Comenius' School of Infancy/Chapter 9

by Johan Amos Comenius

CHAPTER IX.

 

MORAL TRAINING.

 

1. What those external virtues are, in which youth ought to be exercised in their early years, I have enumerated already in the fourth chapter. Now I will explain how it behooves to be prudently and properly accomplished. In case it should be asked how any age so tender^[1] can be accustomed to these serious things, my reply is, even as a young and tender tree can be bent so as to grow this way or that much more easily than a full-grown tree, so youth can be exercised in the first years of their lives, more readily than afterwards, to good of every kind, provided legitimate means be used; and these are: (1) a perpetual example of virtuous conduct; (2) properly timed and prudent instruction and exercise; (3) duly regulated discipline.

2. It is necessary that children should have presented before them a perpetual good example,^[2] since God has implanted in them a certain imitative principle, namely, a desire to imitate what they see others do. So much so, that although you never desire a boy to do a certain thing, if you do or say that thing in his presence you will see that he will try to do the same; and this perpetual experience confirms. For this reason, there is need of the greatest circumspection in the home where there are children, so that nothing be done contrary to virtue; but let the whole house observe temperance, cleanliness, and neatness, due respect for superiors, mutual complaisance, truthfulness, etc.^[3] If this were diligently observed, there would certainly be no necessity for many words to teach, or blows to enforce. But inasmuch as grown-up persons themselves often fall into excess, it is no wonder that children should also imitate what they see in others.

3. Instruction, however, and that properly timed and prudent, must accompany example.^[4] It will be a suitable time for teaching children by words, when we discover that examples have not sufficiently profited them, or when they really desire to conduct themselves according to the example of others, but yet fail of doing it properly. In such case, it will be commendable to admonish them to conduct themselves in this or that way, by saying, “Look, consider how I do. See how father or mother does it. Do not do such things. Be ashamed of yourself. Behave yourself. If you behave so, you will never become an excellent young man. Street beggars and bad people do so,” etc., or the like. It is not yet expedient to have recourse to lengthened admonition, or discourse on this or that matter which will be of no use to them afterwards.

4. Occasionally there is need of chastisement, in order that children may attend to examples of virtue and admonition. Now, there are two degrees of discipline. The first, that a boy be rebuked if he does anything unbecoming; prudently, however, not so as to strike him with awe, but to move him to fear, and to a recollection of himself. Occasionally, more severe chidings and putting to shame may be added; and, immediately after an admonition not to do a certain thing, the admonition may be accompanied with threatening. If, however, you admonish him, it will be good, at once, or a little while after, to praise him; for much benefit results from prudent commendation or blame, not only to children, but to grown-up persons. If this first step of discipline should prove to be ineffectual, the next will be to use the rod, or a slap of the hand, in order that the boy may recollect himself and become more attentive.^[5]

5. And here I cannot refrain from severely reprimanding the shallow-brained mockery of affection in certain parents, who, conniving at everything, permit their children to grow up altogether without correction or digcipline. Such parents tolerate their children to commit every kind of evil; to run about in all directions, to borrow, to sell, to shout, to howl without a cause, to report upon their elders, to stick out their tongues at others, and to act in every way without restraint; and then to excuse them by saying, “He is a child, he ought not to be irritated, he does not yet understand those things.” But you, the parents yourselves, are the children of stupidity, if, discovering this want of knowledge in your child, you do not promote its knowledge; for it was not born to remain a calf, or a young ass, but to become a rational creature. Know you not what the Scriptures declare: “Folly is bound to the heart of a young man, but it is driven from him by the rod of chastisement”? Why do you prefer the child’s being detained in its natural foolishness, rather than to rescue it from its folly, by the aid of well-timed, holy, and salutary discipline? Do not persuade yourselves that the child does not understand; for it understands how to exercise frowardness, to be angry, to rage, to grin, to puff out its cheeks, to be rude to others; assuredly it will also know what is a rod and its use.^[6] Right reason does not fail the reason, but imprudent parents neither know nor care to know what will contribute to the comfort of themselves and their children. For how comes it that the majority of children afterwards become refractory to their parents, and distress them in various ways, unless it be that they had never been disciplined to reverence them?

