Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11), Herbert Spencer [historical books to read .txt] 📗

Even When The   Truth Gets Recognised,

The Obstacles To Conformity With It Are So Persistent As To Outlive The

Patience Of    Philanthropists And Even Of    Philosophers. We May Be Sure,

Therefore, That The   Difficulties In The   Way Of    A Normal Government Of

Children, Will Always Put An Adequate Check Upon The   Efforts To Realise

It.

 

 

 

With These Preliminary Explanations, Let Us Go On To Consider The   True

Aims And Methods Of    Moral Education. After A Few Pages Devoted To The

Settlement Of    General Principles, During The   Perusal Of    Which We Bespeak

The Reader's Patience, We Shall Aim By Illustrations To Make Clear The

Right Methods Of    Parental Behaviour In The   Hourly Occurring Difficulties

Of Family Government.

When A Child Falls, Or Runs Its Head Against The   Table, It Suffers A

Pain, The   Remembrance Of    Which Tends To Make It More Careful; And By

Repetition Of    Such Experiences, It Is Eventually Disciplined Into Proper

Guidance Of    Its Movements. If It Lays Hold Of    The   Fire-Bars, Thrusts Its

Hand Into A Candle-Flame, Or Spills Boiling Water On Any Part Of    Its

Skin, The   Resulting Burn Or Scald Is A Lesson Not Easily Forgotten. So

Deep An Impression Is Produced By One Or Two Events Of    This Kind, That

No Persuasion Will Afterwards Induce It Thus To Disregard The   Laws Of

Its Constitution.

 

 

 

Now In These Cases, Nature Illustrates To Us In The   Simplest Way, The

True Theory And Practice Of    Moral Discipline--A Theory And Practice

Which, However Much They May Seem To The   Superficial Like Those Commonly

Received, We Shall Find On Examination To Differ From Them Very Widely.

 

 

 

Observe, First, That In Bodily Injuries And Their Penalties We Have

Misconduct And Its Consequences Reduced To Their Simplest Forms. Though,

According To Their Popular Acceptations, _Right_ And _Wrong_ Are Words

Scarcely Applicable To Actions That Have None But Direct Bodily Effects;

Yet Whoever Considers The   Matter Will See That Such Actions Must Be As

Much Classifiable Under These Heads As Any Other Actions. From Whatever

Assumption They Start, All Theories Of    Morality Agree That Conduct Whose

Total Results, Immediate And Remote, Are Beneficial, Is Good Conduct;

While Conduct Whose Total Results, Immediate And Remote, Are Injurious,

Is Bad Conduct. The   _Ultimate_ Standards By Which All Men Judge Of

Behaviour, Are The   Resulting Happiness Or Misery. We Consider

Drunkenness Wrong Because Of    The   Physical Degeneracy And Accompanying

Moral Evils Entailed On The   Drunkard And His Dependents. Did Theft Give

Pleasure Both To Taker And Loser, We Should Not Find It In Our Catalogue

Of Sins. Were It Conceivable That Kind Actions Multiplied Human

Sufferings, We Should Condemn Them--Should Not Consider Them Kind. It

Needs But To Read The   First Newspaper-Leader, Or Listen To Any

Conversation On Social Affairs, To See That Acts Of    Parliament,

Political Movements, Philanthropic Agitations, In Common With The   Doings

Of Individuals Are Judged By Their Anticipated Results In Augmenting The

Pleasures Or Pains Of    Men. And If On Analysing All Secondary

Superinduced Ideas, We Find These To Be Our Final Tests Of    Right And

Wrong, We Cannot Refuse To Class Bodily Conduct As Right Or Wrong

According To The   Beneficial Or Detrimental Results Produced.

 

 

 

Note, In The   Second Place, The   Character Of    The   Punishments By Which

These Physical Transgressions Are Prevented. Punishments, We Call Them,

In The   Absence Of    A Better Word; For They Are Not Punishments In The

Literal Sense. They Are Not Artificial And Unnecessary Inflictions Of

Pain; But Are Simply The   Beneficent Checks To Actions That Are

Essentially At Variance With Bodily Welfare--Checks In The   Absence Of

Which Life Would Be Quickly Destroyed By Bodily Injuries. It Is The

Peculiarity Of    These Penalties, If We Must So Call Them, That They Are

Simply The   _Unavoidable Consequences_ Of    The   Deeds Which They Follow:

They Are Nothing More Than The   _Inevitable Reactions_ Entailed By The

Child's Actions.

