Moral Instruction and Training in Schools
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
Report of an International Inquiry. Edited on behalf of the Committee, by M. E. Sadler, Professor of the History and Administration of Education in the University of Manchester. Two volumes: Vol. I, The United Kingdom, pp. 538; Vol. II, Foreign and Colonial, pp. 378. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1909. Few subjects connected with the study and education of children arouse as great a general interest, or as great a diversity of opinion, as does the moral training of children. The reasons why the school-men should feel impelled to make a most careful study of this important subject, have their genesis in the gradual change in the attitude the home has taken in such matters, and the change in the interrelationships of the home, the school, and the church.
Not many decades ago, it was considered that the schools had one obvious duty to perform,?to give the children in their charge a working knowledge of the three R’s. The home and the church combined to look after the moral side of education, and, generally speaking, did so with fairly good success. In fact, the home-life and the church-life were closely connected, the more theoretical work of the church being supported by the more practical work of the home. In recent times has come an upheaval of ideas which has deeply affected the religious life and thought of people in general, causing a loosening of the bond that held the church and home together, and a consequent falling-off in the Quality as well as the quantity, of the religious and moral instruction given to children. The church in general has felt this to be true, and Hence we have the modern growth of the Sunday-school, by means of which the church endeavors to make up for the lack of religious an moral training at home. But thus far the Sunday-school seems to have, to some extent, at least, failed to do the work expected of it. Its teaching has been rather inadequately done, despite the enthusiasm and goo will of the volunteer teachers, and its influence has not made up or the lack of home moral training.
Coincident with this change in relationship between the home an the church has come the great advance of the public school, not only in size and power, but in the intelligence and character of those responsible for its administration and progress. Little by little the school has e t Jt necessary to take into its hands matters that once solely concerne the home. At the present time the school concerns itself not only with the three R’s, but also with the health and habits of the children. The parents, finding that the school handles these matters with increasing success, are more and more inclined to hand over to the school ot cr matters which were even more intimately the former concern of the home. So it is that, because the home is no longer a strong factor in the moral instruction and training of its children, and because the church also has been unable to compensate for the home neglect and failure, the school has of late been feeling a greater and greater stimulus to try its hand where the home and church have weakened. The subject of moral training and instruction in schools has become a very great and important one indeed, one to which all far-seeing educators and those interested in education, are giving careful attention.
Naturally, in so short a time, no universally practical or approved method of moral training and instruction has been developed. On the other hand, there are almost as many systems as educators. This is true, chiefly in the English-speaking countries. On the Continent and notably in Japan, general polioies are more common and well developed. At such a time as this the book which is the topic of this paper comes to fill a very definite need, and does so with no little ability and benefit. It is the result of a careful inquiry into methods and ideas concerning the moral instruction of children, primarily in the United Kingdom, and also in the British Colonies, in France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, the United States, and Japan. In this series the one inadequate and hardly representative report is that from the United States, which consists merely of a paper by Mr. Percival Chubb, on the Ethical Culture Schools of New York City, one on moral training in the State Normal School, of Hyannis, Mass, by the principal of the school, and, finally a paper entitled “Democracy in American School Government,” by Dr Jesse D. Burke, principal of the Teachers’ Training School, Albany, N. Y. In the second paper are some rather good ideas, largely obscured by an excessive use of the capital “I”. The third paper presents an illuminating view of unfortunate political conditions in the United States and a brief outline of the government of the George Junior Republic. The first alone presents helpful ideas concerning the main topic of the investigation, and this one concerns a movement which as yet holds only a small place among the educational systems of this country.
Fortunately the reports from the other countries are far broader and more complete, making the two volumes interesting as well as profitable reading, for each of these countries seems to have tried out some particular idea, with results that may go far toward establishing final criteria.
The first volume, which takes up the results of the inquiry in the United Kingdom, proves that the conditions there are about the same as they are with us, that there is no generally approved system of moral training and instruction, that many differing ideas are being used experimentally, and that the leading educators have very different views upon the subject. A summary of all these various systems and ideas seems to show that in the United Kingdom there is little direct moral training or instruction, that, as far as the schools are concerned, what moral training and instruction there is is left to the personal influence of teachers, to school sermons, to school scripture lessons, and, in a very few instances to manual work. One interesting section contains the very favorable reports as to the results of co-education in several schools in which this important subject is carefully and successfully taught.
In France and in Germany, unlike as their systems are in many ways, there seems to be a more general method in use, in which moral instruction is the great end in view. It seems, however, to be all didactic instruction, and little or no training. In France, for instance, the boys receive through their school years innumerable “talks” and read many stories tending to develop moral ideas; and yet the French schoolboy is kept under the most painstaking and complete supervision, almost every minute of his time, until he goes to college. The license of the colleges is the logical answer to the detective and repressive work of the lycees. In the schools, pictures are supposed to play an important part in the moral instruction of a child, and yet there is no “restraint over the unbridled license of the pornographic press?which pours its obscenities into every hamlet of the land.” In France, as well as Germany, moral instruction is given much attention, but of actual moral training there seems to be very little. This seems generally to be the case with most of the other European countries, a bright spot being found in Denmark, where there has been begun not only moral instruction of a bold and unusual type, but a very practical kind of moral training. Strange as it may seem, according to the information put forth in these two excellent volumes, we must go to Japan for the best example ?f a successful system of combined moral instruction and training. To be sure, the ideals and ends of the Japanese are very different from those native to people of European stock, but such as they are, it is certain that the methods used in the schools are effective in giving the children these same ideals, and an amount of training which aids greatly in living up to them. No brief resume could begin to give justice to the excellence of most of the reports, which must be read in ^11 to be understood and appreciated. C. K T.
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