HOME-EDUCATION.
SECTION I.
THE CHARACTER OF HOME EDUCATION.
"Scratch the green rind of a sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil,
The scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries to come;
Wherefore, though the voice of instruction waiteth for the ear of reason,
Yet with his mother's milk the young child drinketh education."
We come now to consider one of the most important features of the Christian
home, viz., as a school for the education of character. This is important
because of its vital bearing upon the interests of home. The parent is not
only king and priest, but prophet in the family. It is the first school. We
there receive a training for good or for evil. There is not a word, nor an
emotion, nor an act, nor even a look there, which does not teach the child
something. Character is ever being framed and moulded there. Every habit
there formed, and every action there performed, imply a principle which
shall enter as an element into the future character of the child.
What is home-education? It is the physical, mental, moral, and religious
development of the child. To educate means to draw out as well as to instil
in. It means the evolution of our nature as well as the communication of
facts and principles to us. The home training does not, therefore, consist
of simple information, but is a nurture of body, mind and spirit. From this
we may infer the frequent mistakes of parents, in substituting mere
book-learning for a training up and nurture, dealing with their children as
if they had no faculties, and making the entire education of their children
mechanical and empirical.
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