Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1917-12-18
SOLDIERS ARE NOT
MADE IN SCHOOLS
Training in All Countries Found
to Be Only Preliminary
in Character.
FOUNDED UPON PATRIOTISM
Uncle Sans Investigators Find That
II Is Not Regarded as Substitute
for Physical Training, but as
Solely Preparatory.

Although each European nation pos
sesses its own system of military
training of school youths, adopted to
the specific conditions and purposes of
the movement in each particular in
stance, a certain similarity of origin |
and organization of these movements
may be observed, according to experts
of Uncle Sans bureau of education,
who have recently looked very care
fully into this matter as being of spe-
cial interest to educators of the United
States at this time
In most cases 1t was found that the
source of the movement could be
traced to the department of education
and patriotic organizations of citizens.
Where military instruction is not an
obligatory part of the public school
curricula, 1t is promoted in the form
of student organizations under the
leadership of patriotic clubs and aid
ed by government grants and by the
lease of government property. In
those countries where the governments
are not directly active in this work it
often arises spontaneously, it was
found, under the guise of semi-military
clubs.
Training Only Preliminary.
AS a result of the study made by
the experts it was found that military
instruction, of the exact nature and to
the same extent as that given to sol
diers is not found in the schools of
any country of Europe except the spe-
cial military schools. Such training is
confined everywhere to the period of
active service, and no attempt has
ever been made to impose upon the
school the task of producing fully
trained soldiers. In many countries
having universal military service the
public schools provide for training boys
in such elements of military science
as may be conveniently combined with
their physical training and at the
same time prepare them for the active
service awaiting every young man.
The attitude of foreign educators, 1t
was found, is well defined on this mat.
ter. They do not, as a rule, regard
the military instruction as a success
full substitute for the well established
systems of physical training and char
acter building. They generally view 1t
as an anomaly in the school system,
justified only by the exigencies of ma
tional defense. The enthusiastic sup
port they lend to this work comes more
from patriotic rather than from peda-
gogic motives, according to those ex-
perts who have just completed this
study. Occasionally, however, the benz
eficial effects of military training up
on the moral and physical sides OF
boys education are emphasized. Very
marked results of this nature have
been observed in Australia.
Not Physical Training.
In France, where military training
is q component part of the prescribed
program of public primary schools, II
Is not approved by leading educators
, as method of physical training, but
1t is recognized and commended az
preparatory training for military serv'
ice, intended to raise the efficiency OF
the French army. The programs OF
. public schools in France include gym'
, nastics and moral instruction, the for
mer as a means of building up the
physique of the boys and the lattei
| OF ueVelOpluB their CudiuSlci. ~ -
, generally recognized that these two OBJ
, jects of education cannot be perfectly
, attained by any system of militarI
, training.
, 1t is a significant feature of all mli
taristic movements affecting thu
, schools that they appear wherever and
whenever special need is felt for rails
: ing the standard of the military pre-
, paredness of the nation. In France
. the movement was started after the
: disastrous war of 1870 and revived af
: ter the reduction of the term of active
service in 1905. In Austria intensive
military work in the schools wal
launched after a similar reduction Of
the term of service. In Switzerland
and Australia 1t accompanied the in
: PRODUCTION of an abbreviated system o
universal military service. During TIL
period from 1908 to 1914. when appre
hension of the oncoming European con
& fiict was keen among the nations o
the continent, the training Of schoo
youths In warlike exercises was great
: ly extended.