OUR IGNORANCE OF EMPIRE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9303, 1 August 1908, Page 2

OUR IGNORANCE OF EMPIRE.

(B* SYDNEY BROOKS, in the v Daily ' Mail.")

It is said that nearly three million *oiiool-ohildren have this year been actively engaged in the celebration of Empire Day. Ido not vouch for the ftccaracy. of tb* fibres, nor do they greatly iuatter. What is of far more toonient is the spirit and attitude that anay be deduced from them; and uo one with, eyes to see can have failed during- the past few days to observe on every, hand the tokens of what will prove little lees than a revolution in <taF : ;coniJeption of the Empire and its responsibilities. ' jSitihefto : in & reat Britain «aye taken patriotism for granted. We have taught Wetty nearly everything in our achSofe «&cjept citizenship. We have the best method of rearinga'n imperial race was by never menikoni&L '"&& Empire. Wo have gone upo|ii-tittt.principle that fh& public virtues m «aoro needed inculcating by lfessorisl^Bnd:'lectures than the domestic aff^tionfl ; that » knowledge of the^lag and'^ ifc^stands for could be trusted to ic^me Wthe unaided light of nature; Wt boys would grow into a 'B'ens^qf their imperial duties and po«#fop&3Jievitably as they would grow

' . 'ji«K&IttTIV£S BEFORE THE STATE. . ' I dtTiiot say that this principle is in frU respects a bad one. It is possible '''U»''Msis^V! Jingoes, just as it is posBible "'s& , ; train up citizens who in any ~vitsl cense are men without a fatherlan4* a*3& «* possible to make patriotism j^o&ymous with, a mere emotional fLagv&irving, just as it is possible to lnafeesitfesjtnonymous with nothing. Wo haifoPWided the a" B * danger, but wo Ihavt^afifen into the second; and the BecMdis the more perilous of the two. It is better for a State to risk, producing a "few exuberant hot-heads by teaching patriotism as a school subject thftn to 1 incur the certainty of universal 'apathy, by neglecting to teach it. We have pushed altogether too far Hht notion that civic duties, the State, the Empire, and the obligations of citijßenship nave no proper place in a school Burriculuin. Our educational system }tas been State-blind. It has lacked a national, and still more an imperial, iasis. :It has not brought the Empire . ntp/tiie' class-room, or imprinted upon Jig'^b^ttt of England either' any idea of tersopjil service and sacrifice for the ptate,j<or «ny conception of what Great Britain Wd Greater Britain signify in tho^ETOfid, of what they are and have beeaUand might be, of the work they haveMone and of all that still remains for 4hei& to accomplish. :■■■>: > nv.t. r

„4^K»BANCB OF BRITISH HISTOBT. 1 flo-nsequences are almost wholly miwhkvous. The average English boy gprojwaKttP with but the haziest realisation pf the imperial heritage bequeathe&eto&jxiijte Bo is more fortunate than I was if- &e ever hears the Empire even mentioned" by his teachers. Of Englisjb^attd especially of British, history fee i»^«is. a 'rule, abysmally ignorant. Afterjoicricieen or thereabouts it is a closed book-io him. As I look back on my own achjooldays — and I do not think that thna^u have greatly altered since tjbeaM^-*e^lise that I dabbled in the lugtd*y ; ''43if ; -every century except the sUnetfee&tib; was taught far more about GreeW S#d Rome than about modern grew np without even retoeivmg'S -Hint that between myself and She. community of which I was to form M #art itHera could be any possibility bf i debt to be paid or a service Tcn25>fly manage these things better in ' iWnee. Tnere the organised teaching ' I cH&enrihip obtains throughout, and i rtot fc cajled "instruction ciyique" is i yegnlar -part oi the education curriigltinK. , Ifrom the age of eleven boys iad fllrla are , taught everything that «O&ro$ the life of the citizen, his poikioTi ija regard to the State, his rights, fotlesL anil, responsibilities', publio- and irivftte. - 'EVery pupil is made familiar ■ riSl tne machinery of government, tatil fti home in France and iv her coloitfeji,. and the names and achievements A K^r Toiost distinguished sons are kept } tret iv<sk in the children's minds.

