Children…and the effect of what they feel… – Sunday, June 26, 1960
Last week we cited some lines front John Locke on the theme that fathers are to talk to. Home and fathers and mothers and families, and the teaching and rearing of children are so exceedingly important, that we should like to share some further thoughts on this same subject: “What gift,” asked Cicero, “has Providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?”1 The answer suggests itself—and since it is so, one thing of which we must ever be mindful is the influence of attitudes and actions.
We may say the right words; we may teach by rote; we may write the right lines, but the lives of youth are influenced by the full effect of all they feel and see and sense—by the tensions and standards and morals of the home, of teachers, of the times, of family and friends. And no matter what we tell them, what they feel front us and see in us may be much more far reaching than the routine of our teaching. “. . . For you must take this for a certain truth, that let them have what instructions you will. . .. that which will most influence their carriage will be the company they converse with, and the fashion of those about them. Children (nay, and men too) do most by example. . .. “2 We would add these further lines front John Locke: “Virtue is harder to be got than a knowledge of the world; and if lost in a young man, is seldom recover’d. . . A young man before he leaves the shelter of his father’s house, . . . should be fortify’d with resolution, . . . to secure his virtues, lest he should be led into some ruinous course, or fatal precipice, before he is sufficiently acquainted with the dangers … and has steadiness enough not to yield to every temptation. He that lays the foundation of his son’s fortune in virtue and good breeding, takes the only sure and warrantable way. . ..”2
This, in the language of some three centuries ago, simply says that our children will be in large measure a reflection of the background of family and friends and of the moral environment in which they live their lives. “What gift has Providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?”‘ This places upon parents the responsibility of setting such patterns as children may in safety pursue.
1Cicero
2John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 26, 1960, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1960
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June 26, 1960
Broadcast Number 1,610