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TALKS TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS BY LUTHER ALLAN WEIGLE HORACE BUSHNELL PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN NURTURE YALE UNIVERSITY AUTHOR OF THE PUPIL AND THE TEACHER, TRAINING THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE, ETC. NEW ^SJr YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
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PREFACE This book is in a sense a supplement to The Pupil and the Teacher, as it is my response to the request that I write in fuller and more con- crete detail concerning certain topics briefly re- ferred to in that book. It has, however, a body of its own, and is published in the hope that parents and Sunday school teachers may…
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CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I The Child as a Discoverer n II A Bundle of Instincts 18 III Children s Lies 24 IV A Boy s Loyalty 35 V The Age of Hero Worship 42 VI When a Boy Wants to Go to Work 49 VII Breaking Old Ties 56 VIII When Doubts Come 63 IX The Forming of Habits 72 X The Development of…
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Vlll CHAPTER XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV CONTENTS PAGE The Dramatic Method of Teaching 149 The Purposes of Questioning 156 Why Examinations? 164 Applying the Lesson 172 Class Instruction and Class Activ- ity 180
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TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS CHAPTER I THE CHILD AS A DISCOVERER Who can tell what a baby thinks? Who can follow the gossamer links By which the manikin feels his way Out from the shore of the great unknown, Blind, and wailing, and alone, Into the light of day? What does he think of his mother s eyes? What does he think of…
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12 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS him; facts that the world has long known he must learn for himself. Nature has equipped him for it. Curiosity is one of the earliest, as it is one of the most perma- nent, of the human instincts. The normal child is a born adventurer. He is so built that he cannot remain politely inert in the presence…
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THE CHILD AS A DISCOVERER IS not only of hand and arm, but of his whole body; he was developing space-perception and coordination of eye and hand, and he was learning some of the properties of blocks and floors. What an impossible task his education would be, were he not so made as to respond with action, with interest and experiment, to a sense-stimulus,…
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14 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS anism on its surface, but mysteriously insists on roll- ing back to you when you start it rolling away. Smith and Hall tell of a little girl who cried bitterly after she had spoiled her doll by poking in its eyes, not because it was ruined, but because, she tearfully explained, Now I can t ever find out…
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THE CHILD AS A DISCOVERER 15 makes it? Who made it? What does so-and-so mean? Examples need not be cited. We have all had to meet children s questions. They are at times aim- less and random, the product not of real curiosity so much as of fatigue or peevishness, the endless repetition of Why? questions is often of this type. But most often…
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16 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS mother s, found an old book about the Johnstown flood, and insisted on having the story. He aston- ished his Sunday-school teacher some months later by stoutly maintaining that God broke his promise to Noah, about which she was telling them How about the Johnstown flood? But, dear, God didn t send that; men made that dam such…
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THE CHILD AS A DISCOVERER 17 to the teacher, and ways in which the teacher may stimulate and use it. FOR FURTHER READING The article by Smith and Hall is entitled Curiosity and Interest, and is found in G. S. Hall: Aspects of Child Life and Education. Other articles are H. W. Brown: Some Records of the Thought and Reasonings of Children, Pedagogical Seminary,…
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CHAPTER II A BUNDLE OF INSTINCTS THE little human animal, like every other, is born going. He is already wound up. His lungs expand and contract; his heart is pumping away; his stomach is ready to handle food. These organic, vital activities he does not initiate. They begin themselves. The organism possesses them by nature. They are the very condition of life. There are…
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A BUNDLE OF INSTINCTS 19 natural human ways. He does not of purpose ini- tiate them any more than he initiates breathing or heartbeat. He does these things because he is so born and built. They are his instincts. The child cannot do all these things at birth, of course. Each instinct manifests itself in its own time, as he grows and develops and…
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20 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS by imitation, or taught by one beetle to another. It is done only once in the lifetime of each beetle and it must at that time be done perfectly, else the beetle will not live. The instinct in this case is precise and complete; it is what Herbert Spencer called a com- pound reflex. Every detail in the…
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A BUNDLE OF INSTINCTS 21 the child to collect almost anything, Human in- stincts do not so much provide particular things to do, as impel to general types of action or feeling. The details are left to be filled in by parental train- ing and by experience. Often they provide simply the innate capacity for some line of action or study, or the predisposition…
