Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention

by Henry Putnam Stearns

MORAL EDUCATION.

CHAPTER VII.

MORAL EDUCATION.

A few words in reference to deficiency of education in another direction, and bearing especially on the future of the mental health of children, will conclude what I have to say on this branch of my subject. Perhaps I cannot introduce these remarks in a better way than by relating two occurrences recently observed by me.

When sailing with a party of young people, during the last summer, on Long Island Sound, and while there was blowing a stiff breeze, three of the younger members of the party went forward very soon after we started, and stood together on the front part of the boat, in an exposed position. The captain quickly called to them to return to the rear part of the boat, saying there was danger of their becoming wet, or washed from the prow of the boat by the waves, which were rapidly becoming larger. No attention was paid to his call, and he again and with great earnestness warned them to return. Greatly to my surprise, not the slightest attention was paid to his second order, but the young persons continued laughing and talking as if no orders had been given. As the boat was rapidly passing out of the harbor and into a locality more exposed to the wind, and the waves were becoming more dangerous every minute, the captain again shouted to them to return, and had but just done so, when a wave partially covered all of them, and one was barely saved from being washed over-board.

A few days after the above occurrence I was standing not far from a stage-coach which was near the door of a hotel. Very soon a little girl, nine or ten years of age, came near to one of the horses, and began endeavoring to put some flowers into the bridle. The animal soon became restive and looked vicious, while the driver at once warned the child to desist and to keep at a distance. Apparently not the slightest attention was given by the child to this warning, and she was still persisting in her effort, when the driver again, and this time in an angry tone, shouted to her to keep away, adding some statement to the effect that the animal was vicious and would hurt her. No more attention was paid to this than to the driver’s former order by the child, and before any one could remove her, the horse had struck her head with his teeth, leaving a wound, the scar of which will remain for life.

As will be observed, in both the above cases the children were in positions of great danger; they were, in both cases, warned by those who fully understood and explained to them the danger, and who had charge (the one of the boat and the other of the horses). In both cases the children were old enough to fully understand what was said to them, the danger described, and the duty to obey orders so urgently and repeatedly given; and yet their conduct seemed to differ in no respect from what it would have been had no orders been given. Indeed, after the denoûment, they did not appear, in any measure, to realize that they had been to blame for neglecting to obey the directions given.

These cases have not been related as unique, or in any measure remarkable or uncommon in character, but as illustrations of such as may, almost any day, be seen by the visitor at a summer resort, or by physicians in the experience of their daily duties. The children were not half so much to blame as were their parents, who utterly failed in their appreciation of the importance and duty of parental government; who imagined that in order to be a good and kind parent, and to avoid the trouble arising from refusal, one should constantly yield to every wish and whim of the child; and that to refuse a request indicates a lack of kindness and sympathy on the part of the parent, and thus ere long, and indeed very early in life, the child becomes the master of the situation, and feels little or no obligation to yield obedience to authority.