The Book of Virtue

The Book of Virtue
William Bennett

Up until 1993 when this book came out, I had been gathering stories and poems that teach character with the growing feeling that some day I would have to collect them together into an anthology. I felt duty bound to share these resources so that more parents could read them to their children. Moral education of the young is imperative if they are to grow up to possess a character that knows the good and pursues it. When The Book of Virtue was put into my hands I was relieved of that responsibility. And I was overjoyed. William Bennett had done the job far beyond my poor power. His knowledge is vast and his commentary is inspiring. This anthology of 818 pages is a treasury of great moral stories. As he says in his introduction, moral literacy serves "to show parents, teachers, students, and children what the virtues look like, what they are in practice, how to recognize them and how they work."

Bennett places this apt quotation from Plato's Republic right after his introduction showing how the drive we have to share moral stories with children is a timeless one:
     You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken...Shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up?
     We cannot...Anything received into the mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts...
      Then will our youth dwell in a land of health, amid fair sights and sounds, and receive the good in everything; and beauty, the effluence of fair works, shall flow into the eye and ear, like a health-giving breeze from a purer region, and insensibly draw the soul from the earliest years into likeness and sympathy with the beauty of reason.
     There can be no nobler training than that.

The book is divided according to ten virtues. Each section provides an array of selections beginning with tales and poems for the very young and proceeding in difficulty with myths, essays, and short stories for older children.
As an example, the first section is entitled "Self-Discipline." It begins with selections for the young such as:
Please by Alicia Aspinwall- a fable about a little word named "please"
A poem Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore/No doubt you have heard the name before/Was a boy who never would shut a door! (Seven verses in this light-hearted poem.) by William Brighty Rands
My Own Self - a retellling of an English fairy tale by Joseph Jacobs which teaches that self-discipline is learned through adversity.
The poem To the Little Girl who Wriggles - by Laura Richards
It continues with selections for children a little older:
The King and His Hawk, is a legend about how Ghengis Khan learned to contain his temper. retold by James Baldwin.
Aesop's fables, The Boy and the Nuts and The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs illustrate how if we do not contain our cravings we may end up wit(h nothing.
The tale, The Fisherman and His Wife (adapted by Clifton Johnson)has a similar moral as does the myth King Midas (retold by Nathaniel Hawthorne).
Selections for older children include:
The Greek myth Phaeton adapted by Thomas Bulfinch.
George Washington's Rules of Civility
Vaulting Ambition, Which O'erleaps Itself - from Macbeth by Shakespeare
How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy
Plato, on Self-Discipline from the Gorgias
Aristotle on Self-Discipline from the Nicomachean Ehtics

It is truly an outstanding collection. The rest of the sections are equally rich:
Compassion
Responsibility
Friendship
Work
Courage
Perseverance
Honesty
Loyalty
Faith

A subsequent edition was published which added pictures and contained only the selections for young children from each section. It is called The Children's Book of Virtues. 

Uncle Jed's Barbershop

Uncle Jed's Barbershop    

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book

Margaree Kim Mitchell

Sarah Jean loves to spend time with her Uncle Jed. He tells her about his dream to one day open up a barbershop. He describes exactly how it will look and she can envision the four chairs and the shiny equipment. In the meantime, Uncle Jed goes around the region giving haircuts to all the neighbors. It is the 1920's in the segregated South and he knows that most of his sharecropping friends cannot afford to pay him in cash. But he patiently saves his money and when he finally gathers up enough, Sarah Jean needs emergency surgery. He steps right in and pays for it. Then, he simply starts saving again. This time when he has nearly enough money, he loses all of his savings in the economic crash of the Great Depression. Nevertheless, Uncle Jed overcomes all odds and opens up his barbershop at the age of 79.

This has been a favorite of first grade teachers at Birchwood School. I originally found out about this book from first grade teacher Theresa Tropp (who stroked it when she took it off the shelf and shared it with me), and first grade teacher Rhonda Sprau says she almost cries every time she reads it aloud. Used with a series of readings on the themes of setting goals and perseverance, Rhonda includes an array of titles. The following selections serve as a good illustration of how a teacher or parent can cluster books to instill a particular virtue.

Having dreams and goals: Paired with Uncle Jed's Barbershop is A Chair for my Mother. (Blog post March 15, 2012)

Perseverance to achieve dreams: The story of Louisa May Alcott from The Book of Home and Family by William Bennett provides a classic example. Louisa was not discouraged when an editor told her women could not make it in the world of publishing their writing. She didn't listen to him: good for her and good for us! The picture book autobiography, Winners Never Quit by Mia Hamm illustrates the hard work and determination of this great women's soccer player. And the excerpt from The Book of Heroes by William Bennett on the perseverance of both Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan is one more powerful real life story.

Quotes and rhymes: Teachers help children memorize pithy sayings that help inculcate the lessons.These resonant easily with young children who all love rhythm, rhyme, and music. Our first graders hear The Little Engine that Could (blog post - March 4, 2012) at the beginning of the year. This way they can often say "I think I can, I think I can!" - with the image of the little blue engine chugging up the hill. And from The Children's Book of Virtue by William Bennett, Rhonda has them memorize the poem which includes the line "If at first you don't succeed - try, try again!"  

In the next post I'll highlight some good anthologies that contain quality literary selections such as the Bennett books provide.