Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/460

 440 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

"It is not right for one boy to spoil the property of another." Our pedagogy will compel us, therefore, to gather the concrete ethical problems of the children, and to discuss with them the definite questions of right and wrong involved in their every- day experiences. And we shall expect the child to develop into devotion to general ethical ideals through becoming enthusiastic over definite conduct solutions of its own daily difficulties. Our discipline will be a progressive one, because we shall discuss the questions involved in each episode with the children of about the age of the participants. We shall recapitulate the culture development of the race just in so far as this is actually done by the child born into the socius of these later times, because our discussions are led by the ques- tions arising out of the experiences of the children.

Thus far this article has outlined the thought process by which the main features of this new method have been determined. The point of peculiar interest, and which leads me to hope seriously that an effective method has been devised, is that, when we have thus determined the main features of the desir- able method, in essentials it is a method that has been continually m operation in the homes. The school simply needs to artificialize a method that is natural, followed without special thoughtful- ness by parents. Parents naturally give ethical instruction to children at the time of some episode. John comes home with a black eye, and the fact is apparent that he has had a fight. The father inquires what it was all about. The causes are given : " Jack hit me. We were in swimming, and I was going to dive in backwards. Jack gave me a shove sideways, and I hit my head against a stake. I asked him if he meant anything by it, and he said he did. I dared him to come out onto the bank, and the other boys said he dasent, so he came out, and, well ! he reached me once in the eye, but he couldn't adone it if I hadn't aslipped in the mud." The father follows this recital of the fight with his most effective ethical instruction. Act- ing in accordance with the sentiments which his ethical educa- tion has created in him, he doles out to the boy in emphatic and mandatory words the answer which the developed intelli-