New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-10-13
Humanitarianism in The Schools.

Humanitarianism
Mote: The following pointed para
graphs are. taken from an address
delivered by j. Howard Moore qllinols)
before the American Humane assOcia-
tion at its annual convention in ST.
Paul. The notes were taken by a
friend of the editor and sent him for
publication. --Editor.)
Like the ship in Ibsen's "Rhymed
Ep1stle, = civilization carries a corpse
in its cargo, the elemental instincts
and passions which have been be-
queathed to us by the savage and the
animal
Man has acquired his psychology in
the same way exactly as he acquired
his backbone. He did not originate
it; it has been handed to him. It came
out of the breast of the bird and the
quadruped. Even elite people are
only specifically civilized. The great
core of human nature is barbaric.
There is no systematic recognition
of this fact by educators, much less
any businesslike effort to cope with it.
It is pitiful. Here is animality- the
biggest, sternest and most horrible
fact in human heredity yet it stands
here generation after generation with
out any formal recognition, whatever,
in our curricula. It is a powerful COM
ment on human understanding, and a
crushing demonstration of the failure
of educators to perform the function
which in the accidents of evolution has
been allotted to them.
The teaching of the correct relation
of human beings to each other and of
human beings to the other inhabitants
of this planet should have a prominent
place in every course of instruction
designed for human young. In the
name of common sense, is anything
more important? Do not the most of
our earthly ills come from our ignor-
ant and uncivilized relations to each
other, rather than from our lack of
understanding of the in-animate uni
verse? The ability to weigh the stars
is all right, but it is not more impor-
tant than the disposition to be just.
Teach German or Latin or algebra,
or any other subject now taught IN
our schools to a class of boys and
girls for year. Then go to work and
teach humanitarianism for the same
length of time and with the same sys
tenn and ingenuity, and compare the
effects of the different branches of in
struction on the lives of those boys
and girls. Is there any doubt which
subject would be the most useful? A
human being may be damned full of
German, or geometry, or biology, and
yet be barbarian. In fact, a being
without moral character is worse off
Federated" than if he we're ignorant.
For "education" merely effectualizes
an individuals power for evil. Let
the intellect sleep, or civilize it.
We teach English all the time, too,
and great many other things. But
this general teaching does not do
away with the necessity for special and
systematic training in the same sub
ject. The general training merely
supplements and reinforces the spec
ial. And the moral training given in
the schools at the present time is no
more than supplementary to what
should be given in order to lay in the
the minds of the young anything like
a firm basis for civilization.
The statement that it is impossible
to teach morals and humanity, except
by vague rumors and example. is a
statement that has been made by some
body in the past and has been passed
| around ever since without ever having
been challenged or Investigated, like
! a great many other of our so-called
truths. 1t is pure nonsense. Kindness.
humanity and moral courage can be
| taught to young minds just as easily
and effectually as Latin or arithmetic.
|
You couldn't teach these things to
all with complete success any more
than you could algebra. For, sad as
it is, there are beings who come from
the loins of men with such heritage
of evil that the most determined efforts
to reform them are futile. But there
are boys and girls that can't learn al
zebra to save their lives. Yet we go
on teaching it for about 200 hours a
year, even though our teaching often
lands in stony places.