"SEND THE WHOLE CHILD TO SCHOOL."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 44, 2 March 1894, Page 17

"SEND THE WHOLE CHILD TO SCHOOL."

(i {fßjgC* END the whole boy to school " was a common phrase some years ago among American eduiwSlt cators. We re-echo the words of these transJhm^P Pacific enthusiasts, and call upon our fellow JMB^ 1 colonists, if they would really educate their *9JHMw£ children and save this young btate from eaily VjpK ruin, to "send the whole child to school, that it may be trained physically, intellectually, and morally." A system which ignorrs physique and attends merely to tbe development of intellect is defective A system which cares for body and mind and neglects the direction of soul is imperfect. That system of education is alone worthy of the name which draws out all the faculties, which perfects all the powers, and enables man to fulfil his obligations and do his duty to his Creator and to hts fellowman. One portion of our being must not receive undue consideration at the expense of another. Body, mind and soul — the whole man — should be the object of every genuine system of education. We certainly should " send the whole child to school." While intellectual and moral progress are sedulously fostered, care at the same time must be given to the development of the powers of the body. Without doubt physical development receives considerable attention iv our colonial schools. This is as it should be. While depreciating the extent of the prevalent era/,) for athletics and ou - door games, we cannot but stiougly insist on the necessity of well-lighted, properly -ventilated schoolrooms, and the importance of suitable instruction ami rational exorcise in calisthenics and gymnastics. Due regard to personal cleaolmess and bodily comfort help uiocu to raise the tone ot a school and brighten the school life. '1 he rapid advancement made by healthy, happy eh ldren shows how important it is to have a sound body in order to possess a sound mind. " Men,s sana in enrpvre taito." Children should be made to like their school. The surroundings should, as far as possible, be cheery and agreeable. With a view to habits of cleanliness — great factors in the cause of health — untidiness in every shape and form should be elituiuated from floors, desks, walls, and buildings. If children are iaught to refrain from defacing or injuring their schools or educational appliances, the property of others will be more scrupulously respected in after life. Eyesight is not unfrequently injured and permanently injured, by the badly lighted schoolroom, where constant straining of the eyes is the result of defective arrangements. It is a matter of much consequence that carefully constructed desks be always used. Ninety per cent of cases of spinal curvature occur, according to a surgeon of note, during school life. This should not be. Good desks are as cheap as bad desks. A little knowledge of proper school requisites will remedy many drawbacks in this direction. Adequate ventilation is of the very highest importance. It does not always receive the attention from architects which it merits. The schoolrcom should be so constructed that without opening the window! and inducing catanhal affections, the temperature may be readily kept between GO and 70 degrees, instead of 70 and 80, as experienced in too many instances. It is clearly the duty of teachers who are in loco parmtis to conserve the health, and steadily develop the powers of the body. The cultivation of the powers of the mind 6eems to be the one great aim of modern educational sciolists. Tbe aboitive attempt at producing intellectual giants has resulted

