Reprehensible and unnatural forms of punishment include putting child into dark closet; striking on head or hands; punishing in presence of others; social humiliation or other needless mental suffering; depriving of a meal (although bread and water may be substituted). Punishing without definite cause, or if the justice is not clear to the child, is immoral. Punishment should never be administered in anger but calmly, firmly, with a spirit of regret but inevitableness.
To be effective, punishment should follow promptly on the misdeed. Bedtime should not be a time for scolding or discussion of faults but of happiness and inculcating of ideals. To maintain due respect and sympathy for father, as well as for the mother’s own self and authority, there should be no threats of telling father of misdeeds, or leaving punishment for him to administer.
The problem of discipline is reduced to a minimum when children have a regular, healthful physical régime and diet, freedom from unnatural excitement, abundant play space and material, consistent moral training from infancy. Many little pranks and minor misdemeanors should be overlooked. When, however, the child has committed a serious wrong, or when one form of misdemeanor (as lack of promptness) is becoming frequent, or when the child has evidently done something which he knows to be wrong, discipline should be prompt and definite.
Habits. Habits are formed by repetition of the same action, in the same way. The first time the response is made it makes a deep impression on the nervous system, and change from the first doing is most difficult. Every exception allowed or permitted causes a hesitation or doubt that delays complete formation of the habit. To prevent the formation of a habit, prevent the first doing. The first time not only establishes a path in the nervous system; it establishes a mental attitude of familiarity and ease with the action and its environment. To break a habit, break it off abruptly and completely. Every time the action is done, it is harder not to repeat it; if it is a moral problem the moral fiber is weakened by each yielding against conscience. A complete change of environment, calling for a new adjustment of action, is the greatest help in breaking an old habit. Some constructive outlet for the energy should be provided. The child’s sense of humor or disgust are moral avenues of appeal in the formation of habits.
Habits of mental activity, of method of work, of attitude toward life and people, of moral action, as well as of motor action, are being formed from birth. Life is conserved by training in good habits from the start.
Religious. No phase of education is more important. Religion is a matter primarily of emotions and conduct, rather than of philosophical thought. Little children are religious, but their religion is naturally very different from that of the adult; they have much religious feeling and thought, but little respect for ecclesiasticism, creeds, rites, which mean nothing to them. The child’s ideas of God are concrete, personal, related to himself, as is all his thinking. He naturally thinks of every object as being like himself, having power to think, feel, and do; therefore he is easily a nature-worshipper. Training of the religious feelings can begin in infancy, in the development of sympathy between parents and child, in confidence and trust in his parents (who represent Providence to him), in gratitude for their care, in obedience and respect for their authority, and in wonder and awe for natural phenomena. The child from four to nine years of age responds readily to examples and suggestion of reverence.
Training in the performance of religious rites, such as the saying of grace before meals, prayers, attendance at religious services, participating in religious worship, are motor habits readily acquired at about the same age, which then remain as lifelong tendencies. If neglected in this period, they are less likely to be formed later. Even the motor attitudes of worship bring some feeling of reverence and worship. Religious worship, however, is not to be forced. To compel a child to say a prayer or participate in any form of religious worship against his inclination will foster a revolt against all religion. When religious worship is a natural and sincere part of the family life, the child will naturally ask for a prayer to say, or for the privilege of attending a service, when this interest is ready for exercise. To allow a child to rattle off a prayer, or say it inattentively, flippantly, or to show off, or to permit him to treat any sacred place, objects, or rites flippantly, is to foster irreverence and weaken the religious sense. Service to God, to an ideal, to people, as an integral part of religion, is an association that is not instinctive, but one that the child needs to be taught by example, precept, and training.
The child’s natural questions about the cause of natural phenomena, the purposes and meaning of life, the possibility and nature of death and immortality, the nature of God, provide opportunity in due season for the parent to answer these according to his own conscience. The child demands definite, positive answers, and has absolute confidence in the omniscience of the person who answers his questions. How to answer these so as to give the child a constructive basis for thought and action, and yet not to be so dogmatic that he will revolt when the questioning years of adolescence arrive, is a problem requiring tact and careful preparation.
Stories from Bible history, acquaintance with the geography, customs, individuals of the Bible, are of religious value because they develop centers of interest and a personal acquaintance with the Bible, the textbook of western religion, thus making it a living book which he will naturally read for its moral and religious content. Many Bible verses and hymns should be taught during childhood and youth. These should be very carefully selected to have some interest and content of meaning for the child at his given stage of development, although the depths of their meaning he can only appreciate after more life experience. There may be real danger of giving too early such significant quotations as The Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, so that the words are memorized but the child never receives the impress of their full significance. Somewhere between six and twelve years they are probably most appreciated. Doctor Hall considers that to teach the child that there is a power which makes for righteousness at the helm of the universe, and that therefore right and wrong eventually have their own deserts, is one of the most valuable factors in moral training. Certainly the stimulus of religious inspiration, the inhibiting power of religious commandments, motives, and ideals, the fortifying of will-power by religious discipline and sources of strength, are foundations for strong, efficient, well-poised living.
Education, like Christianity, is a spiritual process with physical forms of expression. Just as church rites, ceremonies, and equipment are meaningless and wooden without the inner life, so are educational “systems”, rules, and apparatus, without the spiritual vision and understanding of education. There is no virtue, for instance, in Froebel’s gifts or Montessori’s didactic material, or any other mechanical devices, merely as apparatus. The mechanical bringing together of the child and the apparatus, without skill or knowledge in their interpretation, is not educational; and such irrational though well-intentioned effort is unfair both to the child and to the inventor. No less unfair and superficial is the seizing upon some one principle and emphasizing it out of proportion to other principles; or misinterpreting, through lack of careful study, the significance of some principle, or the author’s intent, as is so often done, for example, with Froebel’s statement of play, Dewey’s statement of interest, or Montessori’s statement of liberty.