The Annual Conference of Australian Catholic Teachers

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 21, 31 May 1923, Page 25

The Annual Conference of Australian Catholic Teachers

Opened by the Archbishop of Sydney 7^, The second annual conference of Catholic teachers was opened by his Grace the Archbishop of Sydney in St. Francis’s Hall, Albion Street, "bn Thursday morning (says , the Catholic Press for May 17), when Rev. Brother George, of the Marist Brothers’ College, Hunter’s Hill, acted as chairman. There were present a great number of the clergy, and the Sisters and Brothers of the various teaching ‘'Orders and the conference opened auspiciously. His Grace was also patron of th.e Congress the general committee consisted of two delegates from each of the teaching com- , inunities; the executive committee was formed by Rev. Brother George, Rev. Father Finn, S.J., and Miss C. M. Le Plastrier, whilst the office of secretary was capably filled by Mr. T. J. Davis (Diocesan Assistant-Inspector of Schools). The day’s proceedings wore opened by the offering of Mass for members in St. Francis’s Church, where the Rev. Father P. Crowley (Diocesan Inspector of Schools), was the celebrant, and at 10.45 a.m. his Grace was escorted into the hall, where ho was welcomed briefly by the Rev. Father G. E. Herlihy, Adm., who gracefully paid tribute to their beloved Archbishop. He asked his Grace to deliver the inaugural speech. His Grace’s Address. His Grace’s address fell under the heading; ‘The principle of justice applied to education as affecting the Creator, the child, the parent; and the civil authority.'’ The Archbishop remarked that often they had reflected upon that promise of the Incarnate God Whose glroious Ascension into heaven they had commemorated that day. that, “Where two or three arc assembled in My name, there am I in the midst of them,” The Saviour was there with them that day, for truly were they met together in His name. By reflection and by God’s grace they realised the truths of religion, and as truly as he (the speaker) was addressing them then, their Lord, the Light of the World; was present with them, even as a member of that Educational Congress. In His name, while praying and trusting in His grace for everything, they did their best. They must utilise all their opportunities and endowments for - the furtherance of the great work of education. ( Let not that word be qualified or restricted. “We know,” his Grace proceeded, “what physical growth is. Intellectual .growth may be compared to*the daylight rising in the obscurity of dawn, increasing gradually to the noonday brightness. So does intellectual growth dispel the. mis£s of obscurity. That is the idea of education —enlightenment. His Grace also told the delegates they had voluntarily become religious Sisters and Brothers. They were prepared, to go an where to carry on the work of education. Not only did the Catholic schools give the children a sound religious education, but a very fine secular education, second to none. The physical, development of the children was also given close attention in the Catholic schools, and the methods adopted had been admirably demonstrated by the boys and girls on frequent occasions. They must have the combustible materials, and then apply fire to them; then they burn and give forth heat and light. When the fire was tended they applied additional - fuel, so that they received greater heat and brightness. So was moral education, which was the education of right love, the love of the right things in the right way. Our Lord was with them, praying with them, and working with them; and in ■ His;name he set before them, as it were, their charter, a charter that could not be gainsaid. They might be like sheep among wolves, but as long as they remained His sheep they were invincible by the, power of Christ. The charter behind* them was expressed in terms: “Justice to God, justice to child, to the parent and to the civil authii‘ ority.” It behoved- them to have open hands —minds rtpen to the truth of what, justice is and how it came to be plied to education. They should have their minds like . j. souls thirsting for more and more of*a draught of truth, v?’ which was as scarce in this world as. water in a time of , drought. / ’ . "• '• / “The world,” .continued the Archbishop, “is going

