JESUIT SCHOOLS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 145, 17 July 1880, Page 3

JESUIT SCHOOLS.

The following able article appears in <he Pall Mill Oxiette of April 10 : The Republican agitalto i in fn\oir of the seventh clause in M. Jules Ferry's Education Bill, is practically an agltalk-n against the schools managed by Jesuits. Other orders besides tho Society of Jesus devote thetnselv&s to educational work, but none have been so successful in attracting tho children of the wealthy classes; and it is because the great majority of boys belonging to the aristocracy aro now .trained iu Jesuit establishments, and learn there to despise democratic institutions, that tho Republicans are desirous to prohibit tho Jesuits from teaching altogether. It must be remarked, however, that among all tho arguments brought against tho Jesuits there have been none to the effuct that they do not teach well so far as their teaching goes. It is generally allowed, on tho contrary, that they have * real talent for developing a boy's aptitudes, and when they get hold of n dullard they at least take care to make him, as regards manners, a gentleman. The boys at the Jesuit schools are taught to be neat nnd clean in their attire, to be respectful towards their parents and masters, and punctiliously polite to the reßt of mankind. They differ totally from tho rough unlicked cubs one meets at the lycees, and the stamp impressed upon thorn at school remains ineffaceable. One of tho chief causes of tho Jesuits' success in teaching is that they do their utmost to promote the self-esteem of their pupils. If a boy shows a taste for classics, they push him in that directiou; if he likes neither olassics nor mathomatics, but has a mind for music, they tnnko him a good musician. Their plan is never to force a toy'B natural bent, but having once found out what he can do, to mako him do it diligently till he does it well. The Church, as Count Montnlembort once said,has need of all kinds of wants ; and tko Jesuits admit that a maainy bo useful to their c*use if hj« have learned nothing at sohool hut tf> be a frrpr-ralo fencer, dancer, or tfymnaiit. Of course, such a system as this, which membres hut-house gardening, requires a largo staff of vigilant Satient- masters; but here again the '•suits' schools have a great superiority over the lycees. Many of the Jesuit 'athers givo thoir tutorial servioes almost gratuitously as a labour of lovn; nnd this enables their schools to employ three or

four times as many masters as-bne find I in the lay academies. The boys committe* to their charge are never loft alone for i moment. At play i* at work, the masters are villi lheU!,exhoHing' and encouraging them,- Seeking to draw thorn out and win their confidence; ao the most self-contained and taciturn of lnds cannot long conceal ' his chariwter .from their watohful eyes. I One of the consequences of this is that parents feel much safer, in sending their ' boys to the Jesuits' schools than elsewhere. They know that' tbeso boys are really taken care of, and compelled to behoye themselves with propriety, which is far from being the case at tlie lycees. A lyceen delights in breaking rules and contracting bad habits on tho sly smoking, frequenting cafes, rending vile books, and so forth; but a Jesuit's pupil is afraid to do any of these things because tho spiritual bondage in which he is held by the confessional, and by the daily, hourly supervision of his masters, would render it impossible that he should hide hjs fault. If he goes out from Siturday till Monday with some friends, he is required on Tuesday to confess all that he did dui-ing his holiday ; and if, having concealed anything in tho confessional, he goes and communicates the same to a comrade, the chances are many to ono that the latter will eventually betray him from weakness, if not out of a brotherly concern for tho welfare of his soul.

Hero, however, we get at one of the worst blots on the Jesuit system. It brings up boys to be nice-mannered little formalists or fine scholars, but it fails to inako manly fellows of them. The boy who is taught that it is a duty to de nounce privately a comrade whom ho sees doing wrong may grow up to have a much keener eye for the shortcomings of others- than for his own, and may at all events become an arrant mischief-maker. One of the rules of the Jesuits' schools is that in the playground three boys may walk together, but not two. Two might wax confidential and become confederates in mischief, but there is less danger of this if a third be present. Three boys, however, who should constantly be seen together would soon find a reverend father gliding alongside of them to join in their conversation. The Jesuit? applyall their energies to obtain mastership over the minds of their pupils, and the worst fault in their eyes is to be km indiscipline—that is, to havo a mutinous spirit. If a boy confided to them be unclean, greedy, uncouth, mendacious, or dissipated, they try, not unsuccessfully as a rule, to cure him of his bad habits; but if they find he has an independent spirit., which cannot be curbed, they speedily get rid of him lest he should lead the others astray. It matters nothing to them that the rebellious boy be frank, honourable, and feark-Bs; the moment that it is proved that he cannot bo rendered docile ho is regarded as dangerous. The result of this is that ill the Jesuit colleges boys n;ro\v up to have minds of a uniform pattern; they may differ in their aptiuidoi, but their characters are slowly ;ind surely shaped in the same mould. If the Jesuits are abhorred in Franco, .t is i:iai ily he>-aitM men brought up in other scl) >ols fi id tint thiy can never •hin'; or argie with their pupils, fosititvy m\kcs ioeu whoso opinions and prej uliens are nol. "t this age; :ind di wonder, sine) the chief lesson inculcited by it is tbat we live in times that are evil, and amidst institutions which ought to bo undermined, pending the niiiu.eut when thev can be boldly attacked and overthrown.