ETHICS FOR CHILDREN

FIRST YEAR

ETHICAL CENTRE: HELPFULNESS

INTRODUCTION

LBRARY

THE first month of the first year in school is more important in launching character toward its goal than any one other month, except possibly the last month before leaving the Grammar School. The children have arrived; they are proud of being in a real school; they are expectant. School is to many of them a wonderful setting in which they are ready to play their full part. They feel the leadership of the teacher, the comradeship of their playmates, and they are ready to work with eager coöperation as members of a great whole. The teacher has then her opportunity. She can make the children appreciate so vividly that school is a place of dignity, of new power, of happiness, and of comradeship that they will have the strongest incentive to work, to keep order, and to be helpful.

It has been said that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, but the mother or the teacher who illumines the nature of right and wrong is an even greater ruler. Rocking the cradle puts the child to sleep; rousing character awakes the child to the meaning of life. The teacher must know her opportunity and

seize it. The opportunity of the first year at school is that the children are themselves conscious that they have joined an important institution and touched a new era in their lives. Therefore, the ethical lessons for the first year, and especially those planned for the first month, centre round coming to school.

The topic of the first year's work is Helpfulness. Young children delight in helping. I once asked a child of five years what she and her sister were good for, and she at once replied, "Why, we are good helpers for you." Independence of attitude has not usually developed at this age; children are conscious of themselves as assistants in the work of grown-ups, or of marvelous older brothers and sisters. I believe, therefore, that the first years of the primary grade are those in which to strengthen and express a normal child's love of helpfulness.

SEPTEMBER: GOING TO SCHOOL

On the opening day of school, or soon after, take your class to see the entire schoolhouse.

Show the children how large the building is on the outside. Let them recognize its importance among the other buildings in the town. Tell them about the different schools, and how they can go on from grade to grade until they may even reach college. Point out to them the character of the room in which they are taught; its windows and blackboards, its desks, its decorations. Tell them that all this is given to make them helpful citizens by and by.

Questions: How many children in America are going

to school to-day, do you think? Shut your eyes and see whether you can see them.

Why do we go to school? What are we going to do at school? Can you read? Would you like to learn to read? Are there pictures in your books? Can you tell what the stories are about? If you could read, would you know better what the stories are about? Can you write? Would you like to know how to write a letter? Is there any one you would like to write to? How can you learn? Can you make Christmas presents? Who will teach you? How high can you count? If you had one hundred marbles, could you count every one and see whether you had lost any? Will you try to learn before next year? Why is it good to come to school?

The School Equipment. For your next lesson take the class round the school on a visiting tour. Show them the coat-room, the hooks and racks, the places for rubbers, the desks and the places to keep books, the best places to keep their lunch-boxes.

Show them the second-grade room and tell them that if they are industrious they can go there the next year. Ask them to keep their eyes wide open and tell you the next day what they saw.

Questions: What did we do yesterday? Where are the coats kept? Hats? Rubbers? Did you see any coats that had fallen down? If your coat fell down, would you leave it on the floor? Why not? Who'd be the quickest to pick his coat up again? When it's snowy, what do we do before we come in the door? Every one open his desk. What is in it? Which looks the neatest? Who can scrub the blackboard cleanest?

seize it. The opportunity of the first year at school is that the children are themselves conscious that they have joined an important institution and touched a new era in their lives. Therefore, the ethical lessons for the first year, and especially those planned for the first month, centre round coming to school.

The topic of the first year's work is Helpfulness. Young children delight in helping. I once asked a child of five years what she and her sister were good for, and she at once replied, "Why, we are good helpers for you." Independence of attitude has not usually developed at this age; children are conscious of themselves as assistants in the work of grown-ups, or of marvelous older brothers and sisters. I believe, therefore, that the first years of the primary grade are those in which to strengthen and express a normal child's love of helpfulness.

SEPTEMBER: GOING TO SCHOOL

On the opening day of school, or soon after, take your class to see the entire schoolhouse.

Show the children how large the building is on the outside. Let them recognize its importance among the other buildings in the town. Tell them about the different schools, and how they can go on from grade to grade until they may even reach college. Point out to them the character of the room in which they are taught; its windows and blackboards, its desks, its decorations. Tell them that all this is given to make them helpful citizens by and by.

Questions: How many children in America are going