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TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS they have grown into habits, sentiments, principles and ideals, and each has fallen into its place in a rational unity of personal life. The child stands at the beginning of this process of development. He is a little bundle of instincts which he does not yet understand, and of which he is not master. The one thing certain is…
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A BUNDLE OF INSTINCTS 23 and classifications of Kirkpatrick, McDougall and Thorn- dike. 2. In what respects are human instincts like, and in what respects unlike, the instincts of animals? 3. What is the relation of human instincts to. habits, ideas and ideals? 4. Methods of control and education of human instincts. 5. Why is it essential that parents and teachers should understand and…
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CHAPTER III CHILDREN S LIES ALL Cretans are liars was an old-world prov- erb that found its way even into the Bible. There are those who would have us think that chil- dren are like Cretans in that respect. Perez thought that he could notice, even from the cradle, signs of an innate disposition to concealment, to dissimula- tion, to ruse. Montaigne held that…
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CHILDREN S LIES 25 habit of truth-telling are acquired in the course of experience, through education and training. I. Imaginative lies. Many, perhaps most, of the lies of younger children result from their confusion of imagination and reality. The boundary line be- tween fact and fancy, to us older folk so clear, is very vague for them. Indeed, they begin with no line at…
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26 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS gradually, as knowledge grows and widens, does he come to realize the difference between those experi- ences that hang together and stay put (and hence are real), and those other experiences whose contexts are so shifting and uncertain as to betray their imaginary character. The child s ability to discriminate fact from fancy develops slowly, and depends always…
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CHILDREN S LIES 27 more natural than that his imagination should seize upon the doll as the source of his information? A child of three, seeing a cough syrup that she liked being administered to another child, asked for some, claiming to be sick too and pretending to cough. No grown-up who feels like coughing when he hears some one else cough can deny…
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28 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS tragic mishap, only to end up after a little while with: But I didn t really, daddy; I just wanted to see what you would say. 5. Lies of self-interest. More serious are the lies that children tell in self-interest, or for self-protec- tion or self-defense. For them, as for older persons, the lie may be a means…
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CHILDREN S LIES 29 fortune; I went to Mexico last summer, and at the place where I was all I had to do was to pick up all the diamonds I could carry. Some of them were blue and some of them were red. I have a blue one home, as big as a hickorynut. M 7. Privileged lies. Many children conceive their obligation…
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30 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS people whose ideas concerning their own behavior, as well as concerning the training of children, are unclear and confused at this point. 9. Lies of mental reservation. Older children will at times appease their consciences when lying by making inaudible reservations, such as maybe, in my mind, over the left, nit, don t you think it, I don…
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CHILDREN S LIES 31 ing-needle would come some day and sting her so that she would die We must first of all diagnose our case. We must understand what sort of lies the child is telling, and try to discover why. And then we should set to work patiently to train him to observe and describe things as they are, to help him to…
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32 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS cause they tend to blur it over. The word story is particularly objectionable because of its constant use in its primary sense to denote imaginative tales or narratives of fact. Tell me a story is the eager and oft-repeated request of every child who knows what it is to climb on father s knee or into mother s…
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CHILDREN S LIES 33 many secrets among its members. Every secret is pregnant with temptations to lie. Finally, we should see to it, in so far as we can, that the child s lies do not pay. As long as he can get away with them and by lying gain immunity or personal advantage, he is thereby encouraged to lie. Children should be brought…
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34 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS under your observation, and classify them according to the text. Do you find some which you cannot classify under these headings? 3. May parents unintentionally encourage children to lie? How? 4. The problem of tale-bearing, in its relation to truth- telling. 5. How would you deal with lies of each of the several types described in the chapter?…