to destruction. By the world I mean society, and- it is going to destruction because of the decay of the principle of authority, and because truth has been lost sight of. It is, as it were sunk below the horizon.” Divine Authority. They • knew the law of gravitation. What kept the world from sundering and reverting to the original chaos? It was divine authority. Without respect for authority and liberty no individual could carry on the -work of procuring his own welfare without these (liberty and authority) there could bo no bond in the family. They could point to those Sisters and Brothers that he saw before him that day as the communists of God. They asked nothing, they called nothing their own. They had no daily wage, but, like the birds of the air, they depended upon Providence. They could do so because they recognised as divine the first principle of authority, to dictate what was right, and then the principle of liberty which bounded authority. Authority could easily degenerate into tyranny. If they had anything to be said, they were told to say it from the housetops. Authority and truth depended upon the application of the principles he had mentioned to their school-work. Continuing, his Grace said that they were assisting the parent —taking the work from the parent, and in taking such work they were enabling the father and mother to do their duty rightly by the child and have it grow up in the right paths and in the right hope, so that it might achieve its welfare upon this earth and in eternity, with the ultimate result that society would live in peace and pass is days in progress and truthfulness. If they comprehended what -he- had said, the conference would be opened with a very excellent promise of the desired results. There was a charge given them, to feed their flocks, to feed their little ones’ understanding. Proceeding, the Archbishop remarked that it was well for him that he was speaking in the name of Our Lord, for He could open the minds and hearts of them all. The Claim of God. The Almighty had made his audience and himself rational creatures. He gave them the power of Speech, and made them for society. Had He no purpose? He had, and that purpose was that His creatures possess this world,* and that they themselves devote their intelligence to knowing Him, and their free-will to serving Him, and their hearts and affections to loving Him, They could bless, they could desire, and they could purchase. If they were faithful, they would receive their crown and throne in eternity. Now, who would make the little baby turn to God in thought and affection and prayer? Nature brought it to turn to its mother, to whom it clung. It wsa capable of knowing and loving the Almighty, but the fire of love must bo kindled in it. It was capable of becoming ail athlete, a laborer, or a housekeeper. The v great claim of God was that He be known, loved, and served by mankind; have peace on earth and obtain everlasting happiness. The speaker continued that the first plank of the education platform was the knowledge and love and service of the Creator. % f. . . Substitute for Religion. What, his Grace asked, was the world substituting for religion? Empire patriotism? He did not, let it bo understood, depreciate these things, but they were not to take the place of God. Whether an empire, a kingdom, or a republic, God must come first, and if He did not they would be sowing sorrow in the furrows of injustice. No greater injustice could be done to the child than to shut out religion from education. The parent was in God’s place—the parent’s right were co-relatively His rights, and the mother and father were responsible to God. If society would ever come back to, peace, it would have to come back to Christianity, and the first principle of Christianity was Christian education. N Education Handicapped. Speaking of . handicaps regarding education and otherwise, his Grace stated that it was essentially unjust to deprive any section of the community of the common funds. The critics could say nothing against Catholic teaching. “But we can win the race despite the handicap,” he continued, “we can obtain better averages of attendance; we can score in the public, examinations, and, given fail play .and justice, we can take our places in the public service;

but their critics were afraid of that. They think that they will keep, us down and keep a monopoly of these places by /putting; us under the ban. This is an illustration of what society has come to, because it has strayed’from the paths of truth and justice.” His Grace also remarked that he regretted that there was a certain association in Sydney avowedly hostile to the Catholic faith, and was patronised by members of the present Government, and ’would have them change their name, and that instead of being Catholics, limit their Catholicity by a qualification. He would say to that organisation and to those politicals that Christianity must be Catholic, and that it would not be Catholic unless it had unity. It could not have unity unless it had a centre, and that centre was appointed by Divine Providence when St. Peter fixed his See at Rome. Why, he asked, did not other religions become united? Because they were separated from the centre. They were welcome to come back, and they could do nothing more noble than to say: “Yes, these are Catholics by union with the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ.” There were no other Catholics.' ■ ' His Grace invoked the blessing of God upon them all, and he wished that their deliberations would be fruitful and productive of great good. His Grace then gave his blessing to the delegates assembled. The Vote of Thanks. The Vote of thanks was proposed briefly by Rev. Brother George, and it was carried with great acclamation. His Grace, responding, said that he really had no claim to their thanks, for he was a servant of God and of them all. He knew that God would smile upon the conference, and would confer his bountiful blessing upon them all. JOTTINGS AT THE CONFERENCE NOTES FROM ' THE PAPERS. A child’s development during school life, is not altogether dependent on a pleasant environment, like a convolvulus bud,■ nor does it resemble a gentle saunter up the mountain side, with a dangerous and impassable, snowline invisibly ahead. It is brought about, on the contrary, by hard, laborious tunnelling towards the light. Interior flashes of response come., from time to time to astonish and gladden the child’s whole nature, and also to reward the teacher’s conscientious toil. ” X X X “In the Middle Ages,” says ’Newman, “'society sustained the individual, raised him up, and supported him in his higher life. It,; is society now that drags the individual down.” * -x * My quarrel with the present system of examination is as being a hindrance rather than a help to those whose one aim is to develop in the children entrusted to their care what is highest and best in their physical and mental outfit. , ' x -x- -xWhat, then, is to be the aim of the history teacher? I think you will agree with me that it is the cultivation and direction of a Catholic conscience, a filial sensitiveness © to all that touches the honor of our Mother the Church; a “heart right” that sets things in their true perspective. x x * We live in an age . of unreasoning credence in the printed word!. Men, no less than children, have come to accept any printed matter, to quote any oft-printed word, as authority infallible. x -x- * As Chesterton says: “It was when men made a holy day for God, they found it was a holiday for man.” * * * ■ v ■ Most Catholics are sensitive to the feelings of their “nice Protestant” social set, but there sensitiveness ends. , Instead of the grip on truth that must prevail, the politosocial standard of, our times has room for all bigotries save that of loyalty to the standard of the Cross. , > XXX «The -Abbe, Guibert, in a contribution to a. French historical review, wrote; “Put before your' children the * ... v figure of Christ as ,a brilliant lighthouse posted on a hill. One slope is Ancient History toiling painfully up to the Desired of nations; the other, the modern nations whom

