G. A. Johnston

“ But even when the individual criticises his environment most severely, he criticises it because he is its own child. The society really uses him to criticise itself. The great reformer is always a thorough child of his time. It is precisely because his environment has saturated him so completely that he turns upon it in criticism.
It follows that environment is potent to counteract or encourage the hereditary tendencies which every child possesses, and whose persistence has been already illustrated. We all know how influential the environment is in corrupting good tendencies. ”

“ With immeasurably fuller knowledge of the meaning of heredity and environment than Locke had, it is able to echo his statement: "I think I may say that of all the men we meet with nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. 'Tis that which makes the great difference in mankind." ”

“ If one looks at the matter sanely, it is one of the most absurd things in the world that parents and teachers, the two groups which have the most profound influence on the development of the child's character, should work in entire ignorance of one another's aims and aspirations for the children.
But under present conditions the teacher must usually be content to study the child alone. He should certainly do this. As education becomes more and more systematised, there is great danger that an artificially mechanical scheme may ignore the individual differences between children. ”

“ There is little that we possess which we have not received from our environment. Our dependence on it is so complete, that apart from it we should be incapable of any rational or moral activity. The material of most of our mental and moral acquisitions is derived from it. (b) But we are not merely passive creatures, absolutely at the mercy of our environment. Our attitude to it is also re-creative. All the material which the environment supplies, whether that material be physical or spiritual, must be re-made, transmuted, and re-created before it can become a permanent possession of the soul. ”

“ Variation, as we have seen, is simply one aspect of heredity. It is the tendency to diverge, as contrasted with the tendency to persist. Both tendencies spring from the same germ-plasm. The changes in individuals are really expressions of the vitality of the germ-plasm, just as their persistent similarity is. To the fact of variation is due the diversity of the world of life. No two living creatures are precisely alike. Every fir differs from its neighbour, and no two oak-leaves are exactly similar. Much greater are the differences between human beings, even though they be of the same family. ”

“ The child's environment exists to be used, and as he grows up he more and more acquires the power of reacting upon it. Whether he makes a good or bad use of it depends ultimately on him alone. Parent or teacher or friend may point out how it should be used, what elements in it should be assimilated, and what avoided, but in the end the responsibility for choosing the right or the wrong rests with the individual himself. It is the privilege and prerogative of man to be, so far as his character is concerned, a creature of his own making. ”

“ Again, the influence of education may be limited by the other forces which, along with it, constitute the social environment. The teacher may indeed manipulate the rest of the environment to some extent; but he can rarely secure that the environment as a whole will second his aims. The unfavourable environment of home and companions may counteract all his efforts.
Yet, in spite of these limitations, the dynamic influence of education can hardly be over-estimated. It is the teacher's duty and privilege to utilise all the help that heredity and environment can give. ”

“ We should avoid thinking of environment and heredity as if each excluded the other. It is not true that the more we attribute to environment the less must we ascribe to heredity, and vice versa. Life and character imply their interaction. When the influence of the one increases, it does not follow that the influence of the other must decrease. On the contrary, the richer the inheritance with which the child starts, the greater the influence the environment may exert. ”

“ The capacities which we inherit form a limit beyond which we cannot advance. In the physical realm the limit of capacity is readily recognised; and our physical heredity sets up absolute barriers beyond which we cannot pass. It is equally true that the extent of our mental acquisitions is limited by our inherited intellectual capacities. The teacher cannot make a first-class mathematician out of a child whose inherited capacity is mediocre. But we are usually far too apt to suppose that we have reached the limit of our mental capacities long before we really have. ”

“ Hence the sphere of our responsibility is far wider than the immediate consequences of our deeds. Every individual's character and conduct constitute a portion of his neighbour's social environment. Example is better than precept, and there is no greater influence for good on the community than the upright man. Trite as this is, it is a peculiarly sobering reflection for all engaged in education, and especially in elementary education. For hours of every day the teacher's words and deeds and manners form a most important part of the child's environment. ”

“ In the moral realm we practically never reach the limit of our capacity for good and evil. Every child is born with unlimited potentialities either for good or for evil. But he inherits no fixed endowment of goodness, and he bears no burden of original sin. Capacities and tendencies are what he inherits. If his parents have been vicious, their sins will be transmitted to him, not as a complete second edition of their vice, but as a general weakness towards it. ”

“ The environment may be used to shape character by way of suggestion. This mode of influence is so quiet and pervasive that we rarely think about it, and perhaps for that very reason it is all the more potent in effecting its results. Nothing conduces more to the formation of good reading habits in a community than the institution of an attractive library, so arranged as to suggest in every detail the pleasures of reading. ”

“ In some cases they may, indeed, be very strong, and may greatly further or retard the child's moral progress. But they do not absolutely determine the child's character. Heredity is no inscrutable fate to destroy the child's moral strength before he has begun to use it. We are masters of our own destiny; our deeds are really our own; and we alone are responsible for them.
(2) But our responsibility for our actions does not end with ourselves. [8] Our actions do not terminate in themselves. They form part of our neighbour's social environment, and may exert a profound influence upon him. ”

