Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-01-06

Iney discover TOO late that they nave
given themselves a master, and what
master! Forgetful of sacrifices,
without respect, even without pity,
he takes no more account of those to
whom he owes all, and goes through
life without law or bride
This education has it's social form,
too. 1t lourishes where the past does
not count, where history begins but
with the living, where there is neither
tradition, nor discipline, nor respect:
where those who know the least talk
the loudest; where all those who rep
resent public order become uneasy
before the first-comer. whose force
consists in talking still louder and re-
speeding no one 1t assures the reign
of ephemeral passions, the triumph
of the inferior arbiter. | compare
these two educations, where one is
the eXaltation of the center, and the
other the eXaltation of the individual;
the one the absolutism of tradition,
the other the tyranny of the now
comers-and | find them as terrible,
one as the other. But the most awful
Of all is the combination Of the two
which produces half automatons, half
despots, balancing ceaselessly be-
tween the lamb-like spirit and the
spirit of revolt or domination.
Children must not be brought up for
themselves nor for their parents; for
man is no more destined to be a great
person than a sample. We must
bring them up for life. Their educa-
ton has for aim to aid them to be-
come active members of humanity,
powerful brotherhoods, free servants
of the city. 1t is to cOmplicate life,
deform it, SOW the germs of all the
disorders to put in practice an educa-
ton which is inspired by any other
principle.
When we wish to say in one word
the destiny of the child, it is the word
future that mounts to our lips. The
child is the future. That word says
all, sufferings past, present efforts,
and hopes Now the child is incapa-
BILE of understanding the meaning of
this word at the time when his educa-
ton begins. For at that moment he
is delivered over to the "all-powerful'
of his actual impressions. Who, then,
will give him the first rays of light,
and set aim on the road which he
should follow? The parents, the
teachers. But if they will reflect a
little they will feel that their work
interests not only themselves and the
child but they exercise powers and
administrate impersonal interest. The
child must constantly appear to them
as a future citizen. Under the influ.
| ence of this preOccupation they will
have two cares which will complete
each other: the care for the initial in.
| dividual power, which terminate in
their child and should grow, and the
social destination of that power At
no moment of their action on him
should they forget that this little be-
ing, confided to their care should be-
come himself and fraternal. These
two conditions, far from excluding
themselves, never meet but when COM
bined in one indissoluble union. 1t
is impossible to be brotherly, to love,
to give ones self if one is not master
of himself, and reciprocally no one can
possess himself take possession of
himself in whatever he has of dis
tinct personality, without having de-
seconded across the accidents of the
surface of his existence, to the ro
foundest springs of his being, where
man feels himself attached to man by
all that is intimate in him.
To help a child to become himself
and fraternal, he must be protected
against the violent action and the
pernicious forces of disorder.
These forces are both outward and
inward Each outward one is threat
ened, not only by material dangers
but by the violent meddling Of strang
ers' wills, and inwardly by the exag
gerated sentiment of his ego, and by
all the fantasies which this senti
ment engenders. The external danger
is very great and may be born of the
abusive influence of educators. The
right of might introduces itself into
education with an extreme facility
To give an education one must have
renounced this right; that is to say
create the self-abnegation of this in
feriOr sentiment of our person which
transforms us into enemies of others
even of our children Our authority
is good only when ii is inspired by an
other superior to ourselves. In this
case not only is it salutary, but indis
antee in its turn against the greater
inward peril that threatens a being:
that of exaggerating his own import
ance. At theSbeginning of life, the
vivacity Of impressions is so great
that to establish the equilibrium, We
must submit it to the quieting infu
ence of calm and superior will. The
proper educational function is to repre-
sent this will near the child, in a man
ner as regular and as disinterested a!
possible. The educators represent
then all that is respectable in the
world. They give to the being who
enters life the impression of the some
thing which precedes, passes and en-
velops them, but does not crush them
On the contrary their will and all tn,
influences which they transmit to hin
become nutritive elements of his owl
anarpU To nroction ;,H