6. Most truthful is the saying: “He who attains to manhood without discipline, becomes old without virtue.” For it behooves that the Scripture be fulfiled^[7] which affirms that “the rod and chastisement confer wisdom, but a froward young man affects his mother with shame.” The wisdom of God advises, “Chastise thy son, and he will bring rest unto thee, and procure pleasure for thy soul.” When parents fail to obey this counsel, they get neither pleasure nor rest from their children, but disgrace, shame, affliction, and inquietude. Hence we often hear such complaints of parents: “My children are disobedient and wicked; this one has fallen from the faith, the other is a spendthrift, reckless, and a glutton.” And is it strange, my friend, that you reap what you have sown? You have sown in their minds licentiousness, and do you hope to reap the fruits of discipline? This would indeed be marvelous. For a tree that is not engrafted cannot bear the fruit of the grafting. Labor ought to have been bestowed that the tender tree should be planted, duly inclined, and made straight, so as not to have grown so gnarly. But as most persons neglect discipline, there is no wonder that youths everywhere grow up froward, impetuous, and impious, provoking God and distressing the parents. A certain wise man has said that, “although an infant seems to be an angel, yet it requires the rod.” Did not Eli himself lead a pious life? Did he not give pious instruction to his sons? But because he spared effectual discipline, it happened ill to him; for by his undue lenity, he brought much sorrow upon himself, the wrath of God upon his house, and the extinction of his whole race. Bearing on our subject, this: Dr. Geyler, a celebrated pastor of the church of Strasburg, two centuries ago, represented such parents under the following emblem: “Children tearing their own hair, puncturing themselves with knives, and their fathers sitting by them with veiled eyes.”

7. Hitherto I have spoken generally; now I proceed to give instructions as to the above-mentioned virtues specifically, how they may be exercised in children easily, prudently, and decorously.

8. Temperance and frugality claim the first place for themselves, inasmuch as they constitute the foundation of health and life, and are the mothers of all other virtues. Children will become accustomed to these, provided you indulge them in only so much food, drink, and sleep as nature demands. For other animals, following only the leading of nature, are more temperate than we; therefore children ought to eat, drink, and sleep only at the time when nature disposes them so to do, namely, when they appear to suffer from hunger or thirst, or to be oppressed for sleep. Before this is discovered, to feed them, to give them drink, to put them to sleep, to cram them even beyond their will, to cover them up or to compel them to sleep, is madness. It is sufficient for them that such things be supplied them according to nature. Care must be taken that their appetites be not provoked by pastry or any innutritious delicacies; for these are the oiled vehicles which carry in more than is necessary, and the stomach is enticed to eat more than enough. Such things are really enticements to luxurious living. For although it may not be improper to occasionally give children something savory, yet to malke their food of sweetmeats is as destructive to health (as shown in the fifth chapter) as it is to sound morals.

9. Immediately, in the first year, the foundations of cleanliness and neatness may be laid, by nursing the infant in as cleanly and neat a way as possible, which the nurse will know how to do, provided she is not destitute of sense. In the second, third, and following years, it is proper to teach children to take their food decorously, not to soil their fingers with fat, and not, by scattering their food, to stain themselves; not to make a noise while eating (swinishly smacking their lips), not to put out the tongue, etc.; also how to drink without greediness, without lapping, and without splattering themselves. Similar cleanliness and neatness may be exacted in their dress: not to sweep the ground with their clothes, and not designedly to stain and soil them, which is usual with children by reason of their want of prudence; and yet parents, through remarkable stupidity, connive at such things.

10. They will easily learn to respect superiors, provided their elders take diligent care of them, and attend to themselves; therefore if you admonish, or frequently rebuke and chastise a child, you need not fear that it will not respect you. But if you allow everything to children, a practice followed by many who excessively love them, nothing is more certain than that such children will become froward and obstinate. “To love children is natural, to disguise that love is prudence.” Not without prudence has Ben Sirach left it on record, “that an untamed horse will become unmanageable; a son neglected will become headstrong. Humor a son and he will cause you fear; play with him and he will make you sad; do not laugh with him lest you also grieve with him, and in the end your teeth gnash.” It is better, therefore, to restrain children by discipline and fear than to reveal to them the overflowing of your love, and thus open as it were a window to frowardness and disobedience.^[8] It is also useful to grant even to others the power of rebuking children, so that not only under the eye of their parents, but wherever they are, they may be accustomed to have due regard to themselves, and by this means to cause modesty and due respect for all men to take root in their hearts. Assuredly they act altogether without circumspection, nay, with extreme imprudence, who allow no one even to look upon their children with an unfavorable eye; if any one should counsel them, he becomes the advocate of their own children, even in their very presence. Otherwise their warm blood, even as it spirits up a horse, gives loose reins to licentiousness and haughtiness. Let there be, therefore, great caution.