■*" <•, „,/THB KAISER S DICXCiT. li. Germany every State has accepted ♦nd acted upon the Kaiser's dictum that-W wol ought to educate young Ger£yMi%r:iM>t young Greeks or Roanana7r^'^d> fr° m the primly school to Ise~ university, a knowledge of German history in the nineteenth century and a tf;nscious and disciplined spirit of national service are zealously inculcate^ Qr^go, again, into any public Bcho#%i' ; any part of America, watch the children assemble, march off to their classrooms in military formation, and befcffi'the day's work by taking a vow <&Floyalty to their country and its Cong&t&tidii f and confess that there is eoim©£ning in the" little ceremony of a reap Satienal and nationalising value. ;I ; tnihk' in this matter we have been deegfomg^ ourselves. We hare talked. about 5 - not vulgarising or cheapening the f!!te&; about patriotism being one of -tKiy Natural emotions; about Eng-

liabJEnen/ ; hating to stout from the hbafe-f^ps the things that lie really near wiif 'hearts; about the racial instinct: fg^floing instead of talking ; and th© radial aversion from public display and fttf&xl expression. All these pretty Sftiiiulffl* we have rehearsed a«am and'Sg^H^as an excuse for doing nct^jtr^ ■■■'■■ But if we will face facts instead of tidtiit&tttg at them, we shall have to admit taat adherence to these^ theories may ba dearly purchased. It is dearly purchased, for instance, when you find, as m Ettfc&md you do find, that patriotism, while a natural emotion, as too often very little else, that it is not reinforced by knowledge ot associated •witli obligations or directed towards national ends, and that its resultant product I|3 consequently meagre, aimle^ »b 4 itteffaetftal. The British people are jurifc •«* patriotic as any other people, so tfar ' as ; the elemental fund of eenti; tnefttjis concerned. But the quality of fcn^-f&triotisin averages deplorably low. It has not the same basis in reason a-xi&'information, it is not so intelligent, land theref ore it is not so effectare as the patriotism of Germany. "■- AND INSPIRATION. iigaitt, one of the worst results of ©uj •P rfl^4 cc °^ forgetting that the boy of TO-dgj? is to bo the citizen of to-mor- S XoWjLjkiifat as a nation we bay© practieaHy iio consciousness of the past. The Jrfeh^aVe] the Americans have, but wo liava not. .Our ignorance of history , of oii|?oswf i^speci a "5 r ' deprives us of the »m«''Aßd*rnspiration we should draw h&k ft,'' and renders us almost incapable of understanding those to whom the piiieseat is also th© past. Our people are left 1 To pick up as best they can some notion of who and what they are, and of til© P art their co" ntj 7 P lays m the gvfca*/ drama of world-politics. The is that most of them pick up ni><. notion at all. Happily the signs accumulate of a tardy ,pbu,t sweeping, reaction against lift educational system that by ignoring ibe patriotic emotions was devitalising item, and, that was turning out upon the World thousands upon thousands of young irwi with no knowledge of or Feeling" for the past, with a sense of Empire limited to a vague, irresponsible pride of ownership, ar,d with scarcely even 1 , the beginnings of a State conscience. One sees the proofs of this reMtio/n/ in. every direotion. The Flag i 6 no. longer considered too sacred an emblem to float from the top of a school building} the Empire is finding or forcing its way even into the text-books. Tha rifle clubs and the nregnant «p---pealirf Mt Haldane'e Territorial Array scheme are: battering a breach into the old, haphazard, comfortable notion that the State should do everything for the peopi* anxHlie people nothing for the Stew. The surprising multiplication of wecsßfe r all over the country is stirring' the historical consciousness of the nation and doing the work that tho Eehools neglect. Little bx kWw Wo are

becoming accustomed to celebrating the «;reat events in our past by something moro than a dinner. Little by little we are realising that the possession of Empire carries with ifc the duty of learning something of its history and of educating the electorate to discuss its problems with intelligence.