INFLUENCE OF AN EARLY EDUCATION

by James G. Carter
Massachussetts State Legislator, 1826

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     The earliest years of infancy are committed to maternal tenderness by indications which can hardly be mistaken. No mother who knows that her children require the particular care and protection of any one, can doubt that the first stages of that care devolve, principally, upon her; though many who acknowledge the duty, and are devoted to the discharge of it, may not know the best means of accomplishing their object. Timid in adopting any systematic course of early education lest it should be wrong, and anxious to do something lest their children should suffer from their neglect, they commonly adopt and revoke, trace and retrace, do and undo; till, amidst all these contradictions and conflicting principles, the whole period of life, which is committed almost exclusively to their care, is wasted in doing nothing effectually. Yet, however inefficient this fluctuating and often entirely wrong course of discipline may be, the infancy and childhood of comparatively few of any generation are blessed with even maternal solicitude as to their education. By far the greater part of the children of every age and of almost every nation grow up without any instruction from their parents, except a little aid in the development of such instincts as serve to preserve their existence. Their whole education, if it may be called by that name, is drawn from parental examples, which are not always the best, and are often times the most corrupt; and derived from the influence of surrounding society, which, all will acknowledge, contains abundantly enough of depravity to corrupt the propensities and pervert the tender principles of a child. The character of each generation, whatever it may be, is thus entailed with but slight modifications, upon its successor. And human reason and discretion have but little to do about it. All the appetites and passions, which we possess in common with the other animals, come into exercise with out our efforts, and often in spite of them. While reason and the class of powers, which form man's distinguishing attributes, are developed but slowly and with the greatest care. The former, moreover, arrive at full maturity and strength, long before we can raise up the counteracting power of the latter to direct and control them. What wonder, then, that mankind make slow progress in improvement, when the current of strong influences sets so steadily against them!
     But the state of society, in which we happen to live, is, perhaps, as favourably constituted as any on earth, for de riving the full advantage from a judicious well directed system of domestic education. For almost all have intelligence enough to understand its influence on the future character of children, and wisdom enough to appreciate its importance to them. Few, too, are here so depressed with poverty and want as not to have some opportunities to be improved for this purpose. And comparatively few have yet run so wild in dissipation and pleasure--that other barbarism--as not to leave some interstices of time for reflection upon a subject; which, one would suppose; must be more important to them than any other. Systems of domestic education, however, can only be improved by an enlightened public opinion, and well informed heads of families devoted to the subject. To them, particularly to the mother, pertain the duty and the privilege of conducting the first stages of the education of their family. And both the Church and the State, in modern times, must be con tent to leave their future pillars in these hands.
     Neither lawgivers, nor the forms of civil society have of ten interrupted what seems to be so plain a law of nature. Instances are to be found, indeed, far back in the history of the world, of a violation of it. But they are found in ages, and amidst institutions, in other respects, very different from our own. The Persian women, for example, were so far awed by power or influenced by the institutions and customs of their country, as to yield their children at a very early age, to the care of the public schools provided for their education. It was not merely to give them up, for a few hours in a day, to the care of instructers appointed by themselves and subject to their direction and control. But they were no longer the children of their mothers. The state or the public adopted them, and assumed the whole business of their future instruction. The institutions of the Persians, for early education were exceedingly simple in their organization, and perfectly adapted, as all institutions for similar purposes should be, to the object, for which they are intended. They seem to have been formed, too, under a strong conviction of the influence of early discipline. And they were so conducted as to prepare the children and youth for a faithful and successful discharge of the duties, which would devolve upon them in the capacity of men. In one respect, certainly, if no more, hints may be derived from them, useful even to more modern and enlightened ages. I allude to the attention which they paid to the developement of the physical as well as of the intellectual and moral powers. As a great part of the lives of the men were employed in war, in repelling the aggressions of their neighbours, and in making aggressions upon them; so a great part of their child hood and youth was taken up in athletic exercises or the appropriate discipline of their bodies Of course, where the influence of early education is in any degree, understood, the discipline of the young will have a reference, to what they are to practice when older. And in those states of society, where muscular force and agility constitute the principal accomplishments of age, they will be inculcated with the greatest assiduity upon youth.
     But of all the ancient lawgivers, Lycurgus seems most thoroughly to have understood the influence of early education. And he most successfully turned its influence to account in accomplishing his designs. "What he thought most conducive to the virtue and happiness of a city," says his biographer, "was, principles interwoven with the manners and breeding of the people. These would remain immoveable, as founded in inclination, and be the strongest and most lasting tie ; and the habits, which education produced in youth, would answer in each the purpose of a lawgiver. As for smaller matters, contracts about property, and what ever occasionally varied, it was better not to reduce these to a written form and unalterable method, but to suffer them to change with the times, and to admit of additions or retrenchments at the pleasure of persons so well educated. For he resolved the whole business of ligislation into the bringing up of youth." The Spartan children, therefore, were not under tutors, purchased or hired with money, nor were the parents at liberty to educate them as they pleased; but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered them to be enrolled in companies, where they were all kept under the same order and discipline, and had their exercises and recreations in common. He, who showed the most conduct and courage amongst them, was made captain of the company, the rest kept their eyes on him, obeyed his orders, and bore, with patience, the punishments he inflicted; so that their whole education was an exercise of obedience. The old men were present at their diversions, and often suggested some occasions of dispute or quarrel, that they might observe with exactness, the spirit of each, and their fimness in battle.
