mstanced mother declare: "I never permit my child to have a
crumb of food handed it by its governess which has not previously been
tasted by me." Quite innocently I asked: "Where is the little
gentleman?" The answer was: "Napoleon--I call him that because his
name was Caesar--is at the 'movies' this afternoon." Upon further
inquiry, I learned that the mother did not know the name and nature of
the play upon which her son was looking, and that in order to keep him
out of mischief he was sent every afternoon to the motion picture
theatres. Here was the good mother tasting every mouthful fed to the
heir-apparent lest harm befall him, and, yet, he was spending an hour
or more daily in attendance at a motion-picture theatre where poison
rather than food might be and probably was fed to the child's mind.
But no hesitation and no fear were felt on that score. Underlying the
one concern and the other unconcern is a crude materialism which
assumes that the avenue of access to a child's well-being is feeding
but that the mind, howsoever fed and impoisoned, even of a little
child, could somehow be trusted to take care of itself.

There are certain things which we deny to our children partly because
we have them not, and yet again because we are not often conscious of
the need of them in the life of the child. I place first
spiritual-mindedness; second, the sense of humility, and third, the
art of service. These three graces must come again into the life of
our children from the life of their parents and they can hardly come
in any other way. If they come not, it will be an unutterable loss
from every point of view, remembering the word of a distinguished
university president, "the end of the home is the enlargement and
enrichment of personality, the performance of the duty owed to general
society in making contributions for its betterment."

I address myself particularly to Jewish parents when I say to them
that it is a terrible blunder to ignore the spiritual responsibility
which rests upon them. A Christian child is almost invariably touched
by the circumambient spiritual culture but the Jewish child is in the
midst of a non-Jewish culture and almost untouched by spiritual
influences. The home gives little, the Jewish religious school gives
no more than a fragmentary education in the things of Jewish history
instead of exercising a characteristic spiritual influence. And, as
for the Synagogue, it is the part of kindness or of g