GERMANY'S YOUTH AND FUTURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9093, 18 April 1891, Page 4

GERMANY'S YOUTH AND FUTURE.

By Emperor William II op Germany. His Majesty Emperor William of Germany delivered the following vigorous address on the sth December last, in Berlin, before the Committee on High School Reform, We copy the address from the "University Magazine" (New York), the translation having been made Professor Alonzo Williams, of Brown University :— Gentlemen,— I have asked the privilege of addressing to you a few words at the opening, because I deem it important for you to know in advance my views upon this subject, Very many matters will be discussed upon which no conclusion can be reached; and in my opinion many points will be left obscure; therefore it has seemed to me proper that I should not leave you in doubt as to my views.

Permit me to remark in the first place thai

the question at issue is in no respect a | political sohool question, but simply one of technical and pedagogical measures and methods, which we must adopt in order to train up our youth in accordance with the demands of modern life and of our present position in the world as a nation. At the outset I desire to say that I should have been pleased had we given to our proceedings not a French name, " Schul-Enquute," but a German one " Schul-Frage. " Frage "is the old German word for a preliminary investi-

gation, and I am bound to say this is more or less a preliminary investigation. Let us then name our discussion simply " ShulFrage." I have read through the 14 points, and find that we may easily go astray, and reduce all these questions to a mere matter of form. This I should regretin the highest degree. The most important thing is to grasp not merely the form, but the spirit of this subject. I have, therefore, on my part drawn up several questions, which I will have circulated, and 1 trust that thes too will receive consideration I—

Ist,—" School hygiene outside of gymnastics," a matter that must be weighed carefully. 2nd.—" Reduction of matter taught"—a weighing of that which is to be discarded. 3rd.—" Plans of work for the separate departments." 4th.~" The methods of instruction." sth. —" Is the principal load removed from the examinations 1" Gth.—"ls overburdening avoided for the future?" 7th.—" The subject of management—when the work has been accomplished." Bth.—"Regular and special revisions by various boards."

I lay these questions before you, and whoever is willing to examine them can inform himself further in regard to them. T he whole situation has gradually developed from the inherent necessities of the case. You face here a matter to which you will, I am firmly convinced, give such form and completeness that you may transmit the result to the nation as a ripe product. The cabinet order to .which the Minister had the kindness to refei just now would perhaps never have been necessary had the school occupied the position it should have occupied. I wish to say in advance, that if I become somewhat severe in my criticism I refer

to no man personally, but to the system to the whole condition. I can speak as one initiated, for I, too, have sat in the gymnasinm, and know how affairs go on there. If the school had accomplished that which is expected of it, then it would have on its own motion taken up in the beginning this fight against social democracy. The faculties of instruction as a body should have taken hold of the matter firmly, and have so instructed, the rising generation that these young men of about my age, 30, would have out of themselves developed already the material with which I might work in the State, and thus become more quickly master of the movement. This, however, has not been the case. The years 1864 and 1866-1870, where the last moments when our school was the potent factor in the life and development of our Fatherland. Then the Prussian schools, the Prussian faculties of instruction, were the standardbearers of German unity which was preached everywhere. Every graduate of the school, whether he went into the army as an einphriger, or entered upon the duties of life, all were unanimous upon this one point: the German Empire will be set up again and Alsace-Lorraine re-won. That ceased in 1871. The empire waa united. What we had desired was attained, and there we stopped. At that very point the school, starting from the newly-won base, should have entered upon a new campaign, should have inspired the young with, patriotism, and hav6 given them to clearly understand that there was a new political existence for them to maintain. Not a sign of thi3 has been observed; and already centrifugal tendencies are setting in. lamin a position to observe and estimate these accurately because of my elevated position. The cause of this condition is to be sought in the education of our youth. What then is lacking in that 1 Well, there is a lack in many places. But the one chief defect is this: since 1870 the philologues have sat sat in the gymnasium as " beati possidentes," and hare laid the chief stress upon the stuff they teach, upon the learning and the knowing, and not upon the development of character and upon the demands of modern life. You will pardon me, Privy Counsellor Hinzpeter, you are an inspired philologue, nevertheless this business has, in my opinion, reached a point beyond which it most assuredly shall not pass. Less importance is put upon ability than upon knowledge. This is disclosed, moreover, in the requirements set tor examinations. They argue, in accordance with this fundamental principle that the pupil must, before all things, know as much as possible. Whether or not what he knows is adapted to lite is a subordinate matter. When we enter into a conversation with one of the gentlemen engaged in this business, and we endeavour to make it clear to him that a youDg man should be trained, in some measure at least, for the practical duties of life, we receive the stock reply, " that is not the function of the school; the matter of chief importance is mental training—die Gymnastik dcs Geistes—and if this mental training has been prope'ly attended to, then the young man is in a condition, possessed of this mental training, to perform all required of him in life." From this standpoint no further advance can, in my opinion, be made.

