"the bones of man to exult."

II

A SURVEY OF MODERN EDUCATION

=The precepts which govern moral education and instruction=.--Although
the adult relegates the child to an existence among toys, and
inexorably denies him those exercises which would promote his internal
development, he claims that the child should imitate him in the moral
sphere. The adult says to the child: "Do as I do." The child is to
become a man, not by training and development, but by imitation. It is
as if a father were to say in the morning to his little one: "Look at
me, see how tall I am; when I return this evening, I shall expect you
to have grown a foot."

Education is greatly simplified by this method. If a tale of some
heroic deed is read to the child, and he is told to "become a hero";
if some moral action is narrated and is concluded with the
recommendation, "be thou virtuous"; if some instance of remarkable
character is noted together with the exhortation, "you too must
acquire a strong character," the child has been put in the way of
becoming a great man!

If children show themselves discontented and restless, they are told
that they want for nothing, that they are fortunate to have a father
and a mother, and to conclude, they are exhorted thus: "Children, be
happy--a child should always be joyous"; and behold! the mysterious
yearnings of the child are supposed to be satisfied!

Adults are quite content when they have acted thus. They straighten
out the character and the morals of their children as they formerly
straightened their legs by bandaging them.

True, rebellious children occasionally demonstrate the futility of
such teachings. In these cases a good instructor chooses appropriate
stories showing the baseness of such ingratitude, the dangers of
disobedience, the ugliness of bad temper, to accentuate the defects of
the pupil. It would be just as edifying to discourse to a blind man on
the dangers of blindness, and to a cripple on the difficulties of
walking. The same thing happens in material matters; a music-master
says to a beginner: "Hold your fingers properly; if you do not, you
will never be able to play." A mother will say to a son condemned to
sit bent double all day on school benches, and obliged by the usages
of society to study continually: "Hold yourself gracefully, do not be
so awkward in company, you make me feel ashamed of you."

If the child were one day to exclaim: "But it is you who prevent me
fr