It will perhaps be wondered, that I mention reasoning with
children: and yet I cannot but think that the true way of dealing with them.
They understand it as early as they do language; and, if I misobserve not, they
love to be treated as rational creatures, sooner than is imagined. 'Tis a pride
should be cherished in them, and, as much as can be, made the greatest
instrument to turn them by.
But when I talk of reasoning, I do not intend any other, but such as is suited to
the child's capacity and apprehension. Nobody can think a boy of three or
seven years old, should be argued with, as a grown man. Long discourses, and
philosophical reasonings, at best, amaze and confound, but do not instruct,
children. When I say therefore, that they must be treated as rational creatures, I
mean, that you should make them sensible, by the mildness of your carriage,
and the composure, even in your correction of them, that what you do is
reasonable in you, and useful and necessary for them; and that it is not out of
caprice, passion, or fancy, that you command or forbid them any thing. This
they are capable of understanding; and there is no virtue they should be excitedto, nor fault they should be kept from, which I do not think they may be convinced of: but it must be by such reasons as their age and understanding are
capable of, and those proposed always in very few and plain words.