DN21

On Child-Rearing 

[not dated] 

It is begun in the cradle, and when that child reaches its majority, and leaves its mother's tender care, it will leave with a strong determination to remember that mother's teachings; it will leave with a deep-seated determination within itself to retain the high ideals which that mother taught it; it will leave with an inner determination within his soul that it shall not part from the path in which that mother lead it. And it is only when that mother teaches her child these things that it will do accordingly. 

And . . . I believe that determination of character is never accomplished by whipping, but instead, I believe that whipping takes away whatever determination of character a child might have. Instead we must have determination of character enough to withstand whipping or brutalizing it, while at the same time showing firmness. If we have not the determination of character to withstand whipping a child, and instead correct it, and punish it in some other manner, then how can we, as grown persons, expect that small child to have determination of character enough to refrain from doing that deed which caused the punishment? Especially so when a child is taught by the examples of his elders?

Into the hands of our mothers and fathers of today,—and especially in the hands of our mothers today,—lies the destiny of our race. Because, after all, the mothers are the leaders of the world; the teachers of world-thought, and the teachers of world-deeds.

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