Part 26
No discussion of industrial education is complete without reference to the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, who in this field attained world-wide fame and brought more to the cause of all education, than any other individual of this generation. His life history and the wonderful story of Tuskegee, which he founded, are too well known to be given in detail. But his influence was not limited to Tuskegee. He did more than any other individual in teaching the world “that democracy’s plan for the solution of the race problem in the Southland is not primarily in the philanthropies and wisdom of Northern people; nor is it in the desires and struggles of the colored people; nor yet in the first hand knowledge and daily contacts of the Southern white people. Democracy’s plan is in the combination of the best thought and the deepest sympathy and the most abiding faith of these three groups working with mutual faith in one another.”
No more appropriate ending can be found to this section on industrial education or the entire chapter on Negro education, than the beautiful poem of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, written as a tribute to Dr. Washington:
The word is writ that he who runs may read, What is the passing breath of earthly fame? But to snatch glory from the hands of blame— That is to be, to live, to strive indeed. A poor Virginia Cabin gave the seed. And from its dark and lowly door there came A peer of princes in the world’s acclaim, A master spirit for the Nation’s need. Strong, silent, purposeful beyond his kind, The mark of rugged force on brow and lip, Straight on he goes, nor turns to look behind Where hot the hounds come baying at his hip, With one idea foremost in his mind, Like the keen prow of some on-forging ship.
THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN The Child an Imitator
Imitation is the basis of all education; it is instruction through action. Especially so is this in the case of young children. The tiny infant lying so snugly within his mother’s arms, knows nothing of the “why and wherefore” of this world. It is content, and as long as its physical wants are looked after, it matters not. Toward the ending of the first year it begins to take notice, and we see the fond mother teaching her darling to shake bye-bye, play pat-a-cake, and to throw a kiss from his tiny fingers. All these gestures are mere imitations of what he sees. He hasn’t the slightest idea of the meaning of it all. Later the infant will imitate the noise of the “bow-wow,” the “moo-cow” and he will do his best to “mew” like a cat. These, too, are imitations of what he hears and are of importance in its development.
An interesting story is told of a young mother who took great pains to teach her first little one to lisp “Da-Da” at the approach of its father. The mother succeeded admirably and the fond father never got tired of hearing his little one utter this new name of his. What was their utter dismay when one day a despicable looking tramp came to the door and the little one insisted in holding out its arms to him and fondly calling him “Da-Da.” We can easily see that the early knowledge of a child is an imitation of what he sees and hears and you, watchful mother, must always keep the watchwords, “what he sees” and “what he hears” ever before you, and let it be the keynote of all early training.
It is always interesting to watch children at play; more so when they are playing “house” or some other amusement relative to home life. Have you not noticed how the little girl will assume the manner and actions of her own mother? Supposedly, the “dolly” has been taken suddenly ill and the doctor has been sent for. It is a most critical case and the little boy who is playing doctor will knit and pucker up his brow and will imitate the solemnity and dignity of the professional man most vividly. He even tries to make his voice lower and gruffer in tone, so as to make the “doctor” more real. Yes, children in their play are prime representatives of realities and are often good teachers in some respects, for they are not only good imitators but good observers.
CHILD’S FUTURE MOLDED BY EXAMPLE
Everything to a child is a model of manner, of gesture, of speech, of habit, of character. Let these models be of the highest type. If we would have fine characters we must necessarily present before children fine models. The model the child constantly has in his mind’s eye is the mother. She it is through the example she provides who sets the standard for the child’s future. The child comes into the world with its plastic mind open to all impressions and these it receives and retains by outside forces. It is a very poor plan to take children to a theatre. They cannot help but hear and see things which will cause them often to imitate, and which may result in disaster.
A true story is told of a boy, ten years old, who was taken by his mother to see a show. During the play the audience was treated to an exciting domestic quarrel on the stage. One of the characters, a young boy, was supposed to protect his mother by shooting an intruder. The boy was applauded by the audience, which plainly showed they considered him a hero. Henry, for this was the boy’s name who was witnessing the play, was carried away with all that he saw and decided that he, too, would deal likewise to anyone who would harm his mother. Some weeks later a peddler came to his mother’s house and insisted that she buy some of his wares. She told him she didn’t care for any, but the peddler’s voice was rather loud and he seemed very persistent. Henry, hearing it all, thought the time had come to imitate the actor’s bravery. He turned to a drawer, took his father’s pistol and without one moment’s reflection shot the peddler, but, fortunately, did not kill him. This plainly shows what imitation in the young mind can lead to.
