52
Fundamentals of Christian Education
is encouraged, the school as a whole suffers from the demoralizing
influence, and the teacher’s burden is rendered much heavier. But the
greatest loss is sustained by the victims of parental mismanagement.
Defects of character which a right training would have corrected, are
left to strengthen with years, to mar and perhaps destroy the usefulness
of their possessor.
As a rule it will be found that the students most ready to complain
of school discipline are those who have received a superficial educa-
tion. Having never been taught the necessity of thoroughness, they
regard it with dislike. Parents have neglected to train their sons and
daughters to the faithful performance of domestic duties. Children are
permitted to spend their hours in play, while father and mother toil
on unceasingly. Few young persons feel that it is their duty to bear a
part of the family burden. They are not taught that the indulgence of
appetite, or the pursuit of ease or pleasure, is not the great aim of life.
The family circle is the school in which the child receives its first
and most enduring lessons. Hence parents should be much at home.
By precept and example, they should teach their children the love and
the fear of God; teach them to be intelligent, social, affectionate, to
cultivate habits of industry, economy, and self-denial. By giving their
children love, sympathy, and encouragement at home, parents may
provide for them a safe and welcome retreat from many of the world’s
temptations.
“No time,” says the father, “I have no time to give to the training
of my children, no time for social and domestic enjoyments.” Then
you should not have taken upon yourself the responsibility of a family.
By withholding from them the time which is justly theirs, you rob
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them of the education which they should have at your hands. If you
have children, you have a work to do, in union with the mother, in
the formation of their characters. Those who feel that they have an
imperative call to labor for the improvement of society, while their
own children grow up undisciplined, should inquire if they have not
mistaken their duty. Their own household is the first missionary field in
which parents are required to labor. Those who leave the home garden
to grow up to thorns and briers, while they manifest great interest in
the cultivation of their neighbor’s plot of ground, are disregarding the
word of God.