Parent and Child Vol. III. | Page 3

certain to revert to a lower type of
individual. The same high possibilities that, properly directed, produce
the superior being, if neglected, or subjected to a vicious environment,
produce the moral degenerate. The child is born morally neither good
nor bad, and while inherited tendencies may make development in one
direction easier than in another, it is possible for a favorable
environment, assisted by education, to develop any normal child into a
sweet, wholesome product of his kind.

Shearer in his "Management and Training of Children," says: "The
child may inherit instincts, but a kind Providence has ordained that he
shall not inherit habits. He may inherit certain tastes, but he does not
inherit temptation. He may bring into the world tendencies, but he does
not bring with him prejudices."

LESSON I
Questions for Discussion 1. What does the expression "being
well-born" mean to you?
2. What responsibility is laid upon parents by the fact that the child is
the product of the past? Read the second commandment here and
discuss its significance in application to this point.
3. What are some of the instincts and capacities given to the child by
heredity?
4. Explain the difference between an instinct and a capacity. What
seems to be the source of our instincts?--our capacities?
5. What are the chief limitations placed by heredity upon the child?
6. What may education and environment hope to accomplish?
_References_: "The Right of the Child to be Well Born," will be found
a helpful book to study here. It may be well, if the book is available, to
have someone appointed to report on it or to read a few choice
paragraphs from it. Also read "Being Well Born," by Guyer.

IMPORTANT LAWS OF HEREDITY
A Wise Application of the Laws of Inheritance Is the Most Certain
Means of Developing a Superior Race In the preface of Dr. Guyer's
remarkable book, "Being Well Born," we read the following: "It is no
exaggeration to say that during the last fifteen years, we have made
more progress in measuring the extent of inheritance and in
determining its elemental factors than in all previous time." If this is

true, it would seem to be almost criminal for teachers and parents to
neglect to acquaint themselves with the fundamental laws of heredity.
This author says further: "Since what a child becomes is determined so
largely by its inborn capacities, it is of the utmost importance that
teachers and parents realize something of the nature of such aptitudes
before they begin to awaken them. For education consists in large
measure in supplying the stimuli necessary to set going these
potentialities and of affording opportunity for their expression."
_Mendel's_ law is probably the most important known principle of
inheritance. Through its application practically all of the improvements
in plants and animals have been brought about. This law may be
explained as follows: A certain kind of pure bred fowl is found which
is either pure white or black. If either color is mated with its own color
the resulting progeny will be true to the color of the parents, but if a
white and a black are crossed the result will be blue fowls possessing
one-half the characteristics of each parent, but strange to say, if two
blue fowls are mated the progeny will not be all blue, one-fourth will
be white like one grandparent, another one-fourth black like the other
grandparent, and one-half will be blue like the parents. If this
experiment is repeated with plants and animals having opposite
characteristics, the same ratios as above always result. This indicates
that truly heritable traits or characters are separate units and are
inherited independently. The breeder is thus enabled through selecting
the traits or characters that are wanted and crossing them with a
well-known stock, to produce almost any trait or quality that he desires.
This law makes it possible to estimate the results of cross breeding with
almost mathematical exactness. Improved varieties of fruits, grains and
vegetables have been produced in this manner, and with animals
marvelous results have been achieved.
Luther Burbank, in his little book, "The Training of the Human Plant,"
says: "There is not a single desirable attribute which, lacking in a plant,
may not be bred into it. Choose what improvement you wish in a
flower, a fruit, or a tree, and by crossing, selection, cultivation and
persistence, you can fix this desirable trait irrevocably." And further:
"If then we could have twelve families under ideal conditions where

these principles could be carried out unswervingly, we could
accomplish more for the race in ten generations than can now be
accomplished in a hundred thousand years. Ten generations of human
life should be ample to fix any desired attribute. This is absolutely clear,
there is neither theory nor