The Scheme of Things

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 19

The Scheme of Things

By M.H.C.

In hearing a good deal about psychology and the wonderful consideration and thought given to the upbringing of children nowadays by educated, parents, . also the help that is given the older people,by scie«ce, it appears surprising that former generations turned out as well as they did. So many mistaken things were said and done, often with the best intentions. Older people, many of them, now realise what a great lack there was in the want of friendly talk between children and parents. There was plenty of guidance, of a sort, mainly directed to bringing up the young ones as a sort of echo or shadow of the parents, and these teachings were not supposed to have any depth or reality till the family was grown-up—and even then the younger members had to be very careful''about offering opinions or expressing their thoughts. The feelings and ideas of children were not regarded at all. A member of the early Victorian generation recalled her real misery at being obliged to recite a dismal little hyjnn, "When I am feeble, old, and grey, Good' Lord Eemember Me." She could not bear to think of being in that situation, and the -idea fairly haunted her. However, she was rebuked severely for being such a naughty child, and the hymn was insisted upon more severely than ever. Another fancy of hers which gave her much trouble was that in the reciting of the Commandments by an old gentleman, who did not speak clearly, the sentence about the things which were j forbidden for worship and ending "the sea, and all that in them is," was usually read to sound like "in the miz," and the little child pictured "the miz" as a dark place full of horrors. But in those reticent days she did not confide her fears, and they last-1 "ed for a long time. Another recalled her fears over the hymn beginning "There is a fountain filled with blood," •which appeared to her to be a horrible idea, causing her to shudder as her rather vivid imagination pictured such a thing. Again, a boy whose people •were particularly attached to the hymn, "There is a Green. Hill Far Away, Without a City Wall," puzzled himself for several years as to why a green hill need "have a city wall, and why this particular one should have been without one if it was so necessary? Then there were the children who were the victims of servants and others who told them horrible, things, or made terrifying threats to keep them quiet— their sufferings were real and most damaging. The later light shed on these happenings should make older folk most careful to prevent misunderstandings and fear on the part of the young ones. Fear ia a great enemy to all ages; its "casting out" should be the endeavour 'of all reasonable people. It leads to most of the mistakes and unhappiness of the world.' The wise saying, ''Perfect love casteth" out fear,'' is. another . gem from the great Book which contains so many. A most energetic slap at the idea ■which has prevailed among so many

men find a few women concerning the justice of depriving married women teachers of employment for no other reason than that they were married appears in "Time and Tide." The writer is of opinion that "The Married Women Teachers' Bill" is one of those monuments to human stupidit}' which do not Surprise us more, only because we have become so hardened to our own ineptitude. Some day we shall find it incredible that in our time we needed special legislation to prevent local authorities from dismissing women teachers employed by them on marriage. We shall wonder how anyone could fail to see the waste involved in the dismissal of a highly-trained teacher, trained moreover at public expense, just when she is at the height of her powers. We shall inquire how it was that all the unmarried women in the country did not rise up and demand the abolition of. a custom which cuts through their own professional status. And at a time when we talk much about the interests of children, what of the loss to the schools, not only of highly trained teachers, but of the married woman's influence? If the new Bill, which seeks to remove this power from local authorities, fails to go through, "we shall be self-convicted of abnormal stupidity.'' An interesting point of view recently advanced regarding writers of novels, in which sex is the beginning, middle, and end of the book, and in which the matter is dealt with more or less cleanly and interestingly, is that they have a "complex," for which they arc not responsible, as it has arisen from their early upbringing. They were told that this, that, and the other idea on the subject was unclean, or unwholesome, or improper. Then, while they closed it down —if they were decentminded people—and perhaps for a time forgot it, later, when they became more fully developed, or life had led them into coarser- paths, this part of their mentality, and upbringing came forward, perhaps ,in an- overwhelming degree, over the other side. Then came the urge to write of these things (again more or less cjeanly), and. the complex was relieved with writing the thoughts and ideas that had grown out of the. repressed .part 'Of the personality. Then the further result of such books and writings was the criticism of them, by those who had—quite unconsciously —the same repressions, who approved them because they—or the reading of sueh —relieved the critic to a certain degree, and caused a favourable view of literature which appeared particularly undesirable to other-minded people. These issues, have been very puzzling in the past, and any light thrown upon ,them is interesting to the student of the "human document." The pity of it all is the spreading broadcast of unwholesome ideas by means of books, which ideas, perhaps, would n.ever have entered .the minds of a number of the readers. Each person has . his. or her • own repressions and complexes. It is an added burden when they absorb through reading the unfortunate or unpleasant ones put forward by others.