EDUCATION TENDENCIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 December 1939, Page 5

EDUCATION TENDENCIES

ADDRESS BY FATHER KENNEDY.

WELLINGTON, December 8.

The so-called “new” and “progressive” education in democratic countries might be no less a danger than the despotism of the totalitarian and Communistic systems, said the rector of St. Patrick’s College, Silverstream, Very Rev. Father J. J. Kennedy, S.M., in an address at the annual prize-giv-ing ceremony. Educating to make the youth of to-day fit into the actual social conditions of twentieth century dedocracy, disregarding the supernatural order and the spiritual element in man, was nothing more than a. form of naturalism regarding the child as haying no higher destiny than to be mouldeu and fitted into the democratic and social conditions of his time, said Father Kennedy. '. “We note with alarm the growing scorn of mental and moral discipline arising from such a theory and the disdain of what some are pleased to call the obsolete restraints of older systems of education,” he said. We are more than a little surprised to hear that educators assert that every kind of restraint upon the self-expres-sion of the child must be eliminated from his training.”

It was the height of folly to ignore the experience of the race and of the individual both of which confirmed the revealed doctrine of a tendency to evil, in man which daily called for silence and self-control, the very finest forms of self-expression. To claim, as many died, that they would emancipate the child from all forms of repression showed a woeful forgetfulness of the origin and destiny of the man, the rights of the Creator, and of obedience to his laws; not to mention the rights of one’s fellow-men. It was easy for self-expression to be synonymous with a supreme form of selfishness and self-indulgence which would result in making the child undisciplined, the slave of his blind egoism and of his many disordered tendencies to evil. _ .. The Christian system of education, on the other hand, endeavoured to produce a supernatural man of character who recognised his state of dependence upon his Creator, whose obedience to truth freed him from the bondage of ignorance and error, who was not a slave of his own passions or of any social order, but who would be able to mould and elevate his social environment in the light of Christian principles. Christian education would produce a man who would not succumb to the theories of any age but who would take a share in solving the problems of this life in the light of permanent truths. Such men would not consent to be mere cogs in a mechanised civilisation, but in the strength of revealed truth would elevate and spiritualise the age in which they lived and so attain their eternal destiny.

FAITH AND SACRIFICE. “In a time of crisis such as the present. when we are fighting a crusade in defence of truth, liberty, justice, and charity, we naturally turn to Him Who gave’ His life for the peace of mankind, for that peace which the world cannot give, for the peace that the world cannot take from the good and faithful servant,” Father Kennedy said. "Supernatural courage, the fruit of Divine faith, will enable us to make the sacrifice necessary to meet the trials that Providence sends us and bring us nearer the Cross, the sign in which we shall ultimately conquer. We take up the sword in defence of our Christian faitli first and foremost, and of that Christian civilisation which

stands for a peace founded on liberty, justice, and charity to all men of goodwill as well as fop the family and the j Fatherland. So it is the duty o£ all

to serve the cause of Christ, King and

Country to the limit of the supreme sacrifice if necessary, Tor greater love than this no man hath that he lay down his life for his friend.' " Many old boys of the college had offered their services in this crusade, and one. Pilot Officer B. G. L. Harker, had already given iiis life.

Archbishop O'Shea said that this war was to be feared not alone for the physical and material loss it would bring about, but lor the spiritual harm it could do. An investigation hy a Harvard professor disclosed that this century, only part-completed, was the bloodiest in the 25 proceeding it, from the number of wars and the losses from them a million of population. The future of coining generations rested with the youth of to-day, and in this respect young men educated in religious colleges had an advantage over others in that they had a true philosophy o£ life, They must be ag-

gressive in spreading truth. '1 hey could go into places where the clergy could noi and meet people who would not contact the clergy. It was truth alone which would bring happiness to a. sorely-tried world. The Minister for Justice and ActingMinister for Education (Mr. Mason) said that the expressions which had been used were profoundly true as to the issues agitating the world to-day.