+======================+=========+
YHighly educated Y 998,000Y
+----------------------+---------+
YEqual with Scotland Y5,355,000Y
+----------------------+---------+
YNot equal with EnglandY5,840,000Y
+----------------------+---------+
YUneducated Y6,000,000Y
+======================+=========+
This census is an estimate of 1836, sufficiently near for the purpose.
It is supposed that the population of the united States has since
increased about two millions, and of that increase the great majority is
in the Western states, where the people are wholly uneducated. Taking,
therefore, the first three classes, in which there is education in
various degrees, we find that they amount to 12,193,000; against which
we may fairly put the 5,000,000 uneducated, adding to it, the 2,000,000
increased population, and 3,000,000 of slaves.
I believe the above to be a fair estimate, although nothing positive can
be collected from it. In making a comparison of the degree of education
in the United States and in England, one point should not be overlooked.
In England, children may be sent to school, but they are taken away as
soon as they are useful, and have little time to follow up their
education afterwards. Worked like machines, every hour is devoted to
labour, and a large portion forget, from disuse, what they have learnt
when young. In America, they have the advantage not only of being
educated, but of having plenty of time, if they choose, to profit by
their education in after life. The mass in America ought, therefore, to
be better educated than the mass in England, where _circumstances_ are
against it. I must now examine the nature of education given in the
United States.
It is admitted as an axiom in the United States, that the only chance
they have of upholding their present institutions is by the education of
the mass; that is to say, a people who would govern themselves must be
enlightened. Convinced of this necessity, every pains has been taken by
the Federal and State governments to provide the necessary means of
_education_ [See Note 4.] This is granted; but we now have to inquire
into the nature of the education, and the advantages derived from such
education as is received in the United States.
In the first place, what is education? Is teaching a boy to read and
write education? If so, a large proportion of the American community
may be said to be educated; but, if you supply a man with a chest of
tools, does he therefore become a carpenter! You certainly give him the
means of working at the trade, but instead of learning it, he may only
cut his fingers. Reading and writing without the farther assistance
necessary to guide people aright, is nothing more than a chest of tools.
Then, what is education? I consider that education commences before a
child can walk: the first principle of education, the most important,
and without which all subsequent are but as leather and prunella, is the
lesson of _obedience_--of submitting to parental control--"_Honour thy
father and thy mother_!"
Now, any one who has been in the United States must have perceived that
there is little or no parental control. This has been remarked by most
of the writers who have visited the country; indeed to an Englishman it
is a most remarkable feature. How is it possible for a child to be
brought up in the way that it should go, when he is not obedient to the
will of his parents? I have often fallen into a melancholy sort of
musing after witnessing such remarkable specimens of uncontrolled will
in children; and as the father and mother both smiled at it, I have
thought that they little knew what sorrow and vexation were probably in
store for them, in consequence of their own injudicious treatment of
their offspring. Imagine a child of three years old in England behaving
thus:--
"Johnny, my dear, come here," says his mamma.
"I won't," cries Johnny.
"You must, my love, you are all wet, and you'll catch cold."
"I won't," replies Johnny.
"Come, my sweet, and I've something for you."
"I won't."
"Oh! Mr --, do, pray make Johnny come in."
"Come in, Johnny," says the father.
"I won't."
"I tell you, come in directly, sir--do you hear?"
"I won't," replies the urchin taking to his heels.
"A sturdy republican, sir," says his father to me, smiling at the boy's
resolute disobedience.
Be it recollected that I give this as one instance of a thousand which I
witnessed during my sojourn in the country.
It may be inquired, how is it that such is the case at present, when the
obedience to parents was so rigorously inculcated by the puritan
fathers, that by the blue laws, the punishment of disobedience was
_death_? Captain Hall ascribes it to the democracy, and the rights of
equality therein acknowledged; but I think, allowing the spirit of their
institutions to have some effect in producing this evil, that the
principal cause of it is the total neglect of the children by the
father, and his absence in his professional pursuits, and the natural
weakness of most mothers, when their children are left altogether to
their care and guidance.
Mr Sanderson, in his Sketches of Paris, observes:--"The motherly
virtues of our women, so eulogised by foreigners, is not entitled to
unqualified praise. There is no country in which maternal care is so
assiduous; but also there is none in which examples of injudicious
tenderness are so frequent." This I believe to be true; not that the
American women are really more injudicious than those of England, but
because they are not supported as they should be by the authority of the
father, of whom the child should always entertain a certain portion of
fear mixed with affection, to counterbalance the indulgence accorded by
natural yearnings of a mother's heart.
The self-will arising from this fundamental error manifests itself
throughout the whole career of the American's existence, and,
consequently, it is a self-willed nation _par excellence_.
At the age of six or seven you will hear both boys and girls
contradicting their fathers and mothers, and advancing their own
opinions with a firmness which is very striking.
At fourteen or fifteen the boys will seldom remain longer at school. At
college, it is the same thing; (note 6) and they learn precisely what
they please, and no more. Corporal punishment is not permitted; indeed,
if we are to judge from an extract I took from an American paper, the
case is reversed.