I am sure; for I have seen, that a child's moral perceptions can be so
made clear, and his will so made strong and upright, that before he is ten
years old he will see and take his way through all common days rightly and
bravely.
Will he always act up to his highest moral perceptions? No. Do we? But one
right decision that he makes voluntarily, unbiassed by the assertion of
authority or the threat of punishment, is worth more to him in development
of moral character than a thousand in which he simply does what he is
compelled to do by some sort of outside pressure.
I read once, in a book intended for the guidance of mothers, a story of a
little child who, in repeating his letters one day, suddenly refused to
say A. All the other letters he repeated again and again, unhesitatingly;
but A he would not, and persisted in declaring that he could not say. He
was severely whipped, but still persisted. It now became a contest of
wills. He was whipped again and again and again. In the intervals between
the whippings the primer was presented to him, and he was told that he
would be whipped again if he did not mind his mother and say A.
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