THE RISING GENERATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5122, 23 August 1877, Page 3

THE RISING GENERATION.

(From Vanity Fair.) ! With respect to the impatience of subordination which is visibly increasing day by day, we cannot but think that there must be some 1 thing radically wrong in our system of education. Respect for those placed in; authority over them has not been, is not now, successfully inculcated in the members of, the :rising generation. This remark applies to all classes; but, seeing that the lower take their tone from the upper classes, the defect is especially serious in those schools which are devoted to the education of gentlemen’s sons. At;these schools it is supposed, that the pupils are not only taught but trained. The value of the teaching is unconnected with our subject, i We therefore confine ourselves to the training. What is that training ? Are the boys taught, to be truthful, respectful to their elders and those in authority over them, to be frugal iu their fare, simple in their dress, economical in their expenses—in 'short, self-denying ? Are they imbued with feelings and manners of mutual forbearance, chivalry, courtesy, and selfrespect ? Are they habituated to any discipline save that of a wooden, formal, and superficial nature? There can be but one answer : They are not. Their word is rarely taken by the masters, consequently they consider themselves justified in telling falsehoods to! get out of scrapes. Their self-respect is lowered, for they are flogged for the most trifling offences. They are subject to little surveillance at meals, the youngers boys frequently being without the superintendence of even the senior boys. The result is manners which would disgrace a ploughboy, and language such as is only heard in the alleys of our great cities. The tutors or dames—and the latter are often not women but men—undertake to provide the boarders with food necessary for health, and reasonably grateful to (the palate. Nevertheless, in many, nay in most cases ;they so imperfectly carry out the implied contract that the boys find it indispensable' to supple-, ment the supply by , provisions purchased at their own or their parents’ expense. Indeed, so thoroughly is this system countenanced and recognised that frequently the butler of the tutor furnishes extras for the public meals at exorbitant. prices, sending through his master a bill at the end of .the term. The greatest ■ advocate of ■ Spartan 'discipline could not object to boys being allowed to lay out a portion of their own pocketmoney .in - the , purchase of trifling luxuries such as a pot of jam and a box of sardines, &c., but that is very different from allowing them to contract bills for substantial additions to meals eaten in common. Parents are not to blame for allowing their sons to supplement insufficient: fare by: the food necessary for health ; but in other respects they incur a grave responsibility. We refer to the large amount of money, with which they provide their sons. We have heard of boys taking back to school as much, as thirty or forty pounds, aid even of ! a boy who keeps a bank-, ing account and draws his 1 own cheques ! Thus, from the very first, the rising generation are imbued with a respect for the aristocracy of wealth, and accustomed to habits of self-indulgence and luxury. That is surely not a wholesome training which causes the sons of poor gentlemen to envy and try to vie with those of their companions whose parents have more wetflth than sense. It cannot be considered a wholesome training which leads boys to gratify every whim and appetite without hesitation. Those habits of economy desirable in all, necessary in the majority of cases, can never be acquired under such a system, as many, of the boys are sent to public schools at a great sacrifice, and wfll have to make their own way in future life. While still'boys they are allowed nay, almost encouraged—at such places as Eton to assume the airs, acquire the habits, indulge in the vices of men. True, they are punished’for grave offences against morality, but few attempts are made to protect the neart and mind against the temptations with which the atmosphere of the place is rife. There are, moreover, tendencies which, if not strictly immoral, are scarcely less injurious to a boy’s welfare than open profligacy or dishonorable conduct, and to check these there are no systematic habits. All is outside show; and provided a lad leaves a public school with the conventional manners and appearance of a gentleman, accompanied by a superficial acquaintance with the classics and some skill in manly sports, he is considered to have fulfilled the object of his education. Is it by such training that the decay of a race can be arrested ? There can be but one answer.