The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1957-10-04
Children in Europe:
Change Is Taking Place
In Education of Child
by Erik v. KvehneIf.L eddihn

A slow but sure change is taking place in the way
Continental Europeans are educating their children and
the difference between the American way and the Europ-
can way is rapidly d%windlng. This, however, applies
only to the family upbringing; the school systems still
are miles apart.
The same notions, of course, do not prevail in all
European countries and in all social layers; there are con-
siderable differences between the pedagogical treatment
in, let us say, the house of a Swedish nObleman and that
of an AndaluSian peasant.
The religious element too has to be taken into ac-
count; affection between parents and children is more
marked in the Catholic world; family life is stronger.
Boarding schools, a must in the British upper class,
are an emergency measure on the Continent = for un-
tractable children, for broken up families, or for those
who live very far from the type of school they desire.
In the top classes, especially, children used to be
kept extremely strict, if not loveless. The aristocracy
usually had, and still has, large antilles in which a
severe, even Spartan upbringing was the rule rather than
the exception. In Europe princesses and countesses hard
ly ever enjoy the kind of childhood imagined for them by
most Americans. They may walk barefoot in the grounds
of their ancestral castles, study endless hours in univer-
Slty graduate schools, or act as social workers for the
government.
When my parents were young they got no butter
on their bread because, above anything else, children
were not to be spoiled.
In the presence of guests they were expected to
speak only if asked to. Even today, in certain families.
children are not permitted to talk during meals. Disci-
pine and obedience are still held high in esteem. He
who wants to command has first to learn to obey s.
At the same time children are spanked more rarely
than outsiders incline to believe. In school the rod is
used very s%paringly. During my whole school days /
witnessed less than a dozen s%pankings, whereas in British
Public Schools" (which are not public beatings take
place regularly, just like in Northern Germany.
In the Balkans, needless to say, this procedure would
result in terrible retaliations against the teachers. The
further south you 60 in Europe, the prouder the people
are.
The severity of European education has relaxed
somewhat in the last decades.
However, one of the principles which parents con-
tinue to instil into their children is imperviousness to-
wards the spirit of conformity. THE other children do
this or Everybody in class has a dress like that are
arguments which, in intelligent families, are treated with
LAUGHTER n r. ir0nV If NAV sound nar9dOylc9I hit the
classic European education uses severity to achieve in
dependence of mind and nonconformity.
Let us remember Exodus XIII, q: 'Thou shalt not
follow the multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou yield
in judgment to the opinion of the most part to stray from
the truth" Americans, who have never experienced the
evils of totaltarian tyranny, can hardly appreciate the
necessity of such educational principles. Monochrome
iy, diversity, even, Righteousness has always been the
keynote of European life, especially in the Catholic
countries renowned for their strong individualism.
And what about religious education in the family?
Where it is successful it refrains from preaching"
Owing to the outside conformity and inside rebelious-
ness of our children / have known too many Catholics
especially men--who lost their faith because their par
ents "highpressured" them into religious practices be-
yond the commands of the Church.
Especially during adolescence, when youngsters
tend towards opposition and contradiction, great care
must be taken in Europe not to overdo things.
1t is up to the parents to live religion, to- give the
best example. In family life religion should appear as
natural as the air we breathe; irreigion should be treated
as a tragedy, a monstrosity, a vuloarity, as something
obsolete belonging to a past age like stays and gaslight;
A powerful ally in this educational effort is the good
book; modern, streamlined Catholic literature and at
tractive periodicals are important aids.
The same is true of a strong family feeling, not just
between parents and children, but between all the liv.
ing generations, between uncles, aunts, nepheWs, nieces,
and cousins. Pride in the name and a sense of family
honor, though not religious values in the narrow sense
of the term, are certainly factors in keeping youngsters
morally in line. Indirectly they will be an aid in choos-
ing later on a mate for life.
The realization that marriage is not solely the af-
fair between a boy and a girl, but a bridge between two
antilles is a corrective against mere infatuation. Yet,
we all know that it won't be at all easy to keep our
educational principles intact. Modernity and nihiism
are at our door.