Middle Ages; the Justinian code rediscovered; Bologna. Rise of law corporations in England. Our American adaptations. The studies on children: Professor Sully's general observations; Miss Darrah's study on children's treatment of a hypothetical case; observation of children on the McDonough farm. Infants base their first claims to rights on desire to have; then on possession; then on prior possession; then on "turn about." With little children each case is subject to special legislation; savages stop here. Only gradually, through the forming of habits, does a sense grow that there should be established principles and regulations; then the law becomes an embodied presence to be blindly accepted. Mediæval law stopped here. In the late 'teens comes the recognition of universal principles inherent in the nature of things. Training for law-abiding citizens: With infants, blind obedience to the commands of those in authority is the highest law. Reasons assigned should fit their stage of development. Regular habits should prepare for acceptance of formal law. From twelve to twenty, children should obey the formal regulations of those in authority and should be taught the fundamental principles of law. After twenty, they should have individual initiative, tempered by social responsibility. With backward people and criminals the development should be directed through the same steps. READING. Sully, James. Chapter on The Child under Law. In "Studies of Childhood." Darrah, Estelle. "Children's Attitude Toward Law." In Barnes' "Studies in Education." The jury system. TOPICS FOR CLASS WORK. Should the law courts be free? School life as training for law-abiding citizenship. Does knowledge of inevitableness of law determine action? Diseases of excessive individual initiative. Diseases of excessive subordination to the past. LECTURE VI. TRAINING OF THE MORAL NATURE. Rewards vs. Punishment. "Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old times, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, Resist not evil."Words of Christ. General theories of moral training: Those who consider that thoughts, feelings and actions can be rigidly classified as good and bad hold two different attitudes toward moral training. One holds that we have a perverse tendency to evil which can be overcome only by strong discipline developing good habits founded on fixed beliefs; the second group thinks that our conduct will depend upon our knowledge. "We needs must love the highest when we see it." If we believe that the moral nature is steadily developing so that good and bad are relative terms, then moral training must avoid fixed dogmas, and seek steadily to adjust the moral nature to its period of development and its environment. Historical development: In lower forms of life the injured animal turns on his enemy and destroys him if he is able. In primitive society all the emphasis is laid on reimbursing the one wronged. Revenge is the victim's privilege and right. Laws, judges, and executioners exist to see that the criminal pays his full bill. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"; Early Hebrews; Laws of the Twelve Tables. In the second stage punishment exists as a deterrent to frighten the culprit and his kind so that the offense shall not be repeated. Most early theologies rest in this theory of control; so did English law down almost to to-day. Laws and judges exist as scarecrows to frighten evil-doers, and the whole system rests for its realization on the feeling of fear. In the third stage, the cause for wrongdoing is sought in disease or ignorance, and the aim of punishment is to educate or cure the culprit. This con ception has already modified our penal laws; minimum and maximum sentences; Elmira Reformatory; abolition of severe punishments with young children. In this stage, judges and executioners are transformed into criminal experts and education becomes the principal instrument of the law. The punishments may be even more severe than formerly. Studies on children: Children's ideas of punishment as seen in their compositions on just and unjust punishments; their judgments on hypothetical cases. The younger children resort at once to physical reactions; as they grow older there is a steadily-increasing tendency to substitute more subjective penalties. In their earlier years children consider the effects of actions; only later do they pay much attention to motives; their whole attitude towards rewards and punishments is one of vague unreasoning feeling. Comparison of English and American children; why English children are more developed in this respect than ours. Punishments and rewards as educative influences: Undeveloped minds cannot look ahead and see final consequences; leaders must encourage and restrain by adventitious but just anticipations of the final natural results. Danger here, as in all use of educational makeshifts, lies in the fact that the undeveloped mind may be so engaged with the temporary rewards or punishments as to fail to see the final natural consequences. Spencer and Adler, as above. READING. Various articles in Barnes' "Studies in Education" and in the Pedagogical Seminary. Hugo, Vic "Les Miserables." TOPICS FOR CLASS WORK. Spencer's treatment by natural consequences. Corporal punishment. Emulation; its uses and dangers. Danger in using highly-developed rewards and punishments with undeveloped minds. The George Junior Republic. CONCLUSION. The moral nature is composed of two parts: A blind hunger for rightness, which Kent calls the categorical imperative and which we usually have in mind when we talk of conscience; and a mass of judgments on which this conscience must act. The hunger for rightness differs markedly in individuals; it can be weakened by disuse; perverted by abuse; or strengthened by right exercise. The moral judgments are subject to education, and are constantly changed with advancing intelligence. They tend to pass through a regular series of steps from an egoistic, imaginative fragmentariness, where imitation and contagion play a large part, to intelligent, altruistic largeness of view where the individual becomes self-directing. Since the judgments constantly change, moral action is relative; we must be content with progress, and wait for perfection until we are omniscient. VALUABLE GUIDES TO READING AND STUDY. The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching has published, in connection with its work, over one hundred and fifty syllabi, nearly all of which are of real value, independently of the lectures, for guiding home reading and study. They contain suggestive outlines of the lectures, lists of books, and other material of interest. The following have been recently issued: THE CITIES OF ITALY AND THEIR GIFT TO CIVILIZATION. By Edward Howard Griggs, M. A., Staff Lecturer in Literature, Philosophy and Ethics for the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching.. ENGLISH WRITERS OF THE PRESENT ERA. By Frederick H. Sykes, M. A., 10 cents 15 cents THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE. By Edward Howard Griggs, M. A. THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND. By Cecil F. Lavell, M. A., Staff Lecturer in 10 cents WAGNER: THE MUSIC DRAMA. By Thomas Whitney Surette, Staff Lecturer in Music for the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching 15 cents GREAT NOVELISTS. By William Bayard Hale, M. A. 10 cents SOCIOLOGY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. By J. W. Martin, B. Sc., of London, 10 cents GREAT MEN. By Garrett P. Serviss, LL.B., President of the Department of 10 cents PERSONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. By Edward Howard Griggs, M. A. 10 cents TYPES OF WOMANHOOD STUDIED FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By Edward 10 cents CIVICS. By Frederic W. Speirs, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy, 10 cents THE AMERICAN NEGRO. By G. R. Glenn, William A. Blair, Walter H. 25 cents THE AWAKENING OF MODERN EUROPE. By Cecil F. Lavell, M. A.. Any of the above syllabi will be forwarded, postpaid, on receipt of the price. For full list of publications and information concerning the University Extension movement, address John Nolen, Secretary, 111 South Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |