Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-07-05
CHARACTER AND ITS BUILDING.
BY Archbishop Glennou.

CHARACTER AND ITS BUILDING
By Archbishop Glennon.
The days Of school commencement
and song recitals and graduating es
says are days looked forward to witt
pleasure on the part of pupils anC
their parents, with anxiety ON the par
of the teachers and with resignation
on the part of the many friends OF
the invitation list. / say with resigna
ton, because the audience is preju
diced, feeling that however honorably
and laudlbly the young entertainers
may acquit themselves, there is and
must be lacking initiative, variety OF
novelty in their productions.
Similarly also is the audience preju'
diced against the Orator" of the day,
because they realize that his speech to
the pupils and the graduates can be
little more than a series of platitudes
which appear and have appeared with
persistent regularity every succeeding
year.
| have noted specially these later
years the oft-repeated reference to
what the speaker calls Character and
character building as a result Of
scholastic training, and while the sub
ject is trite may be permitted to say
a few words on 1t to-day, because of
your interest in education and educa-
tional results.
I am glad that the public to-day no
longer regards education in the mar
row, limited way it, did some Years
ago, when education was looked, upon
as something purely mecaanical-so
many hours spent in study, so many
books to read, so many formulas mem
orized, so many sciences investigated
and as a result the pupil SO trained
was looked upon as a machine, equip
ped to make money or speeches, or
some other material task.
The breaking down of the machine
so frequently, and the utter ~inadequacy
in any instance of these machine-made
scholars to reach out or to lead on. or
eve to hold their own, has driven
people to ask for something more than
a mere scientific training, something
that affects and perfects personality,
and that will set a principle higher
a formula, and a man as more
than his work.
And this is what the orators to-day
when they speak of character"
OF course you will agree with me
that character and character building
should be a considerable feature of the
world Of to-day you also
would agree that the young men and
women leaving our colleges and con-
vents should bring back with them not
alone scientific attachments, but in a
very marked way consistent, noble,
characters. And vet, as there
Is no effect without a cause, there can
be no result in the order of character
building unless the principles that make
or It lie within the school curriculum,
20 that the orator of to-day who would
on character and Character for
should carefully investigate how
and wherein the pupil had an oppor-
tunNy Of obtaining 1t.
II the work Of a school is limited to
a purely senior training If it's curric-
ulum excludes the supernatural If that
which we call religion and allied prob
lens are ignored and outlawed; then
best the speaker Fan ask for pupils
so trained Is that as students Of nature
they should obey natures laws; that
as they observe law in nature, and fate
to punish It's laws violation; 1t were
best for them to respect these laws
and obey them that, in fine, all nat
ural virtues should be theirs, and in
their character should be found temper
ance, prudence and all the gentleness
Of h flowers and the strength Of the
oak tree.
Sometimes fond parents fancy, when
they hear these things exploited, and
gilded owe by the genius of the speak
Pr, that if their children were only to
the heights SO LUMINOSITY de
so eloquently pictured, nothing
vas left for their devoted ones to
cultivate nor themselves to hope for.
And yet what have these speakers
said to their pupil class that might
not, with equal propriety, be applied
~ eAS VI tAS SlOCh ldElu. Ger
tainiy In both cases natures laws
should be observed, and similarly, too,
their violation brings on man and beast
speedy punishment. N~ature>is good
md natural law is quite commendable,
yet If we limit education to the nat
1ral only, we leave mans truest as
pirations without Interpretation, and
his hottest hopes without any meaning.
We waste u energy in gliding tembs,
and spend our tine in scattering flow
ers that wither on the sad procession
that leads to the grave.
He only may speak Of better things
a graduating class who has as a
background the broad, liberal curric-
alum of an education to appeal to
where God as well as nature finds a
place; where reason and revelation =
hand in hand to the training Of the
pupil, and where there is spread out
.or the student, not alone the fairy
,ales of science" but the entire duty
destiny Of humanity.
Then it Is that character building be-
gins to grow, and he who would be
is prophet could then speak OF noble