CAUSE AND EFFECT IN EDUCATION. 59 



known elements in their development, and turning so persistently 

 to imaginary and fictitious causes. We are practically denying 

 the principle of causation. 



One may not be willing to say that the brain secretes thought 

 as the liver secretes bile ; but whatever theory of the origin and 

 nature of the human spirit we may entertain, it must be admitted 

 that the brain is its tool, and to have a wholesome manifestation 

 requires a wholesome instrument. One need not be frightened 

 this is not materialism. I do not want the child to be merely a 

 wholesome kitten a beautiful, soulless Antinous. Let us think of 

 him as a unit. When we say food, we have in mind ideas as well 

 as oatmeal. When we say growth, we have in mind increasing 

 perception as well as increasing stature. When we say reproduc- 

 tion, we have in mind the creative activities of the artist spirit, as 

 well as the function of parenthood. But these things go together. 

 It is neither an animal nor a spirit which presents itself at our 

 door and submits to be educated. It is a monistic child. 



We shall never have a scientific system of education so long 

 as we persist in considering only a part of the child's day, and 

 only the exterior aspect of his life. It is useless to argue that 

 these matters belong to the province of parents, and not of teach- 

 ers, for we all know that they are sadly neglected. The day 

 school can not succeed without the co-operation of the home. It 

 is rarely forthcoming. The average American parent will make 

 heroic sacrifices to give his children what he is pleased to call an 

 education. To him, this means sending them to school five hours 

 out of twenty-four, five days out of seven. In this he only illus- 

 trates his supreme faith in machinery. Under what influences do 

 the children come ? With what other children do they associate ? 

 What happens to them for the rest of the time ? 



Who asks these questions ? 



Nobody. 



Who knows the answers ? 



Nobody. 



We fail, then, so lamentably as teachers, not because we are 

 altogether unwise, or because our methods are altogether bad, but 

 very largely because we have deficient organisms to work upon. 

 We are stupidly trying to make bricks without straw. We are 

 trying to educate without employing the means by which alone 

 education can be accomplished. 



A curious case has recently come to my notice of a little Eng- 

 lish girl who suddenly developed a propensity for stealing. Her 

 parents were naturally much mortified. The child herself was 

 very unhappy, for she felt keenly the withdrawal of affection on 

 all sides. In despair she was taken up to London, to a child spe- 

 cialist. He examined her carefully, inquired into her manner of 