11. Youth ought to be instructed with great care as to actual obedience, since it is afterwards to become the foundation of the greatest virtue, when children learn to restrain their own wills and obey the will of another. We do not permit a tender plant to grow spontaneously, but we bind it to a prop; that, so bound, it may the more readily raise its head and acquire strength. Hence it has been most truthfully said by Terence: “We are all the worse for excessive liberty.” As often, therefore, as father or mother, addressing a child, says: “Touch not that;—sit still;—put aside that knife;—put away this or that”—children should be accustomed to do at once what is commanded of them; and if any obstinacy appears in them, it may be easily subdued by rebuke or prudent chastisement.

12. We read that the Persians observe with the greatest diligence the training of children in “temperance and truthfulness,” and not without cause, since falsehood and hypocrisy render any person detestable both before God and man. “Lying,” says Plutarch, “is a slavish vice, and ought to be vehemently condemned by all men.” In respect of God, Scripture testifies that, “False lips are an abomination to Him.” Children ought therefore to be compelled, in case they commit any fault, humbly to confess it, and not obstinately to deny it; and on the other hand not to say what really is not true. For this reason Plato forbids fables and fictitious stories being recited to children, for he maintains that they should be led directly to truth.^[9] I do not know how that can be approved which certain persons do, who habitually instruct children to transfer the blame upon others when some evil is committed by themselves, and who derive jest and pleasure from accomplishing it. But who except the boy becomes really injured? If he become accustomed to interchange lies and jokes, of course he learns to lie.

13. Failure in respect of justice, a desire for the property of others, does not greatly attach to this early age, unless the nurses themselves, or those who have the charge of children, introduce this corruption; and this occurs if, in the presence of children, any one stealthily takes away things belonging to another, and conceals or secures food for themselves clandestinely, or induces another to do the same; whether it be done in jest or in earnest, such children as see it will imitate it, being in this respect really little apes; for whatever they see, they remember and they do it, too. Nurses, and such as have charge of children, ought, in the highest degree, to be cautious in these matters.

14. Children will be able gradually to learn and practice benignity and beneficence towards others in these early years, if they see alms distributed by their parents among the poor, or even if they themselves are ordered to bestow them;^[10] likewise if they be occasionally taught to impart something of their own to others; and when they do so, they ought to be praised.

15. The early Church Fathers used to say, and most truly, that “Indolence is Satan’s cushion”; for whoever Satan finds entirely unemployed he will be sure to occupy him, first, with evil thoughts, and afterwards with shameful deeds. It is the office of prudence to allow no man, even from his earliest years, to be idle; but by all means exercise the child with assiduous labors, that thus a door to the most destructive tempter may be closed. I know labors which the shoulders of children can bear, although they were nothing more (which cannot really be the case) than mere play. “It is better to play than to be idle, for during play the mind is intent upon some object which often sharpens the ability.”^[11] In this way children may be early exercised to an active life, without any difficulty, since nature herself stirs them up to be doing something. But of this I have already spoken in the seventh chapter.

16. As long as children are learning to speak, so long they should be free to talk as they like, and to prattle freely. When they have acquired the use of speech, it is of the highest importance for them to learn to keep silence; not as if I wished to make them statues, but rational little images. “Whosoever thinks silence to be a thing of little importance,” says Plutarch, “is scarcely of a sound mind”; because to keep silence prudently is the beginning of sound wisdom; for, assuredly keeping silence hurts no one, whereas talking has injured many; and even though no injury were sustained, yet since both of these qualities—namely, to speak and to keep silence—constitute the foundation and ornament of all our conversation throughout life, they ought to be so closely united that we may at the same time acquire the habit of both. Parents ought to accustom their children to keep silence. In the first place, during prayer and divine service, whether at home or in publie, children should sit quietly; and no running about, shouting, or making a noise should, at such times, be allowed them. Children should also learn to attend silently to the orders of their father and mother in everything. The other benefit of keeping silence is with a view to well-ordered speech, so that before the speaker replies to any question, children may consider what the matter is, and how to speak reasonably; for to utter whatever comes uppermost is folly, and it is not becoming in those whom we desire to see intelligent beings. However, I incessantly repeat that these things should be done as far as the age permits, and which circumspect parents should attend to with the greatest care.

