Part 2 (1/2)
=Attitude of ancestors=--Whether he realizes it or not, he reduces the average of huative and in a positive sense In hiains a dependent Every taxpayer of the community must contribute to the support which he is unable to provide for hih; but he neither rohs He is inert Some ancestor chained him to the rock, and the vultures of disease and unhappiness are feeding at his vitals He asks for bread, and they give hi death; he asks for a heaven of delight, and they give hiht to freedom, but, in place of that, he is forced into slavery of body and soul to pay the debts of his grandfather Nor can he pay these debts in full, but must, perforce, pass therandfather look upon such a child and charge Providence with unjust dealing in burdening them with such an imperfect scion to uphold the family name They seem blind to the patent truth before them; they seee the Alhty and the child with their own defections; they acquit themselves of any responsibility for what is before their eyes
=Hospitals cited=--Our hospitals for abnormal and subnoreneral, are a sad co of a reflection upon the school as an exponent of and a teacher of life If the wards of these institutions, barring the victi upon a solution of the problem of life, neither society nor the school has any special warrant for exultation These defectives did not just happen The law of life is neither fortuitous nor capricious On the contrary, like begets like, and the law is immutable With lavish hand, society provides the pound of cure but gives only superficial consideration to the ounce of prevention The title of education will be cloudy until such ti of the past Both pulpit and press extol the efforts of society to build, equip, and maintain these institutions, and that is well; but, with all that, we areto make the best of a bad situation
Education will not fully come into its own until it takes into the scope of its interests the child of the future as well as the child of the present; not until it coard the children of the present as future ancestors as well as future citizens
=The child as a future ancestor=--If the children of the future are to prove a blessing to society and not a burden, then the children of the present need to becoencies in bringing to pass this desirable condition If the teacher or parent can, sorandson, in the years to co down maledictions upon him because of a taint in the family blood, that picture will persist in his consciousness, and will prove a deterrent factor in his life The desire for iht, but certainly no boy ish to achieve that sort of immortality He will not consider with co a pariah in the estio far in an effort to avert such a misfortune
There is no man but will shudder when he conteravestone or in the randchild the word ”Unclean”
=The heart of the problem=--Here we arrive at the very heart of the problem that confronts the home and the school We may close our eyes, or look another way, but the problem remains We may not be able to solve it, but we cannot evade it Each day it calls loudly to every parent and every teacher for a solution The health and happiness of the coht education of the present one, and this responsibility the home and the school can neither shi+rk nor shi+ft We take great unction to ourselves for the excellence of the horses, pigs, and cattle that we have on exhibition at the fairs, but are silent as to our failures in the for out a half-life in our hospitals In one state it costs more to care for the defectives and unfortunates than to provide schooling facilities for all the normal children, but this fact is not written into party platforms nor proclaimed from the stump In the face of such a fact society seereeable assumption that the less said the better
=Misconceptions=--We temporize with the fundamental situation by the use of such soporifics as the expressions ”necessary evil” and the like, but that leaves us exactly at the starting point Many well-reat frequency and freedoiven a proof of virtue and public spirit It orthy only of an iconoclast to deprecate or disparage the legislative atte All such efforts are worthy of commendation; but in sadness it must be confessed that, laudable as these efforts are, they have not produced results that are wholly satisfactory Defectives are still granted licenses to perpetuate their kind; children still enervate their bodies and minds by the use of narcotics; and society daintily lifts its skirts as it hurries past the evil, pretending not to see Legislation is an attempt to express public sentiislation if it is to becoh the process of legislation to deny the granting of e licenses to people who are physically unsound, but the efforts caht because public senti
Hence, we shall not haveour problem, until public sentiment has been educated
=The responsibility of the school=--This education h the schools, but even these will fail until they come into a full realization of the fact that their field of effort is life in the large Tiraphy, graed this to include boys and girls And now she needs to make another addition and realize that her function is to teach boys and girls the subject of Life, using the branches of study as a means to this end In a report on the work of the schools at Gary, Indiana, the statement is made that the first purpose of these schools seems to be to produce efficient workers for the mills This seems to savor of the doctrine of educational foreordination, and would er than anyone horse for the plow and another for the race track, but this justification rests upon the fact that horses are assets and not liabilities
=Clean living=--Clean living in this generation will, undeniably, project itself into the next, and we have only to see to it that all the activities of the school function in clean living in the child of to-day, and we shall surely be safeguarding the interests of the child of the future But clean living means more than mere externals The daily bath, pure food, fresh air, and sanitary conditions are essential but not sufficient in theh respect for the rights and interests of the future must enter into the scheme of life There must be no devious ways, no back alleys, in the schehway of life, open always to the sunlight and to the gaze of all hly enmeshed in the social consciousness and in the daily practice of every individual, before the school can lay clai
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1 Investigate the following agencies as enerations with ancestors of untainted blood: legislation; enics; penal institutions; medical science
