Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-28
President Would Make Schools
Link. in Promoting Government

ing to the most approved tenets of
present day educational philosophy.
But the child of 8, seated in the
church auditorium, amidst riot Of
sense stimuli, and coerced into commit
ting memory verse. a verse similar
perhaps to the following to be found in
junior quarterly, In Him was life. and
the life was the light of men, such an
| unfortunate is sowing-or. having sowed
for him-the seed of strong dislike for
that which he might be taught to love.
This is but another instance of the
common practice of administering a di-
luton OF adult philosophy to the little
man.
Let us not be mistaken in the goal
Of religious instruction. Sometimes it
would seem that our teachers deem it
sufficient to stock the child with Biblical
information. Yet have we not seen the
precocious Christian of perhaps 10
years. adorned with a superficial mask
of Bible lore, have We not been wit
ness frequently to such boys fall at
Is into the depths Of religious apathy
and indifference?
1.-THE educational institution which
is satisfied to measure the efficiency of
its work by the requirement of in
formation standard, the religious school
whose practice is restricted to formal
question and answer methods, is con-
tributing little to the life of its chill
dren. It is under such conditions that
a birthr1ght is exchanged for mess
of pottage' and souls intended for the
activities of noble living are confined
to the baser levels of superficiality.
Said the Great Teacher, Suffer lit
tie children to come unto me, and for
bid them not, for of such is the king
dom of God. Verify I say unto you,
whosoever shall not receive the king
dom of God as little child shall in no
not a hint of a high-grade religious
pedagogy in When I was child I
spake as child. understood as a
child, thought as child But when
became a man was prepared and
ready to lay aside childish things In
deed, it might be said that in these
verses we find the pedagogical gist of
both secular and religious instruction"
That brilliant commentator and
friendly critic of American institutions,
James Bryce, more than 40 years ago
wrote that eff the political education
of the average American voter is COM
pared with that of the average voter in
Europe, 1t stands high, but If it be COM
pared with the functions which the
theory of American Government lays on
him, which its spirit implies, which the
| IIlGtIlOQS Ol lCS pdLI OISdIl1DdGiOu do
sumo, its inadequacy Is manifest. This
observation is. however, not so much a
reproach to the schools as trib-
ute to the height of the ideal. which
the American conception of popular rule
sets up"
That the American conception of
| popular rule. still expects much of the
individual-after 40 years of adding in
gradients from every quarter of the
globe to our melting pots certainly
tribute to our great aggregate of edu-
cational institutions.
But now it Is the Presidents purpose
to take inventory. to ascertain wherein
citizenship may profit more from our
stupendous investment in public in
{ struction, to determine how education
can be made more vital force In MAIN
tanning healthy reciprocal relationship
between government and those gov
erned.