PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIANS AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 33, 14 December 1883, Page 19

PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIANS AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

(From the jr. T. Freeman.) ''s^« r^«*. *{ ich i 8 ra PP osed *<> speak for the more conserve o^*^ 1188 a n <>ticeable editorial on what it caUs the £?£** P °Wc School System,' which could as well be printed in the Freeman, * Journal The fact is worth recording as a sign of the times of a certain kind. ' A great many people,' says the editor •h* .ides the clergy of the Romaf Church, aSyS^k £td think of it as much as they do, and it is obvious that the^question mu£ become the subject of searching investigation. Suffice it to say that ■any so-called educational system which simply informs or traina tiS inteUect while the moral and spiritual partS/maSTompSnatare is left to take care of itself, can produce only 'clever deVils.' Tne Churchman in the same connection, enters a vigoroul protest ■against • the unutterable trashiness of a great deal of what ii 1 called SSJwvSf f P«pai'e itforthe final course of tales, the in■S°*Z ?? «*)*«». ™ W°ai. murder, suicide, blasphemy, etc.' I L done aCtftT^° Dg mdlctment ' the I Qeßtioa ™ £ what i. to \ The Churchman is not among our exchanges ; we ouote the I SffirfrM o^? 1 andwell-informe! correspondent of tbe Philadelphia Ledger, who seems, if we may judge from the inISiSF**^^??**™^ iQtrodu «« into Wadmirably condensed New Fork letters, to have sound opinions on education He SSff-n 1 ? 68 C^ to *° iut out that the *» of non-CathoUc opinion is not entirely with a system « which simply informs or trains tfie, intellect, while the moral and spiritual part of maS comSS ■nature is left to take care of itself." ™ complex It is good to see the Churchman, following the freeman's *■**• md> I h6n f lf ; conceifc *°d VoraL g are eSoSaged b? a w£~ «? 5l \ Oh S dl ha - 9 anawered the qa-ai'ta ■ aSSta? SS£ where the schoolhouse is arising beside the church. The only school ffSLfS^^fT' 83 Catholics, priests and laymen, Ts *w£m? M °° Is ?* Ore Chrißtianand more practical Sf X il° ° Ols ar M not °? ly but impractical. «,«„ 5? m £v lie8 a SBUle at this : " Impractical ? Bigoted nonsense ! Look at theeducation they give I They give a pf or boy a •college education. They are the bulwarks of liberty " 7 The most successful men—successful in commerce, and in all the practical walks of life-iu this country, are those that neve? entered * freepubhe school. The fathers of the present generation are *more practical if less unscrupulously clever, more thrifty if less « SnteeY" ?h°a« iffSE" and fru ? ai; £ less " Bmart " nioresolS and honfst, SSlSv^fiTi?^? 1 * m^ ° f that curse their luck on high stools and long to be Jay Goulds or Yauderbttts Americans of the United States are not unlike the £w£ fore China opened her coasts. They have drawn smTtw . Xreat wall of .tariff they have built* a till toweTcSSd a pubHc* school system, and the noise of the little bells hung on this towS fills their ears so that they cannot bear any other sound TherTlS who L??X \i h f!? r*"? 1 a Nation of young persona 5. ff?^° g ? 7 ******* to w °rk with their hands. What; they ia^ulnabSur? * gI ° nn ° n8 fiyßtem ' * ifc dOM not P ut fl "»a'»2S And it does put him above manual labor. He, if his parents can •afford to keep him at school long enough, gets so mucKlSJetttbat he never learns to descend to it. He floats high above it, 2d when JSKhT 11 ? 1 Ufa l he r hi^ K S ht of reaUt y he comedo Tarth with a bump. These schools give c boy some shallow instructions in the humanities, if be be xich enough to remain kT them Ti fS^ tth BeeXpeDß8 eeXpeDB \ Of thep ° Or need the servic^'f t£eS children. So many, howeveT, take advantage of this privilege that -wSff? ? UW> ? 6diCine ' etC " g yJu?g «mea that are burdens on their already overburdened parentsf an exceedingly admirable editorial in the Journal SfConimero* T S August 14tb, we quote a few sentences which terSly SpreS'thl effect of a system which makes "genteel loafers " as well m « clevS dewto." After stating that the number of non-producers^h^d ]S SSSd 1 JU that in former times the great bosy O J ThLTj J&% expected to earn their own hying in some way, the writer in the ■Journal of Commerce says : "In a great majority of families, the only idlers were the ver* i?S». « 0W tbe must oe waited on instead of waS? on others. The sons are looking for employment which wiTftfvi

them a living without the old-fashioned manual labor, and if they earn a few dollars a week the sum is hardly sufficient for their little dissipations and personal adornments. Instead of a whole family lending their aid to the common thrift, one pair of shoulderi is expected to bear the burden of the household liter - a J^ Q . head on that P^ 1 " of shoulders owes nothing to a system of inflated ignorance and mock education that has brought about the state of things so graphically painted in the Journal of Commerce. Is it practical to fill young people with false ideas of life ? To overcrowd the cities with young teachers who can never get pupils? " The world with teachers is so covered o'er, There is no room for teachers any moie. " Kb crowd the streets with youth that can not condescend to mechanical labor ; to make clerical work such a drug in the market that the wage of it falls below living rates t . To make foolish young' people believe that they are too good for the occupations of their' fathers, because they can " bound " Africa oa the map and manipulate What are they going to do about it f Conceited ignorance is so common ; ignorance upholds the public schools, and they produce conceit and ignorance. It is a vicious circle. For Catholics, the Church has decided. There is no school question. They know -what they ought to do. When the nonCathohc American people begin to think, they may answer the question in a reasonable way.