THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS'

New Zealand Tablet, 29 February 1912, Page 17

THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS'

ANi APPRECIATION (For the N .Z. Tablet, by M.H.) ‘ The duty is twofold, to God and to His children.’ This is the statement of the educational problem by a typical Catholic educator. Rev. Mother Janet Ersxine Stuart, Superior-General of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, in her recent book on the subject. The method she advocates is the training of teachers who love knowledge and children; for, as she points out, a deficiency in either of these qualifications detracts from the value of the teacher. This central idea is developed in fourteen chapters, which are devoted to the question in its different aspects. Perhaps the most striking of these chapters are the two devoted to character, for it is here that the authoress shows, herself to possess what is claimed for her in the Archbishop of Westminster’s preface— ‘ a long and intimate acquaintance of the work of which she writes.’ Indeed, her summary of the types of character to be met with in a large girls’ school is like the legendary crystal ball of ancient magic. As the reader advances, shadowy and long-forgotten shapes appear in his mind, which presently resolve themselves into the lineaments of old schoolfellows, ‘in their habit as they lived,’ so clear and true to life are the character sketches, of the authoress. , Her intimate grasp of the child’s point of view is almost startling in its fidelity; suggesting as it does the presence of a familiar spirit, aged precisely eleven, whose whisperings ensure a youthful outlook on life. Many examples of this almost uncanny faculty might be given, but one must suffice. Speaking of recitations suitable for children, and in particular, of ‘We Are Seven,’ Mother Stuart says: ‘ Children can be taught to say it, even with feeling, but their own genuine impression of it seems to be that the little girl was rather weak in intellect for eight years old, or a little perverse.’ And as an example of her understanding of children of a larger growth, take this: ‘What is most persuasive of all is a wholehearted love for real truth and beauty in those who teach them. Their own glow of enthusiasm is caught, light from light, and taste from taste; and ideal from ideal; warning may be lost sight of, but this is living spirit and will last —‘ the keenness which shows forth a settled conviction that life is worth living.’ A characteristic portion of the book is the chapter on Catholic Philosophy, which, since the foundation of the Society of the Sacred Heart, has held an honored place in its schools. Her plea for the inclusion of this subject is simple. ‘ The connection between reason and faith being once established, the fear of permanent disagreement between the two, which causes so much panic and disturbance of mind, is set at rest.’ It is in this chapter that a typically Catholic habit of thought is displayed: Mother Stuart is so concerned as to the training of the ‘ average mind,’ she is so thoughtful for mediocrity. Herein she shows herself a true daughter of that great Church which is a Mother to the least, as well as to the greatest minds among her children. EonCatholic religion acknowledges that its highest and purest truths are only for the great minds which can penetrate to them through the dangerous mazes of private judgment; and non-Catholic education is apt to lay the same stress upon the advancement of the exceptionally gifted scholar. But to the Catholic teacher, the most mediocre mind among her pupils is the receptacle for the full Catholic revelation, and it must be cared for accordingly.

Despite the Catholic tone of the book, however, it must be something of a surprise to Protestant readers to find Mother Stuart deprecating the concealment of abuses, past or present, within the Church. Her wise advice, both as to the teaching of history and religion, is to give children ' nothing to unlearn,' and that ' the least insincerity in the presentment of truth brings its own punishment.' But it is not only in the question of religion that such liberality is shown. The different chapters are prefaced by quotations from the literature of every age and country. Elizabethan essayists, Angli-

can clergymen, French and German classics, American authors, and British poets of the present generation are all pressed into the service to provide texts for these conventual homilies; and the metaphors include such alien illustiations as the modern methods of' warfare, with their technical differences from those of the last century. The book is the product of the spare moments of a busy life, moments snatched with difficulty from a lifework of teaching and governing; it is not the finished work of a leisured authoress. For these reasons it possesses no studied graces of style, being for the most part a piactical discussion of practical questions. But heie and there come beautiful thoughts which will linger long in the mind of the reader. For examole: ‘Vigilance over children is no insult to their honor; it is rather the right of their royalty, for they are of the blood royal of Christianity, and deserve the guard of honor which for the sake of their royalty does not lose sight of them. Nature-study brings the minds of children to the place where many ways meet; to the confines of science, for they want to know the reasons of things; to the confines of art, for what they can understand they will strive to interpret and - express; to the confines of worship, for a child’s soul, hushed in wonder, is very near to God.’ ‘lt is wanting in couitesy, it is almost uncouth for us to grow un without any knowledge of the language of Holy Church.’ Even if we read (to children) something that is beyond them, they have listened to the cadences, they have heard tne song without the words, the words will come to them later.’ As to the question of the higher education of women, and their position in the world ; her treatment is almost that of a Catholic Ruskin. Mother Stuart’s phrase, ‘ Divine right of queenstrue queen of the borderland between both worlds,’ enshrines the: same idea as Ruskin’s famous essay ‘Of Queen’s Gardens.’ But it is when they both descend to practical matters that the distinctive Catholic and womanly touch is seen. Ruskin s cut-and-dried relegation of woman to a purely domestic career is apt to raise an unreasoning irritability m the breast of a woman reader. But Mother Stuart, while holding opinions almost identical with -those of Ruskin, speaks of domesticities from the practical standpoint of experience. She is able to point out the influence of material duties in healing and calming the mind, and saving it from ‘nerves,’ and with a particug*l 7 graceful touch of spirituality, she establishes a likeness between the rough life of the colonies, and the first foundations of Benedictines in the early ages of European civilisation. It is in connection with this subject that she employs one of her happiest phrases, descriptive of the work of lay Sisters in a religious house : The jubilant onset of their company in some laborious work is like an anthem rising to God, bearing witness to the happiness of labor where it is part of His service.’ 1 Indeed, in spite of the modern, up-to-date, and keenly practical outlook of the book, the most casual leader cannot miss the spiritual note which pervades it, and gives the distinctive tone to its ideals. It is a work which bears about it the fragrance of that which is the secret strength of Religious in their educational labors an Upper Room to which they can withdraw and build up again in prayer and intercourse with one another their ideals of life and duty.’

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