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

Punishments Which Nature Will Inflict. Take A

Case; And That It May Illustrate The   Mode In Which This Policy Is To Be

Early Initiated, Let It Be One Of    The   Simplest Cases. Suppose That,

Prompted By The   Experimental Spirit So Conspicuous In Children, Whose

Proceedings Instinctively Conform To The   Inductive Method Of

Inquiry--Suppose That So Prompted, The   Boy Is Amusing Himself By

Lighting Pieces Of    Paper In The   Candle And Watching Them Burn. A Mother

Of The   Ordinary Unreflective Stamp, Will Either, On The   Plea Of    Keeping

Him "Out Of    Mischief," Or From Fear That He Will Burn Himself, Command

Him To Desist; And In Case Of    Non-Compliance Will Snatch The   Paper From

Him. But, Should He Be Fortunate Enough To Have A Mother Of    Some

Rationality, Who Knows That This Interest With Which He Is Watching The

Paper Burn, Results From A Healthy Inquisitiveness, And Who Has Also The

Wisdom To Consider The   Results Of    Interference, She Will Reason

Thus:--"If I Put A Stop To This I Shall Prevent The   Acquirement Of    A

Certain Amount Of    Knowledge. It Is True That I May Save The   Child From A

Burn; But What Then? He Is Sure To Burn Himself Sometime; And It Is

Quite Essential To His Safety In Life That He Should Learn By Experience

The Properties Of    Flame. If I Forbid Him From Running This Present Risk,

He Will Certainly Hereafter Run The   Same Or A Greater Risk When No One

Is Present To Prevent Him; Whereas, Should He Have An Accident Now That

I Am By, I Can Save Him From Any Great Injury. Moreover, Were I To Make

Him Desist, I Should Thwart Him In The   Pursuit Of    What Is In Itself A

Purely Harmless, And Indeed, Instructive Gratification; And He Would

Regard Me With More Or Less Ill-Feeling. Ignorant As He Is Of    The   Pain

From Which I Would Save Him, And Feeling Only The   Pain Of    A Balked

Desire, He Could Not Fail To Look On Me As The   Cause Of    That Pain. To

Save Him From A Hurt Which He Cannot Conceive, And Which Has Therefore

No Existence For Him, I Hurt Him In A Way Which He Feels Keenly Enough;

And So Become, From His Point Of    View, A Minister Of    Evil. My Best

Course Then, Is Simply To Warn Him Of    The   Danger, And To Be Ready To

Prevent Any Serious Damage." And Following Out This Conclusion, She Says

To The   Child--"I Fear You Will Hurt Yourself If You Do That." Suppose,

Now, That The   Boy, Persevering As He Will Probably Do, Ends By Burning

His Hand. What Are The   Results? In The   First Place He Has Gained An

Experience Which He Must Gain Eventually, And Which, For His Own Safety,

He Cannot Gain Too Soon. And In The   Second Place, He Has Found That His

Mother's Disapproval Or Warning Was Meant For His Welfare: He Has A

Further Positive Experience Of    Her Benevolence--A Further Reason For

Placing Confidence In Her Judgment And Kindness--A Further Reason For

Loving Her.

 

 

 

Of Course, In Those Occasional Hazards Where There Is A Risk Of    Broken

Limbs Or Other Serious Injury, Forcible Prevention Is Called For. But

Leaving Out Extreme Cases, The   System Pursued Should Be, Not That Of

Guarding A Child From The   Small Risks Which It Daily Runs, But That Of

Advising And Warning It Against Them. And By Pursuing This Course, A

Much Stronger Filial Affection Will Be Generated Than Commonly Exists.

If Here, As Elsewhere, The   Discipline Of    The   Natural Reactions Is

Allowed To Come Into Play--If In Those Out-Door Scramblings And In-Door

Experiments, By Which Children Are Liable To Injure Themselves, They Are

Allowed To Persist, Subject Only To Dissuasion More Or Less Earnest

According To The   Danger, There Cannot Fail To Arise An Ever-Increasing

Faith In The   Parental Friendship And Guidance. Not Only, As Before

Shown, Does The   Adoption Of    This Course Enable Fathers And Mothers To

Avoid The   Odium Which Attaches To The   Infliction Of    Positive Punishment;

But, As We Here See, It Enables Them To Avoid The   Odium Which Attaches

To Constant Thwartings; And Even To Turn Those Incidents That Commonly

Cause Squabbles, Into A Means Of    Strengthening The   Mutual Good Feeling.

