The Hawaiian gazette., 1890-08-05

not IN itself enough. Our schools shout,
be Instituted to make not merely intel
lIgent but good citizens. Gays DIR. White
The central, guiding, determining ain
OF the school must be manhood, and thi
is the one product that may be demand
ed OF the public school,"
Only good men can make good citi
zens, and if we fail to provide the posi-
tive and aggressive moral influences il
our schools We are not doing our whole
duty by the children or the future. We
should ain to produce self-governing
men and women, and although we
may tail to realize our ideal, neverthe.
less, except we aim high, set up the
most perfect standards the more conspi-
cuous and lamentable will be our fail
ure, and disastrous the results 10 The
future. Or course, no man or woman
who is immoral can hope to teach
morals. Keen and to the point are the
words of Matthew Vassar to the trustees
OF the college established by him: "All
sectarian influences should be carefully
excluded; but the training of our stu
dents should never be intrusted to the
skeptical, the religious or the immoral"
Truer words could not be spok-
en-, and we must recognize and act upon
the principle that the most potent factor
in the work of education is the person
atty of the teacher. The stream will
rise no higher than the source, and if the
life and character of the teachers 10
tainted by dishonesty, untruthfulness,
profanity, intemperance, impurity or
gambling, that teacher cannot teach
morality, any more than can the same
servant serve two masters, but must, by
the law of necessity, teach immortality
Just SO far as these things are known by
his pupils. Next to example in its infu-
ence and power comes the reiteration of
the rules of practical ethics. If the state is
going to educate for citizenship it must
teach these great laws of life and con-
duct as really and as earnestly as any
other laws. These moral laws are nat
ural laws just as truly as any law of
physics, while it will be much safer for
the individual and the community to re-
main in ignorance of the physical laws
than OF the moral.
Now as you insist that the teacher
shall be fitted to teach the physical laws,
and do not leave him to teach at option
these branches of our courses OF curri-
Gle study, l maintain that it should be
less optional with him to teach the fun
damental principles of morality and citi- |
zenship inasmuch as they are the more |
important and vital. But if you, the |
thinking, rejecting citizens of to-day
if you, in whose hands are placed the |
control OF the present and the veal of |
the future, if you, who are the employ
ers of the large company OF teachers
now molding the minds of your children,
care little or nothing for these things, if |
you place only small emphasis upon this
part of the work, what can you expect of
your teachers?
One thought more and l am done.
The moral nature is the balance wheel
of humanity. If the intellect is developed
and educated at the expense or neglect
even OF the moral nature, the individual
S SO far thrown out OF balance-is alb
normal.
l am not sure but here is the secret of
he present condition of affairs in all the
civilized lands. These nations possess and
ire developing deformed humanity.
The great regulator of thought and life,
he moral nature, has become dwarfed.
The governor of the engine of human life
las not been kept in repair, and the con-
rol of these tremendous forces OF nature
las been lost thereby.
"The brighter and more highly edu-
;ated the boy, the worse man he will
make, unless he has moral principles
md quick conscience to guide and re-
train Mr.. Bryce in his admirable
york-the American Commonwealth
POINTS out a cause for the lamentable de-
Iciency OF so many of Americas public
nen, when he remarks in substance
That the government of the United
states is founded on theory of the total
epravity of man, and seems to rely far
more on a system OF legal checks and
alliances than on great moral forces and
moral character for its working" States
zen and people, there and here, need to
earn the vital truth that moral principle
7hen ingrained into the web and wool
f character is better safeguard than
ny or all artificial checks But moral {
rinciple never appears as a natural
rowth in human nature. In sense it
J an exotic, altho', as many foreign
liant brought to these islands, is quickly ,,
t home in this genial cline, so moral !
rinciple finds the human heart its nat '
raj home. But it must be implanted g
nd cultivated in the minds and hearts
the children and then demanded of
he citizen before it will become the J
governing principle. For these
easons, then, L urge you to employ in
our schools only teachers OF high char
cter; to provide for and insist upon
definite and adequate instruction in
lorals, in patriotism, in the principles
government and in the duties that
ertain to good citizenship, that there
lay be developed in this Island King
om people intelligent, homogeneous,
atriotic and loyal to this Paradise of
le Pacific. Longfellow has most beau
fully given us our standard:
81 see but may not reach the height,
That lies forever in the light"