The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-08-22

cation obtaining in Catholic coNeSes
and academies gets some hard knocks
from Father John. Rather severe is
he upon the young lady graduates who
pass upon such literature as Brown
sons Review with the remark that 1T
is too profound" Father John COM
plains of the superficial tuition of fe-
male pupils. Women as well as men
have rational souls and should receive
rational education and be qualified
to take their part in any rational cor
versation that may be started.-Ed- l..
NJ. c.!
CONVERSATION X.-Continued.
"This fault" said Diefenbach, 1
think, pertains to your professors and
teachers. as well as to your Catholic
peprlatton. They are too much under
the influence of The public opinion OF
Catholic conservatism in the Ola
World. Under all European society
shoulders a revolutionary spirit, anu
more especially in the Cathollc STATES
liable every day to break out III d
flame. and consume both the tnIoile
and the altar. Catholics live In con-
slant fear of a social or pohtlcal OUT
break. more especially in Italy ana
France. They very generally adopt the
policy of repression, and repression IN
regard to thought, as well as to out
ward acts. Of the wisdom or unwls-
dom of that policy l will not now
speak. for it has been fully discussed
in this club. But that fear propagates
itself in this country, and that polley
is carried into your colleges ana all
the more readily from the fact that
large portion of your body, recently ar
rived in the country, are injected 10
a greater or less extent by the same
revolutionary spirit against winch IildI
policy is adopted Hence your profes-
sors and teachers have more or less
fear of stimulating thought in their
pupils and in forming them to haelts
of self-reliance, and free and sponlahe-
Gus action They think they must re-
press as we'll as encourage, and there
fore confine themselves chiefly to load
ing the memory, without stlmulaIlnS
real intellectual activity
Undoubtedly there is something IN
that" said Father John; land l for
myself think it would be better in our
schools, colleges and academies to look
more to our own country and less TO
the Old World. so different from ours,
and from which we want nothing out
the Catholic religion. Still l do not
admit the chief difficulty is in that.
do not believe, as a general thing, our
professors and the teachers are aoso-
lutely afraid of stimulating and Guilt
waiting the intellect, or Of making their
pupils thinking and reasoning men and
women. They are Catholics, and must
hold their religion to be Catholic, en-
bracing all truth, and therefore having
nothing to fear from thought or intel
ligence. Some improvements, however,
in the internal organization of our col
leges, as demanded by F. G.. ] think
might be geously adopted. The
pupils are received too young, and Inc
preparatory school is not usually sep
arated from the college. The govern
ment and discipline adapted to boys
or 9 years of age acnnot be adapted to
youths of IS and 10. Our colleges for
the most part combine, or attempt to
combine, the grammar school and the
college proper. and the members of
both are under the same projects and
subjected to the same government and
discipline. Boys need to be governed
as boys, but the students in college
ought to be governed as young gentle
men, and the appeal should be to their
sense of honor, propriety and justice.
Those who are deaf to such appeals
should not be logged, but expelled"
IT think" said Diefenbach, there is
another objection. You combine not
only the grammar schools and college.
but also the college and university. In
fact, hitherto, you have had only one
grade of schools: you should have four;
the common school. divided into pri-
mary and secondary. your high school
or academy. your college and the uni
versity To great extent you may
and must for the present use the pup
lie schools established by the state, ana
the education given in these VIII sur
fee, with the religious instruction
which they may receive elsewhere. 1or
the great majority of your children
The other three grades you must es-
tablish and support yourselves. The
high school is to be the feeder of the
college. and this might be private
school. opened by a private person, a
competent layman. in the case of boys
and bv an educated and competent
Catholic lady. who must do something
TO support herself, when it is for girls.
and intended to feed the conventual
school for young ladies. Leaving, by
the way. the female branch, the col
lege receives from the high school those
whom their parents wish to advance
further, in case they have the requisite
qualification and carries them on to
the baccalaureate From the college to
the university pass such as wish or are
able to obtain a complete liberal edu-
cation. The college and university
courses should be each at least four
wears. Such is substantially the Eng
iish and German system, which l prefer
to the French and American"
THAT is no doubt what we want and
what in due time we shall have, an
swered Father John: but as yet we
cannot introduce so complete system.
We are not able to sustain two unlver- 1
sites, and the Catholic body, if we are
TO have but one. will divide on the
question of its locality. The people in
the eastern states will never send their
sons to a university situated west of
the Alleghanies. They will send them
to Ireland. or to continental Europe
sooner. For the present, l fear, we
must stop with the college, which, II all
its capabilities are developed, will an
swer our purpose very well. There will
be very little difficulty in adapting the
college to the wants Of the country on
the part of the college itself, or on the
Part of the bishops, who are their pat
rons. or the religious or others who
conduct them. The only serious diff
Guilty is on the part of parents. who
will not or cannot keep their children
at the institution long enough to re-
ceive the education it is prepared to
give. The separation OF the high school
from the college, although it might and
probably would reduce our colleges in
number, or deprive several of them OF
their name of colleges, would to great
- Ii L. nrriI 70 nr1lN those