Example is far better than precept. In the face of bad example, the best of precepts are of little use. Can you expect a child who constantly sees before him ignorance, coarseness and selfishness, to grow up anything more than the reflection of these faults?
It sometimes happens that a child brought up under these circumstances finds himself, in adult life, placed amidst other scenes. He immediately sees the difference and compares his training to those around him. If he is ambitious and wants to change his mode of life, he has to commence all over again his work of imitation. He has reason with him now to help him, yet he will at first find it uphill work; but when he succeeds, he will be the much better man. Should a child when he reaches adult age care not to pluck these traits from his character, he becomes at once a rude, dangerous member to society and a grievance to those with whom he comes in contact.
Too much care cannot be taken in teaching the children the avoidance of sham. This must especially be insisted on in the matter of dress. Most all of us are fond of “fine raiment,” and we cannot help but feel that appearances play an important part in life. It must be the avoidance of imitating of finery and the adoption of the substantial in dress, that we must teach our children.
GLITTERING IMITATIONS A SERIOUS EVIL
In the matter of dress, girls are more influenced by its grandeur than are boys, and the wise mother will do well to teach her daughter simplicity in everything. Never allow her to wear imitations of precious stones or jewelry. This is not only bad taste, but it is a bad habit to form. Many a poor girl has fallen from grace just through the love of glittering baubles. Teach her never to rouge her cheeks or use cosmetics. If Nature has not given her a perfect complexion, she can never get it by imitation. “You can’t cheat Nature,” but you can aid it. Have her imitate God’s creatures by copying cleanliness, simple eating and regular habits. She may not get a faultless complexion—few people have this gift—but she can get that soft texture of skin, that buoyancy of spirit, that brightness of eye with the soul showing through. Let these be her models and the imitation will be of real worth.
GUIDANCE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
While the imitation of dress and the lighter vanities of life are more indulged in by the girl, the boy also is a decided imitator in other weaknesses. A boy will imitate any quality which he thinks manly. Would that the points they imitate deserved this name, but most of the things they copy are those which will sooner or later, make slaves of them. How early we see the tiny tot of three or four years placing a piece of stick or anything which resembles a cigar, between his lips. Watch him puff at it; see him imitate the strut of a man. This sometimes appears comical, and the child is often prevailed upon to show how clever he is. Alas, this is only the first attempt to imitate the manly arts, and if not guided in the right direction his imitations may become a tragedy instead of a comedy.
By imitation of acts the character becomes slowly and imperceptibly, but at length decidedly formed. Do not think, mother, that because your child is young it cannot judge. In this you are greatly mistaken. Children are very clever judges and especially do they see through any inconsistency. They hear you say: “You mustn’t do thus and so.” What do you think is in their childish minds when they discover you doing it? Children do not appreciate the motto which the preacher gave to his congregation: “Do as I say, not as I do.” No, indeed, they follow the example. The precept is forgotten.
The habits, which are our constant companions and followers through life, are based on imitation. If good habits are to be formed, childhood is the time to plant them. You cannot begin too early. The little tot who sees her mother throw down her belongings cannot be expected to take care of her playthings, nor, as she grows up, to be neat and tidy. Order is Heaven’s first law and the successful mother will start with having a place for everything and have everything in its place.
GOOD MANNERS AND SOCIAL ETIQUETTE
The demeanor of a child is also a vast reflector of home training. You cannot always teach morals by imitation, but you can the custom of manners and social etiquette. In the primitive appetites of eating and drinking, imitation is a very strong force. How easily a little child will imitate the smacking of lips after some article of diet especially enjoyed. How easily he comes to use his knife in conveying food to his mouth, if he has seen this performance. How anxious he is to rush from the table as soon as he has finished eating. These, and many other breaches of good manners, I am sorry to say, come as a result of seeing others do likewise.
It is our duty to read up on all manners and customs of etiquette. The mother must acquaint herself with all its details; then your child will be a credit as well as a joy to his parents.
One of the best illustrations of the power of imitation is in the way the deaf are taught. The natural way of speaking any language is by hearing; by trying to imitate the sounds which are made. In the case of the deaf, they learn their expression of thought through imitation entirely, the lips and gestures of the hands and fingers being the only source of communication.
We have learned that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So long as this imitation is of sterling value, let us all become flatterers. Let us flatter Love, which lightens labor. Let us flatter Care by crowning and beautifying its rugged and repellant features. Let us all endeavor to flatter the serenity of Life by being constantly on the outlook for the foes without and the foes within—the “little foxes that seek to destroy the vines.”
