would lower the standard of morality to _assume_ honesty, as the thing
you expected to find, to accept almost any other explanation, to agree
with the whole body of children that dishonesty was so much the fault
of dreadfully poor people who had nothing unless they stole it, that
it could not be their fault, who had so much--couldn't be the fault of
anyone who was well brought up as they were. Emphasize, in story and
side allusion, at all sorts of odd moments when no concrete desire
called away the children's minds, the fact that honesty is to be
expected everywhere, except among terribly unfortunate people--of
course assuming that they with their good shelter and good schooling
are among the fortunate ones. Then you will give each child not only
plenty of everything, but things individualized, easily distinguished,
and a place to put them in. I've often thought that the habit of
buying things wholesale--so many dolls, all exactly alike, so many
yards of calico for dresses, all exactly alike, leads, in institutions
like yours, to a vague conception of private property, and even
of individuality itself. If some room could be allowed for free
choice--the children be allowed to buy their own calicoes, within a
given price, or to choose the trimmings or style, etc. I feel sure the
result would be a sturdier self-respect and a greater sense of that
difference between individuals which needs emphasizing just as much as
does the solidarity of individuals."




BIBLIOGRAPHY