THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 107 



but also a far-reaching criticism of life in general, teaching as 

 they do that the ideal life is not one in which there is constant 

 strife between the soul and the outer world, but one in which 

 these are in harmony; that we must not waste our energies in 

 striving to perform the impossible, but must rather work out our 

 best impulses with integrity and without affectation. But while 

 Froebel's principles are in theory equally applicable to the con- 

 duct of life and to methods of education, they are practically more 

 easily applied to the latter, for the outer world in which our chil- 

 dren live is less complicated and more easily regulated and ar- 

 ranged. "We can not provide them with an ideal world, but we 

 can do much more for them toward this object than we can for 

 ourselves. Let it not be said that they will thus be unfitted for 

 life in the world as it is. Rather will they be strengthened and 

 enabled to take their places rightly therein enabled also each in 

 his own sphere and according to his strength to exert the right 

 kind of influence upon the outer world and help on progress in 

 the right direction. 



A well-regulated Kindergarten is an example on a small scale 

 of what life in the outer world ought to be. Each individual is 

 encouraged to exercise choice in all cases where it is not hurtful 

 to the community, and no one is compelled to do disagreeable 

 things for the sake of what is so often falsely called discipline. 

 The children are not asked if they are good or told that they are 

 bad. They are not encouraged to think about themselves at all, 

 but the moral feelings are unconsciously developed because there 

 is an atmosphere of sympathy and happiness. Fear, the most 

 common cause of untruthfulness in children, is entirely removed, 

 and the nature of the surroundings is such as to gradually diminish 

 other causes, such as boastfulness and selfishness. The teacher 

 watches the children and makes use of their own natural tenden- 

 cies to further the objects which he has in view. He works with 

 them, constantly helping and encouraging, gently turning their 

 efforts in the right direction, and never takes up the position of a 

 cold and rigid martinet. A child who does not succeed in any- 

 thing he is trying to do is not punished and generally not blamed ; 

 but the children are not idle, because they are interested in their 

 work, and because success is always preferable to failure. On the 

 moral as well as on the intellectual side, the teacher does not make 

 demands upon the powers of the children which are not likely to 

 be satisfied. Right action in this matter requires sympathy, judg- 

 ment, and experience. It is hurtful to the moral nature to be 

 asked to perform a good action of which that nature is not yet 

 capable, but it is by the performance of that which is within its 

 powers that the moral nature is strengthened and developed. 

 Thus the child learns by doing, and moral progress becomes a 



