himself free.

That confidence is a strong factor in obtaining obedience is well
illustrated by many boys in every village and town. These boys are
notoriously disobedient at home and at school, but on the baseball
field they will follow the orders of the captain without question.
They feet that his commands are not arbitrary or thoughtless, that
they are not petty and personal, but really for the greatest
advantage to those concerned. If we can inspire in our children such
confidence in our motives, we shall have little worry about the
problem of obedience.

In the training of the child we often forget that the child will
some time outgrow his childishness. We must consider not only what
is the best kind of behavior for a _child_, but what kinds of
habits it is best for a child to develop in view of his some day
becoming an adult human being. We want men and women to develop into
free agents, that is, people who act in accordance with the dictates
of their own conscience and their best judgment. With this aim in
view, how much emphasis should then be placed on the matter of
obedience?

Since the infant has no will, he must be guided by others for his
own safety and for the development of his judgment. But we do not
wish him to retain his habits of obedience to others long enough to
deprive him of his independence of thought and action. The growing
child must learn to repress his own many and conflicting impulses,
and to select those that he learns to be best. But if he obeys
always, he cannot acquire judgment and responsibility. He learns
through obedience to value various kinds of authority, and