first social center. It is the place where everything in this life begins.
Most fortunate is the child that is guided to take his first steps aright
through the loving influence of a good home.
LESSON XIV
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What four great agencies are concerned in training and education?
2. Which is most important and why?
3. What is the indictment of the home?
4. What change has taken place respecting the relative importance of these
developing agencies?
5. The home is responsible for what physical habits?
6. What moral habits and virtues?
7. What mental habits and virtues?
8. What religious habits and sentiments?
9. What is the future outlook for the home and family?
It will be well at this point to review briefly the three beginning
chapters from "Religious Education in the Family," by Cope. The "Peril and
Preservation of the Home," by Jacob Riis, will also be found helpful
reading here.
TRAINING BY THE CHURCH
_The Influence of the Church Is Essential to Aid the Home in Developing the
Religious Instincts and Emotions of the Child_
Religious emotions and belief are among the most deeply imbedded instincts
of the race. They are also some of the earliest manifestations of
childhood. They accompany the individual throughout his entire life,
exercising a profound influence over his thoughts and conduct, and they
become the chief anchor of the soul when sorrow or old age comes. It would
be a great calamity, therefore, if religious instincts and sentiment
should suffer eclipse or disappear.
Rightly cultivated and trained, these natural feelings of religion grow
to spiritual power within us. Without such power, man is of little
consequence.
Upon the home naturally falls the duty of fostering the first feelings of
reverence towards God. The child who learns to lisp his prayers at his
mother's knee is started aright. The home must give the first lessons in
the love of God and goodness. If it fails, they are likely never to be
learned.
But the home needs the influence of the church here. It must have it to
round out the child's religious development. The church can do many things
for the child that the home cannot accomplish. It introduces him to
religious ceremonies and observances that satisfy his soul, and it helps
greatly to train him in religious habits.
One cannot estimate the value of all this upon the character of the child.
As a restraint from wrong conduct and an encouragement to right action, the
work of the church is most salutary. The solemn ceremonies, the sacred
music, the exhortations pointing heavenward, the general spirit of the
group at humble worship--all exercise upon the child an influence for good,
mysterious yet profound.
Clean, beautiful surroundings and orderly behavior are also very
impressive. The work of our Sabbath Schools is most beneficial. They offer
to parents a strong reinforcement in cultivating right religious habits
and emotions in the child. To go into one of our well-conducted Sunday
Schools, where order prevails, where the spirit of peace and prayer is
uppermost, to join in the singing, to listen to the uplifting instruction,
or, better still, to be given opportunity to take active part in this
religious service--all these make a deep and lasting impression upon the
youthful soul. Parents can do nothing better for their children and
themselves than to support loyally their Sunday Schools and other
religious organizations.
The habit of attending church should also be impressed during the
habit-forming period. But the supreme opportunity of the church lies in its
ability actually to convert the youth or maiden during the adolescent
period. This is a privilege which neither the church nor the home has
adequately comprehended. When the emotional nature of the individual is at
white heat, as it then is, impressions made are lasting, and conversion, if
made then, will be so deeply impressed that it is likely to last forever.
Churches in general fail to make the most of their opportunity here. They
too often stuff the heads of children with religious facts and formulae,
feeding them with the husks of theology, instead of giving them the
upbuilding food they need. Children, too, often are starving for real
spiritual food, hungering for the bread and thirsting for the water of
life.
Parents and teachers generally need to correct their methods of presenting
the gospel to children, especially to the adolescent, if they would get the
results desired. It is their failure to meet the child on his own religious
ground, not his indifference to religion that makes the boy and girl leave
Sabbath School during the time he most needs such an influence. Let them
study and master these problems: Are boys and girls being given ample
opportunity for spiritual self-expression? Are the beautiful lessons of
the gospel being translated into terms that appeal to their lives?
Our own church, we feel sure, is answering these questions in positive,
practical ways better and better every day; but there is still much left to
do even among us.
We have in our own church a working system that ministers to the daily
moral and spiritual needs of humanity--a constructive Christianity that
comes close to our lives. Our church is our opportunity to develop our own
spiritual powers and to cultivate those of our children. The church needs
our help to carry forward its ministry to mankind; but we need even more
the help of the church to enspirit and to comfort our lives and to give to
us and to our children the guidance and the training that will keep us all
in the paths of safety and peace:
LESSON XX
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What have you observed in children to prove that religious emotions are
instinctive?
