The elements of child-protection / by Sigmund Engel; translated from the German by Dr. Eden Paul.

  • Engel, Sigmund.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The elements of child-protection / by Sigmund Engel; translated from the German by Dr. Eden Paul. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    degenerate parents tend to procreate degenerate children, and to bring them up badly. Nature, of Education.—The inherited character of human beings is not a unitary whole, but consists of different parts. Unless this were so, man would speedily succumb in the struggle for existence; for it depends upon the circum- stances in which he finds himself, which parts of his inherited character undergo a necessary development. Just as nature brings into existence an enormous number of living beings, and then, by the mechanism of the struggle for existence, selects for survival those individuals which are best adapted to the environmental conditions, so in the inherited human character there exist available for the influences of education thousands of rudimentary capacities, and it is the particular environmental conditions which deter- mine which of these capacities are cultivated and developed, and which are allowed to undergo atrophy. Among these environmental conditions are the deliberate processes of education, which also select certain capacities for special cultivation, and allow others to atrophy or disappear. The latter part of this process takes place in accordance with the natural law, that every organ which is left unused under- goes atrophy, and may even altogether disappear. The task of education does not presuppose any alteration in the in- herited character. On the contrary, the educator utilises the existence of the various inherited characteristics in such a way that he makes those qualities he wishes to develop take the field against those he wishes to suppress. The inherited character contains certain possibilities of development. If it were fixed and unalterable, education would be entirely unthinkable. In the practical work of educa- tion we have to reckon with the fact that there are present in every child certain developmental factors, constituting the pre-conditions of the development which that child will subsequently undergo; that in the course of growth the character undergoes extensive alterations; finally, also, that the child’s character is something very different from that of the adult, Education is thus seen to consist of the influences exerted upon the character by the application of certain
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