INVERCARGILL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 2, 10 May 1895, Page 8

INVERCARGILL.

(From an occasional Correspondent.)

_ April 4, 1895. How fond are geographers of pointing <o Catholic countries the finger of scorn in educational matters. With few exceptions one can be anre on opening the text books used in ichools that where the predominant religion of a country is given as Roman Catholic there also will be found the unblushing statement, "Education, backward." Franae, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium— all fall under tbe ban. "Nogoodoan come out of Israel" appears to be the doctrine of these gentry. It may not then be considered amiss if we examine for a moment the schools of Switzerland, which are unquestionably rtgarded with pride by the inhabitants of that sturdy little republic, and with admiration by the world at large. Conspicuous among the devoted band of educational reformer! shines brilliantly tbe name of Jean Girard, whose good work stands second only to that biirh priest cf educational reformers— Pestalozxi. Jean Girard was bom at Fribourg in 1765. At sixteen years of age be joined the order of Grey Friars at Lucerne, and taught in several convents after completing his novitiate. In 1804 he was chosen prefect of studies of the primary school of his native town The following encomium will show the extent of his success after ten years' teaching :— " He had trained a body of youth the like of which, perhaps, no city in the world would furnish* It was not without profound emotion that the friends of humanity contemplated a spectacle so new and so touching. : ... If, seeing children approaching you in rags, yru approached them thinking that you were about to encounter little ruffians you were wholly surprised to hear them reply to you with politeness, with judgment, and with the accent which bespeaks genteel manners and a careful education." The schools of Switzer. land are to-day among the most successful and systematically taught of any in tbe world. If anyone deserved credit for it is undoubtedly Pare Girard, who belonged to that body which, we are told, endeavours to keep its members in ignorance, yet which produced a Galileo, a Michael Angelo, a Columbus, a T.>ss->, a Titian, a Raphael ; to that body which endeavours to stamp out of its adherents all liberty of thought and action, yet which produced the patriot Tell, the Bruce of Baonockburn. To what then, it may be asked, was the great success of Per* Girard's teaching due. The answer is supplied in his reply to Pestalozzi. " I made the remark," he writes, *'to my old friend Pestalozzi that the mathematics exercised an unjustifiable sway in his establishment, and that I fuared the results of this on the education that was given. Wherenpon be replied to me with spirit, as was his wont, ' This is because I wish my children to believe nothing which cannot be demonstrated as clearly to them as two and two make four. 1 My reply was in the same strain, 'In that case, if I had thirty sons 1 wou'd not entrust one of them to you for it would be impossible for you to demonstrate to him as you can tbat two and two make four that I am his father, and that I have a right to his obedience.' " It seems to me that the above quotation is very pertinent to the presentj position of educational matters in N«w Zealand. We are often told that the time for teaching religion is a paltry half-hour on Bundajs. In effect this contention means that religion is to be divorced from the ordinary pursuits of life, to be like a garment which is put on or off at will, to be used as an ordinary matter of business when tbe occasion suits. It is to combat this spirit that Catholics are manfully maintaining an unequal warfare. We wish to see our citizens grow up with their whole course in life guided by a bigher purpose than mere business saccess, by an aim whicb wil raise them out of their sordid selves, which will make their charity embrace all mankind, which will make them " build o'er again the atrium of their bouls, bo broad that all mankind may rtst therein," and by which they will leave on the sands of time

" Footprints tbat perhaps another Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother Seeing, shall take heart again." That this was the aim of Girard's teaching no one will doubt who reads the purport of Yilleman upon the school at Fribourg, wherein he remarks « That only is then the real people's school in which all the elements of study serve for the culture of tbe soul, and in which tbe child grows better by the things which he learns, and by the manner in which he learni them." Fere Girard spent the concluding years of hiß life in seclusion, bat he still continued to take a deep interest in the cult of education. He published two works " L'Enseignment Begulier de la Langue Maternelle " (Systematic teaching of the mother tongue), and the " Oours Educatif de la Langue Matornelle (Educative course in the mother tongue). The former of these two works was orowned by the French Academy, and in France and Italy the infloence of Pere Girard has been all powerful in determining what shall be the charte'er of their principles and method. Pfce Girard was also noted for his extreme toleration in proof of which may be cited the fact, that bis drawing master at Fribourg was a Protestant, and that all his teachers there were laymen. I cannot do better than conclude with the following clipping from a leading educational journal, when referring to Ptre Girard :— " For this we shall the more honour and respect the sturdy Swiss, placing him not far below Pcstalozzi, because of his championship of education as opposei to instruction, because of his advocacy of the inductive method, because of his recognition of the all-importance of moral instruction, because of his life- long devotion to the cause of education, as well as for the manly stand he made for toleration and large-mindedness, whereby we are compelled to acknowledge that here was not only a true teacher, but a true man, a good and faithful servant, meriting perpetual remembrance."