RECONSTRUCTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 158, 29 March 1919, Page 8

RECONSTRUCTION

EDUCATIONAL REFORM

THE CHILD AND THE STATE

THE CITADEL OF GOVERNMENT

THE SCHOOLING OF DEMOCRATS

(For Tim Dominion- by F. L. Combs, J[.A.)

The nineteenth century was staunchly, starkly individualistic. During tho eighteenth, wheel upon wheel had been ii.serted into the already too cumbrous machinery of Government. Monarchy, aided by "the commission of the peace and the quartor sessions, and feeling itself in loco parentis, had endeavoured to keep a loyal and subject people in leading strings. In tho snapping or attenuating of these strings consisted the political mission of the nineteenth century. For a miraculous discovery had been made by Adam Smith and his apostles. Where the State had interfered to regulate or help it had only hindered. Let Government, therefore, in future withhold its hand. Its lieges, if left to the guidanco of their own sweet wills, would work out their own salvation and that of the State. All tho Government need supply was a minimum of policemen to keep, clear the arena of free competition and civil courts lor tha enforcement of the rules of the money-making game among tho contestants for a competence. ~ This negative view of the functions ot tin State accompanied and contributed to a declining spirit of citizenship. Enterprise, imperial or legislative, was condemned. Little Englandism and laissez fairo combined to numb and obstruct tho zeal of even such prodigies of energy ami initiative as Mr. Chamberlain. Parliament, as is always the case when man or institution avows the masterliness of inaction, passed from a languid to a eviical frame of mind. It almost admitted its own effetoness—a point somewhat scornfully conceded by its outside rivals, the big unions and influential commercial interests. Had not the war intervened, had Parliament derogated a little further from its once high estate, outside bodies, Syndicalist or propertied, would certainly have endeavoured to wrest the helm of State from its nonchalant hands. How the School Suffered. The modern "State" school, as its name implies, grew up in this atmosphere of political agnosticism. On tho one hand was an aspiring individualism, stopping at nothing to secure to private persons advantages of place and pelf. On the other was tho State, prepared to lend but little aid to the school, and thanks to its deluded laissez faire guardians, prepared to lend that little while demanding absolutely nothing in return. The result, so far' as tho writer knows, was unprecedented. Here was an institution with immense" and obvious'potentialitiea (vide Brougham), an institution in tho past always regarded bv Church or autocraoy as a prinio lever of government; yet this lever was not availed of. Within it no oathechism of civic duty replaced that of the Church, nor following tho effective though ultimately malign example of Prussia, was the citizen in posse dogmatised into abject submission to any and everything wearing a uniform. Instead, in accordance with the pseudo detachment of a scientific age, in a formal and pedantic fashion, some information of h humdrum character called history was supplied. A fewscraps of narrative, to which were appended fags of colourless comment, had to take tho place of an enthusiastic inculcation of the nation's destiny, past and future. The identity of the school with the country which maintained it, of its pupils with patriots, was undreamt of. It existed, on the contrary, to peddle retail, tardily following up the demand, a supply of aptitudes and information marketable by.the recipient in office, shop, or market. Bankers and chambers of commerce, it was recognised, might anguish over the school's faulty teaching of arithmetic. Bad spelling or grammar in a business letter should be sheeted home to it, but the lapse from political activities of whole communities and dosses, notably the middle classes was nobody's business, least of all the school's. Everything Out of the State/Nothing for It. Such indifference to civic life could have but one result. A generation grew up to regard tho State as a foster parent designed to protect and sustain its free and capricious electors to further their individual or corporate ends. On the other hand, the idea of a reciprocal dutv to the State, even that of casting a thoughtful vote, was rarely entertained. Political rights • were, to quote tho words of a South Island school committee, "privileges to be enjoyed," not obligations demanding specific or indeed any sort of performance. Yet, and herein lies tho pregnant paradox, the State, which the many sought to enjoy, to derive advantage aud furtherance from, could only itself be maintained if all were united" to do it service, to uphold its unity, and to vigilantly safeguard tho integrity of its functions. A. growing consciousness of this need where the Stato is concerned, of giving as well as taking, has been manifest during the past decade. The need is really as elementary and indispensable as that of feeding a cow if you intend to milk her, though it is certainly desirable that it should be met from a somewhat loftier standpoint. In addition, economic and industrial evolution have enhnnced the power and importance of tho State in a way that the thought and deference of its citizens havo not. All great undertakings, are tending to unify themselves on a national scale; there is a further tendency following thereupon to piece them under the administration of the State. Hence .tho incongruous result that democracies, lax and indifferent to political activities are beginning to walk from dawn to duek without onco passing from under the shadow of the Governmental institutions, civic or national.