2 Enumerate some of the physical and mental handicaps of the child who is not well born
3 What powerful appeal for clean living may be made to the adolescent youth?
4 As a concrete exa punished for the sins of their fathers even unto the third and fourth generation, read the history of the Juke family
5 To what extent does the school share the responsibility for the improvement of the physical and moral quality of the children of the future?
6 What kind of teaching is needed to meet this responsibility?
7 Reliable authorities have estimated that 60 per cent or 12,000,000 of the school children of A from removable physical defects; that 93 per cent of the school children of the country have defective teeth; and that on the average the health of children who are not in attendance at school is better than that of those who are in school In the light of these facts discuss the failure or success of our schools in providing fit material for efficient citizenshi+p
CHAPTER V
THE TEACHER-POLITICIAN
=The politician defined=--The politician has been defined as one who makes a careful study of the wants of his coent in his efforts to supply these wants This definition has, at the very least, the ht Conceding the correctness of this definition, it must be evident that society is the beneficiary of the work of the politician, and would be the gainer if the number of politicians were multiplied The motive of self-interest lies back of all hu to stimulate and accentuate this motive Even in altruism we may find an adoods artistically e, but, aside froratification His self-interest reater volume of business or to a better class of patrons, or both While he is enlarging the scope of his business, hethe taste of his customers In either case his self-interest is commendable A successful merchant is better for the community than an unsuccessful one
=Self-interest=--The physician is actuated by theare but a preparation for the coratified at the increase of his popularity as a successful practitioner But he prescribesas well as remedies, and so tries to forestall and prevent disease, while he is exercising his curative skill He tries not only to restore health, but also to proood health in the community by his recommendations of pure food, pure water, fresh air, and exercise Hisself-interest None but the censorious will criticize the er salary attached The larger parish will afford hier salary will enable him to execute more of his laudable plans
=The methods of the politician=--Hence it will be seen that, in the right sense, merchants, physicians, and ministers are all politicians in that they seek to expand the sphere of their activities Like the politician they study the wants of the people in order to win a starting point for leadershi+p True, there are quacks, charlatans, hypocrites, and deues, but none of these, nor all combined, avail to disprove the validity of the principle It has often been said that the churches would do well to study and use the art of advertising that is so well understood by the saloons This is another way of saying that the ht activities as well as wrong ones The politician, whether he is a business man or a professional man, proceeds from the known to the related unknown, and thus shows hiy He studies that which is in order to promote that which should be
=Leadershi+p=--The politician aspires to leadershi+p, and that is praiseworthy, provided his cause is a worthy one If the cause is unworthy, the cloven foot will soon appear and repudiation will ensue, which will mark him unsuccessful as a politician He may be actuated by the motive of self-interest, in common with all others, but this interest may focus in the amelioration of conditions as they are or in the advancement of his friends The satisfaction of leadershi+p is the sole reward ofhis friends profit by this leadershi+p A statese in respect to motives, to plans and purposes, and to methods The fundamental principle, however, remains constant
=The politician worthy of imitation=--The successful politician must know people and their wants He must know conditions in order to direct the course of his activities Otherwise, he will find hi at random, and this may prove disastrous to his purposes Muchthe politician and his methods