CHAPTER XXVI THE ETERNAL CHILD The Highest Counsel of Perfection to Parents                                                         ‘The Waits!                            Slowly the play, poor careful souls,                            With wistful thoughts of Christmas cheer,                            Unwitting how their music rolls                            Away the burden of the year.                            And with the charm, the homely rune,                            Our thoughts like childhood’s thoughts are given,                            When all our pulses beat in tune                            With all the stars of … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 26

CHAPTER XXV THE GREAT RECOGNITION REQUIRED OF PARENTS           Ruskin on the ‘Vaulted Book.’—Mr. Ruskin has done a great service to modern thought in interpreting for us the harmonious and ennobling scheme of education and philosophy recorded upon one quarter of what he calls the ‘Vaulted Book,’ that is, the Spanish Chapel attached to the Church of Sta.Maria Novella, in Florence.          Many of my readers … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 25

CHAPTER XXIV WHENCE AND WHITHER 2. Whither?         Physical and Psychical Evolutions.—The biologists leave thinking persons without hesitation in following the great bouleversement of thought, summed up in the term evolution. They are no longer able to believe otherwise than that man is the issue of processes, ages long in their development; and what is more, and even more curious, that each individual child from … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 24

CHAPTER XXIII WHENCE AND WHITHER A Question for Parents.—I. Whence?           Progress of the Parents’ National Educational Union.—‘The Union goes on,’ an observer writes, ‘without puff or fuss, by its own inherent force’; and it is making singularly rapid progress. At the present moment thousands of children of thinking, educated parents, are being brought up, more or less consciously and definitely, upon the lines of … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 23

CHAPTER XXIIA CATECHISM OF EDUCATIONAL THEORY       Character an Achievement.—As the philosophy which underlies any educational or social scheme is really the vital part of that scheme, it may be well to set forth, however meagerly, some fragments of the thought on which we found our teaching.     We believe—      That disposition, intellect, genius, come pretty much by nature.     That character is an … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 22

CHAPTER XXI A SCHEME OF EDUCATIONAL THEORY PROPOSED TO PARENTS           Each Class in Society should have its Ideal.—One of Mr Matthew Arnold’s discriminating utterances may help us in the effort to define anew the scope and the methods of education. In A French Eton (page 61) he says:—‘The education of each class in society has, or ought to have, its ideal, determined by the … Continue reading Volume 2 Parents and Children Chapter 21

CHAPTER XX SHOW CAUSE WHY Parents responsible for competitive Examinations           We have been asking, Why?—We have been asking, Why? like Mr Ward Fowler’s Wagtail, for a long time. We asked, Why? about linen underclothing, and behold it is discarded. We asked, Why? about numberless petticoats, and they are going. We are asking—Why? about carpets and easy chairs, and all manner of luxurious living; and … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 20

CHAPTER XIX ‘WHAT IS TRUTH?’ Moral Discrimination required by Parents           We are as a Nation Losing and Gaining in Truthfulness.—It is said that we English are no longer to be characterised as a truth-speaking people. This is a distressing charge, and yet we cannot put it away from us with a high hand. Possibly we are in a stage of civilization which does not … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 19

CHAPTER XVIII SENSATIONS AND FEELINGS Feelings Educable by Parents                                                           ‘These beauteous forms                              Through a long absence, have not been to me                              As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye;                              But oft, in lonely rooms, and ’mid the din                              Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,                              In hours of weariness, sensations sweet                              Felt in the … Continue reading Parent and Children Volume 2 Chapter 18

CHAPTER XVII SENSATIONS AND FEELINGS Sensations Educable by Parents           Common sense.—Children whose parents have little theoretic knowledge of the values of the various food-stuffs are often thoroughly nourished; their parents rely on what they call common-sense; and the result is, on the whole, better than if scientific consideration were given to the family dietary. But this common-sense has usually scientific opinion for its basis, … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 17