“ In all these and in many other ways the teacher may seek to select the elements in the child's environment which will be most beneficial to his character, and, by a study of the child's hereditary tendencies, direct those influences into the channels where they will be most potent for good. But before ending this chapter, two words of warning must be dropped. Human nature, and especially child nature, is, like the Mary of the nursery rhyme, "quite contrary." ”

“ In most cases it is to the influence of the early home environment rather than to that of heredity that the persistence of precise mental and moral characteristics should be ascribed.
Yet it is certain that we can and do inherit tendencies and capacities in the mental and moral realm. We inherit, for instance, instincts, the forms of nervous mechanism which enable us to act usefully without having learned. We inherit temperaments and dispositions, which define our general emotional and practical attitude to the world. ”

“ So far as morality goes, every child starts life with a clean, or almost clean, slate. Proclivities to good and evil it does indeed inherit; and it is one of the great privileges of the educator to be always on the look-out for proclivities to encourage, or to restrain. But these are merely tendencies. ”

“ The son of a woman who is strong intellectually or morally may not be strong in exactly the same way as his mother, but he is likely to be strong in some way. The son of a great mathematician may not be a great mathematician, but his general mental capacities will probably be above the average. The child does not inherit the special ability or peculiar virtue of his parents, but he does inherit general capacities and general tendencies, which may express themselves in one way or another. The way in which they develop is determined by environment and training. ”

“ Education must also utilise the environment by way of direct instruction. Instruction must always be the chief method of the educator, for it alone is definite and systematic. In giving moral instruction there are three things the teacher should bear constantly in mind. It is necessary to be positive. Negative precepts have much less power behind them than positive principles. The fundamental characteristic of the child is his activity. Hence the importance of telling him what to do rather than merely what to avoid. Again, the importance of the environment of Nature should be emphasised. ”

“ In some cases the environment may make a permanent and indelible impression on the living creature. A change in the environment, be it sudden or gradual, may occasion modifications in the organism which will remain with it as permanent acquisitions. A storm may blow a tree permanently out of shape, and a few years in the tropics may tan a man for life. In such cases the environment has led to the development by the individual of "acquired characters." ”

“ Most important of all, we inherit capacities, and our capacities include all that we are capable of becoming in intellect, in morality, in art, and in religion. What we inherit is not specific ability but general capacity. ”

“ It is present always, and counts because of its constant pressure. But because its relation to us is so intimate, and because it has so informed the very structure of our minds, we do not usually distinguish its influence upon us from the activities which we suppose we originate ourselves. In fact, we do not think about it at all, and if "environment" happens to be mentioned, our thoughts fly immediately to the physical world.
There is none of our experience which is not permeated by the social environment. From his environment the child derives the language he speaks. ”

“ Because certain mental and moral characteristics persist from one generation to another, it does not follow that they are inherited. They may simply be developed anew in each generation under the influence of the early environment. ”

“ The teacher must seek to counteract one of the necessary evils of system by trying to understand the individual child, and by helping it to develop in accordance with its own individuality towards the fullest realisation of its capabilities. ”

“ The child is very apt to want to do things precisely because he is told not to, and to be disinclined to do them precisely because he is bidden to do them. This fact has always to be borne in mind when giving moral instruction. It is one reason why with some children the indirect influences of suggestion and example are more effective than direct moral instruction. This is where the teacher's study of the individual child will be invaluable. The second point is this. It is right that the teacher should magnify his office. ”

“ In human beings also there are instances. The child who is born with great musical abilities may be the son of parents quite devoid of them. Nearly every genius is a "sport" or discontinuous variation. When once discontinuous variations have occurred, they may be transmitted to offspring, and thus become a permanent heritage of the species.
(2) Other variations are acquired. They are not born with the child: the child acquires them during its life by interaction with its environment. They are developed by the child under some external stimulus, such as climate or injury. ”

“ His mental and moral life consists largely of opinions which he has accepted on the authority of the society in which he lives. He simply takes for granted the validity of his beliefs and customs. He takes them to be as fixed and certain as the rising and setting of the sun. ”

“ It is a hackneyed commonplace, yet an unhappy truth, that the environment of the slum slowly but surely weakens the mental and moral strength of nearly all who enter it. Perhaps our thoughts are apt to dwell too much on this drab aspect of the operation of environment. ”

“ The virtues of his parents are transmitted to him, not as specific virtues, but as general health of mind and power of resistance to evil. His actual moral life, his thoughts and deeds, his convictions and habits, are of his own acquisition. All his morality is attained and achieved. Conduct is not inherited; it is self-consciously made. ”

“ It will add to the fascination, as well as to the usefulness, of teaching to study the heredity of the individual child. To do this, it is necessary to know something of the child's parents. In the rural school this is quite possible, and the excellence of the results obtained by the old educational system of rural Scotland was largely due to the intimacy of the relation which usually existed between the village dominie and the parents of his pupils. In the city school it is rarely possible, except in isolated instances, for the teacher to meet his pupils' parents. ”