The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-15
MORAL TEACHINGS
IN SCHOOL ROOMS
The Rev. P. A. Simpkin Says
Parent and State Neglect
Ethical Training.

In an address delivered first in Salt
Lake and then at Logan, the Rev. p. A.
Simpkfn of the Phillips Congregational
church discussed the problems of young
| life. He called attention to some of the
things pressngly needing the notice OF
parental and orga nized authority. In the
course OF his exhortation he said:
CAS- I'm the history of the race, we see,
| also. as a rule, our duty only in our
danger That is not to say that men
never take thought for tomorrow, but it
| is too true that it is largely in material
things men trouble to take provision.
I'm particular are we seeing this in the
matter of juvenile delinquency and the
sin and crime of youth The record of
the past few weeks has been a terrific
arraignment Of our whole system OF child
training as it is TO be measured by the
series OF startling crimes in which young
men and women have had share-for the
worlds law is. The tree is known by its
fruits
zone may not walk unmoved through
the streets of the capital city of Utah
near midnight of almost every day in the
week. The presence of hundreds to thou
sands of young people, plea sure-intoxil
Gated, unchaperOned, unrestrained, I'M
heedful of life's quiet amenities, is dis
tuTbns. and when one finds well de-
fined drift toward places of known evil
or questionable reputation, there is added
pang Of pain.
''Without seeking to be in the slightest
degree sensational or alarnist in unnec-
cessary measure, one can but find it to
be mark of the time and be aroused
to chide those responsible for the IN
governed and endangered life that means
so much to the entire commonwealth for
good or ill.
THE development of civilization has
brought nothing more welcome than the
vision of the child's value and the obli-
cation that society owes to all his life
The present social order is in nothing to
be more praised than this.
Education of Children.
His education is our concern. Vast
sums are spent to fit him for his place
in the school of life. The public spirit
seeks to crown him with wisdom. His
health is a matter of concern and hygiene
Joined with a beneficial physical regime
hedges about his body. Very marvellous
is the ministry to the child ~ the state
THE social life of which the child is
to be a living part is justified in seeking
TO safeguard itself by making a genera
ton sound Of body and trained of mind
But the register of crime advances faster
than the benefactiens of education and
culture.
1T is not because of education. but be-
cause of something far deeper than the
school reaches primarily. The great lack
of parental training and control is the
handspring of our failing. Because We
do not sense that the law of self-training
and mastery remains, despite all outward
changes, the same for the generation,
we are missing much of the golden har-
vest we might CLEAN in the children Of
the next generation.
'The widening of the present effort to
make parents realize that their prior and
highest duty is to train their children and
bring them in honor, purity and integrity
to manhood and womanhood must be real
lied. The school is for the mind prima-
riiy, the board of health for the body,
but the father and mother are priests
and priestesses of body and soul for their
children.
But there must be something more
The state owns the child. 1t asserts that
truth in its laws of education and health
its claim upon him in time of peace and
war. The prOprietorshiD is rot absolute
ents
The juvenile court and all it stands
Tor or supervision is a new assertion of
a truth as old as the constitution. If the
state be interested in body and mind il
is interested in the soul as much. for in
the realm of morals is the problem of
conduct.
Because of this fact our schools must
have q more positive message of morality
to our children, and the prerogative of the
courts must be widened so that the life
OIL our youth may the more be guided
and repressed.
'"The parent who will not train his
child to high ends needs to be dealt
with and to find the interference of the
state far more than the one who neglects
either the education or physical need of
his child.
THE states, as well as the homes and
the childs wellbeing is at stake in the
problem. A renaissance of the old-fash-
Toned care of the child with a little less
devotion to money grabbing and pleasure,
IS sadly needed. so that az with the RO-
man mother of old, lifes Jewels NAV be
found in children. the joy of the home.
the pleasure OF society and the servants
OF the state"