17. A child may contract a habit of patience, provided that excessive softness and immoderate indulgence be carefully avoided. In some children, as early as their first and second year, the vice of an evil inclination begins to appear, which it is best to remove with the roots, as we do thistles; for example, a child of a perverse and obstinate disposition labors hard by crying and wailing to obtain what it has set its hearb upon; another displays anger, malevolence, and desire of vengeance by biting, kicking, and striking. Inasmuch as these affections are preternatural, and incidentally spring up, parents and attendants should use the greater care to suppress them in the very germ; this is easier to be done, and is much more beneficial at this very early age than afterwards, when the evil has struck deep root. It is vain to say, as some are wont to do, “It is a child, it does not understand.” Such persons I have already shown to be without understanding. No doubt we cannot root out unprofitable plants as soon as they appear above ground, inasmuch as we cannot yet distinguish them rightly from the genuine plant, or grasp them with the hand; nevertheless, it is true that we ought not to wait until the weeds have become full grown, for then the nettle stings worse, the thistle pricks sharper, and the good shrubs and the useful plants will be choked and perish; moreover, when these brambles have once strongly taken root, force becomes needful to pull them up, and often the roots of the standing corn are pulled up too. Therefore, as soon as weeds, nettles, and thistles are discovered, root them out at once, and the true crop will come forth so much the more abundantly. If you observe a child desirous of eating more than is necessary, or cramming itself with honey, sugar, or fruit, see that you be wiser than it, by not permitting such things; and having removed the cause of the mischief, occupy the child with something;^[12] never mind its crying, it will cease when it has cried enough, and will discontinue the habit later with great advantage. In like manner, if a child inclines to be fretful and froward, do not spare it; rebuke it, chastise it, set aside the thing for which it calls; by this means it will at length understand that your will is to be obeyed and not its own pleasure. A child of two years old is sufficiently advanced for this exercise, with this caution, however, that it be in no way hurt or have its anger excited, lest you open up to the child a way to condemn your exhortations and chastisements.

18. There is no need of great effort to accustom children to services and officiousness, since of themselves they generally take hold of everything, provided they are not prevented and be taught how to do so properly. Let the father or mother therefore enjoin it upon them, to execute immediately some service, which they of themselves or through another may do, saying—“My child, give that to me,—carry this—place it upon the desk,—go call Johnnie,—tell Annie to come to me,—give this to that little begging child,—run to grandmamma,—bid her good-bye for me, and say that I asked how she is. Come back again as soon as you can”;—and all such things as are suitable to their increasing years. Children ought also to be trained in alacrity and agility, so that when anything is enjoined upon them, they, leaving their play and everything else, should with the greatest promptitude execute the order. This promptness in obeying superiors may be learned from their earliest years, and will afterwards be of very great importance to them.

19. Respecting civility of manners,^[13] parents can instruct their children as far as they themselves know. There is no need of a great amount of instruction in this respect. The child is amiable which conducts itself courteously and respectfully, both toward its parents and others. This is born with certain children, whereas others require training, consequently it must not be neglected.

20. That courteousness and amiability may nob be irrational, they should be tempered with modesty and seriousness. The little story of the ass may illustrate this: “Once upon a time, an ass seeing a little dog caressing its master with its tail and leaping upon his bosom, the ass attempted to do the same, and for this civility got a cudgeling.” This story may be told to children, that they may remember what is due to every one. Children should be exercised so as to know what is becoming and what otherwise, both in external gestures and motions; how to sit straight, to stand upright, to walk decorously, not bending their limbs or staggering, or lounging. In case they need to ask for anything; how to return thanks when it is given; how to salute any one they meet; and when they salute how to bend the knee or stretch forth the hand; how, when they speak to superiors, to take off their hats, and many other things that appertain to the good and honorable, of which we need not speak more at length. It is sufficient here to have incidentally noticed some of these matters of conduct.

