at school is always in trouble, comes by and by rather to expect that he is going to fail in life and is not altogether surprised later on when he finds that he has gone decidedly wrong. We remember very well interviewing a young man who had been arrested for the first time. He told us his experience, how he could not get along well at home, everything went wrong at school, his father had told him that he was a "no-gooder." He seemed reconciled with his fortune as he looked up and said, "I reckon there was not much chance for me to turn out any other way."

Children respond readily to the sense of responsibility which is developed by being trusted. There is such a thing as the patriotism of personality, and it is a wise teacher who knows how to utilize this subtle element in human nature. Simple personal appeal sometimes is able to launch the boy or girl out upon a brand new career of character conquest.

Again, we must help the parents to begin this work early in their homes; help the mothers better to understand these fundamentals of the psychology of child culture. A little time spent this way with the parents from week to week or from month to month, will save you or some other teacher a world of trouble when, after the children have attained school age, they fall into your hands for further training and discipline.

21. Competition and Public Opinion. An essential feature of character training is to acquaint the child early with that which is most up-lifting and ideally highest in public opinion. While children are to be taught, in a measure, to think for themselves and to be more or less independent in the formation of their ideas, nevertheless, they must be taught proper and adequate regard for the opinions of organized society as well as respect for the authority of constituted government.

Competitive games, drills and classes are stimulating to moral growth if wisely conducted and properly controlled. To continue indefinitely this competitive system is but to

appeal constantly to that which is purely selfish in the child. At the very earliest possible moment, the teacher should lead his pupils to love learning for its own sake, or because of its value in making them useful members of society. The first man to abolish all marks and percentages in his schools was, we believe, Colonel Parker. Today the schools that are doing the best work are those that do not rely altogether on these false props.

The

Some educators believe that under an ideal educational system, marks should never be mentioned. Others believe that marks have a certain value in any system of education and that they should be used. The opinion of the latter prevails in the majority of schools in the United States. great danger lies in the fact that too many teachers place more stress upon marks than their real value will warrant. Without doubt a teacher in charge of a limited number of pupils can know each one so thoroughly that written records of their progress are unnecessary, so far as that teacher is concerned. But in the average school the teacher has charge of so many pupils that written records (marks) are a necessity. Moreover, when a pupil is transferred from one school to another, a written record of his work should accompany him. Marks, when properly used, are helpful; when they are abused by having undue emphasis placed upon them they become a hindrance to both teacher and pupil.

22. The Child's View-Point. The one thing to keep in mind in any system of ethical instruction is the child's point of view. Neglect to do this is in great measure responsible for the general failure to make the study interesting. The dreariness of most books on ethical training is due to the assumption that the moral world of the child is the same as that of the adult. The child's problems of morality are very different from those of the adult. What principally concerns the child is his bodily comfort, and opportunity to gratify his play-spirit, and the esteem of his play-fellows. Then, also, he lives almost entirely in the present; neither past nor future concerns him. He cares

not to hear of what experience has taught others; nor does his own future interest him, if the thought of it interferes with his present happiness.

Moreover, in planning the full, harmonious, natural development of the child's moral nature, we must take up every side of his life; his temperament and moods, his interests, his love of approbation and desire to excel, his eagerness for adventure, his hobbies, his companions

- yes, and that desire, tucked away somewhere in his complex nature, to do what he thinks is right. We must levy on them all, and make each contribute to accomplishing the end desired. For apart from his immediate interests, the child wastes little time in mere speculation. Our aim should be to stock the subconscious mind with a rich content of right thoughts that, whenever reason arises for good desires and good deeds, these thoughts may immediately be brought up into conscious memory. Always to discourse solemnly upon the beauty of holiness is to rob holiness of half its beauty. What appeals to children — children of larger growth, too-is a higher, sympathetic, living presentation of truth. The Great Teacher, when He wished to impress some moral lesson, or to stir His hearers to greater depths than usual, used parables. Clark.