 

 

 

Let It Be Further Borne In Mind That These Painful Reactions Are

Proportionate To The   Transgressions. A Slight Accident Brings A Slight

Pain; A More Serious One, A Severer Pain. It Is Not Ordained That An

Urchin Who Tumbles Over The   Doorstep, Shall Suffer In Excess Of    The

Amount Necessary; With The   View Of    Making It Still More Cautious Than

The Necessary Suffering Will Make It. But From Its Daily Experience It

Is Left To Learn The   Greater Or Less Penalties Of    Greater Or Less

Errors; And To Behave Accordingly.

 

 

 

And Then Mark, Lastly, That These Natural Reactions Which Follow The

Child's Wrong Actions, Are Constant, Direct, Unhesitating, And Not To Be

Escaped. No Threats; But A Silent, Rigorous Performance. If A Child Runs

A Pin Into Its Finger, Pain Follows. If It Does It Again, There Is Again

The Same Result: And So On Perpetually. In All Its Dealing With

Inorganic Nature It Finds This Unswerving Persistence, Which Listens To

No Excuse, And From Which There Is No Appeal; And Very Soon Recognising

This Stern Though Beneficent Discipline, It Becomes Extremely Careful

Not To Transgress.

 

 

 

Still More Significant Will These General Truths Appear, When We

Remember That They Hold Throughout Adult Life As Well As Throughout

Infantine Life. It Is By An Experimentally-Gained Knowledge Of    The

Natural Consequences, That Men And Women Are Checked When They Go Wrong.

After Home-Education Has Ceased, And When There Are No Longer Parents

And Teachers To Forbid This Or That Kind Of    Conduct, There Comes Into

Play A Discipline Like That By Which The   Young Child Is Trained To

Self-Guidance. If The   Youth Entering On The   Business Of    Life Idles Away

His Time And Fulfils Slowly Or Unskilfully The   Duties Entrusted To Him,

There By And By Follows The   Natural Penalty: He Is Discharged, And Left

To Suffer For Awhile The   Evils Of    A Relative Poverty. On The   Unpunctual

Man, Ever Missing His Appointments Of    Business And Pleasure, There

Continually Fall The   Consequent Inconveniences, Losses, And

 

Part 1 Chapter 3 (Moral Education) Pg 41

Deprivations. The   Tradesmen Who Charges Too High A Rate Of    Profit, Loses

His Customers, And So Is Checked In His Greediness. Diminishing Practice

Teaches The   Inattentive Doctor To Bestow More Trouble On His Patients.

The Too Credulous Creditor And The   Over-Sanguine Speculator, Alike Learn

By The   Difficulties Which Rashness Entails On Them, The   Necessity Of

Being More Cautious In Their Engagements. And So Throughout The   Life Of

Every Citizen. In The   Quotation So Often Made _Apropos_ Of    Such

Cases--"The Burnt Child Dreads The   Fire"--We See Not Only That The

Analogy Between This Social Discipline And Nature's Early Discipline Of

Infants Is Universally Recognised; But We Also See An Implied Conviction

That This Discipline Is Of    The   Most Efficient Kind. Nay Indeed, This

Conviction Is More Than Implied; It Is Distinctly Stated. Every One Has

Heard Others Confess That Only By "Dearly Bought Experience" Had They

Been Induced To Give Up Some Bad Or Foolish Course Of    Conduct Formerly

Pursued. Every One Has Heard, In The   Criticism Passed On The   Doings Of

This Spendthrift Or The   Other Schemer, The   Remark That Advice Was

Useless, And That Nothing But "Bitter Experience" Would Produce Any

Effect: Nothing, That Is, But Suffering The   Unavoidable Consequences.

And If Further Proof Be Needed That The   Natural Reaction Is Not Only The

Most Efficient Penalty, But That No Humanly-Devised Penalty Can Replace

It, We Have Such Further Proof In The   Notorious Ill-Success Of    Our

Various Penal Systems. Out Of    The   Many Methods Of    Criminal Discipline

That Have Been Proposed And Legally Enforced, None Have Answered The

Expectations Of    Their Advocates. Artificial Punishments Have Failed To

Produce Reformation; And Have In Many Cases Increased The   Criminality.

The Only Successful Reformatories Are Those Privately-Established Ones

Which Approximate Their Regime To The   Method Of    Nature--Which Do Little

More Than Administer The   Natural Consequences Of    Criminal Conduct:

Diminishing The   Criminal's Liberty Of    Action As Much As Is Needful For

The Safety Of    Society, And Requiring Him To Maintain Himself While

Living Under This Restraint. Thus We See, Both That The   Discipline By

Which The   Young Child Is Taught To Regulate Its Movements Is The

Discipline By Which The   Great Mass Of    Adults Are Kept In Order, And More

Or Less Improved; And That The   Discipline Humanly-Devised For The   Worst

Adults, Fails When It Diverges From This Divinely-Ordained Discipline,

And Begins To Succeed On Approximating To It.

