Produced by Charles Keller
THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD
by Ellen Key
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Edward Bok, Editor of the "Ladies' Home Journal," writes:
"Nothing finer on the wise education of the child has ever been broughtinto print. To me this chapter is a perfect classic; it points the waystraight for every parent and it should find a place in every home inAmerica where there is a child."
THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD
Goethe showed long ago in his Werther a clear understanding ofthe significance of individualistic and psychological training, anappreciation which will mark the century of the child. In this work heshows how the future power of will lies hidden in the characteristicsof the child, and how along with every fault of the child an uncorruptedgerm capable of producing good is enclosed. "Always," he says, "I repeatthe golden words of the teacher of mankind, 'if ye do not become asone of these,' and now, good friend, those who are our equals, whom weshould look upon as our models, we treat as subjects; they should haveno will of their own; do we have none? Where is our prerogative? Does itconsist in the fact that we are older and more experienced? Good Godof Heaven! Thou seest old and young children, nothing else. And in whomThou hast more joy, Thy Son announced ages ago. But people believe inHim and do not hear Him—that, too, is an old trouble, and they modeltheir children after themselves." The same criticism might be applied toour present educators, who constantly have on their tongues such wordsas evolution, individuality, and natural tendencies, but do not heedthe new commandments in which they say they believe. They continue toeducate as if they believed still in the natural depravity of man, inoriginal sin, which may be bridled, tamed, suppressed, but not changed.The new belief is really equivalent to Goethe's thoughts given above,i.e., that almost every fault is but a hard shell enclosing the germ ofvirtue. Even men of modern times still follow in education the old ruleof medicine, that evil must be driven out by evil, instead of the newmethod, the system of allowing nature quietly and slowly to help itself,taking care only that the surrounding conditions help the work ofnature. This is education.
Neither harsh nor tender parents suspect the truth expressed by Carlylewhen he said that the marks of a noble and original temperament arewild, strong emotions, that must be controlled by a discipline as hardas steel. People either strive to root out passions altogether, or theyabstain from teaching the child to get them under control.
To suppress the real personality of the child, and to supplant it withanother personality continues to be a pedagogical crime common tothose who announce loudly that education should only develop the realindividual nature of the child.
They are still not convinced that egoism on the part of the child isjustified. Just as little are they convinced of the possibility thatevil can be changed into good.
Education must be based on the certainty that faults cannot be atonedfor, or blotted out, but must always have their consequences. Atthe same time, there is the other certainty that through progressiveevolution, by slow adaptation to the conditions of environment they maybe transformed. Only when this stage is reached will education begin tobe a science and art. We will then give up all belief in the miraculouseffects of sudden interference; we shall act in the psychological spherein accordance with the principle of the indestructibility of matter. Weshall never believe t