The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-06 00:00:00

EDUCATION AND DESTITUTION.

The substance of the admissions accepted, of the
facts collected, and of the conclusions arrived at as
to the connexion between education and destitution
may be stated under the following heads :-1. More
destitution and suffering prevail in society
than are thought to be unavoidable, if men
would but rouse themselves to the requisite
exertion and did but know how to direct it.
2. Among the most notable causes of destitu-
tion are ignorance, indolence, drunkenness, dis-
honesty, and parential neglect. 3. Education, skil-
fully directed and universally diffused, is capable
of largely removing, if not of completely extin-
guishing these causes of destitution. 4. Educa-
tional incapacity among schoolmasters, and inability
and insensibility among parents, in combination,
have hitherto debarred children from education
adequate, either in quality or quantity, to keep
down destitution. 5. While-the consequences of
child-neglect have appealed to the growing intelli-
gence and humanity of society so forcible as to
compel Government to intervene in behalf of
children, fears have arisen, not without reason,
that the good accomplished has scarcely been
commensurate with the magniNde of the efforts.
6. The efforts of Government having hitherto been
confined to extending education as they found it,
and assisting in supplying a staff of schoolmasters
more numerous and more accomplished in teaching
the minor and technical branches of education, a
sensible impression upon the extent of destitution
and parental improvidence was scarcely to be ex-
pected. The undiminished amount of these evils
ought not, therefore, to discourage expectations of
more favourable results from an education better
adapted to form judgment and conduct, and to
inspire schoolmasters with a more elevated con-
ception of the work of man-forming. 7. Among
the safest of courses open to Government to
allay their fears of ever-increasing expenses, with-
out any corresponding abatement of destitution and
parental neglect, is that of bending their efforts to
bring forward a race of schoolmasters with intel-
lects instructed and aspirations directed to the
teaching and training of the ycnng specially with a
view to qualify them to keep clear of destitution,
and to do their duty efficiently by their own off-
spring. The Government already exercise a po-
tent influence over two intruments for good or
evil, as bearing upon the qualifications of school-
masters—the principals of training colleges and
the inspectors of schools. Let them direct this influ-
ence aright; let it be known that they are as
anxious to learn about modes of thought as about
modes of speech—about the habits and conduct of
children as about school furniture; and after the
lapse of a few years destitution and parental neglect
will begin to diminish, and a diminution of Govern-
ment expense will not be slow to follow. Woe to
the Government and to the people who should
think to escape outlay by refusing to listen to the
cries of neglected children in the hopes that desti-
tution and parental improvidence will disappear of
themselves.—The Friend of the People.