The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-06-20


written several notes, and slyly put
them into circulation. she is conf
dent that they have escaped the obser-
walton Of her teacher, however; and
so she boldly gives her record as ten.
Next comes a conscientious child.
You can know it by the hesitation, the
changing color, the troubled air. The
teacher knows her to be one Of the
best scholars, but she gives in her
record as five. How singularl She
has seemed SO good all day. What
could she have been doing? But five
it is, and the child with sigh of re-
gret, and yet of relief, sits down, the
prey Of conflicting feelings. She has
counted her violations Of rules so far,
and given in her record honestly; but
oh! the others do not do s0,and how can
she go on much longer in this way !?
She has been q great deal bettea than
the girl who was Just marked ten; and
how could she help it, if her seat-mate
did take her geography without leave,
and obliga her to make signals in or
der to obtain it again, and if the girl
behind her did Whisper to her for her
Ilead-pencil, and they did not give in
their record any lower for those viola
tions, and was 1t fair that she should
have to? Thus the struggle goes on
in the little breast, each time growing
fainter, but you do not perceive it. In
truth, is not this system a snare for
the little ones? Is it not undermining
their truthfulness ?"
Self-reporting vi0latesthe rule re-
specred in our courts of law, that no
one shall be required to testify against
himself. 1t is founded on the principle
which recognizes the weakness Of hui
man nature, even in groWn-up people,
OF shaping their evidence so as to favor
their own eases. Why ask Of children
to stand in the witness box, and tell
the whole truth in regard to them
selves, when their moral sense is i'm
perfectly developed, and when they are
so sensitive to the opinions of their as
sociates in respect to themselves?
The impression prevails among some
] who practice the system that it should
not be used with children. They speak
of it's straining effect upon the con
sciences of the little ones. On this
subject Herbert Spencer speaks very
| firmly: DO not expect from q child
any great amount of moral goodness
During his early years every civilized
man passes through that phase Of char
acter exhibited by the barbarous race
from which he is descended" He CON
tinues: GAS the child's features-1iat
nose, forehead opening n0strilS, large
| lips, wide apart eyes, absent frontal
Isinus, resemble, for a time, those Of the
Savage; so, too, do his instincts. Hence,
| the tendencies TO cruelty, to thieying,
to living, so general among children
! Tendencies which even without the aid
OF discipline, will become more or less
modified just as the features do. The
popular idea that children are limo
cent, while it may be true in so far as
it refers to evil knowledge, is totally
false in SO far as it refers to evil I'M
pulses, as half an hours observation in
the nursery will prove to any one.
Boys when left to themselves, as at q
public school, treat each other far more
Ibrutally than men do; and were they
left to themselves at an earlier age,
their brutality would be still more con-
spicuous."
"Not only is it unWise," he SAYS, also,
''tO set up high standard for juvenile
good conduct, but it is even unwise to
use very urgent indictments to such
! good conduct. Already most people
recognize the detrimental results Of in
tellectual precocitY; but there remains
to be recognized the truth that there is
q moral precocjtN which is also detri-
mental. Our higher moral faculties,
like our higher intellectual ones, are
comparatively complex BY conse-
iQuence, they are both comparatively
late in their evolution. And with the
/ one as with the other, a very early ac-
tiyity produced by stimulation Will be
at the expense Of the future character.
Hence, the not uncommon fact that
those who during childhood are in
stanced as models of Juvenile goodness,
by and by undergo some disastrous and
seemingly ineXplicable change; and end
| by being not above, but below par;
while relatively exemplary men are
often the issue OF childhood by no
means promising
'Be content, therefore" Spencer con-
cludes, with moderate measures and
moderate results. Constantly bear in
mind the fact that q higher morality,
like a higher intelligence, must be
reached by slow growth: and you
! will, then, have more patience with
those imperfections Of nature which
the child hourly Displays
There daily arise in the school-life
those complicated questions in regard
to moral conduct, upon which the chill
dren and even. the young people are
required to make decisions, when they
cannot have an intelligent view Of