Boyhood; A Plea for Continuity in Education (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ...us say, "I cannot obey where I cannot understand") In speaking of obedience at school hitherto, I have thought mainly of the obedience rendered in presence of the person who demands it; a poor, feeble kind of obedience beside the real obedience of love, and yet it is just this kind of obedience which parents so often find a difficulty in extorting from their children, and which they are so surprised to find is no difficulty at school. For the sort of disobedience of which I speak, I cannot think a cure can be difficult to find. One rule I would give is: Never repeat an order; if you say to your child "Don't tease the dog" and he goes on teasing the dog, punish him at once. It is not difficult to say to your boy, "If ever you disobey me, I shall do so and so," naming a punishment, and then if he disobeys you, at once inflict the punishment. But I confess that I find it difficult to imagine the case of a persistently disobedient child, though I know that such do exist; but I am quite sure that if a child once found that it was more pleasant, more comfortable to obey than to disobey he would take the easier course. But this seems such a low way of looking at it. It seems to me like advising a medicine for a complaint which ought never to have existed; for children do not disobey where they love. Will you try to look at the matter from this point of view? One hears people say, "So and so has no trouble with children, he is such a good disciplinarian "; does this not mean he is such a good lover? A true disciplinarian must be a true lover, and then all the trouble is made smoother. Of course, children will obey from fear, but that is not true discipline; the obedience that fear compels is a very poor substitute...