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Untitled Article
indications instead of attempting to control her , all would be well and happy . All kinds of knowledge are so linked together , that it is impossible to go far in one study without the aid of another , which again conducts to a third , and so on , It would be a beautiful experiment to try , never to force anything intellectual on a child , merely to let it see all kinds of pursuits going on , and then just to help it on the way it wished to go . I do
believe its own good-will , would carry it on further and quicker and more easily than any unnatural discipline or training . Or if people must train , at least let them smooth the way instead
of making it as thorny and impracticable as possible . If X . is made miserable by being forced to exercise faculties which are weak in him , to the exclusion of those which are strong . How many pronounce themselves incapable of making acquirements , merely because these acquirements are made so difficult of
attainment by those who profess to lead the way to them ! For instance , S . was said to be unable to learn music . She is really fond of it , and regrets nothing so much as not having learned it in her childhood ; but it was made so irksome to her , that she could not , as a child , overcome her dislike to the ennui of it . Intelligent and affectionate surveillance would , in her case , have detected the difference between want of taste and want of
perseverance in conquering mechanical difficulty . I hold that there is no one totally deficient in any faculty ; the difference between individuals is , that the faculties exist in them
in different proportions ; and probably , under a perfect education , they would be developed according to their magnitude—the stron gest , first . Is it possible to commit a greater cruelty to one ' s child , than to doom it to toil for life in an occupation for which nature has not destined it ? To spoil the happiness of childhood by forcing the acquirement of means of future happiness is a sad error , but trivial compared with the tyranny which chooses arbitrarily the future path of life , without consideration of the faculties which God has given . * * * * * +
September . Parents have a hard part to play , even the best intentioned ; for have not they to keep a constant guard over their own hearts , and to prevent them from getting too engrossed and too partial ? And hew hard must it be for them to see the faults of their children ! Is there a greater misery than to become aware of a fault in the being one loves ? Talk of the heroism of the
soldier who first mounts the breach \ give me the mother who can face the faults of her child—there is true heroism . Another difficulty which awaits parents arises from the close connection between love of sympathy and love of admiration . ' Look at me , ' may mean , ' admire me / or it may mean , ' enjoy with me . Numbers of children are spoiled by notice , who are otherwise
Untitled Article
and Experiments in Education . 857
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1834, page 857, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2640/page/39/
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