Vi Use of the Ethical Index

Frequently a parent in the home, a teacher in the schoolroom, a minister, or other child-helper, in dealing with children, wishes to find a suitable story, at a moment’s notice, that may aptly and forcibly illustrate some ethical principle that he may wish to inculcate. Often a story, well selected and aptly told, will hold up “the mirror to nature” and, indirectly, by the law of suggestion, impress the mind and heart of the child far more successfully than a precept, command, or obtrusive moral. The Ethical Index, which will be found at the end of this book, on page 291, is for this purpose. By a moment’s reflection upon the moral principle desired to be impressed or suggested, a story illustrating it may be found. Of course, in many stories more than one ethical principle may be found, but no more than one, and that the strongest and most evident lesson, should be emphasized in one story. In this ethical use of a story great care must be taken not to overemphasize the moral lesson embedded in it, for that will be to lose it. In the use of this index the story-teller may well remember the prayer of Henry Van Dyke, “May I never tag a moral to a tale or tell a story without a meaning.”