EDUCATION REFORM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 211, 25 May 1918, Page 8

EDUCATION REFORM

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—We realise more and more the necessity for some reform in the education of our children, and the need for proper character training and religious leaching, for without these two eiA-en-tials, combined with the secular, education is incomplete, and in the end does niore.harm. tlmn good. Secular education alone cannot change the hearts of men and women aud nuke them better , . What is wanted is an education founded on the teaching of Christ, it' we are to continue to be worthy of the name of Christians.

The teaching of the board schoole ie dangerous because it narrows the minds and ideals so that they lali into grooves. It docs not train ami elevate the character nor expand the outlook on life, neither does it draw out the best side nor subdue the worst, bat fosters eelfish,ness and class prejudice. There is good and evil in' all of us, and it should be the duty of the teachers to cultivate and train the minds to understand the difference between right and wrong, and to bend, as it were, the growing bough in the right direction. •

,\Vo have two object lessons before its at the present time. One, the power for evil through higher education or "kultur," without the benelicent teaching of Christ, for it is well knowii now that the right Christian leaching has been purposely omitted from tho German schools for many years, in order that the children might see no evil in committing in manhood all the abominable 'atrocities they have been perpetrating during the war.' If they had any, vestige of Cliristiiiriity. in them they would find it impossible jto treat with such cruelty the helpless wonion and children and old men in the lands they have occupied. , .The other object lesson is the ltussiau debacle, brought about through power and ignorance combined, olid the lack of right Christian teaching,. There wo see men rising into power one after another and taking hold of the reins of Government, and the Army, What a terrible picture it i<s. Anarchy, treachery, cruelties,, bloodshed, und robberies everywhere, the whole country from end to end in a ntate of chaos, while the wiley higher kultured '(!),, educated Germans aro watching and biding their time to step in and seize all they can, while inciting sub rosa the ignorant and foolish Russian to continue tho revolution. There we have the effects upon two nations of tho actions of men and women who have cast aside as useless religion and conscience and all they stand for. Aβ I said before, ivhat is needed to improve a notion is a more refining, vigorous, and practical education for tho children of the masses. By that I do not niean a greater cramming of their brains with all sorts of subjects whicli may be useless in after-life when they have lo work for their living, but to make them more energetic and capable of understanding that indolence is detrimental to themselves as well as dishonest lo those who employ them. In fact, to teach them, to be Nature's ladies and gentlemen in character, to be upright and honest, honourable in their work and business, arid considerate for others, and not omitting manners, for as an old saying has it, "Mnnners niaketh tho man, but the want of them maketh tho fellow."

It might tako two or even three generations to arrive at the desired result, but surely it would be worth the effort. It would mean the right kind of teachers, highly educated men and truly refined women, with the highest of characters and Christian principles to form tho characters and growing minds' of the children, for it is tho daily and hourly example and influence which tells. Eeligioiw teaching once or hvice a iveek by ministers of the different churches, however good and necessary, could never havo the same result and until the future mothers have themselves benefited by the reformed education*they will bo unfitted and powerless to teach their children. Just as it is now, the children , do not gel the good training nid example ,lhey should in their homes. , Then and only then would we arrive at unity and good feeling between the classes) there would bo no cause for jealousy and disliko such as now exists, and ihero would bo contentment and real civilisation, Children should also be taught that there is nothing derogatory in labour, and that work of all forts is right and honourable, and not to be despised by any class, that it never lowers man or woman if performed honestly and to the'best of their ability; it is only the idler and the shirker who is despised. Brain work is quite as necessary as manual labour, neither nan exist without the other. What we want is not a levelling down to a lower grade, but a iifting up to a higher social standard of citizenship.—l am, etc., •X.Y.Z.