 

 

Have We Not Here, Then, The   Guiding Principle Of    Moral Education? Must

We Not Infer That The   System So Beneficent In Its Effects During Infancy

And Maturity, Will Be Equally Beneficent Throughout Youth? Can Any One

Believe That The   Method Which Answers So Well In The   First And The   Last

Divisions Of    Life, Will Not Answer In The   Intermediate Division? Is It

Not Manifest That As "Ministers And Interpreters Of    Nature" It Is The

Function Of    Parents To See That Their Children Habitually Experience The

True Consequences Of    Their Conduct--The Natural Reactions: Neither

Warding Them Off, Nor Intensifying Them, Nor Putting Artificial

Consequences In Place Of    Them? No Unprejudiced Reader Will Hesitate In

His Assent.

 

 

 

Probably, However, Not A Few Will Contend That Already Most Parents Do

This--That The   Punishments They Inflict Are, In The   Majority Of    Cases,

The True Consequences Of    Ill-Conduct--That Parental Anger, Venting

Itself In Harsh Words And Deeds, Is The   Result Of    A Child's

Transgression--And That, In The   Suffering, Physical Or Moral, Which The

Child Is Subject To, It Experiences The   Natural Reaction Of    Its

Misbehaviour. Along With Much Error This Assertion Contains Some Truth.

It Is Unquestionable That The   Displeasure Of    Fathers And Mothers Is A

True Consequence Of    Juvenile Delinquency; And That The   Manifestation Of

It Is A Normal Check Upon Such Delinquency. The   Scoldings, And Threats,

And Blows, Which A Passionate Parent Visits On Offending Little Ones,

Are Doubtless Effects Actually Drawn From Such A Parent By Their

Offences; And So Are, In Some Sort, To Be Considered As Among The

Natural Reactions Of    Their Wrong Actions. Nor Are We Prepared To Say

That These Modes Of    Treatment Are Not Relatively Right--Right, That Is,

In Relation To The   Uncontrollable Children Of    Ill-Controlled Adults; And

Right In Relation To A State Of    Society In Which Such Ill-Controlled

Adults Make Up The   Mass Of    The   People. As Already Suggested, Educational

Systems, Like Political And Other Institutions, Are Generally As Good As

The State Of    Human Nature Permits. The   Barbarous Children Of    Barbarous

Parents Are Probably Only To Be Restrained By The   Barbarous Methods

Which Such Parents Spontaneously Employ; While Submission To These

Barbarous Methods Is Perhaps The   Best Preparation Such Children Can Have

For The   Barbarous Society In Which They Are Presently To Play A Part.

Conversely, The   Civilised Members Of    A Civilised Society Will

Spontaneously Manifest Their Displeasure In Less Violent Ways--Will

Spontaneously Use Milder Measures--Measures Strong Enough For Their

Better-Natured Children. Thus It Is True That, In So Far As The

Expression Of    Parental Feeling Is Concerned, The   Principle Of    The

Natural Reaction Is Always More Or Less Followed. The   System Of    Domestic

Government Ever Gravitates Towards Its Right Form.

 

 

 

But Now Observe Two Important Facts. The   First Fact Is That, In States

Of Rapid Transition Like Ours, Which Witness A Continuous Battle Between

Old And New Theories And Old And New Practices, The   Educational Methods

In Use Are Apt To Be Considerably Out Of    Harmony With The   Times. In

Deference To Dogmas Fit Only For The   Ages That Uttered Them, Many

Parents Inflict Punishments That Do Violence To Their Own Feelings, And

So Visit On Their Children _Un_Natural Reactions; While Other Parents,

Enthusiastic In Their Hopes Of    Immediate Perfection, Rush To The

Opposite Extreme. The   Second Fact Is, That The   Discipline Of    Chief Value

Is Not The   Experience Of    Parental Approbation Or Disapprobation; But It

Is The   Experience Of    Those Results Which Would Ultimately Flow From The

Conduct In The   Absence Of    Parental Opinion Or Interference. The   Truly

Instructive And Salutary Consequences Are Not Those Inflicted By

Parents When They Take Upon Themselves To Be Nature's Proxies; But They

Are Those Inflicted By Nature Herself. We Will Endeavour To Make This

Distinction Clear By A Few Illustrations, Which, While They Show What We

Mean By Natural Reactions As Contrasted With Artificial Ones, Will

Afford Some Practical Suggestions.

 

 

 

In Every Family Where There Are Young Children There Daily Occur Cases

Of What Mothers And Servants Call "Making A Litter." A Child Has Had Out

Its Box Of    Toys, And Leaves Them Scattered About The   Floor. Or A Handful

Of Flowers, Brought In From