The Moral and Religious Training of Children [pp. 26-48]

THE PRINCETOV RE VIEW.
noun I. Frobel thought this independence could be cultivated
earlier by the little game of bo-peep on the mother's lap, by
holding the child erect at arm's length from its mother, etc. As
the infant thus learns to distinguish between what it does to or
for itself and what others do for it, it becomes capable of commanding and obeying, of helping itself, and of feeling the natural consequences of its own acts. Its cerebral centres are
rapidly taking shape and acquiring firmness of texture, and it
should be most carefully thrown on its own resources so far as
they are fully developed, but no farther. Before the child can
speak the mother is called upon to distinguish between the
sounds which spring from helplessness and dependence, and
real needs which should be cultivated on the principle of broadening by retarding, and those which spring from the moods and
whims of an embryonic personality which may be dwarfed or
perverted if allowed to functionate too early, as surely as its legs
may become bandied by trying to walk prematurely. It is because as babies grow few and rare, and as mothers tend to
become more fond than wise, that this tender but important
cradle-battle so often goes against the latter, and children are
spoiled, mothers enslaved, and instead of pleasures which are
few, mild, and uniform, special, unusual, and intense enjoyments which bring reactions are permitted, and artificial systems of rewards and punishments are resorted to, while the
mother gradually loses her influence over the child before the
dawn of that adolescent age in which maternal influences and
home-ties should be at their strongest and best. The great
lesson of this protracted stage of development is the limitation
of the absolute selfishness of infant nature, and the recognition
of and entire subordination to the rights of others upon whom
it must be made to feel its almost absolute dependence. No
sharp or rude constraints should interfere with the expansion of
its sympathies and affections to others, and no indulgences
should obviate the lesson of quiet submission to the authority
and even convenience of adult wisdom above its own. The
child has few rights other than the satisfaction of its physical
needs, for it can perform few duties.
Next to be considered are the sentiments which unfold
under the influence of that fresh and naive curiosity which
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