refuse to give your child satisfactory reasons for the conduct you
require of him, you refuse to cultivate in him that very good of the
intellect which is necessary for his salvation.

[Sidenote: Advantage of Positive Commands]

As soon, however, as your commands become positive instead of
negative, the difficulty of meeting the situation begins to disappear.
It is usually much easier to tell the child why he should do a thing
than why he should not do its opposite. For example, it is much easier
to make him see that he ought to be a helpful member of the family
than to make him understand why he should stop making a loud noise, or
refrain from waking up the baby. There is something in the child which
in calm moments recognizes that love demands some sacrifice. To this
something you must appeal and these calm moments, for the most part,
you must choose for making the appeal. The effort is to prevent the
appearance of evil by the active presence of good. The child who is
busy trying to be good has little time to be naughty.

[Sidenote: Original Goodness]

Froebel's most characteristic utterance is perhaps this: "A
suppressed or perverted good quality--a good tendency, only repressed,
misunderstood, or misguided--lies originally at the bottom of
every shortcoming in man. Hence the only and infallible remedy for
counteracting any shortcoming and even wickedness is to find the
originally good source, the originally good side of the human being
that has been repressed, disturbed, or misled into the shortcoming,
and then to foster, build up, and properly guide this good side. Thus
the shortcoming will at last disappear, although it may involve a hard