602 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



the examples before them, whether for good or evil. Children 

 try to be like the best people they know — their parents. How 

 very important it is, then, that the parents be good and true 

 and pure, virtuous in all their thoughts and acts, gentle with 

 the children who are patterned after their image, and lenient 

 with the faults derived from the parents by trustful imitation. 

 Every parent may set a good example to the children, thus 

 helping to form their characters beautifully and nobly. Good 

 parents are not limited to the city or the farm, to the white 

 race or the colored, to the past or the present. Every parent 

 may set a good example to the children in the home. 



But parents have every day and every hour many practical 

 problems of moral training, and I would feel that my opportunity 

 were lost if I did not take up with you today some of our serious 

 questions. 



There is, for instance, the question of obedience. It was 

 not very long ago when obedience was a big word in family life, 

 thus — obedience. In Japan children are compelled to obey their 

 parents absolutely and without questioning. Many people have 

 that ideal for home life today — wishing it were possible to go 

 back to those old-fashioned times when children were expected 

 to give perfect obedience. Most parents spend a large amount 

 of time in getting obedience from their children. 



There are two questions to ask ourselves: First, is perfect 

 obedience desirable? And second, how shall we train our chil- 

 dren to obey? 



First, is perfect obedience desirable? In some children 

 perfect obedience would mean a giving up of personality to the 

 despotism of some stronger will, and this submission could not 

 possibly be yielded except under fear. Children who think 

 for themselves and act for themselves are too busy to obey. 

 If the parents are wise, restrictions will not be put around such 

 children except when unavoidable, so that these children will 

 at least not have many chances to disobey. 



I know of one such child — a four-year-old girl. If there 

 are many things she must not do she cannot help being dis- 

 obedient. When her mother sews on the machine she will put 

 her hands on wheels and work, and climb over the machine. 

 She can no more help it than a moth can help flying at a candle 

 flame. The little girl I know climbs over chairs, jumps off 

 steps, chews her fingers, and is in many ways a fidgety, dis- 

 turbing element. But she is a sweet, loving, well-meaning 



