_Third Point._--What is called conscience does not usually begin to show
itself until the child is about three years old. At this age the concept
self usually emerges, and the child begins to use the personal pronoun
I. This is one of these critical turning points in human development, of
which there are several. The beginning of adolescence marks another. I
am inclined to suspect that there is one at or about thirty-three. There
seem to be others later on. At any rate the first turning point--that
which occurs at three--is marked unmistakably. At this time, as we have
just said, the child begins to be distinctly self-conscious; it says
"I," and presently "you," "he," and "they." Now, moral rules formulate
the relations which ought to subsist between one's self and others, and
to comprehend the rules it is clearly necessary to be able to hold apart
in the mind and to contrast with one another the persons related. It is
evident, therefore, that the emergence of the concept self must have a
decided effect on moral development.
I feel tempted to pause here a moment and to say a word in passing about
the extreme importance of the constituent elements of the concept self.
For it must not be supposed that the pronoun "I" means the same thing on
the lips of every person who uses it. "I" is a label denoting a mass of
associated ideas, and as these ideas are capable of almost endless
variation, so the notion of selfhood is correspondingly diversified in
different individuals. In the case of children, perhaps the principal
constituents of the concept are supplied by their outward appearance and
environment. When a child speaks of itself, it thinks primarily of its
body, especially its face, then of the clothes it usually wears, the
house it lives in, the streets through which it habitually walks, its
parents, brothers, sisters, school-masters, etc.[7] If we analyze the
meaning of "I" in the case of two children, the one well-born and well
brought up, the other without these advantages, we shall perhaps find
such differences as the following: "I" in the one case will mean a being
living in a certain decent and comfortable house, always wearing neat
clothing, surrounded by parents, brothers, and sisters who speak kindly
to one another and have gentle manners, etc. In the other case, the
constituents of the concept self may be very different. "I" in the case
of the second child may mean a creature that lives in a dark, filthy
hovel and walks every day through narrow streets, reeking with garbage.
"I" may mean the child of a father who comes home drunk and strikes the
mother when the angry fit is upon him. "I" stands for a poor waif that
wears torn clothes, and when he sits in school by the side of
well-dressed children is looked at askance and put to shame. It is
obvious that the elements which go to make up the concept self affect
the child's moral nature by lowering or raising its self-esteem. I
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