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| Home Atmosphere |
 Let Home Have the Greater Influence
As children became older, they may become more and more charmed with the world. When they are very young they may put into their pockets rocks, acorns, pinecones, shells or feathers. When they grow older they will more consciously accumulate impressions of the ways and happenings of the people around them. In the teen years the pull of this inquisitiveness seems to be felt most strongly. We grown-ups may forget what once enticed us, since our fascination with the world has faded. The impact of the world over our children really depends on what rules we set at home - the rules by which the children are accustomed to measure things.
The atmosphere of a close family should include a respect for parents, the satisfaction of learning together, a fondness for simple pleasures, good humor amidst hard work, sympathy in sorrow, the joy of worshipping together. Such families have the gift of unworldliness.
Manners - More Than Meets the Eye
In the eighteenth century, etiquette was expected from all persons of "good breeding." Today, however, any form of etiquette seems to belong only to these "prim and proper" Victorians. You can find an almost general lack of manners everywhere by people who are supposedly "educated." Perhaps today the necessity to use manners is seen as violating the "freedom to express oneself" without constraint.
Are manners the hollow tactfulness some use on the selling floor - a kind of manipulating flattery? No, our children can have worthier reasons for exhibiting manners. Good manners can be another term for duty, for righteousness, for morality. True politeness simply consists in treating others just as you like to be treated yourself. This polite treatment comes from direct teaching, but also results from a caring home atmosphere where a child will acquire a servant's heart like that of our Savior's.
More to Education than Atmosphere
But we would have a one-sided view of education if we determined education to be an atmosphere only, just as we would if we viewed education as only that of gaining skills in the three Rs.
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