"Education and Discipline" by Bertrand Russell

In his landmark work, "Education and Discipline," Bertrand Russell sets forth his opinions on manners, etiquette, and discipline with regard to children. Russell urges adults to be strongly involved in the raising of children.

When adults are absent from or not actively involved in the everyday rearing of children, the tyranny of strength will reign supreme. Consider the following excerpt:

If two or three children are left to play together, they will, after a few fights discover who is bound to be the victor, and the other will become a slave. When the number of children is larger, one or two will acquire complete mastery, and the others will have far less liberty than they would have if the adults interfered to protect the weaker and less pugnacious.

Russell advocates active arbitration by adults when rearing children. Even in the world of adults, our world, arbitration is ubiquitous at every level – local, national, and international. Local civic authorities ensure that all parts of the city have access to civic services, and not just the parts inhabited by the rich and the powerful. National governments ensure that the interests and concerns of all states and provinces are addressed, no matter how large or small they may be. This, for example, ensures that states where rivers originate don’t get to bully states that are downstream with the threat of turning off the water. Without arbitration, this is a very real possibility. Similarly, at the international level, cross-national bodies like the U.N play a pivotal role in ensuring that the interaction between nations does not play out like the survival of the fittest.

Elsewhere, Russell says that it is important that children be taught the value of consistent hard work, and its relationship with reward, from a very early age. Else, adults run the risk of raising little aristocrats with a sense of entitlement.

Finally, Russell opines that it is important to actively inculcate politeness, good manners, and consideration in children. While they may seem trivial, the truth is that they go a long way in raising kind, considerate, and productive civic citizens of the future – such citizens can only help mitigate the various issues discussed in the early sections of this essay, such as bullying and survival of the fittest.

Russell has a well-earned reputation as a highly perspicacious intellectual. This is reflected in this extremely perspicuous essay on educating and disciplining children. Even though this essay is about the Russell’s thoughts on bringing up children, one can easily gauge his kindness and compassion and commitment towards a lifetime of discipline and hard work.