possible without the interference of any
outside person; for the object is not to make the child bend his
will to the will of another, but make him see the fault itself as an
undesirable thing.

[Sidenote: Breaking the Will]

The effort to break the child's will has long been recognized as
disastrous by all educators. A broken will is worse misfortune than a
broken back. In the latter case the man is physically crippled; in
the former, he is morally crippled. It is only a strong, unbroken,
persistent will that is adequate to achieve self-mastery, and mastery
of the difficulties of life. The child who is too yielding and
obedient in his early days is only too likely to be weak and
incompetent in his later days. The habit of submission to a more
mature judgment is a bad habit to insist upon. The child should be
encouraged to think out things for himself; to experiment and discover
for himself why his ideas do not work; and to refuse to give them up
until he is genuinely convinced of their impracticability.

[Sidenote: Emergencies]

It is true that there are emergencies in which his immature judgment
and undisciplined will must yield to wiser judgment and steadier will;
but such yielding should not be suffered to become habitual. It is
a safety valve merely, to be employed only when the pressure of
circumstances threatens to become dangerous. An engine whose safety
valve should be always in operation could never generate much power.
Nor is there much difficulty in leading even a very strong-willed
and obstinate child to give up his own way under extraordinary
circumstances. If he is not in the habit of setting up his own will
against that of his mother or teacher, he will not set it up when the
quick, unfamiliar word of command seems to fit in the with the unusual
circumstances. Many parents practice crying "Wolf! wolf!" to their
children, and call the practice a drill of self-control; but they meet
inevitably with the familiar consequences: when the real wolf comes
the hackneyed cry, often proved false, is disregarded.

[Illustration: Herbert Spencer]

[Sidenote: Disobedience]

When the will is rightly trained, disobedience is a fault that rarely
appears, because, of course, where obedience is seldom required, it is
seldom refused. The child needs to obey--that is true; but so does his
mother need to obey, and all other persons about him. They all need to
obey God, to obey the laws of nature, the impulses of kin