Instead Of    Being Told In Words, Which Deeds Seem To Contradict, That

Their Parents Are Their Best Friends, Children Will Learn This Truth By

A Consistent Daily Experience; And So Learning It, Will Acquire A Degree

Of Trust And Attachment Which Nothing Else Can Give.

 

 

 

And Now, Having Indicated The   More Sympathetic Relation Which Must

Result From The   Habitual Use Of    This Method, Let Us Return To The

Question Above Put--How Is This Method To Be Applied To The   Graver

Offences?

 

 

 

Note, In The   First Place, That These Graver Offences Are Likely To Be

Both Less Frequent And Less Grave Under The   Régime We Have Described

Than Under The   Ordinary Régime. The   Ill-Behaviour Of    Many Children Is

Itself A Consequence Of    That Chronic Irritation In Which They Are Kept

By Bad Management. The   State Of    Isolation And Antagonism Produced By

Frequent Punishment, Necessarily Deadens The   Sympathies; Necessarily,

Therefore, Opens The   Way To Those Transgressions Which The   Sympathies

Check. That Harsh Treatment Which Children Of    The   Same Family Inflict On

Each Other, Is Often, In Great Measure, A Reflex Of    The   Harsh Treatment

They Receive From Adults--Partly Suggested By Direct Example, And Partly

Generated By The   Ill-Temper And The   Tendency To Vicarious Retaliation,

Which Follow Chastisements And Scoldings. It Cannot Be Questioned That

The Greater Activity Of    The   Affections And Happier State Of    Feeling,

Maintained In Children By The   Discipline We Have Described, Must Prevent

Them From Sinning Against Each Other So Gravely And So Frequently. The

Still More Reprehensible Offences, As Lies And Petty Thefts, Will, By

The Same Causes, Be Diminished. Domestic Estrangement Is A Fruitful

Source Of    Such Transgressions. It Is A Law Of    Human Nature, Visible

Enough To All Who Observe, That Those Who Are Debarred The   Higher

Gratifications Fall Back Upon The   Lower; Those Who Have No Sympathetic

Pleasures Seek Selfish Ones; And Hence, Conversely, The   Maintenance Of

Happier Relations Between Parents And Children Is Calculated To Diminish

The Number Of    Those Offences Of    Which Selfishness Is The   Origin.

 

 

 

When, However, Such Offences Are Committed, As They Will Occasionally Be

Even Under The   Best System, The   Discipline Of    Consequences May Still Be

Resorted To; And If There Exists That Bond Of    Confidence And Affection

Above Described, This Discipline Will Be Efficient. For What Are The

Natural Consequences, Say, Of    A Theft? They Are Of    Two Kinds--Direct And

Indirect. The   Direct Consequence, As Dictated By Pure Equity, Is That Of

Making Restitution. A Just Ruler (And Every Parent Should Aim To Be One)

Will Demand That, When Possible, A Wrong Act Shall Be Undone By A Right

One; And In The   Case Of    Theft This Implies Either The   Restoration Of    The

Thing Stolen, Or, If It Is Consumed, The   Giving Of    An Equivalent: Which,

In The   Case Of    A Child, May Be Effected Out Of    Its Pocket-Money. The

Indirect And More Serious Consequence Is The   Grave Displeasure Of

Parents--A Consequence Which Inevitably Follows Among All Peoples

Civilised Enough To Regard Theft As A Crime. "But," It Will Be Said,

"The Manifestation Of    Parental Displeasure, Either In Words Or Blows, Is

The Ordinary Course In These Cases: The   Method Leads Here To Nothing

New." Very True. Already We Have Admitted That, In Some Directions, This

Part 1 Chapter 3 (Moral Education) Pg 46

Method Is Spontaneously Pursued. Already We Have Shown That There Is A

Tendency For Educational Systems To Gravitate Towards The   True System.

And Here We May Remark, As Before, That The   Intensity Of    This Natural

Reaction Will, In The   Beneficent Order Of    Things, Adjust Itself To The

Requirements--That This Parental Displeasure Will Vent Itself In Violent

Measures During Comparatively Barbarous Times, When Children Are Also

Comparatively Barbarous; And Will Express Itself Less Cruelly In Those

More Advanced Social States In Which, By Implication, The   Children Are

Amenable To Milder Treatment. But What It Chiefly Concerns Us Here To

Observe Is, That The   Manifestation Of    Strong Parental Displeasure,

Produced By One Of    These Graver Offences, Will Be Potent For Good, Just

In Proportion To The   Warmth Of    The   Attachment Existing Between Parent

And Child. Just In Proportion As The   Discipline Of    Natural Consequences

Has Been Consistently Pursued In Other Cases, Will It Be Efficient In

This Case. Proof Is Within The   Experience Of    All, If They Will Look For

It.

