Heredity also endows a person with his peculiar temperament, with his good
or bad looks, and with the chief components of what is called personality.
On the other hand, training and education have almost everything to say
respecting the relative standing of the individual among the members of his
kind--whether or not he shall be a blighted or a perfect specimen. A fine,
sweet, juicy crabapple is more desirable than a scrubby, diseased Jonathan.

It is the province of training and education to take the individual as he
is born, and endeavor to make of him a perfect specimen of his kind. "A
child left to himself bringeth his parents to shame." If left alone or
improperly trained, a child is almost certain to revert to a lower type of
individual. The same high possibilities that, properly directed, produce
the superior being, if neglected, or subjected to a vicious environment,
produce the moral degenerate. The child is born morally neither good nor
bad, and while inherited tendencies may make development in one direction
easier than in another, it is possible for a favorable environment,
assisted by education, to develop any normal child into a sweet, wholesome
product of his kind.

Shearer in his "Management and Training of Children," says: "The child may
inherit instincts, but a kind Providence has ordained that he shall not
inherit habits. He may inherit certain tastes, but he does not inherit
temptation. He may bring into the world tendencies, but he does not bring
with him prejudices."




LESSON I