Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/234

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
217
GOODNESS AND THE VIRTUES

courage to associate with strangers, courage to face ridicule and practical joke. Courage in the form of attention and concentration is needed to overcome the initial difficulties of lessons; and as perseverance the same virtue of courage is constantly being tested throughout the whole of school life, whether in work or at games. Courage is needed, also, to enable the child to make a stand against the force of its fellows' opinion, in schools where the tone is bad. And, of course, the child's courage may be tested also by the traditional bully, whether he be boy or teacher.

Temperance also finds a field for its exercise in the school. The child must learn to control his whims and fancies, his impulses and inclinations, all of which are probably regarded with much indulgence at home. It has always been recognised that one of the chief functions of the school is to train the child in habits of obedience and order. The child is placed under the discipline of the school, in order that he may learn how to discipline himself. School-discipline is valuable only in so far as it is really training the child to govern himself. An external authority which is not inwardly acknowledged by the child is worse than useless, because, as soon as the child secures his freedom from what he conceives to be the bonds of such an authority, reaction is apt to set in, and he will glory in showing that he can now "do as he likes." Such "doing as he likes" is simply intemperance. Discipline will fail of its lessons, unless its principles are so appreciated by the child that he will come to apply them himself in the control of his own life. And the child very early learns the necessity of self-discipline. He finds that the