The Ethical Aspect

       The question has been asked, "Is it ethical to care more for those near one than for those more remote?" Aside from the fact that for reasons to be stated it is more usual to do so, the answer would seem to be 'Yes' and 'No'/'Yes' because first-hand contact with people is the only basis for personal experience with them and first-hand contact with personal experience is essential to the development of the elements in character, such as sympathy, understanding, willingness to share, readiness to serve and to cooperate, controlled emotion, directed intelligence, conscious team-work and others, which make up the complexes of ethical conduct. The fuller and richer the individual experience, the greater are the possibilities for fondness of those near at hand, for the transference of this 'caring' to the more remote, and for the expression of this 'caring' in conscious co-operative effort. Moreover, only through first-hand contact and personal experience can the projection come of the response to and the co-operation with a more remote group, a wider field of ideas, a larger vision and greater mutual helpfulness.

       The answer to the question asked will be 'No,' if the response becomes limited solely to the personal contact, if it excludes and hinders the expansion indicated, more still, if it results in an alien attitude of mind and action towards those groups, ideas and visions which lie outside the close contact and personal experience.

       We Americans have a peculiar and unique privilege and responsibility with regard to both the close contact and the larger vision. The immigration question is preeminently our problem. Nowhere else is there such a medley of peoples welded into one whole. To make this whole, not homogeneous altogether, but organically unified, so as to produce the type most to be desired, while encouraging variations which will preserve and perpetuate all valuable ingredients, is the supreme ethical problem. Much has been done by the public school in the assimilation of this heterogeneous material; more needs to be done. At the same time, however, that our ideals, purposes, customs and practices are transmitted to the newcomer and conditions are provided so that he may normally react and make them his own, another aspect heretofore greatly neglected needs to be emphasized, if family life is not to be seriously endangered, and if much of the rich social inheritance is not to be irredeemably lost. The point is this: If the children are thoroughly assimilated and the parents remain foreign in thought and action, there arises an unavoidable tension and friction between the two generations which is as disintegrating to the children and the group as a whole, as it is tragic for the older generation. There are two ways of avoiding this result, both of which are equally imperative: (1) The parents, too, must become imbued with the ideals, purposes, customs and practices of their new country. (2) The ideals, purposes, customs and lore of the groups to which the parents belonged must take their legitimate place in the home and school life of the children, and bring to them and to their companions the special contribution each of them has to give. If properly utilized this contribution may become in school a strong socializing agent and the stepping stone by means of which the children will make the transition in thought and action from the first-hand contact of home, school and community to the larger vision of appreciation of and cooperation with all human groups. To do this is the function of geography and history teaching.

       It is obvious that in the higher grades of the elementary school the study of geography, history, literature, art, music, if presented on the basis of universal appreciation, of worthy achievement, will have a share in the developing of this larger consciousness to the extent to which it demands and fosters it as a habitual attitude of mind. The possibilities are great indeed. What, however, has this discussion to do with early childhood? The following incident may make clear the connection: A group of college students in child lore were sent to a 'Baby welfare exhibit,' representing the needs of children below the age of two years. The suggestion was made that they render a critical constructive report of the significance of the exhibit. They returned enthusiastically praising the exhibit on the side of physical hygiene. "But," was the question asked, "Why was there nothing to indicate the importance of caring for the mental hygiene of little children? It is clear to every observer of children even under the age of two, that many of their 'mind sets' are initiated and many 'habits' formed as soon as the children become conscious of their social contacts. The waste involved in breaking wrong habits and establishing correct ones later on is great; also, the chances for non-elimination and non-modifiability of early established habits must always be reckoned with. May we make posters which will attract the attention of and carry conviction to the public mind, showing the importance of educating for early attitudes and habits of mind?" These students had grasped the psychological and pedagogical bearings of this question and the posters produced were simple, direct, dramatic, and carried conviction to the observer. Good mental attitudes and habits must be provided for from the very beginning, if we would reap the best possible results and avoid friction and waste of effort through the necessity of breaking bonds which should never have been established.

       There are three main points to be emphasized in the working out of the problem set in these pages. 