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CHAPTER IV A BOY S LOYALTY WHAT do we mean by loyalty? Patriotism was one s first answer in the days of war. In home and workshop, on farm and railway, as well as in camp and trench, on sea and in the air, the nation called us, every one, to service. Not all loyalty is in war time, however; nor is one s…
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36 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS save or to destroy slavery of the engineer who seeks to the last to avert or temper the collision which may cost him his life; of the telephone girls and wireless operators who, in the face of sudden disaster, remain at their instruments, to send out warnings and appeals; of the captain in stricken Halifax who fought and…
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A BOY S LOYALTY 37 alty. Just beginnings, of course and beginnings that may be turned and modified to almost any sort of end. The roots of loyalty are natural; the quality of their fruit is determined by cultivation, or by the lack of it. Much, I had almost said everything, depends upon us older folk. It is our business, in dealing with early…
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38 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS In his most interesting, if somewhat extreme book, The Boy and His Gang, Puffer holds that we must look upon the gang as nature s training school for the social virtues. Only by associating himself with other boys can any youth learn the knack of getting on with his fellow men; acquire and practice cooper- ation, self-sacrifice, loyalty,…
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A BOY S LOYALTY 39 recapitulation theory, which asserts that the devel- opment of the individual recapitulates in brief the stages through which the development of the race has passed. Until eight or nine, they hold, the child is essentially non-social; in the gang age, his instincts and impulses are those of primitive man. And we are asked to believe that the surest way…
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40 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS practice loyalty, and to understand that real loyalty is never mere enthusiasm, red fire, speeches or even heroic acts but that it is rather a steady, thorough- going habit of devotion to whatever one has under- taken to do in the world. Much of this help we can only begin to give in the gang years, for a…
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A BOY S LOYALTY 41 Boy and His Gang and W. B. Forbush: The Boy Prob- lem give concrete studies of boy-life at this age. The re- capitulation theory and the principle of catharsis may be found stated in G. S. Hall: Adolescence, and criticized in E. L. Thorndike The Original Nature of Man, pp. 245-282, and G. A. Coe: A Social Theory of…
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CHAPTER V THE AGE OF HERO WORSHIP IT was early October on a mid-western gridiron, and between halves of the first big game of the season. My neighbor on the bleachers, a boy of thirteen or fourteen, turned eagerly toward me. Say, I wish I knew what the Harvard score is by this time. Harvard? I answered, surprised. What do you know about Harvard?…
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THE AGE OF HERO WORSHIP 43 ing to him for the last ten yards? Remember and on he went, till he had given me a pretty com- plete history of the athletic career of Jack Knox, and what seemed like an exhaustive catalogue of his virtues. I had uncovered a bit of hero worship. Jack Knox was to me a good football player, a…
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44 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS roes. We prize their qualities; we reverence their ideals; we distinguish between the men themselves and their causes, and our loyalty is to the cause rather than to the man. We are even ready to admit that in some respects they had or have faults. The hero worship of later childhood and early adolescence, however, is unreserved and…
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THE AGE OF HERO WORSHIP 45 ture, and only 8 per cent acquaintances. Historical characters, in this study, include contemporary mak- ers of history; and it is significant that an increasing number of these are chosen as the children get older. Chambers, in another study, 1 separated past from contemporary characters. His figures are acquain- tance ideals diminish from 78 per cent at six…
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46 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS ideals can be effectively presented to children through history and literature, story and biography. Not that these can be a substitute for their more con- crete presentation in life itself. Example, per- sonal influence, the suggestion of social environment, are of primary importance; yet, even when due al- lowance is made for the fact that these compositions were…
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THE AGE OF HERO WORSHIP 47 We shall not win the boy to new heroes by label- ing them as such. I am inclined to think that we use the word too much in dealing with children and youth whom we believe to be in the hero-worshiping age. Heroes are not made to order; nor do they come put up in packages. Instinctively, a…
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48 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS childhood and youth Can you remember how the worship of some hero raised your ideals? Or how you were preju- diced from the start against a person who was too much labeled FOR FURTHER READING Besides the articles by Miss Darrah and Professor Cham- bers, cited in the text, read the admirable discussion of the whole problem in…