23. Faith Versus Fear. A child is the most imitative creature in the world. Before he is out of pinafores he tries to walk and act just like his elders. It is because of this inherent tendency to say and do those very things which he hears others say and do, that, if faith-thoughts are early and constantly suggested to the unfolding mind of the child, they will assist greatly in evolving a character of joy, confidence and courage. On the other hand if fearthoughts are continuously sown in the young mind they will eventually distort the emotions, deform the conceptions and wholly demoralize the health and life activities of the growing child. Within the limitations of the possibilities of hereditary endowment, and in view of this wonderful imitative nature, we are able to make of a child almost anything we desire; not an "angel," in the ordinary acceptance of the term, but a child who knows his place and possesses the power of normal self-control.

From two to six years of age, when the imagination is most plastic and vivid, when the child's imitative instinct

is so unconsciously automatic, is the most effective and opportune time to initiate good habits and lay the foundations for the later development of a strong and noble character. "Baby's skies are Mamma's eyes" is just as true as it is poetical. While a tired and worn-out mother, exhausted by a multitude of harassing household cares, may be pardoned for her occasional irritability, nevertheless the little one unconsciously partakes of her spirit. When the mother is happy, the child is happy. When mothers or teachers are sick and nervous, the children are liable to be impatient and irritable.

It is unfortunate that at this very time of a child's life, when we can do practically anything we choose with him, is the very time when so many parents fill the child's mind with the unhealthiest fear-thoughts. "The bogie man'll get you if you don't mind Mamma," or "I'll get the black man to cut your ears off," or "The chimney-sweep is around the corner to take bad little boys," are familiar threats which are frequently made to the little folks. These efforts to terrorize the young child into obedience never fail to distort the mind, warp the affections, and, more or less permanently, derange the entire nervous system. The arousal of fear-thoughts and fearful emotions in the mind of the growing child is very often such a psychologic and physiologic shock to the child that the results are sometimes not wholly eradicated in an entire lifetime.

Just see how far we carry this unwholesome introduction of fear-thoughts even to the Almighty. Thousands of us remember being told as children that "God doesn't like naughty boys," or that "God will send the bad man to get you if you don't be good." Thus, in early life, an unwholesome fear of the Supreme Being is sown in the mind of the child, and as time passes these false fears grow and come so as to possess the mind and control the emotions that in adult life this early teaching comes to mold the character and shape the religious beliefs of the individual.

To the child who has been reared to dread God, who has come to look upon the Creator as an ever-present "threat," how is it possible to convey to him the beautiful teaching of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man?

Caution. The fear-thought here referred to should not be confused with the meaning of the word fear, as used in the proverb, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." In the sense in which the word is here used it is synonymous with reverence. The same is true in the commandment, "Fear the Lord and keep his commandments." The child should be led to fear the Lord in this sense, and because of his reverence for God, he should form a strong aversion to sin, that is, to thinking, those thoughts and doing those things that are contrary to God's commands.

How frequently some unusual noise leads a parent to say: "Keep still! What was that? Did you hear that noise?" The little folks of the family are startled, their eyes grow large and their faces pale, while they cling to the frightened mother. Of course investigation usually shows that the strange and alarming noise was merely the slamming of a cellar-door, the rattling of a curtain in the wind, someone walking about downstairs, or the action of the new furnace regulator in the basement. But meantime the harm is done to the children fear, the worst enemy of childhood, has been unconsciously planted in their minds by the nervous parent or the thoughtless teacher.

Consider for a moment the thousands of children who are early taught an abnormal fear of the dark. Even when the child is absolutely free from such a fear, when sent into a dark room, some member of the family will thoughtlessly remark, "Do you think it is quite right to send that child into that dark room? Suppose something should happen." The child quickly catches the suggestion that something is supposed to be or happen in the dark, and into his mind is sown the seed of fear.

24. The Power of Positive Suggestions. Recently we overheard a little fellow say, "Father says I'm the only coward