St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-07-18
AMERICAN CHILDREN.
Their characterization and Lack of Rev
erence, and the Cause Thereof.

Their Insubordlnation and Lack of Rev
erence, and the Cause Thereof.
AS water will not run higher than its
source, so the character of a school Will
not be stronger than the force which is
resident in the head and his masters.
Yet man of less weight than an Arnold
or a Benson may by tact and careful
adherence to the examples and dicta OF
the great schoolmasters raise his school
to a high standard of moral excellence
The first step toward its attainment is
a clear understanding of the relative
positions of the master and the aboyo
This is more needy of definition on this
side the Atlantic than the other. Here
children are obnoxiously intrusive, their
familiarity of address, their shocking
want of reverence, their patent insub-
ordination may be all traced to the
wrong relationship in which the child
stands first to its parent then to its
master. Life is started under the sup
position that the child is on par with
its elders; reasons are carefully given
for the orders which it is expected to
obey. If it does wrong, it is reasoned
with, with all the gravity and serious"
ness which would be used to a full
grown Individual. It IS sent to school;
here it takes up certain subjects. Text
books are placed in its hand which are
reduced to it's comprehension. Diff
culties are carefully eliminated by the
manufacturers of these books. most
probably because these authors are
themselves incapable of mastering them.
The arithmetic is finished. The child says
lit is through arithmetic" or Through
algebra" or even Through history" 1t
very naturally supposes that what it
has done is all the subject affords.
And that the great men it reads Of,
whose names are known for mathe-
NAUTICAL distinction, knew, perhaps. a
little more, but not very much more
than what it had just got through
The absurd process of what is called,
forsooth. education, ''puffs up" the
minds of children until, what wonder is
itp they feel on a PAL with their elders,
and dispor6 themselves as men and
women, not knowing, alas! The rules of
courtesy, nor having learned the re-
straint of self, which is the root of all
decent behavior. A system of training
must be radically wrong which could
produce such young gentleman as we
read of not long ago, who, on going
into his mothers drawing-room, found
seated there the Roman Catholic Arch
bishop. Strutting up to the great &C.
clesiastic, with one hand in his pocket,
he proffered two fingers of the other to
the visitor, and hailed him with: Glow
dyer do, Arch" This false relation
ship is due to the wrong process of
ttbringinp IN. What an
enormous difference has come over the
child-world since the beginning of this
century. My father used invariably to
call his father ISL" not in the sense
in which it is used in America, but in
the sense, almost, in which courtier
still uses it to Prince. What an in
sight into the process and atmosphere
of training children does this incident
give. He was coming, on the top of the
coach, home for the. holidays; as is the
wont of travellers the conversation
turned upon where they had been. "
This led to comparing of foreign
countries with England. After much
had been said pro and con, lull oc-
Cured, which was occupied by a boys
voice; swell, old England's good
enough for me-" The nearest passen-
ger to the speaker at once boxed his
ears for his venturesome Interpolation,
and the opposite gentleman approved
with the rejoinder: Take care, sill,
that you are good enough for old En-
gland" Some may say that this regime
was unnatural and oppressive. Be that
as it may, it certainly produced q race
OF men which for urbanity and charm
ing politeness have not their equiVa-
lent now Church Eclectic.
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