GIVE YOUR BOYS AND GIRLS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP THEIR TRUE NATURES
The child must be encouraged to unfold. Its thoughts, its ideas, its method of carrying out its ideas, its instincts and intuitions, in a word, its genius must be brought forward, never suppressed. If the ideas are wild, the play rough, the instincts perverse and the child is unruly, the mother must seek ways to direct them.
How can you judge the workings of that mind and soul? You must study your little one’s motives, in order to pass a sentence on the act he has committed. If your boy is noisy, rough, pugnacious, you may lay it to a surplus of nervous energy that has no proper outlet.
He is ungovernable perhaps, neither you nor his father nor the teacher at school can manage him. What are you going to do? His father whips him, but the youth is India rubber—he rebounds. The rod has not reached his inner consciousness. The teacher keeps him in after school, and on being freed, he rushes into a fight. You, his mother, are distracted, for although he seems to listen to you, he pays little heed to your commands.
DIRECT YOUR CHILD’S ENERGY
What are you going to do with such a child? Send him to a reform school, and ruin his life? Beat him until all the buoyancy has gone out of his nature? Keep him in after school until he becomes irritable and nervous? No, indeed! The best thing to do with a lively and unrestrained child is to set his energies in a safe and sane channel. Teach him field sports, open up for him the delights of the manual training room. Give him a hammer, a few nails, a bit of lumber, a paste pot, some cardboard. Boys love to work with their hands, so let your boy make things. He will like to build stools and coat racks, boxes, broom-holders, anything that is useful. That is one of the great secrets of bringing up a boy, make him useful. He likes the little sense of power, the natural feeling of pride that comes from a knowledge that he is of some consequence, that his work counts. The boy who is taught to do something well, will not long be unmanageable.
KEEPING THE BOY BUSY
Supposing the boy is not to be directed at once into the enchanting field of handcraft; supposing his mother has allowed him to run wild a little too long or has not noticed that he was evincing signs of lawlessness until the neighbors or teachers send home uncomplimentary reports, what’s to be done? Try another tactic. See if you cannot interest him in outdoor sports to a point where he reaches self-respect. Baseball will do, a bat and a ball may help him to rouse the best that is in your lad. Then let him help his father with chores, let him drive the team to town, or sell a load of produce—nothing brings out a boy’s incipient manhood like the thought that he is helping his “dad,” that he can be depended upon, and held responsible for something really worth while.
I know a fine boy of twelve, the son of a store-keeper in a small Georgia town, who is raising hens. He has forty flourishing Wyandottes, a couple of dozen Leghorns and as many Buff Cochins. He has built a substantial hen house, and fenced in a part of the yard. Friends and relatives became interested in his enterprise and gave him suggestions, the benefit of their experience, until now he is a thriving chicken farmer. Last summer, he sold on an average of five dozen eggs a day. We were among his customers, and we paid him thirty cents a dozen, his regular price, which means that the twelve-year-old made $1.50 a day, or $10.50 a week. Besides earning a little money he was having a lot of fun.
He had enough on his mind to keep him out of trouble, and enough on his hands to work off the physical force that otherwise might have gone to waste, making him an undesirable citizen.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE BOY
If your boy is mischievous, can you not make a merchant or a farmer or a gardener out of him? It need not be his vocation. Let it be his avocation, his hobby. Don’t shut him in, don’t keep him down; encourage him to come out along life’s highway and show the world the sort of stuff he’s made of.
A very noble-minded woman of my acquaintance is suffering from the effects of having been constantly restrained when she was a child. She is in consequence, diffident, lacking in self-confidence, liable to become the victim of a strong-willed person’s whim. She says that, as a girl, all her natural instincts were put to scorn. Full of abounding life, she loved to leap down the stairs, throw herself into her mother’s arms, shout with laughter, sing at the top of her voice as she went about her tasks. This was looked upon with horror by her sedate and cautious parent. “Don’t run down the stairs,” her mother would say. “Don’t laugh so loud!” “Don’t shout like that!” Don’t, don’t, don’t, until the poor girl did not really know what she might do with impunity. She was constantly being humiliated before visitors, and the joy in life that might have been cultivated and utilized, nay, even glorified, was driven quite out of her soul. Yet her mother was an excellent woman, who meant to do just the right thing by that little girl of hers. She had her own idea of what a young girl should be. This gay, hilarious creature was not just what the mother desired. She had hopes of bringing up a dignified, gentle, lady-like, delicate, feminine daughter rather than a hoyden. What might not that mother have done had she but understood the glorious material God had lent her to work with a little while!
If she had only realized that the quality she was stamping out was a radiant, winged, rare, inspired and inspiring touch of nature springing out of a fullness of life, a superabundance of health, she might have made her child a queen among women, a leader, a creature admired and adored.
