ABBOTT, LYMAN: _Life and Literature of the Ancient Hebrews_.
CANTON, WILLIAM: _A Child’s Book of Saints_.
DEARMER, MABEL: _A Child’s Life of Christ_.
FISKE, JOHN: _The Myths of Israel_; _The Great Epic of Israel_.
HODGES, GEORGE: _A Child’s Guide to the Bible_.
HOUGHTON, LOUISE S.: _Telling Bible Stories_; _Hebrew Life and Thought_.
KENT, CHARLES FOSTER: _Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History_.
OLCOTT, FRANCES JENKINS: _Bible Stories to Read and Tell_.
SANGSTER, MARGARET E., and YONGE, CHARLOTTE M.: _Stories from the Best of Books_.
SMITH, GEORGE A.: _A Historical Geography of the Holy Land_.
SMITH, NORA A.: _Old, Old Tales from the Old, Old Book_.
VAN DYKE, HENRY, ABBOTT, LYMAN, and OTHERS: _Women of the Bible_.
The function of education is not only to give the child knowledge and a capacity for acquiring further knowledge that shall equip him for the life struggle and make success a possible attainment, but also to give him an ethical standard that shall make him fit to live among his fellows and a respect for the rights and feelings of others, or, as Goethe says in _Wilhelm Meister_, “Reverence for what is above, reverence for what is beneath, reverence for what is equal.” He must be taught to realize that he is part of a great unit and that individual desires must often give way to the welfare of the many. He must be taught that as an individual he owes to society obedience to the laws that govern society and allegiance to the principles that make possible a harmonious family, civic, and national life. Consequently it is required of every teacher that she give ethical instruction, that she endeavor to bring children to an understanding of what is generally accepted as right and wrong, and implant in them convictions strong enough to cause them to adhere to those standards.
In establishing ethical standards, as in establishing standards in art, literature, or music, we must appeal to the emotional side of the child as well as to the intellectual side. We must lead him to feel that the right act is the one that he wants to do, and this cannot be accomplished by a presentation of dry facts and precepts. Every teacher knows that the time spent in admonishing a child what he _ought_ to do brings no gratifying results. He is not swayed to repugnance for one act or to admiration for another by being told “Thou shalt,” or “Thou shalt not.” At the time the command is given, fear may cause him to obey it; but conduct that is the result of force does not strengthen the character or teach high standards of action. It tends instead to harden the child and make him determined to act differently at the first opportunity. Ethical training does not mean to attempt to control the child, but to enlighten him and direct his volition to the point where he will attempt to control himself. As Ella Lyman Cabot says, “Its aim is to make the best there is so inviting to the child that he will work eagerly and persistently to win it.” The ideal that is held up to him must be so beautiful that he will be willing to sacrifice and endure hardship in order to attain to it, and through story-telling he may be led to see this ideal more vividly than in any other way, because the story makes right acts appealing and wrong acts repugnant. Moreover, through the narrator’s art the child lives the experiences of the tales he hears. He suffers with the evildoer and is rewarded with the virtuous, and because he is powerfully moved by a narrative, his character is lastingly affected by it.