The New Era: State First, Not Last. The moral is easy to deduct As so often lias been the case in the past, our new century in list turn its back upon tho one just departed. Civic activities must rate as the first and most important, not tho lost: and least significant of the preoccupations of- the democrat. Like Napoleon, though not to such an overmastering extent, the efficient citizen niust become un etra politique. The validity of this notion, objectionable to an existing school of thought, can, nevertheless, bo made obvious enough. Tlio State to-day supervises everything. It intervenes in everything. It owns and operates huge enterprises. It is a bigger r-mployer than any .10 private concerns iu the Dominion. It is omnipresent. Itmay become, with minor qualifications, omnipotent. Ak in Republican Rome, so in our Empire of Republics, the citizen, becoming in the main and for the must part either a shareholder in the State or <i functionary of it, or both togothcr, mutt give the m-eater nart of his attention to its working. That lie may do so with greater probity siiul insight 'bun ili-.se electors wl>o openly pouched bribes ei'd amdaniled demagogies in tlio Eternal City 2000 years ago, is the anxious w|"h of. every nrogres'ive and statesmanlike mind in the world to-day. Can the Schoo.l Make Citizens? What agency can bo most: readily availed nf in rehabilitating and invigorating to this high pilch the conception nf civic life anil duty? Much, nearly all. that nerds doing immediately must devolve -nrtiii Hie adult community. The first fniils of its effects will bo harvested iu the form of n body of public men at once more capable, more ronresenlalive. and more respected Winn the existing one '"politician" is at nresent n, bye-word). On the other hand, fho d"en, Instill" foundations; of tiolilienl efficiency, of Mile, bonnst, and purposeful citizenship "•not-be \)' c fi\ n'i- Hie ri="i'r (renoirntinn. The contra] function rf the school's instruction miH, therefore, be to raiso up in its true dignify, and immense scope, and to indelibly impress on the mind of the child a conception of tho modem

State, its 'body, juris, functions, and tendencies. Even at the- expense, of cutting down arithmetic by a half, and, dire oxtrcmity, abandoning plasticine altogether, room must be made for civic instruction, for instruction, that is, in the history of our nation and of humanity at large, in a knowledge of our institutions as they havo come to bo and as they iiro going to bo. Tho Church, when its mighty span overarched t'ho Middlo Ages, mado n conception of its own nature, grandeur, power and authority tho dornimuit noto of its teaching. Only tho indifference of tho lDth Century State, a Stnto careless of its prestige and inclined rather to retrench than to extend its functions, could have blinded it.to the need of doing likewise—of doing oven more, sinco, unlike medioval theocracy, it placed its_. own destiny and security in the keeping of the free opinions of its enfranchised subjects. Only in tho most neglected of its institutions, the school, could (ho good hap.of so negligent a State have been so utterly neglected. Nature- study, tho fine- arts, natural science, cookery, vocal music, swimming, etc., each and all have reigned their little day—nor need one. derogate from their just pretensions. But, meantime, civic-instruc-tion—the theory and practice of a \ital patriotism—has been allowed to remain a hack number. The day must_ soon come—the need is urgent—when this last shall become first and the other subject; assume towards it their due and contributory subordination. What should civic instruction be? Why, in the primary school, at least, it should consist in the liberal broadcasting of germinating interests and curiosities—should be dramatic, picturesque ami objective rather than analytic, theoretic or spractical.5practical. Why continuation schools and adult extension classes will be required to lay the top courses nbnvo tho primary school's foundations. These nro considerations of technique requiring an elaboration beyond (ho scone or intention of the prnsent series of articles. Stato First, Therefore Civics First.

On one main point of the most vital, and to him, startling, significance, the writer." has concentrated the contentions of this article. One vast complex institution/ the Stato to-day r'ars itself among and above us, embracing all our activities, controlling, repressing or stimulating all our modern tendencies. It is tho mould into which the hot metal of our aspirations is -poured. It is tho habitation wherein is allotted to each and to all the space, wide or narrow, permitted to his personal endeavour. Is the State to become « prison house, confining and repressing the genius of the race? Or is it to fall asunder shattered to the, base by the warring claims of those, being only a part, who would possess it wholly? Or is it (only safe and fortunate alternative) to combine, to harmonise and to unify the efforts and strivings, collectivo and individual, of our whole democracy? If so, it is never too soon, too long, or too late to apply our own minds, and the minds of a generation to come, and en to the paining of an understanding of this Slate, its just nature, its claims upon the citizen and hisliie claims upon it.

This, the biggest, the most absorbing problem of modern civilised pj.istep.ee, must become the central and dominating concern of modern 'ducntion.