Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-02-09

tween the spirit of sheep and the
spirit of revolt or domination
Children should be educated neither
for themselves nor for their parents.
for man is no more designed to be
parsonage than specimen They
should be educated for life The aim
of their education is to aid them to be-
come active members of humanity.
brotherly forces, free servants of the
civil organization. 70 follow method
of education inspired by any other
principle is to complicate life. deform
it, sow the seeds Of all disorders.
When we would sum up in a phrase
the destiny Of the child the word flu
ture' springs to our lips. The child is
the future This word says all-the
sufferings of the past. the stress of to-
day hope. But when the education of
the child begins he is incapable of es-
timating the reach Of this word, for
he is held by Impressions of the pres
ent Who then. shall give him the
first enlightenment and pat him in the
way he should go? The parents, the
teachers. And with very little refiec-
ton they perceive that their work does
not interest simply themselves and the
child. but that they represent and adj
minister impersonal powers and inter-
ests. The child should continually APP
pear to them as Il future citizen With
this ruling idea they will take thought
for two things that complement each
other - for the initial and personal
force which is terminating in the child
and for the social destination of this
force. At no moment of their direction
over him can they forget that this lit
tie being confided to their care must
become himself and a brother. These
two conditions. far from excluding
each other, never exist apart 1t is inn
possible to be brotherly, to love. to give
oneself. unless one is master Of him
self: and reciprocally, none can possess
himself comprehend his own indiYid-
ual being. until he has first made his
way through the outward accidents Of
his existence down TO the profound
springs Of life whore man feels himself
one with other men in all that is most
intimately his own.
To aid child to become himself
and brother it is necessary to protect
him against the violent and destructive
action of the forces of disorder These
forces are exterior and interior. Every
child is menaeed from without not
only by material dangers. but by the
meddleson2eness of alien wills, and
from within by an exaggerated idea
of his own personality and all the fan
cies it breeds. There is a great out
ward danger which may come from the
abuse of power in educators The
right of might finds itself a place in ed
ucation with extreme facility To ed
ucate another one must have renowned
this right that is to say. made abne-
cation OF the inferior sentiment of per-
sonal Importance. which transforms us
into the enemies Of others. even of our
own children. Our authority is beneh-
cent only when it is inspired by one
higher than our own In this case it
is not only salutary. but also indis-
pensable. ana becomes in its turn the
best guarantee against the greater per-
il which threatens the child from with
in--that of eXaggerating his own inn
portance At the beginning of life the
vividness of personal impressions is so
great tnat to establish an equilibrium
they must be submitted to the gentle
influence of 4 calm and superior will.
The true quality of the Office of edu-
Gator is to represent this will to the
child in a manner as continuous and
as disnrerested as possible. Educators,
then stand for all that is to be re-
spected in the world. They give to the
child impressions of that which pre-
cedes it, outruns it. envelopes it, but
they do not crush it, On the contrary
their will and all the influence they
transmit become elements nutritive of
its native energy. Such use of au-
thority as this cultivates that fruitful
obedience out of which free souls are
born. The purely personal authority
of parents. masters and institutions is
to the child like the brushwood be-
meath which the young plant withers
and dies. Impersonal authority, the
authority of man who has first sub
mitted himself to the time honored
realities before which he wishes the
individual fancy of the child to bend,
resembles pure and luminous air. True
it has an activity and influences us in
its manner, but it nourishes our indi-
viduality and gives it firmness and sta
bility Without this authority there is
no education. To watch, to guide, to
keep firm hand such is the function
of the educator. He should appear to
the child not like a barrier of whims,
which. if need be. one may clear, pro-
vided the leap be proportional to the
height of the obstacle. but like Il trans
parent wall through which may be
seen unchanging realities. laws limits
and truths against which no action is
possible Thus arises respect. which is
fr.t,,o nf1 ifa,s