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CHAPTER VI WHEN A BOY WANTS TO GO TO WORK WHEN does a boy want to go to work? It de- pends on the boy, of course; but we shall not be far wrong if we answer, When he is fourteen. External circumstances, as well as his own inward condition, make it easy and natural for him about that time to decide to quit…
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50 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS quite sure of himself. Physically, he is awkward growing too fast/ we say; mentally, he is full of yeasty aspirations and uncoordinated desires. He wants to assert himself; but just what the self is that he would assert, he has not yet been able to deter- mine. Studies of school attendance in the cities of the United States…
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WHEN A BOY GOES TO WORK 51 all enter the high school, however, and nearly half of these finish the course a showing far more cred- itable than in many cities. In 19 10, the United States Bureau of Labor pub- lished a study of the conditions under which chil- dren leave school to go to work. For special in- quiry, 620 children were…
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52 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS his earnings, the decision is likely to be made quickly. Or if there is something wrong with the school or with his adjustment to it teachers incompetent or uninspiring, studies not practical enough, a school spirit lacking, or the boy himself not promoted he is ready to quit if he gets a chance. Retardation in school is undoubtedly…
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WHEN A BOY GOES TO WORK 53 The worst of it is that the boy of fourteen who goes to work is likely to get the wrong kind of job. This is partly because of the hit-or-miss way in which most boys of this age get placed in jobs; but it is chiefly because most of the jobs open to them are of the…
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54 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS it are still in the stage of experiment. But it seems clear that the solution lies along four main lines of effort: i More efficient schools can greatly lessen the amount of retardation. The worst of the systems studied had but twelve per cent of its thirteen-year- old boys where they ought to be, in the seventh grade…
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WHEN A BOY GOES TO WORK 55 employers, Help Wanted advertisements, or com- mercial labor bureaus. FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 1. Find out the facts concerning the elimination of children from school in your own community. 2. Among the cases that you know of children leaving school before the end of the high school course, what were the causes of their decision? 3. What…
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CHAPTER VII THE BREAKING OF OLD TIES ALL right, I ll go. I didn t know the college really meant it. The speaker was a student who had been summoned before the dean for per- sistent failure to abide by the college rule requiring attendance at church on Sunday morning. The cus- tomary notices and warnings had not moved him; even a previous friendly…
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THE BREAKING OF OLD TIES 5*7 clean, wholesome, upright boy, neither irreligious nor a rebel against authority. The plain fact was that he simply had not gotten started going to church in the college town. He was drifting. One of his established habits of life had been interrupted by leaving home and he had not set up a like habit in its place. An…
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58 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS they offer themselves to him, pushed forward by the ever-present commercial exploiters of the people s play. Low theaters and picture shows that lie about life, saloons, cabarets and social clubs, public dance halls, billiard and pool rooms, bowling alleys, amuse- ment parks, white cities, excursion steamers, hotels without scruple and brothels unashamed, offer them- selves without stint…
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THE BREAKING OF OLD TIES 59 sponsible organization into fraternities, is whole- some. Athletic life, with its systematic exercise, its regular habits, its cleanliness and its ideals of team- play and good sportsmanship, is a mighty power for good in a college that chooses so to conduct it. In short, the youth who leaves home to go to college finds there friendship, guidance and…
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60 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS source of home and school and church to train him in right habits, to equip him with true ideas and to inspire him with high ideals. It means as well that from his earliest childhood we shall do all that we can to develop self-reliance within him. We shall educate him for initiative and responsibility. Many well-meaning parents…
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THE BREAKING OF OLD TIES 61 dren. National prohibition of the liquor traffic may not cure old soaks or habitual tipplers, but the youth of to-morrow will not have that devil to fight. Finally, we can make friends with the youth and open to him a desirable social life. We can offer him new ties for those that had to be broken. The Friendly…
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62 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS Play. The problem of educating children for self-reliance is admirably treated by Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher in Mothers and Children and Self-Reliance. The re- lation of the church to the social life of young people is dealt with in H. A. Atkinson: The Church and the People s Play and H. W. Gates: Recreation and the Church.