     From this brief account of the institutions of Lycurgus for the education of youth it will be seen, that it "was not so much his object to give a knowledge of a great variety of things, as to form the passions, sentiments, and ideas to that tone which might best assimilate with the constitutions of the state; and so to exercise the abilities of both body and mind, as to lead them to the highest possible capacity for the performance of every thing useful ; particularly of every thing useful to the commonwealth." By the wisdom and energy of such a policy, he in a few years, completely transformed the manners, customs, and characters of the Spartans. From an indolent, luxurious and debauched people, he rendered them active, temperate and virtuous, according to his ideas of those terms. So firmly, too, had he established his institutions, and so intimately had he blended their principles with the very characters and nature of his people, by his system of education; that, by their own strength, they sustained themselves in healthy and vigorous action, for nearly five hundred years, after his death. But "the beautiful pile of justice reared by the pious Numa," says Plutarch, "presently fell to the ground, being without the cement of education. For Numa left it to the option or convenience of parents, to bring up their sons to agriculture, to ~'hip-building, to the business of a brazier, or the art of musician; as if it were not necessary for one design to run through the education of them all, and for each individual to have the same bias given him; but as if they were all like passengers in a ship, who coming, each from a different employment and with a different intent, stand upon their common defence in time of danger, merely out of fear for themselves, or their property, and on other occasions are attentive only to their private ends."
     Fisher Ames, indeed, in his essays upon the institutions, of Lycurgus supposes that the number, who received their education in the public schools, above described, constituted but a very small part of the whole Spartan youth, and that the rest went at large, like the youth of the other Grecian States with almost no instruction at all. But whether this theory be true or false is not important to my present purpose to determine.
     No one, I think, who has examined those institutions, in connexion with the history of Sparta and the other contemporary Grecian states, can doubt, that, it was by controlling more perfectly the education of the youth, some or all of them, he gave to her the distinctive national character, which she preserved for so long a time after him. Whether the Spartan or the Athenian character was the most perfect according to our notions of the perfection of national character, is quite another question. The Spartan Law giver made his nation what he wished it to be. He desired age to be respected at Sparta. He taught the youth this virtue; and age was respected there. He wished to banish luxury. He taught the youth to despise it; and luxury was unknown in Sparta. He wished to correct effeminacy. He taught the youth to value themselves for something else, to emulate each other in acts of hardship; and who could endure suffering like the Lacedemonians [Spartans]?
     This overwhelming influence upon the character of a people, was not acquired and exercised, by giving to the young, now and then, a moral lecture upon the respect due to age, upon "the uselessness of luxury," or "the advantages of a healthy constitution ;" while all these good maxims were constantly contradicted, and their influence counteracted by every thing seen, and heard, and felt in the examples of those about them. The young were taught by all they saw to practice the virtues of the age, without being able to talk of their moral excellence, and perhaps without even knowing them by a name. Man was then imitative ; and he is now imitative. He will, therefore, copy what he sees in the examples of others much sooner, than he will practice what he hears in their precepts. The abstract standard of excellence, too, with the ancients, was not so far removed from the concrete standard exhibited in the conduct of men, as it is in modern times; and, of course, the moral lessons founded upon, and drawn from that standard, were not so liable to be totally wasted, as similar ones are at the present day. Every thing around, which could be seized upon by the youthful mind as an example, was then in more perfect keeping, with what was taught them by precept. This circumstance will account, in some degree, for the greater influence, which the attention bestowed upon the education of the young seemed then to have, than the same attention seems now to have. The Spartan Lawgiver influenced his people by means of early education, more than his contemporaries, only, because he controlled more perfectly all the associations of childhood and youth. He, and he alone, seemed thoroughly to understand, and skilfully to turn to his use, that principle of our nature, which has since been so happily described by Dugald Stewart. "Whoever" says he, "has the regulation of the associations of another, from earliest infancy, is, to a great degree, the arbiter of his happiness.
     But the associations of the young, in a country, like our own, cannot be so readily controlled as they could be with the ancients. What could with them be affected by the decree of a Lawgiver, must now be done by the slower, though not less powerful influence of public opinion. Where each individual constitutes a part of the sovereignty of the State, each one must of course he addressed, directly or indirectly, and convinced of the utility of public measures for improvement. When all this has been done, steps are taken affecting the interests of society, with as great firmness, and with as rational a hope of success, as if the process of making up the sovereign will were more summary.