 

COLLATERAL READING.

 

Adler’s Moral Instruction of Children, Chaps. I.–X.; Edgeworth's Practical Education, Chaps, VI.–XL.; Laurie’s Primary Instruction in Relation to Education, Chaps. VI. and VII.; Malleson’s Early Training of Children, Chaps. VI.–IX.; Necker de Saussure’s Progressive Education, Book III., Chap. II.; Perez’s First Three Years of Childhood, Chaps. X., XI., and XII.; Richter’s Levana, Third Fragment, Chaps. VI. and VII., and Sixth Fragment, Chaps. I.–IV.

 

1. Pestalozzi says in this connection “The child at his mother’s breast is weaker and more dependent than any creature on earth, and yet he already feels the first moral impressions of love and gratitude. Morality is nothing but a result of the development of the first sentiments of love and gratitude felt by the child.”
2. “The end,” says Seneca, “is attained sooner by example than by precept,” and Plutarch observes: “That contemplation which is disassociated from practice is of no utility.”
3. Plato has observed: “To him who has an eye to see there can be no fairer spectacle than that of a man who combines the possession of moral beauty in his soul with outward beauty of form, corresponding and harmonizing with the former, because the same great pattern enters into both.”
4. Comenius here gives expression to a thought which the editor believes must some day find acceptance in the public schools of this country; namely, provision in our courses of study for specific and formal moral instruction. Germany and England provides religious instruction, France requires instruction in ethics, but in many states of the Union religious instruction is not allowed and ethical instruction not provided. In England and Germany assuredly the smaller number of religious denominations makes religious instruction possible; but the editor believes that the larger and broader ethical instruction in France to be more wholesome than the specific denominational instruction in Germany. And this broad ethical instruction is possible where all shades of religious opinion may be represented.
5. In the Great Didactic Comenius advocates severe forms of punishment for offenses against morals only.
6. Locke, Rollin, and the Port Royalists, as well as many other of the early authorities on education, discourage the use of the rod. Quintilian considers the use of the rod a token of bad teaching (1) because it is servile and degrading, (2) after a time even this form of punishment loses its effect, and (3) if the teacher does his duty in exciting interests, there will be no need of its use.
7. Doubtless Comenius’ theology had much to do with coloring his views on education. The ill-timed advice of Solomon, referred to by Comenius in this paragraph, influence very largerly his notions of corporal punishments, and not only the notions of Comenius, but educators generally down to our own day.
8. Herbart, in the Science of Education (Boston, 1895), remarks: “Supervision, prohibition, restraint, checking by threats, are only the negative measures of education. The old pedagogy betrayed its weakness in nothing so much as in its dependence on compulsion, the modern in nothing so much as the value it places on supervision. Hindrance of offense is only good when a new activity continually takes the place of that which is restrained.”
9. The reference is to the Republic of Plato, which Rousseau declared to be the finest treatise ever written on education, and which Comenius himself held in high regard. Plato says: “Our first duty will be to exercise a superintendence over the authors of fables, selecting their good productions and rejecting the bad. And the selected fables we shall advise our nurses and mothers to repeat to their children, that they may thus mold their minds with the fables, even more than they shape their bodies with the hand.” Again: “Whatever at that age is adopted as a matter of belief has a tendency to become fixed and indelible; and therefore, perhaps, we ought to esteem it of the greatest importance that the fictions which children first hear should be adapted in the most perfect manner to the promotion of virtue.”
10. See in this connection the practice of the good woman Gertrude in Pestalozzi’s Leonard and Gertrude.
11. Fröbel ordinarily is given chief credit for emphasizing the educational value of play. Comenius, however, is entitled to no small credit in this connection. The importance of play with young children finds expression again and again in his writings.
12. The German philosopher Kant says: “Ward off the bad influences from without, and nature can be trusted to find for herself the best way.”
13. Of manners Emerson says: “It is a spontaneous fruit of talents and feelings of precisely that class who have most vigor, who take the (lead in the world of this hour, and, though far from pure, far from constituting the gladdest and highest tone of human feeling, is as good as the whole society permits it to be.”