TEACHING SELF-CONTROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18629, 9 February 1924, Page 6 (Supplement)

TEACHING SELF-CONTROL.

Writing on the danger and the folly of encouraging too much combativeness in children in a world already suffering from the over-development 'of that instinct, a contemporary points out that on the other hand it is perfectly possible to remove from a child's world everything that encourages combativeness, train him in fogio and reason and justice, teach him to love all mankind and to speak Esperanto, and in the end turn him out an incomplete human being because no account has been taken of the heroic and adventurous side of him that longs for expression. And an incomplete human being, like an incomplete machine, is always a danger in a world full of evil opportunities for completing him on the wrong lines wherever there las been a gap in his construction. At the same time one cannot overlook the fact that the risks of repression have been rather over-emphasised of late, so that our tendency now is to rush to the opposite extreme and neglect the equal importance of teaching children the meaning of wise control. To keep the balance between repression and control is as difficult and as important as to keep the balance betweeu licence and liberty; and unless we have that in mind we had better return to the old educational method of suppressing children consistently throughout; for at least that had the healthy effect of making them rebel and think for themselves. Education will certainly not eliminate the combative spirit from a child's nature unless we recognise that it flourishes, like the war spirit in adults, not necessarily, or indeed often, upon a desire to kill and destroy, but on a latent and unsatisfied desire to do something heroic and splendid that involves self-sacrifice and courage. And that being a very magnificent and irrepressible instinct in nearly everyone, it is the business of the educationist, whether parent or teacher, to find a good outlet for it lest a bad one should present itself instead.