Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-05-11
Il MAKING OF MEN
PAPER BY SUPr. T. l.. RANSOM, OF
sPINk COUNTY.
ais of South Dakota School Chill
dren-Parcnts Should Set a Good
Example for Their Offspring.

The following paper was read by
Supt. F. /. Ransom. of Sphinx county
at the recent session Of the Northern
South Dakota Educational Association,
at Ipswich. AS il touches forcefuily
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
yersallv low 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 g
mole-hill may look like n mountain.
We may say thai the ethical stand
ards of our pupils are not perfect II
if SO they are too low and it should be
our business to try to elevate them.
Let me discuss hen the cause OF he
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.
ne mas lllIleT1lcu WHAT ne mas lllileGll-
ed and it 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
denotes than we? But if we acknowl-
edge this and also that we are ethical
ly worse than our parents we may
have found a law. And if we state
this law as true eve do it only for the
sake OF the argumcnt) 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 ever 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, uppose there is no
distinct law of inheritance that makes
the ace 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. -a. .-... .
This then is the conclusion, what
ever the inherited tendencies of the
generation may be, whatever of birth
our children possess it 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 Smes or on 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 ?
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
r%uption? You Know 1t is not so. They
are the best that money can buy.
and that a pure and ~consecrated pur-
pose can suggest. Are they permitted
to read low and trashy dime novels?
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.
2 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-
fods- But it will be acknowledged by
all that during study hours there Is
no great and serious and universal
moral d~egeneracy.
The hour and a half or two hours
on the play ground Is not go free
from thoughts and acts of evil. but
even here where can you point to the
great source OF degeneracy? Our
teachers as a class are not immoral,
but on the contrary are the very
cream Of the land, and this splendid
band are scattered: one On every
school ground in our broad state, not
as policemen, To arrest and bring to
Justice a criminal. but as friends and
heTpers OF our youth there to pre-
rent the thought Of evil, there to sug-
eest the cause Of right, there to cor
rect the first Ill word and suppress by
love or force If necessary. every ap-
pearance Of vice
II there is auI and vice in our
pupils tt is not the result of idlersess,
faGh u care on the part OF the school
authorities, vicious teaching, immoral
teachers or any other ~creature of our
public school system. There is no
single master vice among schools
that creates total d~epravfty- nor are
there many such. parcsfed out, n or
two to a school. which give the same
universal result. The fault Hes else
where.
What are the evils IN our school