     I have referred to these instances of attention paid to early education among the ancients, not because I suppose that their institutions are at all suited to our times, or fit to be adopted in our state of society; but in order to show by history and example--the safest teachers of human wisdom--the influence of early education, in a political point of view. Human nature, it is presumed, is not essentially changed since the empire of the Persians or the days of Lycurgus. And if the Spartan could mould and transform a nation to suit his own taste, by means of early education, why may not the same be done at the present day? The children of modern times are as helpless and as ignorant at birth as were the children of Sparta. If they have different characters when men, education has made them so. And it may make another generation as different from the present, as the present one is from the cruel though heroic Spartans. The silence of history upon the subject, leaves us to infer that they had five senses; and we, of a more en lightened age, have no more. The wide diversity in our characters, therefore, has been produced, by what those senses have let into our minds and hearts, and the various modifications of it, which different circumstances have made.
     The education which we receive from the society in which we live, is partly beyond, and partly within our own control. The influence of it is much more important to us, than we commonly suppose. Indeed it makes up far the greater part of our characters in manhood. We begin to feel its power at birth, and continue to feel it till death. How, think you, would a Christian teacher succeed in making a good Christian character of a pupil, if that pupil were surrounded from its cradle by Mussulmen only, and saw and heard nothing, but what came from them, save the so literary lectures of his instructor? This view of the subject will enable us, in some degree, to estimate the extent of the influence of the education of example. Precepts never can, essentially, counteract the influence of examples; but the latter may and often do, as our daily observations teach us, counteract the influence of the former. It is not the instructions of the mother, though she next has the greatest influence, it is not the maxims of the school master, though he were as wise as Socrates, it is not the sermons and the exhortations of the pious minister, though he were a perfect saint, which form the character of the man in any country or in any age. The examples of the society, in which he grows up, these form his character, and make him what he is when matured in manhood.
     If then it is by the power of the examples which we see, more than by the influence of any and of all other means together, that our characters are what they are in manhood; if it depends upon these, whether we become Pagan, Mahometan, or Christian; if it depends upon these, whether we grow up men of principle, or men without principle; men discharging all our duties to God, our neighbour, and ourselves, or men neglecting and despising them all; it would seem to be a matter of some consequence that the subject have a little consideration in this aspect of it. It ought to arrest the attention of every man, who is interested in the happiness of his fellow men, of every one who is interested in the character, condition, and prospects of his country, and above all, of every parent, who is interested in the formation of that character of his children, which is to abide by them here, and upon which depends their destiny hereafter.
     Although we cannot control the examples which may be set before us, we may in a great degree, control those, which we set before others, who will never fail to follow them.. And, if my readers will indulge me in a little more preaching, there is no responsibility, which rests upon us, as parents loving our children, as patriots loving our country, as philanthropists loving mankind, or as rational and immortal beings adoring our Creator, more solemn to us or important to society, than that of yielding our influence, whatever it may be, for the improvement and the advancement of the rising generation. Let the path of virtue be cleared of the asperities with which the ignorance and the wiles of men have obstructed it, and let it be illumined by the bright and steady example of all, whom children from their infancy most love and respect; and there need be no fear but it will be followed by many, who are now allured or driven from it. Though parents may look with occasional concern upon the gambols of their little ones by the side of the way, they may be assured that they will always be within call. And when the exuberance of their life and spirits have subsided and less embarrassed reason succeeds, they will be ready to take up the undeviating course of their fathers and turn as anxious an eye upon those who may come after them.
     But he who has corrupted one youth whose examples will again corrupt other youths and so forward, the moral taint spreading wider and wider at each remove from its original source, while society continues its organization, has inflicted an evil on an individual, which he can never repair; he has injured society in a manner, which he can never hope to remedy, though he should set over against it a whole life of good instructions; he has fixed a deep stain upon the character of the community, which he can never wipe out; and he has destroyed, as far as his influence could destroy, capacities for happiness, which emanate only from the goodness of God.
     If such then be the influence of the state of society, in which we grow up, on our characters; and if such will be that of the society, which we constitute and must transmit to posterity, on their characters; it is important that those, who contribute more than others to give a form to that society, whose larger acquirements and stronger powers, whether of good or evil, go far to stamp with glory or with infamy the character of their age, should consider well, whether they do not counteract, by the instruction of their example, what they take so much pains to inculcate, by their precepts. And if they do, though they should cheat posterity into a belief that they have been their greatest benefactors, they may rest assured that they have entailed upon them their greatest curses.

Footnotes:

Lycurgus is the mythologized leader said to have been responsible for Spartan educational and political arragements.

The preceding text is an extract from Essays Upon Popular Education, containing a particular examination of the schools of Massachusetts, and an outline of an Institution for the education of teachers. By James G. Carter. (Boston: Bowles & Dearborn, 1826).

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