The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1908. MORAL INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

New Zealand Tablet, 19 November 1908, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1908. MORAL INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

§NE autumn day in 1006 a number of educationists assembled in private conference in London. The object of the gathering was ' to consider whether more might not be done by means of moral instruction and training in schools to impart higher ideals of conduct, to strengthen character, and to promote readiness to work together for social ends.' The preliminary discussion showed a deep appreciation of the importance of development of the moral sense during school days. But there was many a rift between opinion and opinion even as to so fundamental a matter as the place of the religious sanction in moral education, while debate circled freely around such questions as the conditions which exercised a good moral influence in a school, and (among other matters) the relative extent of the parts to be played by the teacher and the parents in the training of the moral faculties of children and in forming their character along the lines of true manhood and true womanhood. It was decided to procure and sift fuller information both in the United Kingdom and in other countries. A Provisional Committee was set up with this object in view, an Advisory Council formed by them, consisting of several hundred persons, ' representing many different points of view and almost all forms of educational experience ' ; an American Committee was formed ; oral evidence was received from selected witnesses, ■ and investigators were commissioned to ' prepare reports upon the methods of moral instruction and training in the schools of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.' The results of the labors of these mixed and somewhat heterogeneous groups of educationists are gathered together in two corpulent octavo volumes now before us, issued a few weeks ago by the great London publishing house of Longmans, and entitled Moral Instruction and Training in Schools : Report of an International Inquiry • The expert knowledge of the Committees in the art of imparting knowledge reached, no doubt, a generally high level. Their qualifications to speak upon the place of moral training in education, and the methods thereof, were, however, of the most diverse kinds. And yel an expert acquaintance with this vital matter lay at the very foundation of the whole inquiry. The great majority of the investigators and of the members of the Committees, of the Advisory Board, and of the speakers at ..the Moral Education Congress, .had a deep^ knowledge of social needs and ojf the vital importance, to the individual and to the nation, cf ,the moral influence which may and ought to be exercised by the school. But the investigator, for instance, who, like M" Buisson (a French delegate at the Moral Education Congress), rejects the very foundation of true morality, and substitutes for the eternal principles of right conduct the vague and vapid ' neutral " and ' civil ' platitudes of the atheistic Government schools of the Third Republic, is not likely (o appreciate in any high degree the important place that moral training should occupy in^ personal and domestic and social life, or to give much or valuable help towards

the formulating of a definite,- connected, and effective scheme of such training of the you.ng idea. ■ His ill-timed- anil rhapsodicil denunciation of religious morality elicited this disconcerting 1 back-hander ' from the distinguished Belgian historian* M. Godcfroid Kurth, who is also head of the, Belgian Historical Institute at Rome: 'Ifit be true that .all humanity' in all ages and in all countries discovered a - part-.- of . eternal truth and justice, it is equally incontestable that its notion was singularly obscured up to the day when He came Who pronounced the definite formula of our ideal, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God above all things, and thy neighbor as thyself." If, then, you^would achieve the moral education "of ' your', child," bring him early into contact with the matchless- Master Who would. have little children go to Him, and Who realises, for them arid for us and for all ages, the sublimest type of man. - Ecce Homo I — Behold th; Man !' ' These words, 1 says a London contemporary, ' were greeted with loud and prolonged cheers, which must have opened M. Buisson's eyes to a sense of the strength of a body of opinion with which he had failed to reckon. But this was not all. After M. Kurth came Dr. Adler of New York, who gave it as his experience, after thirty years' experience in ihe teaching of morals, that he was convinced, of two things: "That moral education is inseparable from "religion, and that it cannot be imparted solely by oral teaching. The personal example of the teacher is also necessary." '_ * The outstandingi"fact of ttye whole investigation is this : that, amidst much diversity of opinion as to sanction and method, there is complete unanimity as to the need of systematic moral instruction and moral training in the school to ' counteract the poison of evil environment,' to 'kindle new ideals of duty,' and to ' give necessary help in the secret struggle against personal temptation.' And a great body of the highest expert knowledge proclaims, in addition, that this moral instruction - and moral training is connected with the sphere of religion.' We propose lo return to this subject in a later issue.