2. In what ways can the home best foster the natural religious instincts of
childhood?
3. What religious habits should the home cultivate?
4. What can the church best develop in children?
5. Why should the parents support loyally the Sunday Schools and other
organizations of the church?
6. What is the supreme opportunity of the church during the adolescent age?
7. What means have you used successfully to develop the religious instincts
of your own children?
8. What opportunities for spiritual self-expression and service does our
own church offer?
9. In what ways are we richly rewarded by our free-will service in behalf
of our church?
"The Child and His Religion," by Dawson, will be a helpful book to study in
connection with this lesson.
TRAINING IN THE SCHOOL
_Certain Phases of Training and Education Can Be Accomplished Better by the
School Than by Any Other Agency. A National System of Industrial and
Vocational Education Should Be Established_
The school is a social institution whose functions are becoming daily more
widely understood and more clearly defined. In the history of civilization,
the school, as we know it, is a very recent institution. Nation after
nation has arisen, reached its zenith, declined, and passed away without
dreaming of such a thing as universal education. With the growth of
democracy, particularly during the Reformation, the ideal of education as
the birthright of every child became well defined and during the years that
have intervened, this ideal has become a living reality.
At first the universal education was advocated for the sake of the church.
Martin Luther believed that every child should have schooling so that he
might be able to read the Bible and study the catechism. For some time the
church had charge of and controlled education, but gradually, as democracy
developed, the influence of the state began to overshadow that of the
church, and education came to be recognized more and more as a function of
the state, and its control was gradually taken over by the latter
institution.
The chief function of education, therefore, may be seen clearly from the
foregoing. In a democracy it is necessary for every child to be educated
because the existence of free institutions is based upon the intelligence
of the masses. Jefferson once remarked: "If anyone believes that free
government and an ignorant people can exist at one and the same time, he
believes that which never was or never can be." Universal education is,
therefore, a social necessity; its chief purpose is to train and instruct
the child in the duties and ideals of citizenship. He must be instructed in
the history of his country and learn what the ideals are for which his
country stands; he must learn the real meaning of the words: equality,
justice and freedom; he must be taught that obedience to law is the highest
form of freedom, and that license is destructive both of self and country.
Furthermore, he must learn that in a free country every individual must be
taught to be self-dependent, that no one owes him a living, that he ought
to produce a little more than he consumes for the sake of the unfortunate.
The school, therefore, may teach better than any other agency the habits
and ideals of duty, social service, justice and patriotism. It also teaches
frequently better than does the home, the habits of obedience,
punctuality, regularity and industry.
A secondary purpose of the school is to assist the home to develop in the
child the physical, mental, moral and social habits and ideals to which we
have referred in previous lessons. To the shame of the home, it must be
said that the school is accomplishing its particular function far better
than is the home. The school rarely fails to exact obedience, regularity,
punctuality, and industry from the pupil; the home, on the other hand,
frequently fails to train children in these habits because of the softness
and vacillation of the parents. The school trains to proper habits of
hygiene and sanitation, and is often under the necessity of acquainting
parents with physical defects in their children which too often they have
overlooked.
Moreover, the school, as a larger social unit than the home, has some
distinct advantages over the latter: It can teach the obstinate,
quarrelsome child better than can the home the necessity of adjusting his
conduct to the requirements of the social group with which he associates.
In school, frequently for the first time, a child learns what is meant by
the ideals of duty and justice; furthermore, he is usually trained to
habits of industry, perseverance and self-control which the home too often
is not well prepared to teach.
The home, however, is far more important than is the school; the latter
might be abolished and some other form of education adopted by society
without calamitous results; but if the home were suddenly abolished, it is
probable that civilization itself would be shaken to its center, if not
destroyed. The home, therefore, ought to be better prepared and equipped to
fulfill its function than is the school; but not one parent in a thousand
is specially prepared for the duties of parenthood. The teacher, on the
other hand, is required to spend years in preparation for his work. He is
expected, moreover, to set a worthy example for children to follow. "As the
teacher so the school," is a maxim that has stood the test.