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CHAPTER VIII WHEN DOUBTS COME IN his ballad of Tomlinson, Rudyard Kipling has pictured unforgettably the correct conven- tional weakling, whose virtues and vices alike are but the reflection of those about him. Tomlinson lived in Berkeley Square, and, as is the custom of men, died and presented himself at heaven s gate. In answer to Peter s challenge, he spoke of his good…
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64 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS O none may reach by hired speech of neighbor, priest, and kin Through borrowed deed to God s good meed that lies so fair within Get hence, get hence to the Lord of Wrong, for doom has yet to run, And the faith that ye share with Berkeley Square uphold you, Tomlinson But when Tomlinson seeks admission at…
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WHEN DOUBTS COME 65 and establishes the truth of their fathers faith., Their new insights compel no contradiction of old principles, no break with early teaching. Their in- tellectual and moral development is continuous and straightforward. This happens more often, per- haps, than we think. The gaining of personal con- victions no more necessarily involves a wandering for a time in doubt than does…
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66 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS they may be a little of both this and that with an ad- mixture of several elses as well. Little wonder, therefore, that the young man of the early twenties is a creed-maker of definitely prag- matic temper, and inclined to question many of the old dogmas. He is but bringing to religion the same confident powers of…
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WHEN DOUBTS COME 67 is in danger, in these latter days, of forgetting that there is such a thing as mind. Philosophy, to which he turns for help on ultimate problems, only mixes him up. He gets an inkling of modern views of the Bible, and decides that nobody can know what parts of it to believe. Difficulties of this sort are not limited…
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68 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS he thinks it is, a difference between the old and the new generations; it is rather the difference between the child that was and the man that has come to be. His doubt is the measure, not of the world s advance, but of his own development. How shall we deal with the doubts of later adoles- cence?…
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WHEN DOUBTS COME 69 Fourth, by remembering and helping young peo- ple to see that eccentricity is in itself no virtue. In- dividuality is precious, and personal convictions are worth the travail they cost. But individuality can be fully realized only in social relation; and one may base upon grounds that are personal, convictions that are the common heritage of the race. Youth, not…
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70 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS Where the envious curses fly: Never name or fame to find, Still outstripped in soul and mind, To be hid, unless to God, As one grass-blade in the sod Underfoot with millions trod? If you dare, come with us, be Lost in love s great unity. M FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 1. Why is doubt easy and natural…
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WHEN DOUBTS COME £8 Believe. Books that young people will find most stimulat- ing and helpful are those by Harry E. Fosdick: The Meaning of Faith, The Meaning of Prayer, The Manhood of the Master, and The Assurance of Im- mortality.
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CHAPTER IX THE FORMING OF HABITS READERS of Joseph Lincoln s Extricating Obadiah will remember Captain Noah New- comb s dramatic entrance, humped over the steering wheel of a tinny runabout, his elbows well out and his hat jammed on the back of his head, his eyes glued upon the macadam directly in front of the radiator, but the car shooting from side to…
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THE FORMING OF HABITS 73 nervous jiggle. It was plain that Captain Noah had become, as he had sworn to become, boss of the ship/ What made the difference? Practice, of course. That is the only way to become a skilled automobile driver. One may take lesson after lesson on how to handle a car and may thoroughly understand the principles involved; but he…
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74 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS a third time. Any two things that happen together or are in any way connected in our minds, tend in future to recall one another, Any order of events, once followed, suggests itself thereafter as a natural order, to be followed again. Any succession of ideas, once traversed in mind, is apt to repeat itself. These are examples…
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THE FORMING OF HABITS 75 day after day to do no more than repeat a given round, whether of drudgery or of idle indulgence, habit accustoms us to that lot and development prac- tically ceases. If we think and do wrong things, habit helps us to develop in that direction almost as readily as in the right direction. The truth is that we are…
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[76 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS with clear ideas, gets a good start, and seeks correc- tion from time to time. Good habits so begotten are, indeed, just as hard to break as bad ones. In his excellent book on Habit Formation and the Science of Teaching Principal Rowe formulates the following four steps in any lesson which aims at the development of a…
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THE FORMING OF HABITS 77 habits of concentration, energetic volition, self-con- trol, and self-denial. Professor Bain, whom James followed in this mat- ter, long ago summed up the whole philosophy of habit formation in two conditions Adequate initi- ative and an unbroken persistence. FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 1. Formulate the law of habit. 2. Distinguish as aspects of the law of habit between what…
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CHAPTER X THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WILL A FAVORITE resort of my children is the little zoological garden of our city East Rock Farm, they call it The other day we had an ex- citing experience there. A gorgeous blue peacock attacked our automobile while parked, and scratched it with his spurs, damaging himself a good deal, of course, in the process. Pore ole…
