The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-25

| The school which takes hold of tho
child when still very young and holds
| II until II is nearly grown up is at
present the object of a heated discus
sion in France, discussion carried on
in our Parliament as well as In our
daily press. That the school exerts
great influence upon the growing child
is beyond doubt. but still there are
very earnest and very intelligent men
who assert that it is by no means sure
that the soul of the school permanently
influences the soul of the child. Some
of these insist that the school Is really
powerless to modify for any length Of
time the character and moral tenden-
cies OF the young future citizen.
This is the eternal and profound
problem which faces every sincere edu-
Gator when he takes UP his task. Arc
VIC able TO do anything to mould the
nature and character of the child? IT
we are really able to exert any innu-
ence. Is not this influence really pass
ing, is not It's effect lost as soon as II
ceases to exert itself, and the young
boy or girl starts on his or her career
in life?
Like all other problems in social.
psychology. this problem has Mt vari-
GUS times been answered In different
ways. The opinions OF a Fenelon or
Rousseau have always found num-
Der of indorsers. Let us therefore try
TO look at tho question itself. without
endeavoring 10 solve 1t In a way that
agrees with our preference or per-
sonal interests.
| The only party which one might
call the extremist educators are fond
OF quoting Leihnitz, who has said the
words. so often repeated afterwards:
.i,-r ha rhF tr en- nt,
ton, and I will change the face of
Europe in less than 100 years" Hell
vetius went further still in asserting
that all men are born with the same
equal abilities and that 1t Is education
alone which creates the, difference. 1t
is we'll to quote these extreme atiirula-
tons, because there arises Immediately
within US q desire to contradict and
disprove them on basis of our per-
sonal experience Without having ever
tried to educate anybody, nor even
having thought very deeply about edu-
cation, who has not seen that two chill
dren in the Same family. educated by
the same people, very soon have shown
very great differences OF character?
No matter how great Is the power of
education to mould the soul of child,
1t has been proven by experience al
most every day that education is still
very far from being omnlpotent,
Going to the other extreme, the abso-
lutte believers in heredity assert with
equal zeal that education has no power
or influence whatever, character they
say. with Fouillee, Is the one and con-
slant way OF feeling. thinking and
willing which Is peculiar to each single
individual, The scat of this activity
is no fiction. no abstraction: 1t IL the
nervous system. the brain. The brain
turns out character as the stomach
digests, It's form and development are
determined from the time OF birth. as
Is the share and development OF the
hand or the nose 1t Ia only because
we are not able to see the brain OF the
child as we see Its nose OF hands that
we ollns to the strange illuslon that
we are ,aess. 10 influence i, by words.
Who would eYar think OF transforming
into an aquiline nose the nasal organ
OF chtld born with common pug
ncse2
To these absolute believers in
heredity ono might well say, always
in the name of common sense, that
chtld's nose or hands are susceptible
to modifying culture, and that were It
possible to massage the brain, as 1t
Is possible to massage nose or a
hand. we should surely be able to alter
its shape, and as II Is we arc still able
to mold 1t by mental massage; that
Is to say, by constant suggestion, This
Is the educational theory OF Giuyan---
ono of the most ingenious among mod
ern theories, To Guyan, character is a
system OF rabbits. SOME inherited from
parents, others acquired One cannot
help the first, but ono may suggest
the others, which may successfully
.soabat tho Nrst. And this is the OBJ
1ect OF all education,
49, lit is q must reasonabla thlng. "