the world for the purpose of overcoming heredity, breaking through environment, and putting circumstances underfoot, and he must stand as a man, not a thing. I take great stock in a boy who is courageous enough to assert his principles in spite of "the fellows;" such a boy is a power and not a piece of putty. Knowing that he is a power, Tom must be taught to be independent and to earn his own way. And this applies to girls as well as to boys. I detest tramps, rich and poor. When Tom has learned to be independent himself, he will respect others who have to earn their own way in the world. Again, Tom's teachers must teach him that he, being a power, and independent, should not forget the law of interdependence. That is why I like the school. It brings future citizens together on an equal footing. It is a good thing for broadcloth and homespun to sit side by side; it doesn't hurt homespun, and it does broadcloth good. Tom's most effective teacher, when the boy is between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, is the man for whom he works and who pays him money. Here Tom's parents have a responsibility. They must choose his employer wisely. Finally, I would say, never give Tom up. If his teacher is cross and sarcastic, take up a missionary collection and send that teacher to the north pole. Remember that some boys do not mature until they are twenty-five, and some men have astonished the world at fifty. The stupid schoolboy of to-day may be the valedictorian at college, the statesman of future years. It sometimes takes the Almighty Father eighty years to get a good grip on a human soul. Therefore I say, Tom's teachers at home and in society should never give Tom up. Every parent and teacher in order to study the child must study themselves. This world is full of work, and to do this work properly requires a strong will, and that boy and girl has been given the best inheritance that can be given in this world, when they have been trained to use the will to work in the right spirit, and for the right purpose.