MANKIND IN THE FUTURE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1722, 12 April 1913, Page 8

MANKIND IN THE FUTURE.

o — MASTERS AND EUGENICS IN SCHOOL. DEPUTATION TO BRITISH MINItc TER OF EDUCATION. About a thousand headmasters and mis-' tresses of elementary and secondary schools and training colleges attended a conference under tue auspices of the Eugenics Education Society at the "University of London on Marcn 1. A resolution was carried "That tho Minister of Education bo asked to lvceive a deputation requesting an inquiry as to tho advisability of encouraging the presentation of tho idea of racial responsibility to students in training and children at school." Tho President,(Major t. Darwin) announced that tho conference had been organised as an indirect consequence of tho growing interest being taken in educational circles in the question of sex hygiene. Numerous inquirers had come to the office of the society, under the impression that sex-hygieno and eugenics wero identical, which certainly they were not. Ho was not armed with any mandate "from his society to express on their behalf any opinion concerning sexhygiene, but he was there to plead in tho uamo of his society, and with all the force at his command, that in all institutions where sex-hygieno was taught it ought to be taught in' connection .with the eugenic ideal, for not pnly would this subject thus be elovated and rendered less difficult, but at the same time tho teachers would bo doing their best 'to ensuro tho future progress of the race. Tho Eugenic Ideal. They in this generation .were absolutely responsible for the production of tho next generation, and, therefore, of all mankind in tho future. Their problem was to inculcate the 'idea of racial responsibility, and this could only be done by making the inculcation of the eugenic ideal part of their national system of education. Education was in three parts, practical, intellectual, and moral. Eugenic education belonged to moral education, and partly to thejntellectual. Teachers by exerting the influence on the ideals of their pupils could do much to form thoso (standards which would guide tlieir affections in later years, when they came to select their partners in marriage. The conclusion he wished to urge with all his force was that by implanting the eugenic ideal in the minds of children to-day a definite step would be taken, ensuring the racial progress of our nation in tho future. Mr. W. A. Nicholls (ex-president of the National Union of Teachers), discussing the difficulties of introducing tho subject of eugenics into the elementary schools, maintained that in the present condition of public opinion the only persons who could with safety explain sex. and tho responsibilities accompanying the knowledge of sex to young children were the parents. Tho serious difficulty was that not only public opinion, but many education authorities would view with reprehension any attempt to explain in the most elementary'way the question of sex. An Early Beginning. Mr. J. H. Badley (headmaster of Bedales School, Petersfield) said the first thing to realise was that one could not begin too young. School must be a place where children are put in the right conditions for growing, so that while there they would be forming sound habits of body and habits of thought.' Miss Faithfull (Headmistress of Cheltenham Ladies' College) considered tho homo was tho proper place for children becoming acquainted with, the more intimate details underlying the science of eugenics, but with the introduction of medical inspection in schools the doctor was tho person most fitted .to undeiiako the duty of educating chilclrcn in cases whnro the parents had failed to do their duty. Dr. Howard (Education Department, L.C.C.) suggested that the Hoard of Education should bo apnroached and asked to call a conferenco of competent educationists and set them to work for, at least, two years in drawing up a scliemo which tho schools could make use of in any way they thought' fit. ■ > Science and Religion. Tho Rev. and Hon. Edward Lyttelton (Headmaster of Eton) said probably it was correct to say that eugenics hoped to supplement the religious ideal with something of a more intellectual kind; sinco many of the new movement found that the older school of thought lacked the scientific spirit, especially in matters of race-training, where the English disposition to. ignore the connection between cause and effect had told, and was telling, with disastrous results to tho racial development at the present . day. But among religious people as they , were now there was no marked indisposition' to suffer an infusion of science into, the training of the young. It was only n minority 'who remained unwilling to bestir themselves with tho bettering of the life that now was in the expectation of a fuller life to come; and when once a man felt his energies demanded by this'present world lie could hardly fail to see that even in tile grave matters connected with marriage and training in laws of sex, science had a message for him which ho might not ignore. 'It was a great law of nature that this instruction was a' responsibility lying upon the parents; it remained the work of tho parents, and was onlv in tho second place the ■ work of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. Miss Tuke (Principal of Bedford College) remarked that marriage, was too often looked upon as the sovereign remedy for the unsatisfactory youth, and the neurotic girl. llow often had tlicy heard when a young man's conduct was being discussed tho remark: "Oh, well, let's hope he will soon marry and settle down!"?