 

 

 

For Does Not Every One Know That When He Has Offended Another, The

Amount Of    Regret He Feels (Of Course, Leaving Worldly Considerations Out

Of The   Question) Varies With The   Degree Of    Sympathy He Has For That

Other? Is He Not Conscious That When The   Person Offended Is An Enemy,

The Having Given Him Annoyance Is Apt To Be A Source Rather Of    Secret

Satisfaction Than Of    Sorrow? Does He Not Remember That Where Umbrage Has

Been Taken By Some Total Stranger, He Has Felt Much Less Concern Than He

Would Have Done Had Such Umbrage Been Taken By One With Whom He Was

Intimate? While, Conversely, Has Not The   Anger Of    An Admired And

Cherished Friend Been Regarded By Him As A Serious Misfortune, Long And

Keenly Regretted? Well, The   Effects Of    Parental Displeasure On Children

Must Similarly Vary With The   Pre-Existing Relationship. Where There Is

An Established Alienation, The   Feeling Of    A Child Who Has Transgressed

Is A Purely Selfish Fear Of    The   Impending Physical Penalties Or

Deprivations; And After These Have Been Inflicted, The   Injurious

Antagonism And Dislike Which Result, Add To The   Alienation. On The

Contrary, Where There Exists A Warm Filial Affection Produced By A

Consistent Parental Friendship, The   State Of    Mind Caused By Parental

Displeasure Is Not Only A Salutary Check To Future Misconduct Of    Like

Kind, But Is Intrinsically Salutary. The   Moral Pain Consequent On

Having, For The   Time Being, Lost So Loved A Friend, Stands In Place Of

The Physical Pain Usually Inflicted; And Proves Equally, If Not More,

Efficient. While Instead Of    The   Fear And Vindictiveness Excited By The

One Course, There Are Excited By The   Other A Sympathy With Parental

Sorrow, A Genuine Regret For Having Caused It, And A Desire, By Some

Atonement, To Reestablish The   Friendly Relationship. Instead Of    Bringing

Into Play Those Egotistic Feelings Whose Predominance Is The   Cause Of

Criminal Acts, There Are Brought Into Play Those Altruistic Feelings

Which Check Criminal Acts. Thus The   Discipline Of    Natural Consequences

Is Applicable To Grave As Well As Trivial Faults; And The   Practice Of    It

Conduces Not Simply To The   Repression, But To The   Eradication Of    Such

Faults.

 

 

 

In Brief, The   Truth Is That Savageness Begets Savageness, And Gentleness

Begets Gentleness. Children Who Are Unsympathetically Treated Become

Unsympathetic; Whereas Treating Them With Due Fellow-Feeling Is A Means

Of Cultivating Their Fellow-Feeling. With Family Governments As With

Political Ones, A Harsh Despotism Itself Generates A Great Part Of    The

Crimes It Has To Repress; While On The   Other Hand A Mild And Liberal

Rule Both Avoids Many Causes Of    Dissension, And So Ameliorates The   Tone

Of Feeling As To Diminish The   Tendency To Transgression. As John Locke

Long Since Remarked, "Great Severity Of    Punishment Does But Very Little

Good, Nay, Great Harm, In Education; And I Believe It Will Be Found

That, _Cæteris Paribus_, Those Children Who Have Been Most Chastised

Seldom Make The   Best Men." In Confirmation Of    Which Opinion We May Cite

The Fact Not Long Since Made Public By Mr. Rogers, Chaplain Of    The

Pentonville Prison, That Those Juvenile Criminals Who Have Been Whipped

Are Those Who Most Frequently Return To Prison. Conversely, The

Beneficial Effects Of    A Kinder Treatment Are Well Illustrated In A Fact

Stated To Us By A French Lady, In Whose House We Recently Stayed In

Paris. Apologising For The   Disturbance Daily Caused By A Little Boy Who

Was Unmanageable Both At Home And At School, She Expressed Her Fear That

There Was No Remedy Save That Which Had Succeeded In The   Case Of    An

Elder Brother; Namely, Sending Him To An English School. She Explained

That At Various Schools In Paris This Elder Brother Had Proved Utterly

Untractable; That In Despair They Had Followed The   Advice To Send Him To

England; And That On His