ectionate
care of parents who will see that he learns how to live. This
instruction need not be long delayed, and should not be relegated
altogether to the school. There is first of all physical education. It
is the mother's task to teach the child the principles of health, to
inculcate proper habits of eating, drinking, and bathing. It is for
her to see that he learns how to play with pleasure and profit, and is
permitted to give expression to his natural energies. It is her
privilege to make him acquainted with nature, and in a natural way
with the illustration of flower and bird and squirrel she can give the
child first lessons in sex hygiene. It is the function of the mother
in the child's younger years and of the father in adolescent boyhood
to open the mind of the child to understand the life processes. The
lack of knowledge brings sorrow and sin to the family and injures
society. Seeking information elsewhere, the boy and girl fall into bad
habits and lay the foundation of permanent ills. The adolescent boy
should be taught to avoid self-abuse, to practise healthful habits,
and to keep from contact with physical and moral impurity; the
adolescent girl should be given ample instruction in taking care of
herself and in preparing for the responsibility of adult life.

60. =Mental and Moral Education.=--Mental education in the home is no
less important. It is there that the child's instinctive impulses
first find expression and he learns to imitate the words and actions
of other members of the home. The things he sees and handles make
their impressions upon him. He feels and thinks and wills a thousand
times a day. The channels of habit are being grooved in the brain. It
is the function of the home to protect him from that which is evil, to
stimulate in him that which is good. Mental and moral education are
inseparably interwoven. The first stories told by the mother's lips
not only produce answering thoughts in the child mind, but answering
modes of conduct also. The chief function of the intellect is to guide
to right choice.

Character building is the supreme object of life. It begins early.
Learning to obey the parent is the first step toward self-control.
Learning to know the beautiful from the ugly, the true from the false,
the good from the evil is the foundation of a whole system of ethics.
Learning to judge others according to character and attainment rather
than according to wealth or social position cult