in the prevalence of moral pigmies : all head and no heart the mind cared for and the heart neglected. Thus may the secular education folly of the day be fitly described. It is at present doubtful, even if the direct object of a misguided system is attained. It should aim at preparing the young to take their place in life The many complaints constantly made lead even the superficial observer to conclude that " cramming in " a certain amount of information takes the place of " drawing out " the faculties which should be the study of every true educator. The acquiring of a given amount of knowledge may be called instruction : it is not education. The cultivation of the power of thinking rightly, the enabling a child to make use of all the opportunities afforded by the special talents which he possesses, this is more important thau packing the mental storehouse with food which will in great part never be assimilated. We read much in the New Zealand Press of the superiority of the public schools, and we hear much in everyday conversation of the inferiority ot pupils trained under this godless, heartless system. In the good old times, when schools were fewer and appliances were rude, it was not a difficult matter to find a good reader and to meet with pupils who spoke the English language with fair accuracy ; now, in this age of progress, and of lightning activity, good readers, even among those who attend our High Schools, are, judging by frequent complaints, somewhat scarce, and glaring mistakes in spoken and written language are deplorably common. There is one element in modern school life which is unfortunately met at every turn — the prevalence of intense conceit, the great desire for pleasure, and a distaste for labour and serious study. The prevailing system may turn out pupils with a smattering of knowledge. We are convinced that almost completely ignoring, as it does, the training of thj heart, it will turn out few real scholars. Sciolists may be legion; scholars will be few. The words of the Superintendent of Instruction in California, Mr Carr, are worthy of consideration in this connection :—": — " Two things," he says, " are especially to be noted in our popular education. It usually leads to no interest in literature, or acquaintance with it, nor to any sense of the value of history to modern men — a serious defect ; and its most general character and result are a distaste for manual labour." Very often have these last words been verified in our own colony. There is such a thing as over instruction in certain branches of comparatively slight use, and too little care paid to the fostering of special ability to enable the possessor to make his mark in life. In a system in which all are Cist in the same mould, and all wear the same small shoe, there is a danger that much latent talent and hidden force will he dormant and useless. This danger we have to face and guard against in our Catholic schools. No doubt, from an intellectual point of tiew, our schools are | successful. Indeed, where, as in Western Australia, schools are assisted by Government and periodically examined by official inspectors, the results are emineutly satisfactory. But teachers, and inspectors, and patrons of schools must always bear in mind that scholastic success is not the lie plus ultra of education. School is the noviciate for the world. The good teacher merely enables the pupil to construct a bunch ot keys with which he will unlock the halls of success. Whither or not our schools hold front rank in systematic miud-culturc, there is no doubt we hold the unique and gratifying position of trainers of the soul. We believe with the immortal O'Connell that " education without religion is worse than ignorance," and with Guizot that "to make education truly good and socially useful it ciUht be fundamentally religious. National education must be given and received in the midst of an atmosphere religious." We Catholics do not restrict education to mind culture. We believe that Huxley spoke truly when he said, " if 1 «vi a knave or a fool, reading or writing will not make me Kbh bo." The incomplete education ut the public eehools system may change the trend of criminality. It will not eradicate crime. It will not even lessen crime. Our secularists would do well to ponder the words of the Church Quarterly Bcview : " Ignorance ot the three R's is not the cause of crime. The real cause is our depraved nature — our anger, greed, lust, and these will break out into crime under favourable circumstances, both among the literate and illiterate, unless they are brought into subjection by religious training." As we said last week, morality cannot be adequately taught and enforced without religion. There will not be sanction for virtue, the motives of policy and expedience used to keep men

Straight will not long safeguard virtue. We fear that the modern conscience trained under the aegis of secularism is much after the idea of the little boy, who, on being a»ked f " What is the conscience?" replied, "It's what makes you sorry when you get found out." Do not get found out. Do not let your criminality appear in the police register or the morning paper. Keep square and straight before the public gaze. That seems to be the commandment loyally observed by our so called cultured youih. Statistics do not rev. al widespread criminality of a nature, to sap the foundations of society and menace the existence of the State. In a paper read a few years ago before the Louisiana Educational Society, the writer boldly asserts that " insanity and immorality are less common in proportion to population in the « illiterate ' Southern States than in New England, which has made a god of godless education." What has happened in America will find place —■indeed, has already found place— in our colonies. We cannot forget the strong words used by the Presbyterian synodal committee a year or so ago about the " sheer paganism pervading the youthhood." We cannot close our eyes to the increasing depravity of the semi-instr acted, wholly-vicious larrikin class. We commend to the careful consideration of m Government which is guilty of gross, long-continued injustice to the only section of the community which strives to give complete education, the words of Biciiard Grant White, in the North American Review, some years back. " Vice has increased almost pan passu with the development of the public school system, which, instead of lifting the masses, has given us, in their place, a nondescript, hybrid class, unfit for professional or mercantile life, unwilling, and •lmost unable, to be farmers or artizens." We do not wonder at the state of things depicted by this and other American writers. When we read the words of Dr R. J . Storer that " increase of population is limited almost wholly to the foreign element," and of Dr Kkllog, who says out that " crime threatens the existence ot the commonwealth," we reflect that the evils bewailed in America are showing themselves in this new land, we recall to mind the words of Gladstone, " Every system which places religion in the background is pernicious," and we earnestly call on all true citizens to attend to the religious training of their children , and to " send the whole child to school."