To take up now the schools, and specially the gymnasium itself. I am well aware that in many circles I am regarded a fanatical opponent of the gymnasium, and I am heralded as in favour of qther forms of schools. Gentlemen, such is not the case. But one who has himself been at the gymnasium and looked behind the scenea knows where the lack is. And that which is lacking is before all else the national basis. We must take as a foundation for the gymnasium that which is German. We must train up national young Germans, and not young Greeks and Romans. We must surrender the basis which has existed for centuries, renounce the old cloister education of the Middle Age, in which Latin with a bit of Greek added was the standard. The German subject must be made the centre, and about this everything else revolve. If one at his graduation examination works out a faultless German essay or theme, we can determine the measure of that young man's intellectual development, and judge whether or not he'will be good for anything in lifo. Of course much is said in defence of the Latin theme; that the Latin theme also is a thing of great value, that the Latin theme is very good for training a man in a foreign language, and so on, and so on, Ah, yes, gentlemen, I have myself onoe been all through that. How then is generated this Latin theme or essay? Often have I had

"Scale of marks: 1-exoellent; la-very good 16-good; 2a— satisfactory; 2—fairly satisfactory 2b— Hot satisfactory; 3—deficient.

the experience of a young man who received on his German paper (four times, I may say) on the whole "satisfactory," and on his

Latin paper a "2." The man deserved punishment instead of praise, for it is evident he did not work out his Latin paper by

legitimate means. Of all the Latin themes there was not one in 12 which was not

worked up by similar means. And yet these papors were marked as " good." Such was the Latin essay. But when we had to write

an essay upon " Minna yon Barnhelm" at the Gymnasium, we received scarcely " satisfactory." * So I say, Away with the Latin essay! It is ruining us, and over it we are squandering time that should be given to

German subjects. In like manner I should like to see cultivated more earnestly that which is national in the departments of history, of geography, and of legendary lore. Let us begin at home. After we have taken account of what we find in the different rooms of our home, then we can go into the museum and look about there. Before all things else we must acquaint ourselves with the history of our Fatherland. To my school days the

Great Elector was only anebulous apparition. The Seven Yeats' War lay already outside all consideration, and all study of history closed with the last century—with the French Revolution. The wars for freedom, which for our young citizens are the matter of supremest importance, were not studied; and it is only through the supplementary and very interesting lectures of Privy Counsellor Hinzpeter that ever I have been so placed, thank God, as to learn of these matters. Here is the punctum saliena of this matter. Why are our young people led astray? Why are so many visionary, confused world-reformers springing up ? Why this constant carping against our Govern-

ment, this pointing as a rebuke to foreign countries 1 It is because our young people do not understand how our present conditions have developed, do not know that the roots are to be found in the period of the French Revolution. I am, therefore, without reserve of the firm conviction that if this period of transition from the French Revolution is made clear to our young people by a Bimple objective presentation of its fundamental principles they will thereby gain a comprehension of the questions of to-day wholly different from what they have had hitherto. Then will they be prepared to increase and improve further their knowledge by the supplementary lectures they hea,r at the university. Now take up the amount of work imposed upon the youth, It is imperative that we reduce the number of hours. Privy Counsellor Hinzpeter will remember that while I was in the gymnasium at Oassel there was heard the first cry of distress from our parents and families that matters could not go on any

longer as they were. As a result the board ordered a collection of statistics. We were required to submit every morning to our director a written report of the hours o£ home study we found necessary to master the task assigned for the following day. I will refer here only to the reports of the upper class, prima. Well, gentlemen, from wholly reliable returns the facji was disclosed that the individual pupils devoted from SJ, 6£ to seven hours to home study. And now 6 hours in school, 2 hours for eating, and you can compute what was left of the day. Had I not the opportunity of riding back and forth, and of moving about in other ways with freedom I never should have known how it looked in the world. Such tasks cannot bs imposed constantly and for ever upon young people. According to my judgment there is a positive demand for help in precisely the opposite direction in reducing our present requirements. It will not do, gentlemen, we must not stretch this bow any farther, nor leave it stretched as it is. We must retreat, we have already here passed the extreme limit. The schools—and herej again I mean the gymnasium—have exceeded the limits of humanity. They have, in my opinion turned out an all to great overproduction of the (so-called) learned, moie than the nation can dispose of, more even than the people can bear. The remark of Prince Bismarck upon this subject ■is correct, concerning our graduate-proletariat. This great body of so-called hunger candidates, particularly these Herren Journalisten, are all variously-starved gyronasists, and there are a menace to the nation. This surplus, already too great, must be reduced. Hereafter, therefore, I shall not approve any gymnasium, -which cannot establish absolutely the justification and necessity for its existence. We have enough. But the question now under consideration is how best to meet the wishes of those who desire a classical education, of those who desire a real education, and of those who desire to secure a certificate for a one year's voluntary service, I hold that the problem may be solved in a very simple manner. By one radical measure let us clear all views hitherto advanced. Let us say: Classical gymnasien with a classical education ; a second kind of schools with a real education; but no real gymnasien. The real gymnasien are but a half and-half; in them one obtains only the half of an education, and Ihe whole produces only a half in after ife.

