The following essays have appeared in the Parents’ Review, and were addressed, from time to time, to a body of parents who are making a practical study of the principles of education—the “Parents’ National Educational Union.” The present volume is a sequel to Home Education (Kegan Paul & Co.), a work which was the means of originating this Union of Parents. It is not too much to say that the Parents’ Union exists to advance, with more or less method and with more or less steadfastness, a definite school of educational thought of which the two main principles are—the recognition of the physical basis of habit, i.e. of the material side of education; and of the inspiring and formative power of the Idea, i.e. of the immaterial, or spiritual, side of education. These two guiding principles, covering as they do the whole field of human nature, should enable us to deal rationally with all the complex problems of education; and the object of the following essays is, not to give an exhaustive application of these principles—the British Museum itself would hardly contain all the volumes needful for such an undertaking—but to give an example or a suggestion, here and there, as to how such and such an habit may be formed, such and such a formative idea be implanted and fostered. The intention of the volume will account to the reader for what may seem a want of connected and exhaustive treatment of the subject, and for the iteration of the same principles in various connections. The author ventures to hope that the following hints and suggestions will not prove the less practically useful to busy parents, because they rest on profound educational principles.
CONTENTS
| BOOK I | |
| THEORY | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| PAGE | |
| THE FAMILY | [3] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| PARENTS AS RULERS | [12] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| PARENTS AS INSPIRERS (PART I) | [20] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| PARENTS AS INSPIRERS (PART II ) | [29] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| PARENTS AS INSPIRERS (PART III) | [39] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| PARENTS AS INSPIRERS (PART IV ) | [48] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| THE PARENT AS SCHOOLMASTER | [58] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| THE CULTURE OF CHARACTER (PART I) | [66] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| THE CULTURE OF CHARACTER (PART II ) | [79] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| BIBLE LESSONS | [88] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| FAITH AND DUTY (PART I) | [96] |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| FAITH AND DUTY (PART II ) | [111] |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| FAITH AND DUTY (PART III) | [122] |
| CHAPTER XIV | |
| THE HEROIC IMPULSE | [134] |
| CHAPTER XV | |
| IS IT POSSIBLE? | [143] |
| CHAPTER XVI | |
| DISCIPLINE | [160] |
| CHAPTER XVII | |
| SENSATIONS AND FEELINGS (PART I) | [169] |
| CHAPTER XVIII | |
| SENSATIONS AND FEELINGS (PART II ) | [181] |
| CHAPTER XIX | |
| “WHAT IS TRUTH?” | [192] |
| CHAPTER XX | |
| SHOW CAUSE WHY | [201] |
| CHAPTER XXI | |
| HERBARTIAN PEDAGOGICS | [211] |
| CHAPTER XXII | |
| THE TEACHING OF THE “PARENTS’ NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL UNION” (PART I) | [220] |
| CHAPTER XXIII | |
| THE TEACHING OF THE “PARENTS’ NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL UNION” (PART II ) | [228] |
| CHAPTER XXIV | |
| WHENCE AND WHITHER (PART I) | [242] |
| CHAPTER XXV | |
| WHENCE AND WHITHER (PART II ) | [250] |
| CHAPTER XXVI | |
| THE GREAT RECOGNITION | [260] |
| CHAPTER XXVII | |
| THE ETERNAL CHILD | [271] |
| BOOK II | |
| ESSAYS IN PRACTICAL EDUCATION | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| THE PHILOSOPHER AT HOME | [283] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| “ATTENTION” | [303] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENT | [312] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| DOROTHY ELMORE’S ACHIEVEMENT: A FORECAST | [320] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| CONSEQUENCES | [346] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| MRS. SEDLEY’S TALE | [355] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| ABILITY | [367] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| POOR MRS. JUMEAU! | [376] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| “A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!” | [386] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| PARENTS IN COUNCIL (PART I) | [395] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| PARENTS IN COUNCIL (PART II ) | [405] |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| A HUNDRED YEARS AFTER | [413] |
| NOTE | [429] |
BOOK I
THEORY
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
CHAPTER I
THE FAMILY
“The family is the unit of the nation.”—F. D. Maurice.
It is probable that no other educational thinker has succeeded in affecting parents so profoundly as did Rousseau. Emile is little read now, but how many current theories of the regimen proper for children have there their unsuspected source? Everybody knows—and his contemporaries knew it better than we—that Jean Jacques Rousseau had not enough sterling character to warrant him to pose as an authority on any subject, least of all on that of education. He sets himself down a poor thing, and we see no cause to reject the evidence of his Confessions. We are not carried away by the charm of his style; his “forcible feebleness” does not dazzle us. No man can say beyond that which he is, and there is a want of grit in his philosophic theories that removes most of them from the category of available thought.
But Rousseau had the insight to perceive one of those patent truths which, somehow, it takes a genius to discover; and, because truth is indeed prized above rubies, the perception of that truth gave him rank as a great teacher. “Is Jean Jacques also among the prophets?” people asked, and ask still; and that he had thousands of fervent disciples amongst the educated parents of Europe, together with the fact that his teaching has filtered into many a secluded home of our own day, is answer enough. Indeed, no other educationalist has had a tithe of the influence exercised by Rousseau. Under the spell of his teaching, people in the fashionable world, like that Russian Princess Galitzin, forsook society, and went off with their children to some quiet corner where they could devote every hour of the day, and every power they had, to the fulfilment of the duties which devolve upon parents. Courtly mothers retired from the world, sometimes even left their husbands, to work hard at the classics, mathematics, sciences, that they might with their own lips instruct their children. “What else am I for?” they asked; and the feeling spread that the bringing up of the children was the one work of primary importance for men and women.