SCHOOL AND CITIZEN

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 146, 21 June 1923, Page 6

SCHOOL AND CITIZEN

The educationists who have proposed a, plan for preparing school ■children for citizenship, and whose report is to be considered by the Education Council to-day, undertook a task of which no result could have been safe from criticism. Their recommendations, outlined in last night's "Post," seem,, however, to invite it, in at least one particular. After reference to history and geography (which, with civics, were the subjects specially submitted to the committee for consideration) the report says:—

This training need not, of course, be limited to history, civics, and geography, for a socialised puu.it of vi-jw can be taken with most subjects; but it is hardly open to question that thtse subjects have strong advantages in this direction not possessed in so great a degree by the other subjects. In the suggested civics programme, for instance, a characteristic feature is that it has attempted to focus attention ou the com nuuiity welfare more than on the machinery of government, though this aspect, lias not been forgotten either. Special features are schemes for lessons on health und recreation and international relations. "

And further, in respect to civics, the proposal is that vocations should be studied, and "the. knotty questions connected with a fair day's work, a fair day's pay, the community value of a trade, the interdependence b£ the various industries could be introduced hero." There is not a word here, or elsewhere in the report, of the foundation of good citizenship, the neglect of which (especially in the most malleable ages of children) is conspiringl with the faint-hearted righteousness of these days to undermine the character of the people.

Citizenship begins with the relationship, of the individual to the people immediately around him; and when we consider the way "efficiency" is sought in the march towards a multitude of other objectives in life and business, it is astonishing that the directing of the young. towards real citizenship is left mainly to such voluntary and necessarily limited systems as the Scout movement, the Young Citizens' League, and the like. It cannot be too often said, or too plainly said, that the litigation, the national difficulties, and the international misunderstandings that bur-, den humanity are largely due to distrust and .selfishness and the untruthfuluess that is the offspring of these. Just as the boy is father of the man, the sins of the group are the result of tho tolerance of the individual towards thSse sins. The schools cannot evade their responsibility for meeting this situation ; and it is not sufficient for them to say that moral training is the duty of the parents and of the Church. The Church does not reach young people as it once did— largely through the schools; and if the parents fail, their failure must, for the common good, be countered through the. only remaining channel. Schools exist to train the minds of children so that they can face, with a proper mental equipment, the conditions of life into which they will be thrown; and the educational system might well be overhauled with a view to omitting some of the superstructure of adult philosophy and substituting a little solid character-building.