The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1906-05-16
THE MAKING OF MEN
PAPER BY SUPT. f. Il. RANSOM, or
SPHINX COUNTY.
Forceful Article Concerning The Nor
ais of South Dakota school Chill
dren-Parents Should Set a Good
Example for Their Offspring.

Supt. F. l.. Ransom, of Sphinx county
| at the recent session of the Northern
South Dakota Educational Association,
at Ipswich. AS 1t touches forcefully
upon one Of the great absorbing
| themes now up for consideration and
solution by the people OF this state,
We publish it practically in full.
The low standard of ethics among
| our pupils--Its cause and remedy.
To acknowledge that there is a uni
versally low standard OF ethics among
our pupils it is not my intention. 1t
| is sometimes hard to see things rs
| they really are at close range, and a
| mole-hill may look like a mountain.
| We may say that the ethical stand
ards OF our pupils are not perfect and
| if so they are too low and it should be
| our business to try to elevate them.
| Let me discuss then the cause of the
| low standards and if possible suggest
| a remedy.
The conditions that make the child
may be classified into a, inherited ten
| denotes, and b, environments.
With the first of these two great
| conditions it is out of the province of
| this paper to discuss. AS educators
we must take the child as we find him.
He has inherited what he has inherit
ed and ii is our business to strength
| en- the good and to weaken, If posi-
BILE to eliminate the evil qualities. Can
we say with credit to ourselves that
| our children have inherited worse ten
, depcies than we? But if we acknowl-
edge this and also that we are ethical
~ worse than our parents we may
/ nave found a law. And if we state
this law as true eve do it only for the
sake of the argument) namely, that
inherited tendencies are always, with
| possible exceptions, toward the evil,
the low and the vulgar, at what con-
clusion must we arrive? Simply this
that into the life must come an in
fluence strong enough to overcome
that born in the child.
| Is not intelligence stronger than
tendency? Aye it may even be made
stronger than habit. But if that which
is acquired by nature is allowed to
have full sway, if it is encouraged, if
1t Is stimulated by every contact with
humanity, certain it is that it will be
the stronger factor in the life and will
likely rule.
But let us suppose the law of in
heritance is not toward the bad but
toward the good. In this case we are
born with better possibilities than our
parents and our children are likewise
born into the world with still better
inherited qualities than we. How then
can they be worse than we unless it
be environment that influences them :?
And still again, and this exhausts
the possibilities, suppose there is no
distinct law of inheritance that makes
the race either better or worse. If
the race is better it is not the fault
of the ancestors but must be due to
| surroundings. And so If the world Is
worse we cannot lay it at the feet of
the past but must again come to the
conclusion that it is post-natal influ-
| ence.
This then is the conclusion, what
ever the inherited tendencies Of the
generation may be, whatever OF birth
our children possess 1t is the environ
ment that must raise them from a
low state of morals to any plane of
higher ethical action.
Thus it will be noticed that the
great problem before us is not one
of inheritance. Since we are trying to
ascertain the cause OF the low stand
ard Of ethics among our pupils, let us
compare the influences surrounding
the children at school and on the play
ground with the influences when at
their homes or or the street or In the
various semi-public and public places
Of resort.
For how much of the evil in the
| lives of our boys and girls is the school
and the teacher responsible? Does
| the five and one-half hours of study
| in the school room make for evil I?
| What goes on during those hours
| which can be construed as lending
| largely to moral degeneracy? Are the
| books they read while there, their lat
| in, mathematics, histories, geogra-
| phies and other books sources of cor
| ruption? You know 1T Is not so. They
are the best that money can buy.
| and that pure and consecrated pur-
| pose can suggest. Are they permitted
| to read low and trashy dime novels I?
No! their books are selected for them
| by the best talent of the state and are
written by the most able and true men
and women OF the nation and world
During those five and one-half hours
OF study does the pupils intercourse
with his fellows on subjects foreign to
his lessons tend to corrupt his morals ?
No, he is carefully guarded from this
evil by being deprived OF privilege
of communication, sometimes to the
exclusion Of almost necessary matter.
1t must be conceded that there are
times and schools where some evils
will creep in during these study per-
iods. But 1t will be acknowledged by
all that during study hours there is
no great and serious and universal
moral degeneracy.
The hour and half or two hours
on the play ground is not so free
from thoughts and acts of evil, but
even here where can you point to the
great source of degeneracy? Our
teachers as class are not immoral.