The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-02-07

vital and abiding when the teacher, real
izing their moral significance, labors
wisely to bring the child into sympathy
with them, SO that be may find just
pride and satisfaction in them.
8. These habits, Goweyer, may be and
often are, secured incidentally as it were,
and without the distinct and intelligent
effort of the teacher to implant them;
others require more skill and insight
Honesty, for instance, that is the Austen
ton from trickery and fraud, will not
grow in the school without special and
intelligent care. Every recitation affords
opportunity and, unless intelligently
supervised, Indictment to dishonesty. To
get help surreptitously IS natural incl
nation OF the child who is being tested;
and it is to be feared that not unfre-
quentiy school experience serves 10
strengthen rather than correct it. Man
ifestly vigilance, careful provision to dl-
miaish as much as possible the tempta-
ton. ard above all sedulous cultivation
OF right views and feelings in this matter
are an important part of the teachers
duty. He should avoid exaggerating the
Nervousness of an act SO natural in a
child, while providing against its repeti-
ton yinculcating the appropriate maxim
and enlisting the better nature of the
child in the effort to overcome the wrong
tendency. he must, in short, by patient
and continuous effort, strive to form
habit of honesty, and at The same time
to cultivate the moral intelligence by APP
propriate teaching. Thus habit is sup
ported and reinforced by fixed principles,
which are firmly seated IN the under
standing. The other habiia, therefore,
as they ought to be the expression of
fixed principles firmly implanted, viii
not require discussion under this head
IMPLANTING RIGHT IDEALS.
l. There are three principal ways of
imp!anting right ideals: (a) by example,
(b) by maxims, and (c) by the formal
lesson.
l. ExAMPLE.-In all those respects in
which the teachers conduct is open to
the inspection of the pupils, his example
is forming their ideals. He must guard,
therefore, against the appearances of
evil, which bave rs great an effect upon
the minds of children as If they were
realities. In the matter of justice, for
instance, the teacher is likely to seem
wanting in their eyes from imperfect APP
prehension of the grounds of his actions.
An evident purpose on his part to deal
Justly will correct this; but he must bear
in mind that it is important that they
recognize his intention to be just. So
with other traits. Example teaches subtly
day by day, and it is the effect of charac
ter rather than of specific acts that is
abiding. The example of the teacher
must therefore, reinforce all his mo1al
teaching.
II. MAxIMs. The child, besides being
weak, is ignorant, and therefore needs
instruction; and moral instruction is at
tended with the same necessity of tireless
iteration as intellectual. 1t ought not to
surprise us that the result of once telling
is as evanescent here as in lesson III
number, nor that the child shows the
same incapccity to generalize aud to apply
the principle to new cases IN morals as IN
arithmetic. He often does wrong thro'
ignorance and through lack of judgment;
and repeats the wrong for the same rea
son that he repeats the very error IN
n lmber. How, then, shall be be taught
what is right, and taught it in immediate
connection with his action? We answer,
by maxims, and by maxims so given as
to guide his conduct. It will be neces-
sary, then, TO show the manner of using
the maxims and what the more important
maxlms are.
(a) HoW. The maxims, to be most
effective in the formation of character,
should be made, as often as possible, the
real motive of the child's action, or, on
the other hand, the critical standard for
testing bis action. ''Be kind" for ex-
ample, is the positive, hortatory form of
a maxim, and may sometimes be used
effectively in this form: but as reproof.
standard for testing his conduct, 1t
takes the interrogative form: ''Was that
kind 2" Again, as suggestion, 1t be-
comes SIT would be kind, / think, to do
so and so;' as a critical standard, used
in approval of his conduct, it is. ''That
was kind" By the intelligent and per
sistent use of such forms the ideal we
wish him to adopt is kept before The
conduct. His thought and action are
made to flow about it until it is taken up
and assimilated into his nature. Prac-
tical wisdom is needed to use it in such
way that he will not react against il,
but that it shall rather be an inspiring or
reproving force.
|. CD What In common speech we
have various terms which express the
same principle with slightly different
standings. Be courteous, be polite, be
obliging, be benevolent, be gracious, be
gentle, be considerate of others, be gen
erous, be kind all these are closely re-
lated to each other. In selecting the
most essential maxims it is desirable not
to include all these, as the number hav
ing essentially the same meaning would
tend to confusion and SO diminish the
effectiveness of the teaching, Be kind
and be polite are, perhaps, the most eff
fective in this series. The following list
has been made up by such selections
They are not mutually exclusive nor has
an effort been made to enumerate all the
virtues; they have been chosen rather
with view TO their practical usefulness
in the moral training of the young. They
fall in two classes: 1. Those intoxicating
duties with reference to others are: be
% just, (2) honest, (3) truthful, az kind,
90 polite. 2. Those intoxicating duties
with reference to ourselves are: be %
pure, (2) self controlled, 81 industrious,
(4) prudent, 90 reverent, (6) courageous.
III. The FORMAL LESSON involves
grave difficulties. 1t is liable to be dry;
the child may react against it so as to be
hardened by it; it may tend to formal
ism or sentimentalism by failure to keep
it in close and vital relations with con-
duct Such difficulties are to be over
come by thoughtfulness and tact on the
part of the teacher. The lesson may take
four different forms: 1st, the committing
to memory of short selections, maxims,
single verses of poetry-a form especially
adapted to primary pupils; I'd, the read
ing of stories selected for some lesson
which they ineulcate, and afterward talk
ing them over with the class in such
way as to develop the moral Judgment in
applying familiar principles-the chief
end to be sought, since the principles are
few and easy and the applications many
and complex; Sd, the reading of biog-
raphies and anecdotes which havea power
to inspire q high enthusiasm and create