The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-26
The Decline OF
Home InfIIenCe
From the Philadelphia Ledger.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
In nothing has the real progress of the
civilized world, and especially that of
our own nation, been more conspicuous,
than in the matter of education Look
ing back fifty, or even twenty years,
the strides that have been made in this
direction are marvellous. Schools of ev-
cry grade, and in every place, have been
springing up to meet the increasingly
felt need. From the child of years, in
the kindergarten to the college graduate,
all are now abundantly supplied with in
struction, the quality and methods of
which are improving every year through
the untiring efforts of the ablest educa-
tors. Then, beside the regular profess
sional schools, lectures and classes of
every description, both in winter and
summer offer every supplemental advan-
tages to all asserted that no one desiring
to learn anything need look in vain for
the means to crafty his wish.
o
There Is, perhaps, no great advance
ment in any direction that does not in
volve certain definite dangers, which.
until they are realized and guarded
against, become grave evils. The one
important peril attached to this incom-
parable blessing of extended education
| is that the influence of home is likely to
become for a time thereby lessened. Pa
rents, contrasting their own more slend-
now available for their children are nat
urally and rightly impressed with the
importance of giving them every educa-
| tional advantage; but in their eagerness
to accomplish it, they are sometimes led
| to feel that 1t comprises their whole re-
| sponsibility. Esteeming the teachers who
can work out such fine results as far
superior to themselves they are tempted
| to place burdens upon their shoulders
which do not belong to them. In their
elevated ideas of scholastic education
| they imagine that it can do everything,
| and thus they overlook that peculiar
| training which the home alone can sup
ply. For that there is sucn an educa-
| ton no one who reflects deeply, or OBJ
serves keenly, can for a moment ques-
| tion. Mr.. Hamerton says truly: "That
| boy must be born in very unfortunate
| circumstances whose father and mother
could not, If they chose, do more for his
| moral training than a schoolmaster, who
| has perhaps fifty to attend to, without
| the parental interest in any of them"
%
| 1t is just this moral education that be-
| longs specially to the home, and that, if
| neglected there, can never be obtained
| elsewhere, which is the only reliable safe
| guard that society can have against much
| of the vice and crime which corrupt and
| demoralze her. Parents who trust to the
| schools to inculcate this are shirking
| their own most solemn obligations, and
| have no right to expect their sons and
| daughter to grow up into upright and
| honorable men and women. For in the
| first place, it is quite impossible that
the schools can accomplish this, be the
| teachers ever so willing and exemplary
| The work laid out for them in mental
| instruction and discipline taxes the full
| powers of the most competent and faith
| full. They must devote their strength,
| thought discovering
| lowing the best methods of accomplishing
| this, and to the required preparation of
| their pupils for higher grades and classes
| If they would be at all successful in their
| profession. OF course there will always
| be a moral tone in the school, an un-
| conscious influence emanating from the
| teachers, and affecting more or less pow
| erfully the character of the pupils. There
| will be even more than this-a general
| oversight of conduct during school hours,
| and often voluntary effort to do what
| ever may be possible in the way of char
| acter building. But this is mere drop
| in the ocean compared with the extent
| of influence that a good home can exert.
| Even thes silent example of honorable
| parents is immeasurably greater than
| that of any school; while their oppor-
| tunities for individual instruction, aided
by their natural affection and desire for
the child's welfare, are incomparably
| more numerous and favorable. The par
| ent is, or ought to be, in close personal
relations with the child, such as no teach
er can possibly maintain; his authority
| and stimulus are constant, while those of
| the teacher are limited and the final ap-
peal will always be made to him.
| o.
| This diminution of parental RESPONSE
| blity is even more conspicuous in fam
lilies whose children are sent to distant
| schools for their education, where the
greater part of their time is spent. Here
the home influence had need to have
been an unusually strong one, to enable
| the young TO withstand the many in
| ducements of an opposite kind, which
| they must meet comparatively unaided.
| Other standards are adopted, other habits
are formed other ideas of life and OF
conduct take the place of those learned
| in the home. They are not necessarily
worse, and may be better, but the fact
| remains that the parental influence de-
| cllnes, and the sense of parental respon-
sibility diminlshes. In the vacations the
children return to the home more as ia :
| vored guests to be entertained than as
| sons and daughters TO be trained, and
the moral discipline, on which so much
| of their future character depends, is first
relaxed, then broken up, and finally lost
| altogether.
We have spoken of this decline Of home
influence as n danger attending the rapid
growth of educational advantages; but