Quite just is the complaint o£ the gymnasial directors in regard to the enormous load of pupils which they must drag along, pupils who never reach examination, who desire simply to get a. certificate for the one year's service. This condition is to be remedied by intercalating an examination at the point where the einjiihriger wishes to leave, and then by making his title to one year's service depend upon the fact that he present his leaving certificate for the real school, if he attends subsequently the real school. Then we shall soon find this whole army of candidates for one year's service going from the gymnasien to the real schools; and when they have gone through the Beal School they have what they seek. I will add here a second point to which I have already alluded: the diminution of the matter to be learned can be effected only by a simpler form of examination. If we remove the grammatical requirements wholly from the graduating examination and insert them" one or two classe3 lower, and there establish a technical grammatical examination, they can test the pupil as critically as they please; the test of the volunteer can be united with this examination, and also that for the ensign who wishes to become an officer, so that he may not have to pass this examination afterwards. As soon as we have thus modified the examinations and in this manner lightened the load of the gymnasien, then that which is of the greatest importance—training development of character, which has been lost in the school, and espesially in the gymnasien—will assume once more its proper place and value. At present we cannot secure this even with the best intention, since our classes are too large with 30 pupils in each, and since the tasks imposed are too heavy; and since, moreover, those who teach are often young persons, whose characters are still undeveloped. Here permit me to quote the maxim which I heard from Privy Counsellor Hinzpeter: "He who intends to educate others, must himself be educated." This cannot at present be asserted or our teaching personnel. To make training possible, the number in the class must be reduced. I have described the manner in which this may be brought about. The idea that the teacher is appointed simply to hear lessons, and when this task is performed his work for the day is ended, must be given up. If the school is to withdraw the young from the parental roof for such a length of time, it must assume the responsibilty for their training. If you train the character of the young, we shall have different graduates from those we now have. Furthermore we must renounce the principle which makes knowledge and not life the thing of chief importance. The young must be prepared for the practical life of the present day. I have noted some interesting statistics. There are in Russia 308 gymnasien and progymnasien with 80,979 pupils; 172 real gymnasien and real pro-gymnasien, with 34,465 pupils; CO upper real schools and higher burgher schools, without Latin, with 19,893 pupils. The certificate for one year's service was gained by G8 per cent, at the gymnasien, 75 per cent, at the real gymnasien, and 38 per cent, at the Latinless real institntions. The certificate of ripeness at the graduating examination was gained by 31 per cent, at the gymnasien, 12 per cent, at the real gymnasien, 2 per cent, at the upper real schools. Each pupil at the abovementioned institutions has about 25,000 study hours in school and at home, and of these only about 657 were for gymnastics. That is a load of mental labour which must most decidedly be reduced 1 For a pupil of 12, 13, or 14 years of age in the quarta and tertia the number of hours per week, including gymnastics and singing, amounts on the average to 32, and individual institutions to 35, and in the tertia of the real gymnasium to 37 Now, gentlemen, we are all more or ess matured, but even we could not endure continuously any such labour. The statistical data in regard to the spread of schoo toeases, particularly of shortsightedness of the pupils, are truly alarming; and for a number of diseases there is still a lack of collated statistics. Just consider the kind of youth that is growing up for the defence of the country. I look for soldiers; we wish to have a strong generation, which shall serve our Fatherland as intellectual leaders and as

civil offlcialß also. This great mass of shortsighted people is for the most part of no use. How can a man, who cannot now use his eyes, afterwards accomplish much? In certain institutions the number of shortsighted amounts to 74 per cent. I can state from my own experience that in spite of the fact that at Cassol we had a very good room, with excellent light on one side, and good ventilation, which was brought about upon the wish of my mother, yet there were among 21 pupils, 18 with spectacles, and two among them who, even with glasses, could not see the blackboard. Such a condition is its own condemnation. Interference is here demanded, and I, therefore, consider it imperative that the question of hygiene shall be taken up even in the preparatory institutions for teachers; that teachers receive a course of instruction in it; and that every teacher who is sound must understand gymnastics, and practice it daily. Gentlemen, these are in general the views which I have to lay before yon, matters which have stirred my heart; and I may further declare: the mass of letters, entreaties and wishes which I have received Erom parents lay upon me, the common father of the people, the duty of proclaiming that this shall go no further.

Gentlemen, men ought not to look at the world through spectacles, but with their own eyes,;and find pleasure in that which they see around them, their Fatherland and its institutions. You are now invited to assist in bringing about this result.