The school was never before so practical in its instruction as it is
to-day. In most of the junior and senior high schools, industrial work and
agriculture are taught. In the best schools girls are learning to sew,
mend, darn and cook. Many of them make their own dresses and trim their own
hats. In a few schools, uniform dress and shoes are adopted by the girl
students for the sake of economy and to prevent the silly mode of dressing
and the style of some girls. Much more could be done in this direction if
all mothers were sensible, but now and again word comes to the teacher: "I
can dress my girl well and I don't care to have her wear your cheap
uniform and your low-priced, low-heeled shoes." And again: "It's none of
your business how my girl dresses." Now, it must be conceded that the
parent has this right to object, but we surely question the wisdom of her
so doing. Many young girls on graduating from the eighth grade make their
own graduation dresses and confine the cost of the entire costume,
including shoes, to $5.00. Women graduating from the senior school often
make their dresses and confine the cost to within $10.00.
Most young men are taught manual art of some kind and agriculture. It is
seldom that any father objects to his son taking carpenter work, but once
in a while a farmer smiles at the thought of a "professor" teaching
farming. The results, however, of the good work in teaching better farming
is already seen throughout our country, and the time is not far distant
when "scientific agriculture" will return many fold the price of its
investment. The agricultural department at Washington reports that the
Burbank potato is adding $17,000,000 yearly to the wealth of the U.S.
The people, too, are well satisfied with this new type of school. They are
beginning to see that education is a very practical and vital matter and
is not merely for ornament. It is a rare thing now to hear the once common
remark that education is too expensive.
Statistics show that the average wages paid to unskilled laborers in the U.
S. is about $500 per annum; careful reports indicate that the average
yearly earnings of high school graduates is $1000. In a lifetime of 40
years the high school man will earn $20,000 more than the unlearned
laborer.
From a financial standpoint it is very evident that education pays, yet
five and one-half years is the average length of time the children of the
U.S. attend school. The nation ought to enrich itself through putting more
money into education.
The natural resources of the country are largely taken up and the free land
is practically all occupied. What then is to be the future of the great
mass of laborers unless a thorough-going system of industrial and
vocational training is made possible? The Industrial Commission appointed
recently by Congress found that three-fourths of the male laborers in the
U.S. earn less than $600 per annum, yet the U.S. Government has found "that
the point of adequate subsistence is not reached until the family income is
about $800 a year. Less than half the wage-earners' families in the U.S.
have an annual income of that size."
Now the rich can take care of themselves and the very poor and unfortunate
cannot be permanently helped, but this great middle class, upon whom the
nation must depend in every crisis, can and must be assisted to the extent,
at least, that conditions be made possible through which they may raise
their efficiency and so increase their earning capacity to a point
commensurate with their needs. A thorough-going, national system of
industrial and vocational "preparedness" would solve this problem.
The marvelous efficiency of Germany is due in large part to the fact that
her great middle classes have been made efficient through a national system
of trade schools.
The prosperity and perpetuity of a nation rests largely upon its ability to
provide an adequate number of highly trained experts to be leaders,
inventors and executives. In a democracy, these skilled leaders are
especially important. Among the problems to be solved are questions of
government, education, finance, economics, business, industry, health,
manufacturing, engineering and mining. Any nation that lacks guidance in
these particulars is indeed weak and pitiful. The universities, colleges,
and higher technical schools supply nine-tenths of these experts, yet in
the U.S. to-day there are only 250,000 students enrolled in all the
colleges and universities of the country; this is about one to 500 of the
population, a number entirely inadequate to perform the tremendous service
that will be expected of this nation in the near future.
LESSON XXI
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. State the nature of the school.
2. How did the ideal of universal education arise?
3. State the chief function of the school.
4. Name the habits and ideals peculiar to the school.
5. What is the secondary purpose of the school?
6. Contrast the efficiency of the home and the school.
7. What high compliment may be paid to teachers?
8. Is the comparison made between the home and the school overdrawn?
9. Compare the practical school of to-day with the school of the past.
10. Do you favor uniform dress for high school girls?
11. What is your opinion of modern style which so many mothers foster?
12. Have you any boys taking industrial work in school?
13. Prove that high school education pays.
14. What is the duty of a nation towards its great middle class?
15. Do you believe in a national system of industrial and vocational
schools?
