Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1885-01-10
SATURDAY.. ....u. JANUARY 70, is,s
INsrIrrrE EssIrN



II is the purpose OF this paper to set .
forth the importance andpnctIcabilty OF |
giving increased attention to moral IN /
struction in our public schools. With T.
out deprcciatlng IN the slightest degree
the good work that is now being done
in this direction in various schools, It is
nevertheless true that altogether too
little attention Is given TO moral train [
ing, tina, too many teachers feel no
pressure of obligation i'll this matter,
and that the parents and public gener
ally do not appreciate the mission of
public schools as promoters and con
servers OF all that goes to make up
RICH, moral conduct
The principle on which our public
school system is founded, lays heaviest
emphasis on the training to be impaired.
The public school is citizen factory,
1t is established and supported at the
expense of the community not mainly
that our youth may gain proficiency IN
penmanship and arithmetic, but that
they may become sturdy supporters OF
law and order. The state assumes con.
troll of the youth, and without demur,
affords gratuitous training, because the
state to retain its respect and its power
to protect, must have a constituency of
law loving and law abiding citizens 1t
wonld not be in keeping with the grand
purpose of the state to provide etfici
ent instruction in arithmetic, for exam
pie, and to neglec, the weightler matter
of instruction in right conduct. Ha.
wall can doubtless fare along very well
with less arithmetic and more right do
ing. though she will indeed be in
stormy seas ii the order be reversed
Moreover, it is hardly to the advantage
OF the state to be at the expense of a
public school system, if her youth are
10 learn their first lesson in righteousness
from the lips of the sentencing judge
in the police court And it is just here
that all need to remember that just as
truly rs the state provides for the
costly expense of courts in order to
diminish and reprobate dishonesty, she
likewise provides for large OUTLAWS for
the schools in order TO increase and APP.
probate honesty in the community Ii
would be a most unnatural outcome
then for the schools to graduate into the
community class OF vicious youth or
of youth poorly Instructed in the laws
of personal conduct. A public school
system then, in so far as 1t is a failure,
fails in this more than in anything else,
viz, that it does not fulfil its great mis-
sion in making the boys and girls in the
community purer, more truthful, more
honest, more instinct with reverence fol
law and rightful authority, and with re
gard fol civil order.
The ideal public school system il
that in which the government, III,
teachers and the pupil, alike recognize
and endeavor to fulfil the share of obi
CATION belonging to each in the mora
cducations OF its benehciares. Tn,
proper governmental authority shoulC
insist that obedience to law be taught
The teacher should realize his obllga
tons to the state in the influence h,
exerts in training the future citizens o
the land. And the pupil should neve
be allowed to forget that he owes
debt Of gratitude to his mother countr
that can in no way be repaid but b
high and honorable conduct in all tn
affairs of life.
Public morality has political all,
financial significance that cannot be ig
nored. know il is said, "Oh, let tn
schools be purely secular. Teach wha
all men will need to use in the commo
avocations of life, and leave morals t,
the church and the house" But has
never occurred to those who present thi
objection that truthfulness and honest
and integrity are quite as secular a
arithmetic and spelling and geography
And is it not quite as likely that mel
will need to use honorable dealing a
frequently one with another as that the
will need to reduce demo inmate fraction
or to spell phthisic or TO name tn
largest town in Rode Island1 And
il IS public conduct rather than publ
intelligence thai the state is special
concerned about, why shall not i,
schools do all in their power TO promot
good public conduct The church ha
its work and the home its work and III
school its work. With the church an
the home the state has nothing to dc
II 1t is TO do aught to justify its clair
as the protector Of life and property,
has an abiding responsibility not onl
TO punish criminal conduct but throug
its only agency, the schools, to promo,
right conduct. The teachers OF il
schools are just as truly publ
functIonaries with duty 10 pc
form in promoting righteousness as III
police magistrate OF his subaliern who's
duty II Is to ferret out and punish VI
righteousness.
Our lot as teachers is castin Ian
whose Law declares il to be the ioremo
object III The public schools TO instru,
the children Of the nation in goo
morals The board OF education
is biennial reports ayows its inleres,
this feature Of public school instruction
In the report to the Legislative Assem-
bly, of 1888, occur these words: "Tt
nature Of children cannot be proper
developed and cultivated. without IN
moral instruction which teaches thel
industry, honesty, sobriely, ohastit
and reverence to their superiors an
rulers; and all the other virtues whic
arc an ognament TO society, and Il
basis Of every good government
Hence the public teacher who neglec
the moral culture OF his pupils fails
perform his whole duty to the state"
u Is clear then that the Law plac,
oosponsibili.y on every teacher to i
sEScs his pupils in good morals az