senses tell. If they be dull, the knowledge is meagre and life has
little with which to build. If they be defective, the impression is
either falsely reported or not at all. Tests have revealed the amazing
fact that over fifty per cent of children have imperfect sight and
hearing. This means that the first idea given through eye or ear may be
wrong; consequently each subsequent idea growing out of it is wrong, at
least in part, and ultimately, false conceptions and mistaken courses of
action appear, all traceable directly to the ear that did not hear
accurately and the eye that told a false tale.

There is also a direct connection between defective senses and conduct.
Naturally, the boy who can't see the blackboard, pays no attention to
the work placed upon it, and the child partially deaf, disregards the
words of the teacher. The overwhelming number of personally observed
cases of difficult discipline, disclosed the unvarying fact of defect,
either in the senses or the body itself. Therefore a teacher or parent
should be very sure that the "bad boy problem" is not physical rather
than moral, lest cruel injustice be done.

While the dull senses call for limitless patience, that life be not
pitifully narrow, and the defective senses call for wise and remedial
attention, the normal, keen, wide-awake senses exact the most from the
conscientious parent or teacher. Eternal vigilance is the price of
beautiful building material for the character in such an unfolding life.
Each day adds to the store put away in the brain, to reappear later. "We
must soon be careful what we do before the baby," says the mother who
half grasps the connection between impressions and character building,
not realizing that the work is already far under way, that foundations
are in. Nurture of the senses must begin with the first dim reaching out
for impressions, that only the best may enter, that right tastes may be