16. Why are experts needed particularly in a democracy?
THE DUTY OF THE STATE
_The Social and Civic Institutions of the State (Society) Exert a Powerful
Influence over the Lives of Children. The Citizen Must See to It that this
Great Educative Influence of His Community Is Uplifting in Nature_
The vital relationship existing between parent and child is easy to
understand, but the close interdependence of the individual and the state
is much more difficult to comprehend. Yet in a very real sense the
individual and the state are reciprocally related. But just as the body is
more than an aggregate of all of its cells, so is society (the state)
something more than the sum total of its individual units. That a group of
people, or even one individual, may exert an influence over the thoughts
and actions of others is a reality of profound significance; that there is
a social conscience as well as an individual conscience is a fact that
cannot be refuted, and the part played by custom and tradition in shaping
the history of the world can hardly be estimated.
In view of the close relationship between the individual and society, it is
passing strange that while the individual is expected to possess a high
standard of character, society itself may indulge in all sorts of
questionable practices without so much as a challenge. Many a person winks
at the frivolity and immorality of society, while at the same time he
expects the most circumspect behavior on the part of his neighbor. The
existence of these two standards which ought to coincide but which in
reality are far apart is responsible for many failures in the training of
children.
As soon as the infant begins to observe and imitate the actions of members
of the household, its social training begins; play with the neighbor's
child extends the process, and the social group or "gang" with which the
child associated, impresses permanently its thought and action. Frequently,
too, the chum or companion chosen by the child has more real influence over
its life than has the combined instruction of parents and teacher. As
already shown, the school is a social institution and the same is largely
true of the Sunday School. The example of adults also makes a profound
impression upon the conduct of children. The home and the school may teach
convincingly the injurious effects of tobacco and alcohol, but so long as
society sanctions the sale of these poisons and respected adults indulge in
them, just so long will the efforts of home and school, be, to a large
extent, counteracted. The same is true with respect to any other virtue or
excellence, the home, school, and church may unite in emphasizing the most
wholesome discipline, but so long as society is a living, seething
contradiction of this teaching, the instruction will fall upon deaf ears
and be but as "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal."
The fact is that our nation is yet too young to be fully conscious of its
opportunities and responsibilities. A democratic form of government from
its very nature must develop slowly towards its ideals. It must expect at
first to be much less certain and efficient in its action than is a highly
centralized government. This inability on the part of popular government to
attain its ideals is reflected also in its subordinate civic units; neither
state nor city governments have yet solved the problem of efficient and
economical administration, although it is a pleasure to note that some
cities are making real progress in this direction. In many communities,
however, the weakness of decentralized government is most apparent. This is
particularly true in many towns; here is seen too frequently a lack of
civic pride, inefficient officers and failure to enforce the law.
The humiliating fact obtains that frequently a few lawless individuals
often not more than from 3 to 5 per cent of the population, are permitted
to set the moral pace, while the 95 per cent, of law-abiding citizens are
either asleep to their duties or else fail to see that the remedy is in
their own hands. In many instances a few persons are allowed to undermine
the morals of the community. In one town of our state a single individual
was permitted for 25 years to corrupt the morals of many young men of the
community through illegal traffic in liquor.
Parents should realize that next to heredity the social factors in a
community are likely to be the chief influence at work moulding and shaping
the lives of their children, and in the long run they must not expect the
average child to be better than the community in which he lives.
But the remedy for inefficient, free government is not far to seek;
universal education will solve the problem provided it includes, as it
should, instruction and training in civic and social duties. There is no
need to argue the superiority of democratic government over that of all
other forms; the freedom which we possess is worth all the suffering and
bloodshed of all the patriots that have ever lived. But nothing will run
itself; perpetual motion is a myth, and even a small town to be well
governed, must receive conscious, expert attention.
Unquestionably, a free government is the most complex and difficult of all
forms of government to administer, but the problem can be solved, and the
secret of success will be found in the individual himself. He must become
educated to realize his full duties and responsibilities as a free citizen,
in other words, he must become socialized. He must get over the notion that
the school is the only educational agency and must understand that every
influence that modifies conduct is educative in nature. Especially must he
learn that the community itself is the chief civic and social educator of
children, and as such it should be consciously organized to perform well
this responsibility.
Already communities are awakening to the need of perfect sanitary and
hygienic conditions, and clean town contests are the order of the day; this
is one of the most hopeful signs of better times, but there ought to be a
moral and mental awakening and contests for civic righteousness should be
inaugurated. Any community that can say: "In this town no influence is
permitted that could in any way corrupt the morals or ideals of children,"
should receive the highest award in the gift of the people and its praises
should be commemorated in song and story.