1. The desirable attitude of mind and habits of response must be developed early, the earlier the better, and must be grounded in daily conduct for which conditions must be provided in the social and physical environment of the children. 
2. The material used in school to establish a closer bond between parents and children on the one hand and between children and the larger human groups on the other, must be appreciated and acknowledged as coming from respective human groups, and may consist of folk games, folk dances, folk stories and poetry, folk music and art; also of a well planned course in history and geography, in which the interest centers about child life in communities remote from the home group, as well as in home geography. In these groups life must be relatively simple so as to come within the interpretive ability of little children, and so as to enlarge their personal experience by thinking and living as members of the group studied. For example, taking as point of departure our most severe winter weather with its snow and ice and its discomforts as well as its pleasures, the life of Eskimo boys and girls may be approached through this home experience, and interpreted in terms of longer periods of time, more extreme conditions, greater isolation and increased distance from the comforts available to us. The question, "What would you do if you were in this boy's or girl's place?" if properly provided with the determining background, and to a large extent with the means of execution will lead our children to intelligent thinking, sympathetic appreciation of handicaps as well as of achievement, and reasonable adjustments and responses to existing conditions.
3. The proper and ethical use of the material suggested will lead to the ability of living in close contact with others on a basis of mutual regard and helpfulness; to the growing respect for personality and its legitimate demands; to the appreciation of worthy achievement in whatever human group it has been produced; to the desire to add a contribution of one's own to the general fund of valuable inheritance to be used for the good of all.

with keen appreciation of Stevenson's charm and insight it may be pointed out that his:

"Of speckled eggs the birdie sings

And nests among the trees;

The sailor sings of ropes and things

In ships upon the seas."

"The children sing in far Japan,

The children sing in Spain.

The organ with the organ man,

Is singing in the rain."

with its touch of universal comradeship and common ideals represents more adequately the hoped-for permanent 'mind set' than his:

"Little Indian Sioux or Crow,

Little frosty Eskimo,

Little Turk or Japanee,

O, don't you wish that you were me!"

       The exuberance and physical exaltation which prompts the latter expression is, of course, normal, legitimate and innocent if it stands for a temporary ebullition of joy rather than for a dominant attitude of thought.

       Little children must, of course, be largely unconscious of these ethical aims and purposes which are carried constantly in mind by the teacher. The responsibility of bringing about the desired results rests with her; it is her task tactfully and skillfully to provide the proper conditions which will insure in the children the responses necessary for continued growth along the lines indicated.

To summarize:--

1. The teacher must be able to illustrate by demonstration that everywhere human groups have produced achievements worthy of being included in the social inheritance.
2. She must in dealing with little children place the emphasis upon similarities among human groups common needs, ideals, thoughts and so on rather than upon differences.
3. She must know in how large a degree differences in human groups are due to variations in environment, and lead others to see this.
4. She must be able to trace the relation between environment and opportunity, and show its expression in the general life of different human groups.
5. She must have the knowledge and insight to interpret conduct in various human groups in terms of growth, of conquest, of environment, of contribution to human achievement.
6. She must herself understand and creatively react to the human group in which she is working in order to develop in the little children the same ability. (Read: Angelo Patri's, The Schoolmaster of a Great City, Macmillan Co.) She must herself have faith in the larger vision and in the integrity and possibility of growth in the various human groups. She must through her own life and through that of the little children carry the conviction that cooperation, 'teamwork' is not merely possible, but the universal end greatly to be desired among individuals and among human groups alike.

       It is not necessary here to enumerate at length projects which little children will want to carry out in working for these results. The children's social experience provides for a number; the 'safety first' movement; the policeman's function as 'helper'; the letter carrier bringing us into touch with home and foreign lands; the festivals Christmas, Easter, Harvest, Thanksgiving in which all do their share; the life of other little children in other lands, all of these projects are part of the children's lives and furnish the possibilities needed for growth.

       During this period of international stress and reconstruction the principles involved which are constructive and which are valuable at all times are the ones to be emphasized with our children by means of concrete projects. In conservation of all kinds, in Red Cross work, in the thrift saving movement, in the spirit of general helpfulness and service are found the tasks which are within the strength and comprehension of little children, and which will fill their minds with the thoughts that establish the bonds of good fellowship and brotherhood. Happiness and joy are the birthright of the children. They make for mental health and vigor and those qualities of character which are needed most in a social world.

"But there is neither East nor "West, Border nor

Breed nor Birth,

When two strong men stand face and face, tho' they

come from the ends of the earth!"

by Kipling.