The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-08-02
A Catholic Normal School.
A NEEDED IMPROVEMENT IN PARoCHIAL
EDUCATION.
From the Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph

From the Cincinnati Catholic telegraph
From all quarters of the country we are
receiving by the score inquiries of pastors
! about teachers, whom they wish to employ
during the ensuing school year. With the
| return of every school vacation, many of
them find it necessary to discharge teach
ers whom they were obliged to take on faith,
and to go on an annual search for others
to fiji the vacancies. The evils which this
Catholic parochial education is obvious to
all. AT the same time, this evil suggests
the immediate need of training college
in this country to supply teachers for
schools, where the religious orders are not
available. 1t breaches eloquently the
necessity of establishing a system of in,
struction in normal college, which will
go far to create race of trained teachers
Of the children of the Catholic poor.
VIVA. is required to be taught in schools
Of The poor We answer; arithmetic,
grammar, geography, United States his.
tory, reading, spelling and musici and
more than all, UNNECESSARILY more neces-
sary than all, the Catholic Faith. Can a
man rnpart to another what he has not got
himself? Nay, can he impart that which
he possesses only in a feeble. partial, un-
certain manner Or, once more, can he
impart knowledge which he does not ade-
quately possess himself, without method,
teaching 7 Can the knowledge we have
indicated above be acquired without a
careful education Or, when acquired for
the individual, is the power of imparting
it acquired also Set down for instance,
a Catholic who loves his faith and is well
instructed in it, good grammarian, arith-
metician, geographer, reader, speller, wrI-
ter, we'll read in history, in the midst of a
parochial school of seventy boys of ages
ranging from eight to fifteen. Let such
one possess all this knowledge but never
have been specially instructed in the me.
thod of imparting 1t and We venture to say
that the result will be, not the production,
Of scholars like himself, but frustrated la
bore, inducing hopelessness in the teachers,
and noise, confusion, irregularity, wear-
ness and idleness, in the taught. If such
be the importance of method alone, even
when the knowledge possessed by the
teacher is adequate for his purpose, we
must be the knowledge itself in which SO
many following the profession of Catholic
| teachers are lamentably deficient.
But there is another point independent
of knowledge-the personal character of
the teacher. If he be without zeal for his
unattaching, i'll tempered, or If he have
simply the spirit of the hireling, how can
he be fit for that noble work of forming
the character and moulding the affections
of others 2 The teacher must be man of
good will as well a man of intellect, or
woe both to him and TO his scholars.
But now, we ask, can fruit of this kind
be had fer the plucking, or has it ever
grown on this earth, since Adam fell, with
out careful cultivation 7 Will the shoe
maker or tailor, whose work being worse
than his neighbors, has found no success,
or the refugee who could get nothing to do
in his own country be likely to prove the
| Nj Of norocbia1 scbnnI n
exhibit the patience, the energy, the low
ingness, the tact and skill and the gener-
GUS devotion which we look for in the in
tellectual trainer of our youth
If we cannot gather grapes of thorns,
nor figs of thstles, what remedy is there
for the deficiencies that are found in so
many who aspire to teach, other than the
speedy foundation of a normal college that
will give US parochial teachers worthy OF
their exalted and responsible positionf
| 1t should be q school in which would be
gathered the youth of both sexes whom
the pastors see to offer the fairest promise
who are inclined to the vocation Of teach
ing, and who will be instructed in the Or
| binary teaching and management of a
poor school. They should serve their time
to fit them for their profession. IT, at the
| end of that time, these scholars have shown
themselves, in their yearly examinations
apt and dOcile, in their moral conduct good
and praiseworthy, they would receive d-
pomas that would ensure them prefer.
ence to the many cobblers that are now
employed, give them i'm mediate occupation
ami secure them not a pittance, but q
comfortable salary. When these candi.
dates for the teacheIs's profession have
reached the age of one or two and twenty
| we would possess n class of teachers who
having been formed and nodded them
selves, and from early youth had their
faculties and feelings directed to this end
will go forth well qualified to instruct
others.
Catholic schools will be vastly improved
a if this normal college be established, end q
7 generation of pupil teachers drive out the
incompetent into other employments. II
Catholic children are to be taught in the
parochial schools if their secular educa-
ton is to be every where and in every thing
on par with that of their neghbors il
their knowledge of their great and glorious
and perfect faith is to be something more
than q misty remembrance of the Catech
ism, something more than the familiarity
of their Protestant neighbors with that
shred of the Gospel which each may pos
sess, normal college, or colleges, must