The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-06-16
BRIEF EDUCATIONAL ESSAYS.
Moral Training.
DeNALDseNxILLE, May 81, 1888.


DeNALDseNxILLE, May 81, 1888.
EDITOR CHIEF:
Much has been said and written of late
On the necessity of an increased attention
to moral instruction in our public schools
The subject has occupied no ineonsiderable
part of the reports and lectures with which
the public have been recently favored
throughout the country. 1t is alleged that
crime among children is on the increase
and as remedy it is recommended that
teachers devote more time to moral instrue-
ton and less to mere intellectual cuItiva-
ton. To educate the moral faculties is
unquestionably the teachers duty. 1t is
made SO by the statutes of the common
wealth, by his relation to his pupils, to their
parents, to society at large-to God.
That the increase of crime demands in
creased vigilance and attention to the de-
pertinent of the young is undeniable, but
that moral instruction merely to remove
the evils complained of, and elevate the
standard of virtue among children, is not
so apparent. Teaching of morals there
may be, and should be, if needed, but if
there be nothing more the cause of COM
plant will remain unabated. II by no
means follows that those teachers who give
the greatest number of moral lessons secure
the highest attainments in virtue. Few can
be found, even among the least favored,
who are ignorant of the fundamental prin-
ciples which guide to blameless course of
| life. Few there are who do not lsao,c better
| than they do. Their actions are the cause
of complaint. AS The abandoned criminal
is generally better acquainted with the civil
law than the honest citizen, so it not un-
frequently happens that vicious children
are better informed on questions of duty
than the uniformly upright, simply because,
from the necessity of the case, they have
| received greater amount of moral instruc-
ton. What then is needed to arrest this
downward tendency in the conduct of the
young? The answer is obvious. They
! should be trained to habits of virtue. Too
much stress can not be placed upon the
expression, habits of virtue;" for unless
children in oil the relations of life become
habitually courteous, honest, truthful and
chaste; and to their parents kind, obedient
and dutiful, to superiors respectful and
deferential, to their equals self-denying,
gentle, forgiving and obliging, and to their
interiors condescending, agreeable and
generous, little hope can be cherished, how
ever we'll informed they may be as to moral
obligations, that they will be able to with
stand the withering influence of the temp
tations which must inevitably assail them.
As well might we expect good musician
from one who should habitually violate
every principle learned from his teacher, as
that child instructed ever so thoroughly
in all the virtues, should hence be virtuous,
be his practice what it may. The advice of
the wise man Is not TO teach a child, but to
train up child in the way he should go.
The teacher who contents himself with any
thing short of moulding the character and
fashioning the habits and manners of his
pupils, is falling far short of the goal to be
reached. We say, then, that the mere in
crease of moral instruction is an inadequate
remedy for the evil complained Of A few
of the conditions best suited to the moral
culture of children may not be out of place
in the Donaldsonville CHIEF. No meation
need be made of the external condition of
conveniences, its attractiveness, the neat
ness and order with which all its furniture |
and other appliances should be arranged; |
nor need it be said that the teacher himself |
would inculcate upon the children; for all |
these the parents and supervisors of the |
schools are under moral obligations to |
furnish.
With large portion of the pupils, all |
those who have learned obedience at home, |
and who enter school with habits of virtue |
in measure established, the teacher has
little to do but to secure their confidence
and good will, to inspire them with desire !
for higher attainments in virtue and truth.
His own example, if he is what we have I
AiAA W bVS ID LILO OCSt uLol d1 ICSSCI
that can be given. Children copy examples, /
but forget precepts. The manner in which |
teachers adjust conflicting claims, settles
matters of dispute, protects the innocent /
and virtuous from the assaults and abuses
of the wayward, in short his whole character
and department before his pupils, contrib
ute more to the formation of their habits
and manners than all the formal lectures
he could give during his life time. The
very atmosphere where an efficient, exem-
plary teacher presides, is a moral atmos- i
phere. Occasions will often present them /
selves when the attention of the school |
should be called to some delinquency or
passing occurrence where an impressive,
moral lesson can be given. Such occasions
should not pass unimproved. If there be |
ignorance, as to any matter of duty, the /
requisite information should be given at
once. But ordinarily the too frequent
repetition of moral precepts brings it into
contempt, while the enforcement of pre-
cepts once given of necessity honors it.
A fundamental requisite in training chill I
dren to habits of virtue is implicit obe-
dience, ON the part of the pupil to the au-
thority of the teacher. With the class of
children already mentioned, obedience to
the teachers authority is cheerfully yielded,
it has become habit formed at home, and
therefore easily continued at school. But
these are not the children, who are the
cause of complaint. They are the disobe-
dent, ths wayward, the turbulent and the