Education

Education

You know we receive an education in the schools from books.

All those books that people became educated from twenty-five years ago, are wrong now, and those that are good now, will be wrong again twenty-five years from now. So if they are wrong then, they are also wrong now, and the one who is educated from the wrong books is not educated, he is misled. All books that are written are wrong, the one who is not educated cannot write a book and the one who is educated, is not really educated but he is misled and the one who is misled cannot write a book which is correct.

The misleading began when our far distant ancestors began to teach their descendants. You know they knew nothing but they passed their knowledge of nothing to the coming generations and it went so innocently that nobody noticed it. That is why we are not educated.

Now I will tell you what education is according to my reasoning. An educated person is one whose senses are refined. We are born as brutes, we remain and die as the same if we do not become polished. Some are too coarse to take it. The main base of education is one’s “self-respect”.

Any one lacking self-respect cannot be educated. The main bases of self-respect is the willingness to learn, to do only the things that are good and right, to believe only in the things that can be proved, to possess appreciation and self control.

If you lack willingness to learn, you will remain as a brute and if you do things that are not good and right, you will be a low person, and if you believe in things that cannot be proved, any feeble minded person can lead you, and if you lack appreciation, it takes away the incentive for good doing and if you lack self control you will never know the limit.

So all those lacking these characteristics in their makeup are not educated.

Domestic

The foundation of our physical and mental behaviour is laid while we are in infancy, so the responsibility of our shortcomings rest upon our mothers and fathers, but mainly upon our mothers.

Today, I myself would be better than I am if my mother and father had known how to raise me and the same is true for almost everybody else.

At the first contraction in any part of your body, you will never notice any mark, but keep it up and some day you will see a crease, and it will be permanent. We all want to look and act the best that we know how, but we cannot learn from ourselves so we have to learn from others.

In my thirty years of studying conditions and their effects I have come to the conclusion that I can tell pointers to the people that would be a good help to them. That is why I wrote this little book.

To accomplish good results, the mothers will have to keep good watch on their darlings until they acquire the natural ambition to shine, and the girls should be more carefully watched than the boys, because the girl’s looks are her best asset and should be cultivated.

Don’t raise the girls too big by over feeding them and too curved by neglect.

People who want to shine will always have to restrain themselves, because if they don’t, their actions won’t be graceful. Even when one’s looks are good, if he abandons restraint, the performance won’t be good. It is more likely that the person himself won’t notice but others will.

The first thing I notice about other people is, if there is something wrong and if it could be improved and the same must be true about other people noticing my defects and neglects. To correct those neglects, somebody will have to point them out, but to do it directly will not do, because they would think you are mean. That is why I want to point out the defects and neglects in this book.

The most striking neglect that comes to my attention is when one is smiling. A smile is always pleasing if it is regulated but without restraint, it is not. When smiling, the teeth only should be shown. As soon as you show the gums, it spoils the good effect.

When showing the gums you are doing triple harm. First, the gums never look good; second, you are making too big creases in the side of your mouth and third, your lips come too wide apart. Especially should a girl be careful not to show too abnormally big mouth.

Girls should do nothing that would impair their best looks. I have seen moving picture stars, public singers and others with their mouths open so wide that you would think the person lacks refinement, but if they knew how bad it looks they would train it out. No doubt they have practiced before a looking glass, but a looking glass does not show such an enormous opening, because while they are looking at the looking glass they are under restraint and so they really don’t know how it looks while they are not watching themselves.

In a looking glass you will never notice all your neglects and defects. They have to be pointed out by somebody else.

It is painful to hear other people pointing out our neglects and defects so do not entrust your friends to do it. Your friends may not always be your friends.

The best way is to leave that to your own family. Your mother and father will do nothing to embarrass you. Your mother will do it better and it should be started while one is still a baby.

The first thing the mothers should do is to watch the baby’s mouth so it is not hanging open. The mouth, by hanging open, stretches the upper lip and when kept open while growing, then when fully grown, the lips will not fit together any more.

Mothers should keep close watch on their children’s behaviour. As soon as they notice some action and contraction that is not graceful, they should correct it immediately, because their actions leave their effects. To small children, it doesn’t matter how ugly they look, but when they are grown up, the good looks will be the best thing, and one with a disfigured face cannot be satisfied with oneself. The foundation for one’s best looks will have to be laid while one is small.

A graceful smile is pleasing but if it is not perfect, its pleasing effect is marred. To obtain better results, don’t make the smile too big by opening the mouth too wide, drawing the lips over the gums, or drawing one side of the lip more than the other, or drawing both lips to one side and have them twisted.

Children should not be encouraged to smile too much, smiling in due time will produce creases in the sides of their mouths. It would be better to save the smiles till they are grown up. Children while they are growing should be watched, closely. They are stretching their mouths with their fingers and are jamming too big objects in their mouths and making ugly faces. All these actions should be forbidden for their future’s sake.

Eyes should be trained to look in the middle between both lids, never through the forehead. If this is done, it will produce creases in the forehead. When the lids of one eye are more narrow than the other it should be trained out and equalized.

In case one leg is shorter and one shoulder lower, they can be disguised so that other people would not notice it. In walking the toes should be carried a little out, by carrying the toes out one can walk better. Shorter steps would make the walking more graceful and those who stoop over, higher

heels would help to keep the body more erect.

Girls should take smaller steps than boys. By taking smaller steps the body would not jump as much up and down or swing from side to side.

Mothers should study the other people’s children and then pick out the best model from which to train their own child.

Everybody should be trained not to go out anywhere before somebody else has examined them to see if everything is all right. It would save many people from unexpected embarrassment.