San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-01
LISTEN, WORLD!
Are We Born Sinners?
By ELSIE ROBINSON

You'd better lock up the family
Jewels, Mabel. And take out a little
extra fire insurance on the house. 1t
might even be well to tuck cleaver
under your pillow before you do your
nightly bye-bye.N For, according to
modern psychology, life is going to be
precarious, now that the New Baby
has come to live in your house. Be
ware the Kid!
What! That little teeny wceny bit
of pinkness-a MENACE? Yep.
dearie. 1t is. Alice Corbin Seis, lee
turer on infant psychology, says so.
She ought to know. For Mrs. Seis
was supervisor OF public Fairgrounds
in Pittsburgh, Pa, and at present she
is member of the faculty of the Uni
versity of Vermont. Which surely
should qualify her as Spotter for
Juvenile Sin.
Children are born without any
sense of right or wrong" says Mrs.
Seis.
According to this lady, they'd just
as soon bust any old moral law pro-
vided they could get by with it. May
be this is peculiar to the young Of the
species. And maybe it isn't. But at
any rate, Mrs. Scis has lot of I'm
portant Dope to back it.
1t seems that she wasn't satisfied
with just personally Thinking Dirt con-
corning the young. She wanted a
Scientific Okey on her mean cOnclu-
sions. So a series of foxy experiments
were devised which would test the
juvenile moral fibre. They were made
under the supervision of DR.. Walter
Ahcarn for the Institute of Social and
Religious Surveys. Which you've gotta
admit is an awful lineup for the ordi-
nary kid with dirty ears to buck.
The ground chosen for the test was
Indiana as most fitted to afford a
cross section of American child life.
The group Of children included large
number of Boy Scouts and Campfire
Girls.
The latter two groups came through
with better crowd for probity than
ordinary school classes, though the
girls were somewhat Behind the boys.
In the tests a number of questions
were propounded.
as 1T WRONG TO STEAL
FROM ONE WHO HAS SECURED
HIS WEALTH DISHONESTLY|
"No." was the snappy comeback.
rs CHEATING A RAILROAD
AS MUCH A SIN AS CHEATING
A PERSON." another question.
"OF COURSE NOT" the children
us IT THE PUPILS DUTY To
| CALL ATTENTION TO THE FACT
THAT A TEACHER HAS GIVEN
HIM TOO HIGH MARKS"
1T IS MOTT" was the retort given
by pupil.
Each child was given a quarter and
told to go to the store and purchase
certain article of merchandise, cost
| ing that much. The StoTekeeper, prevl'
ously posted, gave a dime in change
Out of every 100 Indiana children Sc
tested, "a kept the money.
The children were given a chance to
cheat at examinations. They were fur
nishcd with paper in double sheets
covered with wax. so that all erasures
and corrections could be detected
| Questions and answers were written
on the blackboard. but a map hung
over the answers. After the children
| l10 DePn given llllt W SlluSblt WIN
the questions, the teacher left the
room. pulled a string, and the maj
accidentally fell down" revealing the
answers. Hardly NOR than one failed
to improve the opportunity to copy
from the blackboard.
On this interesting experiment Mrs
Seis bases her conclusion that the hui
man young are bad actors from the
start and need a lot of pruning ana
spraying to turn en- into trustworthy
citizens.
Generally. I'm strong for modern
psychology. l respect and endorse its
! efforts to teach US more about our
selves and help us out of our con
fusions. But. although l would doubt.
less find Mrs. Seis a charming and
wise lady. I'm here to say that
DON'T agree with theory and
DON'T admire her methods of getting
the low down on our-little darlings.
Are we born with highly developed
moral natures? No, of course not
not any more than we're bon with
highly developed sets of teeth. But
that doesn't indicate thVt we won't
be able to chew in good time-or love
our neighbors or pay our rents. The
child that did exhibit a Moral Nature
in the cradle wouldn't be a Beautiful
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