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DEVELOPMENT OF THE WILL 79 him on. To see another peacock means fight for him, and he does not stop to inquire whether the opposing peacock be real or not. The keeper was right: He never will learn no sense. We human animals are like Bill in that we have instincts; but we are unlike him or should be in that we can learn…
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80 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS speaks out her mind. Both are sorry afterward; they say, I didn t think. And that is the actual fact: they did not think enough. Their actions were idea-motived, we grant. The man played golf because he wanted to do it; the woman intended to say what she said. But the trouble was that neither stopped to think…
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DEVELOPMENT OF THE WILL 81 of our taking advantage of the way in which they judge of everything by its mere label, as it were, so as to ensnare or kill them. Nature, in them, has left matters in this rough way, and made them act always in the manner which would be oftenest right. There are more worms unattached to hooks than im-…
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82 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS When we deliberate we hold in imagination what Professor Dewey has called a dramatic rehearsal of various possible lines of action. We give way, in our mind, to some impulse we try, in our mind, some plan. Following its career through various steps, we find ourselves in imagination in the presence of the consequences that would follow and…
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DEVELOPMENT OF THE WILL 83 Pennsylvania has a union station at Chicago with the Milwaukee road, which is to carry them to their destination and if they take the New York Central they will be compelled to transfer there from one station to another. We shall choose the Pennsyl- vania. What factors enter into the development of an efficient will? The foregoing discussion justifies…
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84. TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS rightly believed that the ultimate secret of strength of will lies in one s personal association with God through Christ Jesus. FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION i. Illustrate by further examples the difference between willed action and impulsive action. 2. What is the relation of the multiplicity and indefinite- ness of human instincts to the development of the will?…
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CHAPTER XI THE ROOTS OF LAW THE word law has several meanings. We think first, perhaps, of civil law. Its basis is that of political authority. It is enacted by the rec- ognized law-makers of a political group, such as a community, state or nation; and it is enforced by the police power of that group. It expresses what must be, if one would…
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86 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS Different as these kinds of law are, they are alike in one fundamental and most important respect: all tell us how to act, in one respect or another. A civil law, for example, forbids us to spit in public places under penalty of a fine; a natural law, once under- stood, bids us sleep with our bedroom windows…
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THE ROOTS OF LAW 87 But it operates inevitably. Experiences that result happily tend naturally to be repeated; those that are painful will in future be avoided. Lines of action that have been successful will be followed again; those that have met defeat or brought unhappiness will be tried no more. Sometimes, on the other hand, the process is not mechanical. More than mere…
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88 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS little principles of action that he gains may fall far short of the truth. Yet his mind is at work and his will is acquiring strength and direction. 2. Imitation and suggestion. A child derives prin- ciples of action, again, from what he observes of the behavior and experiences of others. There has been debate among psychologists in…
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THE ROOTS OF LAW 89 They seem almost to absorb the world about them. They reflect their social environment. What their elders do is far more potent in shaping their lives than what these same elders say. 3. Authority. No wise parent or teacher will just let his children alone in the midst of natural forces and social experiences, to understand these as best…
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90 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS short, if the child finds the deliverances of authority to be consistently backed up by his own experiences and his observation of the experiences of others, so that habit and imitation lead him in the same direc- tion, then authority is rightly used, and is of the highest value. An authority, on the other hand, that is arbitrary,…
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THE ROOTS OF LAW 91 hood is non-social, non-moral, non-religious. There could be no greater mistake. While it is true that moral training in childhood must lay the larger em- phasis relatively upon conditions external to the child himself, it is equally true that even very little chil- dren love to help and care for others. I have seen primary schoolrooms that were models…
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92 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS 4. The importance of consistency of life with precept. What do you think of the parent who sends his children to Sunday school, but himself has nothing to do with it or with the church? Give reasons for your answer. 5. Social initiative in early and middle childhood, and the changes in this respect which take place in…
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CHAPTER XII HOW RELIGION GROWS HOW shall one describe the natural growth of religion in a human life? It seems almost an impossible task. For religion is more than a natural growth. It is a living, personal relation with God. It cannot be described in terms merely of laws and periods of development. It depends upon God s own uncounted, resourceful ways, as in…
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94 TALKS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS When I was a child, I spake as a child, I under- stood as a child, I thought as a child but when I be- came a man, I put away childish things. In a general way, three stages may be distin- guished through which most persons pass as they grow in religion. There is the stage, first,…