The Evils of Divorce

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6633, 21 August 1931, Page 12

The Evils of Divorce

ITS CHIEF VICTIMS. "OEPHANED" CHILDEEN A sad result of divorce is that the children of divorced parents arc apt to fail at school and grow up without education, states the ‘‘Literary Digest." Indeed, the fact is so well known, according to Dean Christian Gauss of Princeton University, that many headmasters of preparatory schools exclude children who are “orphaned" through divorce. They refuse to accept such children, he said in a recent address, because they feel that the careers of the children are foredoomed to failure. Dean Gauss said further: ‘‘The child living in such a homo tends to become ‘a lone wolf" at school. Ho has no loyalty to cither parent, and is acutely unhappy. This unhappiness, of course, is a sign* of maladjustment. When the school accepts the boy, it cannot, in two or three years, undo the evil effects of his entire life in such a household. The reason for most children’s failure is that they are not socialised enough, lack poise. This fault is directly traceable to the parents. Behaviour patterns acquired by the child in his homo stick to him throughout his life. The situation of children mado unhappy by the divorce of their parents is becoming aggravated through the increasing popularity of divorce." Dean Gauss’ testimony, comments the Now York ‘‘Catholic News," bears out What Catholics have always said of this ‘‘new national menace—that it is a destroyer of the home, and that its evil influence is bound to affect the unfortunate children of divided parents. ‘ ‘ Tho News goes on:— ‘ ‘ Tho Catholic Church has been condemned by the liberals because of its ‘medievalism 5 in upholding old teachings on marriage and other things. ‘‘But enlightened folk like Dean Gauss arc moro frequently coming out with statements that confirm the wisdom of the Catholic Church.”