ter quality of civilization. The state regards
the child as a liability during his childhood in the hope that he may be
an asset in his manhood. In this hope time and money are devoted to his
training. But, in the face of all this, there are parents, here and
there, who still look upon their own children as assets and would use
them for their own comfort or profit. They seem to think that their
children are indebted to them for bringing them into the world and that
their obligation to the children is canceled by meager provision of
food, shelter, and clothing. They seem not to realize that "life is more
than fruit or grain," and deny to their children the elements of life.

=The rights of the child.=--All this is a sort of preface to the
statement that the child comes into the world endowed with certain
inherent rights that may not be abrogated. He has a right to life in its
best and fullest sense, and no one has a right to abridge this measure
of life, or to deprive him of anything that will contribute to such a
life. He goes to the school as one of the sources of life, and any one
who denies him this boon is doing violence to his right to have life. He
does not go to school to study arithmetic, but studies arithmetic as one
of the elements of life; and experience has demonstrated that arithmetic
may be learned in the school more advantageously than elsewhere. He goes
to school to have agreeable and profitable life. Each day is an integer
of life and must be made to abound in life if it is to be accounted a
success.

=Child life.=--Again, the child has a right to the quality of life that
is consistent with and congenial to his age. A seven-year-old should be
a seven-year-old, in his thinking, in his activities, in his amusements,
and in his feeling. We should never ask or want him to "put away
childish things" at this age, for these childish things are a proof of
his normality and good health. His buoyant life and good health may
prove disastrous to the furniture in his home, but far better marred
furniture than marred childhood. If, at this age, he should become as
quiet and sedate as his father, his parents and teacher would have cause
for alarm. It is the high privilege of the parent and the teacher to
direct his activities, but not to abridge or interdict them. If the
teacher would reduce him to inaction and silence, she may well reflect
that if he were an imbecile he would be quiet. He will not pass this way
agai