and in what circumstances a stronger and wiser hand should lend assistance. The parents ought to know where the child needs to learn the lesson of self-help, and where the duty of mutual assistance should be advised and exemplified.
One important result of this educative process is the development of the individuality of the child. To strangers the child may seem just like any other child; but to his parents he is unique: he is "like his dear self alone." The growth of his individuality is largely influenced by the intense affection and interest with which his early steps are guided.
At present, owing to a variety of causes, the family seems to be in danger of losing its fitness to help the child in the task of character-building. These causes are partly economic. Self-help is not so necessary and not so possible in the family of to-day as it was a century ago. Prof. Dewey speaks of the time, only one or two generations ago, "when the household was practically the centre in which was carried on, or about which were clustered, all the typical forms of industrial occupation. The clothing worn was for the most part not only made in the house, but the members of the household were usually familiar with the shearing of the sheep, the carding and spinning of the wool, and the plying of the loom. … Practically every member of the household had his own share in the work. The children, as they gained in strength and capacity, were gradually initiated into the mysteries of the various processes. It was a matter of immediate and personal concern, even to the point of actual participation. We cannot overlook the factors of discipline and of character-build-