the Bride of Christ, descending from the holy hall, has led captive to her sovereign' Lord.” . v , * * x \ To civilise the marauders! . This was the work •of the Dark Ages—more darkened than darksomewhen Europe was saved from # barbarians only by the sword and' the intense Christian ideal that nerved the sword arm. * * * s. The glories of those centuries, when Europe, in her youth, saw visions, and strove to realise them. .We hear oracles declaiming of the 12th and 13th centuries—“the dawn was not yet!” No, not the dawn, but the radiant light of day. It is the era of wars, - yet withal of letters. ... A world that is won from, war might well look back and refresh itself by. entering into the spirit of the 13th century. , • * x «• The wealthy took advantage of the revolt (the Reformation), and capitalism, with its attendant .ills, took its rise in the north of Europe. Loss of corporate sustenance, isolation, social desolation have since been rife. Men have worshipped, false idols; the State, the exchange, snort, even the deadly sport of war; but their gaiety has been about little things. The Middle Ages sang and danced and played for very joy, the joy of those who “found the Child with Mary His Mother.” * * » , When the Reformation took for its political Bible, Machiavelli s Prince.” it put the State above the individual —disregarding the value of a man’s soul. The true democracy, ensuring man’s rights, is the child of Catholicism. The institutions, the mentality that constitute it are the legacy of mediaeval churchmen. ■'4 -X- * The framers of our Commonwealth Constitution went to Switzerland for machinery. Whence did Switzerland derive it?' From the Catholic Cantons whose corporate life dates back to the 13th century. The Initiative and Referendum are legacies of pre-Reformation days. S x -x x * Alter the Thirty Years’ War, which was the completion •of the Reformation, and which secularised Europe, the Concert of Powers substituted for Justice the principle of Balance of Power. 1 * -x- * Belloc says that Poland and Ireland are the crucial tests of history. A teacher of history must apply the tests. * * * Mankind is said to be' governed by' phrases. Let us supply the right ones, embodying ideas that will become ruling principles. x * * Why should Church history be relegated to a special session;-' It is the life of our history lessons and should vivify them. x x * All proves that the saints arc the supermen of history not ethereal abstractions with “looks commercing - with the skies” —as well as that Catholicism and heroism, Catholicism and culture are synonymous terms. • * * * * Let us compassionate the child in whom the cover of an oft-used book provokes an enervating nausea. * * * Education is too often narrowed to instruction in the subjects necessary for passing an examination, and some essentials are neglected, it may’ be that the study even of Christian doctrine is given a secondary place. . , * * * The training of the human mind is a slow process, and we can no more force its development than we can hasten the unfolding of/ the buds in spring; if we. attempt it we get in either case dwarfed and stunted 'growth, or frail and delicate life, that cannot resist the storms and rain. - x * * Question; What shall we get in their place if we abolish the present system of examinations.? .■ ' , i Answer: Tnsead of an army of half-baked, professionals, competent artisans and producers. /, -■

True educationnot mere equipment for social life or for a livelihood, must be our aim. But the cause has often been badly served by our being tied down to text-books, and forced to tread a “departmental” path. * * * So much has. it become the practice to regard the school not as a thing apart from the world, but as a preparation for it, that one of the usual tests applied to-day to a school is: “How far lias the child been trained to work independently, and to develop an interest in the subjects that will lead him to pursue them in his spare time at home?” 0 * * * If discipline is founded on liberty, then the discipline itself must necessarily be active. We do not consider an individual disciplined when he has been rendered artificially silent as a mute, and immovable as a paralytic. He is then an individual annihilated, not disciplined. He is disciplined only when he is master of himself, and can, therefore, regulate his own conduct. * * * Intelligence tests do not claim to give an account of a person’s natural gifts. They are not meant to dispense with the invaluable observation of those in close contact with the subject. * * * Those who have gone thoroughly into the matter have discovered that the mental development of different subjects stops at different mental ages, some at two years or under idiots; some between the mental ages of two and seven imbeciles; some between seven and twelve — some between 12 and 16 —the average group ; over 16the superior group. However long they live, however completely they develop physically, their intelligence will not develop further, * * * What is education for? Is it not to make us better? Mere knowledge never made anyone better or happier either for that matter ? Neither does mere ability to reason ever make anyone happier or better. Still, knowledge is necessary, reason is necessary, but most, necessary of all is the spirit of religion. **y * * • , The Dalton Plan is a scheme of educational reorganisation applicable to the school work of pupils from 8 to 18 years of age. It aims at giving to the older child that freedom for self-development which has proved so valuable in the kindergarten stage, while, at the same time, ensuring that lie shall master thoroughly the academic work required by the curriculum of his school. * * * As Professor Dewey says: “The aim of a democratic education is not .only to make an individual an intelligent participator in the life of his immediate group, but to bring the groups into such constant interaction that no individual, no economic group, could presume to live independently of others.” . .