PART I

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS PAGE

Children are public trusts--Mothers owe ‘a thinking love’ to their children--The training of children ‘dreadfully defective’--How parents usually proceed 1

I. A METHOD OF EDUCATION

Traditional methods of education--Method a way to an end--A system easier than a method 6

II. THE CHILD’S ESTATE

The child in the midst--Code of education in the Gospels 11

III. OFFENDING THE CHILDREN

Children are born law-abiding--They must perceive that their governors are law-compelled--Parents may offend their children by disregarding the laws of health--And of the intellectual life--And of the moral life 13

IV. DESPISING THE CHILDREN

Children should have the best of their mothers--Nurse-- Children’s faults are serious 17

V. HINDERING THE CHILDREN

A child’s relationship with Almighty God--Nursery theology 19

VI. CONDITIONS OF HEALTHY BRAIN-ACTIVITY

All mind-labour means wear of brain--Exercise--Rest--Rest after meals--Change of occupation--Nourishment--Certain causes affect the quality of the blood--Concerning meals--Talk at meals--Variety in meals--Air as important as food--‘The children walk every day’--Oxygen has its limitations--Unchanged air--‘I feed Alice on beef tea’-- Wordsworth’s _Lucy_--Indoor airings--Ventilation--Night air wholesome--Sunshine--Free perspiration--Insensible perspiration--Daily bath and porous garments 20

VII. ‘THE REIGN OF LAW’ IN EDUCATION

Common sense and good intentions--Law-abiding lives often more blameless than pious lives--‘Mind’ and ‘matter’ equally governed by law--Antagonism to law shown by some religious persons--Parents must acquaint themselves with the principles of physiology and moral science 37

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