Rules for Home Education
THE following rules we commend to all our patrons and friends, for their excellence, brevity, and practical utility.
They are worthy of being printed in letters of gold, and of being placed in a conspicuous place in every household. It is lamentable to contemplate the mischief, misery and ruin which are the legitimate fruit of those deficiencies which are pointed out in the rules to which we have reference. Let every parent and guardian read, ponder and inwardly digest:
1. From your children's earliest infancy, inculcate the necessity of instant obedience.
2. Unite firmness with gentleness. Let your children always understand that you mean what you say.
3. Never promise them anything unless you are quite sure you can give them what you say.
4. If you tell a child to do something, show him how to do it, and see that it is done.
5. Always punish your children for willfully disobeying you, but never punish them in anger.
6. Never let them perceive that they vex you or make you lose your self-command.
If they give way to petulance or ill-temper, wait till they are calm, and then gently reason with them on the impropriety of their conduct.
Remember that a little present punishment, when occasion arises, is much more effectual than the threatening of a greater punishment should the fault be renewed.
9. Never give your children anything because they cry for it.
10. On no account allow them to do at one time what you have forbidden, under the same circumstances, at another.
11. Teach them that the only sure and easy way to appear good is to be good.
12. Accustom them to make their little recitals with perfect truth.
13. Never allow of tale-bearing.
14. Teach them self-denial, not self-indulgence, of an angry and resentful spirit.
If these rules are reduced to practice - daily practice - by parents and guardians, how much misery would be prevented, how many in
danger of ruin would be saved, how largely would the happiness of a thousand domestic circles, be augmented. It is lamentable to see how extensive is paternal neglect, and to witness the bad and dreadful consequences in
the ruin of thousands.