With every free,
conscious choice of right, a human being's moral power and strength of
character increase; and the converse of this is equally true.
If the child is unruly in play, he leaves the circle and sits or
stands by himself, a miserable, lonely unit until he feels again in
sympathy with the community. If he destroys his work, he unites the
tattered fragments as best he may, and takes the moral object lesson
home with him. If he has neglected his own work, he is not given the
joy of working for others. If he does not work in harmony with his
companions, a time is chosen when he will feel the sense of isolation
that comes from not living in unity with the prevailing spirit of good
will. He can have as much liberty as is consistent with the liberty
of other people, but no more. If we could infuse the _spirit_ of this
kind of discipline into family and school life, making it systematic
and continuous from the earliest years, there would be fewer morally
"slack-twisted" little creatures growing up into inefficient,
bloodless manhood and womanhood.
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