THE SOUL NEEDS SPACE TO DEVELOP
Instead, she accomplished not the dainty, refined model she set her unwise hands to, but an anomaly, an unwieldy statue with the helmeted head of Athene and the dancing body of Terpsichore. The mother can do much for her child, but she cannot put her soul into the other body. The child’s soul is its own. Inspirations and energies can be directed, that is all. The soul must grow; it must develop, and for this it must have a wide space. Do not bind the growth with a too compelling hand. Let cooperation, not coercion, be the stimulus between you.
The whole world is yours and your child’s, dear mother, therefore do not cramp his mental or spiritual gymnastics. There are a thousand outlets, a hundred thousand modes of expression. Find your child’s height and depth; sound him, measure his capacity for learning, pleasure, pain, work, and let him grow in beauty, wisdom and peace ever unfolding into the Infinite.
DEVELOPING MORAL CHARACTER
The whole field of our obligation both positive and negative; that is, the “I oughts” and the “I ought nots”; what we ought to do and what we ought to avoid; our duty toward ourselves, our duty toward mankind and our duty toward God, come to us through what we term moral or ethical science. A mental construction having as its basis purity and duty. When the moral nature is cultivated and developed it controls every action of man, radiating from the individual to society and from society back again to the individual.
We study moral science in order that we may conduct ourselves properly in all relations of life; that we may be inwardly pure and outwardly moral; that we may be harmonious in our mental construction and in our relations with the world. It is true that we may attain some degree of morality without giving it especial study, just as we may live in the world and perform the ordinary work of life without scholastic learning. There is a natural desire for knowledge—we seek a rational account of things. Moral science endeavors to give us this rational account of moral conduct which we find everywhere in some form, to correct and improve it, to elevate and purify our moral ideals.
HOME THE PLACE FOR STUDY
We know of no more appropriate place for the practical beginning of this most important duty than in the home. The influence of the parents’ character upon the children cannot be estimated. Everything that we come in contact with has a certain influence upon us. A man took a political paper only to laugh at it, but he read the same theories over and over until at length they became truths to him. As the constant dropping of water will wear away the stone, so will constant association have an everlasting influence upon the character. It may be changed—either elevated or degraded—but it never can be destroyed.
Every child is born with a natural temperament or disposition, which is the product of two elementary factors. (1) Inheritance—those qualities which are transmitted by nature from one’s ancestors and (2) maternal impression—the impression made upon the plastic brain of the foetus. The first comes from generations of ancestry, whereas the last is entirely dependent upon the mother; the influence of what she sees, what she hears and what she thinks. These qualities combine for good or for bad, to influence the life of the child.
Fortunate indeed is the child who is well born, but doubly fortunate is he who may also be well trained.
IMPRESSIONS MADE BY THE EYE
The home is the true soil for the cultivation of virtue. Mere cultivation of intellect has little influence upon character. Most of the principles of character are implanted in the home and not in the school. Children are more apt to learn through the eye than through the ear. That which is seen makes a much deeper impression on the mind than that which is read or heard, and that which they see they will unconsciously imitate.
Notice the little mannerisms of your children. It may be a way of walking, or a twist of the mouth or an accent. How easily you can detect the origin! Therefore it behooves parents to place before their children examples of character that as nearly as possible approach perfection. Whatever benefit there is derived from the schools, the examples set in the home are of far greater influence in forming the character of our future men and women.
THE HOME THE SOCIAL CENTER
The home is the center of social and national character and from that source issues the habits, principles and maxims that govern public as well as private life. Examples of conduct even in apparently trivial matters are of great importance, inasmuch as they are to become interwoven with the lives of others and contribute to the formation of the character for better or for worse.
We have first certain implanted principles of involuntary action. They are the appetites which are tendencies toward things for bodily life and continuance; the desires which are tendencies toward things necessary for mental life and development, and the affections which are tendencies toward social life and welfare.
The appetites are cravings produced by recurring wants and needs necessary to the body and are seven in number: hunger, thirst, sex, sleep, rest, exercise and air—all of which are necessary for our animal existence. The appetites play a strong part even in our social and moral life, and they may be lifted up to a higher plane of moral action or they may be drawn down to a mere brute impulse. Every gift of the body and soul can be moralized for good.
APPETITE AS A FACTOR IN CHARACTER
The higher moral attainment rests in and arises out of the physical nature. The intellect and the moral structure can be no greater than the foundation will allow. The appetites are attended by an uneasy sensation which incites action. There is no moral quality in the appetites themselves, as can be seen in the brute, but in man with his higher gifts they become important factors of his moral character. They not only impel him to action, but bring him into relationship with the material world and with his fellowmen.