A Plea for the Boys

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 43, 24 October 1907, Page 10

A Plea for the Boys

1 A school for learning ', says Drummond, ' is not so much a place < for making scholars as a place for making souls '. Even the pagan Juvenal pleaded with parents to develop- the character of their children—to mould them in mind and heart and soul—before flinging them into the arena of life. - One of his translators Englishes the plea in the following quatrain :— ' Bid him, besides, his daily pains employ To form the tender manners of the boy, And work him, like a waxen babe, with art, To perfect symmetry in every part.' The 'True Voice ' raises a Similar plea, in a recent issue. Tt says :— 'It is a truism to assert Lhat education is power. Other things being equal, the educated man will get more out of life and accomplish more than his uneducated brother. Fie may not succeed in amassing more wealth, but he will make a better use of" his wealth, he will understand better that the accumulation cf riches is not the whole of life. ~Yet even from the standpoint of worldly success the man of superior education has The advantage. The time and money spent in acquiring an education are a good business investment for the young man of average talent. Many parents are inclined to overlook this fact. They are so anxious io grasp present gains that they forget the future. The boy in the family is usually the one who suffers most from their short-sightedness. He can earn money, so he is taken from school and put to work. He doesn't object, as a rule". He cannot be expected to understand the value of the education he is neglecting. He regards it as manly to earn his living and is anxious to associate with men and -work with them. But parents should look a little beyond the present. There is no regret of after years more poignant than that of opportunities neglected in youth that would have made life more livable. The regret of -a grown mian that he has not had an education is especially keen when he 'realizes that it was within his reach at one time.' * ' A good many people ', says Bpurgeon, ' cast their bread upon the waters, expecting fluttered toast as^ a result '. May not this foriri of domestic usury—a certain habit many parents have of looking rather openly upon their children in the light of investments chiefly— account in some degree for the lack of reverence and of home affectiion which is said 1 to prevail among the young in these countries ? Other and more important contributing causes might also be mentioned. But it seems to us that many young lives in the Dominion and the Common wealth are stunted, -warped, and misdirected by the grasping keenness of numerous parents to exploit them prematurely, and without the pressure of proper justification, for what they are worth as money-raising machines. This is a poor business proposition, even from the. view-point of a mere investment. And from the social and religious points of view there arises a serious disadvantage in under-educa-ting Catholic boys by comparison with Catholic girls. In too many cases its result upon the girls is the production of a patronising, hoity-toity, contemptuous spirit towards their brothers and their brothers' Catholic companions and equals, and a tendency to prefer fine clothes and superficial-smartness of manner, amongsuitors, to true faith and solidity of character. The upshot is an increase in nixed marriages, and the contributions which these unions commonly make to the forces of indiflercntism and infidelity/ We do not sug-

gest less care fortlie girls, but plead for more for the boys—and for both the best in true education and right training that family circumstances will allow. There is surely a middle course between making a girl a sort of parlor ornament or fairy queen, and relegating her brother to the social awkward squad.